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Sunday, January 27, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 109
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How should children be protected from criminals? By labeling them as such? How can crime using kids be reduced? Lawmakers, community leaders, law enforcers are entangled in a difficult debate.
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By Rene Acosta
T age 7, Arnold (not his real name) has already learned the basics of the neighborhood illegal-drugs trade, a budding street knowledge that could very well prepare him to transform into a fulltime drug peddler, or perhaps even a big-time drug lord, in a matter of a few years.
At his tender age, Arnold was already maintaining a drug den for a local drug lord in Navotas identified as “Negro,” and was even doing some errands for him, delivering and selling shabu to patrons at the Navotas fish market. Like the others who were into the drug trade, he was also using illegal drugs. On January 16, Arnold fell into the arms of the law. He was among the 12 minors—age 4 to 15 years old—“rescued” by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as they raided the den where they also arrested four adults and seized at least 44
sachets of shabu. “They were being used in the illegal-drugs trade. The children were the ones maintaining the drug den and they were tasked to sell drugs to the Navotas fishport area,” said PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino. The alarming involvement of children in illicit drugs and other crimes is being held up as the main driver of the move in Congress to lower the country’s crime liability, or the minimum age of criminal liability (MACR), from 15 years to just 9. It’s a move being supported by other law-enforcement agencies, including the Philippine Na-
tional Police (PNP).
or even 9, amid the opposition of some groups and sectors and even some agencies of government. The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on second reading House Bill 8858 lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility in the country from 15 years old to 12 years old. The bill is expected to be approved on third and final reading next week.
The remedy?
THE PNP supports the effort to lower the age of criminal liability, as it noted the “alarming” increase of minors’ involvement in crimes. The PNP through its chief, Director General Oscar Albayalde, principally views the measure as a “crime deterrent,” not only for minors, but even for parents, some of whom use their children, or abet or tolerate, their involvement in illegal activities. Congress is pushing to lower the crime liability from the law’s current MACR of 15 years old to 12
Theft, rape and drugs
IN supporting the proposal, Albayalde noted that minors have also been involved in wide-ranging cases that align them with ordinary Continued on A2
US-China Cold War will worsen before it improves
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By Tyler Cowen | Bloomberg Opinion
There will be two separate Internets, with the US and China as the two dominant players. American tech companies still will be kept out of China, and Chinese tech companies will find it hard to get Western contracts or sales, as Huawei is discovering with its plans to build 5G networks. National
security and surveillance considerations will make these risks too high, and such restrictions will become increasingly important as “software eats the world.” There is already talk that the US should not buy solar panels from China. What if those panels are monitoring Americans,
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.7350
NUTHAWUT SOMSUK | DREAMSTIME.COM
E are in the midst of a new Cold War, with the United States and China carving out separate economic and political orders. Let’s consider how it might look in a few years.
or have embedded kill switches? Even if the chances are not high, risk-averse businesses, as well as businesses that have contracts with the Pentagon, will feel more comfortable with other sources of supply. Already, CFIUS—the US regulator charged with scrutinizing foreign investment—is no longer welcoming Chinese investment in American sectors that might be considered sensitive in terms of either national security or advanced technology. Furthermore, Apple iPhone sales in China are down, and that was long one of the biggest export success stories for an American company. You can blame that on the Chinese economic slowdown. Continued on A2
n JAPAN 0.4812 n UK 68.8666 n HK 6.7215 n CHINA 7.7694 n SINGAPORE 38.7586 n AUSTRALIA 37.3997 n EU 59.6433 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.0615
Source: BSP (January 25, 2019 )
TINNAKORN JORRUANG | DREAMSTIME.COM
‘A FACTORY OF CRIMINALS’
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A2 Sunday, January 27, 2019
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‘A factory of criminals’
and mature criminals, with theft, rape and illegal drugs being the top three cases that they were into or had committed. During the past two years, or from 2016 up to 2018, the PNP chief disclosed that a total of 12,136 minors were involved in criminal cases, which he described as “very alarming.” “Based on our records, we have children as low as 5 [years old] involved in various crimes already,” he said in one television interview. Of the more than 12,000 minors involved in crimes, about 4,000 were involved in theft and robbery cases, 1,700 in rape and more than a thousand in illegaldrugs cases. From January 2017 up to December 2018, some 1,300 minors were involved in illegal drugs, according to the figures of the PNP. This is more than double the 589 that the PDEA reported from July 1, 2016 up to January 2018. Albayalde said that aside from theft and robbery, rape and illegal drugs, some children were also involved in other crimes like assault and physical injury.
Making parents more accountable
ALBAYALDE said that while they are in agreement with the proposal
being moved in Congress, the PNP also views the measure from a wider perspective; that is, that the role and accountability of both the children and parents should also be considered. The PNP chief advocates stricter sanctions and stiffer penalties for parents who use their children in illegal activities or abet their involvement in crimes. “Some parents even use their children in crimes,” Albayalde said, noting that in illegal drugs, children are tapped as couriers. The parents can be quite brazen here because they know the children will not end up in jail once they are arrested because they are minors. From being couriers, the children, in some cases, even could morph into drug users and bigtime neighborhood pushers. Albayalde said the parents should share more in bearing the burden of their children’s infractions by letting them be more responsible and accountable. At times, the offending children can even be both the victims and culprits. “We should not only see the measure on the law enforcement side, because enforcement is very easy. If the law is violated, we can just make an arrest. We should also look as to why the children are committing crimes at their early
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age,” Albayalde stressed. “Are they not in school? We should compel the parents to send their children to school,” he said. The PNP chief said factors and other perspectives must also be considered in the effort to lower the MACR, with the end goal of making children more productive members of society. “We also have to look at these children, we also have to look at our system. What could we do for these children?” Albayalde wondered aloud.
‘Failing them twice’
MOST of the lawmakers and child-rights advocates opposing the lowering of the MACR believe that this strategy is akin to failing the children twice: first, the state fails to protect the innocent from criminals who use them for nefarious activities; and then it jeopardizes their future by tagging them as criminals and detaining them in reformatories that, for all the well-intentioned pronouncements of lower-MACR champions, are actually ill-equipped to help them turn a new leaf and become good citizens. If at all, the abject lack of good reformatories and social workers will only push the minors under rehab deeper into a life of crime and perfidy, the critics of a lower MACR say.
PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY
Continued from A1
The government should first strongly implement the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 before asking Congress to pass the bill lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility, the lawmaker-opposers of a lower MACR assert. Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the present Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 must be fully implemented first but with the assurance of adequate funding for non-penal institutions and programs for children in conflict with the law. “We must not expose children to the adversities of prosecutory and judicial processes just because the government has failed to implement the juvenile justice law,” he said. “Lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility will not result in lower crime rates. Data show that children commit only 1.72 percent of reported crimes and most of them are poverty-induced crimes like theft. Poverty is the problem which must be addressed and solved,” he added. “Neuroscientific research documents that the brains of children do not fully develop until their early 20s. Consequently, children between the ages of 12 and 15 do not have complete faculties for discernment to make them criminally culpable,” he said.
e should not only see the measure on the law enforcement side because enforcement is very easy. If the law is violated, we can just make an arrest. We should also look as to why the children are committing crimes at their early age. Are they not in school? We should compel the parents to send their children to school.”— PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde
The lawmaker said lowering the age of criminal responsibility will just encourage criminal syndicates to use even younger children. “What should be done is not to sanction children but to have a more intensified campaign against criminal syndicates exploiting children and treble the penalty imposable on them.”
‘Factory of criminals’
SENIOR Deputy Minority Leader and Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza also denounced the proposed lowering of the MACR to 9 years old, calling it, “a product of obviously disoriented minds.” According to Atienza, “The issue here is that 9 year olds do not have their own minds yet…. Do you want your child who just happens to be involved in a wrongdoing, in a delinquency case, to be considered a criminal? Would you allow that in your own conscience and your own duties as parents? I appeal to my colleagues who are also parents and grandparents—let us not jeopardize our children’s future.” Atienza pointed out that right now, the government cannot even implement RA 9344, the original law which provides for the 15 years’ minimum age of criminal responsibility. “We have not started construction of the so-called reformatory
Bahay Pag-asa and houses to detain 15-year-old violators of the law,” Atienza added. Due to the lack of funding for the creation and operation nationwide of the Bahay Pag-asa, children in conflict with the law are bound to be confined in jail-like facilities, and no prison is fit for a child, Lagman said. He said only five Bahay Pagasa units are accredited by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC) for being compliant with prescribed standards. Oriental Mindoro Rep. Doy Leachon, the chairman of the House Committee on Justice, clarified the measure would not detain children. He also said children will not be mixed with criminals, as children in conflict with law are going to be placed in Bahay Pag-asa for reformation, and supervision over them will be transferred to the DSWD from the local government. But if past experience is to be a template, the goals of the lower MACR camp are far from being doable. Indeed, as Atienza warned, the Philippines “might end up being a factory of criminals.” With an earlier report by Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz
US-China Cold War will worsen before it improves Continued from A1
But in the longer run, a mix of cheaper “good enough” Chinese brands, plus security considerations and patriotism, means Apple has probably peaked in China. The new dynamic affects people as well as products. China is asking state firms to avoid travel to the US and its allies. And if you were an American or Canadian tech company executive, would you travel to China right now, given that Canada has detained a leading Huawei executive (and daughter of the company’s chief executive officer) for extradition to the US? Meanwhile, many American universities are kicking their local Confucius Institute off campus, most notably the University of Michigan, amid complaints that those institutes are spying on Chinese nationals who attend those schools. Whether or not that is true, this is another sign of the collapse of trust. This is the deeper issue with the US-China relationship: the continuing erosion, in an era of rapid deglobalization, of previous ties built at least partly on a common sense of purpose. Looking back at 2018, it now seems obvious
that this was the most important story of the year. It is easy enough to imagine how things might get worse. More and more accounts of Chinese espionage are likely to surface, and the US is hacking Chinese systems, too. As deals are rejected, commercial and political grudges will stick and fester. Hong Kong may fall even further into the Chinese sphere and behind the Great Firewall. Headlines will focus on tariffs and the short-term trade war with China. But the issues are geopolitical, not commercial. Even if there is a truce in the trade war in the next few months, any agreement on Chinese economic policy will itself be hard to enforce. And, of course, no settlement can change the fundamental dynamic of declining trust. I don’t necessarily see the endpoint here as a major war between China and the US, simply because the costs of such a conflict would be too high for all parties. Still, it is easy enough to imagine China making military moves or threats in its immediate neighborhood, perhaps against Taiwan. China
could become more of an international pariah, as was the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan, and that would cement this basic pattern of delinking. The US is unlikely to be the major loser from this process, which in part explains why it may happen. Higher prices for Chinese goods will harm American consumers, but they will also accelerate outsourcing to lower-wage nations such as Vietnam and Bangladesh. Furthermore, the US has the preponderance of strong allies, as compared to China, so it will enter a more intense geopolitical struggle in a better position. The biggest losers are likely to be nations which wish to keep strong commercial ties to both the US and China, for instance, Germany and Singapore. And China itself, which is still relatively poor and may be entering an economic slowdown, has a history of political instability. So it is much more vulnerable than the US. My biggest fear is that all of this will be the most important story not only of 2019 but also of 2020.
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Sunday, January 27, 2019
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Will robots take your job? Quarter of US workers at risk
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OBOTS aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of US jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report. Thursday’s report from the Washing ton t hin k tan k says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation—meaning at least 70 percent of their tasks could soon be performed by machines using current technology. Among those most likely to be affected are cooks, waiters and others in food services; short-haul truck drivers; and clerical office workers. “That population is going to need to upskill, reskill or change jobs fast,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings and lead author of the report. Muro said the timeline for the changes could be “a few years or it could be two decades.” But it’s likely that automation will happen more swiftly during the next economic downturn. Businesses are typically eager to implement cost-cutting technology as they lay off workers. Though the United States is in
the middle of its second-longest expansion in history, and jobs data suggest that the economy remains healthy, many business leaders and economists have suggested in surveys that the United States could slip into a recession in 2020. In addition, the partial government shutdown has been creating anxieties about a downturn. Some economic studies have found that similar shifts toward automating production happened in the early part of previous recessions—and may have contributed to the “jobless recovery” that followed the 2008 financial crisis. But with new advances in artificial intelligence, it’s not just industrial and warehouse robots that will alter the American work force. Self-checkout kiosks and computerized hotel concierges will do their part. Most jobs will change somewhat as machines take over routine tasks, but a majority of US workers will be able to adapt to that shift
IN this January 15 file photo, a robot named Marty cleans the floors at a Giant grocery store in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of US jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of today’s work, according to a new Brookings Institution report. AP/MATT ROURKE
without being displaced. Some chain restaurants have already shifted to self-ordering machines; a handful have experimented with robot-assisted kitchens. Google this year is piloting the use of its digital voice assistant at hotel lobbies to instantly interpret conversations across a few dozen languages. Autonomous vehicles could replace short-haul delivery
drivers. Walmart and other retailers are preparing to open cashierless stores powered by in-store sensors or cameras with facial recognition technology. The changes will hit hardest in smaller cities, especially those in the heartland and the Rust Belt, according to the Brookings report. The risk is highest in Indiana and Kentucky, where some counties have nearly half the
work force employed in the laborintensive manufactur ing and transportation industries. The changes will also disproportionately affect the younger workers who dominate food services and other industries at highest risk for automation. “Restaurants will be able to get along with significantly reduced work forces,” Muro said. “In the hotel industry, instead of five people
manning a desk to greet people, there’s one and people basically serve themselves.” Many economists find that automation has an overall positive effect on the labor market, said Matias Cortes, an assistant professor at York University in Toronto who was not involved with the Brookings report. It can create economic growth, reduce prices and increase demand while also creating new jobs that make up for those that disappear. But Cortes said there’s no doubt there are “clear winners and losers.” In the recent past, those hardest hit were men with low levels of education who dominated manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs, and women with intermediate levels of education who dominated clerical and administrative positions. In the future, the class of workers affected by automation could grow as machines become more intel ligent. T he Brookings report analyzed each occupation’s automation potential based on research by the McKinsey management consulting firm. Those jobs that remain largely unscathed will be those requiring not just advanced education, but also interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. “These high-paying jobs require a lot of creativity and problemsolving,” Cortes said. “That’s going to be difficult for new technologies to replace.” AP
A4 Sunday, January 27, 2019
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Faith www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
3RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: ‘LUKE 1:1-4; 4:14-21’
JESUS, OUR SAVIOR AND FRIEND
MSGR. JOSEFINO S. RAMIREZ SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE
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HE gospel for today talks about the beginning of the public life of Jesus Christ. It really began with His baptism by John, but before starting out on that three-year period of teaching, curing and establishing His Church, Jesus first went on a kind of 40-day retreat. After his “retreat” one of the first public appearances of Jesus was at the synagogue of His hometown, where, by a providential arrangement, the messianic passages of the Scriptures were seen to be applied to Him. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). The mission of Jesus Christ was clearly not a political one. According to the tradition of the Old Testament and the preaching of Christ (cf. Matthew 5:3), “poor” means not so much a specific condition, but the religious attitude of reliance on God and humility; of those who confide in the divine goodness rather than on their own merits. Thus, to “preach good news” to them means to preach redemption from sin. This text has a primarily spiritual and transcendental meaning. Christ comes to
liberate us from the blindness and oppression of sin, which is our slavery to the devil. Saint John Chrysostom said: “There is a sensible captivity when the enemy comes from outside. But even worse is the spiritual captivity because sin causes the hardest tyranny, leads to evil and confuses its followers. Jesus Christ liberated us from this spiritual prison” As our savior, we need to be personally united to Christ. In other words, we must become friends of Christ. The Catholic Church has always emphasized this, and true Christian piety is always at the function of this personal relationship of Christ. If we want to see examples of this, we just to have to look at the multitude of canonized saints of the Church, and also at the great multitude of truly pious and devout Catholics, who, in a discreet and modest way, have an intimate and personal dealing with Christ. Some persons, referring to themselves as “Born Again” Christians act as if having a personal relationship with Christ were a new discovery. That would imply that 20 centuries as Christian piety were all false and artificial. Yet the Church’s insistence on prayer and on the other means of union with God has always been present. If we want a rich source of solid and firm spirituality, we can find it abundantly in the Church.
