TCR Volume 2 Issue No 35 by The CenSEI Report

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Volume 2 - Number 35 • October 1-14, 2012

NATION

Strategic Analysis and Research by the

Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence They bet on what is right, and they stood with the people against corruption ~ President Benigno Aquino III introducing senatorial candidates of the ruling coalition at Club Filipino on October 1 after filing certficates of candidacy We are first [una in Filipino] in work, first in understanding. We put the poor first ~ Former president Joseph Estrada, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) chairman emeritus, after filing of candidacy by UNA senatorial slate (translated from Filipino)

3 Protecting the Rights of Kasambahay

Household help, chauffeurs, and other domestic workers welcome the ratification of the International Labor Organization’s convention for their protection. Next step: pass the Kasambahay Bill • Long and winding road: The 16-year campaign to enact the law • Labor-sending countries in Asia: International migration and householdservice work not exclusive to the Philippines

WORLD

15 As Media Tackles Governance, Is Anyone Watching?

With entertainment and online material hogging more and more of the public’s attention, political and governance coverage may be falling behind in the scramble for eyes and ears

BUSINESS

25 Can Asians Innovate?

As Asians get richer, they must move up from low-cost manufacturing to highvalue design and innovation. Can the region deliver the new hardware and software constantly demanded in the 21st century? • The modern world made in Japan: Portable music, video recording, CDs and a host of tech breakthroughs were born in the Land of the Rising Sun

TECHNOLOGY

33 How Green Is My Building

The long-term threat of global warming and growing worldwide urbanization make it imperative for buildings, present and future, to shrink their energy consumption • Southeast Asia finds its way: In the effort to set green standards, the region’s developers and builders are crafting their own criteria

HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

POINT & CLICK You can access online research via the Internet by clicking phrases in blue

43 All A-Twitter over Trending Topics

What’s trending in the region — and what that says about us

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Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence provides expertise in strategy and management, enterprise development, intelligence, Internet and media. For subscriptions, research, and advisory services, please e-mail report@censeisolutions.com or call/fax +63-2-5311182. Links to online material on public websites are current as of the week prior to the publication date, but might be removed without warning. Publishers of linked content should e-mail us or contact us by fax if they do not wish their websites to be linked to our material in the future.

Getting Attention and Action for the World’s Woes Attention, a 1990s Wall Street Journal article pronounced, is the most valuable commodity today. And how: Just ask the owners of Google, Facebook and other multibillion-dollar eyeball-grabbing online behemoths. With search engines and social media hogging the clicks and views of hundreds of millions of Netizens, the companies owning those websites are now among the most valuable enterprises. But as the World article on public affairs coverage underscores, the bad news has to be the tougher, even threatening environment for other competitors for the public’s attention, most crucially the public affairs coverage telling the world about its urgent problems and what to do about them. If people’s eyes and ears are constantly hammerlocked by fun media, how do we mobilize the world for such imperatives as making peace, liberating the poor, and saving the planet? We at the Center for Strategy, Enterprise and Intelligence, publisher of The CenSEI Report, do not claim to have the answer. In fact, no one entity has, since every purveyor of public affairs knowledge and advocacy must respond to the Hollywood, Google, Facebook and Twitter challenges in its own way, based on its own social or market circumstances. But respond the political and governance media must, for the sake of a planet that needs to know about and act on pressing public affairs concerns largely absent from the dominant entertainment and social media. For The CenSEI Report, the effort to generate public attention and action for major social issues is focused on policy and decision makers. There is no way our 30-odd pages of in-depth articles and 100-plus links to substantive online material will interest the ordinary Netizen. Nor does the Report have to. If we can get a handful of strategically positioned and strongly motivated readers giving our reports more than just the cursory glance, then that may be enough to get the ball rolling to address the covered concerns. So this week, we don’t expect every reader to move on domestic workers’ legislation discussed in Nation, or the Business section’s complex initiatives to make Asians more innovative. But if we get the attention of some lawmakers and CEOs, including sent relevant CenSEI articles, then the expertise we offer may yet lead to informed policies and productive decisions. At the same time, there is much everyone can do in his or her personal and professional life to address the public concerns elucidated in The CenSEI Report. such as greening one’s home and treating one’s help with dignity. Not to mention harnessing the Twitter trend expertise in Health/Lifestyle for public affairs awareness and advocacy.

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The Kasambahay Bill Decent Working Conditions for Domestic Workers Regulation is needed to ensure the protection and welfare of more than 2 million domestic workers employed locally By Jerome Balinton

STRATEGY POINTS The nature of the work of kasambahay (domestic workers) may leave them vulnerable to psychological, physical, and sexual abuse The Kasambahay bill recognizes domestic work as jobs and gives domestic workers protection Women dominate the domestic work sector in the country and overseas Benigno Aquino III is the only Philippine president to prioritize the passage of the Kasambahay bill

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The Kasambahay Bill: Decent Working Conditions for Domestic Workers

omestic helper Bonita Baran filed a case of attempted murder, kidnapping, and serious illegal detention, and seven counts of serious physical injuries against her employers, couple Reynold and Annaliza Marzan, according to a Sept. 10 Philippine Daily Inquirer report. Baran, who started working for the couple in 2007 at age 17, said the couple started maltreating her in April 2008, according to the Inquirer report.

Based on her complaints, Baran suffered physical abuses like strangling her neck, burning her nose with a hot iron, and pouring cold water or bleach on her burns and wounds. According to Baran, Annaliza punched her in the eyes causing blindness at her right eye and dimming her left. Baran said the couple prevented her from leaving the house and even locked her up inside a dark toilet from June 2009 up to May 2010. After Quezon City Regional Trial Court branch 77 ordered the arrest of the Marzans after finding probable cause to charge them, Reynold and Annaliza Marzan, who pleaded not guilty at their arraignment, are now detained at the Quezon City jail and Camp Karingal respectively. The plight of Baran as a domestic worker for the Marzan couple is one of many cases of labor violations and other abuses said to be widespread in the domestic work sector. According to a 2004 International Labour Organization (ILO) paper, “An Analysis of the Situation of Filipino Domestic Workers” by consultant Nicole Sayres, domestic workers – comprised mostly but not exclusively of women – face potentially exploitative working conditions due to the absence of standard terms of employment.

Legislation clears both houses of Congress.

The concerns of local kasambahay might be

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addressed soon, as the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading HB 6144, otherwise known as the “Domestic Workers Act,” on September 5. It is the consolidated version of 15 proposed House bills seeking to establish standards of protection for the estimated 2 million domestic workers in the country. Domestic workers includes people who work as household help, nursemaid, cooks, gardeners, or laundry persons. For its part, the Senate passed its version – Senate Bill 78 – in December 2010. In an interview with The CenSEI Report, Lilibeth Masamloc, national president of Samahan at Ugnayan ng mga Manggagawang Pantahanan sa Pilipinas (SUMAPI, National Linkage Association of Domestic Workers in the Philippines), said they have high hopes that the bill will be passed before the year ends. According to her, lawmakers “promised” to pass the bill this year, and a bicameral meeting to work out differences between the House and Senate bills is scheduled for sometime this week. SUMAPI, which serves as a voice for domestic workers nationwide, provides training, education, and counseling for domestic workers. Established in 1995 by Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF), it currently has 8,000 members.

Key provisions of the bill. Under HB 6144,

employers are required to provide board, lodging, and medical assistance for the domestic workers. In particular, employers should provide their kasambahay at least three adequate meals a day, humane sleeping arrangements that ensure privacy and safety, and appropriate rest and assistance in case of illness and injuries sustained during service, without loss of benefits. The bill guarantees privacy, access to outside communication, and basic education for the kasambahay. The bill requires that a contract

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The Kasambahay bill was among 13 priority measures presented by President Benigno Aquino III in August 2011 for inclusion in his administration’s legislative agenda

between the employer and domestic workers be executed, of which the language or dialect should be understood by both parties. Employers are also required to pay wages of domestic workers in cash and issue pay slip. The bill also requires employers to register domestic workers under their employment in the Registry of Domestic Workers in the barangay where the employer’s address is located. The proposed bill makes the following practices unlawful: requiring domestic workers to make deposits from which deductions are made for loss of or damage to household tools, materials, furniture, and equipment; debt bondage; employing minors (under 18 years old), and; assignment to nonhousehold work. The Kasambahay bill was among 13 priority measures presented by President Benigno Aquino III in August 2011 for inclusion in his administration’s legislative agenda.

International convention for domestic workers also ratified. Aside from the promises

of passage of the Kasambahay bill in Congress, labor groups are also rejoicing over the Philippines’ ratification of ILO’s Convention 189 on Decent

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Work for Domestic Workers, which officially extends basic labor rights to domestic workers. Convention 189 – which will be enforced in a year – lays down basic rights and principles, and requires the national government to undertake a series of measures with a view to making decent work a reality for domestic workers both in and outside the Philippines. The Philippines is the first Asian country – the second in the world, after Uruguay -- to ratify this “landmark treaty,” according to a Sept. 5 ILO press release on the ratification. When a country ratifies a Convention, its government formally makes a commitment to implement all the obligations provided in the Convention, and to report periodically to the ILO on measures taken in this regard, the ILO explains in a brochure addressing basic questions about Convention 189.

The need to institute policies for domestic work. Sayres’ study examined the rights and

working conditions of the domestic workers employed in the country and abroad. Carried out through key informant interviews, the study revealed that there are no standard of terms of employment in the domestic work sector. The scope of duties, salary, and other conditions or work are arranged on an individual basis between the helper and employer,

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The Kasambahay Bill: Decent Working Conditions for Domestic Workers

If there are abuse and violations, these are caused by the lack of understanding about laws governing domestic work and discriminatory attitudes that exist towards domestic workers

Sayres wrote. She said the tasks required depend on the characteristics of the household, including number of members and socioeconomic class of the household. Generally, domestic workers in wealthier households have lighter tasks and more clearly defined roles. In middle-class households or in rural areas, domestic helpers usually perform multiple tasks, according to Sayres. If there are abuse and violations, these are caused by the lack of understanding about laws governing domestic work and discriminatory attitudes that exist towards domestic workers, wrote Sayres. This discrimination falls along ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic lines, she wrote.

Identifying exploitative working conditions.

In Sayres’ study and in the 2010 ILO working paper “Moving Towards Decent Work for Domestic Workers: An Overview of the ILO’s Work,” by Asha D’Souza, different exploitative working conditions of domestic workers were identified. Among these are long working hours with no rest, day-off or overtime pay, underpayment, non-payment or late payment of wages, inadequate accommodation, and no social security or health benefits, worst form child labor, lack of opportunity for education or selfimprovement, no written contract, and false contract or violation of contract terms.

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D’Souza and Sayres also revealed that domestic workers are exposed to psychological, physical and sexual abuses. The psychological abuse could be in the forms of harsh insults, threats, and belittlement. Live-in domestic workers are exposed to sexual abuse, such as lewd innuendos, perverse behavior, molestation, prostitution, pornography, and rape. Domestic work becomes forced labor in case of false promises concerning conditions of work, lack of freedom to change employers, physical or sexual abuse, debt bondage, confiscation of identity papers, non-payment of wages to worker, physical confinement, and threat of denunciation or deportation (applicable to migrant workers abroad), D’Souza wrote. The “Selected Case Studies on Forced Labor: Trafficking of Domestic Workers in the Philippines” published in May 2006 by VFF and supported by the ILO, “put a human face to the struggles of domestic workers caught in the grind of two connected social facts – trafficking for exploitation, and exploitation in forced labor.” The case studies imply commonalities between the domestic workers. All of them were females – some children – who wanted to rescue their families from poverty. With dreams of change, they were lured

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The hidden nature of domestic work within the private sphere of the employer’s household and the informal employment arrangements often practiced, make domestic workers particularly vulnerable to exploitation, and in some circumstances, to forced labor and trafficking to work in Metro Manila, mostly through word of mouth, and promised many things, including high salaries. But in the end, they were caught unaware and were put in debt-bondage situations.

Hidden nature leaves workers vulnerable to exploitation. “The hidden nature of domestic work

within the private sphere of the employer’s household and the informal employment arrangements often practiced, make domestic workers particularly vulnerable to exploitation, and in some circumstances, to forced labor and trafficking,” wrote Roger Plant, head of ILO’s Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour and Werner Blenk, director for ILO Sub-regional office in Manila, in their foreword to Sayres’ paper.

listed those domestic workers at age 15 and above and disregarded children who also work as domestic workers. Meanwhile, according to ILO and the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, the Philippines has 2.5 million domestic workers living in the household of their employers. They are paid $18 a month for working endless hours minding children, doing the chores and anything else they are asked to do. Some of them even suffered from physical and sexual abuse. They are “invisible and unprotected,” according to a Sept. 15 Al Jazeera report.

Hence, ILO believes that regulation of conditions of domestic work combined with empowerment of organizations of domestic workers can make an important contribution to gender equity and poverty alleviation.

1.8 million to 2.5 million domestic workers.

Based on the Labor Force Survey conducted in July 2012, the Philippines has 1.84 million domestic workers. But Masamloc believes the real number is even larger. She said the survey, which was carried out by the National Statistics Office, only

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Image capture from video posted on YouTube by Al Jazeera, “Filipino domestic workers grossly underpaid,” September 15, 2012

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The Kasambahay Bill: Decent Working Conditions for Domestic Workers

According to the latest Labor Force Survey in July 2012, domestic workers account for 4.9% (an estimated 1,841,616) of 37,584,000 employed, lower than the 5.3% (an estimated 1,966,618) of 37,106,000 employed in 2011.

