BusinessMirror October 30, 2022

By Andrea E. Juan

AFTER two years of being left alone in the cemeteries, departed loved ones may now be feeling alive, perhaps even ecstatic, with the prospect of being visited, to have flowers laid before them, see the glimmer of hope through candles, be prayed over, and hear their loved ones reminisce about the good old days.

With the upcoming All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day this year or better known as “Undas,” a wellknown tradition of Filipino fami lies gathering around the tombs of their dead relatives, the atmo sphere is ironically lively.

Despite the rising prices of goods and economic problems be setting the local and global arena, Filipinos nowadays are literally stopping and smelling the roses as they prepare to flock to various cemeteries across the country.

The much-awaited reunion be tween the living and the dead has also resulted in good business signs as candle and flower vendors have gone back to the streets after experiencing a two-year drought in terms of sales and profits, since businesses closed down during the height of the pandemic.

Filipino businessmen—espe cially the micro, small and medium enterprises—have displayed resil ience on the streets, expecting a rebound in their sales as mobility has paved the way for them to earn more this year compared to the past two years.

Regular markets

DIVISORIA, a commercial center

in between Tondo and Binondo in Manila, is one of the few places where Filipinos are rushing to pur chase affordable candles days be fore Undas.

According to the candle ven dors in the bargain capital of the country, prices are ranging from P20 per piece to as much as P170, depending on the make, size and pieces per pack of the candles.

These prices, said the vendors, have increased compared to their prices in the past few years due to the rising production and delivery costs.

Asked why the prices of can dles increased, Chrismar, a candle vendor, said, “nagtaas po kasi ang supplier [The supplier raised the prices].”

The candle vendor said prices are still expected to increase in the days leading up to Undas as demand is still expected to go up— assuming tropical storm “Paeng” would not spoil the occasion.

Meanwhile, a bigger business establishment that houses nu merous boxes of candles has at tracted resellers who traveled all the way to Divisoria from their respective provinces just to se

cure enough to sell to last-minute buyers during Undas.

Jepoy, for one, said in a tele vised interview, “Dahil sa mataas na inflation, kailangan ko dumiskarte so ito dahil paparating na ang araw ng patay, kailangan ko magtinda ng kandila [Due to rising inflation, I have to find ways to earn so I think this year’s Undas presents the op portunity to sell and earn].”

Candles and flowers

ON Tuesday, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said in an advisory: “Please be informed that DTI currently has an exist ing Suggested Retail Price (SRP) for candles based on the August 2022 SRP.”

According to the Department Administrative Order No. 17-09 or the Guidelines in the Implementa tion of Suggested Retail Price of Basic Necessities and Prime Com modities, however, the SRP covers only groceries and supermarkets.

Hence, the DTI noted, if peo ple buy from the sidewalk vendors or memorial sites, the price is no longer regulated.

For those buying their can dles in supermarkets and gro ceries, prices of candles, per the DTI’s latest SRP list issued in August, range from P29.75 to P177.71 depending on the make, brand and size of the candles.

Flowers are another in-de mand product during the season of the dead. A flower seller who opted not to disclose his identity shared how the flower business in Dangwa is starting to regain its momentum as Undas is fast approaching.

On Wednesday night, several trucks lined up along Dimasalang Road in Manila were dropping off supplies of flowers, which came all the way from the provinces.

The flower seller—seated on a chair, seemingly ready to unwind

after a long day—responded “200 percent” when I asked him about his sales projection for this Un das season.

He said this is on the back of the loosened Covid restrictions as the government is no longer im posing stringent lockdowns.

“After two years, we are still hopeful sales will finally be good,” he said, partly in Filipino. “I hope the weather cooperates. Last year was different on the ac count of tight restrictions. This year is different and we’re hope ful we could draw some income with loosened restrictions. You should set projections higher so that you could work hard for it],” the flower seller added.

The owner of the flower shop also divulged that 70 percent of

the flower business stalls in Manila Flower Center, better known as Dangwa in Manila, “folded” during the two-year lockdown.

“Actually, 70 percent of the flower shops here have folded up. As you may have noticed, the shops op erating nowadays are the new ones. Most of the old sellers have closed shop,” the flower seller noted.

He added that some of the pre vious flower sellers had opted to sell vegetables instead at the height of the pandemic. Because flowers are not considered essential, sales took a deep dive. The flower seller said these people bore the brunt of rent and utilities expenses amid the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the seller said it’s still transport cost that accounts for most of the cost of a flower. In

terestingly, the flower seller noted that he would rather import flow ers than buy from local sellers be cause of logistics cost. He stressed that it’s way cheaper to have your flowers shipped from abroad.

“There’s always the risk of a logistical foul-up if you source your supplies locally, because of floods or landslides. Transport ing the flowers via airplane may be an option but it doesn’t come up cheap since the product origi nates from Baguio or Bukidnon. Unlike imported products, you may only have to compete with Shopee,” she said.

Still the seller said, “We long have been dealing with logistical problems so our customers can haggle with the price and you can be sure of product delivery.”

DANGWA Flower Market ALYSA SALEN

Italy’s fascist past under scrutiny a century after putsch

By Colleen Barry The Associated Press

MILAN— Italy’s failure to come to terms with its fascist past has become evident as it prepares to mark the 100th anniversary Friday of the March on Rome that brought totalitarian dictator Benito Mussolini to power, a milestone that coincides with the country’s first postwar government led by a party with a neo-fascist roots taking office.

The symbolism looks trou bling: Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party retains the emblem of a flame used by the fascists; her party’s co-founder, Ignazio La Russa, whose middle name is Benito and whose home office is awash in fascist memora bilia, was elected speaker of Parlia ment’s upper house.

Meloni has tried to distance Brothers of Italy from its neo-fas

cist roots. She made her clearest statement yet this week during a speech to Italy’s lower house ahead of confidence votes confirming her government.

“I have never felt sympathy or closeness to undemocratic re gimes, fascism included, as I have always considered the racial laws of 1938 the lowest point in Ital ian history, a shame that will mark our people forever,” Meloni told the lower house of parlia ment Wednesday, referring to Mussolini’s laws that persecuted Italy’s Jewish community.

Resurgence of neo-fascism? THE question remains, however, whether the moderate voice the premier recently adopted will per severe and if so, how the nostalgic wing of her party that represents a core 4 percent of her support will tolerate it.

The National Association of Italian Partisans, or ANPI, which preserves the memory of the war time resistance against fascism, has noted some signs of an embold ened far-right in regions governed by the Brothers of Italy.

The governor of the central Marche region cut off funding to maintain brass-plated Stumbling Stones engraved with the names and dates of Holocaust victims outside their prewar homes, ANPI national president Gianfranco Pagliarulo said. Social media attacks against his organization have grown more viru lent than ever, he said.

“This is a disturbing signal,’’ Pagliarulo said. “It is evident that the victory of the nationalist right will lead to a resurgence of neo-fas cist provocative attitudes.... We are not worried because we will fight with political weapons, and if nec essary, with legal weapons.”

On Friday, ANPI planned to hold a demonstration in Predap pio, where Mussolini is buried, to mark the northern town’s libera tion from fascism on October 28, 1944. The partisan liberators chose the date to eclipse the memory of the March on Rome.

It also conveniently prevents fascist nostalgics from commemo rating the March on Rome that day. Their event is scheduled for Sunday, the final day of Mussolini’s historic Black Shirt march, and one of three commemorations held by neo-fas cists in Predappio each year.

The others mark the day of Mussolini’s birth, July 29, 1883, in

a house not far from the cemetery with his crypt, and April 28, 1944, the day he was killed by partisans in Milan.

“The March on Rome is the founding myth of fascist Italy, and for us it is a negative myth, as the origin of a disaster that led Italy into many wars, most catastrophically World War II,” Pagliarulo said. “We must combat the positive myth of the March on Rome and sustain this day as the start of the darkest period in modern Italian history.”

Francesco Minutillo, a 42-yearold lawyer in a small city near Pre dappio, has attended the commem orations at Mussolini’s grave three times annually for years. He de scribed them as moments of prayer in front of Mussolini’s crypt, and expects the turnout for the centen nial to be robust.

“It is not commemorate the March on Rome. It is to remember Benito Mussolini, who is buried there,’’ Minutillo said.

Dangerous ‘longing’

A FORMER Brothers of Italy city council representative in Forli, Munitillo quit the party in 2020 as Meloni’s message became more moderate. He and others like him are awaiting a new move ment to form.

“Right now, there is no alter native to the right of Brothers of Italy. Our community must wait for something to develop,’’ he said.

Asked if he was nostalgic for Mussolini or fascism, which he sees as a modernizing force for Italy in the 20th century, Mu nitillo relied, “I cannot respond to this question with the laws in place now,’’ referring to the crime of fascism apology.

Italy never went through a pro cess similar to Germany’s de-Nazi fication, and a neo-fascist party, the Italian Social Movement, was part of Italy’s first post-war gov ernment in 1946. The fascist legacy endures in architecture throughout the country, from school buildings in small towns to Milan’s stately train station and massive court house and Rome’s EUR district.

Popular notions persist that Italy’s two decades of fascism brought progress, exemplified by the era’s timely train service, archi tectural boom and the draining of malaria-infested swamps.

It is still possible—though far from common—to spy a portrait

of Mussolini hanging behind a bar or in a restaurant, in particular in Italy’s northern regions, or to come across fascist memorabilia or souvenirs in otherwise ordinary shops. Though the partisan asso ciation views such displays as an apology for fascism that should be punishable by law, they are rarely, if ever, prosecuted.

The ‘ghost’ remains ALESSANDRO LUPARINI , a his torian in Ravenna, said while his torians have properly reevaluated Italy’s fascist past, the awareness has not trickled down, allowing for misunderstandings of history to persist.

“Italy is a country that heals very slowly,’’ he said, adding that the devastating impact of the racial laws outweigh any consideration for infrastructure improvements.

“Historians rightly teach us that fascism ended in Italy in ’45. But not the fascists,’’ said historian Francesco Filippi, who has written a book analyzing popular miscon ceptions about fascism.

“Millions of people who took part in that regime and continued to be part of the political life of the country, and even parties that directly referred to fascism, took part in the political life of the coun try from 1946, arriving to the pres ent day very continuously.”

Filippi said the moderate vot ers who boosted Meloni from 4 percent of the vote in 2018 to 26 percent in the country’s parlia mentary election last month in dicated a fundamental expansion in the party’s base beyond those “who recognized the Brothers of Italy as the historical heir of the [postwar] Italian Social Move ment, and therefore a certain type of fascist idea.”

Many of the new voters, he said, hope Meloni will construct a conservative right-wing gov ernment, “a normal right-wing, that is anti-fascist, tied to dem ocratic values.”

The standard bearers of Italy’s wartime partisan movement said they are withholding judgment on Meloni’s government until it takes concrete actions.

“We hope that it becomes a right-wing conservative govern ment, like in France or Britain,’’ said Miro Gori, the ANPI president in the Emilia Romagna province where Predappio is located. “We will see what happens.”

POSTERS commemorating the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome bearing a picture of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini reading: “Marching!” with a quote by Mussolini “you have to set yourself goals to have the courage to reach them” are posted in Rome’s public billboard space, Thursday, October 27, 2022.

AP/GREGORIO BORGIA

Italy’s fascist past under scrutiny a century after putsch

By Colleen Barry The Associated Press

MILAN— Italy’s failure to come to terms with its fascist past has become evident as it prepares to mark the 100th anniversary Friday of the March on Rome that brought totalitarian dictator Benito Mussolini to power, a milestone that coincides with the country’s first postwar government led by a party with a neo-fascist roots taking office.

The symbolism looks trou bling: Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party retains the emblem of a flame used by the fascists; her party’s co-founder, Ignazio La Russa, whose middle name is Benito and whose home office is awash in fascist memora bilia, was elected speaker of Parlia ment’s upper house.

Meloni has tried to distance Brothers of Italy from its neo-fas

cist roots. She made her clearest statement yet this week during a speech to Italy’s lower house ahead of confidence votes confirming her government.

“I have never felt sympathy or closeness to undemocratic re gimes, fascism included, as I have always considered the racial laws of 1938 the lowest point in Ital ian history, a shame that will mark our people forever,” Meloni told the lower house of parlia ment Wednesday, referring to Mussolini’s laws that persecuted Italy’s Jewish community.

Resurgence of neo-fascism? THE question remains, however, whether the moderate voice the premier recently adopted will per severe and if so, how the nostalgic wing of her party that represents a core 4 percent of her support will tolerate it.