Saint Jose Gabriel Brochero, the Gaucho Priest By Corazon Damo-Santiago
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E wore a colorful poncho with a sombrero, the attire worn by cattle herders. He rode his mule Malacara to oversee his poor parishioners around Sierra Grandes. Cura Gaucho is a “shepherd who smelled of sheep, poor among the poor,” said Pope Francis, a fellow Argentine. Saint Brochero was the first saint of Argentina.
Cowboy priest
JOSE Gabriel del Rosario Brochero was born on March 16, 1840, the fourth among 10 children of Ignacio Brochero and Petrona Davila. At 16, he entered Our Lady of Loreto and was ordained priest in the Diocese of Cordoba on November 4, 1866. He was assigned to do pastoral tasks in the Cathedral of Cordoba, and Prefect of Studies in the Major Seminary. From the University of Cordoba he earned his Master of Philosophy in 1869. He helped care for the sick during the 1867 cholera epidemic. In 1869, he was assigned to the Parish of Saint Albert. It was a deplorable place on the great highlands of Sierra Grande. His parishioners were isolated from the rest of the country and each other by the 6,500-foot. mountain ranges. There were no roads, no schools, no means of communication, not even letters to mail for there were no postal or telegraphic services. Despite strong snow storms, he traveled 125 miles in three days riding his mule. After nine days of prayer and penance, he was determined to develop the reg ion. He was considered a “spiritual giant.” Always, as he traveled with his dependable mule, he was a familiar figure in poncho with a large sombrero. He always carried his Mass kit, a prayer book and the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In “Who Was Father Brochero?” an article on the Internet, he was described as a pastor who devoted his time to those who needed help—“no sick person was left devoid of the sacraments as there was no force that could stop him.” And he said: “Woe if the devil is going to rob a soul from me.”
Public servant par excellence
POPE Francis, during his beatification on September 15, 2013, said: “He [Brochero] knew the love of Jesus. He let his heart be touched by the mercy of God, which he extended to all people.” This man of God was also considered “a public servant par excellence.” With his parishioners, they built over 125 miles of road to develop a sense of community. He planned a railway through Traslasiera to connect Dolores and Soto. Too, he requested authorities to provide for post and telegraph services in the region. A place “Abandoned by all, but not by God,” as the indefatigable man of God remarked, became an example of what a community inspired by committed leadership can accomplish. Houses for Exercises (Spirit u a l Act iv it ies) was bu i lt in 1875 and inaugurated in 1877. A school for girls and a convent for teac hers was founded in 1880. The article “ The Gaucho Priest, Jose Brochero beatified on September 25, 2013” noted: “He dedicated himself entirely to his f lock. Their needs came first as his sole focus.” He visited his sick and needy parishioners often. In one of his visits, he embraced a leper and contracted the disease. T he Catholic News Agency in an article, however, noted that his disease was due to the favorite drink in the area, yerba mate, which he drank with blind patients. In 1898 he was appointed Canon of the Catholic University of Cordoba. On August 25, 1902, he was appointed pastor in Villa del Transito and resigned on February 5, 1908. Blind, deaf and leprous toward the end of his life, he lived with his sisters. His last words: “Now I have everything ready for the journey.” He died on January 26, 1914. On October 16, 2016, he was canonized by Pope Francis. Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Sunday
Sunday, January 27, 2019
A5
VISITING SAINT VINCENT FERRER’S RESTING PLACE
A miracle in Vannes, France
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Story & photos by Stephanie Tumampos
HIS year, devotees to Saint Vincent Ferrer will be celebrating his 600th year of faith and miracles after his death. For this author, the trip to Vannes—a walled town in the Brittany region of northwest France—to visit Saint Vincent Ferrer as a personal pilgrimage was more of a miracle than a stroke of luck. I hail from Bohol province in the Visayas, where most people would say that we are one of the most religious. We have churches that are five centuries old. My mother, who assigned all of us five siblings a saint to be devoted to, chose Saint Vincent Ferrer for me. Back in the earlier days, my mother would tell me how powerful Saint Vincent Ferrer is and how he makes miracles from time to time. Saint Vincent Ferrer was born on January 23, 1350, in Valencia, Spain, and died on April 5, 1419. In his lifetime, Saint Vincent was responsible for converting over thousands of Jews and Moors through his preaching. He had the “gift of tongue” wherein he was understood by men of different languages. He also cured the sick and even put back dead people to life. Saint Vincent Ferrer has performed many miracles in his life that no other saint could maybe surpass it. Last year in August, I was accepted for a weeklong workshop in the Netherlands. I immediately called my mom to inform her about the good news of my acceptance and told her that I plan to visit Saint Vincent Ferrer’s resting place in Vannes, France, right after the workshop. The next day, my mother called back and said that right when she dropped our conversation, she opened her closet and Saint Vincent Ferrer’s novena booklet fell out. “Could you believe this? This must be a sign,” she gasped. Maybe it was. I flew to the Netherlands to attend the workshop, and right after, I traveled to Paris and boarded another train to Vannes. It was a two-hour trip. I arrived and went straight to the Vannes Cathedral with a rose in my hand for Saint Vincent. The first thing I saw at the cathedral was this huge sign at the
THE entrance to the Vannes Cathedral in Brittany, France, with a sign indicating the preparation for the 600th death anniversary
entrance, indicating the preparation for the 600th death anniversary of the miraculous saint since 1419. His tomb beside the altar has a reliquary bust where his relic is placed. Overwhelmed, I sat in front of it and cried—because I couldn’t believe I’d be able to make it there. I later roamed around the cathedral and found myself sitting at the last row of the benches. While waiting for the drizzle to stop, I noticed a man setting up a table and displayed some souvenirs. I bought some items, and we had a talk. He asked where I come from, and maybe when he heard that I came from faraway Philippines, he suddenly told me, “Did you know that the house where Saint Vincent Ferrer died is only a few blocks away from here?” Emmanuel Didier happens to be the caretaker of the special place where Saint Vincent Ferrer spent his last years. Didier was kind enough to bring me to Saint Vincent Ferrer’s room even though it should have been closed for the weekend. Together with Alicia van de Voorde, a student who is also devoted to Saint Vincent Ferrer, we walked our way. The house, noticeable because of its slightly bluish door with the house number 17 and a statue marker of Saint Vincent Ferrer outside, had a small souvenir shop on the first floor. Saint Vincent Ferrer only had a small room for himself on the second floor of the house. According to Didier, the saint was offered a grander place to stay by a royal leader but declined the offer. “He wanted his place to be near the people,” Didier said.
THE tomb of Saint Vincent Ferrer inside the Vannes Cathedral, with a reliquary bust on top where his relic is placed
SAINT Vincent’s small room during his last days
THE façade of Saint Vincent Ferrer’s house that has a souvenir shop on the ground floor
Didier showed me the various photos of statues and paintings displayed on the wall on how Saint Vincent Ferrer looked like. He also explained why most artists in the older days depicted him with a trumpet and wings. “Sa int Vincent Fer rer was
He wanted his place to be near the people.”—Didier
drawn with a trumpet because when he preached, his voice could reach 3 miles away, and it was a miracle,” the caretaker said. The saint was pictured with wings because a number of people have seen him assume wings and fly off to a suffering person while preaching. Saint Vincent Ferrer’s room only had a small entrance. The room itself was about 4 meters in length and 3 meters wide with a small spiral staircase for him to easily go out when people needed him. “He [Saint Vincent Ferrer] liked the staircase exit because it gave him an easier way to get out, preach and be closer to the people,” Did ier said. “People loved him so much that they always wanted an audience with him wherever he went.” His room is also featured as another relic. It is accessible to any pilgrim to see through his place of his humble life of faith and miracles. For me, it was a miracle—to be standing right there where he lived and died. I only had a day to explore Vannes, but it was a humbling experience of faith. This year, on April 5, will mark the 600th anniversary of Saint Vincent Ferrer’s death. I am sure that in the next 600 years, faith will strengthen and more miracles will happen as how I believed this trip was. It was more than just a pilgrimage to his tomb but a miracle that I came to know more about his life of devotion to the Lord.
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Science
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Sunday, January 27, 2019
Sunday
Shutdown is tough for groups helping endangered whales
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ORTLAND, Maine—Rescuers who respond to distressed whales and other marine animals say the federal government shutdown is making it more difficult to do their work. A network of rescue groups in the US works with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to respond to marine mammals, such as whales and seals, when the animals are in trouble, such as when they are stranded on land or entangled in fishing gear. But the federa l shutdow n, which entered its 33rd day on Wednesday, includes a shuttering of the NOAA operations the rescuers rely upon. NOA A plays a role in preventing accidental whale deaths by doing things like tracking the animals, operating a hot line for mariners who find distressed whales and providing permits that allow the rescue groups to respond to emergencies. Those functions are disrupted or ground to a halt by the shutdown, and that’s bad news if whales need help, said Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium in Boston, which has a rescue operation. “If it was very prolonged, then it would become problematic to respond to animals that are in the water,” LaCasse said. “And to be able to have a better handle on what is really going on.” The shutdown is coming at a particularly dangerous time for the endangered North Atlantic right whale, which numbers about 411, said Regina AsmutisSilvia, a senior biologist with
Whale and Dolphin Conservation of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The whales are under tight scrutiny r ight now bec ause of recent yea rs of h igh mor t a l it y a nd poor reproduction. NOAA recently identified an aggregation of 100 of the whales south of Nantucket—nearly a quarter of the world’s population—but the survey work is now interrupted by the shutdown, Asmutis-Silvia said. Surveys of rare whales are important for biologists who study the animals and so rescuers can have an idea of where they are, she said. No right whale mortalities have been recorded so far in 2018, but there have been at least 20 since April 2017. “There’s a really significant impact on marine-mammal conservation based on this shutdown,” Asmutis-Silvia said. “We have little to no ability to find them because of NOAA’s being furloughed.” Ma ny in t he conser vat ion community are anticipating potential changes to the federal gover nment ’s At l a nt ic L a rge W ha le Ta ke Reduct ion Pl a n,
A NORTH Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Massachusetts, on March 28, 2018. AP/MICHAEL DWYER
which is a tool to reduce incidental deaths of whales. But that process, too, is on hold because of the shutdown. Calls from The Associated Press to NOAA spokesmen were not returned. Some spokesmen for the agency have voicemail set up to say they will return to work when the shutdown is over. Outside of the federal government, work to protect whales is still going on. The developer of an offshore wind energy project off Massachusetts announced last Wednesday that it is partnering with environmental groups on a plan to try to protect the right whales. And not all the news about the whales is gloomy. A Florida research team has located the third right whale calf of the season. None were spotted last season.
