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PSC indigenous sports and games webinar begins

THE four-part webinar series of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) on indigenous sports and games begins on Thursday.

Done in conjunction with the celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Month, the webinar series gathers international and local experts in traditional sports who will share their learnings and experience under the overall theme of “Preserving and Promoting the Rich Cultural Heritage of our Ancestors.”

Opening the series is Hungduan, Ifugao tourism officer Haydee Hermosora in a lecture forum on “Punnuk,” a post-harvest thanksgiving ritual practiced and performed by residents of Hungduan, which has been tagged as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Ensuing sessions will take place on Oct. 21, 28 and Nov. 5, tackling “Teaching Philippine Games: Perspective from Non-Indigenous Physical Educator,” “Cultural Sensitivity,” and “Traditional and Indigenous Games as Intangible Cultural Heritage,” respectively.

The PSC is hoping that through the webinar series, traditional sports and games and the country’s rich cultural heritage will be better appreciated not only by sports stakeholders, but also the Filipinos in general.

“We believe that these [sessions] will further encourage not just the Indigenous Peoples (IPs), but all Filipinos to promote and showcase our traditional games,” said PSC Commissioner Charles Raymond A. Maxey, oversight for the agency’s Indigenous Peoples Games program.

The webinar begins at 1 p.m. and is being held in partnership with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Towards a consumer-centric financial system

SCOTT GRAHAM-UNSPLASH

Sure, we love our country; it is our own. But anyone who has ever lived in a developed country and moved back to the Philippines will have many complaints despite the happiness and feeling of home, and I am no exception. But while many things are truly so difficult to solve — corruption, poverty, environmental issues, education system, lack of healthcare, even traffic — there are also so many low-hanging fruit that just seem so fixable that you wonder what on earth could possibly be the reason for these odd situations to still exist.

One of which is the need for physical forms to be filled out and physical signatures on everything from changing your home address in a bank to asking for a copy of your diploma to having to get a Special Power of Attorney for a rental contract, write an authorization letter for an LTO (Land Transportation Office) registration renewal, print, fill, sign and submit sheets of paper just to register to vote, contact tracing, need I go on… And the most head-scratching of them all: having to have things notarized, which should mean one is physically present to sign, when we all know they aren’t and simply send someone to do it with a copy of our IDs. Why are these all still required? Why is all this paper being wasted, all these hours of work, time in queues for things that could so easily be done digitally? Well, the answer is no one really had the impetus to implement a better way, even as everyone knows things could well be done better.

But this pandemic and socially distanced world have made the act of filling out forms not only a hassle but truly impossible and even unsafe to accomplish. And the fact that there seems to be no other means to do anything except perhaps spend so much money on couriers for physical documents to move around, has truly limited the activity and the economy — everything from a purchase of property to openings of bank accounts and applications of loans. Even legal cases and our right to justice is delayed or downright chucked by the simple problem of having to physically file paperwork in courts. Worse, the lack of a system for having things securely signed by the right people and to verify, validate, and audit has given rise to the phenomenon of fake documents and a reputation of the Philippines to have questionable paperwork. Foreign countries so distrust anything we provide them that there is an entire office dedicated to authentication at the Department of Foreign affairs, which costs people, especially OFWs, an arm and a leg.

I had a chat with Mon Paterno, seasoned investment banker, former head of DBP (the Development Bank of the Philippines), and now fintech innovator — on his latest quest: to ease our lives and “put Recto out of business.” On the latter, he means, to make the process of documentation, of signing contracts so secure and credible that it would be impossible one day to fake anything (a practice which is known to be done at Recto). He is doing this via a truly Filipino-made consumer-centric app called ZQR (pronounced “Zee-cure,” a play on “Secure”) which will have three services.

ZQR Forms would allow a company to send a person a form to fill in with personal information and send it back digitally “signed” fully encrypted and assured that the person is the rightful agent. For instance, applying for a bank loan could be done by the bank sending all the forms via the app to the customer who would fill and sign them within the secured platform. ZQR Sign All would allow for original documents to be scanned and shared to a group who would then individually review and click a button “signed” to have a group-approved document such as a contract, minutes of a meeting or even a joint bank account transaction. The third is ZQR Verify which would allow an institution to send a document to a third party on behalf of the person requesting to guarantee its legitimacy. Simon gives the example of a school providing a student’s transcript directly to a graduate program the student is applying to.

But how exactly would this all happen, how would you make sure this person is who she says she is? Mon’s rationale is intuitive: borrow the e-commerce model of transactions. By using a person’s debit or credit card, which banks are obliged to keep secure, even having second checks like OTPs, touch ID, and face recognition to create an account, the communication done via the app becomes more secure than an e-mail. And while they do not claim to have contracts that are more enforceable as they are unaware of the encrypted content being exchanged, they can at least claim that the transactions are being done by the persons they need to be done with, making notarized documents as Simon puts it — “archaic.”