The trial and execution of Contemplacion turned the protection of migrants’ rights into a burning political issue, according to Kevin O’Neil of Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.based independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies worldwide.

16 years and counting. According to Plant and

Blenk’s foreword to Sayres’ study, concern for the safety and protection of domestic workers from abuse became particularly strong in the aftermath of the execution of Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino domestic worker who was found guilty of murder and ordered executed by a Singaporean court in 1995.

According to Masamloc, Batas Kasambahay was originally filed in 1996, during the 10th Congress (1995-1998), but never had versions that cleared both houses of Congress at the same time.

Employed Persons by Class of Workers (July 2011 and July 2012) Indicators

July 2012

July 2011

37,584

37,106

100.0

59.1

56.3

4.9

5.3

45.4

42.4

Worked for government or government corporation

8.4

8.3

Worked with pay in own-family operated farm or business

0.4

0.3

27.5

29.5

Employer in own family-operated farm or business

4.0

3.5

Worked without pay in own family-operated farm or business

9.4

10.7

Employed persons nationwide (In thousands) Class of Worker Total Wage and salary workers Worked for private household Worked for private establishment

Self-employed without any paid employee

Source: National Statistics Office, Labor Force Survey, July 2012

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She identified three major factors behind the delay in enacting legislation protecting the welfare of domestic workers. For one, the Kasambahay bill has never been prioritized by past presidents or in the past Congresses. She said a passage of the Kasambahay bill was only prioritized during the administration of Pres. Benigno Aquino III.

Another factor behind the delay, cited by both Masamloc and non-government organization Anti-Slavery International, was impeachment proceedings against former President Joseph Estrada, followed by impeachment attempts aimed at Estrada’s successor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The long and winding path of Batas Kasambahay • In 1996, Senator Francisco Tatad files a bill for household helpers during the 10th Congress, as a response to the recommendations of the 1st National Consultation on Child Domestic Workers in the Philippines. • In 1998, the global community notices the plight of child household workers, as the Philippines launched the Global March against Child Labor, a worldwide movement instrumental in the approval of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. • In 1999, Rep. Juan (“Jack”) Enrile files during the 11th Congress the most comprehensive version of the law, naming it “Batas Kasambahay.” In support of this move, the Visayas Forum Foundation immediately launches comprehensive multi-sectoral consultations in Batangas, Davao, Bacolod, and Manila leading to a strong consensus on the need for a Magna Carta for Household Workers. • By year 2000, the 11th Congress unanimously approves House Bill 5804, known as the “Magna Carta for Domestic Workers or Batas Kasambahay,”

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however, a Senate counterpart version does not make it past the 1st reading. • Again in 2001, during the 12th Congress another Batas Kasambahay is filed and unanimously approved, only to be stalled over presidential impeachment proceedings at the Senate. • In 2004, during the 13th Congress, Rep. Enrile again introduces Batas Kasambahay as House Bill 1606; Rep. Carmen L. Cari also files House Bills 3118 and 3119, to increase minimum wage and set mandatory PhilHealth coverage for all househelpers, respectively. At about the same time, the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment starts hearings for Senate Bill 1772 filed by Sen. Jose (“Jinggoy”) Estrada; SB Nos 202, 860, 1678 and 1692 are also filed by Senators Aquilino Pimentel, Luisa Ejercito, Miriam Santiago, Manuel Villar, and Manuel (“Lito”) Lapid. • In 2005, local government units start passing local ordinances to register and provide programs for household workers. These include Quezon City, Bacolod, and Makati. New drafts for approval have

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The Kasambahay Bill: Decent Working Conditions for Domestic Workers

The third major factor delaying the passage of the bill, according to Masamloc, is personal disinclination of lawmakers. Lawmakers in past congresses have shown little interest in passing the bill because they themselves would be affected once a law is enacted, and it would be a challenge for

been prepared in the cities of Baguio, Batangas, Davao, Bulacan, Daet and lately Mandaluyong, Marikina and Taguig. • Local and overseas domestic workers jointly call for the swift passage of Batas Kasambahay as the first priority in the Ten-Point Agenda of the first National Domestic Workers Summit held in 2005. • Over one million signatures in favor of the swift passage of the Batas Kasambahay bill are gathered and presented to the Senate in 2005. • According to a 2005 survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations, 87% of Filipinos strongly agree that there should be a law addressing the domestic work sector. • On April 24, 2006, President Arroyo issues Presidential Proclamation 1051, which declared April 30th of every year as “a special day to honor and give recognition to the hidden, yet massive army of everyday workers, to generate greater awareness of the importance and contribution of domestic workers.” A few days later on April 30, 2006, the nation celebrates its first official

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them to comply with a law that would benefit their kasambahay.

Asian labor migration. Outside the

Philippines, Filipino household service workers comprise millions of Filipino migrant workers toiling in foreign lands to pursue a better

Pambansang Araw ng Kasambahay (National Domestic Workers’ Day). • On November 14, 2006, Senator Estrada delivers a privilege speech in support of the bill. The bill is approved by the Senate before the close of the 13th Congress. • Three Kasambahay bills are filed in the Senate in the 14th Congress, namely Senate Bill 201 authored by Sen. Lito Lapid, SB 157 authored by Sen. Estrada, and SB 77 authored by Sen. Loren Legarda, with none passing. • On December 4, 2010, the Senate passes its Kasambahay bill, Senate Bill 78, sponsored by Senator Estrada.

• On September 5, 2012, House Bill 6144 is unanimously approved on third and final reading. Timetable provided to TCR by Samahan at Ugnayan ng mga Manggagawang Pantahan sa Pilipinas during Sept. 27 interview.

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life for their families. In fact, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual report for 2010, household service workers compose the occupational category with the highest number of Filipinos deployed in 2010,

with a total of 96,583 new hires. Out of this, 94,880 were women, while 1,703 were men. Hong Kong is the top destination of domestic workers hired since 2004 to 2010. (See following two tables)

TOP 10 OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES FOR LAND-BASED OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS, 2010 World Region

Male

Female

Both Sexes

154,677

185,602

340,279

1 Household Service Workers

1,703

94,880

96,583

2 Charworkers, Cleaners and Related Workers

2,612

9,521

12,133

3 Nurses Professional

1,828

10,254

12.082

543

8,750

9,293

5 Waiters, Bartenders and Related Workers

4,393

4,396

8,789

6 Wiremen and Electrical Workers

8,576

8,606

7 Plumbers and Pipe Fitters

8,391

6,407

8 Weldewrs and Flame-Cutters

5,037

5,059

701

4,098

4,799

4,478

4,507

All Occupational Categories - Total

4 Caregivers and Caretakers

9 Housekeeping and Related Service Workers 10. Bricklayers, Stonemasons and Tile Setters

TOP 10 DESTINATIONS FOR LAND-BASED OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS, 2010 Destination

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

All Destination - Total

62,818

82,467

91,412

47,877

50,081

71,557

96,583

1 Hong Kong

16,424

17,514

19,532

22,127

18,286

24,998

28,602

2 Kuwait

17,018

19,707

19,097

4,806

8,092

14,087

21,554

3 United Arab Emirates

5,816

9,113

11,844

3,149

6,403

10,558

13,184

4 Saudi Arabia

7,699

9,227

11,898

2,581

3,079

6,954

11,582

5 Qatar

2,436

4,996

6,524

1,912

4,682

6,376

9,937

6 Singapore

1,305

2,429

3,162

1,568

1,244

1,405

2,848

7 Bahrain

666

763

1,343

413

558

1,095

1,714

8 Oman

645

1,419

2,068

719

944

1,098

1,564

1,108

982

1,178

1,763

1,218

1,409

1,549

285

573

4,951

2,839

1,793

1,223

9 Cyprus 10 Italy

Table from Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, Overseas Employment Statistics 2010

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The Kasambahay Bill: Decent Working Conditions for Domestic Workers

News & Strategy Alerts Nation NSO: Unemployment unchanged, underemployment up 7%

Labor-sending countries in Asia The “Key Trends and Challenges on International Migration and Development in Asia and the Pacific” of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, released in Jan. 2009, suggests that international migration is becoming a structural and permanent element of societies and economies, particularly in Asia and the Pacific.

Rising underemployment wastes labor force potential and opportunities for growth

As a response to the growing challenges such as poverty, unemployment, and lack of development, Asian countries as a whole are increasingly seeking out foreign labor markets in terms of migration, the paper states. On the other hand, labor migration is being promoted by labor-sending countries because of two reasons: relief of domestic unemployment pressures and earning of foreign exchange, according to Piyasiri Wickramasekera in his ILO International Migration Paper, “Asian Labour Migration: Issues and Challenges in an Era of Globalization.”

Government should expand livelihood and employment programs and take concrete steps to develop other sectors on top of the already strong services sector

Results from the July 2012 Labor Force Survey (LFS)

Aside from the Philippines, developing countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Indonesia are also sources of household-service workers in rich countries in North America, in the Middle East, Australia and in a few Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, according to the ILO paper. At the ILO’s 100th annual conference in Geneva in June 2011, where it adopted the text of the Convention on Domestic Workers and its accompanying Recommendation, the ILO estimated the number of domestic workers worldwide at 53 million, based on national surveys or censuses of 117 countries. However, due to the fact that this kind of work is often hidden and unregistered, the total number of domestic workers could be as high as 100 million. At its 15th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting in Kyoto in Dec. 2011, the ILO estimated that 41% of the world’s domestic workers are in Asia, equivalent to 21.5 million people aged 15 or above.

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Table from National Statistics Office

The unemployment rate in the country remains relatively unchanged from last year’s levels but the underemployment rate jumped 7%, according to the July 2012 Labor Force Survey of the National Statistics Office (NSO). The services sector remains the biggest employer, employing 53.3% of total estimated number of employed persons. Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz welcomed the 0.1% increase

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in employment rate, interpreting it as “an additional 478,000 employed persons,” yet expressed concern over the rise in underemployment, reports The Philippine Star. There is ample cause for worry, as underemployment now stands at 22.7%, a six-year high for the country. This represents about 8.5 million Filipinos in the active labor force who are not as productive as they could be. The government, particularly Secretary Baldoz’s department, should launch immediate interventions to avoid wasting the potential of the country’s labor force and foregoing valuable opportunities for development. According to “Underemployment in ASEAN countries and future issues,” published by the Japan Research Institute in 2000, growing underemployment gives rise to three additional problems (on top of the same negative effects it shares with unemployment): 1. The full potential for growth and maximum possible income levels are not realized. 2. A rise in urban population subsisting on low income or in poverty adds to the deterioration of public order. 3. Underemployment lowers the quality of labor resources, especially in the long run, when high underemployment means an increasing number of workers are unable to receive trainings granted to regular employees, and more and more families have less money to fund their children’s education, in turn leading to a rise in uneducated workers. It is urgent that a comprehensive job and livelihood program be launched in order to curtail the rise in underemployment. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, as reported by Business Mirror in June this year, said much the same thing as he urged the government to prioritize an expansion of livelihood and employment programs over the Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program, the government’s centerpiece anti-poverty doleout scheme.

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According to Enrile, the government should allocate the billions from the CCT budget to longer-term solutions. “This way, we’re not only giving out doleouts, but we’re making meaningful investments in raising our people’s skills and economic opportunities,” added Enrile. There should also be less reliance on one sector. Government should not be content with having a services sector that employs the bulk of the work force. As Asian Development Bank senior country economist Norio Usui warned during the 8th general membership meeting of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce in August this year, “Don’t believe the BPO is the savior of the economy.” Usui opined further that, while BPO generates jobs, “its impact is limited given the scale of utilized workforce and its bias toward educated labor.” In this light, the creation of a long-term industrialization plan may have long been overdue. Usui likened positive economic growth to “walking on two legs,” which means developing both the industry and service sectors. He pointed out that, while the Philippines “has this beautiful new leg of services, it has no traditional leg of manufacturing.”

The Philippines in blood ivory trade The Philippines has become a major destination for smuggled ivory as evidenced by the large number of ivory tusks seized by customs authorities Tightening law enforcement at the ports, coordinating with countries of origin, and targeting market sellers and collectors of ivory should help curb the illegal trade

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That the trade occurs at all, and in such quantities, shows that the government must do more to fulfill its international commitment to protect wildlife. The Philippines is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a multilateral treaty that banned international trade in elephant ivory in 1990. Meanwhile, a 2011 study titled “The importance of ivory in Philippine culture” by the Rhino Resource Center raised concerns by wildlife conservationists that the Philippines is becoming a major consumer of tusks as evidenced by the large number of ivory products sold in the domestic market.

Blood ivory trade YouTube

The National Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have teamed up to run after traders and collectors of all ivory pieces acquired after the ban in 1981, The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on September 28. The probe was prompted by the article “Ivory Worship,” a National Geographic magazine report on the country’s ivory trade. The report has attracted controversy because of the involvement of Catholic priest Msgr. Cristobal Garcia who purportedly gave advice on how to smuggle ivory products into the U.S., and owned a vast collection of ivory religious idols. The article also disclosed some disturbing facts regarding the illegal ivory trade in the Philippines: “5.4 tons of illegal ivory seized by customs agents in Manila in 2009, 7.7 tons seized in 2005, and 6.1 tons bound for the Philippines seized by Taiwan in 2006.” All told, according to the article, the amount of ivory seized meant that 1,745 elephants had been killed. No estimate was given on the amount of ivory which could have been successfully smuggled.