If it [shutdown] was very prolonged, then it would become problematic to respond to animals that are in the water”—LaCasse
Scott Landry, director of marine mammal entanglement response for the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, said that a NOAA whale entanglement hot line is currently being forwarded to him, and that he’s managing to pick up the slack so far. Rescue groups anticipated the shutdown and are working together to make do until it’s over, he said. In Virginia, one of the state’s first responders for whale rescues is the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach. Mark Swingle, the aquarium’s director of research and conservation, said the center would not have “the usual assets we depend on to support the response” if it needs to assist an endangered whale. That’s because NOAA staff and the Coast Guard would not be available, Swingle said. “ T he s e c i rc u m s t a nce s re qu i re e x t re me ly s p e c i a l i z e d t ra i n i ng a nd resou rces, a nd NOA A is the lead organizer of large whale and other disentanglement efforts,” he said. “Live strandings pose their own set of challenges that NOA A helps navigate appropriately.” AP
DISASTERS INFLUENCE THINKING ON CLIMATE CHANGE
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ASHINGTON—When it comes to their views on climate change, Americans are looking at natural disasters and their local weather, according to a new poll. L ate l y, t h at m e a n s re co rd d e a d l y wildfires in California, rainfall by the foot in Houston when Hurricane Harvey hit and the dome of smog over Salt Lake City that engineer Caleb Gregg steps into when he walks out his door in winter. “I look at it every day,” Gregg said from Salt Lake City, where winter days with some of the country’s worst air starting a few years ago dinged the city’s reputation as a pristine sports city and spurred state leaders to ramp up clean-air initiatives. “You look out and see pollution just sitting over the valley.” “I’ve never really doubted climate change—in the last five-ish years it’s b e c o m e e ve n m o re e v i d e n t, j u s t b y seeing the weather,” the 25-year- old said. “We know we’re polluting, and we know pollution is having an effect on the environment.” The poll by The Associated PressNational Opinion Research Center (NORC) for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago finds 74 percent of Americans say extreme weather in the past five years—hurricanes, droughts, floods and heat waves—has influenced their opinions about climate change. That includes half of Americans who say these recent events have influenced their thinking a great deal or a lot. About as many, 71 percent, said the weather they experience daily in their own areas has influenced their thinking about climate-change science. The survey was conducted in November, a few days before the federal g ove r n m e nt re l e a s e d a m a j o r re p o r t rev ving up scientific warnings about
SMOG covers Salt Lake City as an inversion lingers on January 18, 2017. RAVELL CALL/THE DESERET NEWS VIA AP
the impact of climate change, including the growing toll of extreme storms and droughts. The share of Americans who said they think the climate is changing has held roughly steady over the last year—about 7 in 10 Americans think climate change is happening. Among those, 60 percent say climate change is caused mostly or entirely by humans, and another 28 percent think it’s about an equal mix of human activities and natural changes. Overall, 9 percent of Americans said climate change is not happening, and another 19 percent said they were not sure. The poll finds Americans’ personal observations of real-time natural disasters and the weather around them have more impact than news stories or statements by religious or political leaders. “It speaks to what we know of what people trust. They trust themselves and their own experiences,” said Heidi Roop, a climate scientist at the University of Washington’s Climate Impact Group who
focuses on the science of climate-change communication. For a long time, the idea that the acrid black billows from car and truck tailpipes and power-plant smokestacks were altering t h e Ea r t h’s at m o s p h e re s t i l l s e e m e d abstract, with any impacts decades away. “With the extreme events that we’ve been seeing, we’re increasingly able to attribute, or pull out, how human-caused climate change is making those more severe,” Roop said. When wildfires get bigger and more frequent, floods bigger and smog more entrenched, it begins to hit “the things that we all hold dear, and that’s when people get affected and begin to connect the dots,” Roop said. But a minority of Americans still connect to different dots: While the poll finds most of those who believe in climate change say it’s caused by human activity or an equal mix of human activity and natural causes, roughly 1 in 10 attribute climate change to natural changes in the environment. In West Haven, Connecticut, 69-year-old
Alan Perkins says he can see the climate is in fact changing—the Atlantic beaches a few blocks from his house are about a third smaller than when he used to play on the sand as a kid, Perkins said by phone. Scientists say climate change will mean warming oceans expand and waves get rougher, eating away at shorelines. “I see erosion along our shorelines. Our beaches are getting smaller. I see that,” Perkins said. “I’m just not sure exactly how much we can do about that. I think nature takes care of a lot of it. Like when it rains it cleans the air. I think nature kind of takes care of itself,” Perkins said. “A lot of it is just in God’s hands, and he’s in control.” Elizabeth Renz, a 62-year-old homemaker in Cincinnati, says the rise in temperatures globally and the surge in natural disasters in the United States is “just happening naturally.” “Our Earth is cycling through it, and I don’t know if there’s much we can do about it,” she said. She points to communities expanding into deserts and other unwelcoming terrain. “We’re living in areas that we shouldn’t be living in,” she said. The poll shows that Americans are ready to pay more to deal with the changing climate—but not to pay very much. A majority of Americans, 57 percent, would support a proposal that would add a $1 monthly fee to their electricity bills to combat climate change. But most oppose proposals that would increase their own monthly costs by $10 or more. The poll also examined views on one of the Trump administration’s proposals to roll back future mileage standards for cars and light trucks. That would hit one of the Obama administration’s key efforts to reduce climate-changing fossil-fuel emissions. AP
Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph
INDIA’S MILLENNIALS TURNING TO ALGORITHMS FOR LOVE
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AWAN GUPTA wasn’t having any luck finding a match. The 31-year-old MBA graduate wanted to get married and scoured dating apps and Indian matrimonial web sites. Yet, after four years of looking and dating, he was no closer to walking around the sacred fire typical of the Hindu marriage ceremony. So the MIT Sloan School of Management alum decided to build an artificial-intelligence (AI)-powered matchmaking app, one that would determine emotional, intellectual and social compatibility. Gupta teamed up with engineer Rahul Namdev to create Betterhalf, employing a wide swath of data to figure out who could be successfully matched for marriage. The service is starting to have success. Manoj Kumar Singh, 32, turned to Betterhalf after years of failures with traditional matchmaking and dating web sites. He was paired up with an HSBC executive he found kind and caring; they were married within months. “Over four years, I thought I’d tried everything,” Singh recounted telling friends when he first heard of Betterhalf. “After so many frustrating attempts, an AI-based app helped find me a wife.” AI systems are flourishing in dating apps the world over, using deep learning to analyze Facebook posts or users’ tweets to gauge how compatible they would be for each other. Nowhere is this more significant than in India, where marriage remains a goal for many in the world’s largest youthful population of more than 400 million millennials. Local entrepreneurs, global dating apps and Indian matrimonial web sites are racing to bring AI to modernize match-making. There is, however, a lingering question. “Is India culturally ready for AI matchmaking apps?” said DD Mishra, a research director and analyst based in India for Gartner Inc. G u p t a’s e x p e r i e n c e s w i t h I n d i a n matrimonial web sites and global web sites suggest young urban Indians are ready for something new. He had become increasingly distressed by the process. One match made over a site went awry when she told him she was interested only in a spouse who could get an overseas posting. On another first date, he arrived wearing a new shirt to meet a woman matched by a matrimonial web site who left him stranded. And it took him months to realize that someone he was chatting with on a dating app wasn’t interested yet kept him dangling. “I felt rejected again and again,” Gupta said. “There’s a woman out there for me, but none of the dating apps or matrimonial web sites was helping me find her.” So he turned to algorithms and started Betterhalf. The firm, funded by 15 angel investors, including half a dozen MIT alumni, puts users through several levels of verification comprising social networks, phone number, personal and work e-mail, and government ID. New registrants answer a breadth of questions, including on moral values, emotions and personality traits. That information is then melded with data from married individuals,
open-source data and compatibility research. After matching people, post-interaction user polls help weed out the creeps. There are thousands of dating apps around the world, Gupta said during a conversation at the Betterhalf ’s headquarters, a home converted into quirky office space. “There’s a ready market of tens of millions of educated urban Indians seriously looking for partners, so why is nobody getting it right?” Betterhalf is targeted solely to serious spouse seekers. The star t-up has 15 employees—13 are single, use the app and half-mockingly refer to their office as a marriage lab. They are in the app’s core demographic, ages 25 to 40. Product head Rohan Bhatore, 27, has been avidly searching for seven months. The engineer educated at the Indian Institute of Technology has been matched with a dozen prospects but hasn’t yet advanced to a meeting. “Searching for a marriage partner is frustrating and soul-numbing,” he said. Algorithms can end up knowing a person better than friends, family or even themselves, and that’s revolutionizing matchmaking, said Michal Kosinski, a computational psychologist and assistant professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business who recently signed on as an adviser to Betterhalf. “Algorithms can learn from experiences of billions of others, while a typical person can only learn from their own experience and the experience of a relatively small number of friends,” he said. This is a much different matrimonial approach from the ones Indians have known for centuries: Matchmakers or families find prospective spouses within their circle and then vet the duo’s horoscopes by astrologers to ensure that the stars are aligned for the match. There’s plenty of competition in the new AI space. Delhi-based entrepreneur Kumar Akshay’s AI-powered start-up Truematch, which uses LinkedIn to authenticate users, is trying to dispel the idea that matchmaking apps only lead to casual relationships. “We wanted our app to be as trustworthy as the family matchmaker yet as cool as a dating app,” he said. Even some of India’s traditional matrimonial giants are jumping on the bandwagon. Matrimony.com, which has 3.7 million active users, is developing an AI-powered chatbot that it plans to deploy later this year. Global apps like OkCupid and Bumble, backed by Bollywood-Hollywood star Priyanka Chopra, are going beyond matching with obvious criteria like language or vocation in India and getting in tune with cultural realities. AI capabilities also could help detect matrimonial fraud, a serious challenge in India. In one recent case, a serial con artist was arrested in Hyderabad after he created dozens of fake profiles. He married one woman, was living with another and had defrauded hundreds more of millions of rupees. Betterhalf has other hurdles. In a diverse country, many users come up with extraordinarily specific, inflexible partner preferences. Bloomberg News
GENE SCIENTIST FIRED BY COLLEGE AS CHINA SAYS HE BROKE THE LAW
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HE Chinese scientist who altered the genes of twin baby girls as embryos was fired by his university after a government probe found he violated laws and signaled he may face a criminal investigation. He Jiankui’s employment was terminated by the Southern University of Science and Technology, which also ended his research activities based on the results of the probe, the university said in a statement this past week. A local government investigation found he breached China’s laws and ethics and will be “severely” dealt with, state-run Xinhua reported. The firing is the latest blow for He, who triggered an international backlash when he shocked the world with his claims of genetically altering human embryos that resulted in births. The suspected crimes will be handed over to China’s public security agency, increasing the prospects the scientist may face criminal charges. He, who retreated from public view following the revelation, is living under guard in university quarters in Shenzhen. He and his spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. The work by He and his team “seriously violates ethics and scientific research integrity,” as well as state regulations, Xinhua reported.
The investigation confirmed the birth of the genetically altered baby girls and also a second pregnancy, according to the report. He recruited eight volunteer couples for the experiment by “forging” ethical review documents, the news agency said. The scientist deliberately evaded regulation and supervision, raised his own funds and employed his own team for the gene-editing project on human embryos in “pursuit of personal fame and benefit,” according to Xinhua, citing the probe. The researcher violated the law in implanting the manipulated embryos into humans, according to the report. In China, it is banned to have manipulated embryos in vitro culture for more than 14 days, and the embryos are not allowed to be implanted into human bodies or animals, according to ethical guidelines on human embr yos and cells research published in 2003. Investigators in Guangdong province will hand over suspected crimes to the public security agency, the news report said without elaborating. The report did not say what punitive measures the government intends to take against He and his team. The twin babies and the pregnant volunteer will also be monitored, according to Xinhua. Bloomberg News
Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror
Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua
Sunday, January 27, 2019 A7
The confluence of old and new in Wuhan
DEFINED by the concrete jungle and modern design, Wuhan is where you can find the old and new in central China.
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Story & photos by Joshua Berida
’VE been to different parts of China; the breakneck pace at which everything is changing is prevalent, from the smallest of towns to the biggest of cities. The transformation from mountains to skyscrapers, forests to urban jungle happens within a span of hours and a couple hundred kilometers. Bullet trains cut through cities from without, while subways link ancient routes from within. Despite the modernization all over the country, it hasn’t lost its old soul. Wuhan is no exception to this.
Where the rivers meet
SITUATED near the concourse of the
Yangtze and Hanjiang Rivers, Wuhan was and still is an important port city in central China. In ancient times, boats sailed from different directions to stop here and trade, or restock before their next voyage. Traders from a bygone epoch walked its streets, ate, entertained themselves and did business, transferred knowledge, and some even decided to settle. Many wars have been fought to gain control of the region because of
NOSTALGIA for a bygone epoch is the theme of Zhiyinhao, an immersive theater sailing on the Yangtze River.
ONE of the old colonial buildings that hosts the city’s storied past.
its strategic location; kingdoms fell and rose upon its liberation and capture. One of the most famous battles in Chinese history, the Battle of Red Cliff, took place within proximity of Wuhan. In the 1860s, foreign powers saw the city’s importance and wanted to secure it as a trade and port route. At the time, China gave concessions to the Europeans, giving them their own zones. Centuries may have passed, but Wuhan is still what it was. Its modern iteration no longer sees rickety boats, carts and carriages coming and going. Massive steel ships, planes and bullet trains have replaced these. As a transportation hub in central China, the city is at the heart of the flow of people, both domestic and foreign, for commerce, to learn and go to different parts of the country.
Modern, old soul
WUHAN has continually remade
itself throughout the centuries, rising out of the ashes whenever an empire falls or when it was razed to the ground. At the end of the Japanese and American bombings, and the internal uprisings, the city is still here, rediscovering what’s lost while adapting to the modern milieu. It is a centuries-old metropolis, dating back to more than 3,000 years, with a contemporary façade. One of its most prominent structures is the Yellow Crane Tower, the popular symbol of the city. It shares the city’s skyline with skyscrapers, finished or currently under construction, and bridges that connect Wuhan’s districts. Sun Quan, the King of Wu from 182 to 252, had the tower built to serve as a watchtower. Hundreds of years lapsed and people forgot its military use. During the Tang Dynasty, artists wrote poems that attracted many to visit. Throughout the centuries, the tower was destroyed and rebuilt, with its
DESPITE rapid modernization, Wuhan keeps and maintains its cultural and historical heritage.
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THE luxurious one bedroom unit
minutes away from entertainment hubs such as Dream Play and Mall of Asia Arena, and just a short drive from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The new property houses 212 cozy units in four classifications: The Studio Deluxe (77 units) and Studio Deluxe Twin (69 units), at 32 square meters (sq m), are perfect for solo travelers or couples enjoying a fast-paced lifestyle. These unit types come with a queen-size bed or two twin beds. The Studio Premier (14 units), also at 32 sq m, is designed for extended stays with its fully equipped kitchen. This unit type it can accommodate up to two persons and has a queen-size bed. The One-Bedroom Premier serviced apartment (52 units) is great for families as the unit is bigger at 49.4 sq m, has a separate living and dining area, a fully equipped kitchen and a washer-dryer unit. This unit also comes with a queensize bed.
All apartments are equipped with modern amenities, including a smart TV, en-suite bathroom and split air-conditioning system, and guests can rest peacefully knowing security is round-the-clock. For recreational needs, there is a fitness center with free weights, selectorized strength machines, cardio zone and functional area that provides a space for group exercise classes. The fitness center is designed to create an exhilarating, fun and motivating workout environment. Right outside is a 25-meter swimming pool, wading pool for kids, pool bar, a running path and a relaxing sun deck. A spa is also available, where one can book a rejuvenating massage after a long day. As one of the leading international lodging owner-operators, The Ascott Ltd.’s impeccable touch in caring for its residents and guests is truly one of Citadines Bay City Manila’s highlights. Expect 24-hour reception, complimentary parking and daily breakfast
LIVING and dining area fit for small gatherings
their personal stories about 1930s Wuhan. The show combines a nostalgic atmosphere, vintage costumes and set pieces, sentimental music and tone, and state-of-theart technology.
A city full of stories
WUHAN has a storied past that fills books; bloody and historyaltering battles and uprisings took place within its boundaries or just outside of it; historical figures called it home even for a short time (Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai to name two); and old colonial buildings lining pedestrian streets. As finished and unfinished skyscrapers, and more than a century-old structures define the city’s skyline, it will continue to evolve and write a new story. If you’re looking for a modern and old version of China outside of Beijing and Shanghai, Wuhan is the place to be.
GRAB a bite in one of Wuhan’s eat streets.
Come home to Citadines Bay City Manila SPECTACULAR view of Manila Bay greets you in the morning as sunlight streams through your window. As you take in that last sip of coffee, life begins to stir in the urban jungle around you: professionals hustle and bustle to work, while entertainment hubs open their doors to eager visitors. It’s an energetic vibe so contagious that as you step out of the door of your cozily furbished apartment, you are raring to take in the sights, smells, tastes and sounds of Bay City—and the rest of historical Manila. Manila once again welcomes a prestigious property by The Ascott Ltd. as it opens today the Citadines Bay City Manila at the heart of Pasay City. In one of the most happening places in Bay City, on the corner of Diosdado Macapagal Avenue and Coral Way, Ascott’s first international serviced residence in the area is a stone’s throw from the sprawling SM Mall of Asia,
most recent reconstruction in 1981. While exploring Zhong Shan Avenue, I saw remnants of the city’s colonial past. Neoclassical and art deco style buildings lining the streets, shops selling the latest brands, neon signs, and the hustle and bustle of cars, people and motorcycles flowing through. Inside the Hubei Provincial Museum, visitors will see ancient relics that have historical and cultural value, some of which include instruments, porcelains, weapons and pottery, just to name a few. One of the most important treasures of the museum is the centuries-old Chime Bells. In the Music Hall, musicians perform using a duplicate of the bells. Nostalgia is in the air aboard Wuhan’s multidimensional immersive theater, Zhiyinhao. The ship sets sail along the Yangtze River with passengers getting an upclose look at the performers telling
and housekeeping service, as well as limousine service, a self-service launderette, and an in-room washing machine and dryer in selected apartments. Business travelers won’t find it hard to stay connected with the Citadines Bay City Manila’s speedy Wi-fi and broadband Internet access. Meeting and conference rooms, courier and secretarial services, and audiovisual equipment are also at their disposal. Citadines Bay City Manila also promises its residents utmost convenience, as it is in a mixeduse complex complete with office spaces and retail options at the adjacent W Mall. A member of CapitaLand, Ascott has more than 30 years’ experience in supporting travelers who work and live away from home. Live the life you desire with the Ascott Lifestyle, a collection of lifestyle experiences handpicked for your indulgence during your stay—because life is about living.