Though the app is still in its pilot stages, indeed does it not all sound so… sensible?

Until of course I started wondering, but wait, is not the problem the fact that the documentation is so stringent to open a bank account in the first place, which is precisely why we have such a high level of financial exclusion? Would this not ultimately mean that not only would the market be so limited, it would only cater to people who are already enjoying the privileges of having access to finance, among other things. Simon says, yes, admittedly they need a higher level of security than what is afforded by e-wallets but that we have to start somewhere. He does not pretend to solve that problem, but that problem needs to be solved by the banks. The National ID for instance would resolve the slow and painful process of KYC (know your customer). We cannot keep doing band-aid solutions, he says; the wallets and the fintechs are cool but ultimately people need to be integrated into the real economy, have access to the real and regulated banks: spoken like a true Investment-slash-Development Banker. Well, that, in parallel with creating a customer-friendly system that solves the solvable, does sound like an achievable goal rather than a pipe dream.

Note: more details on the app can be found at www.zqrdocs.com.

 

Daniela “Danie” Luz Laurel is a business journalist and anchor-producer of BusinessWorld Live on One News, formerly Bloomberg TV Philippines. Prior to this, she was a permanent professor of Finance at IÉSEG School of Management in Paris and maintains teaching affiliations at IÉSEG and the Ateneo School of Government. She has also worked as an investment banker in The Netherlands. Ms. Laurel holds a Ph.D. in Management Engineering with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy and an MBA from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Contact tracing voters

BW FILE PHOTO

BusinessWorld reported on Oct. 5 that the National Privacy Commission has received reports of leaked contact-tracing data resulting in “phishing attacks” via mobile phone text messages. In a bulletin issued Tuesday, the commission noted the possible misuse of personal information disclosed by the public in contact tracing and health declaration forms.

“The contents of these unsolicited [mobile text] messages reportedly include links that redirect to legitimate-looking but fraudulent [web] sites when clicked. These sites may steal users’ personal data, introduce mobile malware, and even commit fraud,” BusinessWorld quoted the commission bulletin.

If memory serves me, I believe this is the first time that a government agency actually took official notice of the possible abuse of personal information disclosed by the public in line with COVID-19 protocols. The unscrupulous have now the new modus operandi of compromising personal information on contact tracing and health declaration forms. Data, indeed, is money.

Data leaks are nothing new, especially when it comes to compromising particularly mobile number information. The alleged sale of “numbers” has been bandied about since the rise in the popularity and common use of mobile phones about 15 years ago. Anyone with access to a list or pool of mobile numbers was vulnerable to being corrupted to sell or rent out the numbers.

In this particular situation, however, given the detailed personal information on contact tracing and health declaration forms, mobile numbers can be linked to actual names and addresses of persons, and possibly even e-mail addresses. In short, it goes way beyond a blind list of mobile numbers. The information allows for the creation of a more comprehensive database on people and where they are from, and how to “reach out” to them.

The same database can now be used to try and “harvest” Facebook profiles as well. Or to create bogus social media accounts using legitimate personal information. Then, those bogus accounts can be used to influence voting behavior. It is all a question of whether certain groups will have enough motivation and resources to take the data leak to the “next level” to achieve certain objectives.

Combine this supposed data leak with the upcoming May 2022 local and national elections, then the value of that contact “list” grows exponentially. Again, it all depends on what “buyers” intend to do with the information on the list, and what is the “potential” of such information to them. Campaigning is just one possibility, influencing voting is another. Whether marketing a product or a candidate, the elements are the same. The candidate is the product in May 2022.

To date, the country is estimated to have over 52 million voters. And Class D and E voters comprise the biggest lot, I believe. But given their economic plight, Class D and E are always a vulnerable group, in my opinion. And thus, exploitable as well. Their voting behavior, and outcome, can be influenced or manipulated. While this can be said for Classes A, B, C as well, I am still inclined to believe that D and E are more susceptible to manipulation.

But, even shunting aside economic classes, and internet penetration, I also believe that a majority of Filipinos from all classes have mobile phones; many have Facebook accounts; and, those with social media will have some form of data service or internet connection available to them. And this makes data leaks, particularly of personal information, more valuable to the unscrupulous.

I recall an instance some time back when I overheard the garbage collector in our neighborhood, during one his runs, teasing the house help next door about her not having a mobile phone. “Meron kang trabaho, wala kang cellphone? [You are working, but you don’t have a cellphone?],” I recall the man chiding the female neighbor. Obviously, she just didn’t want to give him her number.

The 2022 presidential race may turn out to be a tight race. A majority winner is highly unlikely. About 30 years ago, in 1992, Fidel V. Ramos won the presidential race with just about 24% of the votes. The average margin since then, in the last four elections from 1998 to 2016, is just slightly over 40%. In 2016, President Duterte won with 38.57% of the votes.

