Years of cat-and-mouse end as top mafioso cornered in Italian clinic

January 17, 2023 | 4:55 pm

Criminal in handcuffs — STOCK PHOTO | Image by rawpixel.com from Freepik

ROME — Italian investigators knew a lot of things about mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

He liked wearing designer clothes, expensive sun glasses and Rolex watches, he loved video games and had a taste for luxury foods. He was also a ruthless killer who once claimed to have murdered enough people to fill a cemetery.

What they didn’t know was where he was.

But on Monday, after 30 years on the run, the most wanted mafioso in Italy was finally captured, seized in a private clinic in the Sicilian capital Palermo after police found out he was receiving treatment there for cancer.

“It is a day of celebration when we can tell our children that the mafia can be beaten,” said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who flew straight to Sicily when news of the arrest broke, underlining the importance of the capture.

Messina Denaro was born in the southwestern Sicilian town of Castelvetrano in 1962, the son of a mafioso. He followed his father into the mob and at 15 he was already carrying a gun. Police believe he carried out his first killing when he was 18.

The Castelvetrano clan was allied to the Corleonesi, headed by Salvatore “the Beast” Riina, who became the undisputed “boss of bosses” thanks to his ruthless pursuit of power.

Nicknamed “’U Siccu” (The Skinny One), Messina Denaro became his protege and showed he could be just as pitiless as his master, picking up 20 life prison terms in trials held in absentia for his role in an array of mob murders.

Details of his crimes emerged in the many court hearings.

Police say he was heavily involved in the planning of the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino – crimes that shocked the nation and sparked a crackdown that led to Riina’s arrest in 1993.

He was also held responsible for subsequent bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993 that killed 10 people in an apparently failed bid to force the government to halt its war on the Sicilian mob, know as Cosa Nostra (Our Thing).

He was also found guilty of helping organise the kidnapping of Giuseppe Di Matteo, 12, to try to dissuade the boy’s father from giving evidence against the mafia. The boy was held for two years before he was strangled and his body dissolved in acid.

HOARDS OF MESSAGES
Messina Denaro went into hiding in 1993 as a growing number of turncoats started providing details of his role in the mob. He communicated with other mafiosi via “pizzini”, small pieces of paper sometimes written in code distributed by messengers.

A mass of these notes was found in 2006 when police caught Bernardo Provenzano, who had led Cosa Nostra after Riina’s arrest. In a letter to a contact, Messina Denaro said he couldn’t believe how careless Provenzano had been.

“When I receive a letter, even from family members, I reply as quickly as possible and immediately burn the one that arrived,” he wrote.

He never married, but was known to have a number of lovers. Denaro wrote that he had a daughter, but had never met her. He is also believed to have a son, but little is known about him.

As police repeatedly swept Sicily looking for clues about his whereabouts, more correspondence emerged showing they were dealing with someone who saw himself very differently to the way he was portrayed by his foes.

“I only care about being a fair man, I have made fairness my philosophy of life and I hope to die a fair man,” he wrote in a letter dated Feb. 1, 2005, found in an abandoned hideout.

He quotes the bible and French writer Daniel Pennac, amongst others, and laments the fact he had little formal education.

In an eavesdropped recording from prison, Riina is heard complaining about his one-time protege, apparently perturbed by news he was investing in wind farms and angered he hadn’t taken charge of the mafia, like he had.

“The only guy who could do something because he was straight… didn’t do anything,” Riina told a fellow inmate.

Despite his notoriety, prosecutors have always doubted that Messina Denaro became the “boss of bosses” after Provenzano’s capture, saying it was more likely that he was simply the head of Cosa Nostra in western Sicily.

Nonetheless, the fact he managed to escape arrest for so many years showed he had a fierce, loyal following.

Whispers surfaced last year that he was seriously ill and prosecutors finally seem to have located him thanks to the fact he needed regular treatment at a Palermo clinic.

“We have not won the war, we have not defeated the mafia but this battle was a key battle to win, and it is a heavy blow to organised crime,” Prime Minister Meloni said. – Reuters

Dreaming about the World Cup: Not impossible

January 17, 2023 | 4:50 pm

(Part 4)

I am convinced that by combining the efforts of both public and private groups committed to helping the Philippine football national team to qualify for the World Cup, we can, in less than a decade, actually achieve what seemed to be in the past an impossible dream.

I am encouraged by the fact that world-class players like Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Gavi, Pedri, Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres and many others started to play for their respective national teams in the World Cup when they were still in their teens or at least in their early 20s. We should work on giving intensive training to the likes of Sandro Reyes of Southridge who, when he was 13, was admitted to the famous football school called La Masia of FC Barcelona which trained Messi, Iniesta (who won the World Cup for Spain in 2010), Javi Hernandez, and many other world-class players. If we do so, within a decade or so, we can have enough quality players to enable the Azkals qualify for the World Cup — way before the end of this century.