The National Association of Italian Partisans, or ANPI, which preserves the memory of the war time resistance against fascism, has noted some signs of an embold ened far-right in regions governed by the Brothers of Italy.

The governor of the central Marche region cut off funding to maintain brass-plated Stumbling Stones engraved with the names and dates of Holocaust victims outside their prewar homes, ANPI national president Gianfranco Pagliarulo said. Social media attacks against his organization have grown more viru lent than ever, he said.

“This is a disturbing signal,’’ Pagliarulo said. “It is evident that the victory of the nationalist right will lead to a resurgence of neo-fas cist provocative attitudes.... We are not worried because we will fight with political weapons, and if nec essary, with legal weapons.”

On Friday, ANPI planned to hold a demonstration in Predap pio, where Mussolini is buried, to mark the northern town’s libera tion from fascism on October 28, 1944. The partisan liberators chose the date to eclipse the memory of the March on Rome.

It also conveniently prevents fascist nostalgics from commemo rating the March on Rome that day. Their event is scheduled for Sunday, the final day of Mussolini’s historic Black Shirt march, and one of three commemorations held by neo-fas cists in Predappio each year.

The others mark the day of Mussolini’s birth, July 29, 1883, in

a house not far from the cemetery with his crypt, and April 28, 1944, the day he was killed by partisans in Milan.

“The March on Rome is the founding myth of fascist Italy, and for us it is a negative myth, as the origin of a disaster that led Italy into many wars, most catastrophically World War II,” Pagliarulo said. “We must combat the positive myth of the March on Rome and sustain this day as the start of the darkest period in modern Italian history.”

Francesco Minutillo, a 42-yearold lawyer in a small city near Pre dappio, has attended the commem orations at Mussolini’s grave three times annually for years. He de scribed them as moments of prayer in front of Mussolini’s crypt, and expects the turnout for the centen nial to be robust.

“It is not commemorate the March on Rome. It is to remember Benito Mussolini, who is buried there,’’ Minutillo said.

Dangerous ‘longing’

A FORMER Brothers of Italy city council representative in Forli, Munitillo quit the party in 2020 as Meloni’s message became more moderate. He and others like him are awaiting a new move ment to form.

“Right now, there is no alter native to the right of Brothers of Italy. Our community must wait for something to develop,’’ he said.

Asked if he was nostalgic for Mussolini or fascism, which he sees as a modernizing force for Italy in the 20th century, Mu nitillo relied, “I cannot respond to this question with the laws in place now,’’ referring to the crime of fascism apology.

Italy never went through a pro cess similar to Germany’s de-Nazi fication, and a neo-fascist party, the Italian Social Movement, was part of Italy’s first post-war gov ernment in 1946. The fascist legacy endures in architecture throughout the country, from school buildings in small towns to Milan’s stately train station and massive court house and Rome’s EUR district.

Popular notions persist that Italy’s two decades of fascism brought progress, exemplified by the era’s timely train service, archi tectural boom and the draining of malaria-infested swamps.

It is still possible—though far from common—to spy a portrait

of Mussolini hanging behind a bar or in a restaurant, in particular in Italy’s northern regions, or to come across fascist memorabilia or souvenirs in otherwise ordinary shops. Though the partisan asso ciation views such displays as an apology for fascism that should be punishable by law, they are rarely, if ever, prosecuted.

The ‘ghost’ remains ALESSANDRO LUPARINI , a his torian in Ravenna, said while his torians have properly reevaluated Italy’s fascist past, the awareness has not trickled down, allowing for misunderstandings of history to persist.

“Italy is a country that heals very slowly,’’ he said, adding that the devastating impact of the racial laws outweigh any consideration for infrastructure improvements.

“Historians rightly teach us that fascism ended in Italy in ’45. But not the fascists,’’ said historian Francesco Filippi, who has written a book analyzing popular miscon ceptions about fascism.

“Millions of people who took part in that regime and continued to be part of the political life of the country, and even parties that directly referred to fascism, took part in the political life of the coun try from 1946, arriving to the pres ent day very continuously.”

Filippi said the moderate vot ers who boosted Meloni from 4 percent of the vote in 2018 to 26 percent in the country’s parlia mentary election last month in dicated a fundamental expansion in the party’s base beyond those “who recognized the Brothers of Italy as the historical heir of the [postwar] Italian Social Move ment, and therefore a certain type of fascist idea.”

Many of the new voters, he said, hope Meloni will construct a conservative right-wing gov ernment, “a normal right-wing, that is anti-fascist, tied to dem ocratic values.”

The standard bearers of Italy’s wartime partisan movement said they are withholding judgment on Meloni’s government until it takes concrete actions.

“We hope that it becomes a right-wing conservative govern ment, like in France or Britain,’’ said Miro Gori, the ANPI president in the Emilia Romagna province where Predappio is located. “We will see what happens.”

POSTERS commemorating the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome bearing a picture of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini reading: “Marching!” with a quote by Mussolini “you have to set yourself goals to have the courage to reach them” are posted in Rome’s public billboard space, Thursday, October 27, 2022.

AP/GREGORIO BORGIA

‘Kill everyone’: Russian violence in Ukraine was strategic brutality

By Erika Kinetz The Associated Press

ZDVYZHIVKA, Ukraine—

Even by the standards of the important military officers who came and went in this tiny village, the man walking behind the Kamaz truck stood out.

Soldiers providing security peered from behind fences, their guns bris tling in every direction. Two Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters circled overhead, providing additional cover for Col. Gen. Alexander Chaiko as he escorted an aid convoy in March from the schoolhouse on Tsentralna Street that Russian officers commandeered as a headquarters.

Fifteen minutes away, in the vil lage of Ozera, the lives of three men were about to take a dramatic turn for the worse. While Chaiko was di recting Russia’s attack on Kyiv from Zdvyzhivka, the men were brought to the village by Russian troops, who interrogated and tortured them and then shot them in the garden of a large house about a kilometer (less than a mile) from where the general now stood.

The deaths of these men were part of a pattern of violence that left hun dreds of civilians beaten, tortured and executed in territory under Chaiko’s command.

This wasn’t the work of rogue sol diers, an investigation by The Associ ated Press and the PBS series “Front line” shows. It was strategic and orga nized brutality, perpetrated in areas that were under tight Russian control where military officers—including Chaiko himself—were present.

War crimes prosecutors in Ukraine are trying to gather evidence against Chaiko, who earned a global reputa tion for brutality as leader of Russia’s forces in Syria. And international hu man rights lawyers said evidence gath ered by AP and “Frontline” was enough to merit an investigation of Chaiko at the International Criminal Court.

“We do not take prisoners” THE map seized by Ukrainian forces is almost as tall as a man. It’s frayed, creased and deeply outdated—de scribing towns as they no longer ex ist. A single red line snakes down from Belarus, along the western flank of the Dnieper River, through Chernobyl and toward Zhuliany airport, in Kyiv.

On the back are a scrawled date— Feb. 22, 2022—and the stamp of a Russian military unit—No. 07264, Russia’s 76th Guards Airborne As sault Division.

At 7 a.m. on Feb. 24, the command er of that division, Maj. Gen. Sergei Chubarykin, ordered his troops to cross into Ukraine from Belarus and fight their way to Kyiv, Ukrainian prosecutors say. Chubarykin reported to Chaiko during the initial phase of the war, two Ukrainian officials told the AP and Frontline.

Boy soldiers—some not much bigger than their guns—perched on top of their tanks, shouting: “Now we will take Kyiv! Kyiv is

ours!” witnesses said.

The troops moving toward the capitol had been ordered to block and destroy “nationalist resistance,” ac cording to the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank that has reviewed copies of Russia’s battle plans. Soldiers used lists compiled by Russian intelligence and conducted “zachistki”—cleansing operations— sweeping neighborhoods to identify and neutralize anyone who might pose a threat.

“Those orders were written at Chaiko’s level. So he would have seen them and signed up for them,” said Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at RUSI who shared the battle plans

with the AP.

While there is nothing necessarily illegal about that order, it was often implemented with flagrant disregard for the laws of war as Russian troops seized territories across Ukraine.

Witnesses and survivors in Bucha, as well as Ozera, Babyntsi and Zd vyzhivka—all areas under Chaiko’s command—told the AP and “Front line” that Russian soldiers tortured and killed people on the slightest suspicion they might be helping the Ukrainian military. Sweeps intensi fied after Russian positions were hit with precision, interviews and video show, and soldiers, in intercepted phone calls obtained by the AP, told their loved ones that they’d been or dered to take a no-mercy approach to suspected informants.

Soldiers told their mothers, wives and friends back in Russia that they had killed people simply for being out on the street when “real” civilians would have been in the basement, calls the Ukrainian government in tercepted near Kyiv show.

On March 21, a soldier named Vadim called his mother: “We have the order to take phones from everyone and those who resist—in short—to hell with the f------.”

“We have the order: It does not matter whether they’re civilians or not. Kill everyone.”

The slightest movement of a cur tain in a window—a possible sign of a spotter or a gunman—justified slam ming an apartment block with lethal

IN this image from surveillance video, Russian troops take over Yablunska Street in Bucha, Ukraine on March 3, 2022, where they set up a headquarters during their month-long occupation. When Russian troops crossed from Belarus into Ukraine in late February, pressing toward Kyiv, they were ordered to block and destroy “nationalist resistance,” according to the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank that has reviewed copies of Russia’s battle plans. AP

IN this image from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on March 24, 2022, commander of the troops of the Russian Eastern Military District Alexander Chaiko speaks to Russian servicemen during a special military operation at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE VIA AP

‘Kill everyone’: Russian violence in Ukraine was strategic brutality

the ICC, because half the job is done.”

artillery. Ukrainians who confessed to passing along Russian troop co ordinates were summarily executed, including teenagers, soldiers said.

“We have the order not to take prisoners of war but to shoot them all dead directly,” a soldier nicknamed Lyonya said in a March 14 phone call.

“There was a boy, 18 years old, tak en prisoner. First, they shot through his leg with a machine gun, then he got his ears cut off. He admitted to everything and was shot dead,” Lyo nya told his mom. “We do not take prisoners. Meaning, we don’t leave anyone alive.”

The Dossier Center, a Londonbased investigative group funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, verified the identity of the soldiers who made those calls by cross-referencing Russian phone numbers, linked social media ac counts, public reporting and infor mation in leaked Russian databases.

“That’s where people were killed”

FIERCE Ukrainian resistance and poor planning pushed Russian troops off their planned line of attack. Some of them ended up in Bucha, where Ukrai nian prosecutors say the 76th Guards Airborne Assault Division partici pated in a lethal cleansing operation on March 4 along Yablunska Street, the deadliest road in occupied Bucha and the site of an important Russian command center.

Others settled with thousands of other troops in Zdvyzhivka, a tiny village half an hour north of Bucha that became a major forward operat ing base for the assault on the capi tol, according to Ukrainian military intelligence and audio intercepts obtained by AP.

Russian troops dug into the woods around Zdvyzhivka, building virtual cities that stretched for several ki lometers beneath the tall pines and poplar trees. They left gaping trenches sized for tanks, semi-permanent bun kers reinforced with logs and sand bags, rough-hewn tables and benches. There was even a field sauna, photo graphs and intercepts show.

The Russians set up their most sensitive infrastructure along Tsen tralna Street, the main north-south artery in town. They took over the village council building, a cultural center and a school and set up head quarters in the large white kindergar ten. At the main intersection, near the pond, Russians turned a Baptist church into a field hospital, took over a forestry administration building and commandeered a large ostrich farm for their vehicles and supplies.

In the fields behind the church, locals watched helicopters ferry in supplies and evacuate the wounded.

Checkpoints faced in every direc tion. It was so difficult to cross the checkpoint going south on Tsentralna that locals tried to bypass it, wend ing their way along a footpath that skirted the pond instead. One woman told AP she tried three times before she was allowed to pass and get back to her own home.

Tania, who was afraid to give her last name, lives on this south ern stretch of Tsentralna Street. She stayed in Zdvyzhivka with her children during the occupation, hemmed in by Russian checkpoints on both sides.

It seemed like tanks were parked in every yard, Tania said. Troops took over dozens of abandoned homes.

There is one house on Tania’s stretch of Tsentralna, between the checkpoints, that stands out. It is the

biggest, ritziest compound around. Beyond its high brick wall, an elegant circular driveway leads to a large pink ish house. A stone path winds through the back garden, an oasis of fenced-in green with manicured hedges, thick trees, two gazebos, a basketball court, banks of garden planters. At the far back fence, a small door opens onto the woods beyond.