Based on a national survey conducted in the second week of September, Candidate 1 enjoyed the lead, accounting for 20% of the votes, enjoying the advantage in Visayas and Mindanao, and among Class D and E voters. She was followed by Candidate 2 with 15% of the votes, enjoying the advantage in Metro Manila and Luzon, and running second among Classes A, B, C and D, and third in Class E.

Candidates 3 and 4 accounted for 13% and 12% of the votes, respectively, while Candidate 5 trailed with just 9% of the votes. Candidate 3 had fair showing in Metro Manila, Luzon, and Visayas, but trailed in Mindanao. He also led among Class A, B, C voters. Candidate 4 had strong support in Visayas and Mindanao, and among Class E voters.

Given these poll results, it is obvious that the 2022 presidential election is not going to be lopsided in favor of an overly strong candidate. The race is practically even, particularly for Candidates 2, 3, and 4. And any advantage of Candidate 1 at this point can be overturned by a number of factors. A lot of things can happen between now and May 2022. And, in a presidential race, eight months to election day is an eternity.

Expect more reports of data leaks and data breaches in the weeks to come. And expect to hear or read more about social media, Facebook profiles, and manipulation of personal information and data to influence voting behavior and election outcome. We now live in the Digital Age, and technology will play an even larger role, and be a stronger influence, on voting behavior and electoral outcome.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

Recovering our lost soul goes on

PEXELS-EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA+PIXABAY

A Rappler report by Lian Buan datelined Sept. 28, and entitled “Anti-graft court orders turnover to PH gov’t of P1B Marcos loot” was, by some strange coincidence, preceded by our piece on the July 28 Bloomberg report, “Where did Marcos hide his $10 Billion fortune?,” written by Haley Cohen Gilliland and Andreo Calonzo. The Bloomberg account is about the efforts of American lawyers Sherry Broder and Robert Swift to recover Marcos properties to pay for the compensation of thousands of victims of human rights abuses committed during Ferdinand Marcos dictatorial regime. The Buan article, on the other hand, chronicles separate efforts by another Philippine government agency, to recover the Marcos billions.

Rappler’s report said, “The latest win by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) enforces a 1992 Hawaii court ruling that declared the Philippine government the legal owner of properties that the Marcoses took with them (in crates) to Hawaii when they fled.” It states that, “in one of those crates were bank certificates worth a hefty amount that could reach billions of pesos which the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan has just awarded in favor of the Philippine government in a new court win that adds to the judicial recognition of the Marcos corruption.”

“In a decision on Sept. 24, released on Tuesday, Sept. 28, the Sandiganbayan Second Division ordered the Royal Traders Holding Co., Inc. to pay the Philippine government P96.03 million and $5.4 million, plus ‘interest thereon of 12% per annum reckoned from February 1993, until all the amounts are fully paid.’”

Rappler’s Buan pulls out her calculator and, using current Peso-US Dollar exchange rates plus interest, estimated that the “award is in the range of P1 billion to P1.65 billion, the value of the items brought in crates to Hawaii. It adds to the P125 billion more that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) needs to recover.”

The Sandiganbayan said in the decision penned by Associate Justice Oscar Herrera, concurred by Associate Justices Michael Frederick Musngi and Bayani Jacinto, that, “Judgment is hereby rendered ordering Royal Traders Holding, Inc., formerly Traders Royal Bank (TRB)/Traders Commercial Bank (TCB) to pay the plaintiff Republic of the Philippines the amount representing the face value of TRB/TCB issued bank certificates,” per the report of Buan. She adds that, “so far, the PCGG has recovered P174 billion, which the government has distributed to coconut farmers scammed by the Marcos dictatorship, as well as human rights victims during the dark years of Martial Law.”

Related closely to the Rappler report is the Bloomberg account as Buan writes, “The Sandiganbayan was enforcing a 1992 judgment of the Hawaii District court.” Buan’s report states that “The judgment of the United States District Court of Hawaii… upheld the settlement executed by Imelda Marcos as well as her right and authority when she assigned her interest as well as that of the estate of Ferdinand Marcos to the Republic of the Philippines, over the properties which include the TRB issued bank certificates.”

Given all these recent wins of the government, one starts to wonder if these amounts recovered by the PCGG form part of the purported offer to the administration of President Corazon Aquino by the dying Marcos, expressed to then Vice-President Salvador Laurel on Feb. 3, 1989 in a Hawaii hospital. Laurel wrote in a column in the Manila Bulletin that Marcos offered to turn over 90% of his wealth to the people and, retain 10% for his family in exchange for the Aquino administration permitting him to come home and “die in my country.”