Among the most active in the private sector in promoting football (and futsal) as a national sport are the officials of the Henry V. Moran Foundation, headed by Danny Moran.

In an e-mail to me, commenting on the first articles in this series, he opined that the success of football in the Philippines will come more from the women’s rather than the men’s team — warming the hearts of those advocating gender equality. The Filipinas (the national Women’s Football Team, formerly known as the Malditas) already qualified to play in the Women’s World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand this year.

Danny informed me that Vic Hermans, the Technical Director for Philippine Futsal of the Henry V. Moran Foundation, observes that in the Southeast Asian region (and probably even in the whole of Asia), Filipinas are stronger and more diverse in their skills/abilities (due to different strengths coming from the diverse regions within the Philippine Archipelago). In addition, Filipino women are more competitive in sports as compared to their Asian and Middle Eastern counterparts, particularly in futsal. This is evidenced by the fact that our women have won more international championships in sports than our men, such as in golf, tennis, weight lifting, martial arts, and even boxing.

Danny reiterates the wisdom of starting with futsal as the way to develop football. Futsal is relatively new in Asia so the Philippines has better chances of taking a lead in its development, especially for women. Although the national Women’s Football Team made it to the World Cup, over 80% of the team members are Fil-foreigners, mostly from the United States. Because of the stiff competition abroad, especially in Europe and the United States, we are a long way from getting local players to ever qualify for the National Team. This problem is aggravated by the fact that we lack football fields in our public schools. There are very few local women’s football leagues. It is really a challenge to find local talents.

With futsal, girls from the ages of six to eight can start playing in our public-school basketball courts all over the country. Because of the huge numbers of our youth, some of these girls can find their way to the National Football team in the near future. There is also the psychological reality that as they reach their puberty, girls tend to be more mature, responsible, and motivated than boys of the same ages as reflected by the higher grades of girls in junior and senior high schools as compared to those of their male classmates. Dropout rates among girls at these school levels are also lower.

It is an opportune time to introduce futsal as part of the sports curriculum in public schools because of the renewed priority that Vice-President Sara Duterte, who is the Education Secretary, wants to assign to values education or character development in the public schools. There are private schools like those of the Don Bosco priests or of the Parents for Education Foundation (providentially headed by Danny Moran as Chairman) who consider “sports as means for character development.” The programs of these private schools can be used as templates for the widespread introduction of futsal into the public schools.

As Kevin Goco, a close associate of Danny in the promotion of futsal and football, wrote in an e-mail to me: “I believe DepEd (Department of Education) can learn a lot from the implementation of the Sports Club program in the PAREF (Parents for Education Foundation) schools. DepEd has a budget to fund the Sports Club program in public schools and it is a model based on a consultancy engagement with Stella Urbiztondo with the Department. Stella was also PAREF’s consultant for its own Sports Club Program. It has a head start and decided to roll out the Sports Club Program early in 2022 while DepEd is still in the deliberation stage on how to implement the program. I recently attended a conference hosted by DepEd where they discussed which sports to prioritize under the Sports Club program. The priority sports were all individual and indigenous sports (badminton, table tennis, sepak takraw, weightlifting). Futsal and football were not even in the list, and sadly most team sports were left out. It seems that the National Academy of Sports, which is the new government sports academy under DepEd and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), is prioritizing individual sports where there is a higher chance of obtaining medals, such as in weightlifting, table tennis, shooting and taekwondo.”

It has to be pointed out, however, that the focus on getting individual medals completely ignores the greater impact of team sports, if properly played, on the building of character and the inculcation of the appropriate values among a large number of Filipino youth. The fostering of individual sports has limited multiplier effects on vast numbers of school children, especially at the basic education levels.

Promoting futsal and football in the public schools, however, will not be a walk in the park. A good number of bureaucratic and cultural obstacles have to be overcome. It is, therefore, important that all sectors of Philippine society are convinced that football is a sport in which Filipinos can excel, given enough support, and that football is an effective means of developing the appropriate values among the youth.

I am fully aware of the hurdles very ably enumerated by my friend and former school mate at De La Salle University, Oscar Lagman, who wrote in this paper that aspiring to be qualify for the World Cup in the next decade or so is a “pipe dream.” I can only reply “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” I have also learned not to downplay basketball as I advocate greater interest among the youth in football. It need not be an “either/or” proposition. Even if football will always play second fiddle to basketball, our demographic dividend for at least the next 20 years will provide us enough young people for both sports.

Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia

Seize the opportunities of RCEP

January 17, 2023 | 4:49 pm

The Philippines is one of the signatories to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was signed on Nov. 15, 2020 after eight long years of negotiations. The free trade agreement (FTA) among the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand is expected to bring significant economic benefits to its signatories.

The FTA aims to promote greater openness, create a more business-friendly environment, encourage closer integration of economies, and institute a stable, predictable, and rules-based system of trade. It will eliminate as much as 90% of the tariffs on imports between its signatories within 20 years of coming in effect.