The soldiers who came and went from that compound were older, pro fessional, spoke like educated men, Tania and other neighbors said. They had cars with drivers. They told peo ple what to do. Everyone figured they were officers.

“That’s where people were killed,” Tania said, squinting down the street and pointing to the compound.

What they found in the garden

LIFE under the occupation of Chaiko’s forces was tense and terrifying, local residents told AP and Frontline.

Andrii Shkoliar lives on Tsentral na Street with his extended family, a few houses down from the luxurious compound. On March 18, Shkoliar and his wife were walking nearby to a rela tive’s house when a dark-colored UAZ Patriot sped past, stopped abruptly and drove back to them.

A tall, blond soldier with a beard who appeared to be of higher rank stepped out of the Russian-made SUV, demanding to know why they’d broken curfew.

“I give you one hour to go and come back or you’ll be like this one in the car,” the Russian told him.

Shkoliar peered through the back window of the SUV at a man slumped against the window, eyes bound with tape, his hands behind his back.

On their way back, Shkoliar and his wife saw the same UAZ Patriot parked in front of the officers’ compound.

The next day, March 19, Ukrai nians launched a precision strike, knocking out a Russian storehouse at the ostrich farm on Tsentralna, ac cording to village head Raisa Kozyr. Russian troops sprang into action, searching door to door and checking documents.

The same blond officer and driver of the UAZ Patriot, along with a third man, appeared at Shkoliar’s front door and pulled everyone out of the house to search for weapons. They said they’d kill everyone if they found anything.

“We were saying goodbye to our lives,” Shkoliar recalled. “What else could we do?”

The sweeps consumed the whole village.

Vitalii Chernysh was picked up that afternoon as he rode his bike through a field. Chernysh said sol diers found a photo of Russian mili tary vehicles someone had sent him on the messaging app Viber on Feb. 25 and hauled him off with three other people, bound and blindfolded, to a nearby barn. It was below freez ing, and none of the prisoners was dressed for the cold.

As night deepened, they chatted with the Russian guarding them. “He said more captured people were brought over,” Chernysh recalled. “From Bucha, from Ozera, from Blys tavytsia and somewhere else.... In short, they gathered people.”

The next day, Chernysh was taken, blindfolded, to a field and accused of being a spotter.

“Where are the nationalists?” the soldiers demanded. They poured gasoline on him and pretended to set him on fire. They ordered him to run through what they said was a mine field. Still blindfolded, Chernysh struggled to his feet and tried to fol low the soldiers’ commands: “Go right. Go straight. Go faster.” Then they beat

his legs again, with what felt like a wooden plank.

Chernysh began to wish they’d just kill him.

Finally, a man Chernysh thought was of higher rank came over, exam ined his phone and told the soldiers to take Chernysh home.

Photos taken shortly after his or deal show large, livid bruises on the back of his swollen legs. Days later, Russia’s Ministry of Defense released a video of Chaiko pinning medals on soldiers near Zdvyzhivka.

“All units, all divisions are acting the way they were taught,” he said in the March 24 video. “They are doing everything right. I am proud of them.”

When Russian forces retreated a week later, the bodies began to surface.

Bucha, a pleasant town outside Kyiv, quickly became a global symbol of Russia’s wartime atrocities and case No. 1 for Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors. Retreating soldiers left behind the bodies of over 450 men, women and children—almost all bore signs of violent death.

But the slaughter wasn’t limited to Bucha. It was repeated in town after town, village after village. Including in Zdvyzhivka.

“We didn’t know what was hap pening around us,” said Kozyr, the village head. “What was happening in the woods. And we knew people were missing.”

On March 30, Yevhen Pohranych nyi went to the luxurious home Rus sian officers had used. Now that they were gone, he wanted to check on his neighbor’s cat and see how badly the house had been looted.

The house was trashed, photo graphs show. Drawers had been ripped from desks and dressers. Clothes, books and papers were strewn all over the floor. What the Russians hadn’t stolen, they’d smashed.

Pohranychnyi made his way out the back, to the far end of the long garden. There, as night was falling, he found something far worse: the bodies of two men—one with a crushed skull curled up like a child, his joints at strange an gles; the other with red marks around his neck, who had bled out from his head and face onto a pink cloth.

The next morning, he brought the village head, the village priest and others to the site. Three more bodies had appeared overnight. The blood was fresh. Some of them had their eyes and hands bound. Two seemed to be dressed in clothes that weren’t their own.

Three of those men—Mykola “Kolia” Moroz, Andrii Voznenko and Mykhailo Honchar—were picked up from nearby Ozera between March 15 and March 22 on suspicion of acting as spotters for the Ukrainian military, eyewitnesses told AP and “Frontline.” Moroz was captured the day after a precision strike on a Russian position hidden in the woods outside Ozera, a drone video analyzed by the Center for Information Resilience, a Londonbased nonprofit that specializes in digital investigations, shows.

AP and “Frontline” visited that gar den in July and found bullet casings and a zip tie on the ground and bul let holes in the fence where the men were found—indications that they had been killed on the premises of the house frequented by Russian officers in one of the most tightly guarded sections of Zdvyzhivka in late March.

All told, 17 people have been found dead in Zdvyzhivka—a village of 1,000 before the war.

Chaiko in charge

CHAIKO has been sanctioned by the UK for his actions in Syria and Hu man Rights Watch says Chaiko may bear command responsibility for widespread attacks on hospitals and schools and the use of indiscriminate weapons in populated areas during a notorious campaign in Idlib province in 2019 and 2020. At least 1,600 ci vilians were killed; some 1.4 million were displaced, according to the group.

In Ukraine, prosecutors say they don’t have proof Chaiko ordered spe cific crimes, but it is clear that atroci ties were committed under his watch.

In June, the US State Department sanctioned Russia’s 76th Guards Air borne Assault Division and its 234th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment, as well as the 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, for atrocities in Bucha.

Those units were all under the ulti mate command of Chaiko, Ukrainian authorities told AP.

But Chaiko’s responsibility ex tended beyond Bucha.

To try to understand who might have been involved in the deaths of the men from Ozera, the AP obtained data about their cell phone activity from the Ukrainian government. On March 21, the day Russian soldiers captured Voznenko, his cell phone pinged the same cell tower as 40 Russian phone numbers—an indication of who was nearby when he was abducted.

The Dossier Center found explicit references to specific Russian military

units in recent work history databases for 14 of those phone numbers. Nine came from units Ukrainian authori ties told the AP were under Chaiko’s command. The formal wartime com mand structures for the rest are un clear, but four are from unit 62295, an airborne regiment based in Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow. That unit was in Ozera, along Chaiko’s front in the war, according to Russian phone num bers left behind on scraps of paper in Ozera that the Dossier Center traced to specific soldiers.

Days before the bodies of Voznenko and the others were found mutilated in the garden in Zdvyzhivka, two eyewitnesses spotted Chaiko again, about a kilometer (less than a mile) down the road at his headquarters in the village.

Both men independently identified him as Chaiko when AP and “Front line” showed them a photograph of the colonel general in July.

“It’s him,” said Mykola Skrynnyk, 58, who served in the Soviet army in the 1980s, and says he exchanged a few words with the general. “Now I under stand why there was so much security.”

“When you look at everything that was happening in Zdvyzhivka, it be comes evident that this is not just a singular case, this is their policy for the territory they capture,” said Taras Semkiv, a war crimes prosecutor in the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

As top commander, Chaiko obvi ously “would have to be aware of what was happening near his headquarters located in the same village,” he said.

“It’s only logical.”

But, he added, “This has to be prov en. And I think we will do it.”

There’s no concept of command responsibility in Ukrainian law, but if prosecutors can demonstrate that Chaiko played a key role in imple menting illegal policies of the Russian Federation, or should have known what his troops were doing and was in a position to stop, or punish, their behavior, he could be charged for war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in an international court.

Toby Cadman, an international hu man rights lawyer in London who is work ing to hold Russia legally accountable for atrocities in Syria, said the evidence AP and “Frontline” collected was enough to merit an investigation of Chaiko at the International Criminal Court.

“Significant events like this can then fall through the cracks, they don’t get properly investigated,” he said. “A case file could be taken to

“It is a significant case. It is a stra tegically important area. It is a stra tegically important individual,” he said. “Everything about it makes it a significant matter to look at,” he said.

The ICC declined to comment, cit ing confidentiality.

Never again?

WHILE they seek more specific evi dence, Ukrainian prosecutors have in dicted Chaiko for the crime of aggres sion, a broad charge that seeks to hold him responsible for helping to plan and execute an illegal war in Ukraine.

They say he was in Zdvyzhivka from March 20 until March 31, directing the assault on Kyiv—that is, at the same time the three men from Ozera were killed and Chernysh was tortured.

Chaiko’s trial is expected to begin soon in Ukraine. But the dock will al most certainly be empty.

The International Criminal Court has a better chance than Ukraine of extraditing, or capturing, Chaiko one day. It is currently the only interna tional forum that can hold leaders criminally responsible for wartime atrocities. But it is not a simple task.

The ICC doesn’t have jurisdiction over Russians for the broad crime of aggression because Russia—like the US—never agreed to give it authority to do so. Instead, prosecutors must link commanders with specific crimes. That makes it hard to build cases against leaders like Chaiko—and Vladimir Putin.

A growing number of people are calling for the creation of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression in Ukraine—similar to those set up for conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia—to address this gap in international law. They say it would be the best way to make Putin pay.

“The crime of aggression is called the mother of all crimes,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told the AP and Frontline. “You don’t have war crimes if you don’t have the crime of aggression. So the best way to prosecute personally President Putin is to have a special ad hoc tribunal for the crime of aggression.”

It’s not clear whether Kuleba and his allies will succeed. They face po litical opposition from powerful na tions who don’t want to see their own leaders in the dock and from the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, who said his court can handle pros ecutions on its own.

“We have clear jurisdiction,” he said in an interview in July. “Victims don’t have much tolerance in my view for vanity projects or distractions.”

The Kremlin did not respond to AP’s requests for comment.

But there is no sign Moscow has sanc tioned Chaiko for the very public atroci ties committed on his watch. Instead, Putin praised Chaiko for his actions in Syria, awarding him the title “Hero of Russia” in 2020 and promoting him to colonel general in June 2021.

Cadman, the international human rights lawyer in London, watched with dismay as Russian atrocities in Syria—under the leadership of some of the same men, including Chaiko— went unanswered.

“If we do not act decisively now,” he said, “it will not end in Ukraine.”

“Frontline” producers Tom Jennings and Annie Wong, co-producer Taras Lazer and AP reporters Richard Lardner, Ja nine Graham and Solomiia Hera contrib uted to this report. This story is part of an AP/FRONTLINE investigation that includes the War Crimes Watch Ukraine interactive experience and the documen tary “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Docu menting War Crimes,” on PBS.

IN this image from surveillance video, Russian troops take over Yablunska Street in Bucha, Ukraine on March 3, 2022, where they set up a headquarters during their month-long occupation. Police recovered nearly 40 bodies along Yablunksa after Russian forces withdrew at the end of March. AP

USHER Technologies Inc. topped the Circle of Excellence awardees as Technology Company of the Year Grand Winner in the recently concluded Asia CEO Awards 2022.

The Technology Company of the year award is given to the organization that focuses on information and communication technology and how it enables, transforms and uplifts lives of the community it serves, the company said in a news release.

The award came on the heels of the Gregorio Zara Award for Best Technology Commercialization in 2021 that it received from the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST). It has also won various awards.

The Asia CEO Technology Company of the Year Award underscores the company’s efforts in increasing the Philippines’ readiness during disasters—giving hope in reducing economic loss and most importantly, to save lives.

It was a testament to the advocacy of Usher (Universal Structural Health Evaluation and Recording System) in disaster risk reduction management as it fortifies and strengthens its mission to help communities in disaster risk reduction through the use of the system and a framework on training and education on structural health monitoring, the news release said.

Usher Technologies Inc. is a commercialization of the high-impact R&D project of Mapua University that

was supported by the DOST-Philippine Council for Industry Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development.

It is led by Chief Vision Officer Dr Francis Aldrine A. Uy, who is also the dean of Civil Engineering of Mapua University, and an all-Filipino team from various engineering disciplines from Mapua and seasoned professionals from technology, business, legal and finance.

Usher aims to be a leading innovations company in the multi-hazard disaster risk reduction platforms and solutions that is ushering a safer world.

It is a 24/7 building structural health monitoring system composed of an advanced accelerograph, a web portal system and a mobile application.

It is a key solution to address disaster risk reduction, specially in urban cities in order to reduce economic and human loss. It is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The technology can be installed in buildings, bridges and other critical structures. It aids engineers and building owners and administrators to monitor structural integrity and performance under seismic and other events, Usher said.