If one goes back to the Bloomberg report, and refers to statements of lawyers Broder and Swift, there is still more to recover. According to the report, Broder and Swift are now focused on Marcos’s investment holdings in New York. The two lawyers claim that “Marcos deposited in 1972, $2 million in a Merrill Lynch account owned by Arelma, a Panamanian shell company set up on Marcos’s behalf.” The deposit is now worth about $41 million or about P2 billion. The account was discovered by the PCGG in 2000.

The Bloomberg report says Broder and Swift first learned about the deposit 20 years ago and have fought the Philippine government to claim it (for human rights victims) since. The matter, says the report, has bounced from court to court, plagued by delays and resistance from the US which has sided with the Philippines as part of an apparent effort to keep the country from drawing any closer to China.

Bloomberg says that, “now, in 2021, the case is again moving forward, if slowly, because of delays related to COVID-19. The waiting is frustrating but familiar at this point: Swift and Broder have been working on the case for 35 years.”

Indeed, 35 years later, reckoned from 1986, the Philippines is still grappling with the horrors of Martial Law and the excesses of the Marcos family. There are continuing attempts to revise history and portray Martial Law and the Marcos presidency as the most glorious days of Philippine history and the golden era of Philippine development.

There are, for example, repeated attempts to claim rice self-sufficiency during the Marcos regime. The undisputed truth of the matter is that there was some level of demand and supply equilibrium for one or, at most, two cropping seasons in 1974-75.

And now that another Marcos has declared his candidacy for the Presidency, he will, like the rest of the Marcoses, continue to face three basic issues and be held accountable for — the widespread violation of human rights, ill-gotten wealth, and organized graft and corruption.

In the meantime, recovery of ill-gotten wealth continues.

 

Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as Secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.

Picking number two

PIXY.ORG

UP TO THE LATE ’60s, before our current multi-party system, now including even party-lists with questionable advocacy groups and those heading them, two major parties held a convention to pick their ticket, headed by the top two positions. Now, a party can be hi-jacked by a few people and declare their own renegade ticket.

The old tradition of balancing the ticket by picking running mates representing big geographical blocks seems passé as the two candidates in one ticket run separately even when their names are in one sticker. The number-two candidate doesn’t run with his standard bearer but competes against his rivals. In the last presidential election, the winning candidate had two vice-presidential bets supporting him and fighting each other. He won and the other two lost.

Where do running mates come from?

One source is the one finishing his term in the top position. All his boxes are ticked. Name recall, check. Free media exposure, check. Strong following, check. Winnability? We’ll see.

The number two should be a major vote-getter in the last elections. This combination of not-yet-ready career curve and popularity are considered assets, as is the willingness to play second fiddle. Like a rock star, the standard bearer cannot abide having a front act that gets bigger raves than him — unless the front act used to be the main feature (see above).

The appeal made to a strong candidate pretending to be running for the top slot and sliding down to number two is “party unity.” This is a compelling argument to join up with candidates running on the same platform reducible to being “pro” or “anti” administration. Never mind their previous positions on this matter.

Even when like-minded nominees agree to a selection process by elders and non-runners, they are only bound by the process if the outcome favors them. Otherwise, the system is challenged, and a breakaway group is formed. Or, the second placer in the selection agrees to be the running mate. The charade of going through a “process” is a variation of the sliding option, entailing some chance of that raised-arms (or elbow bump in these times) photo op to celebrate the “healing” process.

History has shown that voters mix and match. The ticket is split and running mates themselves do not really campaign for each other’s victory. There is seldom a joint ticket that is selected for its combined strength and appeal.

Elections here have always been every person for himself or herself. We await the father and daughter waltz and how it will eventually play out. Who gets to stay in the dance floor?

The list of wannabes for the top is getting longer, including those garnering a 1% awareness who still feel they have a chance. (The tide is turning.) They only need to put the credibility of the surveys in doubt (except the official one in 2022). Poll results cannot be trusted and those garnering asterisks in the ratings are being discriminated against by the type of questions being asked — which candidate do you think will win as president?

Indeed, there are few aspirants declaring themselves “available” only for the second position, except, very early on, the incumbent number one. (He has changed his mind a number of times too.)

The logic for going for the second spot is premised on the fact this field is relatively open. They are not figuring on the “sliders” which may be more than half of those now declaring for president. The simple arithmetic will show that the group aiming to be second (we try harder) is bigger than it first seemed.

What is left out of all the analysis for the second spot is what his role will be. The only sure thing for the winner of this contest is that he or she will be entitled to a car plate with the number two, an office space far from the Pasig, and maybe a small budget. Soon after election, this person may be quickly ignored by the new president who is probably not from the same ticket.

The experience of the incumbent spare tire is sobering. It is indeed possible to stay in the trunk, unused. Waiting for a flat tire in the dark can be frustrating. She will know what to do when she gets to the top… depending on who ends up in the trunk.