For the Philippines, specifically, the FTA promises to be a crucial step in our shift to an investment-driven economy, given our underlying economic challenges and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Being an RCEP signatory will be crucial to our recovery and sustainable growth.

There is a crucial step, however, that needs to be taken before the Philippines can fully reap the benefits of being part of this agreement: Our country still has to ratify this treaty.

Only the Philippines and Myanmar have not yet ratified the RCEP. Former President Rodrigo Duterte, for his part, ratified it in September 2021 and forwarded it to the Senate for deliberation and eventual concurrence. Our senators, however, deferred their concurrence, seeing a need for safeguards for our embattled agriculture sector.

During the Senate hearings earlier this year, no less than the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) argued that pursuing parallel efforts — for RCEP to boost our economy, and for efforts to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the agriculture sector — is definitely possible and in fact beneficial in the long run.

Thus, earlier this month, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri stated his commitment that upon the resumption of sessions this year, the Senate will prioritize the ratification of the RCEP and the passage of bills of national importance.

We hope our senators remain true to their word.

The RCEP’s specific benefits to the Philippine economy, given our peculiar situation and unique profile, are many.

Foremost, our co-signatories make up roughly 50.4% of our export markets, 67.3% of our import sources, and 58% of the source of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).

The RCEP will also improve our trade position, which as of November 2022 is in a deficit amounting to $3.68 billion. Imports continue to dominate our total trade, accounting for 60.3% of the total. The FTA could be an opportunity to gain access to a wider export market, increase export production, and lessen our reliance on imports by encouraging more investments, specifically in the manufacturing sector.

Investment-led growth will create higher quality jobs and more employment opportunities for Filipinos, making the economy more resilient and productive. Indeed, the RCEP will enhance investment opportunities through improved promotion, protection, and facilitation.

With lower tariffs, local industries will be encouraged to produce more and engage further in trade.

Of course, lower tariffs could be a double-edged sword and can also cause larger import volumes to flow to the Philippines, exacerbating the trade deficit. Still, I believe the exposure and increased access of the Philippines to export markets far outweigh this potential risk. The RCEP will enable our industries to compete in the international market and push our industries to be better and more efficient.

With concerns on agriculture addressed and fears assuaged, our senators must now move fast and concur with the executive ratification of the RCEP. Every day they tarry is another day of missed opportunities in export and employment. Most importantly, finally ratifying the RCEP will send a strong message to the rest of the world that the Philippines is committed to having a stable policy and regulatory environment. After all, we are aware that these are critical to attracting investments.

*****

Another opportunity is the upgrade negotiations for the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) that were concluded substantially last November. At that time, the Philippines was not able to make ambitious commitments regarding investments because reforms, such as amendments to the Public Service Act, had not yet been passed.

But now these game-changing reforms have been enacted into law.

This is now a valuable opportunity for the Philippines to demonstrate to the rest of the world that it is open to investment. Commitments based on actual legislation offer significant assurance to the international business community that the Philippines is a good place to invest in, and that policies are not made or changed on a whim: they have solid legislative, legal basis. Thus, these critical economic reforms cannot be arbitrarily undone.

Like the situation with RCEP, the AANZFTA offers a window of opportunity that would be important to our economic recovery and growth.

Ratifying the RCEP now and seizing its huge opportunities will show that the Philippines is ready to sustain a growth trajectory.

Victor Andres “Dindo” C. Manhit is the president of the Stratbase ADR Institute.

Gold is getting its glitter back

January 17, 2023 | 4:47 pm

WHEN I recently went to talk to some school children about the nature of money, I brought props: a cowrie shell, a piece of play paper and a small handful of shredded dollar bills. Which of these, I asked, is money?

The point I wanted to make: It is all about belief. If everyone agrees something is money, it is indeed money. One particularly engaged child interrupted me just as I was getting going on the rai stones of Yap to ask: Can fiat currencies really survive? Not what you might expect from an 11-year-old.

The answer, of course, was that it depends what one means by survive. Carry on for many more decades under the same names of dollars, pounds, euros, etc.? Sure. Do so without losing purchasing power? Not a hope. Even inflation at 2% each year halves the value of your money in 36 years. And inflation at 2% for the long-term is something of a distant dream at the moment. CPI is down to 6.5% in the US and it will fall further from here, but it is very unlikely to settle at 2%, where most central banks still have their targets set.

We live in a world of very big government — one in which the answer to anything is more state spending (the UK’s response to rising energy bills, for example, is to have the state cover much of the cost) and in which governments have taken on vast investment responsibilities (in green energy, for instance). Deficits and borrowing will rise as a result. At the same time, the effort to build resilient supply chains and to reshore manufacturing will make everything more expensive, as will rising labor costs around the world. The disinflationary effects of China entering the global workforce are long gone (see Larry Summers on this).

So inflation is with us for the long haul. If you are holding cash, know that it is only a temporary king.