Rediscovering the healing power of Baguio’s forest
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AGUIO City has always been a premier destination for its cool climate and pine-scented air. Many people, especially those who come from Metro Manila, would travel to Baguio to relax and rejuvenate. Unfortunately, the purpose of visiting Baguio has gradually changed over the years. Instead of seeing Baguio as a place of healing, more and more people go there to visit bars and nightclubs. In an effort to revive public interest in Baguio as a place to heal, recuperate and reconnect with nature, the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) and the Department of Tourism (DOT)—CAR partnered with John Hay Management Corp. and Camp John Hay Development Corp. in launching the first-ever Forest Bathing Trail at Camp John Hay. The forest trail allows visitors to absorb the energy of the trees, leaves, sky and the earth. The concept to reposition Baguio as a destination for relaxation and rejuvenation is actually the reason it was discovered in the first place. Baguio City was first developed by the Americans and the Dominicans to provide rest, recreation and wellness for the people suffering in the lowlands. They built sanitariums and hospitals for the sick but believed that the natural healing powers of Baguio—its lush greeneries, pine trees and cool wind—helped cure the people. “This is the first time that we have a forest bathing trail in the Philippines, and we encourage people who come here to appreciate the weather, smell the pine-scented air, relax and stay longer,” said TPB COO Marie Venus Tan. Forest bathing or shinrin-yoku is a Japanese practice of going to the forest to reconnect with nature and improve one’s health, well-being and happiness. The Forest Bathing Trail spans a trek of 4 kilometers through a forest floor covered with thick and soft pine needles, pine-tree canopies and rich foliage of different floras. There are also eight stations for people to rest and meditate, each with
STARTING point of the Forest Bathing Trail
its own massive bamboo wind chime installation by bamboo craftsman, composer and artist Edgar Banasan. The relaxing melodies produced by the chime when caressed by the cool Baguio wind combined with the scenic view of the mountains create a soothing effect that calms the nerves. Aside from reducing stress, forest bathing can also reduce blood presssure, increase ability to focus, improve mood, accelerate recovery from surgery or illness, increase energy level and improve sleep. Forest plants have phytoncides, which are an active substance with antimicrobial properties that kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria, microscopic fungi and protozoa. Pine forests, particularly, are sterile and free of harmful microflora. Those who wish to visit the Forest Bathing Trail are encouraged to intermittently pause to touch and hug a tree, feel the earth beneath their bare feet, listen to the whispers of the wind, inhale the pinescented air and see for themselves the beauty of nature. With the opening of the Forest Bathing Trail, Baguio proves that it is more than a place for shopping, entertainment and leisure. It is also a sanctuary where people can rediscover themselves, unwind and reconnect with nature, heritage and culture.
A8 Sunday, January 27, 2019
OUT, BUT NOT DOWN By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press
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ELBOURNE, Australia—Tempting as it might be, don’t write off Serena Williams or Roger Federer just yet. Sure, both are 37, and they’re showing their age. Yes, both are gone from the Australian Open, each with a loss to a far-younger opponent. Williams exited on Wednesday in the quarterfinals against 26-year-old Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic after wasting four match points and a 5-1 lead in the third set; Federer went out on Sunday in the fourth round against 20-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. And, well, there also are these facts to consider: n Federer failed to make it to the final four at any of the past four Grand Slam tournaments (he sat out the French Open), the first such stretch for him since he reached his initial major semifinal all the way back in 2003; n Williams hasn’t won any of the four Slams she has entered since having a baby in September 2017, equaling her longest gap since a six-major drought from 2007 to 2008. Here’s the thing, though, something that statistics can’t account for: As great as these two have been over the years—Williams owns 23 Grand Slam singles titles, Federer 20—their most impressive quality might very well be the ability to adjust and adapt, to find new ways to win, to stay committed to doing whatever it takes to remain at the top. Federer, for example, went four-and-a-half years without adding to his Grand Slam total, and then won
three in a span of four that he appeared in. How? He changed to a larger racket head, began using a flat backhand more often and invented a new way of challenging opponents’ second serves. So count on Federer to come up with something else. As it is, he declared that he’ll return to the clay-court circuit this year and participate in the French Open for the first time since 2015. After all, he’s healthy. So why not? Maybe he won’t win the title there, but it could help him prepare for Wimbledon. A story that Williams’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, told this week is instructive. They began working together in 2012, shortly after the only first-round Grand Slam loss of Williams’s career, which came at the French Open. The next season, Williams told him she really wanted to win the title at Roland Garros, where she’d last been champion in 2002. “We made a plan,” he said, “and she worked incredibly hard.” And, lo and behold, in 2013, she ended her 11year wait for a second triumph in Paris, just as she’d hoped. After the trophy ceremony, Williams went to stretch and told him to tag along. “She turned to me and said, ‘Now we have to win Wimbledon,’” Mouratoglou recalled. “She was chasing something for 11 years [and]...10 minutes after, she was already focusing on the next goal. That’s different. There are guys who win one tournament and they celebrate for 15 years.” That last description fits neither Williams nor Federer. Indeed, they are at the opposite end of the
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EW YORK—Baseball has transformed at dizzying speed since Edgar Martinez took his final swing and Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera and Roy Halladay threw their final pitches. “We don’t have enough time to talk about that,” the ever erudite Mussina said on Wednesday when a trio of newly minted living Hall of Famers appeared at a news conference. “The game always evolves—it always has. I’m not sure I love the way it’s changed lately, but that’s just the nature of it.” When Mussina retired Boston’s Dustin Pedroia on a double-play grounder to end his final outing in 2008, a start that made him a first-time 20-game winner at age 39, strikeouts in the major leagues totaled 32,884.
That broke a mark that had stood since 2004. There were 41,207 whiffs last year, setting a record for the 11th straight season. When Martinez took his final swing in 2004, grounding into a double play against Texas reliever Brian Shouse, infield shifts weren’t even totaled, employed only for a few lefty pull hitters like Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. Baseball’s Analytics Age, the successor to the Steroids Era, had just begun by 2013, when Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte walked to the Yankee Stadium mound to remove Rivera. The closer left in mid-inning against Tampa Bay to tears and cheers in what turned out to be his finale, after Yunel Escobar had flied out. That month also marked the final appearance
BusinessMirror
Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
ROGER FEDERER and Serena Williams are gone from the Australian Open, each with a loss to a faryounger opponent. AP
SPOTLIGHT ON SUPER BOWL ADS
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spectrum: They fail to win one tournament and rue it. “It’s definitely not easy for me. From Day 1, I expect to go out and, quite frankly, to win. That hasn’t happened. But I do like my attitude. I like that I don’t want to go out here and say: ‘I expect to lose because I had a year off. I’ve been playing for 10 months. I’m not supposed to win.’ I don’t have that attitude,” Williams said about her return after taking time away to have her daughter. “I have the attitude of, like, I’ve only been playing 10 months, but I expect to win, and if I don’t, it’s disappointing. I’d rather think of it that way and know that it’s going to happen sooner or later than making an excuse for myself,” she said. “I don’t like making excuses.” She was asked where she might have the best chance to collect one more major championship to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24. “Right now would be Roland Garros,” came the answer, “because that’s the next one, the next Grand Slam for me.” That’s the right approach, of course. That kind of self-belief is a trait she shares with Federer, another reason not to dismiss their chances to contend on tennis’s most important stages. After all, this hardly would be the first time someone thought Williams or Federer were done. Federer didn’t take kindly to player-turned-TVtalker John McEnroe’s declaration that Tsitsipas’s upset signaled a changing of the guard. “He’s always going to say stuff,” Federer said, before dismissing McEnroe’s contention this way: “I’ve heard that story the last 10 years. From that standpoint, nothing new there.”
Baseball transforms at dizzying pace
BASEBALL Hall of Fame inductees (from left) Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera pose for photographs during a news conference in New York. AP
Sports
of Roy Halladay, who died in a plane crash 14 months ago and was elected posthumously on Tuesday. There were 34,673 infield shifts on balls in play last year, up from 8,180 in 2013 and 2,357 two years later. Partly as a result, the major league batting average dropped to .248, its lowest since 1972. “In the past when I played, with two strikes we tried to put the ball in play,” Martinez said in the corner of the ballroom atop The St. Regis New York. “I don’t see many players doing that anymore. Two strikes it’s like, swing hard still. I wish that could change with the players today.” The Hall of Fame is baseball’s annual celebration of itself. Hall President Jeff Idelson saluted its exclusivity: Among 19,429 major league players, just 232 have been chosen for the Hall, including 132 from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) annual ballot, which requires a supermajority vote. “It is important to note that the magic number remains 75 percent, a figure never attained by anyone who lived in the White House,” BBWAA Secretary-Treasurer Jack O’Connell said. Having achieved the greatest at the highest level, perhaps these players’ thoughts should count the most when it comes to the sport’s evolution. “As a starter, if you can’t get deep in games, you lose opportunities to win games and you won’t pitch as many innings. There’s a whole list of things that happen,” Mussina said. “So as a starter, I’m not a huge fan of the way it’s going, but I’m not the one making the decisions. I’m an old guy now who just played a few years ago.” Rivera, the first player elected unanimously by the BBWAA, was as succinct with his words as he was with his pitches.
“I agree with Moose,” he said. “He’s the man.” Rivera averaged 92-94 miles per hour with his devastating cutter from 2007 through the end of his career, when velocity got as much attention as wins, losses, homers and RBIs. Martinez said the rise of hard-throwing relievers had just dawned in his final years, pitchers who came out of the bullpen throwing 96 and 97 mph. “Now it’s like every team has two or three, so it is difficult,” he said. “I think players adapt to that type of velocity. The more consistently they see it, they will adapt.” Glowing a day after their elections, Rivera, Martinez and Mussina smiled and joked. Rivera recalled getting fined by the Yankees’ kangaroo court for showing Halladay the grip he used for his cutter. They reminisced over youth and obstacles overcome. Rivera was born in the Panamanian fishing village of Puerto Caimito. “I had no shoes, so we had to be playing
barefoot,” he said. Martinez struggled through his first five big league seasons with Seattle and didn’t become a consistent top hitter until shifted to designated hitter at age 32, a move he initially fought, fearful a bad year at the plate could end his career. Mussina remembered his first professional season after leaving Stanford, at Double-A Hagerstown in 1990. “First bus trip I got my luggage run over by the bus,” he said. “First game I actually pitched, it rained so hard they couldn’t get the tarp on the field. So I pitched two innings, and so it didn’t really count, and so I got two debuts in the minors, which doesn’t happen all the time.” Rivera and Mussina were former New York Yankees teammates, and Rivera and Martinez are tied by the batter’s unusual success against him. Martinez hit .579 (11 for 19) off Rivera with three doubles, two home runs, six RBIs and three walks. AP
EW YORK—Sex sells...frozen food dishes? Kraft Heinz’s frozen-food brand Devour is trying to make waves during its Super Bowl debut with an ad that takes a humorous, innuendo-packed jab at one man’s “porn addiction”—as in “frozen food porn.” Super Bowl ads have long used raunchiness and sex to stand out during advertising’s biggest stage. Think Cindy Crawford downing a Pepsi wearing skimpy shorts in 1992 or the 2013 GoDaddy ad that showed a squeamishly close-up shot of a kiss. But advertisers have largely toned it down in recent years, focusing instead on crowdpleasing approaches using animals, humor or celebrities. Raunchy ads risk offending or polarizing a company’s intended target audience. That’s likely to happen with Devour’s ad, said Allen Adamson, cofounder of the branding consultancy MetaForce. “Male millennials may get a yuk out of it, but it is going to do very little to sell any products,” he said. “It’s more likely to do more damage than good for the actual brand.” So why take the risk? The stakes are high as a 30-second ad can cost more than a reported $5 million. “It’s an example of the intense pressure on marketers to at all costs say ‘Hey look at me,’” he said. “There’s nothing worse than spending $5 million and having no one notice.” Devour released a 60-second “uncensored” version online on Wednesday and plans a toned-down, 30-second version during the February 3 game. Devour isn’t giving details on what it’s cutting, beyond saying it won’t use the word “porn.” Even so, Adamson said, it can backfire because the suggestive message doesn’t tie in closely with the product itself. In the uncensored version, a woman talks about her boyfriend’s problem with “frozen food porn” and says he watches it several times a day and has a hidden stash of photos—of food. Among the suggestive lines is the girlfriend saying that the addiction has made him a “three-minute man,” as in the amount of time it takes to heat up a frozen meal. Though people don’t typically associate frozen foods with raunchiness, Devour’s latest ad is consistent with prior marketing efforts: It launched in 2016 with the tagline “Food You Want to Fork.” Other Super Bowl advertisers include Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, Kia and Verizon. Colgate Total was the first advertiser to unveil its Super Bowl ad. The ad released on Friday stars Luke Wilson as a close talker. AP
THIS undated image shows a scene from Kraft Heinz’s frozen-food brand Devour’s Super Bowl debut. AP
YOUNG MIGRANT WORKER BARES JOYS, ACHES IN NORWAY By Rizal Raoul Reyes Contributor
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ORKING abroad may appear glamorous. But as with most appearances, a job overseas may be just that: glam.
Some who work overseas have to endure several challenges, such as homesickness, racial discrimination and cultural differences, among others. For people like Romulus Yleone Cruz, working as a health-care personnel in a nursing home in Trondheim, Norway, is an astonishing experience. “It has been an extraordinary adventure living and working here,” the nursing graduate of Bulacan State University said. “I learned a lot about their culture after spending some time here and I have met new friends, not only Norwegians but other nationalities, too.” The 29-year-old Cruz believes it is a “millennial thing” to seek and explore new things to gain enriching life experiences. He also grabbed the opportunity to work in Norway to earn a decent salary and have a better life. Moreover, he said he loves Norway because it allows easier access to other places. Norway’s huge neighbors have a lot to offer considering it belongs to a large land mass. With a total area of 385,252 square kilometers, Norway shares a border with Finland and Russia to the northeast and the Skagerrak Strait to the south. On the southern part of the country is Denmark. Moreover, Norway’s population of 5.3 million is a breath of fresh air compared to the Philippines’s 110 million, because this does not put a huge strain on the country’s resources, according to Cruz. Cruz recalled it was winter when he first came in Norway and he had to adjust to the Scandinavian brand of that season. He said summer is “quite gorgeous.” “The place is so nice and clean; and nature is stunningly beautiful. The traffic flows smoothly and the road discipline of the Norwegians is impressive.” Norway was once ranked by travel web site Lonely Planet as “a once-in-a-lifetime destination; the essence of its appeal is remarkably simple: this is one of the most beautiful countries on Earth.” Cruz received mixed reactions when Norwegians learned he was from the Philippines. Some were even surprised because it was quite rare for them to meet Filipinos, he added. “Some didn’t even know [where] the Philippines [is]. Some [cite] bad experiences because there are some people, not neces-
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROMULUS YLEONE CRUZ
CRUZ: “I like how Norway treats everyone equally.” PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROMULUS YLEONE CRUZ sarily Scandinavians, that are a bit racist,” Cruz said. “They treated me like I am inferior to them. It was a bit insulting but I got to show them that Filipinos can be competitive but in a respectful way.” He said he almost gave up learning Norwegian and searching for work. “I was really thinking of just going back
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home but then I told myself that I had nothing to lose. I just continued studying and applying for work. At the end, it paid off and it was because of hard work. I am very proud of myself,” he said. Still, Cruz said he had a tough time adjusting because of cultural differences and language barrier. He had to learn to adapt
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to the Norwegian culture while battling homesickness. “I had to roll with the punches, so to speak, by improving my behavior, be more focused, tougher and more patient dealing with different nationalities,” he said. He studied harder and absorbed as fast as he could all the stuff on Norway, from the culture to the weather. “It was not easy coping in a new environment and it was indeed important to seek help,” he said. “I’m glad I met new people that helped me through my early years here; most of them are Filipinos.” His perseverance paid off. Cruz said he has fallen in love with his job and the Norwegian cuisine. He cites the Lefse, traditional flatbreads for Christmas and holidays, and the Kumla, tender potato dumplings. “It is rewarding because of all the opportunities that opened for me and my career,” he said. “I recommend that Filipinos travel here. Scandinavia is also a great place to work.” Equally important for him is how the Norwegian government treats its citizens. Norwegians enjoy the second-highest gross domestic product per capita among European nations, next only to Luxembourg. Moreover, it ranks as the second-wealthiest country in the world in monetary value, with the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation. “I like how Norway treats everyone equally,” Cruz said. “And the Internet is fast and reliable.”