 

Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

BW Insights: The Emerging Esports and Gaming Scene in the Philippines

Data from Statista shows that online gaming is flourishing in the Philippines, with revenues showing exponential growth in 2020 compared to the previous years. In fact, the mobile games segment was expected to continue growing in the next five years, with forecast revenues reaching as much as $1.52 billion in 2025.

Watch BusinessWorld Insights themed “The Emerging Esports and Gaming Scene in the Philippines” and join the biggest names in the country’s esports scene in a discussion on the opportunities created by the gaming industry.

This session of #BUSINESSWORLDINSIGHTS is presented by Smart.

China becomes last country still chasing goal of eliminating COVID

REUTERS

FOR MUCH of the pandemic, a group of places in the Asia-Pacific brought infections to zero, becoming virus-free havens in a world ravaged by the pathogen. Now, with the rise of the Delta variant and the proliferation of vaccines, only one is still holding fast to that goal of eliminating COVID-19: China.

With New Zealand preparing to shift away from the zero-tolerance strategy, China’s isolation is complete, raising the stakes on how long it can stick to a playbook that requires closed borders, abrupt lockdowns, and repeated disruption of social and economic activity.

One by one, COVID Zero places like Singapore and Australia have decided that the approach is unsustainable, pivoting instead to vaccination to protect people from serious illness and death while easing off on attempts to control the number of infections.

In contrast, China’s resolve to stamp out every infection appears to have only grown stronger, though 75% of its vast population is fully vaccinated. The country is now grappling with its fourth Delta-driven flareup in two months and this week locked down a prefecture in the western Xinjiang province over two asymptomatic infections during a peak tourism period.

The Chinese territory of Hong Kong, which has so far avoided local transmission of Delta, has also made clear that its status as a global financial hub is less important than links to the mainland and the joint goal of elimination.

The task is likely to get even harder as cold weather — the conditions in which the virus spreads best — descends. In three months, Beijing will host the Winter Olympics, welcoming thousands of athletes from around the world.

“COVID Zero in the medium- to long-term is unsustainable,” said Peter Collignon, an infectious disease physician and professor at the Australian National University Medical School. “Delta shows the almost impossibility of that. It’s hard to see how China will be able to get to zero COVID this winter.”

Still, the status has become a political point of pride for China, with authorities trumpeting their success in containing the virus as an ideological and moral victory over the US and other nations now treating the virus as endemic.

NEW ZEALAND PIVOT
New Zealand’s planned shift underscores the mounting futility of the elimination strategy. In mid-August, the country went into the highest level of restrictions when a single person was diagnosed with COVID-19 in Auckland. No working in the office. No going out to dinner or the gym or church. In most cases, no leaving the house.

Seven weeks later, it’s still reporting more than two dozen infections daily, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to acknowledge on Monday that “long periods of heavy restrictions have not gotten us to zero cases.”

“But that is OK,” she said. “Elimination was important because we didn’t have vaccines. Now we do, so we can begin to change the way we do things.”

It’s an adjustment already made by Singapore and Australia, two other lauded examples of containment. In both places, fatigue among the population had grown over stop-start cycles of lockdown and travel curbs that imposed weeks of mandatory quarantine on new arrivals. In Taiwan, officials said that elimination was too difficult to achieve earlier this year after a large outbreak, though it’s now reported no cases for several days straight.

The abandonment of the zero-tolerance goal now does not mean the strategy was wrong-headed from the start. The approach allowed these economies to suppress COVID fatalities to a very low level, getting through the pre-vaccine period of the pandemic with little damage — unlike the US and Europe. New Zealand has suffered 27 COVID-related deaths while Singapore has seen just 121.

“If New Zealand can vaccinate widely, get access to new treatments and open cautiously, they’ll have escaped the pandemic with little economic or health loss,” wrote Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at Edinburgh University Medical School, in Scotland. “They managed to press pause and wait for scientific solutions toward a sustainable exit.”

DEGREE OF CONTROL
The question is now what China’s exit strategy will look like. It reported two new local cases on Oct. 5, one in each of the outbreaks — in Harbin and Xinjian — that are currently underway.

In the most recent flareup in Xinjiang, tens of thousands of residents are being tested, while Yining city has halted all trains and flights and closed the local highways, The Paper reported.

The sporadic resurgences are unlikely to stop, public health experts said. But China’s authoritarian government has always been capable of feats beyond the imagination of most other countries.

“The kind of capacity and degree of control they can exert is remarkable,” said Michael Baker, a professor at the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health in Wellington, who sits on the New Zealand government’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group. “It’s way beyond what we can do, not just from a point of view of resources but the social license that governments have. We wouldn’t be able to exert the kind of control that China is able to exert, even in achieving a good end, which is managing an outbreak.”