Usher has been working with the Department of Public Works and Highways in monitoring the structure of public infrastructures, and with the private sector.

It is economical, convenient and fully compliant with government regulations. It is a vital component in building Smart cities.

DOST awards grants to 2 students’ researches on malunggay, ‘lagnub’

PHL okays Bt ‘talong’ for farming

FILIPINO farmers can finally plant the borer-resistant Bt ‘talong’ (eggplant) after the Philippine government approved its commercial cultivation on Oc tober 18—almost two decades since the start of its development in the country.

The Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture (DA-BPI) granted the “Biosafety Permit for Commercial Propagation (No. 22-001 Propa)” of Bt eggplant (Event EE-1) to the University of the Philippines Los Baños, John Albert Caraan, project development officer of the Bt Eggplant Project of the In stitute of Plant Breeding at the Col lege of Agriculture and Food Science of University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB-CAFS-IPB), said in a news release.

The approval was pursuant to the decision made by the Departments of Agriculture, Science and Technol ogy, Environment and Natural Re sources, Health and Interior and Lo cal Government Joint Department Circular 1, Series of 2021.

The regulatory approval came after strict and comprehensive bio safety evaluations conducted by the Joint Assessment Group composed of representatives from Competent National Authorities-Biosafety Committees, Caraan said.

It was also based on the certifi cation of the Event EE-1 as a Plant Incorporated Protectant (Group 11A Insecticide) by the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, he added.

Before its approval for commer cial propagation, the DA-BPI also approved Bt eggplant for direct use as food, feed, or for processing on affirming its safety for consumption on July 21, 2021.

With this regulatory landmark, “the Philippines becomes the sec ond country in the world, after Bangladesh, to allow the commer cial propagation of borer-resistant Bt eggplant,” Caraan said. The project started in the Philippines in 2003.

“The biosafety approval for com mercial propagation allows us to scale up our operations and ensure the availability of the Bt eggplant seeds in the coming years,” said

Dr. Lourdes Taylo, the current lead of the Bt Eggplant Project in the Philippines.

After the biosafety approval for commercial propagation of Bt Egg plant, priority activities will include seed production, varietal registra tion and farm demonstrations.

Besides the pilot planting, an extensive growers’ education pro gram will be launched as part of the product stewardship activities within the following year.

Caraan explained that Bt egg plant contains a natural protein from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, making it resistant to fruit and shoot borer (EFSB), egg plant’s most devastating insect pest.

Bt protein targets specifically the EFSB larvae, but is safe for hu mans, animals and other nontarget arthropods (or insects, invertebrate animals having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages), he pointed out.

It is safe not only for consump tion but also for the environment, Caraan said based on various sci entific evidence.

He cited that eggplant varieties containing the event EE-1 are un likely to pose greater risks to the en vironment when cultivated in open fields, as compared to their non-Bt eggplant counterparts, based on a 2016 study conducted in the Philip pines on the impact of Bt eggplants

to nontarget arthropods.

The study also said that Bt egg plant can be an integral component of integrated pest management pro gram particularly of EFSB, while dramatically reducing the depen dence on conventional insecticides.

Caraan further explained that ex-ante socio-economic studies con ducted in the Philippines estimated that the cultivation of Bt eggplants will incur lower production costs and ultimately lead to up to threefold higher net farm incomes due to the combined effects of significantly reduced pesticide use and increased marketable fruit yields.

Eggplant farming is a big indus try in the country, valued at P5.1 billion in 2017. It is a major source of farmers’ income but it suffers from damages brought by pests and diseases, Clement Dionglay said in a report on International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications’ (ISAAA) web site in November 2020.

Yield losses due to FSB range from 51 percent to 73 percent, prompt ing Filipino eggplant farmers to fre quently spray chemical insecticides almost daily, or up to 80 times per cropping season, the ISAAA web site said on September 23, 2020.

This costs farmers almost 20 percent to 40 percent of the total production cost for chemical insec ticides. Besides spraying, it is also

a common practice among Filipino farmers to dip unharvested egg plant fruits in a cocktail of chemi cals to ensure the marketability of their crops, ISAAA said.

The average potential net benefit of planting Bt eggplant in the Phil ippines is P272,000 ($6,243)/ha, higher than conventional varieties in the province of Pangasinan, and P120,000 ($2,753)/ha in Camarines Sur, ISAAA said based on a 2014 re search edited by Gerpacio, R.V. and A.P. Aquino.

This significant increase in profit is due to increased marketable yield and reduced pesticide use. It was pro jected that there will be 48 percent reduction in pesticide application per hectare. This can be translated to 19.5 percent lower environmental footprint compared to nonadopters. Besides increase in income, sig nificant health and environmental benefits will be realized from the big reduction in pesticide use.

Assuming a 50 percent adoption rate, the benefits of Bt eggplant to human health is valued at P2.5 mil lion ($57,353) per year, while the collective benefits to farm animals, beneficial insects and bird is esti mated to be P6.8 million ($155,841) per year, the research said.

At the same time, eggplant is an important vegetable in the Philip pines because it is rich in dietary fiber, a good source of vitamins and minerals, and is one of the most common and popular vegetables preferred and consumed by all over the country.

The Bt Eggplant Project in the Philippines was as a public-private partnership engagement among the UPLB-IPB, Indian Maharash tra Hybrid Seeds Co. Pvt Ltd and Cornell University, with funding support from USAID (through the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II and Feed the Future Egg plant Improvement Project), DABiotechnology Program Office and DA-Bureau of Agriculture Research.

The project was supported by the ISAAA, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Re search in Agriculture, UPLB-CAFS and the UPLB Foundation Inc.

T HE Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) awarded a thesis grant worth P50,000 to Joshua M. Cambronero, a Bachelor of Science in Food Technology student from University of the Philippines Mindanao, for his research on the antioxidant and anticancer properties of Malunggay (Moringa oleifera).

Also awarded with the same funding grant was Raffy Cañeda, a student researcher from the University of Southeastern Philippines. The grant was for Cañeda’s research on “lagnub” (Ficus septica Burm.), a shrub that can be found in the Philippines. It is locally popular for its medicinal use in treating skin infections.

Cambronero said that his research would further investigate the plant for its antioxidant and anticancer properties through various extraction methods.

The research grant funding was provided by DOST-PCHRD to sustain the research culture in natural products and increase the number of researchers specializing in the field.

The grant supports the Tuklas Lunas Program (Drug Discovery and Development Program) of the DOST-PCHRD, which aims to develop safe, effective, and affordable alternative drugs from the country’s natural resources.

Cambronero said that he is grateful for the research grant as it will help him pursue a more complex research design and expose him to more prominent platforms.

“The funding will allow me to contribute to this body of knowledge that seeks to better people’s lives, specifically in the field of drug discovery from natural products,” he added.

Meanwhile, Cañeda said lagnub’s fresh leaves are used to promote sweating during fever and get rid of headaches.

“The result of the research will provide information on the antibacterial potential of lagnub against staph infection (Staphylococcus aureus) that is difficult to treat because of resistance to some antibiotics,” said Cañeda, a BS Biology student and the lead researcher.

Cañeda said that conventional antibiotic use is now challenged by emerging antimicrobial resistance, reduced susceptibility, poor oral bioavailability, and high treatment costs for the marginalized sector, so his research will hopefully address some problems in public health.

DOST-PCHRD provided the research grant to be utilized by Cañeda and his adviser, Judee Nogodula.

The grant support will also contribute to the Tuklas Lunas Program of the DOST-PCHRD.

“As a science student, having the undergraduate thesis grant in natural products from DOST-PCHRD will allow me to pursue higher research goals and methods which are often costly on my part. The grant will truly help me work more on my study which is beneficial for establishing reliable and significant results,” Cañeda said.

THE Diwata-2 microsatellite

marked its fourth year in space on October 29. Since 2018, the second 50-kilogram (km) Earth observation microsatellite of the Philippines has captured more than 112,049 images around the world and covered 94.03 percent, or 282,088 km² of the Philippine landmass, the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) announced.

The images were used for its mission on environmental and natural resource monitor ing, and disaster response and management.

Diwata-2 was built by research ers from the University of the Phil ippines Diliman (UPD) and the Advanced Science and Technology Institute of the Department of Sci ence and Technology (DOST-ASTI) in cooperation with Tohoku Uni versity and Hokkaido University in Japan under the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Mi crosatellite Program.

It was successfully deployed into 600 km sun-synchronous or bit on October 29, 2018, and has been carrying optical cameras for scientific Earth observation.

The PhilSA now operates the Di wata-2 satellite through a memo randum of agreement signed with

the DOST.

Diwata-2 images from 2022

SOME captured images of Diwa ta-2 over the past year featured the onboard payloads—high preci sion telescope (HPT), Spaceborne Multispectral Imager (SMI), En hanced Resolution Camera (ERC), and Wide Field Camera (WFC)— capturing various scenery from reefs and islands to the monitor ing of weather disturbances like typhoons.

Images of Apo, Tubbataha and Subi Reefs were captured by HPT at 3-meter spatial resolution.

The high-resolution images

were adequate for environmental and resource mapping, surveil lance and security monitoring.

The featured reefs juxtaposed the substantial benthic cover of seagrass and corals shown in Apo and Tubbataha Reefs to reclaimed land covered with built-up infra structures in Subi Reef.

From the northernmost part of the Philippines, Babuyan Islands, to the southernmost, Tawi-Tawi, Di wata-2's SMI captured Babuyan Is lands, Mapun Island and Tawi-Tawi.

From tropical storm to Super Typhoon Henry (international code name Hinnamnor, entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility

on August 31.

Diwata-2 payloads, ERC and WFC, captured its rapid intensifi cation with images from August 30 and September 4. The typhoon's eye "stadium effect" is observed in the ERC images, which phenomenon was indicative of an extremely in tense tropical cyclone.

Diwata-2 2023 and beyond AS Diwata-2 enters its fifth and projected final year of mission in 2023, it will continue to orbit the Earth at 7.560 km/s at 602.8 km al titude, capturing thousands more images for environmental moni toring and disaster response and management, PhilSA said.

The satellite is also expected to cover and capture the remaining 5.97 percent of the country’s landmass using its SMI payload next year.

Meanwhile, the development of the country’s first and biggest commercial-grade satellite to date, the Multispectral Unit for Land Assessment (Mula), will be in full swing in 2023.

Once launched in 2025, data from Mula are envisioned to con tribute to the country’s food secu rity, disaster resilience, environ ment conservation, and national security.

Lyn Resurreccion

PHL’s Diwata-2 marks 4th year in space with over

images captured

IMAGES of Subi, Apo and Tubbataha Reefs that were captured by Diwata-2. PHILSA IMAGES

IMAGE captured by Diwata-2 during Supertyphoon Henry on August 31. PHILSA IMAGES

RAFFY CAÑEDA (second from left), a student researcher from the University of Southeastern Philippines, also receives a research grant for his research on “lagnub” (Ficus septica Burm.), a shrub that is locally popular for its medicinal use in treating skin infections.

Cardinal Tagle defends Vatican-China deal

“Diplomacy is like that. When you face a blocked situation, you have to find the possible way, not the ideal way, out of it,” the pope said.

Speaking to Vatican News on Oc tober 22, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Vatican-China deal is “still in the experimentation phase.”

“As is always the case, such diffi cult and delicate situations require adequate time for implementation in order to then be able to verify the effectiveness of the result and iden tify possible improvements,” he said in the interview.

‘Increasing persecution’

Public told: Go green on ‘Undas’

ROME—Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle defended the Vatican’s decision to renew its provi sional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops.

The Filipino cardinal, considered a contender to become the Catholic Church’s first Asian pope, said that the Holy See signed the agreement “to safeguard the valid apostolic suc cession and the sacramental nature of the Catholic Church in China.”

“And this can reassure, comfort and enliven baptized Catholics in China,” Tagle said in an interview published on October 22 on the Vatican’s official media channels.

When asked in the interview for his response to critics of the agree ment who say that the Holy See’s dealings with Beijing have led to the Vatican’s silence on the sufferings and problems of Chinese Catholics, Tagle said: “In dialogue, the Holy See has its own respectful style of communicating with representa tives of the Chinese government, but which never ignores and indeed always makes present the situations of suffering of Catholic communities, which sometimes arise from inappro priate pressures and interference.”

The Vatican on October 22 an nounced that it had renewed its 2018 agreement with China for an additional two years on the same weekend that Chinese President Xi Jinping secured a third term as the leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

Under Xi’s leadership, respect for human rights and religious freedom has deteriorated. Xi has come under mounting international condemna tion for China’s brutal persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, and state officials in different regions of China have removed crosses and demolished church buildings.