BusinessMirror
MUSIC
ELY BUENDIA AND THE ITCHYWORMS
BAND TOGETHER
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HE stage is set for two of the most brilliant acts in modern Filipino music to thrill Pinoy rock fans, as Ely Buendia & The Itchyworms perform their greatest hits on February 9, 8 p.m. at the Newport Performing Arts Theater of the Resorts World Manila (RWM).
Buendia shot to fame as the lead singer and guitarist of the seminal Filipino rock quartet the Eraserheads, penning many of the band’s memorable hits.
Still active in the industry, he is now one of the most highly respected names in OPM. Continued on page 4
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MUS
Ely Buendia... Heavily influenced by Buendia and his peers, the radio-friendly foursome of Jugs Jugueta, Jazz Nicolas, Kelvin Yu and Chino Singson, more popularly known as the Itchyworms, has made quite a mark in the OPM scene with easilyrelatable, richly performed songs such as Di Na Muli, Akin Ka Na Lang, Beer and Ayokong Tumanda. In 2016, Buendia and the Itchyworms collaborated on and released the song Pariwara, which was well received by Pinoy rock music fans. This was followed by Lutang—another unfinished verse-chorus idea of Buendia, which found full expression with the Itchyworms. The two acts’ creative collaboration stretches back to the late 90s. It resulted in an impressive compendium of collaborative works, including
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the Itchyworms’ first offering “Revenge of the Unsigned,” which Buendia helped produce. In turn, the Itchyworms contributed to “Fair Tales,” the debut album of Domino, the band of Buendia’s sister. Itchyworms drummer Nicolas would also take on keyboard duties for both iterations of the Eraserheads’ “Final Set” reunion concert in 2008 and 2009. Prepare to be thrilled as Buendia and the Itchyworms band together this February! (Get your tickets to Ely Buendia & The Itchyworms: Greatest Hits via www. ticketworld.com.ph or at the RWM Box Office [908-8000 loc. 7700]. Download the RWM mobile app to receive updates as well as special promotions on RWM shows and events.)
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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JANUARY 27, 2019
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SIC ON PRINT
‘BIGGEST, MOST EXCITING ALL-OPM FEST’
RAKRAKAN: ‘TWICE’AS HARD!
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O cheer for and celebrate another year worth of rocking OPM, the Rakrakan Festival has become bigger, louder, and bolder! Get ready to make history again as we celebrate peace, love and music with astounding back-to-back performances from our roster of OPM’s finest artists at the Globe Circuit Event Grounds from March 1 to 2. That’s two days’ worth of rockin’ and rollin’, because one day just won’t be enough to satisfy our local music cravings. It would still be a massive production setup complete with 120 OPM artists, six stages (that’s three per day!), skateboarding competitions, live-art exhibitions, a merch bazaar, and carnival games. Stay on the lookout for the announcement of the complete band line-up in the coming days, as organizers said they are “still spicing things a bit to give a rock n’ roll experience that will leave a weeklong festival hangover.” And if six music-filled stages aren’t enough to satisfy an OPM fan, “Rakrakan Festival 2019: Peace, Love and Music” will offer these pocket events to maximize the experience: Skateboarding Exhibition
and Competition: A staple since 2013, it will feature a free-for-all skateboarding area for attendees, with freebies and prizes at stake for contest participants in several categories, including “Best Run” and “Best Trick.” Street Art Contest: Five street art teams will endeavor to bring their creativity to life in this activity. Winning teams will be judged based on their originality, style and design. In addition, a “freedom wall” will be setup for all guests who wish to express their creativeness and leave their impression for future generations of OPM supporters. Merch Exhibit: Currently the largest congregation of indie merchandisers in Metro Manila, with more than 70 brands participating annually. Festival attendees will find everything there: From tees and tank-tops, to shorts and jeans, jackets, socks, jewelry, footwear, artworks, sunglasses, pins, caps, toys, and plenty of other goods at very affordable prices. “Peace, Love, and Music:” Efforts will be undertaken in cooperation with several advocacy groups such as LoveYourself, Peace & Equity Foundation, the United Nations
Createurs launch debut album
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NDEPENDENT rock band Createurs will launch its 12-track debut album “We Exist” on February 9, Saturday, at saGuijo Café + Bar in Makati City starting at 7 p.m. Supporting the album's release with the band's music performances are rock acts Aoui, Full Pledged Revenge, Not Informed, Reckless Thursday and Thirds.
This event will also feature art displays from local artists such as Francis Jacob, Hannah Fernando, Pluzzyllustrations, and Star Box. Get your tickets for only P200 each and the We Exist album starting at P350 at the venue during the event date. For more details, visit Project 4 Productions on Facebook.
(Philippines), Global Peace Youth, and Act for Peace, among others, in order to educate the audience on several advocacies centered on social issues in the country. Side activities such as face painting and henna tattooing, brandsponsored games, information drives and artist meet-and-greet (for VIP ticket holders) will be available to complement the whole festival experience. Rakrakan Festival-goers in white attire will be provided with a free baller band upon entrance, while those in red will be given a free rose
as a symbol of love. Tickets are now available in all SM Tickets outlets nationwide. Prices are as follows: One-day pass - Preselling, P400; door price: P500; VIP: P1,500. Two-day pass - Preselling, P700; door price: P1,000; VIP: P2,000. “Rakrakan Festival 2019: Peace, Love, and Music” is presented by Rakista Radio and Red Horse Beer Muziklaban; copresented by Dickies; with Circuit Makati as official venue partner. Visit www.rakrakanfestival. com for more details.
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MUSIC ON PRINT
ALL RISE FOR QUEEN NATION
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HERE is little doubt among rock enthusiasts: legendary band Queen and former lead singer Freddie Mercury earn high ranks as among the most powerful and iconic acts in modern music history. Queen—the royalty of arena rock— performed to packed stadiums around the world for more than two decades, while Mercury took showmanship by a front man to a whole new level as he mesmerized audiences with his charismatic energy and larger-thanlife stage persona. Queen Nation, one of the best tributes to the British band, was formed in 2004. The group consists of Joe Retta or Gregory Finsley on vocals and keyboards as Freddie Mercury, Mike McManus on guitar as Brian May, Pete Burke on drums as Roger Taylor, and Parker Combs on bass as John Deacon. The mission of the show is to carry on the musical torch and pay homage to the golden age of vintage Queen concerts. Queen Nation’s live 90-minute production of the original group’s greatest hits preserves the image, sound and stage persona of vintage Queen. Audiences are amazed at the accuracy of Queen Nation’s live retrospective journey through such songs as We Will Rock You, Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are the Champions, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, You’re My Best Friend, Another One Bites The Dust, Under Pressure, and many more. They have performed in front of thousands of people at casinos, fairs, festivals and private affairs all around the United States. On January 30 at 9 p.m., Queen Nation will be performing the greatest hits of Queen live at Cove Manila in Okada, with Part 3 Band and DJ Owki as front acts. Tickets are priced at P4,000 each and are available at all SM Ticket outlets, SMTickets. com, and Platinumlist.ph. For ticket inquiries and reservations, contact SM Tickets at (02) 470-2222 or call DMC Philippines at (0917) 896-2805.
Mondelez touts trainee program as source of young Pinoy leaders ing above-average scholastic performance and leadership experiences. Key leadership characteristics are also sought among applicants.” MPI said that, under the GTP, trainees are given regular coaching and feedback sessions to help in their development during the 18-month period.
Functional learning
BIANCA BALUYUT and Gela Encanto (below), former graduate trainees of Mondelez Philippines Inc. (MPI), now hold leadership positions within the company. COURTESY OF MPI By Rizal Raoul Reyes Contributor
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N its aim to create consumers who “snack right,” Mondelez Philippines Inc. (MPI) turned to its employees first.
leadership development program for new graduates. Within this time, they are set on a leadership development path with learning experiences in different functions of MPI. Since it first started in 2007, the GTP has offered hundreds of new graduates an accelerated career growth, a joyful work experience and a promising future with MPI, formerly Kraft Foods Philippines Inc. The GTP “offers not just an entry position.” “It is a distinguished leadership program that provides them with learning and knowledge to help jump-start their careers
and develop them not only as employees, but as leaders.” The maker of Cheez Whiz spread and Oreo cookies said the GTP is different since as leaders, trainees “are not only given training and knowledge about their home function.” For example, if a trainee is assigned to sales, he or she will also learn about other functions within the company. “This way, [trainees] are not only trained; they are truly honed as future leaders,” MPI said. “At the onset, the GTP selects students who show the makings of leaders, includ-
The company said it believes that as it “nurtures the capabilities of [its] people, it can also bring about sustainable growth for its business.” An effective method to reach this goal is the Graduate Trainee Program (GTP), the 55-year-old firm said. “After being selected as a graduate trainee, I was hired as a regular employee trainee for 18 months,” Bianca Baluyut, one of the many trainees who now hold a management position in MPI, was quoted in a statement as saying. “Within this period, I was able to learn the business through sales exposure and projects. I was also provided with crossfunctional experiences like in HR [human resources], manufacturing, marketing, finance and customer service and logistics.” Another alumna from the GTP who is currently growing her career not only in the Philippines but in Mondelēz International Inc. (MII), MPI’s parent, in Southeast Asia, is Gela Encanto. “When we were hired as graduate trainees, we were able to enjoy all the benefits of regular employees,” Encanto was quoted in the statement as saying. “We were also treated as high-potential talents and were given specialized training and regular exposure to the leadership team of the company.”
Leadership development ACCORDING to MPI, its GTP is an 18-month
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ACCORDING to Baluyut, each trainee “was assigned with ‘buddies’ or peers who were often graduates of the GT program as well, to serve as our guide as we navigate our 18-month stint.” “At the end of the 18 months, we GTs undergo a graduation ceremony of sorts where we share our final case study and what we have learned in the past months,” she added. The trainees are then formally welcomed to their home function and positions and begin their new role within the company, according to MPI. To date, a dozen GTP alumni now occupy managerial positions within MPI. Several GTs have also accepted positions across Southeast Asia and Australia as market leaders in the last five years. About 55 percent of all GTP graduates continue to be employees of the company as well, MPI added. The company, to note, employs about 450 people in the Philippines with a manufacturing facility in Parañaque City. “Apart from the exceptional learning experiences, [MPI] is proud of the joy it creates inside every working day with fun celebrations, competitive compensation and benefits, open and inclusive policies and an enjoyable workplace.”
How WWE superstar Xavier Woods keeps careers in balance Part One
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AVIER WOODS is not your typical World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Inc. superstar. Being a Guinness book record holder for most number of subscribers (about 1.7 million in YouTube) for a gaming channel makes him stand out among his fellow wrestlers. Not only is he successful with his gaming channel “UpUpDownDown,” his team New Day is also the longest-reigning tag team champion in WWE history. The following is a copy of a transcript of an interview by Woods’s publicist given to the BusinessMirror, which cut the piece into two parts for lack of space. Given the success of UpUpDownDown, what piece of advice can you give fellow content creators on YouTube or other platforms? Xavier Woods: I would give the advice that was given to me: Don’t start YouTube or Twitch if you think you’re going to make money off of it. Do it because you enjoy it. Do it because you like it. As soon as you get to a point where you are making money from it, then it’s going to become a job and a hassle. You’re not going to want to wake up at six in the morning to make a video because “Red Dead Redemption 2” dropped at midnight and you want to stream it. It’s going to become a hassle. Do it to enjoy it and hopefully, you can turn it into something.
WOODS: “I should be the highest-rated character in the game each and every year, because I’m the person who knows how to play video games!” Do you ever play as yourself in “WWE 2K”? I always play as a created version of myself in wrestling games; unless I’m doing a tournament where we have to play as ourselves. But I always play as the alter ego of myself—the wrestler I thought I would be when I was a kid. So, when I was a little kid, I thought my wrestling name was going to be “Zero.” I started going through the dictionary backwards, trying to think of a wrestling name, and the definition of zero is the sum of nothing, but everything…. Whatever the definition is. I was like, “Aww, that’s really cool!”When I started amateur wrestling, my dad took me to this place that does airbrushed Tshirts and hats and I spent my birthday getting a bunch of airbrushed things that had Zero on them. Whenever I created a player, his name
was Zero. He was a bad guy; he was mean. He’d spit on people. He didn’t care about anybody. And so, I always make that guy whenever I play a wrestling game. It’s a very far departure from what I do when I’m actually wrestling. So, it’s a fun, little fantasy. In terms of your actual “WWE 2K” character, are you satisfied with the rating? Oh, never! I should be 110! I should be the highest-rated character in the game each and every year, because I’m the person who knows how to play video games! Have you ever considered playing in e-sports? Oh, 100 percent! Definitely! I, throughout my life, wanted to be a wrestler. I also wanted to be a kickboxer; and I also wanted to make video games. Obviously, kickboxing; not happening. Ever. I do not want to
get muay thai’d in the face! So, I’m okay without that. But video games are a huge part of my life and being able to work up the amount of skill it takes to be part of WWE, especially as one of the smaller guys in the company, it’s definitely a unique grind to get there and to be successful there. So I feel very lucky and honored to be in that position. I’m currently in, especially with Kofi and Big E, the New Day; being able to do what we’ve done so far. At the same time, I want to be able to use that platform to propel myself into the gaming world. On some very real levels, seeing what has happened to guys and girls who have been in the wrestling business when they have to transition out is hard. It’s very difficult…being wary of that struggle, it’s one of the reasons that I created UpUpDownDown, so that I can create a lane for myself in video games. I currently have two jobs. And once I’m done wrestling, I’ll have time for my other job. That will make it a lot easier, mentally on myself, and I won’t have to start from scratch. What are your thoughts on esports, in general? I think e-sports are amazing! I think the biggest thing about video games is that they bring camaraderie. I think a lot of people who dislike video games or try to demonize them just think of them in a negative way. I think the one thing e-sports is missing that pro-wrestling or sports entertainment has are the charismatic characters: big, larger-than-life aspects. The whole thing with WWE is that we put smiles on people’s faces. So it’s an awesome place to be. We get to perform all over the world, in all these different countries. The music hits and kids are losing their minds and having a good time. I feel like we can bring that same emotion to e-sports and teach them how to essentially do our live events. To be concluded on February 3, 2019
McDonald’s PHL rolls out second ‘Go Hire Day’
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OLDEN Arches Development Corp. (GADC), owner of the McDonald’s franchise in the Philippines, has rolled out its second “Go Hire Day.” Launched last year, “Go Hire Day” transforms select McDonald’s restaurants across the country into recruitment hubs where interested service crew and manager trainee applicants may go through a fast-tracked application process, according to a statement by GADC. By the end of 2018, the company said it directly hired over 19,000 Filipinos for McDonald’s restaurant service crew and manager trainee positions, amid the opening of 60 new stores and introduction of its new store
format it calls Nxtgen. These new store formats are already present in nine areas, including Boracay Main Road, GADC said. “This year, [we] plan to scale the new store format, marked by its multipoint service platform, self-order kiosks and unique brand of hospitality, in more parts of the country,” the company’s
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statement said. “While it continues to be a leader in foodservice innovation, [we] remain committed to boosting local employment and growing restaurant manpower in 2019.” “It is an exciting time to join McDonald’s Philippines, as we continue to open more new stores and elevate the customer experience through our unique service,” Senior Vice President for Human Capital Group Chona L. Torre was quoted in the statement as saying. “With this, we are bringing back Go Hire Day, which would make it more accessible for job seekers to be part of our growth. This would also be a great opportunity for college students to earn while studying, and JANUARY 27, 2019
for fresh graduates to jump-start their career with our world-class training.” GADC kicked off its Go Hire Day this year on January 24 at McDonald’s J. Centre, Mandaue City, Cebu. The last day would be on January 28 at McDonald’s UN Avenue, Manila. GADC said it aims to reach a recruitment target of close to 20,000 service crew and manager trainees this year “as it continues to grow [McDonald’s] foothold in the Philippine market and elevate the customer experience” with its new store format. Since the company opened the first McDonald’s restaurant in the country in 1981, it has not practiced contractualization of its employees.
fiction:
Colour me See page 5
illustration by Guillermo Altre, Jr.