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The study finds that smuggling can be carried out with relative ease in the country due to lax law enforcement at the ports. It further recommends appealing to Church authorities and their congregations not to commission new religious items carved from illegal imports of tusks. Tusks can be smuggled into the country by boat through the shores of Mindanao where there are no government authorities looking out, according to Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Aside from tightening the law enforcement at ports of entry, Biazon stressed that “the point of attack should be the market,” including stores selling ivory statues, or big-time collectors of ivory statues. A multi-pronged, network approach, such as proposed by CITES in a July 2012 document should also be taken to stop the illegal ivory trade. CITES encourages collaboration between the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Viet Nam -countries where multiple large-scale ivory seizures have been recorded -- to enhance law enforcement effectiveness at ports of entry and exit.

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Who Cares About the News?

In a world of mounting threats, public affairs coverage is a must. But it is losing the scramble for eyes and ears By Ricardo Saludo

STRATEGY POINTS With the imperative to mobilize national and world society to address mounting problems, public affairs media is needed more than ever With the spread of democracy and digital access, the press is flourishing, but entertainment and social media are growing faster In addressing the online challenge, public affairs media must have strategic focus, open consultation, and the readiness to experiment

oung is better than old. Rich is better than poor. Beautiful is better than ugly. And anything is better than politics.

Those were some rough rules of thumb reputedly applied by Ray Cave, Time managing editor from 1977 to 1985, in choosing subjects for the weekly newsmagazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cover. Caveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guidelines for hotselling covers may or may not be used at Time or other news publications these days, but the last line about politics could very well apply to public affairs journalism in the 21st Century.

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Political and governance coverage, while ever the staple of news media since its earliest days chronicling events for 17th Century Europe, has never been the most popular of public communications. The reporting and commentary on the formulation and implementation of public policy and the wielding of state power have always paled in mass appeal next to fiction, song and drama. So it is in the Internet age, as discussions in the 7th Forum for Emerging Leaders in Asian Journalism, convened on September 26 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia,

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Who cares about the news?

Bajpal further notes that Asians are spending far more time surfing online than reading news, according to media survey firm Nielsen’s data on Southeast Asians with digital access. For such people in the more Internet-connected countries of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, the average number of hours spent online is about five-fold the time reading newspapers, and exceeds the combined hours for TV and print (see chart below). If more advanced nations are an indication of future media trends, as they had been in the past, rapid growth of online news access against traditional information media is set to continue. In the United States, the Internet topped print and radio as the tmain sources of news in 2010, according to data post last month in “The transition to digital journalism” by Paul Grabowicz of the University of California at Berkeley (see top chart, next page). Online use climbed from a quarter to more than a third of Americans, with 44%getting news from online or mobile devices. Meanwhile, radio news and newspapers fell below 35% from about 55% since 1991.

Tamil video has over 60 million YouTube views, ten times The Times of India readers YouTube

affirmed. As noted by Indian Express journalist Ravi Bajpal, one of the Konrad Adenauer-Ateneo University Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ) fellows at the forum, while The Times of India, the country’s largest-circulation newspaper, took decades to garner 6.7 million readers, Tamil music video “Why This Kolaveri Di” uploaded on YouTube last November had 19 million views in three weeks and more than 60 million today.

COUNTRY COMPARISONS OF TIME SPENT ON THE INTERNET VS. TRADITIONAL MEDIA Total average spent with internet and main media per weel Digital consumers aged 15+ 25.0

25 20.3

21.5

19.8

Hours

10 5 0

14.0

13.3

10.6

8.3 4.0

Indonesia

5.8

Malaysia

10.9 6.3

6.3 4.3

Internet Broadcast TV Listening to the radio Reading a print newspaper

16.0 16.6

16.6

3.6

Philippines

Singapre

5.2

3.7

Thailand

4.8

3.9

Vietnam

Chart from Ravi Bajpal, 7th Forum of Emerging Leaders of Asian Journalism

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WHERE AMERICANS GET NEWS

Pew Research Center Survey, June 2010

The need for news. Even as public affairs coverage loses ground to entertainment and social media, there is perhaps no other time in human history when reporting and analysis of policy and governance holds greater urgency and importance for the world than today. Not only is public affairs journalism needed to impress upon humankind the entrenched worldwide economic and lifestyle trends endangering both planet and people. These looming environmental and societal threats, from global warming to financial meltdown, also demand mobilization of political leadership and huge segments of humanity to undertake needed solutions — clearly a job for public affairs media. If world problems require more political and governance information and advocacy, so does the expansion of both democratic and digital space across the globe, from Arab and Myanmar springs to Facebook and twitter. Press freedom and online access have added eyeballs by the millions seeking news and opinion once denied them by despotic regimes or only recently made accessible via broadband and Wi-Fi.

HOW LONG DO INACCURATE TWEETS LAST?

Chart from “RAPID: Minimizing the spread of false rumors in social media during a disaster,” Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey, U.S.A.

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Indeed, while social websites were given much credit for the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, traditional media, especially satellite TV, was the bigger factor in the freedom struggles. That’s the argument in “The Arab Spring’s Three Foundations” by Heidi Lane of the U.S. Naval College, published in The Concordian, a journal on European security and defense issues.

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Who cares about the news?

The social media explosion, moreover, with the blinding speed and reach of its viral online eruptions, has made truthful, credible, and impartial media even more indispensable. Without it, untruths, disinformation and misimpressions can rapidly spread their incendiary venom, inciting suspicion, anger and violence between communities or even countries. The danger of false information going viral is particularly pernicious in emergency situations, as warned in “RAPID: Minimizing the spread of false rumors in social media during a disaster,” published in New Jersey’s Stevens Institute of Technology site. Its chart plotted Twitter relays as long as three weeks after the mistaken information was first tweeted, with as many as 20,000 retweets of wrong rumors. Bajpal also cited the danger of online misinformation. He recalled the August exodus in North India of hundreds of thousands of people, reportedly triggered by false rumors of conflict in North Assam state, complete with doctored images uploaded on social media. The incident led New Delhi to block several sites. Clearly, where lies can go pandemic in seconds, the antidote can only be a reliable, objective and professional press that the public can turn to, to verify the viral.

Times of India news video on North India exodus triggered by false rumors online

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Media, the honest broker. And if it may seem that old-fashioned objective, unbiased reporting and commentary are no longer seen as necessary, desirable or even possible, journalism’s age-old impartial truthseeking mission is needed more than ever with the proliferation of print, broadcast and online outfits openly or subtly backed and directed by all manner of partisan interests and advocacy. From bloodied ethnic factions in post-conflict states to establishment parties and big business in the First or Third Worlds, a broad and colorful spectrum of interest groups have invaded the so-called public space of opinion-making and contending. Who will help the populace piece together from the partisan pieces of truth that daily proliferate, a cogent, unslanted and non-partisan perspective? Only the old media and the new ones that have adopted its traditional principles and practices. Take the Middle East situation even before the Arab Spring, as surveyed in the 2007 “Comparative Report on the State of the Media in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco,” published by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), and the Arab Center for the Development of the Rule of Law and Integrity (ACRLI). Author Dr. Sassin Assaf of ACRLI noted that state and political or commercial media dominate, while the growth of private, independent press is threatened by “the growing religious and financial power of some of the ruling elites.” Even the World Bank, which staunchly supports press freedom to counter corruption and misgovernance, devoted Chapter 9 in its 2010 report, Public Sentinel: News Media and Governance Reform, to the problems spawned by freedom in post-conflict Iraq and Ethiopia. In both countries, the rise of intensely sectarian media retarded efforts to build national harmony and unity, as well as the public trust needed by the government to function well.

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threats, expanding democratic and digital spaces, proliferating partisan media, and the growing global movement for transparency, accountability, and good governance.

Nations in the Open Government Partnership: OGP needs media

The global good governance drive. A final force for more public affairs coverage is the worldwide movement at national and international levels for more open, transparent, accountable and responsive government. From multilateral institutions like the United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, to leading domestic and multinational corporations, and all the way to the ordinary man and woman on the street — all levels of world society are pressing the public sector in more and more jurisdictions to serve with integrity, transparency and responsibility. This clarion call for global good governance has been taken up even by the national leaders it aims to hold accountable, with the formation a year ago of the Open Government Partnership. OGP groups dozens of countries that have pledged to institute transparency reforms intended to give citizens a clearer view, a louder voice, and a bigger stick in the conduct of governance. Needless to say, that noble goal would be a pipe dream without public affairs media. In sum, therefore, political and governance journalism that seeks to be true and impartial, is even more necessary in a world of intensifying planet-wide

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Growing challenges in public affairs journalism. Now the big question is: Has media measured up to this vastly enlarged and elevated role? To be sure, political and governance journalism is thriving and, in many places, flourishing vigorously. Asian newspaper readership has been rising with the region’s incomes. However, as the Yogyakarta journalism forum has heard, if compared with the exponential growth in entertainment and social media, journalism is losing ground every second in the 24/7 scramble for humankind’s eyes and ears. As the World Bank report’s Democratic Public Space model outlines, the press is just one player in a broad spectrum of factors and entities shaping public awareness and political debate (see graphic from page 7 of report). In the framework by Harvard Kennedy School of Government professor Pippa Norris and fellow Bank consultant on media and governance Sina Odugbemi, interpersonal communications and mass media systems are two key sources of public affairs information and insight. But as entertainment and social media hog more and more public attention, they are crowding policy and governance out of the everyday discourse and media of people. What’s worse, with Hollywood, Google, Facebook, iTunes and other fun media hogging more and more of people’s attention spans, the press is also losing out in the cutthroat business of snaring and converting readers and viewers into paying customers or advertising magnets. As journalism’s share of national and global media revenues decline vis-a-vis entertainment and social media, so do the resources available to expand and enhance public affairs coverage. And that deprivation erodes the quality of

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THE DEMOCRATIC PUBLIC SPHERE MODEL

Created by Pippa Norris and Sina Odugbemi, World Bank

The democratic public sphere

Constitutional and legal framework protecting civil liberties

Pluralistic communication systems facilitating widespread access and the free flow of information

Freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and conscience, and rights of access to information

Interpersonal communications

Rich and robust civil society

Inclusive and equal opportunities for participation and voice

Mass media systems

Watchdog role

Agenda-setting role

Gatekeeping role

coverage and adds another handicap in the race for viewers and readers. Even in markets where news media is holding its own or gaining ground against other attention competition, other factors make the job of timely, factual, impartial, insightful, and reliable coverage much harder. Indeed, in societies where expanding freedoms and the advent of elections have made the citizenry more keen for news and commentary, powerful institutions, vested interests and social factions have intensified the pressures and inducements they bring to bear on the press.

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Hence, it is no surprise that many issues raised by students in this writerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ethics and politics classes at the ACFJ reflect the intensifying efforts to induce, intimidate, or otherwise influence the media. In particular, corruption among journalists through favors, freebies, and outright bribes was the most common answer when students were asked to identify the leading media ethics problem in their countries. In addition, as noted earlier, along with the state, big business as well as ethnic and sectarian groups with ample resources are building up their own news media, espousing their respective tenets, interests,

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and advocacies. Reporters, visual media practitioners, writers and editors employed in such entities produce much material that would be considered news, while clearly with a focus or treatment that favors the funding enterprise or community. This has given rise to questions about advocacy journalism, as a number of ACFJ students have raised in ethics class. Meanwhile, in countries emerging from decades of authoritarian rule, or still under its iron fist, state censorship, control, or suppression remains the top concern. And in the current business reporting class, students recounted a widening array of methods by which major companies and the public relations firms they retain, try to elicit favorable copy or suppress unsavory news. Even in a relatively less developed business environment like Cambodia, print reporters receive $10-$20 “gasoline money” for covering corporate events, while TV cameramen get $50. Lastly for now (but certainly not for good, since there are other important developments impacting on media), the entry of foreign media into Asian countries is adding competitive, financial and ideological pressure on the domestic media. On the one hand, high-quality standards and deep pockets of global media giants cannot but prod local outfits to raise their own editorial and production values. That has its obvious advantages for press development, but could strain limited resources. On the other hand, the dominant Western media perspective on international developments can advance foreign interests and views to the detriment of the national or Asian interests in a given issue, like the South China Sea tensions. Questions for the Asian journalist. In light of the foregoing developments and trends, many tough questions face the Asian journalist keen to uphold traditional tenets of the profession. While each will necessarily require far more extensive discussion than can be given in this article, a listing of some issues often raised by students deserves the attention

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of publishers, editors, and other media leaders. They need to be aware of these concerns and to address them in consultation with staff, who may need to be enticed to openly voice their views as part of productive, effective dialogue and resolution. • How should journalists deal with the media corruption widely practiced and accepted in some countries, especially where staff pay is constrained and there is a widespread acceptance of such practices among journalists? • In the quest for audience and readership, how far should media go along the “infotainment” road, injecting fun and social media elements in news programs? • Should local media consolidate in the face of limited resources and rising competition from social and foreign media? (Notably, research shows that media concentration in fewer entities raises the likelihood of being influenced or “captured” by political actors.) • With the spread of press freedom as well as unbridled online media giving rise to sectorinterest publications, programs and websites, including those voicing the animosity between political and social groups, should journalists as a group move to moderate fractious advocacies to avoid social strife and subsequent state controls? • How can journalists harness social media and citizen reporters while maintaining standards of news coverage? • What is the optimum balance between American-style adversarial reporting and Asian-style deferential coverage to advance good governance and accountability, while

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maintaining the respect for authority practiced across the region? In particular, international officials working in post-conflict nations find that adversarial media erodes public confidence crucial in establishing a working government. • What linkages can media explore or build with civil society, business, and even government to enhance its role and value in addressing society’s needs? For instance, after a 2007 aborted uprising in Manila, there were efforts to work out police-media procedures for crisis situations, but they got nowhere. Only after the 2010 bus hostage carnage, partly exacerbated by news coverage, was agreement on a crisis protocol reached.