Officials in China have said they won’t stick to COVID Zero forever, though it will only consider a change when the approach no longer works or the costs are too high — parameters of which have not been made public. City governments are being asked to create specialized quarantine facilities that could house thousands of overseas arrivals by the end of October, signaling that onerous travel curbs are unlikely to be eased in the near term.

Achieving elimination allowed life in China to be largely normal through most of 2020 and 2021, powering its economy even as most others were sapped by mitigation measures of various efficacy. But as its snap lockdowns and restrictions on movement continue through this year — and western economies resume full operations after vaccination — the impact is starting to show more deeply. Retail sales growth slowed to 2.5% in August from a year earlier, falling far short of the 7% expansion estimated by analysts.

Regardless of China’s tolerance for the approach, some experts say that COVID-free havens may yet return. Governments like New Zealand could resurrect the goal if and when new medical options become available.

“Maybe we are reaching the limits of what we can do with our current tools to eliminate transmission,” said Baker, who believes a COVID Zero strategy is still on the table. “We could find that the next generation of COVID vaccines or anti-virals are so effective that they can eliminate the virus quite effectively.”  — Bloomberg

Biden, Xi agree to abide by Taiwan agreement

US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. — Image via Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 2.0/Flickr

WASHINGTON — US President Joseph R. Biden said on Tuesday that he has spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about Taiwan and they agreed to abide by the Taiwan agreement, as tensions have ratcheted up between Taipei and Beijing.

“I’ve spoken with Xi about Taiwan. We agree … we’ll abide by the Taiwan agreement,” he said. “We made it clear that I don’t think he should be doing anything other than abiding by the agreement.”

Mr. Biden appeared to be referring to Washington’s long-standing “one-China policy” under which it officially recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei, and the Taiwan Relations Act, which makes clear that the US decision to establish diplomatic ties with Beijing instead of Taiwan rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.

The comments to reporters at the White House — made after Mr. Biden’s return from a trip to Michigan touting a spending package — come amid escalations in the Taiwan-China relationship.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory, which should be taken by force if necessary. Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend its freedoms and democracy, blaming China for the tensions.

Taiwan has reported 148 Chinese air force planes in the southern and southwestern part of its air defense zone over a four-day period beginning on Friday, the same day China marked a key patriotic holiday, National Day.

The United States urged China on Sunday to stop its military activities near Taiwan.

“The United States is very concerned by the People’s Republic of China’s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Sunday.

Mr. Biden also appeared to be referencing a 90-minute call he held with Mr. Xi on Sept. 9, their first talks in seven months, in which they discussed the need to ensure that competition between the world’s two largest economies does not veer into conflict. — Reuters

E-commerce platform Zalora employs a data-driven approach to meet the demands of the fashion landscape

Zalora’s Data Sciences Innovation Lab has allowed them to navigate SEA’s multicultural landscape, anticipate shopping behavior, and curate engagement strategies and demand projections, leading it to, for example, expand its ‘modest wear’ range across its in-house labels, Zalia and Lubna.

ZALORA, a fashion and lifestyle e-commerce platform, employs a data-driven approach to meet the demands of the fashion landscape in Southeast Asia (SEA). Its E-Distribution and TRENDER Professional solutions also help the platform’s brand partners leverage data to understand consumer behavior.

“Zalora is a data-first company. This has allowed us to stay on the pulse of diverse consumer needs and demands in the region, and capitalize on the nuances across the e-commerce landscape,” said Paulo L. Campos III, co-founder and CEO of Zalora Philippines, in an e-mail to BusinessWorld.

Among the company’s investments, he said, is a Data Sciences Innovation Lab which has allowed them to navigate SEA’s multicultural landscape, anticipate shopping behavior, and curate engagement strategies and demand projections as a result. Its ZALORAYA campaign, for instance, was a result of the company observing an annual surge of interest around ethnic wear during the period leading up to the Festival of Eid, an important Islamic holiday.

“Since then, Zalora has been expanding its modest wear range every year across its in-house labels, Zalia and Lubna,” Mr. Campos added.

Brand partners such as Under Armour, an American sports equipment company, also leverage Zalora’s insights through TRENDER Professional, a data solutions service. Launched in 2020, the service provides consumer insights on geographic segmentation, buying behavior, and pricing preferences through interactive dashboards with filterable views.

According to Fabian Ae, Under Armour’s wholesale director, TRENDER has given their team insights into their brand’s performance within a larger e-retailer space.

“The different modules found on TRENDER, such as Product and Traffic Insights, have allowed us to make strategic decisions which we believe will benefit both Under Armour and the Zalora shopper in the future,” Mr. Ae said in a September press statement announcing the sports brand’s utilization of the service.