Sunday, January 27, 2019 Editor: Alma Anonas-Carpio
BusinessMirror
2 Sunday, January 27, 2019
focus on culture
Virgilio Almario and the NCCA’s
push to find Filipino culture
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By Alma Anonas-Carpio Photos by Roy Domingo
he National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) will commence the annual celebration of National Arts Month in a few days. NCCA chairman and National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario was gracious enough to sit down with Tony & Nick and tell us the progress made by his agency in terms of its mandate as the nation’s advocate for culture and the arts.
Some years ago, the NCCA was issuing calls to all local government units, asking them to submit their lists of cultural heritage treasures to the NCCA, so the commission may compile a comprehensive list of the same on a national level—both to document and to help preserve these valuable cultural heirlooms.
Progress so far
Now, Almario said “nagkakandarapa na silang magpadala ng kani-kanilang listahan (they’re scrambling to send their lists to us).” Having such an inventory, after all, will enable the NCCA to provide government support to the LGUs for the documentation and preservation of these cultural artifacts, as well as help the LGUs make these part of their offerings to the public—both their residents and tourists to these areas. “Maraming nang activ ities and projects ang nagawa para masagot ang mandate ng NCCA (Several activities and projects have been accomplished to answer the
mandate of the NCCA),” Almario said. “Mas malinaw na ang programs na sinusunod (The programs we undertake are now clearer).” “Dalawa lang naman ang sinabi kong gagawin ko para sa pagsulong pa ng gawain NCCA (I only set two tasks for myself to further push the agenda of the NCCA),” Almario explained. “Una, yung pagtransform nito para maging isang Department of Culture. Ikalawa, yung direction ng mga heritage projects, para magkaroon ng more efforts towards intangible cultural heritage (First, we would transform into a Department of Culture. Second, we will look at the direction of our heritage projects toward building more efforts towards intangible cultural heritage).”
Culture department
In seeking to elevate the commission to the level of a full government department with presence in the Cabinet, Almario said “we’ve been pushing for a Department of Culture for a long
National Artist for literature and NCCA Chairman Virgilio Sandares Almario
BusinessMirror time. But, even within the NCCA, there were several people who didn’t want this. First, the NCCA was a product of the EDSA Revolution, and its structure is patterned after the spirit of EDSA.” “The structure involves having committees that propose what activities to undertake, the policies of the NCCA are all part of the EDSA spirit, the spirit of volunteerism and more participation of civil society” he explained. Almario said that, in 2008, he and other experts in the field of culture and the arts, as well as the sciences, were asked to submit proposals for strengthening government support and action in their respective fields: “What I and my group came up with was to develop a Department of Culture.” This was a proposal that was brought to the late Senator Edgardo J. Angara, complete with public consultations. However, this proposal was shelved after Angara came under fire, with criticisms that included remarks that Angara was backing the creation of a Department of Culture so he would have some place to go when he retired. Angara, Almario said, “ lost interest in the proposal because of these criticisms. This was when I was retired and not occupying any government post.” “I’d asked Butch Dalisay to research and write a book to find out why we need a Department of Culture. We really had a lot of research done for this,” he said. “What Dalisay’s research showed was that, because there is no department, the perception was that government did not prioritize culture—there was no Cabinet representation. So there was no one proposing any culture-based policies in government on politics and the economy.” “We believe that our political and economic polic ie s a re f l awe d b e c au s e they are not anchored in our culture,” A lmario said.
“It should really be our culture that will decide what makes for good politics, for what economic policies will work best for us. Remember that culture encompasses our way of life.” “Many of our economic and political leaders studied overseas, many in the United States, and it is in the context of those cultures that they base the decisions they make,” Almario added. “Our UP technocrats are almost all US-educated.” “Besides that, we a lso be l ie ve t h at t here mu st be a bigger body to coordinate the efforts of the va r ious gover nment cu lt u ra l agenc ies,” he sa id. “R ight now, the efforts of our cultural agencies are scattered, their effectiveness dispersed. There is no coordination. They say the coordination should be provided for the NCCA, but, to be honest, all the cultural agencies are equal to one another, with none having any authority over the other.” Under such circumstances, Almario explained, coordination is difficult where the co-equal agencies disagree. “ There is no agency with
Sunday, January 27, 2019 3
any supervisory power,” he said. This makes it difficult to achieve cultural heritage goals where each agency has a different approach and opinion, he noted.
Cultural solutions
“Take traffic, for example,” Almario said. “It is not simply congested roads. There are norms and mores involved here, a human element to consider—and that’s cultural at its root. Maybe if we take a cultural approach to the problem of traffic and combine that with the other approaches, we can come up with a better solution.” “One solution I see for the traffic in Metro Manila would be to declare Manila a heritage city, so all government agencies will be taken out of Manila,” he said. “What would happen then? The traffic will ease. You will turn [the capital] into a museum. A l l government offices, including Malacanang, all commercial offices should go out of the city and will be relocated outside the capital.” Since the May elections are already on the horizon, we asked Almario about his
view of the voting culture in the Philippines. Here is his answer: “Their behavior and culture is whatever the politicians have planted in their minds. It is not a chicken and egg question. It is not that the voters are ignorant. It is that they are kept ignorant by the politicians who need them to be ignorant. ‘If there is no hunger, what work would we have? If there is no need for education, what work would be left for us?’ I heard that from a [United Nations} adviser and I found it so striking I wrote a poem based on that.” The political culture in the Philippines, he added, zeroing in particularly on politicians is one that “has no sense of history, no sense of continuity,” according to him. “ There is a need to harmonize things under a single cultural agency,” A lmario said. “ There really are c u lt u r a l res pon sibi l it ies that no one and no single agency can undertake now: T he safeguarding of cultural heritage. If there is a [historical] bridge that will be torn down, that agency can object. If there is a new bridge being built that will wreck a cultural heritage
site, that agency can object. If there is a jai alai that will be tor n dow n, then that agency can object.” We live in an archipelago that has many diverse languages and cultural heritage of both the tangible and intangible kind and Almario is of the opinion that a single agency—a Department of Culture—is the best kind of agency equipped to harmonize and coordinate efforts to piece together and harmonize a cultural identity that will support more than just our arts: Such an agency, he believes, will ensure that Philippine culture will be part of the decision-making process for economic, political, educational, perhaps even scientific matters.
Alma Anonas-Carpio Literary Editor
BusinessMirror
4 Sunday, January 27, 2019
national arts month events National Arts Month (NAM) will kick off in Febrary and the celebrations will be led by the NCCA. The 2019 NAM celebration will feature a multi-venue series of events under the theme Ani ng Sining: Philippine Arts Festival. Ani ng Sining, under the NCCA’s Subcommission on the Arts (SCA) and SCA commissioner Teddy Co, underscores “the richness of artistic endeavors in the Philippines and the passion of Filipino artists and cultural workers,” according to the information uploaded to the NCCA web site. The month-long celebration offers “a wide array of events and activities aimed at celebrating a bountiful harvest of Philippine arts, as well as inspiring Filipinos to immerse in and appreciate the diversity of cultural expressions, insights and creativity.” The NAM celebration includes SCA flagship projects across its seven national committees: Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Literary Arts, Music, Dramatic Arts and Visual Arts. These will be held at different venues all over the country. The NCCA will hold opening ceremonies for NAM in the National Capital Region (Chinatown Mall in Binondo on February 3), Luzon (Bagac, Bataan on February 8), Visayas (Bago City, Negros Occidental on February 1) and Mindanao (Koronadal City, Cotabato on February 15).
Architecture Events The National Committee on Architecture and Allied Arts headed by Rogelio D. Caringal will present “Loob at Labas: Talakayan at Pagpaparangya,” an exhibit and forum which will travel around the country to enhance appreciation and awareness on Philippine architecture. It will happen from February 22 to March 21.
Cinema Happenings The National Committee on Cinema headed by Teddy Co will hold the 11th installment of the Cinema Rehiyon Film Festival, a non-competition film festival highlighting some of the best cinematic works in the regions. This will take place from February 23 to March 1 at Foundation University, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. The festival has been raising awareness on the
8); and Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental (February 23).
efforts on and progress of filmmaking in the regions. It has also been providing a platform for films from the regions, most of which are made in local languages and show culturally-rooted narratives. These will be exhibited to a wider audience through the festival. Over the years, Cinema Rehiyon has been held in different parts of the country. This year, it will be visiting select universities in Dumaguete City.
Movements of dance The National Committee on Dance headed by Shirley Halili-Cruz will again bring to the public its month-long traveling dance concert series “Sayaw Pinoy,” which will be brought to different parts of the country. The dance tour brings together different dance forms, such as classical ballet, folk dance, contemporary and modern dance as the country’s top dance companies perform with the local dance troupes of host cities and municipalities. Showcasing the colorful tradition of dances and movements in the country and reaching out to the grassroots to discover new talents as well as connect to more Filipino dance artists, “Sayaw Pinoy” is the longest-running
PLEASING THE EYE The National Committee on Visual Arts headed by Edgar Talusan Fernandez will mount the Philippine Visual Arts Festival in Manila from February 4 to 7. There will be workshops, art talks, exhibits and numerous activities highlighting the works of visual artists across the country. dance event and the most attended of NAM events.
The drama The National Committee on Dramatic Arts headed by Rossana Q. Palm will hold “Tampok” a series of convergences which aim to gather and document the pioneers and key theater practitioners in the regions. There will be performances, workshops and discussions from Feb. 27 to March 1 in Malabon (NCR); from February 26 to March 1 at University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna (Luzon); from February 28 to March 2 in Bohol (Visayas); and from March 2 to 4 in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental (Mindanao).
LITERARY ACTIVITIES The National Committee on Literary Arts led by Dr. Hope S. Yu, Namnamin is spearheading a convergence of food and literature from Febraury 25 to 27 at The Orchid Gardens in San Fernando, Pampanga, culminating with a food trip on Febraury 27 in Angeles City, Pampanga.
MAKING MUSIC The National Committee on Music led by Mauricia D. Borromeo will hold a music festival dubbe “Musicapuluan: Music of the Philippine Islands.” This festival will include performances, lectures and workshops celebrating local musical forms at different venues: Baguio City (February 8); Catbalogan City, Samar, (February 1 and
HARVESTING HONORS The NCCA’s NAM celebration closes with the Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honors) awards. The Ani ng Dangal Awards recognizes artists who have earned international awards and accolades over the past year. The annual celebration of National Arts Month began with Presidential Proclamation 683 that was signed in 1991 and declared February as National Arts Month. Over the years, the NCCA, in partnership with both private and government agencies, has been organizing events and activities to highlight the artistic brilliance of Filipinos through the NAM celebration.
BusinessMirror
Sunday, January 27, 2019 5
Fiction
Colour me I
By S. Shamala
wanted to be here, rubbing my face on that clean piece of white paper. I was even honoured for being part of the artistic venture. Slowly, but surely, I moved in her deft fingers, as she choreographed the strokes that formed a mouth, quickly shifting from the nose. You could hear the faint giggling in the background. It was understandable. How could one stand being tickled for so long?
I forgave the paper for being disrespectful. He didn’t understand the weight of this art quest. I was dropped and another one was picked to splash the white canvas for a moment, although I was the most important piece of tool. I knew. For I was the face of controversy; the source of inexplicable feelings that shaped a plethora of systems. The leftists celebrated me; the pro-apartheids despised me. In India and South Africa, I suffered at the hands of my opposite. It was a wonder. Who sparked these myriad reactions whenever I was present? They said the media. But I existed long before the media did. I am ancient. Even back then, some societies rejected me. I was in her hand for a reason. She held me as if I was something precious. She was in awe of me since the day she had the opportunity to lay her hands on me. I felt gloriously wanted. In fact, I was part of this masterpiece that was to
tell something to this world. How she and her friends clamoured for knowledge and self-esteem. She feared the sea. The sea once almost devoured her and her family as they ran from their homeland to escape poverty and strife. They found refuge in the Land Below the Wind here. Although they had to play hide and seek with the authorities as they lacked proper papers, a Good Samaritan who ran an alternative learning centre for undocumented children gave them hope. It was their hideaway, a place to quench their thirst for education. Unlike other children of their age, they rarely received the opportunity to hold me and my fellow friends to express themselves on canvas. We b r o u g h t t h e m s o muc h happiness, even if sometimes it was for a short period of time. Now, she was trying to tell the world through her painting that the children needed
a place, too, in the world. She had dedicated her time and effort to equip the little ones with survival skills and some education so that they would not drown in the cold, hard world, and how they held onto her. The alphabet and numbers that she taught built them a sanctuary, constructing a world parallel to their reality. She knew they were smart kids, just like how she once used to be. Life had taught them many things. That was why she strongly
believed that they deserved a chance to grow up and make their mark in the world. But, it was not to be. Suddenly, the drawing was yanked away from her. Sound of footsteps filled their ‘school’. Men were shouting orders and they rounded up everyone, pushing them into a jeep. “Masuk dalam jip. Masuk,
Literary Editor
Biographical statement: The writer is a fierce advocate of social justice, women empowerment and the right to have fun. She aggressively pursues her dream to be happy and adheres to no specific rules
Alma Anonas-Carpio
Managing Editor
Psyche Roxas-Mendoza
Contributing Editor
Carla Mortel-Baricaua
Creative Director S. Shamala started out as a junior sub-editor at a leading national daily. She became a writer and columnist at the Features section of the same publication. She has also handled supplements and pullouts, besides freelancing for magazines and other publications. After five years, Shamala moved to East Malaysia and was based in Sabah, where I worked as a reporter and sub-editor for two Sabahan newspapers. She is now attached to the New Straits Times in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
cepat (Get into the jeep. Quick),” they were told. She dropped me onto the f loor as they dragged her away. The partially done black painting was stepped on by ruthless men. The last thing I saw before they broke me into half were tears pouring down her cheeks. Goodbye, my love.
Graphic Artist Advertising Team
Ed Davad Job Jonald Capalaran Ruzgal Dennis Cruz Guevarra Richard Santos Charmine Rose Arquibel
Send all literary submissions to asiapacific.njla@gmail.com For general advertising information or questions, contact:
Dennis Guevarra at 09776806561 or dennis.cruzguevarra@yahoo.com Richard Santos at 09985643854 or richardsantos.advertising@gmail.com Charmine Rose Arquibel at 09953198050 or charquibel.philippinesgraphic@gmail.com
BusinessMirror
Sunday, January 27, 2019 7
campus art scene
Bulacan student entry tops MMFF short film tilt
A
By Seymour B. Sanchez | Contributor
short film about a janitor who raises his mute daughter inside a restroom cubicle won the grand prize in the 2018 Metro Manila Film Festival student category at The Theatre at Solaire in Parañaque City.