This all led the children and me to a discussion of whether there is anything that stays money forever. Enter physical gold, the only thing that has been considered real money by most people and that has maintained its purchasing power for nearly 3,000 years. This isn’t a particularly interesting conversation if there is no inflation: If a pound or a dollar holds its purchasing power, who needs gold? It is heavy, you have to store it, it has no yield. When inflation is on the table, things get more interesting.

With this in mind, you might have expected gold to be all the rage last year. It was not. Instead, even as inflation hit close to 10% pretty much everywhere, the gold price (in dollars at least) did nothing. Gold mining shares, a good way to get leveraged exposure to gold, fell more than 8% and demand for gold ETFs fell for the second year in a row. Exasperating stuff.

Still, things did pick up toward the end of the year. The gold price (in dollars) is up some 15% since the beginning of last November and the miners have begun to come good too: The GDX gold miners index outperformed the S&P 500 by 14.9% in November and 4.6% in December, say the analysts at Stifel. The outflows from gold ETFs also slowed for the third month in a row in December — with the US even seeing mildly positive demand, to the tune of around $530 million.

This year is looking good too: The gold price is up 7% in the last month in sterling and dollars. The VanEck Junior Gold Miners UCITS ETF (which I hold) is up 10% year to date. Might there be something brewing here? Stifel thinks so. For them, it’s all about the Fed pivot.

Since gold has been allowed to trade freely, there have been 10 periods in which US benchmark rates have peaked. Theoretically, a peak in rates is a positive for gold, which offers no yield so looks less attractive as an investment as interest rates rise and more attractive as they fall. But it works in real life, too. Look at the periods five months before each peak (possibly roughly where we are now given that US CPI has just seen its first monthly drop in more than two years) plus six months, and you see that gold averaged a gain of 18% during these times and also outperformed the S&P 500 by 9.7% through the rate peaks. Good news.

There’s more. Recessions have followed the rate peaks within 18 months 60% of the time (the average being 10 months) and gold has shown a strong tendency to do well in these periods too (beating the S&P500 by 26%) — particularly when recession coincides with a stock market downturn. Regardless of what regulators say about past performance telling us nothing about the future, this does give good reason to think about holding gold in the short-term.

It is also worth thinking about who’s buying gold at the moment. Last year, there was much talk about who the “mystery buyer” in the gold market was. It wasn’t, it turns out, money managers in the US (the ones who should have been looking at the same data as Stifel), but central banks.

Overall, the World Gold Council estimates that central bank buying has lifted gold reserves to their highest level since 1974, with massive purchases from Russia and China being key. The People’s Bank of China bought 62 tons of gold in November and December alone. Why? To build reserve currency status, to hedge against the dollar in the wake of rising sanctions risk, to diversify — all things are possible given the geopolitical environment.

TD Securities are unconvinced on the case for gold. To them, Chinese buying has created a nasty $150 per ounce mispricing in the market — one that will correct if they stop buying.

But you could look at this the other way around and take Chinese buying as a clear reminder that gold is one of the few things that everyone thinks is money — from the precocious 11-year-old I met last month to the heads of every central bank in the world. As Alex Chartres of Ruffer recently said on my podcast, there aren’t many other things you can turn to as a long-term safe haven in today’s markets.

A year ago, some thought Bitcoin might be a rival — a digital gold even. The market has now “kneecapped” that idea. These days, if you want gold you will need to buy, well, gold. That being the case, the question is not have you too much, but have you enough — the very same question the head of the PBoC is clearly asking himself right now.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Why we need a forest cadastre

January 17, 2023 | 4:45 pm

SAMPLE graphical cadastral map from https://cadastraltemplate.org/philippines.php

IN THE PHILIPPINES, with a total land area of 30 million hectares (ha), only alienable and disposable (A&D) lands (14.2 million ha) are included in the national cadastre, and information on them can be found in a public registry. The remaining forest lands (15.8 million ha) are not included in such a system and information on them is not available in a publicly accessible database.

CADASTRE?
A cadastre is a parcel-based and up-to-date information system containing records of interests in land such as rights, restrictions, and responsibilities, etc.¹ It usually includes the geometric description of land parcels linked to tenurial instruments and the value of the land parcel and its improvements.²

Recording of land ownership has been around since Ancient Egypt but the foundations of the modern-day cadastre were laid down by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807 when he ordered the creation of maps and cadastral records.³ Forest lands are also included in the cadastre ,whether they are publicly or privately-owned.

Finland, Germany, and New Zealand have one cadastre that caters to all land classifications. In Turkey and Greece, there is a separate cadastre for forests. A forest cadastre is an inventory and record of interests in forest lands for various purposes. It is a tool for protecting, planning, development, and sustainable management of forests.

In the Philippines, although not yet established, a semblance of a pseudo-forest cadastre is being implemented through activities such as forest boundary delimitation survey and delineation of parcel forests and/or forest lands from the different tenurial instruments. However, one missing aspect of these initiatives is a systematic land information system and forest land registry that is publicly available.