Open channel for dialogue

TAGLE , who was called to Rome in 2019 to head the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said that the open channel for dialogue with Chinese government authorities has been good in itself.

“Listening to the arguments and

objections of the government also leads us to take into account the con texts and the ‘mindset’ of our inter locutors. We discover that things that are absolutely clear and almost obvi ous to us can be new and unknown to them,” he said.

The cardinal cited his own Chinese heritage, saying that the memory of his maternal grandfather, whom he described as a “pragmatic Chinese Catholic,” has helped him to “consider what can be more useful in the dialogue with the Chinese government.”

“Now, when I consider the dia logue with the Chinese government on ecclesial issues, I think that some times it is better to look for simple and direct arguments, to meet the concrete and pragmatic approach of our interlocutors,” Tagle said.

The provisional agreement between the Vatican and China was first signed in September 2018 and renewed for another two years in October 2020. The terms of the deal have not been made public.

The Vatican publicized the renewal of its agreement with China five days before Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, is scheduled to appear again in court.

Zen was arrested in May along with other democracy activists under Hong Kong’s strict national security law and has been one of the most outspo ken critics of the Vatican’s agreement with China.

Negative reactions ‘part of the process’

TAGLE said in the interview that the Vatican is aware of negative reactions to the agreement among some Chi nese Catholics and considers it “part of the process.”

“The Holy See does not ignore and does not even minimize the differences of reactions among Chinese Catholics in the face of the agreement, where the joy of many is intertwined with the perplexities of others. It is part of the process,” he said.

“But one always has to dirty ones hands with the reality of things as they are. Many signs attest that many Chinese Catholics have grasped the inspiration followed by the Holy See in the ongoing

process. They are grateful and comforted for a process that confirms before all their full communion with the pope and the universal Church.”

Pope: ‘Diplomacy an art’

IN the Vatican announcement of its renewal of its 2018 deal with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops for an additional two years, said:“After ap propriate consultation and assessment, the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China have agreed to extend for another two years the Provisional Agreement regarding the appointment of Bishops.”

“The Vatican Party,” the news re lease continued, “is committed to con tinuing a respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese Party for a productive implementation of the ac cord and further development of bilat eral relations, with a view to fostering the mission of the Catholic Church and the good of the Chinese people.”

Pope Francis said in July that he hoped the agreement would be renewed for a second time.

In an interview with Reuters pub lished July 5, the pope defended the Vatican-China deal against its critics, saying, “Diplomacy is the art of the possible and of doing things to make the possible become a reality.”

Cold War: Find possible, not ideal way

HE compared today’s critics and those who spoke negatively about the Vati can’s diplomatic decisions during the Cold War, when the popes struck deals with Eastern European communist governments in an attempt to protect the interests of the Catholic Church.

AFTER the China deal was signed in 2018, state officials in different regions of China removed crosses and demolished church buildings, and underground Catholics and clergy have reported harassment and detention.

A 2020 report from the US Con gressional-Executive Commission on China found that Chinese Catholics suffered “increasing persecution” after the agreement came into effect.

While introducing more restric tive rules on religious practice, Chi na’s President Xi has been outspoken about his goal of the “sinicization” of religions.

Chinese authorities have sought to diffuse “religious theories with Chi nese character” into the five official religions supervised by the govern ment, including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

This has included instructing Christian churches to remove im ages of the Ten Commandments and replace them with the sayings of Chairman Mao Zedung and Xi.

Parolin said: “Pope Francis—with determination and patient foresight— has decided to continue along this path not under the illusion of finding perfection in human rules, but in the concrete hope of being able to assure Chinese Catholic communities, even in such a complex context, of the guidance of pastors who are worthy and suitable for the task entrusted to them.”

The provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bish ops is “a limited but significant part,” Parolin said.

“Of course,” he continued, “we do not hide the numerous difficulties that affect the concrete life of the Catholic communities, which enjoy our utmost attention, and for the good solution of which new steps forward are necessary in a collaborative relationship that has mul tiple protagonists: the Holy See, the cen tral authorities, the bishops with their communities, and the local authorities.”

“The ultimate goal of this journey is for the ‘little flock’ of Chinese Catho lics to advance in the possibility of liv ing serenely and freely their Christian life,” Parolin said. Courtney Mares and Hannah Brockhaus/Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Broadway actress Lea Salonga to join The Tabernacle Choir for Christmas concert

ACCLAIMED Filipino Broadway singer and actress Lea Salonga will be the featured guest artist at this year’s Christmas concerts by The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. The performances are scheduled from December 15 to 17 at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.

The Tabernacle Choir is with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Under the direction of Mack Wilberg, music director of the Choir, and Ryan Murphy, associate music director, Salonga will ring in the Christmas spirit with live audiences after two years of concerts that were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Church announced on its web site.

“We are delighted to have Lea Salonga with us as we welcome the community back to the Conference Center for our Christmas concerts,” Wilberg said. “Her compelling voice will bring the holiday spirit to the hearts of our audiences with joy, peace, light and love.”

Salonga is a multiple award-winning

actor and singer renowned worldwide for her powerful voice and perfect pitch.

She is best known for her Tony Awardwinning role in “Miss Saigon.” In addition to the Tony, she has won the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards in the field of musical theater.

Many fans of all ages recognize Salonga

as the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from “Aladdin” and Fa Mulan for “Mulan” and “Mulan II.”

For her portrayal of the beloved princesses, the Walt Disney Company bestowed her with the honor of “Disney Legend.”

Salonga’s 2022 Dream Again Tour and her 2019 The Human Heart Tour saw sold-out audiences and record-breaking sales across North America and the United Kingdom.

She currently stars in the HBO Max series “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.”

An avid techie and gamer, Salonga divides her time between the United States and the Philippines.

This year’s concerts signal a return to normal after the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 Christmas concerts and closed the 2021 concerts to the public, the Church said.

Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, the Choir continued its Christmas concert tradition with a special featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell, which was taped in

2020 and aired on television to great acclaim last December.

For the live concert in 2021, Broadway star Megan Hilty and renowned film and television actor Neal McDonough joined the Choir, the Orchestra and the Bells at Temple Square and the Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble for a performance that was taped for airing this year.

The concert, “O Holy Night: Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir Featuring Megan Hilty and Neal McDonough,” will be broadcast on PBS on December 13, at 8 p.m. EST and on BYUtv on December 18, at 8 p.m. EST.

A Grammy Award-winning, multiple Emmy Award-winning, all-volunteer choral ensemble, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square comprises of 360 men and women who join their talents to create their trademark, instantly recognizable sound.

They are accompanied by the Orchestra at Temple Square, a 150-member symphony orchestra, and the Bells at Temple Square, a 32-member handbell choir, which are likewise all-volunteer organizations, the Church said.

THE Catholic Church’s ad vocacy arm in the Philip pines once again called on Filipinos to go green this Undas , or All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days, saying that cemetery waste is an issue that should not be buried.

Fr. Antonio Labiao of Caritas Philippines urged the public to keep cemeteries “trash-free” and preserve their sacredness.

“We appeal to our fellow Fili pinos to make this year’s obser vance of Undas different from the pre-pandemic celebrations, which were marred by tons of garbage left by cemetery visitors and vendors,” Labiao said over Radio Veritas.

According to Labiao, keeping cemeteries clean is part of the people’s responsibility to care for Mother Nature.

“It’s our shared responsibility to ensure that our environment, which includes us all, is protected against practices that pollute and degrade it,” he said.

Filipinos are expected to flock to cemeteries and columbaria to visit their departed loved ones on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day on November 1 and 2, respectively.

This will mark the first time that cemeteries will be allowed to open during Undas since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Many clean, decorate and re pair the tombs of their dead even days ahead of Undas

During the day itself, they offer prayers for the dead, the same with candles and flowers. Chinese Fili pinos also offer incense and food.

This holiday become a mix of the observance of the dead and a joyful holiday for many. The cemeteries come alive with families holding reunions at the graves, and spend the whole day feasting with plenty of food and drink, and even sing ing complete with sound systems.

Public cemeteries also abound with ambulant vendors selling food, flowers and candles. CBCP News

Asian bishops to work ‘not just for better Church but for better Asia’

THAILAND—Asia’s Catholic leaders gathered in Thai land are working on a new document that outlines their work and mission in the years ahead.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, president of the Federa tion of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), said the document would be reflective of the emerging pas toral needs of the people.

“That final document is the res olutions of the works that we are focusing on for the coming years,” Bo said in a news conference.

Around 200 cardinals and bishops from across the re gion are currently gathered in Sam Phran district of Nakhon Pathom, near Bangkok, since October 12 for the FABC general conference.

Organizers said the ongoing meeting is the largest gathering of Asian bishops so far in FABC’s 50 years of history.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay said several consultations were held at the regional level to identify the “concerns, challenges and opportunities” that both the Church and society are facing.

“Having put all those together, we identified some of the concerns which were given to us, and then we had now the whole conference trying to respond, taking that al ready as a basis,” he said.

Among these challenges, he said, include issues on human

rights, migration, environment, poverty, natural calamities, wom en and political instability.

“Now, the bishops here, repre senting the different Churches in Asia, are reflecting on how exactly we can promote human rights, how exactly we can promote human dignity, how exactly we can ensure justice, and peace, and reconcilia tion,” Gracias said.

The cardinal, who is also the convenor of this year’s FABC con ference, said the meeting’s objec tive “is really reflecting on the richness of Asia.”

“We want to commit ourselves, the FABC, not only for a better Church but for the better Asia all over,” he said. “That, I think, is what we are going to discern.”

“At the end of this meeting, we will present a message to the people of Asia, and also begin the elements of the final document, which will be like a guide document or a pastoral plan for the churches of Asia,” he added.

The 18-day gathering will end with a Mass to be presided over by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who is Pope Francis’s special envoy to the FABC conference, today, Oc tober 30.

The pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization ar rived in Thailand on October 29, where he had a closed-door meet ing with the bishops.

Lagarde/CBCP

PILGRIMS wave a Chinese flag at the general audience with Pope

A MAN (left) paints the grave of his departed family member as he balances between the so-called condominium or apartment tombs at Barangka Public Cemetery in Marikina City. BERNARD TESTA

CARDINAL Oswald Gracias (left) of Bombay and Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon talk to each other after speaking to the press about the ongoing general conference of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences in Thailand on October 24. PHOTO BY ROY LAGARDE

ACCLAIMED Broadway singer and actress Lea Salonga will be the guest artist at this year’s Christmas concerts by The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.

RAYMUND ISAAC PHOTO/CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST WEB SITE

CARDINAL Luis Antonio Tagle, proprefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, in a file photo that was taken while he was celebrating Mass at the Manila Cathedral on August 21.

SCREEN GRAB FROM FACEBOOK/MANILA CATHEDRAL

Biodiversity Sunday

Strict rules needed to protect PHL eagle

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

The photo was taken at the Cin chona Forest Reserve on Mount Kitanglad Range Natural Park (MKRNP), a protected area, one of the remaining rainforests in the Philippines and hosting one of the most important diverse species of rare and endemic wildlife—the Philippine eagle, the country’s national bird.

While the viral photo earned awe from netizens, it also raised concern for conservation advo cates, including the protectors of Mount Kitanglad, including the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), Protected Area Su perintendent (PASu) and the Ki tanglad Volunteer Guards (KVG).

Instant celebrity status

THE now-famous Philippine eagle in the photo, named by the photog rapher as “Pamarayeg III,” is not the first eaglet born in Cinchona Forest Reserve.

A pair of Philippine eagle, Pama rayeg III’s ancestors, have been breeding in the area for decades.

Since the discovery of the exis tence of a Philippine eagle in the area in 2006, the nesting ground where it was hatched about 15 years later is being closely moni tored by the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), a nonprofit organization that is the govern ment’s partner for the protection and conservation of the rare bird of prey and their habitats.

The eaglet’s celebrity status had inspired birders and wildlife photographers from all over to visit Cinchona to get a glimpse and photograph the young eagle them selves, posing a challenge to the protectors of the eagles and Mount

Kitanglad itself. The mountain is an Asean Heritage Park, which represents some of region’s “best of the best” national parks.

Director Natividad Bernardino of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources's Biodiver sity Management Bureau, said: “The Protected Area Management Of fice of Mount Kitanglad must take precautionary measures to protect Pamarayeg III and its habitat from the influx of photographers visiting the natural park after the eagle'’s photo went viral on social media.”