Kasilyas still photo
Leslie Ann Ramirez directs a scene
Ramirez preparing for the shoot with her crew
“KASILYAS” crew in action
Ramirez with actors Miel Espinoza and Bobby Tamayo
“Kasilyas” by Leslie Ann Ramirez from Bulacan State University bested seven other finalists in the student short film competition. She re-
ceived a trophy and 100,000 pesos cash prize during the MMFF Gabi ng Parangal held last December 27. Character actor Bobby Tamayo and child
wonder Miel Espinoza starred in the winning film as father and daughter, respectively. The young filmmaker said that the idea accidentally
popped into her mind while on a break in a meeting with Bulsu Cinephilia, her organization which is focused in honing the skills of students
in photography and filmmaking. “I went out for a while with my orgmate when we saw that the CR in our college was closed. It’s usually closed for some unknown reason even though it’s not under renovation,” she recalled. Despite being pissed at not being able to pee in the restroom that time, Ramirez thought of situations after arguing with the janitor. “What if the janitor is hiding something in the CR, that’s why it’s usually closed? What if his intention is not bad after all and he is just protecting someone? That’s how ‘Kasilyas’ started,” she shared. Ramirez added that she was inspired by her father while writing the script. “There’s a scene in the film where the daughter drew a house, which she later showed to her father. Deep inside, she wanted them to have a house and get out of the CR which serves as their home. What I really wanted to say in the film is for my father to come home since he has been away from us for four years while working hard abroad,” she said, hoping that he will be able to watch the film she made for him. Continued on page 9
MMFF 2018 short film finalists
BusinessMirror
Sunday, January 27, 2019 9
Continued from page 7
The graduating broadcasting student also shared that what made the shoot more difficult is her production team’s schedule. “They’re not my classmates. We’re just part of the same organization.” To add to that, they are also working on their theses. “It’s good that we have the same goal to shoot the film and join the contest so we made time and extra effort to work on it.” The other finalists are “Balita” by Allysa Nievera from Centro Escolar University, “Binibini 14. Beverly Lagdameo” by Neil Adrien Reyes from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, “Dalawampung Pisong Pag-asa” by Pauleen Valdez from St. Dominic College of Asia, “Padyak” by Venice Awitin from Northern Mindanao Colleges, Inc., “Paraiso” by Carlo Lopez from University of the PhilippinesDiliman, “Sasagot Ka Pa?” by Ronald Van Angelo Dulatre, also from DLS-CSB, and “Tahanan” by Demetrio Celestino III from Catanduanes State University. “Ba lita” is about a reporter who wants to stay ahead of the pack in covering drug-related killings. He always receives a tip from his source until a call leads him to what may or may not be the biggest scoop he has scored in his career. In “Binibini 14. Beverly Lagdameo,” a househelp is left to take care of a large house owned by a former beauty queen. Driven by her aspirations to also become a beauty queen like her boss, she tries to do something to fulfill her dreams. Meanwhile, grandmothers are the main characters in both “Paraiso” and “Sasagot Ka Pa?” In “Paraiso,” a boy gets scolded by his grandmother for coming home late after selling ricecakes. He runs away from home and the old woman chases him to a place she has almost forgotten. On the other hand, a teenage girl
Leslie Ann Ramirez with cast and crew before the Gabi ng Parangal
same group in a playful mood
visits her traditional-minded grandmother in “Sasagot Ka Pa?” as the latter criticizes the former’s look, posture and others. However, as the insults get more absurd, the reasons why the old woman feels so much contempt for the teenager are revealed. In addition, “Dalawampung Pisong Pag-asa” follows the trail of a twenty-peso bill as it gets handed over from one person to another while “Padyak” tells the story of success of a crippled man who graduates from school despite his condition and age, as narrated by a young man close to him. Last but not the least, “Tahanan,” the only animated entry, is a stop-motion animation focused on the issue of family separation as told through the lens of a young green sea turtle. Si x t e e n s e m i f i n a l i s t s were initially selected out of 123 scripts submitted for
the MMFF Student Short Film category. The list was trimmed down to the eight finalists, whose films were shown in cinemas together with the full-length entries from December 25, 2018 to January 7, 2019. They were given 20,000 pesos seed money to shoot their short film. On top of that, all finalists received plaques, certificates of recognition and 50,000 pesos each during the awards night. “ K a si ly a s” w a s pa i red with the Jericho RosalesJessy Mendiola romantic comedy “The Girl with the Orange Dress” directed by Jay Abello. “Balita” was partnered with Joel Lamangan’s LGBT-themed film and family drama “Rainbow’s Sunset” starring Eddie Garcia, Gloria Romero, Tony Mabesa, Aiko Melendez, Tirso Cruz III, and Sunshine Dizon while “Binibini 14. Beverly Lagdameo” was coupled with the
Vice Ganda-starrer “Fantastica” by Barry Gonzalez. “Da l awa mpu ng P isong Pag-asa” was matched with Joven Tan’s horror flick “Otlum” starring Jerome Ponce, Buboy Villar, and Ricci Rivero, among others; “Padyak” with the Kim Chiu-Dennis TrilloJC De Vera love triangle “One Great Love” helmed by actordirector Enrico “Eric” Quizon; “Paraiso” with Yam Laranas’ shipw reck horror-thriller “Aurora” starring Anne Curtis; “Sasagot Ka Pa?” with the Toni and Alex GonzagaSam Milby romantic comedy “Mary, Marry Me” megged by RC Delos Reyes; and “Tahanan” with Mike Tuviera’s action comedy “Jack Em Popoy: The Puliscredibles” starring Vic Sotto, Coco Martin and Maine Mendoza. The MMFF launched the school-based short film competition last year “in order to provide a platform to all
aspir ing f i lmma kers and an opportunity to expose their fresh talents.” This is according to MMFF Executive Chairman and Departme nt of Tr a n s p or t at ion Usec. Thomas Orbos, who is working under the authority of MMDA and MMFF overall chairman Danilo Lim. “It is a nationwide competition for students to encourage the youth to harness their creativity and talents in storytelling through filmmaking,” Orbos added. Although short films usually go unnoticed, their inclusion in the often controversyladen MMFF is still a breath of fresh air. Short films have been included in the New Wave section of the festival in 2011 but they were screened in selected theaters a week before the main competition. Since 2016, they have become part of the regular run together with the fulllength film entries. Among the members of the jury, which chose the winners of both the full-length and short film categories, are award-winning actor Christopher de Leon, actress-director Gina Alajar and last year’s MMFF Best Actress Joanna Ampil, to name a few. Director Jose Javier Reyes, Movie and Television Review and Classification Board Chairperson Rachel Arenas, Dr. Rowena Capulong Reyes, MMDA Legislative and Legal Affairs officer-in-charge Atty. Crisanto Saruca, Jr. and Cinema Evaluation Board member Rina Navarro comprised the short film selection committee.
Seymour B. Sanchez Contributor BusinessMirror
BusinessMirror
Sunday, January 27, 2019 13
campus art scene
Fulfilling dreams and sharing
realities at Dreamanila
F
By Seymour B. Sanchez | Contributor
ilms on social realities emerged triumphant in a dream project. This summarizes the first annual Dreamanila International Film Festival recently held at The Dream Theater by CBRC in Sampaloc, Manila. The event featured sociological, anthropological and ecological films that are mainly focused on gender equality, indigenous people and their cultures, and issues on environmental awareness.
Hosted by Carl Balita Productions or CBP, the film festival was divided into the student and professional divisions. The films were judged according to the following criteria: 50% for social impact and 50% for excellence in direction, screenplay, performance and technical aspects. Award-winning filmmaker Joselito Altarejos, UP Film Institute resident programmer and film critic Nonoy Lauzon and independent film actor Tony Fabian comprised the Dreamanila jury. “Pua Iyam” (Coming Out), which is about a guy who discovers his true identity, topped the student division by bagging Best Short Film and Best Performance for lead actor Rowi Du. The short film won “for its outstanding technical achievements and most exemplar y direction, acting and artistic design. The film’s screenplay is affecting, poignant, and sincere in capturing both the beauty and struggle of a person’s often
painful episodes of coming of age,” read the jury citation. Director Juan Pablo Pineda III, an alumnus of Far Eastern University and the FEU Film Society, is grateful to the festival organizers and judges and his production team Indie-Go Pictures for another set of victories for their film. “Pua Iyam” was also recognized at FEU’s Sinepiyu 2017, De La SalleCollege of Saint Benilde’s CineSB7, UP’s Piling Obrang Vidyo XIV, CineMapúa 2018, 9th Largabista in Tacloban, Leyte, and the first Palawan International Film Festival. “It’s almost two years and the production shoot is still fresh from my memory. I still remember how I first fell in love and how I easily stopped from loving and chasing the characters I’ve created in my story,” Pineda shared, as he dedicates the film to his brother who is in a coma. On the other hand, Du is thankful to Pineda for trusting him to portray the main char-
still photo of “Pau Iyam”
“Pau Iyam” bags Best Short film and Best Performance awards
“Pau Iyam” is about finding one’s true identity (still photo)
acter of Ken, as well as their mentors and friends who never stopped believing in their film. “As an actor, I will always be proud of this project and this role. Cheers to dreams that
turned into reality!” Meanwhile, DLS-CSB film alumnus Christian Rae Villanueva won Best Director “ for the most impressive display of prof icienc y in
weaving a simple narrative into a complex and carefully observed character study” in “Ang Mga Turo ng Gabi” (Lessons of the Night). Continued on 15
ang mga turo ng gabi
broken city
baboy halas
retropektib
chasing waves
Baconaua
Santa nena!
Dream manila jury
Dream theater by CBRC in Sampaloc, Manila
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Sunday, January 27, 2019 15
Continued from page 13
In addition, “Santa Nena!” by fellow Benildean filmmaker Tim Rone B. Villanueva got a Special Jury Prize “for its courage in expressing a bold concept in challenging and exposing our sociocultural norms with searing passion and integrity.” The black comedy tied for the award with “How to Get to the Cinema” by Alexey Protsenko of Russia while Guilherme Franco of Portugal won Best Screenplay for “Laura.” Another FEU short film, “Retrospektib” (Retrospective) by Daryll Jameson Apaga, received a special mention “for its brilliantly comedic expression and observation of the lessons and effects of oppression in the psyche of the society.” In the film, three activists escape the atrocities of the Narkos regime at the height of Martial Law. They are surprised by their discovery in the present. Jek Joshua David, the new CBP Director of Productions, said that it has long been a dream of his boss, Dr. Carl Balita, to build his own theater since he has a passion for the arts. Aside from being the president of Carl Balita Review Center, educator and radio host, Balita is also a film producer himself through his production outfit CBP. After serving as an executive producer to “Nars” directed by Adolfo Alix, Jr. more than ten years ago, he again ventured into film production, this time as producer to “Maestra” by Lemuel Lorca. “ W he n ‘ M ae s t r a’ pre miered in 2017 at Bl ac k M a r i a C i ne m a , Si r C a r l was inspired by it that he wanted to establish a similar venue.” Black Maria is a microcinema owned by the same family behind SQ Film Laboratories, Inc. “The third f loor of our office is being used as lecture room for reviewees. He thought of converting it into a theater since it is not being
“PUA IYAM” production team 1
Production team 2
Behind the scene of “Pua Iyam”
used at night after the review classes,” David said, referring to the building at the corner of G. Tolentino Street and España Boulevard in Sampaloc. In addition, Balita had a hard time showing “Maestra” in commercial cinemas so he opened his own the-
ater last year and planned on building more screening venues nationwide. “Sir Carl knows the struggles of independent producers so with Dream Theater, we can assure indie filmmakers that we can help them if they need a venue for showing their
films,” David vowed. Turning Balita’s dream into reality also gave the venue a dual purpose – a lecture room in the morning and a theater at night. “And knowing we are surrounded by universities, students are our main audience aside from our reviewees. The theater is also his way of helping the independent industry,” David explained. “Aside from that, the theater also doubles as a venue for theater productions. We already started with Mano-Mano Theater Festival last October featuring groups from different university theater productions staging original plays they created. We plan to continue the same type of productions so we can tour it in different provinces in the Philippines.” “Dreamanila is a start-up fest. Almost a hundred entries submitted last year and just like any film event, we want to give them a venue. We adhered to screening more titles from here and abroad,” head programmer and “Maestra” scriptwriter Archie Del Mundo explained. “It’s a good test run holding it last December. There were many setbacks but we managed to handle them because we had a venue in the Dream Theater. We realized that we can do better next time when
we hold it in a new venue this year, hopefully with the help of sponsors and institutions. We have invitations to hold it in UP. We need time to program them properly so we can screen them to the public,” Del Mundo revealed. In the professional division, which showcased fulllength films in competition, “Mahin’s Issue, Maliheh ’s Problem” by Hossein Tabrizi of Iran won Best Film and Best Performance for Gilda Vishki while Filipino filmmaker Bagane Fiola’s “Baboy Halas” (Wailings in the Forest) got the Grand Jury prize. Meanwhile, Lam Can-zhao (“The Dog”) of China and another Filipino filmmaker Arnel Barbarona (“Tu Pug Imatuy”) tied for Best Director. Fellow Filipinos Joseph Laban and Denise O’Hara took Best Screenplay for “Baconaua” and Charliebebs Gohetia brought home the Excellence in Cinematography, Sound, Editing and Orchestration award in all categories for “Chasing Waves.” Special mentions were given to director Sigfreid Barros Sanchez and actor Ejay Falcon of “Magtanggol” and director Xue Tao of China for “Broken City.” Apart from Dreamanila and Mano-Mano, CBRC is planning to hold another film festival of its kind in Oriental Mindoro, with no specific date yet, and the Maestra International Student Film Festival featuring teachers. Originally scheduled this March, it will be moved in July instead.
Seymour B. Sanchez Contributor BusinessMirror
STAFF AND CREW Ronnel “Thirdy” Rivera III
Executive Producer, Writer and Director
Neo-Aldwin Torres
Associate Producer, Script Supervisor, Colorist, Trailer and Poster Editor, Camera Operator Assistant
Diana Manguiat
Assistant Director and Script Supervisor
Paul Jerald Munoz
Director of Photography, Editor and Colorist
Jamilla Chua
Production Manager
Winter Delos Reyes
Production Designer
Sydney Crespo
MarRy Grace Yagi plays role as Trixie.
Wardrobe and Make-up
Rigel Arbole
Sound Recordist
Angelica Nitura
BTS Documentarist, Footage and Audio Dumper and Colorist Roselene AriolaLocation Manager and Clapper
Mav Manuilit
Talent Coordinator and Clapper
Mara Reyna
“Fat You” crew at work
OUTDOOR shoot for the short film
Script Consultant and Production Assistant
Jay Letrillard
Production Assistant and Camera Operator
Jasmaine Reyes Jasmeen Singh Hermie Alano Ron Alos
Production Assistant
CAST
FILM shoot takes a serious turn
Marry Grace Yagi as Trixie Lexcel Quina as Alex Robby Delgado as Troy Sedi Ramirez as Waiter Mara Reyna as Gym Admin Ronnel P. Rivera as Driver
“Fat You” joins festival in its official selection
Classmates
Sydney Crespo Jasmeen Singh Jazzen Perado Ron Alos Gerald Caldito Jean Laurio Jasmaine Reyes Erika Pamplona Airam Tamparia Andreana Rivera Nicole Hernandez Hermie Alano
Jeepney Passengers
Thirdy rivera iii (center) during his acceptance speech in Sinekabataan 2017
Rose De Vera Nora Hernandez Rem Hernandez Peach Hernandez Psynon Hernandez Winter Delos Reyes Sydney Crespo Angelica Nitura Mara Reyna Jay Letrillard Jasmaine Reyes Jasmeen Singh Ronald Mendoza
seymour sanchez (extreme left), Rivera (center), and the rest of “Fat You” creators
Joggers Young film makers at Short+Sweet Film Manila 2017
THIRDY in a gay role
stage acting comes naturally to Thirdy
Pj Munoz Jay Letrillard
BusinessMirror
Sunday, January 27, 2019 17
campus art scene
The unplanned success of ‘Fat You’ Story by Carla Mortel-Baricaua Photos courtesy of Thirdy Rivera III
O
ne restless school break, Thirdy and his squad got so bored they shot a short film just for the heck of it. With nothing but a story and an itch to film, these A.B. Communications students from Far Eastern University raised enough money through crowd sourcing and produce their pet project entitled “Fat You”. Not only did this short film earned nods of their professors, it also made the rounds of film competitions, won accolades, and more importantly, it gave attention to the woes of the plus-size community. The short film Fat You depicts the struggles of Trixie (Marry Grace Yagi) while trying to lose weight after being invited to a class reunion. Bullied because of her plus-size appearance, Trixie is afraid to show up and face the judgment from her former schoolmates, but eventually musters enough courage to show up in a big way (pun intended). In a streak of success, the five-minute film earned the Amazing By Choice Award at SineKabataan 2017, Audience Choice Award Heat 2 at Short+Sweet Film Festival Manila 2017, Best Film (19-21 Category) at Manila Student Film Festival 2017, and Official Selection at the 20th International Youth Media Festival YOUKI held in Austria in 2018. “Fat You” is actually my story.