DO WE NEED ONE?
Yes. There are proposed bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate that seek to establish a forest cadastre, to include forest lands in the national cadastral system. As the bills frame it, the forest cadastre will also include mineral lands, national parks and protected areas, ancestral land domains, reservations and proclamations — those lands that are not subject to private ownership.

Prior to any development and management undertaking, having information is imperative. The forest cadastre is a public library of information on forest lands enabling the public to make informed decisions on sustainable use, management, and/or regulation of use of forest resources. The forest cadastre is like one huge jigsaw puzzle set and each piece is one forest parcel (regardless of size) filled with relevant information regarding the land and the forest therein. Where is the parcel/piece located? What are the dimensions? Is it tenured or not? Who are the claimants? Which parcels are available for commercial activity, and which are not? And the best part is that this entire puzzle set of information shall be made available to everyone.

It is high time that the Philippines considers its forest lands in its existing national cadastral system. Why?

First, the availability of relevant and parcelized forest land and forest information can help for the effective and efficient management, planning, and assessment of forest lands.

Second, a forest cadastre can help in monitoring resource utilization and provide a reliable basis holding stewards/managers accountable if forest lands have not been properly used and managed.

Third, there will be a better understanding and inventory of tenures that may lead to their potential registration other than absolute ownership, i.e., CBFMA, IFMA, SIFMA, PACBRMA, CADT, and CALT among others, and this may help facilitate access to better credit in formal financial markets.

Fourth, the needed information will be publicly accessible encouraging private sector investments in green development projects, not only to provide livelihood to up to over 25 million upland dwellers but also to help mitigate the negative effects of climate change.

Finally, the cadastre will help identify and resolve lingering boundary conflicts or issues in forest lands among different agencies with overlapping jurisdiction such as the self-delineation of ancestral domain lands.

PRIVATIZING FORESTS?
The proposed forest cadastre does not equate to privatizing forest lands as the State remains as its sole owner per the 1987 Constitution. What the forest cadastre does is that it provides a systematic and parcel-based recording and mapping of interests in forest lands similar to the existing cadastre on A&D lands. In fact, this initiative is in line with Section 53. c. of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Memorandum Circular 2010-13 as it states, “other lands which cannot be subjected to private ownership shall also be included in the lot survey and shall be issued a Cadastral Lot Number.”

With the decline of the country’s forest cover (7 million ha in 2015 from 14 million ha in 1950s), the increasing need to address concerns on climate change, and the decline of local wood production, it is of paramount importance that we sustainably manage our already diminished forest resources, and this is anchored on well-defined property rights and accessible reliable information.

¹Panfil, Y., Mellon, C., Robustelli, T., & Fella, T. (2019). 3D Cadastre and Property Rights. New America. Retrieved Sept. 7, 2022, from https://www.newamerica.org/future-land-housing/reports/proprightstech-primers/3d-cadastre-and-property-rights/.

²Ibraheem, A. (2012). Development of Large-Scale Land Information System (LIS) by Using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Field Surveying. Engineering, 107-118.

³International Federation of Surveyors (2020). History of Cadastral Systems. Retrieved Sept. 7, 2022, from https://www.fig.net/organisation/perm/hsm/history_of/cadastre.asp.

Angela Arnante is a program officer at the Foundation for Economic Freedom.

Time Master Watches partners with Dominic Rubio for limited edition watch collection

January 17, 2023 | 4:06 pm

(From left to right) Brian Poe Llamamzares with Dominic Rubio and Jack Teotico

Traditional Filipino Artist Dominic Rubio proudly wore his Time Master Apollo watch featuring one of his works during the opening of his exhibit “Ilustrados” at the Galleria Nicolas in Greenbelt Makati.

The proudly Filipino brand included Rubio’s painting on the Time Master Apollo special edition. The first 23 pieces were distributed to Rubio and Galerie Joaquin stores, where they were promptly sold.

Known as the Greek god of healing, Apollo is one of Time Master’s well-known watch designs. A percentage of the sales earnings were also given to Habitat for Humanity to support their COVID-19 Response efforts during the height of the pandemic.

Rubio is delighted with the product and the partnership with Time Master; nonetheless, he hopes for his artwork to have more detailed aspects exhibited on the watch in the future.

Joaquin “Jack” Teotico, Managing Director of Galerie Joaquin, stated that this is a significant milestone for Filipino artists to collaborate with and be incorporated in companies such as Time Masters in order to highlight and promote Filipino talents. He also anticipates expanding his relationships with Time Master and other brands.

“Rubio is one of the foremost artists of today because his works capture the sensibilities, aspirations, dreams, customs and traditions of our people,” Teotico said.

“His meticulous and methodical research on our way of life, costumes and architecture make his artworks important statements in defining the Filipino identity,” he added.