FULFILLMENT CAPABILITIES

Fashion and lifestyle brand Milliot & Co., meanwhile, has tapped Zalora to provide its E-Distribution service for its Southeast Asian digital marketplace channels. The service leverages Zalora’s warehousing and fulfillment capabilities for the consolidation of stock and order management. The Malaysia-based brand will also use the platform’s end-to-end e-store management solutions, which include customer support and content creation.

“Milliot & Co… is soon bound to extend its footprint in the country and reach more Filipino consumers by tapping on [these] solutions,” Mr. Campos said.

Mr. Campos told BusinessWorld that Zalora has spent years investing in and building its logistics network to ensure that the products it carries are accessible, and that customer pain points like returns and exchanges are resolved. In the Philippines, it has an e-fulfillment center in Muntinlupa City with a 7.2-million item storage capacity.

“Our Philippine e-fulfillment center and the facility in Indonesia are designed to complement our Regional E-Fulfilment Hub in Malaysia,” added Mr. Campos. “All three fulfilment centers had their best productivity performance in January 2021 versus any month in 2020.” — Patricia Mirasol

COVID-related school absences increase by two-thirds in England

UNSPLASH

LONDON — School absences in England related to COVID-19 jumped by two-thirds in the last two weeks of September, according to government data which could raise concerns about further disruption to education despite a pledge to keep schools open.

Around one in seven secondary school students were off for either coronavirus-related or other reasons, the Department for Education said, and the age group has the highest prevalence of infections in the country.

Schools in England have been open for around a month, and some epidemiologists have highlighted concern about rising cases among children, although it is yet to translate into a sustained increase in infections for the population more broadly.

An estimated 204,000 students, or 2.5% of all pupils, at state-funded schools were off for COVID-19 related reasons on Sept. 30, up from 122,000 on Sept. 16, according to Tuesday’s figures.

Although overall attendance in state-funded primary schools was 92.6% on that day, in secondary schools, attendance was substantially lower, at 86.3%.

Increased prevalence of COVID-19 among secondary school-age children contributed to a rise in overall infection numbers in the latest weekly figures announced on Friday by the Office for National Statistics.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to keep schools open as a priority this academic year, after the pandemic heavily disrupted education for months.

Children between 12- to 15-years-old are being offered COVID-19 vaccines after Mr. Johnson’s medical advisers last month found that the benefit to children gained by avoiding further disruption to schooling was decisive even as the benefit of protection against COVID-19 itself was marginal. — Reuters

Developing an e-sports and gaming culture  

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated digitization in all aspects of life, and the growing realm of e-sports and gaming in the Philippines is no exception.

With a surge of opportunities within the industry and a continuous evolution of technology across multiple platforms, the outlook is positive — data from Statista shows that online gaming in the country is flourishing, with exponential growth in 2020 revenues compared to the previous years. The mobile games segment in particular is expected to continue growing in the next five years, with forecast revenues reaching as much as $1.52 billion in 2025.

Much like physical sports, e-sports athletes and streamers have become figureheads for a bright future where Filipinos can excel, according to a panel of industry leaders in the recent BusinessWorld Insights forum themed “The Emerging E-sports and Gaming Scene in the Philippines.”

Lloyd Manaloto, first vice-president and head of corporate marketing and strategy at Smart Communications, Inc., said the potential for gaming can be seen in the numbers, with 63% of the online population watching gaming content and 33% watching esports.

“The way we look at sports and e-sports are the same. We create heroes, we create players and the values of sports are also inherent in e-sports — camaraderie, teamwork, sportsmanship,” said Mr. Manaloto at the forum held on Oct. 6, “So we’ve provided resources and infrastructure to e-sports to help them compete on the national stage.”

Meanwhile, Darren Paul “Ren” Vitug, commissioner of the local e-sports league The Nationals and ethics committee head of the Philippine Esports Organization, said that the stigma against gaming and e-sports as a legitimate sport or means of income remains a challenge in advocating for support, although it has lessened over the years.

“When people say that gaming is an unproductive hobby, they’re actually referring to gaming addiction and not gaming per se. Obviously addiction and hobby are polar opposites, or at least they should be,” he explained. “I think the stigma is still there but it’s seriously being challenged. More and more people understand gaming.”

He also added that the relatively young age of the e-sports industry is both a strength, in that there is much passion and enthusiasm, and a weakness, in that there is still a lack of know-how and opportunities to channel all of this energy.

For Irymarc “Tryke” Gutierrez, co-founder and chief executive officer of gaming and e-sports talent agency Tier One Entertainment, the goal is to change the perception of gamers and e-sports athletes by presenting them as modern celebrities.

“In 2018, we only had 25 streamers. Now, it’s about a thousand-plus streamers,” he said, adding that the numerous platforms and growing demand allow for this great amount of talent — whether it’s streaming PC or mobile games and e-sports.