News & Strategy Alerts World

Asian giants again cross words over tiny islands Asia’s economy rides on the prospects of the dispute, which affects billions of dollars’ worth of trade, investment, and tourism between two of the world’s largest economies China’s filing of its claim before the UNCLOS should be carefully monitored and explored by the Philippines as an opportunity to push for the peaceful resolution of its own territorial dispute with China

TO ADDRESS MEDIA CHALLENGES, MAKE SURE TO ...

Focus on the strategically crucial Encourage open and frank deliberations at all levels Be ready to experiment

There are many other issues, of course, but it is best to end the paper on a productive approach in tackling tough issues like these. First, focus on the strategically crucial aspects which will have fundamental and long-term impact on the issue. Second, encourage open and frank deliberations at all levels, especially the young staff, to assess the full significance of each concern, and afford everyone a stake and a voice in resolving it and having ownership of the resolutions. And lastly, be ready to experiment.

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Senkaku Islands to the Japanese, Diaoyu to the Chinese, its purchase by the Japanese government from an alleged private owner fueled already simmering tensions in the East China Sea. Heated discussions between the Japanese and Chinese foreign ministers at the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, reports Al Jazeera, did little to improve the relations between the two countries. China’s foreign minister said relations would remain strained until Japan reversed its purchase. Asian neighbors are wary of the possible effects of the lingering conflict, especially on the region’s growing

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economy. China is now Japan’s biggest trading partner, and Japanese firms are among the biggest employers in China. Billions of dollars’ worth of trade, investment, and tourism between two of the world’s largest economies are at stake, something the region could ill afford to lose through any escalation of the conflict. Other countries may benefit as Japanese firms look into shifting their investments in China to other Asian countries. The Philippines, for one, is looking to gain from the territorial row by luring Japanese businesses, which have been the target of demonstrations by protesters in China. In a report from The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Trade Undersecretary Cristino Panlilio revealed Manila is courting, through the country’s trade attachés, 15 companies that can potentially relocate their operations from China to the Philippines. Such gains, however, would be little and shortlived. There is just too much to lose in terms of disruptions in the region’s economy should the dispute between Japan and China escalate even further. An article in The Economist highlights the economic reasons for keeping the peace, and suggests immediate safeguards to prevent any such escalation. China shows that it is interested in the peaceful resolution of the conflict when it recently brought its claims before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). To countries involved in territorial disputes with China, such as the Philippines, the said move may be seen a change in the Chinese policy of eschewing arbitration for one-on-one talks with opposing claimant countries. In this regard, the Philippine government indicated that it is monitoring closely the situation to ascertain how it might approach its own territorial dispute with China. As well it

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should, China’s filing of its claim before the UNCLOS is a positive development that should be explored by countries such as the Philippines in pushing for the peaceful resolution of the disputes in the region.

PH domestic workers return to Saudi Arabia The new labor conditions agreed upon by the Saudi and Philippine governments will help safeguard the welfare of Filipino household workers and curb incidences of abuse With better safeguards in place, more Filipinos would be enticed to work in Saudi Arabia, bringing benefits to their families and to the Philippine economy as well

Seal of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The Philippines will once again be sending thousands of domestic helpers to Saudi Arabia, starting October this year. This after the Middle East

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country agreed to conditions demanded by the Philippine government, such as the imposition of a $400-a-month minimum pay, to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from exploitation. Saudi Arabia’s concession to these conditions, after a 19-month hiring ban, belies the strong preference among Saudis for Filipino maids who, according to the Philippine Recruitment Agencies Accredited to Saudi Arabia (PRAASA), are seen as easily adaptable, “efficient and industrious.” A recent report by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration cited by the Philippine Daily Inquirer shows Saudi Arabia the third biggest employer of Filipino household service workers, estimated to number currently at 140,497 in the country. Instances of abuse by Saudi employers, however, have often enough been reported. An article in Migrant-rights.org, entitled “The Plight of Maids in Saudi Arabia,” chronicles the unbearable conditions domestic helpers experience in some households. With better safeguards in place, there would hopefully be a decrease in the incidence of abuse on Filipino household help. Other countries sending domestic workers to Saudi Arabia -- such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and African states -- can be expected to demand similar arrangements for their nationals. The labor arrangements agreed upon by the Saudi and Philippine governments entail the imposition of a standard employment contract. In a Manila Bulletin interview, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the standard contract would preclude any contract substitution, an avenue for abuse in the past. The new conditions also prescribe depositing salaries into the worker’s bank account, and rest of 8 hours a day plus one day a week.

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With the imposition of new conditions, there will be more Filipinos going to Saudi Arabia as domestic helpers, including those who have been discouraged in the past by reports of abuses

With the imposition of new conditions, there will be more Filipinos going to Saudi Arabia as domestic helpers, including those who have been discouraged in the past by reports of abuses. Already, prior to the ban, “about 13,000 maids head to Saudi Arabia every year, of which 9,000 (we)re newly hired,” according to Secretary Baldoz in a separate interview. Families of these Filipino domestic workers who rely on remittances stand to benefit from the new employment conditions, particularly from the prescribed minimum pay. Remittances from OFWs are, as a whole, a boon to their impoverished families back home and an important contributor to the growth of the Philippine economy. According to a Philippine Senate report, remittances from OFWs amounted to more than US$20 billion in 2011 and averaged about 7.6% annually of the country’s gross national income from 2003 to 2011. Latest figures from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas peg the amount of remittances from January to July of this year at already US$13.3 billion.

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N Cultivating the Innovation Gene in Asia Asia’s importance in the world’s economic recovery highlights the need for Asian companies to sustain growth through innovation By Marishka Noelle M. Cabrera

The role of Asia is seen by experts as crucial in driving growth in the world economy The Asian way of innovating is characterized by a keen understanding of customer needs and preferences and a willingness to change when an opportunity arises Government policies, higher education, and corporate culture are key factors in promoting innovation

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In his policy brief for the European Centre for International Political Economy, George Magnus, senior economic adviser at UBS Investment Bank, writes: “Asia’s economic rise has changed the world economy – and will continue to do so in the future as well. So no one should doubt that Asia now is part of shaping the world trade, capital markets, commodities and consumer markets. But there may also be a considerable amount of shaking involved.” The rebalancing of the global economy from West to East is not without great challenges, especially when it involves transforming economic and social models. Asia’s tendency to become complacent may endanger the region’s growth engines, warns Indian lawmaker N.K. Singh at the World Economic Forum’s summer meeting in Tianjin, as cited in a September Agence France-Presse report published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

STRATEGY POINTS

owadays, it seems, the world is looking east. The global economy is need of a recovery, and Asia’s role in promoting one is becoming increasingly apparent. Government and financial sector leaders agree that Asia will be able to lead the world out of the crisis and that it can, in fact, show leadership in rebalancing the global economy, based on discussions in the 18th World Economic Forum on East Asia held in Seoul back in 2009.

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It becomes crucial, therefore, that as Asian companies suffer the brunt of the slowdown in the West especially in terms of production and exports, they are able to reassess business models, products, and services to cater to these new realities. For instance, the May report “Capturing New Sources of Growth,” from the World Bank, suggests stimulating domestic demand and looking at new markets, among others, especially given the trend of overall economic activity moving east. Magnus also notes the changing consumer preferences because of

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Cultivating the innovation gene in Asia

the region’s emerging middle class and more global companies finding their headquarters in Asia.

Can Asians innovate? With these changing global realities, more companies are looking to innovation in order to remain competitive, but where does that leave Asian players? Historically, Asia’s growth has been driven largely by low-cost manufacturing that the West has gradually veered away from, according to the 2009 paper from the Asian Business Council, “Can Asians Innovate?”, which is based on quantitative data for measures of innovation output, such as patent statistics and scientific publications. The study posits that what fostered growth in Asia were traditional inputs, such as labor and capital, and that foreign know-how was still important because domestic innovation was lacking. While

some experts believe that “aggressive technology transfer, often coupled with protectionist (or technonationalist) policies and weak intellectual property (IP) protection, are all that fuel Asia’s industrial and technological rise,” the paper finds that with increased technical and scientific capabilities coupled with growing local markets, Asian companies will become more innovative.

ThZZZZinnovation imperative. Still, challenges

lay ahead. According to a paper published in January by the Korn/Ferry Institute on “Asia’s Innovation Imperative,” the region is said to be experiencing a dearth of creative leaders who can drive innovation, whereas “competition for that talent is particularly fierce.” Consequently, companies have to develop these types of leaders from within, as well as “zero in on external hires with exact precision.”

ASIA’S STRENGTHS

ASIA’S WEAKNESSES

Growing innovation output measured by patents and scientific publications

Science and engineering talent lacks creativity

Strong fundamental assets in terms of scientists and engineers, infrastructure, and government funding Promising industries and companies with a track record of innovation Openness to complex and integrated products, mentality of paying for value, and pursuit of process efficiency

Hierarchical oraganizations Governments are proactive but not sufficiently strategic Lack of access to finance for new ventures Focus on growing national prowess rather than global collaboration Weak intellectual property protection

The table from “Can Asians Innovate?” by the Asia Business Council illustrates the strengths and weaknesses in Asian innovation, page 2

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Asian companies are fast followers, but very consciously so

Where the region is lagging, the Asia Business Council report adds, is in the creation and adoption of innovations with substantial impact or technologies that have widespread influence on global markets. Asia has generally excelled in incremental innovation, but not at breakthroughs. Success in innovation becomes crucial because Asian economies need to keep on evolving in order to attain long-term competitive advantage, which “generates increasing economic value, provides growth for industries, and raises incomes and living standards for their populations.”

Asians are just as creative. An October 2011 blog post by strategy advisor and consultant William Duggan in Forbes suggests that despite notions of a conformist Asian culture and rigid education systems hampering innovation, Asians are just as creative as anyone else. It has just made more business sense, up to this point, to first imitate and then capitalize on previous inventions. It is perhaps more useful to think of innovation as a concept that is not confined to one form or

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definition, rather, one that takes into consideration the values and modes of thinking that can vary from culture to culture. A September 2011 article from the site Innovation Management discusses the generic elements of the Asian approach to innovation, as drawn from the Asia New Business Creation project coordinated by the Danish Universe Foundation. Generally, the Asian style of innovation is characterized by: products that fit the budget and needs of the consumers precisely; companies that are willing to change style, image, or even line of business when they sense an opportunity; fluidity or a business environment that supports and accepts change and is tolerant of uncertainty; and companies that are young, with flexible organizational structures and an urgency to grow. For example, a Western company might try to push its existing product to customers in the upper segment of the Asian market, since the needs and budgets are similar to its customers back home. This type of company prides itself in offering breakthroughs that make its products stand out to justify its relatively high price. An Asian company, on the other hand, “will more likely start by listening closely to market needs and identifying an opportunity.” It will work from products and technologies that are already available and “adjust them with a keen understanding of what price, quality and features its customers want.”

‘Fast followers but very consciously so.’

Another characteristic of Asian companies is that they are fast followers, but “very consciously so.” Once a company sees a successful new feature, the article says, it is likely to rapidly develop similar and cheaper versions, rather than invest heavily in research for products that may fail. For instance, while Apple launches a new version of a product once

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a year, rival Samsung comes out with more than a hundred to cater to every market segment. While most initiatives within the region are not born out of indigenous innovation, Asians are “marrying technology from other places to address indigenous problems,” according to discussions from this year’s

World Economic Forum on East Asia. Other key points include: Asian technology companies are thinking to go global from the start; finding people who create value are more important than protecting intellectual property; and indigenous innovation can be developed with education that encourages critical thinking.

When Japan was innovating the ways of the world From the crazy to the cool, Japanese innovations have appeared to show us how to do things faster, better, and, well, differently. They were, after all, the predecessors of today’s iPod, digital cameras and recorders, tablets, and many others. Toshiba debuted the first mass-market laptop computer in 1985, according to the company’s website. Even before that, however, Japanese inventors Hisashige Tanaka and Ichisuke Fujioka launched their own businesses, which would later merge to become Toshiba. The two brought innovations to Japan, such as X-ray tubes or radio transmission tubes in 1919, and in the 30’s, electric washing machines and refrigerators, which were followed later by the world’s first video phone and color TV with black stripetype cathode-ray tubes. The blog Japan Inc. gives a rundown of the top 10 Japanese inventions, most of which paved the way for the development of gadgets we use today. Marking the beginnings of home entertainment, the video cassette and video-cassette recorder were launched in 1971 by Sony Corporation. In 1981, the first known digital camera with single-lens reflex elements, the Sony Mavica, was unveiled to the public. The Sony Watchman FD-210 was a pocket television released in 1982, the technology of which ushered in home flat-screens. The Sony Walkman, a pocket-sized cassette player-recorder, gave us music on the go in the 80’s, and was followed by Sony’s Discman, a portable compact-disc player. Even the floppy disc and then the compact disc were Japanese innovations. But Japan was not always known for cutting-edge innovation. In fact, there was a time when the label “Made in Japan” conjured images of cheap knock-offs. At the end of World War II, Japan entered the car manufacturing business, but the move did not take off, as people, particularly American car owners, saw Japanese products as inferior, according to an article in How Stuff Works. Japanese automakers turned to investments in infrastructure and technology, and today, automakers such as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are known for impressive engineering, modern production processes, new safety standards, and concern for fuel efficiency.