Along with Rubio and Teotico, Time Master Watches CEO Brian Poe Llamanzares was also present at the event, and they all exchanged greetings and expressions of gratitude for the collaboration.

“I believe the partnership with Mr. Rubio is ideal! His artwork blends perfectly into the style of our watches. I’m very happy to partner with one of the country’s leading artists to produce something proudly Filipino,” Brian said in a written statement.

Brian also revealed that they are currently working on a new collection with Rubio, which will soon be available.

The Filipino contemporary artist is also known for painting ethnic Filipinos from an earlier period at the turn of the century. He has held numerous significant exhibits, including ‘Asia 1900s’, Galerie Raphael, Taguig, Philippines (2008); ‘Chinatown,’ Galerie Raphael, Taguig, Philippines (2008); and ‘Old Manila,’ Galerie Joaquin, San Juan, Philippines (2007).

More than 20 of Rubio’s masterpieces are now on display at Galleria Nicolas from Jan. 7 to 16, 2023.

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UK’s Clarkson apologizes to Harry and Meghan over ‘naked’ column

January 17, 2023 | 4:00 pm

Harry- Meghan — Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, arrive to greet members of the public in Kingfisher Bay on Fraser Island in Queensland, Australia Oct. 22, 2018. — REUTERS

LONDON — British TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson said he had e-mailed an apology to Prince Harry and Meghan after he wrote in a national newspaper column that he hoped the Duchess of Sussex would one day be forced to parade naked through the streets.

Mr. Clarkson, who gained worldwide fame as presenter of motoring show Top Gear, wrote in the Sun tabloid in December that he hated Meghan on a “cellular level,” earning widespread condemnation from politicians, his employers, and even his own daughter.

Mr. Clarkson’s opinion piece on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex became the most-complained about article for Britain’s press standards regulator, with more than 20,000 complaints received.

On Monday, Variety reported that Amazon Prime Video was likely to part ways with Mr. Clarkson, citing sources who said the streaming giant would not be working with him beyond seasons of The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm that have already been commissioned.

Neither Amazon Prime nor a representative for Mr. Clarkson immediately responded to a request for comment.

“The language I’d used in my column was disgraceful,” Mr. Clarkson said on Instagram on Monday, adding he had sent the apology on Christmas morning. “I really am sorry.”

Harry and Meghan have made headlines around the world in recent weeks after the couple released a Netflix series, and later Harry’s book, in which they accused the British tabloid press of misogyny and racism.

Prince Harry told broadcaster ITV that Mr. Clarkson’s comments were not only horrific and hurtful, but that they would encourage people around the world to think it was acceptable to “treat women that way.”

A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan on Monday said that while there had been an apology, “what remains to be addressed is his long-standing pattern of writing articles that spread hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny.”

“Unless each of his other pieces were also written ‘in a hurry,’ as he states, it is clear that this is not an isolated incident shared in haste, but rather a series of articles shared in hate,” the spokesperson said.

Following the widespread public backlash after his column was published, Mr. Clarkson has said previously he was “horrified to have caused so much hurt.”

He said on Monday that despite an apology from the Sun newspaper and his efforts to explain himself, more than 60 British lawmakers “demanded action to be taken.”

He said his employers — British broadcaster ITV and Amazon — “were incandescent.”

“It’s hard to be interesting and vigilant at the same time,” Mr. Clarkson said in his post.

“Very soon now I shall be a grandfather so in future, maybe I’ll just write about that.” — Reuters

Soft skills needed to fill cybersecurity gap

January 17, 2023 | 3:21 pm

The normalization of remote work and the push for privacy and data protection laws in the Philippines and around the world have led to a rise in security activity, a cybersecurity expert said.

Phil Rodrigues, Amazon Web Services’ security head for Asia Pacific and Japan commercial, talks about how organizations have made cybersecurity a top priority in doing business, driving the need for talent with both hard skills and soft skills like communication, flexibility, and leadership.

Interview by Brontë H. Lacsamana. Video editing by Earl R. Lagundino.

What exactly happens if you fail to register your SIM?

January 17, 2023 | 3:01 pm

Since the telcos launched their SIM Registration platforms last Dec. 27, over 20.4 million Filipinos have already registered their SIMs, with Smart subscribers taking the lead with 10.3 million registrants as of Jan. 16.

According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), all subscribers are given a period of 180 days or until April 26, 2023 to register their SIMs. The registration may be extended by the DICT for a period not exceeding 120 days.

But what exactly happens if you fail to register your SIM within the deadline? The SIM Registration Law states that all unregistered SIMs shall be automatically deactivated, which comes with all these hassles:

1. No outgoing and incoming calls. You can’t make or take urgent and important calls to and from your family and friends, as well as communicate with your colleagues at school, work, or business.

2. No sending and receiving messages. On top of being unreachable to family and friends through text, you’ll also go through the horrors of not being able to get your One-Time Password (OTP), which is now a common security feature in many social media apps, digital banking services, and online shopping sites linked to your account.