When I decided to come up with a film, I wanted it to be all about my experience, my hurt,” Ronnel “Thirdy” Rivera III reveals with no apologies. Called fat since he was a kid, Thirdy very well know what bullying is all about, and as a victim, he struggled to have a piece of the limelight.
My production, my acting roles
Pudgy and cute, Thirdy started out as a child talent who starred in several TV commercials. In an audition for an acting role in one of biggest TV networks, he learned about body requirements and more the hard way. “I was seven years old then. The role was for a child beggar and I was paired with a female stand up for a popular actress. After I said my lines, she goes ‘paano ako maniniwala na pulubi ka? Eh, ang taba-taba mo?’ (how can believe you’re a beggar when you’re so fat?) I thought it was just acting, right? I was just a kid, so why should she say something like that? There it dawned upon me when you’re fat, there are roles just for you. There’s that kind of discrimination and rejection. It was the same thing when I tried acting in theatre two years. I was either involved in historical pieces or comedies back then. My first play had mostly farmers in the cast of characters, but I was given the role of a president. I had to be serious and collected, but I felt that didn’t show my full potential. I really wanted to be in the lead, given that it was a musical and I do sing, but they told me I wasn’t right for the role;
I just didn’t look like a farmer. I was not given a chance to play romantic roles at all. All I ever did was to be loud, since I got cast as a gay in a beauty parlor. Being good at it, I got stereotyped and was confined to gay roles ever since. I have nothing against gay roles because I still got to act. As they say, theatre is an actor’s medium, but I wanted variety that will give me different challenges. I understand that the production wanted to stay true to their concept, I just wished that fat actors are not set with that kind of limitations. That’s when I started entertaining the idea of doing my own production.” Aptly called Plus Size Productions, Thirdy and his motley crew of film enthusiasts then started filming with plus size actors in the lead roles. “I said to myself if I cannot the juicy roles, I might as well create those roles. That was my motivation.”
My hurt, my advocacy
Writing the script drawn out from his own experience came easy to Thirdy, but somehow the material fell flat to his expectations. He sensed that there was missing from the narrative, so he sought the stories of others who had experienced bullying due to their big body size and incorporated that into the story. “I realized that this should not be just about me. The story should not center on my personal accounts. My responsibility is not just to tell my story, but the stories of others, too. I told myself not to be selfish; to tell about my hurt and the hurt of others
as well and that became the core content of Fat You. Fat people inspire me. We may appear strong, but the truth is we’re not. We’re not accepted in society; we’re discriminated in subtle ways, while in commute, during job interviews. So, we must have a positive outlook in life. I will continue to work for fat people and body positivity. Like I said during the awards night, I dedicate this to all fat people because I find it my purpose to tell their stories.”
My stand, my response
Since childhood, Thirdy had face rejection and kept his silence. Whenhewasbullied,hewouldcry anddrownhimselfinself-pity.He kept his pain bottled up. In high school, he began to engage and fight back with bullies. “‘Where’s your neck? “They ask”. ‘It’s in my pocket! What is it to you?’ I would answer. But they kept on bullying me because they get a response. They know I’m getting hurt. Now, I want to be more positive in my approach to bullying,” shares Thirdy. To that effect, Thirdy had also begun handling and producing videos for the BlueChoice Facebook page dedicated to the plus-size community. But despite educating FB users on body positivity, the page still receives negative comments. These, however, are met with openness and meaningful exchanges. “It’s not about who wins in the discussions, but more of having an understanding, a meeting half way. We also saw that while comments are offensive, more often
that not, their message is really about taking care of one’s health. Meaning, they’re just concerned about us. When both sides try to educate each side, they can have a better understanding. In the end, both sides are thankful for the concern, and gain each other’s respect. The negativity then is converted to a powerful, positive message. I started empowering fat people because I believe no matter what difficulties are coming their way, they’d know how to deal with the hate. I can speak confidently now because I started with myself. Once you have accepted yourself, others will accept you just the way you are. For me, it took that process.” His early success had the plus-size community embracing his short film. “Fat you!”now had become a retort that is fast catching on individuals who find themselves bullied and discriminated based on their big size. More than a comeback, it has become a rallying call to end bullying and to better understand and accept people in all shapes and sizes.
Carla Mortel-Baricaua Contributing Editor
BusinessMirror
18 Sunday, January 27, 2019
arts & culture
FDCP TO HONOR FILIPINO FILMMAKERS’ GLOBAL EXCELLENCE WITH FILM AMBASSADORS’ NIGHT
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he Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) will kick off the year by hosting the third FDCP Film Ambassadors’ Night on February 10, 2019 at the Samsung Hall at SM Aura Premier in Bonifacio Global City. This annual event is an evening of celebrating the victories of Filipino films, filmmakers, producers, and artists who received accolades and recognition from international film festivals last 2018.
FDCP w il l recog nize eighty-five (85) who brought honor to the countr y by championing Filipino culture and stories through cinema. Among them are filmmakers who received awards from Alist film festivals, which include Shireen Seno (Nervous Translation), Treb Monteras II (Respeto), and Brillante Mendoza (Alpha, The Right to Kill). There will also be three (3) recipients of the Camera Obscura Artistic Excellence Award, the highest recognition given by the Agency to outstanding members of the film industry who made major breakthroughs in Philippine cinema. Each awardee will be given a trophy and a P50,000 cash award. Previous awardees include Lav Diaz and Jaclyn Jose, as well as the films
“Saving Sally” by Avid Liongoren and “Kita Kita” by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo. The Film Ambassadors’ Night will be a festive night of celebrating triumphs and will also serve as a gathering of filmmakers to share their extraordinary experiences with one another and open doors for future collaboration. The year 2019 is the banner year for the centennial celebration of the Philippine cinema. Following the Presidential Proclamation No. 622, series of 2018, FDCP is the lead agency for the historic event. As part of the com memorat ion, FDC P ’s events throughout the year will follow the theme “Sandaan”, starting with the Film Ambassadors’ Night. The list of Film Ambassadors will be announced soon.
This year’s FDCP Film Ambassadors’ Night is a celebration of milestones achieved by vanguards of the Filipino film industry.
BusinessMirror
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arts & culture
PASINAYA 2019 TO BE
UPSIZED THIS YEAR T
HE largest multi-arts festival in the country is back, but this year, the CCP Pasinaya Open House Festival will be held for a longer period - from February 1 to 3. Following the theme “Karapatan, Kalayaan, Kultura,” the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) decided to add an extra day as the open house festival has grown, making it a much longer art journey than just a weekend affair. The country’s leading art institution will once again open its doors and offer unique artistic experiences with a seeall-you-can-and-pay-whatyou-can scheme. On its 15th year, the open house festival continues its two-part program, dubbed “Palihan at Palabas.” The festival opens on February 1 (Friday) with Palihan, the “Experience-All-You-Can, Pay-What-You-Can” part of the festival. Registration starts at 6:30am, at the CCP Ramp and Little Theater lobby. For a suggested donation price of P50, participants may go in and out of the different CCP
venues to attend the 30-minute workshops in various art disciplines conducted by leading artists, resource persons and teachers. Dance all you can with workshops in hiphop, ballroom, folk dance, ballet for kids and adults, modern ballet and creative movement for teachers. Realize your acting dream with theater workshops on musical theatre, children’s, teens and adult theater, playwriting, improv, storytelling, collaborative theater, and directing space. Learn to play instruments with music workshops on classical guitar, rondalla, ukulele, percussion and Philippine musical instruments. Or belt your heart out in the workshops on chamber music, solo singing, children and youth choir singing. There will be two days of Palabas, with more than 3,000 artists from different art fields such as music, theater, dance, spoken word, and visual arts expected to participate. On February 2, performing groups and artists from Bulacan, Quezon, Boracay, Laguna,
Cavite, Tarlac, Batangas, Bicol, Rizal, Pangasinan and other provinces in the Philippines will take center stage. The center’s resident companies—namely the Ballet Philippines, the Philippine Ballet Theater, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, Tanghalang Pilipino, the UST Symphony Orchestra, and the National Music Competitions for Young Artists—will highlight their season’s offerings on February 3. Another highlight of the festival is the museum-hopping, featuring the various partner museums around the metro. This year, CCP has new museum partners: CSB Center for Campus Art and Calle Wright. In partnership with the Museum Foundation, shuttle vans are provided to enable audiences to visit participating museums and galleries in Pasay and Manila such as Met Museum, Museo Marino,
Museo Pambata, National Museum’s National Art Gallery, Museum of the Filipino People and Museum of Natural History, Intramuros Administration’s Casa Manila and Fort Santiago, Mono 8, Bahay Tsino, Destilleria Limtuaco, FDCP Cinematheque, Galleria Duemilla, UP Manila’s The Museum of A History of Ideas, Avellana Gallery, 98B Collaboratory, and NCCA Gallery. There will also be film screenings, visual arts exhibitions in the various CCP galleries, Arts Market at the Little Theater Lobby, tiangge in the South Parking area, among others. The festival will culminate with a parade, featuring best of the best in the art community and featuring performances of the CCP resident companies and other guest artists. All performances will be held in every possible venue at the CCP—theaters, lobbies, hallways, promenade areas, the alley beside the Production Design Center. All venues
are “zoned” according to the art forms and genres such as music, theater, dance, film, literature, visual arts, children and family, variety and the artists market. Through the Pasinaya, the CCP aims to provide a platform for the artists to showcase their talents, nurture the public and create new audiences through interactions and performances. For the past years, the Pasinaya has become bigger and better, attracting more than 10,000 people, with approximately 52,000 audience viewership. Through the festival, CCP makes art matters in the life of every Filipino. Whether you are a newbie in the art, a casual fan or an art aficionado, you will surely find a reason and see something that will catch your interest at the Pasinaya 2019. For inquiries, please call the CCP Marketing Department at tel. nos. 832-3704 or 832-3706. Visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph for more details.
PISTA NG PELIKULANG PILIPINO 3 TO CELEBRATE
PH CINEMA’S CENTENNIAL YEAR I t ’ s o f f i c i a l ! Th e P i s t a n g Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP)’s third year will be held this 2019 from September 11 to 17 which will mark the official celebration of the One Hundred Years of Philippine Cinema. A flagship program of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), PPP is a week-long celebration
that exclusively screens quality Filipino films of different genres in all theaters nationwide. These are films which have compelling narratives and elevated storytelling that are appealing and can engage the most diverse of audiences. “We are excited to involve the entire nation in the celebration
of our One Hundred Years [of PH Cinema] and what better way to do it than to engage our audience t o s u p p o r t o u r q u a l i t y g e n re films especially made for them. What we are looking for are films which have original narrative and unique storytelling but accessible to a wide audience and we cannot
wait to showcase another amazing lineup this September,” said FDCP Chairperson Liza Diño. T h e O n e H u n d re d Ye a r s o f Philippine Cinema was recognized through the Presidential Proclamation 622 Series signed last November and assigning FDCP as lead agency for the celebration.
This historic milestone was declared in honor of Dalagang Bukid by Jose Nepomuceno that was released on September 12, 1919, which is considered the first Filipino-produced and directed feature film. Details on the mechanics and further information about the call for entries will be announced soon.
BusinessMirror
20 Sunday, January 27, 2019
arts & culture
CALL FOR ENTRIES TO 2019 CINEMALAYA SHORT FILM CATEGORY
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NTRIES are now being accepted for the Short Film category of the 2019 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival and Competition. Interested filmmakers must submit their application on or before March 1, 2019 (Friday), 6:00 p.m. to the Media Arts Division of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Roxas Blvd., Pasay City. Entries must include: the duly completed application form; the final work in MP4 format saved on DVD (six copies) or USB, with violator, properly labeled with the title, production company address and contact numbers, pro-
duction date, director’s name and running time; synopsis in English; and a brief résumé and two recent 2x2 photos of the filmmaker(s). A ll entries must be subm it te d i n a lon g brow n envelope properly labeled with the proponent’s name, title and contact details. The 10 best short features will be announced on May 14, 2019 and will compete for the Best Short Film award during the 2019 Cinemalaya Festival
on August 2 to 11 at the CCP and other festival venues. The winning short film will receive a prize of Php150,000.00 and the Balanghai trophy during the Cinemalaya Awards Night on August 11, 2019 at the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo
(CCP Main Theater). Now on its 15th year, Cinemalaya is an all-digital film competition that aims to discover, encourage and support the cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers that boldly articulate and freely interpret the
Filipino experience with fresh insight and artistic integrity. For entry forms and complete guidelines, visit www.cinemalaya.org, www.culturalcenter.gov. ph or call the CCP Media Arts Division (832-1125, local 1705 & 1712).
GAWAD ALTERNATIBO 2019 CALL FOR ENTRIES
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HE CCP Film, Broadcast and New Media Division now accepts entries for the Ika-31 Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video. Deadline for submission is on or before March 15, 2019 (Friday), not later than 6:00 p.m. at the CCP FBNMD Office, located at the 4/F CCP Main Building. Entries must include a duly accomplished entry form, which can be downloaded at www.culturalcenter.gov.ph or www.cinemalaya.org; one digital data file of the entry in full resolution (saved on USB or burned on a DVD as data
with file properly labeled or identified); and one DVD or USB containing the synopsis, genre, running time, rating, production credits, two black & white photos from the film entry in jpeg format, and film entry poster (if available) in jpeg format. Interested participants can submit a maximum of three entries in each category, but an entry can only be submitted in one category. Categories include Short Feature/Narrative, Experimental, Documentary, and Animation. The selected entries will be
screened during the Ika-31 Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video Festival on August 3-5, 2019 as part of the 15th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, which is slated from August 2 to 11, 2019 at the CCP theaters and various venues.
The best films will be awarded during the Awards Night on August 5, 2019 at the CCP Tanghalang Manuel Conde (Dream Theater). Winning entries in each category will receive P25,000.00 (1st Prize), P15,000.00 (2nd Prize), and P10,000.00 (3rd Prize). An
Honorable Mention awardee will also get P5,000.00. This year, Special Awards include: Best Regional Entry and Best Entry On/For/By Children. Now on its 31st year of annually citing the country’s most outstanding film and video artists, the Gawad A lternatibo is considered t he lon ge s t - r u n n i n g i n dependent film and video competition in Asia. For entry forms and complete guidelines, visit www. cinemalaya.org, www.culturalcenter.gov.ph or call the CCP FBNMD Office at 832-1125, local 1705 & 1712.