On the future of the Philippines in gaming, Mr. Gutierrez noted that the decentralization of e-sports and gaming content won’t just affect the digital space, but also “the economic makeup of the community,” as long as stakeholders take notice and provide support. — Bronte H. Lacsamana 

First Gen Corporation: Powering a decarbonized Philippines through clean energy use in businesses

Burgos Solar Power

Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the world’s brightest minds are also directing attention to another global crisis — climate change.

A recent report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared that changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion — such as continued sea level rise — are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.

In fact, the report finds that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across the globe, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach. Over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming, which means increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons and shorter cold seasons, among other catastrophic effects such as rising sea levels, and large-scale changes to rainfall and ecosystems. Should the world reach 2°C of global warming, heat extremes would more often reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health.

Mitigating climate change means addressing one serious concern: How can developing nations who currently rely on fossil fuels, like the Philippines, continue to meet their growing energy needs without adding too much global carbon emissions?

The International Energy Agency assessed the impact of fossil fuel use on global temperature increases and found that carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from coal combustion was responsible for over 0.3°C of the 1°C increase in global average annual surface temperatures above pre-industrial levels. This makes coal the single largest source of global temperature increase.

In fact, the IEA found that coal-fired power plants were the single largest contributor to the growth in emissions observed in 2018, with an increase of 2.9%, or 280 megatons (Mt), compared with 2017 levels, exceeding 10 gigatons (Gt) for the first time. As a result, coal-fired electricity generation accounted for 30% of global CO2 emissions. The majority of that generation is found today in Asia.

Furthermore, surging coal demand has driven global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to a projected 1.5 billion tonnes in 2021 — the second-largest increase in history. According to the IEA’s Global Energy Review 2021 estimates that CO2 emissions will increase by almost 5% this year to 33 billion tonnes. The key driver is coal demand, which is set to grow by 4.5%, surpassing its 2019 level and approaching its all-time peak from 2014, with the electricity sector accounting for three-quarters of this increase.

These findings further prove that decarbonization, or the process of reducing of carbon dioxide emissions through the use of clean and low carbon power sources, is key to mitigating climate change. If the world is to achieve this big task, it needs to switch to cleaner sources of energy — and do so immediately.

Facing the challenge of decarbonization

Clearly, the task of decarbonizing the world’s energy systems would require a colossal effort from both policy makers and industry leaders. While the public sector has a critical role in reform and in policies regarding the limiting of carbon emissions, the private sector has a part in ensuring the sustainability of its practices. Fortunately, in the Philippines, consumers are becoming more aware and mindful and therefore, demanding more from the companies they patronize.

“It is through the manufacturing and sale of goods that businesses have the biggest impact on climate change. In the process of manufacturing — the way we use natural resources — and in the way we dispose of our waste,” Ricky Carandang, Vice President of First Gen Corporation (First Gen), one of the leading providers of clean and renewable power in the Philippines, said in an e-mail.

“However, consumers are getting conscious of their impact on the environment which puts pressure on big businesses to comply with the demands of the market to produce more environmentally responsible products,” he added.

First Gen aims to meet the changing demands of consumers and seeks to be the preferred provider of clean energy in the country. The company has an installed capacity of 3,495 megawatts (MW) of clean energy that powered 19% of the Philippines in 2020.

Moreover, it is the first company to declare that they will no longer be supporting coal back in 2016 when most power companies were still pushing for it.

The company promotes the increased use of renewable energy complemented by natural gas to address intermittency and reliability. Currently, the company’s energy portfolio is made up of clean and renewable energy sources — natural gas, geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar energy.

First Gen’s mission is to lead the country’s transformation towards decarbonization by meeting the needs of the growing energy market with reliable, efficient, clean and renewable power with the least impact to the environment.

To enable a just and smooth transition to happen as quickly and as fairly as possible, Mr. Carandang noted, consideration should be given to legacy energy sources that are at risk of being stranded as this will also affect thousands of Filipinos and their communities.

As technological progress continues, it becomes much easier to transition to cleaner sources of energy. The only prerequisite is an environment that encourages swift adoption of new, better technological developments.

First Gen’s commitment is about harnessing only those energy sources that provide for the needs of the present without harming the future generations. As it invests in its development as the country’s leading clean and renewable energy provider, the company continues to evolve with the changing needs of society, delivering resilient and compelling energy solutions that will promote energy security, as well as encouraging its customers, partners, and other stakeholders to make the right choices and to reduce their carbon footprints.

“[Zero net emissions] is achievable for the Philippines provided that we — the government, consumers, and businesses — get serious about finding solutions and it has to be something that the local and global community should also recognize and work on,” Mr. Carandang added.

As the cost of producing renewable energy goes down, and as technological advancements increase, renewable energy will become more viable in the next 10 years. This is already happening in a lot of other countries.

Discover more about First Gen’s energy solutions for businesses by visiting www.firstgen.com.ph.

 

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