3. No internet access. The Internet has become essential in our increasingly digital world. And more than not being able to enjoy your favorite apps and sites, having no internet access also means getting cut off from important information and services that make life simpler and easier.

4. No load balances. Once your SIM is deactivated, all your remaining load balances will be forfeited.

Users who missed the deadline and got their SIMs deactivated may still process the reactivation of their SIMs not later than five days after the period set by the law.

Avoid all these hassles by registering your Smart and TNT SIM now

Avoid all these hassles by registering your Smart and TNT SIM now! Smart Prepaid and TNT subscribers can register their SIM and get 3 GB FREE data upon completing these three easy steps:

Step 1. Visit the portal at http://www.smart.com.ph/simreg

Step 2. Input your information and upload your valid ID

Step 3. Wait for an SMS confirmation and get 3 GB FREE Data

Smart is also making SIM Registration more convenient for postpaid subscribers, who simply need to confirm the personal information and IDs they submitted for their postpaid plan application. To do this confirmation, subscribers just need to text YES to 5858. They shall then receive a confirmation message from Smart upon successful SIM Registration and get 3 GB FREE data.

By registering your SIM now, you can continue to enjoy all the value-packed offers and amazing experiences from both Smart and TNT, powered by the country’s widest LTE network.

Know more about registering your Smart and TNT SIM at https://smart.com.ph/Pages/simreg-faqs.

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Investor Ryan Cohen builds Alibaba stake, pushes for more share buybacks

January 17, 2023 | 12:30 pm

Billionaire investor Ryan Cohen has built a stake in China’s Alibaba Group worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is pushing the e-commerce giant to increase and speed up share buybacks, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Cohen, who built his fortune by co-founding online pet retailer Chewy Inc. and cemented it with investments in videogame retailer GameStop and Apple Inc., reached out to Alibaba last August to express concerns, the people said.

In his communications, Cohen told Alibaba he thought the company could reach double-digit sales growth and nearly 20% free cashflow growth over the coming five years, according to the sources.

Cohen felt the company’s shares were undervalued at the time, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the investment is private.

Alibaba in November raised the size of its share repurchase program to $40 billion, increasing it by $15 billion, and said it would extend the time frame for the program through the end of March, 2025.

Cohen has told Alibaba executives that more can be done, suggesting the total buyback program could be raised to $60 billion, the people familiar with his communications said.

Alibaba‘s ADRs, traded in the United States, closed at $117.01 on Friday, up 30% since early August and up 27% this year. The price however remains far off its high of more than $300 a share hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The people said that Cohen is eager to have a collaborative, long-term relationship with Alibaba and that he has praised management’s capabilities.

Alibaba representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The company’s shares began an ongoing tumble in late October 2020, just as authorities in Beijing began a regulatory crackdown on the tech sector. The company lost about a third of its value by November 2022, though in recent weeks shares have recovered amid signs the Chinese government will ease its pressure on internet companies.

Over roughly the same period, Alibaba has steadily escalated its share buyback program. It first announced the scheme at the end of 2020, pledging to buy back $10 billion over a two-year period.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Cohen‘s Alibaba stake.

The Chinese e-commerce company could find a blueprint in how Apple has helped its own stock price as it repurchased shares, the people said. Cohen owns a stake in Apple worth roughly $800 million, they said.

As well as cutting the supply of shares available, supporting their prices, buybacks – often recommended by activist investors – can send a signal to the market that executives are confident about how high their companies’ shares might be able to climb.

Canada-born Cohen, 37, has a net worth estimated at $2.5 billion. He made a splash in the investing world two years ago when he joined the board of GameStop, igniting a frenzy in the stock price that turned the video retailer into a so-called ‘meme stock’ backed by retail investors.

He eventually forced out GameStop management and set out to revamp it into an e-commerce company.

GameStop’s shares, which underwent a stock split in 2022, are up 19% this year even though they are off 25% in the last 52 weeks.

Last year Cohen briefly invested in retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc BBBY.O and pushed for the company to consider selling its BuyBuy Baby chain or possibly the entire company. He settled with the company and three new directors joined the board.

Much of Cohen‘s net worth is tied up in a handful of stocks including Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Netflix Inc. He also has real estate holdings and cash.

Cohen has said previously that he wants to find more undervalued companies to invest with and identify those that can be managed better and push them to adopt changes. – Reuters

The Icon Clinic now offers V-BOOST DRIP

January 17, 2023 | 12:30 pm

Some people say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some say beauty is only skin deep. It doesn’t really matter which idea of beauty one subscribes to. One thing is for certain, good health and a strong body are the foundation of beauty. For this reason, The Icon Clinic has started offering its very own IV drip called V-BOOST DRIP.