“While the beauty of Pamarayeg III is really amazing to capture on camera, we would like to seek the cooperation of hobbyists who are mostly also conservationists to un derstand that the eagle’s nest area is a strict protection zone,” Bernardi no told the BusinessMirror when asked to comment.

Critically endangered WHILE the Philippine eagle is con sidered one of the largest and stron gest birds of prey in the world, its species is on the brink of extinction, mainly due to habitat loss and hunt ing for food and trophy.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Philippine eagle as critically en dangered—which is a step away from being extinct as a species.

According to the PEF, there are only 400 pairs left in the wild and their continued existence in every part of the country is threatened by destructive human activities.

Despite this, the continuous de struction of their habitat, hunting, and often, being caught in traps for other animals, are pushing this rare breed of raptor to the brink

of extinction.

Breeding behavior

EVEN without these threats, breeding for the solitary and high ly territorial species is not easy,

It takes five to seven years for it to sexually mature. At the same time, an eagle pair needs about 4,000 to 11,000 hectares of forest land to thrive in the wild, depend ing on the number of preys in the area, according to the PEF.

An eagle needs to pair, with the male trying to court a female.  During this stage, the pair must build a suitable nest.

Sometimes a pair of Philippine eagles would build two or more nests for courtship. They would settle in the best nest they have built when it is time for them to be together.

An eagle lays a single egg only every two years, and for its off spring to be ready to leave their nest, before producing another offspring.

Important nesting ground

THE Cinchona Forest Reserve in Lantapan, Bukidnon, is an impor tant nesting ground.

Jayson Ibanez, director for Re search and Conservation at the PEF, said this means the Philip pine eagle has been breeding at Cinchona for a very long time.

As the Philippine eagle existed even before humans, Ibanez said it may have been using the same nests over and over to breed.

“Since we’ve discovered the existence of the Philippine eagle

on Mount Kitanglad in 2006, we have recorded 10 nesting at tempts at Cinchona,” Ibanez told the BusinessMirror in a tele phone interview on October 24.

According to Ibanez, of the nest ing attempts recorded on the site, “all were successful, except for one.”

“Nest monitoring was under taken through a low-profile, nonintrusive monitoring scheme that engages local field trustees,” he noted, leading the PEF conserva tion experts to conclude that the Cinchona is one of the best Philip pine eagle nest sites in the country.

“It is inside a protected area and the forest is kept safe from human use. The best conservation approach at Cinchona is to support the great work that the PAMB, the PASu and the KVG are doing,” he said.

Rich prey base

CITING a 2006-2007 study by the PEF, Ibanez said the Cinchona nesting habitat has a rich prey base.

“The breeding pair and its young showed a food delivery rate of two animals per day, compared to a once every four days food de livery rate of a breeding pair on Mount Apo,” he said.

According to Ibanez, all prey animals delivered to the nest are native mammals, namely the Phil ippine macaque, Philippine flying lemur, Mindanao flying squirrel and palm civet.

“A prey animal and biodiversity assessment undertaken by PEF and USAID in 2015 at Cinchona also showed that the area has high

biodiversity and is a very good Philippine eagle habitat,” he noted.

Ancient breeding sites

ACCORDING to Ibanez, Philip pine eagle nest sites are ancient breeding sites as eagles occupy them across generations.

“Because they are key sites for reproduction, it is therefore very important for a ‘critically endan gered’ species like the Philip pine eagle to keep these breeding grounds safe and free from harm. As the nesting site at Mount Ki tanglad demonstrated, the eagle pairs will continue to breed as long as the nest sites are intact and healthy,” Ibanez explained.

He said it is also important for bird watchers and photographers not to identify the sites of criti cally endangered species that they have spotted, especially the nests, because it will trigger an influx of tourists that may eventually be come difficult to manage.

“We are very careful when it comes to releasing photos. We never identify the exact location, even barangay or town because we don’t want to invite hunters who are out to kill them,” Ibanez said.

Fortunately, Philippine Eagle “Pamaraeg,” according to Ibanez, is benefitting from a conservation program that is already in place at Cinchona.

“The best conservation action is to let the bird be, and support the PAMB, the PASu and the KVG with their work,” he reiterated.

Strict regulation needed TO enhance the protection and conservation of Mount Kitan glad and the Philippine eagle that thrives in the area, he said the PASu and PAMB should regulate recreational birding and photogra phy to mitigate potential impacts of those who have very little ex perience working with sensitive birds like the Philippine eagle.

“Regulating entry to man ageable numbers, pre-booking and increasing fees are good approaches to managing human impacts,” he said.

“Equitable sharing of income from recreational birding among

community members can also prevent animosities and possible retaliation against the eagles by people who might think they were left out from benefits,” he added.

New management regime

MERLITA LUNA-TABAMO , the Protected Area Superintendent of Mount Kitanglad Range Natural Park, admitted that since the photo of the young Philippine eagle posted on social media went viral, more and more tourists started to come in, mostly birders with professional cameras.

Luna-Tabamo said that just last week the PAMB of MKRNP already approved a new birding protocol.

“We need to protect the site so the PAMB has approved a new birding protocol,” she told the Busi nessMirror in an interview on October 24,

Some areas, according to LunaTabamo, are now “off-limits” to birders.

Speaking mostly in Filipino, she said the PAMB’s new regulation imposes a higher entrance fee at the forest reserve. From P750 for two days and one night stay per person, it is now P1,000.

Under the new birding protocol, one will only be allowed to enter certain portions of the area, but the eagle’s nest is not to be ap proached to avoid disturbing it.

For birding activity, specifi cally targeting the Philippine eagle, the applicants must re quest special permission from the PAMB, she added.

Moreover, the PAMB, is also reviewing protocols for tourism, including the deployment of tour guides, to ensure that the commu nity will benefit from the tourism activity.

“Based on the report, there was a big difference because the Facebook post became vi ral. That’s why we need to decide, we need to review our policy, to make sure that the nesting sites and the Philippine eagle are pro tected, and the community that protects them will benefit from their conservation effort,” LunaTabamo said.

USAID gives awards to 4 Palawan MPAs

Maynilad donates communication tools to Ipo Watershed Bantay Gubat

W EST Zone concessionaire

Maynilad Water Services Inc. recently donated cellular phones and two-way communication radios to the Bantay Gubat, the forest rangers hired by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System to secure and protect

THE US government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the provincial government of Pala wan recognized four of the prov ince’s best marine protected ar eas (MPAs) at the recent second annual Palawan MPA Summit in Puerto Princesa City.

USAID Philippines Deputy Mis sion Director Rebekah Eubanks and Palawan Gov. Victorino Den nis Socrates presented the “Pala wan MPAs Empowered through Awards and Recognition to Enrich Marine Life” (PEARL) Award to four USAID-supported MPAs lo cated in Coron, Calamian Islands, USAID said in a news release.

The Siete Pecados Marine Park

was named Best Managed MPA while the San Jose MPA was named Best Emerging MPA.

The Balisungan MPA and the Bulalacao MPA were also recog nized as Best Community Man aged MPA and as Best Locally Man aged MPA, respectively.

The Calamianes MPA Net work—an inter-LGU alliance be tween Busuanga, Coron, Culion and Linapacan—received a special award, USAID said.

MPAs help protect the Philip pines from threats, such as illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing that endangers the liveli hoods and well-being of coastal communities.

“Since 2018, USAID Fish Right has supported local governments

and communities in the Calami an archipelago to address biodi versity threats, improve marine ecosystem governance, advance sustainable fisheries manage ment, and increase fish biomass,” Eubanks said.

During the summit, USAID led discussions on environmental law enforcement, the promotion of livelihood and biodiversityfriendly enterprises in MPAs, and community engagement to reha bilitate MPAs affected by Super Typhoon Odette last year.

Eubanks also met with govern ment officials and stakeholders from the Kalayaan Island Group to discuss IUU fishing threats in their area of the West Philippine Sea.

During a visit to the Puerto

Princesa Subterranean River Na tional Park, she was able to ex change ideas with members of the local community who were able to start an environmental fund for conservation activities with in the national park by partici pating in community-managed savings and credit associations supported by USAID.

Eubanks also met several civil society organizations working on conservation in Palawan.

For more than 60 years, since 1961, USAID has worked with the Philippine government and local organizations to achieve shared development goals, investing more than P247.5 billion ($5.1 billion) to support the Philippines, the news release said.

PALAWAN Gov. Victorino Dennis Socrates, USAID Deputy Mission Director Rebekah Eubanks, Palawan Provincial Agriculturist Dr. Romeo Cabungcal and Provincial Board Member Ariston Arzaga highlight the importance of protecting biodiversity and improving maritime ecosystem governance at the second Palawan MPA Summit. BLUE MOTUS/USAID SIBOL PHOTO

MAYNILAD Sustainability Specialist Ma. Lorraine Villafuerte (seventh from left) turns over the donation of cellular phones and two-way radio to Bantay Gubat Ipo team leader Mario Cruz (eighth from left). With them were Community Environment and Natural Resources Office chief Guiguinto Roberto V. Vidal and MWSS Community Relations specialist Arlene Valderoso (fifth and sixth from left, respectively) and Bantay Gubat members. MAYNILAD PHOTO

THE Siete Pecados Marine Park has become a model for marine biodiversity protection in the Philippines with the support of USAID. BLUE MOTUS/USAID SIBOL PHOTO

THIS juvenile Philippine eagle was photographed at Cinchona Forest Reserve on Mount Kitanglad Range Natural Park on October 11. PHILIPPINE EAGLE FOUNDATION PHOTO

LAST month, photographs of a juvenile Philippine eagle circulated on social media. The viral Facebook post earned admiration for the photographer and the eaglet.

Brewing for Winter Olympics: Russian-Filipina skating tandem

INFLATION IMPACTS SPORTS WORLD, TOO

By Josef Ramos

RUSSIAN Alexander Korovin

was bent on shelving a promising competitive figure skating career in favor of teaching kids the sport.

But he met Filipino-American skater Isabella Gamez two years ago and he’s back on the ice doing what he does best.

“There were times when I wanted to quit and focus on teaching children how to skate,” Korovin told BusinessMirror , saying he would have returned to his roots in Pervouralsk, a city located in the eastern part of Russia. “But I realized that I’m still young and can still compete on a very high level.”

“Then I met Isabella and I believe we can do better things together as a pair,” he said.

Côte d’Azur in Nice, France.

Now, Korovin is on line to getting naturalized as a Filipino, according to Philippine Skating Union president Nikki Cheng.

“If everything falls into place, we’re considering to naturalize Alexander Korovin to represent our country,” Cheng told BusinessMirror earlier.

“He’s gotten his release from Russia a few months ago.”

The goal is to have the Korovin, 28, and Gamez, 23, skate in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy.

CHICAGO—Sitting

decisions they need to make.”

on a bench in front of Soldier Field, about to watch his beloved Chicago Bears play in person, money wasn’t exactly a big concern for Corey Metzger.

Or any concern, really.

“This trip has been a long time in the making, and I’m splurging whatever I got to spend to make it happen,” said the 45-yearold Metzger, who works in law enforcement in Fargo, North Dakota.

Metzer’s eager pilgrimage is a familiar one for sports fans, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic eased. But persistently high inflation and gas prices are looming over the monetary pipeline that resumed when fans returned.

US inflation jumped 8.2 percent in September from a year ago,  the government reported this month. That’s not far from a four-decade high of 9.1 percent in June. Higher prices for housing, food and medical care were among the largest contributors to the rise.

Given the industry’s reliance on disposable income, the inflation numbers are a troubling sign for sports business leaders.

“What’s historically accurate for teams is that they tend to try to take less on the ticketing side because once somebody comes in they typically will make up for it once they are inside,” said Ron Li, a senior vice president at Navigate, a consulting firm in sports and entertainment. “But with costs rising pretty much across the board after the turnstile, I think they have some

According to Team Marketing Report , the average cost for a family of four to attend a 2022 Major League Baseball game was $256.41, an increase of $3.04 from the previous season. The main engine behind the rise was the cost of tickets, with the average general ticket price increasing 3.6 percent to $35.93.

Despite the jump in prices, Americans have largely kept up their spending, particularly on entertainment and other services like travel that they missed out on during the pandemic. Still, there are signs the solid spending won’t last: Credit card debt is rising and savings have declined as consumers, particularly low-income ones, have taken hits to their finances from the spike in inflation.

Casey Lynn, 43, a low-voltage technician from Minneapolis, and his wife, Lori, 44, a commercial lender, aren’t big football fans, but they decided to check out the Bears on a trip to Chicago. While Casey Lynn said he is bothered by the ticket surcharges, the couple didn’t want to pass on the opportunity to see the game.