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With the deepening significance of the region, investing in innovation becomes an economic imperative Higher education and a diverse workforce impact innovation. There appears to be a

relationship between innovation and strategic investments in higher education. In the 2012 World Bank East Asia and Pacific Regional Report “Putting Higher Education to Work: Skills and Research for Growth in East Asia,” high-income economies in East Asia are found to be among the world’s most innovative. Korea, the paper cites, has made considerable investments in government research institutes and university-affiliated IT parks. The country has also implemented policies that have led to greater enrolment in higher education, particularly in science and engineering. Singapore, meanwhile, has poured in capital for the development of “world-class scientific and technological capabilities through higher education.” Hong Kong “pursued an agenda to develop itself as a hub for higher education, pouring resources into improving quality, developing staff, fostering greater links between academia and industry, and incentivizing research,” while Taiwan “has attributed investment in science, engineering, and higher education as a key driver of its economic growth.”

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A comprehensive survey of more than 300 senior executives and one-on-one interviews for a July 2011 Forbes Insights report, meanwhile, posits that a diverse and inclusive workforce influence innovation and the development of new ideas. Of the executives surveyed, many regard the retention and development of diverse talent as top priority. “Multiple voices lead to new ideas, new services, and new products, and encourage out-of-the-box thinking,” the report notes.

Government policy crucial in an innovationdriven economy. Government policy towards

innovation is, likewise, crucial in developing an innovation-driven economy. China, for one, regards innovation as a means of achieving rapid and sustainable growth and is developing indigenous innovative activities, according to “China 2030,” a 2012 joint report of the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council. With various risks facing China over the next 20 years, the report outlines strategic directions for the future, including accelerating the pace of open innovation. “China is evolving from the world’s factory to a crucible of innovation, rapidly approaching the world-class level in terms of both quantity and quality,” writes Park Chan-Soo in a July 2011 paper on Chinese innovation in Samsung Economic Research Institute’s weekly “Korea Economic Trends” publication (as reprinted on the Spanish-language Centro Asia Pacifico site of Chile’s Universidad Diego Portales). According to the paper, which compared total factor productivity growth in Chinese and Korean firms, China is rapidly closing the technology gap with Korea, especially in the electronic and automobile industries. In the case of the pharmaceutical, solar power, and electric automobile industries, China has overtaken Korea, thanks to the former’s strengthening innovation capabilities.

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News & Strategy Alerts Business In a February article in McKinsey Quarterly, innovation in China is evidenced by the “doubling of the global percentage of patents granted to Chinese inventors since 2005,” as well as “the growing role of Chinese companies in the wind- and solar-power industries.” Once a bit player in the pharmaceutical industry, China now has more than 20 chemical compounds discovered and developed, and which are undergoing clinical trials.

Asian influence to be seen in electronics industry. A 2011 report from the Economist

Intelligence Unit outlines the trends that will shape the electronics industry in Asia over the coming years. The region, the report says, will leapfrog many stages of technological development, driving new forms of electronic hardware, software, and services. Moreover, the growing influence of Asian design and innovation will push the industry in new directions as the world takes on Asian ideas. “As Asian electronics companies build brands and get closer to their customers, they are playing a bigger role in the design of new electronics products,” the report notes. “Just as important, Asian companies will continue to push deeper into the upstream end of the value chain, producing new components and technologies,” the report goes on to predict. With the deepening significance of the region, investing in innovation becomes an economic imperative. Gone are the days when companies in Asia can rely on imitating ideas from the West and manufacturing them cheap. Though much can be learned from the West, players in the region have evolved with a profound understanding of their customers’ needs, budgets, and context. With distinctively Asian styles of innovation, players will be thinking globally and shaping the industries in which they compete.

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Philippine exports up 7.8% in July, electronics down 25% The steep decline in electronic exports is a cause for concern as it comprises the biggest share of all Philippine outbound shipments The country must diversify its export products as well as its export markets to make up for the downtick in the demand for electronic goods

Philippine Export Annual Growth Rates: July 2011 - 2012

Graph from The National Statistics Office

Shipments of Philippine goods to foreign markets hiked up in value by 7.8 % in the month of July, despite a 25 % slump in electronics export during the same period, according to the country’s statistics office. Electronic products remain the country’s top export, accounting for about 34.9 % of total export receipts. This modest year-on-year growth in overall exports presents much welcome news to the country in the face of prognoses of continued slowdown in world trade,

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such as projected by the World Trade Organization. The decline in electronic exports, though, is a cause for concern considering that this has been, for many years, the biggest Philippine export component. At the beginning of the year, alarm for the decelerating electronics export industry was already sounded following the dip in overall exports in December of 2011. An article in Economonitor. com, an online community of bloggers on economic matters, highlighted the continued “negative growth” (i.e. contraction) of electronics exports since February 2011. The article recommended diversification of the Philippines’ export products and export markets. Following the release of the latest Philippine trade data, the country’s central bank reiterated a dim outlook for the electronics industry. As cited in a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, Bangko Sentral Assistant Governor Ma. Cyd Tuaño-Amador said, “Insofar as the outlook for electronics exports is concerned, we are seeing very difficult conditions especially for semiconductors.” Amador cited the decreasing value of orders for electronics export goods, but emphasized as well the “diversification of export products” that has made possible the “respectable growth in total export revenues.” In terms of country of destination, Singapore, Japan, the U.S. and China remain the biggest markets for Philippine exports. The specter of a diminishing Chinese demand for Philippine goods has recently been raised in light of a territorial dispute between the two countries. A Rappler report on “How China trade sanctions could hit the Philippines” cited the fact that, including its territory Hong Kong, China is the single biggest market for Philippine products. The report also mentioned the blockage of Philippine bananas from Chinese ports ostensibly due to crop diseases.

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The 13.6 % decrease in the value of exports to China in the July trade data may be mistaken for evidence that, indeed, China is turning away from Philippine products because of the territorial spat. However, cumulative export figures by country from January to July of this year show an ample 12% growth rate in Chinese demand for Philippine goods. On this count at least, there is no evidence yet of any severe reduction in Philippine exports owing to the dispute with China. In any case, diversifying the Philippines’ export products and markets remain prudent, sound advice.

‘Shadow banking’ in the Philippines The breadth of financial transactions falling under shadow banking in the Philippines is yet unclear Shadow banking poses significant risks to well-off and impoverished Filipinos alike and should be carefully monitored and regulated

The country’s central bank last week raised the specter of “shadow banking” posing unregulated risks to Philippine financial institutions and consumers alike. The BusinessWorld article defined shadow banking as “the extension of credit by non-bank financial intermediaries.” The article also cited the Bangko Sentral’s Consumer Finance Survey report that gave the following as examples of “shadow banks”: finance companies, asset-backed

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“The danger posed by shadow banking is potentially more severe for poor, uneducated Filipino families,who have little or no financial literacy.” commercial paper conduits, structured investment vehicles, credit hedge funds, money market mutual funds, securities lenders, limited purpose finance companies, and government-sponsored enterprises. Shadow banking gained attention following the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. It has been proposed, in such studies as “Shadow Banks and the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008,” that unregulated transactions through these non-bank intermediaries contributed significantly to the subprime losses that fueled the crisis. The Financial Stability Board, an international body that monitors the global financial system, identified the kinds of risks posed by shadow banking. In the paper “Shadow Banking: Scoping the Issues,” the monitoring body suggested that these non-bank transactions might amplify cyclical economic busts as well as encourage excessive risk-taking and facilitate bank runs, among other perils. In the Philippines, shadow banking is a relatively novel concept, but the above same risks apply. The breadth of Philippine financial transactions falling

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under shadow banking is yet unclear, but may potentially be very extensive. In addition to complex high-end non-bank transactions, shadow banking in the Philippines includes small informal borrowing often resorted to by poor households. The central bank’s Consumer Finance Survey (summary findings here), for instance, determined that 8 out of 10 Filipino households have no bank deposit accounts. Many of these families resort, more likely than not, to loan sharks and other informal lending facilities to augment their meager incomes. The danger posed by shadow banking is potentially more severe for poor, uneducated Filipino families, who have little or no financial literacy. While informal, non-bank financial institutions provide quick sources of funds for emergency needs, they may also be prone to abuse. The country’s central bank must indeed look closely into these kinds of transactions to determine how they could be best regulated. As well, it should find ways to integrate Filipino households and individuals into the formal financial system.

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The Coming of Green Buildings Whether they’re new structures or old ones retrofitted to be more energy-efficient, green buildings help reduce environmental impact and bring about significant cost savings By Pia Rufino

STRATEGY POINTS Buildings account for around 30% of the world’s total energy consumption and about the same percentage of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, which comprise the main cause of climate change While upfront costs of constructing a green building or retrofitting a building might be higher than what is spent on building or maintaining an average building, the return on investment is positive Investors’ interest in pursuing green buildings is increasing, findings from a recent global survey show

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ith its launch on the eve of 2005, Taiwan’s famous building Taipei 101, 508 meters high with 101 floors above the ground, was the tallest structure in the world, until the opening of Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. Last year, Taipei 101 stood tall again, as it was recognized as the world’s the tallest green building, after getting the world’s top green-building accreditation for its energy efficiency, as reported in a July 2011 China Post article. After the building’s owners spent NT$60 million (US$2.07 million) over two years to retrofit it with green technology, Taipei 101 has become 30% more energy efficient than an average building and has saved US$1.2 million yearly on electricity expenses since the project launch. Energy-efficiency measures – including waste reduction, energy- and water-saving, and other initiatives to improve indoor environmental quality, such as precise control of office temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels -- also created a more comfortable working environment for office workers, thereby increasing their work efficiency, according to a press release posted on Taipei 101’s website.

Through a partnership between electronics giant Siemens, interior designers Steven Leach Associates and EcoTech International, Taipei 101 was retrofitted to become the world’s tallest and largest green building YouTube

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Green buildings for cutting energy consumption. Buildings account for nearly

one-third of the world’s energy consumption, and a similar percentage of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Asia Business Council’s 2007 book “Building energy efficiency: Why green buildings are key to Asian future (p.4).” The book, which discusses problems and opportunities of increasing the energy efficiency of buildings in Asia, says more than half of the world’s new buildings are constructed in Asia every year, with China and India as the largest contributors (p. 12). These two countries could cut current energy consumption in the building sector by a quarter through“cost-effective retrofitting of high-efficiency lighting, air conditioners, boilers and waste heat recovery systems,” according to a World Bank study cited in the book (p.15).

Recovering resources by retrofitting existing buildings. The global management

consulting firm McKinsey Global Institute in its November 2011 analysis “Resource revolution: meeting the world’s energy, material, food and water needs,” in presenting opportunities for meeting demand for energy, materials, food, and water, says that the largest resource productivity opportunity lies in improving the energy efficiency in buildings (p.16). Integrating energy-efficiency measures in commercial and residential buildings can drive savings of up to $696 billion worldwide by 2030, the study maintains (p.14). The study finds that basic retrofits -- increasing the airtightness of buildings through sealing baseboards and other areas of air leakage, weather-stripping doors and windows, and further insulating attic and wall cavities -- have rates of return on investment (ROI) of more than 10%.

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On the other hand, advanced retrofits and other new building efficiency measures often offer less financial payback because of the up-front capital needed. These includes installing high-efficiency doors and windows; increasing insulation on a building’s outer walls, roof, and basement; replacing heating and ventilation systems with heat-recovery capabilities and applying basic passive solar principles such as using sunlight to aid in natural heating and natural ventilation (p. 89-91). Other measures to reduce energy consumption that also gives positive ROI are upgrading lighting to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and retrofitting commercial lighting controls, the study says, noting that lighting accounts for more than a third of a building’s electricity use in the commercial sector. Meanwhile, the firm says new buildings have bigger potential to reduce energy consumption than retrofitting existing structures, since new buildings can employ other options for reducing energy, such as building orientation and design. Fraser Thompson, a senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute who co-authored the afore-mentioned study, explores the resource productivity cost curve and offered commentary on some resource productivity opportunities in his companion analysis, “Setting priorities for resource productivity.” He said,“In the developed world with its aging infrastructure, the biggest opportunity lies in retrofitting existing buildings, especially with better insulation. In developing economies, improving the energy efficiency of new buildings represents a bigger opportunity.”