The V-BOOST DRIP is a vitamin-infused drip that improves one’s immune system. It is composed of Vitamin C, glutathione, and collagen. Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, has many functions in the human body. It not only helps with the development, growth, and repair of tissues, but it also helps the body absorb iron and boost its immune system.

Collagen, on the other hand, is a type of structural protein, meaning it is responsible for the formation of the structure of cells and tissues. Like Vitamin C, collagen helps repair tissues and boosts immune response. It also increases muscle mass, prevents bone loss, and reduces wrinkles and skin dryness.

Contrary to what some believe, the main function of glutathione is not just to lighten one’s skin. Glutathione, a peptide found in the human body, is known as a master detoxifier. It aids the body by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, keeping the body drug-resistant, reducing the impact of uncontrolled diabetes, and many more.

One session of the V-BOOST DRIP only lasts for 30 minutes, but the benefits to one’s health last for much longer. As it is injected directly into the bloodstream, it bypasses the digestive tract, which makes it more effective than if it were to be administered orally.

To ensure the safety of all of their patients, The Icon Clinic assures everyone that the V- BOOST DRIP is only administered by an IV-registered nurse.

For more information about the V-BOOST DRIP and other services offered by The Icon Clinic, please visit www.theiconclinic.com.

Watch the V-BOOST DRIP video on this link: https://web.facebook.com/watch/?v=1203859610248321&ref=sharing&_rdc=1&_rdr.

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Airlines face hurdles to cashing in on China re-opening

January 17, 2023 | 11:30 am

tuourist-airport-plane — STOCK PHOTO | Image by L.Filipe C.Sousa from Unsplash

US and European airlines will benefit from pent-up demand for travel to China after its recent border reopening, but route approvals, fresh COVID-19 testing rules and not enough large aircraft remain barriers to rising sales, analysts and industry officials say.

Travel is returning to China, the world’s largest outbound tourism market worth $255 billion in 2019, after the country ended mandatory quarantines on Jan. 8. Airfares from China are now 160% higher than before the pandemic, data from travel firm ForwardKeys shows, due to limited supply.

Iowa-based lawyer Jinying Zhan, 50, said he paid $1,600 for a one-way ticket in December to fly via Chicago and Dubai to Guangzhou.

“I haven’t visited my family in three years, so I will go to the spring festival with my sisters,” he said. “Flights were very expensive.” Before the pandemic, he used to pay $1,000 to $1,500 for a round trip direct flight from Chicago.

A round-trip fare from San Francisco to Shanghai on United Airlines for a week-long trip in early March costs $3,852 in economy class and $18,369 in business class, according to a Reuters search on the airline’s website.

Global airlines are running only 11% of 2019 capacity levels to and from China in January, Cirium data shows, but the figure is expected to hit 25% by April.

Booking website Expedia said it saw US-China and Europe-China searches double after the reopening announcement.

Chinese airlines, with ample staff and widebody planes, and a cost and time advantage of roughly two hours from flying a more direct route using Russian airspace, are expected to be early winners.

But U.S. and European airlines, which have focused traditionally on the strong business travel market to China, and often cater more to the preferences of Western passengers, are poised to benefit from companies willing to pay a premium to rekindle face-to-face ties.

Trips to China “are already on the books for many companies and travelers as they kick off a new business year,” said Suzanne Neufang, chief executive of the Global Business Travel Association.

APPROVALS NEEDED

China‘s reopening comes as surging COVID infections have led the United States, Japan and others to require negative coronavirus tests from Chinese arrivals, discouraging travel.

Since regulatory approval from both countries is required to add flights, at a time of U.S.-China trade tensions, short-term capacity could be limited, industry sources said.

United, which had 584 flights to and from China in January 2019 according to Cirium, can now fly four times weekly from the US to mainland China. United said it could add services pending government authorizations.

Since Jan. 4, Air China, Hainan Airlines 600221.SS and China Southern Airlines have filed schedules with the U.S. Department of Transportation proposing to increase flights to as much as daily on some routes.

“There are some things brewing,” said US Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg, but gave no further details on US carriers adding more Chinese flights.

Foreign carriers seeking to add flights to China require approvals from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which did not respond to a request for comment.

American Airlines said this week it would fly non-stop from Dallas to Shanghai twice-weekly from March, dropping a current stop in Seoul. However, other flights were paused as it assessed market demand and government regulations.

Delta Air Lines DAL.N expects to cautiously “rebuild capacity to China in line with demand starting later this year,” President Glen Hauenstein said when the company reported quarterly results.

China, which accounted for about 5% to 6% of long-haul travel from Europe in 2019, is also a key market for some European carriers including Germany’s Lufthansa LHAG.DE, Bernstein analyst Alex Irving said.

But European and U.S. carriers may prioritize their widebody planes for lucrative trans-Atlantic travel this summer, leaving them stretched to accommodate fresh demand for China, said George Dimitroff, an analyst with Cirium.

Many Western airlines parked large planes when international traffic plunged and production of new twin-aisle jets has been limited. – Reuters

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