“The gas is a necessity. Electric’s a necessity. The sports isn’t a necessity,” he said. “But when in Rome, why not?”

Dan Coyne, 38, a life insurance wholesaler from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, makes an annual trip to Chicago to see the Bears with his brother, Dave, 47, of Valparaiso, Indiana, who has season tickets. But this time around was a little different.

“Flying out here, rental cars have like tripled in price, it definitely factored in,” he said. “But this is a

once-in-a-year thing.”

The brothers got something to eat a couple hours before the game. Dave Coyne normally stays away from the concessions at Soldier Field, but “I only had to pay for myself tonight,” he said. “I didn’t have a kid or my wife with me.”

Concessions typically have a higher profit margin for sports teams and providers, but increased costs for goods, transportation and labor have cut into those margins. The changes come after concessions companies were already profoundly impacted by the pandemic.

“The whole model has been kind of disrupted in a pretty big way as we’re dealing with inflation of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 percent when we have typically underwritten 2 or 3 percent,” said

Jamie Obletz, president of Delaware North Sportservice. “And you can imagine the impact that that’s had on us and what it’s forced us to think about and do over the past six to 12 months, like a lot of companies.”

Paul Pettas, a vice president with Sodexo Live!, estimated overall costs are up 10 percent to 15 percent over the past 12 to 24 months.

“In reality, costs are up across the board, but we certainly try to do as much as we can to keep that down and not have that affect the average fan or guest who comes to our events,” he said.

Concessions companies also are experiencing lingering issues with their supply chains, which have improved recently but remain a factor. Obletz recalled his company running out of peanuts midway through the 2021 World Series in Atlanta, so two workers drove a truck to another venue, loaded up and then

drove through the night to get back to Truist Park.

“Things are not great,” Obletz said. “They’re better than they were, it feels like, three to six months ago, and our hope is that it continues to improve.”

The issues have forced concession companies to get creative in an effort to address the rising costs with minimal effect on consumers in terms of culinary options and price.

Chefs are redesigning menus to replace items that face significant cost increases and consolidating other options. They are using analytics to examine portion sizes—do consumers need six chicken fingers or will five work instead?—and taking a closer look at their vendors.

“There’s dozens of things like this that we’ve tried to do and are doing as we speak, trying very desperately to offset those pricing increases that we’re seeing,” Obletz said.

Alison Birdwell, the president and CEO of Aramark Sports + Entertainment, said the company is leaning on analytics and its data science team “more than ever” when it comes to menu strategies and new concessions items.

“With that guidance, we are working to give fans the items they’re looking for while simultaneously being efficient with our product and mitigating significant increases in cost,” Birdwell said in a statement to AP. AP

His partnership with Gamez yielded only last weekend a silver medal finish at the Trophée Métropole Nice

The Olympics require athletes to be citizens of the countries they represent. Elsewhere, including the world championships, the International Skating Union allows athletes to choose the country they would represent.

Korovin has recently secured his release from the Russian skating federation, which set a two-year bond for its athletes who wish to compete for other countries.

But the path to Milano Cortina could be slippery for the pair.

“The Winter Olympics require a lot of prepared skill sets and greater elements to even make it there,” he said. “But we’ll take it step by step … to qualify and compete.”

Both Korovin and Gamez are confident they could realize their Olympic dream through their coaches—Russian Marina Zoueva, Americans John Zimmerman and Silvia Fontana and Canadian Vanessa James.

Zoueva, 66, coached Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir to the Vancouver 2010 and Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics gold medals, as well as Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White in Sochi 2014.

“We need to trust each other and our coaches,” he said. “If we qualify, it doesn’t mean that ‘hey we’re in the Olympics,’ we’ll be skating competitively there and win a medal—or the gold.” “But we have to work very hard for it,” he stressed.

Before partnering with Korovin, Gamez skated under Spain in 2018 with Spaniard Ton Consul in the world junior championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, where they finished in 13th place.

Korovin said his parents support his decision to skate for the Philippines.

“I love the Philippines, Filipinos are hospitable and, yes, the mangoes,” he said.

JOE DUMARS TAILOR FIT FOR NEW ROLE AT NBA

game against the Toronto Raptors.

JOE DUMARS is tasked with ensuring that players don’t act like his old teammates often did. AP

By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press

JOE DUMARS might have been destined for this job.

He played with the Bad Boys, those Detroit Pistons teams that were physical, aggressive and intimidating. And even in those rough-and-tumble times, he wound up becoming the first recipient of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) sportsmanship award—now called the Joe Dumars Trophy.

He’s now tasked with ensuring that players don’t act like his old teammates often did.

Dumars became Executive Vice President and Head of Basketball Operations for the NBA in May, making him a major decider in all things related to player discipline for on-court actions.

His first big decisions related to player discipline came earlier this week, when the NBA suspended Miami Heat teammates Caleb Martin and Nikola Jovic for their roles in a scuffle during a

“You want to do something where you really feel like you’re contributing,” Dumars said.

“Basically, this is the only place I haven’t contributed to in this game.”

At 59, with two championships as a player, another as an executive and a lifetime within the game, he doesn’t have to be working. He could be spending his days playing and watching tennis, the sport he started playing as a 10-year-old and has loved ever since. Instead, he’s moved to New York, with office views from a high-rise not far from Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall, smack in the middle of Manhattan.

“I tell people that we are stewards of the game,” Dumars said. “And people go, ‘What does that mean?’ Well, we make sure that the trains are taking off on time. We make sure that the game stays clean. We make sure that there’s any time there’s any disruption or things that should not be, we are here to clean this up and make sure we are presenting a great product and presenting it the right way.”

When an altercation happens like the one Saturday in Miami,  the players involved are asked to

consent to an interview with league officials, video is reviewed, and Dumars and other top executives decide the best course of action.

It’s reasonable to think this call by Dumars and his team was easy: Martin drove Toronto’s Christian Koloko into some baseline seats—thankfully unoccupied at the time—and Jovic, even though he didn’t really appear to do much to add fuel to the fire, clearly left the bench area and therefore broke one of the NBA’s absolute no-no’s.

Martin missed Monday’s game against the Raptors and will lose roughly $45,000 in salary.

“I definitely don’t disagree with it,” a contrite Martin, who reached out to Koloko to apologize and promised him that he’d be picking up a future dinner check.

Jovic also had to sit out Monday, meaning the Heat rookie has now been suspended for more games (one) than he has played (zero).

What happened Saturday could have been much worse, since Martin, Koloko and about a dozen other people all wound up where fans were. Martin ended up next to a woman in the second row—her halftime acquisition of a large popcorn,

somehow, was not spilled.

But things didn’t escalate, Dumars acted swiftly, and case closed.

Not everything has been that easy for the league in recent weeks— Phoenix owner Robert Sarver will likely sell his NBA and Women’s NBA franchises before his one-year suspension for boorish behavior ends, Boston coach Ime Udoka will miss this entire season because of an inappropriate workplace relationship, Golden State had to deal with Draymond Green punching teammate Jordan Poole in practice and video of that exchange leaking, and Detroit assistant general manager Rob Murphy was placed on leave following allegations of misconduct made by a female former team employee.

Sarver was suspended by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The other incidents have been handled at the team level. On-court matters, those rise to Dumars’s desk high above Manhattan.

“I’m super excited to work with him, and to learn from him, and to collaborate with him,” said Monty McCutchen, the NBA vice president overseeing referee operations. “The

best collaborations are collaborations that both people, both groups, both departments benefit from. And in this short time, Joe has really proven to be a collaborator and to be a builder of relationships. I’m excited about what that means for the future.”

Dumars knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the player-discipline side of stories. He might not have had the full “Bad Boy” reputation earned by Pistons teammates like Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman, Rick Mahorn, Isiah Thomas and John Salley. But he certainly wasn’t immune to scuffles; he was fined twice in December 1990 alone for dustups with twin brothers Harvey and Horace Grant, the second of those coming in a Christmas game. And as a Pistons executive, he was once fined $500,000 for leaking memos to a reporter.

He thinks having been on all sides of the NBA will only help him in this new gig.

“If I didn’t have the career I had, maybe my mentality would be different,” Dumars said. “But when you’ve done stuff at the highest level in this in this business, that’s kind of where you want to live.”

The pair were in town last summer and were based in Tanay, Rizal. They stayed for a month.

“I went to Anilao [Batangas] for scuba diving,” Korovin said. “The people are very kind, they’re good and always supportive. I like the food, especially mangoes.”

Gamez’s parents—Dr. Gerardo, a neurologist, and Marivic—were born and raised in New Manila, Quezon City before migrating to the US during the 1980s.

Isabella, the youngest in a brood of five, was born in the US. She’s a grandniece of basketball Olympian and senator Freddie Webb.

The pair will compete in the Challenger Series Warsaw Cup in from November 17 to 20 and also in the Philippine nationals in Manila in December.

The Philippines is no “Cool Runnings” when it comes to Winter sports. Michael Christian Martinez competed in Sochi and placed 19th in men’s singles and in Pyeongchang where he wound up in 28th spot.

Alpine skiers Asa Miller was in Beijing last February and also in Pyeongchang, while cousins Ben Nanasca and Juan Cipriano competed in Sapporo 1972, luger Raymond Ocampo in Calgary 1988 and another alpine skier, Michael Teruel in Albertville 1992.

A BEER vendor figures out the price for a baseball fan during a Cleveland Guardians-Chicago White Sox game recently in Chicago as a Chicago Blackhawks fan shops at a team apparel store in the United Center before the National Hockey League game between the Blackhawks and the Florida Panthers, both in Chicago.

RUSSIAN Alexander Korovin and Filipino-American skater Isabella Gamez

HOMEMADE | Blaster Silonga on new album, ‘MY KOSMIK ISLAND DISK’

By Patrick V. Miguel

SINCEthe peak of COVID-19 pandemic, most of the recording studios have closed. Blaster Silonga was affected in a way that making music was more difficult because of the pandemic restrictions. However, he eventually found a way to keep this music going on. He decided to transform his house as a music studio and that’s where he made MY KOSMIK ISLAND DISK.

“Hirap kaming makapunta sa studio so I had to buy my own gear,” Blaster shared. “Gumawa ako ng home studio and doon ko ni-record lahat sa bahay yung buong album.”

Asked if he ever decided to record the album in a different

setting once the pandemic restrictions loosened, he clarified that it was purely done at his house. “Sa bahay ko lang,” he said.

He says that even though recording the album in his house was convenient, there

were still stumbling blocks they had to overcome. One of those struggles was that home recording was still new to him and there was a lack of knowledge that led to some mistakes.

Sharing their shortcomings, he noted, “Siguro dahil kami kami lang din, syempre may kakulangan din kami sa knowledge and experience so naging both Pros tsaka Cons yon kasi.”

He further explained, “Con kasi syempre kulang kami sa experience so magkakamali’t magkakamali talaga kami, pero yung Pro don [is] marami naman kaming natutunan sa mga sa pag record ng kanta ng album .”

He was able to work with his bandmates in “BLASTER and the Celestial Klowns.” He attributes Max, John, Dave and Crystal as his “main collaborators” who helped him form MY KOSMIK ISLAND DISK.

Blaster added that it was fun working with the Celestial Klowns, saying that since they are not just bandmates but also close friends, working together was smooth.

MY KOSMIK ISLAND DISK was made in almost a year, Blaster revealed. He said that it would have been made faster and released sooner had there not been any COVID-19 lockdowns along the way.

He said, “Almost a year, considering din ‘yung mga ano don na na-lockdown [and] ‘yung mga na delays. Pero siguro kung hindi nagkaroon ng mga lockdowns mas mabilis ko syang natapos [and] mas mabilis siyang na-release.”

MY KOSMIK ISLAND DISK was released last October 8, consisting of 9 tracks. Blaster said that 7 of those are “song songs” while there are two which are very “cosmic sounding.”

The concept of the album, Blaster revealed, was inspired from BBC Radio 1’s segment “Desert Island Discs” where the artists are interviewed about their musical inspirations and art influences.

Among the 9 tracks, Blaster said that “KOSMIK DREAM” is favorite. “Binigyan talaga namin ng oras at pag-ibig ‘yung paggawa ng kantang ‘yon,” he recalled.

Soundstrip asked Blaster if he had anything to say to his listeners. He expressed nothing but pure gratitude, saying, “Maraming salamat sa mga patuloy na pagsuporta sa sa aking musical career and sa aking music at I hope to see you guys soon sa mga live shows and magpa-party lang tayo, mag-sasaya lang tayong lahat.”