Higher costs can be recouped. Higher

Southeast Asian buildings following the green path Considering that Southeast Asia lies in a subtropical climate, the cooling demand in the sub-region is high. Based on a report by Oxford Business Group in May, air-conditioning costs account for around 50% of the buildings’ energy consumption and up to 30% of their operating cost. The demands for greenbuilding technologies such as insulation materials to prevent cold air from escaping, heat-resistant window glazes to reduce heat entry, super-efficient cooling systems are on the rise, the report says. Meanwhile, more sophisticated green-building technologies, such as rooftop solar panels, are mostly limited to pilot projects. As one of Asia’s green building leaders, Singapore wants to have at least 80% all its buildings attain the minimum standards of its Green Mark rating system by 2030 with special emphasis on greening existing buildings, according to an April 2012 government press release, which notes that there are more than 1,000 green building projects in the city-state. Meanwhile, the government encourages the developers to make their building green through incentives such as the scheme that helps co-fund up to 35% (capped at $1.5 million) of the costs of installing energy-efficient equipment in existing buildings. The shopping center 313@somerset in Singapore by the Australia-based international retail and community property group Lend Lease Corporation has the highest recognition in the Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) benchmarking scheme for green buildings, according to the information on its website. This is due to its sustainability initiatives, including orientation of double-glazed windows, rainwater

construction costs for energy-efficient buildings

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harvesting for flushing toilets, escalators that go into slow-down mode when not in use, energy-efficient lighting controls, and rooftop solar panels. The sustainability efforts translated into S$1.3 million annual energy savings and S$27,000 annual water savings, according to a presentation by Jeffery Neng, deputy director of Green Mark department at BCA, wherein he offered business cases for green buildings. The payback period for 313@somerset is said to be five and a half years. In Malaysia, there are 290 building projects registered for the country green rating system for buildings Green Building Index (GBI) as of June, an increase by a third compared to 190 in the first two years since the launch of the GBI in 2009, according to Green Prospects Asia August article. Malaysia Green Building Confederation president Looi Hip Peu said a key driver for the greater demand for GBI certification is the government special tax incentives for GBI-certified buildings. In the Philippines, five buildings -- Asian Development Bank (ADB), Nuvali One Evotech, Shell Shared Services Office, and Texas Instruments facilities in Baguio and Clark -- have been certified by LEED and 58 more projects are LEED-registered, according to a June Philippine Daily Inquirer report. Singapore and Malaysia have 42 LEED-certified projects each.

and computer systems, reducing its carbon footprint,” according to an ADB press release in June. In the afore-mentioned Inquirer article, Joannie Mitchell, director for global leader in real estate services CBRE Philippines’ global corporate services said that investors who want to do business in the country are seeking for green buildings to house their offices. Moreover, some multilateral tenants even require their landlords to retrofit their buildings before they secure their contract to lease. Meanwhile, in a Sept. 2011 Business Mirror article, Christopher DeLa Cruz, chairman and president of the Philippine Green Building Council (PGBC), said more than 13 buildings are going through the process of certification under PGBC’s local rating system for green buildings, called Building for Ecological Responsive Design Excellence Program (BERDE). (Technical manuals for BERDE for existing buildings and BERDE for new construction can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlinks.) In the country, “developing cheaper technology, government leadership and offering financial assistance” to green building are key barriers, de la Cruz lamented.

The ADB received the LEED gold rating for its 20-yearold headquarters in Manila last year, making it the first building in the country to be awarded LEED-certification for an existing structure. This year, it opened a solarpower project aimed at promoting the use of renewable energy in the country.

To accelerate green-building movement in the country, he stressed the importance of providing government incentives such as “capital grants and subsidies, tax breaks or additional floor-to-area ratios” to the developers. He further said that redesigned building codes or a performance-based building code will help advance green building in the country.

“The 2,040 photovoltaic panels occupying 6,640 square meters on the roof of ADB’s main building will generate 613 megawatt hours of electricity per year to run a portion of the Bank’s air conditioning, lighting,

Dela Cruz said BERDE “may be utilized as a public voluntary green policy that may be use to assess the environmental performance of buildings, as well as facilitate the issuing of permits.”

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‘Transition to energy efficient buildings would also create millions of jobs for many of the estimated 111 million people in the construction sector. It could generate 23.5 million green jobs in Europe and U.S alone, with much higher potential in developing countries,’ the United Nations estimates

can be recouped. The United Nations, in its 2010 Innovation Brief on “Buildings and construction as tools for promoting more sustainable patterns of consumption and production,” says a common concern is that pursuing energy-efficiency requirements in buildings would mean higher construction cost. Citing an International Energy Agency study, it says that when using passive house technology, developers could spend 3-5% over the total cost, with a payback period of nine to 10 years. Nonetheless, the U.N. brief says, “Measures increasing the energy efficiency of buildings have the potential for a negative net cost over time, as the initial investment pays itself back and can be reinvested back into the community (p.8).” Moreover, the brief examines current issues in the area of sustainable buildings and construction, and says that transition to energy efficient buildings would also create millions of jobs for many of the estimated 111 million people in the construction sector. It could generate 23.5 million green jobs in Europe and U.S alone, with mush higher potential in developing countries, the brief estimates.

Green building standards still being formulated. According to the executive summary

of the 2010 report “Green building in Asia” by the

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Singapore-based research firm Responsible Research, although there’s no universal definition of a green building, there is no shortage of global- and countrylevel standards being developed. It does go on to say that the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which awarded the top certification green-building standard to the Taipei 101 building, is coming to be regarded as the “gold standard” throughout Asia. In Asia, among the green-building rating systems are BCA Green Mark Scheme in Singapore, and BEAM in Hong Kong, Green Building Index in Malaysia, Greenship in Indonesia and 3 Star in China, according to the Responsible Research report, which adds that green buildings can also form an important part of the corporate social responsibility policies that are prerequisites for multinational companies in Asia. In a Oct. 2010 presentation entitled “Green Building technologies business,” students from the Global Private Equity Initiative at France-based international graduate business school INSEAD list the following assessment criteria for a green building in line with LEED: • Site selection: Discouraging development on previously undeveloped land; minimizing a

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Retrofitting is a vital part of green building since 60% of the buildings that will be around in 2050 already exist

building’s impact on ecosystems; regionally appropriate landscaping; smart transportation choices; reduction of erosion, light pollution, heat-island effect and construction-related pollution • Water efficiency: Encouraging smart use of water; water reduction is typically achieved through more efficient appliances, fixture and fittings inside and water-wise landscaping outside • Energy efficiency: Commissioning, energy monitoring, efficient design and construction, efficient appliances-systems-lighting, usage of renewable sources of energy • Material used: Selection of sustainably grown, harvested, produced and transported products and materials. Re-use and recycling are also considered • Indoor quality evaluation: Improvement of indoor air as well as access to natural daylight, views and acoustic According to the presentation, retrofitting is a vital part of green building since 60% of the buildings that will be around in 2050 already exist. Upfront investment premium in green buildings, which is 1.8% over traditional building, can yield lifetime cost savings of 10 times.

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Green-building trends in major countries.

Findings of the 2012 Global energy efficiency indicator survey, from Johnson Controls’ Institute for Building Efficiency, show that investors’ interest in managing energy, investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and pursuing green buildings is increasing. According to the survey of 3,479 building owners, executives, and facility managers from six regions -- U.S. and Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, China and India -- 44% of the respondents said they planned to pursue voluntary green-building certifications for existing buildings next year, and about the same percentage plan to pursue certification for new construction. Sixty percent of respondents said they had at least one certified green building, according to the study. The study also finds that organizations worldwide prefer government and utility incentives in encouraging energy efficiency. Emerging economies gave comparable weight to incentives, building codes and equipment standards, and green appraisals. A total of 96% of respondents surveyed during the first quarter of the year said they were undertaking energy-efficiency measures in the last 12 months

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including lighting upgrades, heating ventilation and air-conditioning controls improvements and water efficiency actions. Meanwhile, the report says, “Global regions had different expectations about the on-site technologies that will show the greatest increase in market adoption over the next 10 years. Globally, the top three technologies were: lighting technologies, smart building technology and advanced building materials.”

Green-building market in Asia. South Korea

has the largest green-building market in the Asia-

Pacific region, with more than 1,000 buildings already green-certified or awaiting certification, followed by Australia and Singapore with nearly 700 buildings each, based on a 2009 presentation, “Green buildings- A strategic Analysis of the Asia Pacific Markets” by American consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. These three economies “are actively promoting green building markets supported by the government and green building initiatives,” the firm said in the presentation. The report also finds the level of awareness among stakeholders on green buildings is rising significantly, and is likely to increase from nearly

ASIA PACIFIC GREEN BUILDINGS MARKET Green Buildings Market: Number of Green Buildings Certified or Under Evaluation for Green Certification (Asia Pacific), 2009

Green Buildings Market: Forecast of Level of Paticipation by Stakeholders (Asia Pacific), 2001-2015

Certified Green Buildings Buildings under evaluation for green certification

700

Commitment

90 80

500

70 60

400

300

40 30

200

100

Indonesia

Malaysia

New Zealand

Japan

Hong Kong

Singapore

Australia

10 South Korea

Total numbers of Green Buildings

Participation

100

600

Awareness

2001

2003

2007

2009

2012

2015

Charts from Green buildings- A strategic Analysis of the Asia Pacific Markets, Frost & Sullivan, Oct. 2009, pages 4 and 7

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80% to 95% from 2012 to 2015. The firm also predicts that the level of participation among stakeholders in green-building market will rise from slightly above 50% to over 70% in the same period, while commitment levels will increase by 10% in 2015 from nearly 30% in 2012.

News & Strategy Alerts Technology

Mobile broadband lifting PH economy Despite low Internet penetration rate, mobile Internet raised the country’s GDP by 0.32% annually since 2000

The barriers. The aforementioned 2012 Energy

Efficiency Indicator survey found that the regions vary in the challenges they face in improving building energy efficiency. “In developed regions, lack of funding was the greatest barrier, while emerging regions faced more struggles with awareness, technical expertise, and certainty of savings,” the survey results show.

The government must take advantage of opportunities presented by mobile broadband, keep taxes on telecommunications low, and avoid using licensing policy as revenue source and tool to manipulate the industry

A quarter of respondents cited lack of funding as their top barrier to energy efficiency projects while 17% identified insufficient payback and 15% cited uncertain of savings or performance as major challenges.

BARRIERS TO ENERGY EFFICIENCY INVESTMENT: 2012 vs. 2011 A telecoms tower providing mobile broadband connectivity Article.wn.com

Lack of funding Insufficient payback/ROI Uncertainty regarding savings/performance

Average Allowable Payback

Lack of technical expertise Lack of awareness

2011

2012

3.7 yrs

3.4 yrs

No organizational ownership

2012 2011

Landlord/tenant split incentives 0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Chart from 2012 Energy efficiency indicator: global results p.7

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Only one out of 25 Filipinos is online, yet despite the country’s low Internet penetration rate, mobile Internet consumers have in the past decade consistently raised the Philippines’ GDP by 0.32% every year, according to a GMA News article that details the findings of a May 2012 study by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development. The study, entitled “The economic impact of broadband in the Philippines,” found that mobile broadband is responsible for 6.9% of total GDP growth in the last ten years, and that the acceleration in adoption since 2005 almost doubled its economic

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impact, reaching 0.61% of GDP and 7.3% of all economic growth in the Philippines. These economic gains, plus other benefits of having a robust Internet market, are good incentives for the country to exploit the opportunities in mobile broadband development. According to the study, documented benefits of greater broadband penetration include: introduction of innovative services such as e-commerce, telemedicine, social networking, and online education; streamlining of supply chains; growth in service sectors; and rise in business revenues. Mobile broadband, in particular, opens up a wealth of opportunities for development especially for emerging economies. The World Economic Forum (WEF) recognized this potential in “The Global Information Technology Report 2012.” Chapter 1.5 of the report discusses how mobile redefines access to the Internet and empowers individuals. For many people in developing countries, mobile is the first and, perhaps, only means to go online. The report cites a telemedicine program launched in 2009 by the Department of Health, the Tarlac provincial government, the University of the Philippines – Manila, and private partners. The program’s electronic medical records system has improved patient care and enhanced government access to public health data for better policy planning and analysis. For the Philippines, the government and the telecommunications sector should work together to take advantage of mobile broadband and keep the country competitive in today’s digital economy. Aside from improvements in network technologies, policies must also support industry growth.

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Chapter 1.4 of the WEF 2009 Global Information Technology Report, entitled “How to Maximize the Economic Impact of Mobile Communications: The Four Waves,” puts forth several policy considerations. It warns against high mobile telecommunications taxes, which are “iniquitous and regressive in its nature,” and the use of licensing policy by governments to raise revenues or to manipulate the industry to favor specific players. To promote the growth of their ICT industries through mobile broadband, emerging countries such as the Philippines must “adopt efficient nondistortion tax policies” so as to maximize the benefits to the economy, according to GSMA, a global consortium of companies engaged in mobile, as contained in a report entitled “The Impact of Taxation on the Development of the Mobile Broadband Sector.”