MY KOSMIK ISLAND DISK is available on all music-streaming platforms.

BLASTER Silonga

BUSINESS

Or why TuneCore is a godsend to indie artists and music fans REWARDING SELF-RELEASED MUSIC

By Jill Tan Radovan

Kids growing up as music enthusiasts from the ‘80s through the ‘90s went through different stages of their music appreciation journey. From hearing a song on the radio for the first time to buying or borrowing cassette tapes to making their own mix tapes, to transitioning to CDs and later on, the early streaming platforms, gaining access to music in whatever format available was the common goal. And then there was radio and record labels, at their golden age, which played a huge role in the consumption habits of die-hard music fans. And to these fans, getting hold of the albums of their favorite artists and watching live gigs and concerts were next-level.

If you’re musically inclined, you may be inspired to make your own music, too.

And if you were on the other side of the fence, if you were an artist and get a shot at a recording deal, you’d consider yourself made. The rest would follow: radio interviews, album tours, gigs and if you get really big, a concert or two. If record sales don’t add up, then consider that record deal the last. But at a least, you had your shot.

The tide has changed. The industry— and what remains of it—has evolved. Relatively fewer artists get full record deals—there are fewer superstars. Only a few stars shine bright and explode in such a big galaxy. Distribution deals between labels and artists have become more common. Independently producing your own music has become the norm. Two mediums appear to dominate, currently: streaming and vinyl. For fans who can’t or are not willing to splurge on records, whether brand-new or secondhand, new releases or second pressings, streaming music digitally is the most practical, easily accessible and costefficient option.

The humble, loyal, ardent music fan would be inclined to ask: How can I support my favorite band or artist?

The answers to this question are a given. Listen to their music. Buy their records. Go to those shows.

But not all albums are available in physical formats you can purchase, and not all fans are willing and able to buy.

If you stream a recording artists’s music through the available platforms, you are doing your part to support the artist. What you don’t know is whether the artist actually gets a fair share of the earnings, a fair cut.

While social media and digital streaming platforms have democratized how music is promoted, distributed and consumed, there remains the question of whether artists are being fairly compensated, as well as the hurdle of finding a publisher that is willing to release their work on the streaming platforms. Because while you can post videos of yourself playing what could possibly be the next biggest rock anthem of this generation and you may get remuneration from thousands of views should they happen, there is no guarantee that you will earn a decent living for being a musician alone, or from the piece of art you have created.

Online music streaming is a lucrative business, but it does not necessarily mean the artist get the most from it.

And if you’re an artist who has just started your journey with the intention of reaching a bigger audience, it’s twice as hard to find a way for you to a) release your work on different streaming sites and b) get your fair share, whatever it may be. The struggle is real.

There is, however, hope. And platforms like TuneCore which allows artists to basically sell their music online and reap the benefits, including—and most importantly—majority of the earnings—about 80%. You need to take into account the fees collected by streaming platforms.

TuneCore is an independent DIY digital music distributor operating under Paris-based, global digital music company Believe. It aims to support artists by providing a channel for them to easily distribute their music to popular streaming sites such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music and on social

platforms like TikTok.

TuneCore is no newbie in the music business. For 16 years, the company has been empowering artists by providing them with options, packages and even expert advice that enable them to reach a wider audience through streaming platforms and social media. TuneCore’s massive library includes music by veterans like Nine Inch Nails and Keith Richards as well as recently popularized names like Marshmello.

TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson encourages aspiring artists to experiment and to keep releasing music. “They say they don’t feel like their music’s ready,” she said in an interview with BM Soundstrip. Gleeson also said that most artists her team has spoken to almost always hope that the demo of the song they post on social media is the one that will get viral, but it’s not always the case.

“What we try to encourage artists— and this is why we did our unlimited plans—is to help them experiment, feel comfortable to experiment. When you’re just starting out you should be experimenting like crazy because you need to get better at making better music, and it comes with practice. And then you need to find your audiences and that comes with just trying different strategies.”

TuneCore recently launched its New Artist Plan, which allows artists to release music to social platforms for free. The Rising Artist is reasonably priced. At only US$14.99 per year, you, as an artist, gets to release an unlimited number of songs on over 150 stores around the globe. There are other packages: one that allows customization and another for industry professionals. TuneCore has partnered with G-Cash to make its services easily accessible to more independent artists in the Philippines.

Gleeson sees an enormous potential for more Asian music to thrive on the world stage and is passionate about equal representation in the music industry. TuneCore is an open platform that allows artists—regardless of ethnicity, age, or gender identity—to release their music to a global audience.

Getting your music out on through TuneCore is as easy as creating an account on the website, uploading your music and album art, and sending it out for all the world to listen to. So if you are an aspiring or up-up-and-coming artist, TuneCore may just be the venue—the opportunity of a lifetime—for you. Make music, and share it. (With interview by Edwin P. Sallan)

Publisher : Editor-In-Chief

Concept

Y2Z Editor

SoundStrip Editor :

Creative Director :

:

Contributing Writers :

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Lourdes M. Fernandez

Aldwin M. Tolosa

Jt Nisay

Edwin P. Sallan

Eduardo A. Davad

Niggel Figueroa

Anabelle O. Flores

Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Leony Garcia, Patrick Miguel

Kaye VillagomezLosorata

Annie S. Alejo

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Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

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When you are exposed to and develop a profound love for music at an early age, that fondness and appreciation for music stays with you. Nurture it, and it may escalate to a whole new level.

TUNECORE CEO Andreea Gleeson with American rapper Papoose (Photo courtesy of Tunecore)

Negroni sbagliato’s TikTok origin myth debunked: Here’s the real story

b y Jake e men Bloomberg

the Negroni sbagliato has taken the internet by storm over the past several weeks, after the prosecco drink received a plug by two actors from House of the Dragon and became a sensation on tiktok.

But as with many viral trends, content farms are so busy regurgitating the same story based on a kernel of information that a misconception ends up broadcasted far and wide.

Of course, that’s perhaps fitting here: Sbagliato means “mistaken,” “false” or “wrong” in Italian. The now-legend has it that the drink was created by mere happen stance, when, a few decades ago a bartender at Milan’s Bar Basso making a Negroni grabbed a bottle of prosecco instead of a bottle of gin. Voilà, the drink was so good it stuck around for eternity. Doesn’t sound too likely, does it?

What is the Negroni sbagliato, and why is it famous now?

The Negroni sbagliato is a riff on the clas sic Negroni, which incorporates equal mea sures of Campari, sweet vermouth and gin.

In the sbagliato, a pour of prosecco replaces the gin, making for an effervescent, lighter take on the sultry original. The riff came into existence at Bar Basso in the early 1970s; it was logical place to be making Negronis and experimenting with them, as Campari itself is based in Milan and owns a large share of the hearts and minds (and livers) of its resident imbibers.

The drink became a sensation when House of the Dragon co-stars emma D’Arcy, who portrays Rhaenyra Targaryen, and

Olivia Cooke, who portrays Alicent high tower, discussed their favorite drinks in a clip that’s received 1.8 million likes and more than 100,000 shares on TikTok and generated tens of millions of views across the internet. D’Arcy reveals their drink of choice—a “Negroni...sbagliato...with prosecco in it”—and Cooke “oohs” in de light at the drink’s description. “Oh, stun ning,” she says.

The clip has spurred countless reshares, hot takes and stories, and almost all of them are wrong.

Why the internet seems to be getting the Negroni sbagliato wrong

The truth is that the Negroni sbagliato was no mistake at all. It was very much created on purpose by Bar Basso’s owner, Mirko Stocchetto. how do I know? I asked his son Maurizio Stocchetto, the bar’s current proprietor. We had a lengthy chat on the subject—this was in 2017, well ahead of the TikTok trend or TikTok for that matter—at one of the bar’s outdoor tables, as I sipped on one of its signature enormous Negroni sbagliatos.

Mirko purchased Bar Basso in 1967, and it’s been in the family for more than five

‘Lokals’ find a new home

FORM e R lY stationed at the heart of Poblacion in Makati City, it was hard to miss the neon, pink-lit “NOKA l” sign along Kalayaan. l aunched in 2018, the establishment grew into a popular all-around bar and diner, before closing during the height of the pandemic.

Today, the bar’s patrons, called “ l okals of Nokal,” find a new home as partners Marco Viray, l ee Watson, Raul Fores, and Jason Soong recently relaunched NoKal at Makati Cinema Square.

“We've always been a safe place to go to. I think the culture that we promote is one that expresses peace, love, and re sponsibility,” said Marco Viray, NoKal cofounder and managing director. “‘In our house, we are all equal,’ as they say.”

NoKal presents everything its “ l o kals” missed about it, along with new of ferings. Patrons can now get their classic go-to’s like the NoKal Burger made fa mous by Kitchen Consultant Chef Raul Fores, or enjoy new offering, including an exciting cocktail variant called Studio 54.

decades now. he had a passion for cocktails and experimenting with drinks as he at tempted to lure in customers. “In order to get people’s attention,” Maurizio says. “The cocktail is really an American institution. The Milanese refused to drink them.”

But Mirko was an innovator, and with in a few years, Bar Basso had become a go-to spot in Milan for cocktails. “In the early ’70s, this place became a place to be,” Maurizio says. The Negroni sbagliato, which came into existence during those years, helped to fuel the bar’s rise.

“It’s just a story,” Maurizio admits. “he was experimenting with many drinks.”

In this case, the delightful, invigorat ing concoction was paired with a perfect “tongue-in-cheek” descriptor. “The name was very catchy,” Maurizio says. h is fa ther, who’d made countless Negronis, would never have made such a blatant er ror as mistaking a bottle of prosecco for a bottle of gin and would never have dou bled down on his mistake by then serving it to a customer who hadn’t asked for it. No, the drink was an intentional, wellnamed creation.

Ironically, Mirko wasn’t even a fan of his famed creation, but the drink helped to put his bar on the map and helped to make the

place a Milan institution. “And he hated it,” Maurizio says. his father preferred the po tent, bracing strength of a proper tradition al Negroni. Maurizio compares his father’s preferences to those of a heavy smoker being forced to smoke light cigarettes; the Negroni sbagliato didn’t have the same ef fect or the usual oomph behind it. It just wouldn’t do for him.

Make yourself a Negroni sbagliato

TO make a Negroni sbagliato, take an equal portion of Campari and sweet vermouth, 1 or 1.5 ounces of each, and pour over ice. Give the drink a quick stir, top with prosec co, and garnish with an expressed orange peel, and you’re good to go.

even better, take a trip to Milan and vis it Bar Basso for yourself. When you order a Negroni sbagliato, you’ll receive a drink so large in a vessel of such fantastical size that it’s almost difficult to hold with one hand. It seems more like a cartoon prop than an ac tual libation, but rest assured, it is. Be sure to head to the bar in the predinner aperitivo hours, a nightly ritual that is the city’s spe cialty. While much of europe may partake in the aperitivo, nowhere else is it as prized and wonderful as it is in Milan. When you order a drink, you’ll receive an assortment of complimentary snacks alongside it: po tato chips, olives, focaccia bread, and mini open-faced sandwiches, at the least.

If you’re thirsty for more, you can visit some of Campari’s famed haunts in Milan. There’s the Camparino in Galleria, an offi cial Campari bar with a prime position in the ornate Galleria Vittorio emanuele II. The setting and the people watching are both spectacular. Campari even has its own museum in Milan, the Galleria Cam pari. You can book a tour to take in exhib its loaded with eye-catching contemporary Campari artwork, vintage advertisements and bottles, and plenty of lore.

When you return from your trip to Milan, you’ll have all of the firsthand Campari and Negroni knowledge that you need, including the fact that the mistak en Negroni was not a mistake after all.

The Instagrammable drink, curated by Bar Specialist l ee Watson, is served with a mini disco ball on the glass.

In terms of the music and dancing, No Kal music and entertainment program ming head Jason Soong said, “[The music] actually might be the first thing you will notice when you walk in. It just sounds so good without hurting the ears.”

NoKal is located at Basement 1 of Makati Cinema Square. The club is open weekly from Wednesday through Satur day from 8 pm to 5 am. More information is available on NoKal’s Facebook and Ins tagram accounts, @nokal.mnl.

NoKal relaunches in its new location at Makati Cinema Square. among the new offerings is a cocktail called Studio 54, curated by Bar Specialist lee Watson.

a SCreeNShot of the hBo Max promotional video featuring the viral conversation between House of the Dragon stars emma D'arcy and olivia Cooke. D‘arcy, who plays rhaenyra targaryen on the hit show, answered the innocent question, “What‘s your drink of choice?”