Petition against the Cybercrime Law The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, particularly its provisions on libel, curbs the freedom of netizens to express themselves online While amendments to the law are being pursued, well-crafted implementing rules and regulations must be issued in the meantime to clarify the law’s provisions Two senators bolstered the ranks of those opposed to provisions of the new law against cybercrimes. Senator Teofisto Guingona III filed a petition before the Supreme Court that seeks to void provisions in the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 that infringe on freedom of speech and expression. Senator Francis

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Escudero, meanwhile, said he will file a bill amending the online libel provision in the Act. Media groups, political personalities, and legal experts have spoken out against the dangers of the new law. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has called the enactment of the law “sneaky,” and that the Act broadens the scope of an “antiquated” libel law. Senate records show that even before the cybercrime law’s enactment, a bill has already been filed seeking to decriminalize libel. Hackers or “hacktivists” have defaced several government websites as a sign of protest. The websites of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, Department of Health Anti-Smoking, Philippines Anti-Piracy Team, and the American Chamber of Commerce have been attacked by a group called Anonymous Philippines. In his Interaksyon.com article, Atty. Mel Sta. Maria points out the implications on the online public — bloggers, commentators, repliers — who unknowingly may write something that could send them to prison. As for the less contentious provisions of the law, local law enforcement authorities need to be sufficiently oriented on these provisions, plus receive sufficient training to adequately police Internet activity. Training should be provided not only to equip authorities with the capability to detect cybercrimes, but also to ensure that the rights of individuals are safeguarded. As it is, Police Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr. of the Philippine National Police, as cited by a Rappler report, already expressed the need to clarify some of the law’s unclear provisions. While provisions can be clarified through an Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), a mere IRR cannot correct or “cure” the law’s intent. In his argument to strike out its “void provisions,” published in Rappler, Guingona says the law “demonizes the computer user,” and that the libel provisions are vague,

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Cyberattacks against the anti-cybercrime law Anonymous Philippines

unfair, and oppressive. With Guingona’s petition, the Supreme Court will be tested in its ability to determine the middle ground between, on the one hand, the spirit of liberalism in the expression of ideas and dissemination of information espoused in the Internet, and on the other, the limitations of such freedoms and curbing their abuse. The Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) is a much-maligned anti-piracy bill in the United States, which was protested against by private citizens and Web companies and organizations, calling it an “Internet blacklist bill.” A Mashable article says SOPA gives the government the power to unilaterally censor foreign websites, as well as copyright owners the right to demand takedowns against website owners. While the law focuses on copyright protection and not libel, the controversy surrounding the bill underscores the difficulty of setting parameters on the Internet. Weak laws against cybercrime and inadequate technical abilities of law enforcement authorities make the Philippines vulnerable to cyber-attacks and transnational cyber-fraud rings. Symantec’s Cybercrime Report 2011 estimates the cost of cybercrime in terms of time lost by victims and actual amount stolen or spent on resolving cases at $388 billion. However, an anticybercrime law must be crafted keeping in mind not only the apprehension of cybercriminals, but also the welfare of cyber-citizens, whose views and private information deserve to be protected.

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A Few Words for All the World What trends on Twitter gives millions a jitter By Joanne Angela B. Marzan

TOP 20 COUNTRIES IN TERMS OF TWITTER ACCOUNTS (ACCOUNTS CREATED BEFORE 01-07-2012) Rank & Country 1 U.S 2 Brazil 3 Japan 4 U.K. 5 Indonesia 6 India 7 Mexico 8 Canada 9 Spain 10 Philippines 11 Yurkey 12 Colombia 13 Venezuela 14 Russia 15 South Korea 16 Netherlands 17 Argentina 18 France 19 Germany 20 Italy

Accounts created before 01-01-2012 Accounts created between 01-01-2012 and 01-07-2012

40 ... 100

110

120

130

140

150

Number of accounts (in millions) Figure from “Twitter reaches half a billion accounts, more than 140 millions in the U.S., ‘ Semiocast, July 2012

STRATEGY POINTS When getting online to learn the latest news is just too slow, the micro-blogging world of Twitter can keep you updated, 140 characters at a time The Philippines has the 10th-highest number of Twitter accounts, but no Philippine city is in the top 20 cities for posted tweets Top Twitter trends in the Philippines tend to be entertainment-related, which might say as much of the untapped general potential of the medium as it does the popularity of certain shows and people Hashtag trends that invite followers to respond are also popular

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tweet or to follow someone else’s tweets, that is the question.

It would appear that the Philippines’ 9.5 million Twitter micro-bloggers (as of June 2012) prefer to do more of the latter. According to French company Semiocast, which specializes in data intelligence and research on social media, the Philippines is 10th in the world in terms of Twitter accounts. The Philippines and Indonesia (5th spot) are the only Southeast Asian countries in the company’s top 20 list, with the U.S.’ over-140 million Twitter accounts clearly leading

everyone else. Also according to Semiocast, there are approximately half a billion Twitter accounts as of June 2012. Though Twitter accounts are still quite low compared to the 29.7 million Facebook users in the country as of September 2012 according to data coming from www.socialbakers.com, the number of new Twitter users is increasing as seen in the figure above.

Follow me, maybe? So, what exactly differentiates

Twitter from other social networking sites and what features make it appealing to the Philippine online population?

Diagram from Social Media 101 for Business, AJ Gerritson

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There are three things that are uniquely Twitter. For one, Twitter limits your posts to 140 characters, which is not much of an adjustment for people already used to text messaging. It also introduced the # symbol, called a hashtag, which is used to”mark keywords or topics in a Tweet” and was “created as a way to categorize messages.” In this manner, it’s easy for a Twitter user to monitor tweets on a specific topic.

Follow the tweeter. Second, Twitter has a “follow”

concept, wherein a Twitter user can view the tweets of anyone, from President Barack Obama to Britney Spears to PNoy to Anne Curtis, who incidentally, has the most number of Twitter followers in the Philippines at 3.4 million. Think of this as stalking with consent. Third, Twitter has a mechanism that enables the social networking site to track popular topics being discussed in a specific location in real time, dubbed as trending topics.

For a Twitter user, the utility of trending topics comes from being informed instantly of breaking news and information that the world is talking about at the moment. To a personality or a company, being a trending topic provides additional media mileage as trending topics are posted on the left side of a Twitter user’s timeline, as seen below.

On its website, Twitter explains how it derives the trending topics: “Trends are determined by an algorithm and are tailored for you based on who you follow and your location. This algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help you discover the hottest emerging topics of discussion on Twitter that matter most to you.”

Tracking topics by country. At present, from

monitoring worldwide trends only, Twitter is now able to track trending topics in 34 countries, the Philippines included. Some countries even have cityspecific trending topics, with the Philippines now broken down into Quezon City and Manila trends.

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Tracking Twittert trends

Realizing how trending topics can provide a wealth of information about what is the hottest topic of the day in a specific location, The CenSEI Report tracked Twitter trends over a three-day period to discover what topics are important to the relatively young online population of the Philippines as well as in other Southeast Asian countries. From September 24-26 at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., TCR tracked the trending topics in the following Southeast Asian countries, namely Indonesia (Bandung and Jakarta), Malaysia (Klang and Kuala Lumpur), Singapore, and the Philippines (Quezon City and Manila) to find out what the netizens in these countries and cities are talking about. The study was limited to these four Asian countries since as of yet, Twitter only monitors the Twitter activity of these countries. Here are 10 things TCR gleaned from its three-day Twitter tracking:

1. Pinoys talk a lot about local celebrities Sept. 24 trending topics. On Monday, September

24, at 10 a.m., the Twitter trending topics in

both Quezon City and Manila were dominated by celebrities and TV-related topics, as seen in the images below: Interestingly, both Quezon City and Manila have the same trending topics, which can be classified into two major categories: sports with only one trending topic, and local entertainment with nine. The only sports-related trending topic on September 24 is Liverpool, referring to one of the teams of the English Premiere League. The nine trending topics on entertainment can be broken down as follows: Three trending topics dealt with the ABS-CBN TV program “X Factor Philippines,” which aired the night before: #XFactorPHTop5, Charice, and Tell Me. “Charice” refers to internationally known local singer Charice Pempengco, one of the judges of X Factor Philippines, while the trending topic “Tell Me” refers to one of the songs that was sung during the competition.

Pinoys talk a lot about local celebrities September 24 Trending Topics 10am

Quezon City Trends • Change

Manila Trends • Change

#ReplaceMovieTitleWithBalot

#XfactorPHTop5

Preamble

Liverpool

Charice

#WeWantTheWanted

No Other Dirty Woman

Cristine Reyes

Vice

Tell Me

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Why a popular news program such as TV Patrol, which was airing at the time when the trending topics were monitored at 7:00 p.m., would not be trending might also say something about the viewing habits of online Twitter users

Four trending topics were related to another ABSCBN TV program, “Gandang Gabi Vice,” which also aired Sunday night: No Other Dirty Woman, Preamble, Cristine Reyes and Vice. “Gandang Gabi Vice” is a talk show hosted by gay comedian Vice Ganda. During the episode Sunday night, Vice Ganda had as guests ABS-CBN talent Cristine Reyes and Senator Aquilino (“Koko”) Pimentel III. The other trending topic, “No Other Dirty Woman,” was a spoof on the movie “No Other Woman,” shown in cinemas last year. Two trending topics had hashtags: #ReplaceMovieTitleWithBalot and #WeWantTheWanted, pertaining to the BritishIrish boy band, The Wanted. In the next two days, our tracking revealed that local entertainmentrelated trending topics were a staple.

Sept. 25 trending topics. On September

25, Tuesday, at 10 a.m., two ABS-CBN prime- time soap operas were trending: #PrincessAndITotalMakeover, referring to the program “Princess and I,” and #WalangHanggan, referring to a soap opera of the same title.

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Daniel Padilla, who appears in “Princess and I” had two trending topics under his belt: #DanielPadillaOnMyxPremiere and Gino. With the exception of #WalangHanggan, which was only trending in Manila, the other three were included in both Manila and Quezon City trends. In the evening, Manila trends had four trending topics pertaining to ABS-CBN programs: #GoMarlon, #ExtendPintada, #Pintada and #aryana while Quezon City only had one, #GoMarlon. Pintada and Aryana are ABS-CBN programs aired late afternoon while #GoMarlon refers to the character being played by ABS-CBN young star Paul Salas in the soap opera “Aryana.” Why a popular news program such as TV Patrol, which was airing at the time when the trending topics were monitored at 7:00 p.m., would not be trending might also say something about the viewing habits of online Twitter users.

Sept. 26 trending topics. The next

day, September 26, at 10:00 a.m., the trending topics in Manila had #DawnZuluetaMostBeautifulPinay2012 and

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Tracking Twittert trends 48

CMMA as trending topics. CMMA here refers to the Catholic Mass Media Awards held the night before. For Quezon City, CMMA was also trending in fourth spot while #PaulNationMissesPaul is at number two. Paul refers to ABS CBN talent Paul Salas. At 7:00 p.m., while Quezon City did not have local showbiz-related trending topics, Manila had one, #HappyKathNielDay, at the second spot. KathNiel refers to the love team of ABS-CBN talents Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, collectively known as KathNiel. If we base it solely on Twitter trends, then it would appear that ABS-CBN programs are the most popular to online Twitter users.

2. UAAP is a big trending topic in the Philippines

When De La Salle University (DLSU) defeated Far Eastern University (FEU) to make it to the Final Four of the UAAP men’s basketball semi-

finals, the trending topics on Twitter in Quezon City on September 26 at 7:00pm included six topics pertaining to the college basketball league: Congrats DLSU, Final Four, ADMU vs. DLSU, RR Garcia, Torres and Teng. RR Garcia is a basketball player of FEU while Norbert Torres and Jeron Teng were the players who led DLSU to the semi-finals. Manila trends, on the other hand, only had four: DLSU vs. FEU, #GoLasalle, #FEUWeBelieve and #Final4wardDLSU.

3. Premiere League big in Malaysia

While Liverpool trended in the four Southeast Asian countries on September 24, it was only in Malaysia that nine trending topics were all about the English Football Club. Just to prove how big football is in Malaysia, the trending topics remained the same until September 25 at 10:00 a.m. The match-up between Manchester City (a.k.a Man City) and Arsenal (a.k.a Gunners) last Sept. 23 drew much attention, for it ended in a draw. The hashtag

UAAP a big trending topic in the Philippines September 26 Trending Topics 7pm

Quezon City Trends • Change

Manila Trends

#MentionYourTwitterCrushes

#ImHappiestWhen

#TVShowsIGrewUpWith

#HappyKathNielDay

#ImHappiestWhen

#20perfectpeopleifollow

Congrats DLSU

#blamefinchy

Final Four

#ThingsYouDontSayToMe

ADMU vs DLSU

DLSU vs FEU

RR Garcia

#AskJaiBrooks

Good Evening

#GoLasalle

Torres

#FEUWeBelieve

Teng

• Change

#Final4wardDLSUTell Me

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#coyg actually refers to the team cheer for Arsenal, “Come on you gunners,” while #AFC is Arsenal Football Club. Gervinho, meanwhile, is a striker for Arsenal. Other teams competing in the Premiere League were also trending topics: Liverpool, QPR for Queens Park Rangers and Chelsea.

4. iPhone 5 trended in Singapore for two days

Among the four Southeast Asian countries monitored, it appears that the Philippines was the least concerned about football. Singapore had four trending topics about the Premier Football League while Indonesia had three, vis-à-vis the Philippines with only one.

Apparently, the iPhone 5 trended in Singapore because the day before, Singapore Telecom announced that stocks for the much-coveted smart phone was already out of stock, except for the 16GB model, which was only available on September 23, until stocks last. So, Twitter users in Singapore

Being the first country in Southeast Asia and one of only eight countries in the world to have started selling iPhone 5 on September 21, it comes as no surprise that iPhone 5 is still trending on September 25 and26, four days after its launch.

Premiere league big in Malaysia September 24 Trending Topics @ 10:00am

Kuala Lumpur Trends • Change

Klang Trends • Change

#coyg

#MCIARS

#AFC

#COYG

#Arsenal

Gunners

Gervinho

Liverpool

Man City

QPR

May Allah

Chelsea

iPhone 5 trended in Singapore for two days September 25 @ 7:00pm

September 26 @ 10:00am and

Singapore Trends • Change

#OnlyHotFM913for1D

#QuestionsIHateBeing Asked

#MyExTaughtMe

#QuestionsIHateBeing Asked

Begin Again

ADAM and BOYTHUNDER

Singapore

iPhone 5

Boythunder and Adam Piperdy

Facebook

Steven Lim

#ttot

iPhone 5

#WeLiveInAGenerationWhere

Facebook

#nowplaying

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Tracking Twittert trends

were going online to rant that the iPhone 5 stocks are no longer available and will have to wait longer to get hold of the latest gadget. The iPhone 5 did not trend in the Philippines and Malaysia during the three-day monitoring of Twitter trends and it only trended once in Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia on September 25 at 10:00am.

5. Indonesians love to tweet in Bahasa

In a 2011 press release by Semiocast, the Malay language is the fifth language used on Twitter after English, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. “[V]olume of tweets in Malay languages (including Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu) only doubled (+107%): they represent 6.4% of all messages, mostly coming from Indonesia,” the Semiocast press release said.

Top language shares on Twitter (as of October 2011)

Spanish Malay Dutch Korean

6% 3% 2%

Arabic

Thai

1% 14%

All Others

10%

20%

30%

40%

Figure from “Arabic highest growth on Twitter, English expansion stabilizes below 40%,” Semiocast, November 2011

6. Allah trending topic in Malaysia and Indonesia, God Bless in the Philippines

It is interesting that countries in Southeast Asia invoke their god even on Twitter.

Rank & City

12%

Portuguese

During the three day tracking of Twitter trends for both Jakarta and Indonesia, it was observed that many of the trends are in Bahasa. In fact, the trending topics in Bandung on September 25 at 7:00 p.m. and September 26 at 10:00 a.m. were mostly in Bahasa-English, as seen below:

1 Jakarta 2 Tokyo 3 London 4 Sao Paulo 5 New York 6 Bandung 7 Paris 8 Los Angeles 9 Chicago 10 Riyadh 11 Singapore 12 Instanbul 13 Osaka 14 Toronto 15 Madrid 16 Rio de Janeiro 17 Seoul 18 Miami 19 Atlanta 20 Houston

14%

Japanese

Data coming from Semiocast also revealed that Jakarta and Bandung are both in the top 20 cities with the most number of tweets in June 2012. Jakarta is at number one while Bandung is at number six, as seen below.

Top 20 cities by number of posted tweets (among 10.6B tweets posted in June 2012)

39%

English

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0.5%

1.0%

1.5%

2.0%

2.5%

Figure from “Twitter reaches half a billion accounts, More than 140 millions in the U.S.,” Semiocast, July 2012

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May Allah trended in Malaysia for three days, from September 24 to 26, while Ya Allah trended in Bandung, Indonesia on September 26 at 10:00 a.m. Meanwhile in the Philippines, God Bless became a trending topic on September 26 at 10:00 a.m.

7. Christmas already trending in the Philippines

Christmas was a trending topic in Quezon City on

September 24 at 7:00 p.m., September 25 at 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 pm. and on September 26 at 10:00 a.m. In Manila, Christmas also became a trending topic on September 25 and 26 at 10:00 a.m. It is uncertain how long Christmas has been included as a hot topic in the Philippines but Twitter trends were any indication, then Christmas in the Philippines truly begins in September. Allah trending topic in Malaysia and Indonesia, God Bless in the Philippines

Indonesians love to tweet in Bahasa September 25 @ 7:00 pm

September 24 @ 10am

Bandung Trends • Change

Kuala Lumpur Trends

#HBDKotaBandung

#coyg

#KejurdalCAWestJava

#Arsenal

#CumaDiBandung

#AFC

WarnaPHFavorite

Gunners

MerkPHFavorite

Gervinho

HPLoBorosBatre

Liverpool

PengenPunyaHPbaru

Man City

ProviderFavorite

QPR

HPLoSukaLemot

May Allah

We Dream

Chelsea

September 26 @ 7:00 pm

September 26 @ 10am

Bandung Trends • Change

Bandung Trends

#ImHappiestWhen

#ThingsYouDontSayToMe

#DirectionerLive1D

Germany 220912

#SMASHatLampionGlobalTV

#1DPhotoUpdates

WarnaFavoritePacar

#quote

BulanUlangTahum

#nowplaying

UsiaKakaklo

Height

Liam Danielle

Ya Allah

ZodiakPacar

Website

SekarangLoKelasBerapa

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• Change

#IndonesiaGPG

#PELAJARJOGJASEMUASAUDARA

• Change

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Tracking Twittert trends

8. Bandung’s 202nd anniversary a trending topic

On September 25, hashtags regarding the 202nd anniversary of the City of Bandung in Indonesia became a hot topic in both Bandung and Jakarta. The hashtags were: #HBDKotaBandung and #CumadiBandung. “HBD” here means “Happy Birthday,” also became a trending topic as well as Bandung.

9. English boy band, One Direction, popular in Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines

English boy band One Direction is gaining popularity in Southeast Asia. Unlike Justin Bieber who only trended in the Philippines on September 25 at 7:00 p.m., One Direction became a trending topic in three Southeast Asian countries. Of the three countries, it was in Indonesia that the boy band had the most number of trending topics. On September 26 at 10:00 a.m., #1DPhotoUpdates was a hot topic in Bandung and Indonesia while 1D Superhumans Join Twitter became a trend in Jakarta. In the evening, #DirectionerLove1D trended in Bandung and Jakarta while #VerifiedDirectioner trended in Jakarta.

September 26 @ 10am

Quezon City Trends • Change #MyExTaughtMe

#PaulNationMissesPaul

#QuestionsIHateBeingAsked CMMA DMED

10. Hashtag trends big on Twitter

Philippines

Hashtags that elicit answers from users are very popular on Twitter.

God Bless IKR

iTunes

As an example, the following hashtags became trending topics during TCR’s three-day tracking

Christmas

Christmas already trending in the Philippines September 26 @ 10am

Quezon City Trends • Change

Manila Trends

#MyExTaughtMe

#QuestionsIHateBeingAsked

#DawnZuluetaMostBeautifulPinayfor2012

DMED

God Bless

iTunes

• Change

#PaulNationMissesPaul

#QuestionsIHateBeingAsked

CMMA

Philippines

IKR

Christmas

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Bandung’s 202nd anniversary a trending topic

of Twitter trends: #MyExTaughtMe, #QuestionsIHateBeingAsked, #ThingsISayALot, #WeLiveInAGenerationWhere trended in the Philippines on September 25 at 7:00 p.m. #QuestionsIHateBeingAsked also became at hot topic in Jakarta on September 25 at 7:00 p.m.

September 26 @ 10am

Bandung Trends

• Change

#KejurdaICAWestJave #UltahBDG202

#HBDKotaBandung Facebook Bandung

The next day, September 26, #MyExTaughtMe was still a trending topic in the Philippines and became a trending topic in Malaysia and Singapore. That evening at 7:00 p.m., #MyExTaughtMe was still a hot topic in Malaysia and Singapore. In the Philippines, the top trending topic was still a hashtag: #MentionYourTwitterCrushes and #ImHappiestWhen. It has been observed as well that while some of these hashtags ask personal questions already, many Twitter users still willingly provide information about themselves. Just to prove the power of the hashtags, #MyExTaughtMe became the top trending topic worldwide on September 25 at 10:00 a.m.

Twitter

iPhone 5

Gangnam Style HBD

Lockerz September 26 @ 7Pm

Bandung Trends

• Change

#HBDKotaBandung #CumaDiBandung

#KejurdalCAWestJava WarnaPHFavorite MerkPHFavorite

HPLoBorosBatre

PengenPunyaHPbaru ProviderFavorite

HPLoSukaLemot We Dream

Engligh boy band, One Direction… September 26 @7pm

Bandung Trends

• Change

#ImHappiestWhen

#PELAJARJOGJASEMUASAUDARA

#VerifiedDirectioner

#DirectionerLive1D

#SMASHatLampionGlobalTV

UsiaAdeklo

WarnaFavoritePacar

BulanUlangTahum

ZodiakPacar

UsiaKakaklo

WarnaCatKamar

Liam Danielle

Twitpic

ZodiakPacar

Twitter

SekarangLoKelasBerapa

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Tracking Twittert trends

Jakarta Trends

News & Strategy Alerts Health/Lifestyle

Another dread disease by mosquito delivery

• Change

#HBDKotaBandung #ASOTIBIZA

Another mosquito-borne disease called chikungunya threatens the public, causing fever and severe joint pains

#WeLiveInAGenerationWhere Facebook Bandung Twitter

Urgent vector control measures and intensive awareness campaign must be undertaken to prevent and halt the spread of chikungunya

iPhone 5

Gangnam Style HBD

Lockerz

Jakarta Trends

• Change

#CumaDiBandung WarnaPHFavorite

#QuestionsIHateBeing Asked #HBDKotaBandung MerkPHFavorite

HPLoBorosBatre We Dream GilaFoto

Agnes Monica Join Twitter Begin Again

Hashtags trend big on Twitter September 25 @ 10am

Control Programme, Government of India

Worldwide Trends • Change #MyExTaughtMe

The Department of Health (DOH) advised the public to take precaution against a mosquitoborne disease called chikungunya that has affected a number of people in Cagayan de Oro City, Pangasinan and Metro Manila this year, the Manila Bulletin reported on Wednesday. Currently, there are more than 150 suspected chikungunya cases while a thousand cases were recorded last year, based on the report.

#ApellidosQueEnamoran

#WeLiveInAGenerationWhere Seahawks D

Chris Clemons Emmit Smith

Aaron Rodgers Jim Jones Chrissy

Abimelec

Transmission cycle of chikungunya and other mosquito-borne diseases National Vector Borne Diseases

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According to a 2008 World Health Organization factsheet, chikungunya causes fever and severe joint pains. Similar to dengue, other symptoms of chikungunya are muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash. The World Health Organization (WHO) says treatment should be focused on relieving symptoms since there is no cure for the disease. Serious complications are uncommon, but in older people, the disease can contribute to the cause of death, it adds. So far, no deaths due to chikungunya have been recorded in the country. To prevent and control the disease, the WHO Regional Office for Southeast Asia Communicable Diseases Department suggests that public health authorities strengthen and effectively implement the national program for prevention and control of vector-borne diseases. Moreover, public health departments must educate the communities about these diseases and about mitigation and preventive measures. Chikungunya cases should also be reported to the nearest public health office for “identification of clusters by person, place and time and for expansion of the control measures in the community and district levels,” according to the WHO. The country’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine now has the capability for rapid detection methods, a fully-equipped laboratory and hospital facilities, and trained personnel to respond to these potential threats of infectious diseases, based on a Philippine Daily Inquirer report quoting Health Secretary Enrique Ona. The government should continue to monitor cases of chikungunya in affected provinces, investigate why there is a surge of the disease in past years and scale up the vector control programs in

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communities to curb mosquito-borne illnesses, including dengue which the DOH so far has failed to contain. With another vector-borne disease posing a threat to public health, government cannot afford to remain ineffective against these kinds of diseases.

If the germs don’t kill you, then the lifestyle will Chronic non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease attacks the most productive age group of the population Enacting the sin-tax bill would curb cigarette smoking in the Philippines, a leading cause of non-communicable diseases in the country

Networking against non-communicable diseases YouTube/WHO

Southeast Asia faces an epidemic of chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), now responsible for 60% of deaths in the region, according to the study,

TECHNOLOGY

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“The rise of chronic non-communicable diseases in Southeast Asia: Time for action.” The study, which was published in The Lancet, a medical research publication, says noncommunicable diseases – heart disease, stroke, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – result from environmental factors that promote tobacco use, unhealthy diet, and inadequate physical activity. The study estimates 2.6 million people, from ten Southeast Asian countries covered by its research, died from chronic NCDs in 2005 alone. The numbers are expected to rise to 4.2 million deaths a year in 2030, with population ageing in these countries and increasing exposure to risk factors for NCDs. One major concern is the death of people aged 15 to 59 due to NCDs, which cover about 30% of all deaths due to these diseases. These deaths represent premature and preventable mortality in a highly productive age group – the labor force of Southeast Asia. Developing countries in the region are the hardest hit by this epidemic because of the diseases’ effect on their labor force, the factor of production they rely heavily on to catch up with more affluent neighbours. The study estimates a cost of some $7 billion will be incurred between 2006 to 2015 due to NCDs in the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. One way to avert or at least delay the epidemic may be to tax products that contribute to the prevalence of NCDs. In the Philippines, a country with high prevalence of tobacco use, a “sin tax” bill that aims to impose taxes on cigarettes and liquor awaits Senate deliberation. According to the Philippine National Tobacco Control Strategy 2011-2016, tobacco kills

The

cenSEI Report

To defuse or delay the chronic illness bomb, be ready to tax the causes of NCDs

approximately 87,600 Filipinos per year (240 deaths every day), one third of them men in the most productive ages of their lives. Based on studies such as published in the “Public Health Reports” of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, as well as on a USA Today analysis, enacting the sin tax bill ought to curb tobacco smoking in the Philippines. The measures laid out in the country’s tobacco control strategy should also be implemented and given priority to guard against devastating health, social, environmental, and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke. In addition, policies contained in the Health Department’s “National Policy on the Prevention of Non-communicable Lifestyle-related Diseases,” must be enforced. Implementation should show special preference for the poorer, more vulnerable segments of society, as stressed by the study, “Inequities in Noncommunicable Diseases,” conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. Other more specific interventions against risk factors associated with NCDs are provided by the paper, “From Burden to “Best Buys”: Reducing the Economic Impact of Non-communicable Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.”

• October 1-14, 2012