Braves take NLCS opener over Dodgers in walk-off win

October 17, 2021 | 7:58 pm

AUSTIN Riley singled home Ozzie Albies in the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday night, giving the Atlanta Braves a 3-2, walk-off win over the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS).

In a game that had been tied since the fourth inning, Albies blooped a single off Blake Treinen (0-1) with one out in the ninth and stole second, setting the stage for Riley, who had homered earlier in the game.

Game 2 in the best-of-seven is set for Sunday night, also in Atlanta, which earned the home-field advantage by virtue of being a division winner playing against a wild card team.

Will Smith (1-0), who survived a shaky top of the ninth, was credited with the win.

The Dodgers threatened in the top of the ninth when Chris Taylor walked with two outs and Cody Bellinger followed with a single to right. Taylor headed to third on the hit, but changed his mind en route and was tagged out in a rundown to end the inning.

Each team used a solo home run to contribute to a 2-2 tie that lasted into ninth.

The teams traded early runs — Atlanta scoring on a Corey Knebel wild pitch in the first inning, Los Angeles getting even on a Taylor RBI single in the second.

The Dodgers’ Will Smith smacked the first homer of the game when he connected off Braves starter Max Fried leading off the fourth.

As Los Angeles had done earlier, Atlanta wasted no time erasing its deficit, with Riley blasting a homer off Tony Gonsolin, the Dodgers’ fourth pitcher, with two outs in the fourth.

Fried was pulled in a 2-2 tie after six innings, having allowed both Dodgers runs and eight hits. He struck out five and did not issue a walk.

In his role as opener, Knebel was charged with one run on one hit in his one inning. He struck out two without a walk.

Riley and Albies had two hits apiece for the Braves, who struck out 14 times and were held to six hits by eight Dodgers pitchers. Los Angeles didn’t have its top three starters available because of its just concluded triumph over the San Francisco Giants in the NL Division Series.

Taylor and Trea Turner collected two hits apiece for the Dodgers, who collected 10 for the game, but went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. — Reuters

Rickie Fowler (63) takes two-shot lead at CJ Cup

October 17, 2021 | 7:58 pm

RICKIE Fowler shot a blistering 9-under 63 on Saturday to take a two-shot lead over Rory McIlroy, who carded the low round of the day with a 62 at the CJ Cup in Las Vegas.

Fowler sits at 21 under heading into Sunday’s final round at the Summit Club. McIlroy made the biggest leap on moving day, shooting up 17 spots for sole possession of second at 19-under 197.

Robert Streb (65), Australia’s Adam Scott (67) and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer (63) are tied for third at 18 under, three shots back.

Keith Mitchell, who owned a five-stroke lead after 36 holes, dropped into a tie for sixth after a 73. He sits at 17 under, tied with England’s Tyrell Hatton (67), four shots back.

Fowler followed opening 66s with a clean round, posting five birdies on the front nine and four more coming in.

“I’ve done everything I really wanted to do the first three days. It’s nice to be executing the way we are,” Fowler said. “It’s just been a long time coming. I haven’t been in this position a whole lot in the last couple years, so to feel the emotions again on the back nine being around and then in the lead, you know, kind of dealing with that again and kind of making sure that I was going through the right process and committing to what I was ultimately trying to do, it was great to see that I was still executing and hitting the shots that I wanted to.”

But as good as Fowler’s round was, McIlroy’s was even better, thanks to an eagle on the par-5 18^th hole. McIlroy of Northern Ireland recorded six birdies on the front nine, including five in a row, and finished with eight.

“I played an eight-hole stretch yesterday in even par, I made eight pars in row. Then today, I played a stretch of golf, played nine holes in 6 under and all of a sudden, you feel a little better about yourself,” McIlroy said. “The big thing is I’ve played the last two days keeping it in the short stuff and I haven’t made any bogeys. That’s huge… I can’t remember the last time I played a round of golf without a bogey and now, I’ve played two rounds in a row, so that’s nice to see.” — Reuters

On brink of first title, Sky look to ‘punch’ out Mercury

October 17, 2021 | 7:57 pm

THE Chicago Sky are one victory away from their first Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) championship.

Their record-setting 86-50 win on Friday night gave them a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. They will be at home again for a potential clinching win Sunday afternoon.

“I was telling my team. I’m 0-2 in Game 4 closeouts at home,” Sky forward Candace Parker said. “I don’t want that to continue. We know they are a fantastic team and they’ll come out and be ready. (We’ve got to) come back stronger.”

Game 5, if necessary, would be Tuesday in Phoenix.

The Sky’s margin of victory in Game 3 was the largest ever in a WNBA Finals game and they held the Mercury to a Finals-worst 25.8 percent shooting clip. Chicago’s 22-point half time lead was the largest in a Finals game since Phoenix’s edge against the Sky in Game 1 in 2014, the last time either team played for the title.

“(The Mercury) are a prideful team,” Sky coach James Wade said. “They’re going to come out and punch (in Game 4), but we’re going to punch, too.”

Phoenix has won three elimination games during this postseason.

“We got our butts kicked,” Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said. “We’ve got to be better.”

Phoenix’s 50 points were the second fewest in a Finals game and Brittney Griner (16 points) was the only Mercury scorer in double figures.

“We’ll be better than 50 (in Game 4), you can take that to Vegas,” joked Diana Taurasi, who had five points on 1-of-10 shooting. “Nothing worked. Inside, outside, they took us out of everything we wanted to run.”

The Sky outscored the Mercury 36-14 in the paint and forced 17 turnovers.

“All year we’ve faced adversity, and we have a veteran group,” Phoenix guard Skylar Diggins-Smith said. “We’ll look at it and see what changes we can make. We don’t have a choice. We’re going to come out with a different mindset next game, and we’re desperate. We’ve got to win.” — Reuters

Red Sox belt two grand slams, even up ALCS with Astros

October 17, 2021 | 7:57 pm

THE Boston Red Sox had a grand ol’ time evening the American League Championship Series (ALCS) against the Houston Astros at one win apiece on Saturday.

J.D. Martinez belted a grand slam in the first inning and Rafael Devers added one of his own in the second to power the visiting Red Sox to a 9-5 victory in Game 2 of the ALCS. The blasts made Boston the first team in postseason history to record two grand slams in one game.

Enrique Hernandez continued his torrid stretch by launching his third homer of the ALCS and franchise-tying fifth of the postseason.

The best-of-seven series shifts to Boston for Game 3 on Monday. The Red Sox are 3-0 at home this postseason.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora admitted he’s not ready to declare a starting pitcher for that game, however, he has no qualms about his team’s performance at the plate in the first two contests.

“We feel really good offensively. Yesterday, we played a good game (a 5-4 loss in Game 1) and tonight we did too,” Cora said. “Obviously, going home and guaranteeing three games is very important. It’s now a best out of five, and we play three games out of home.”

The offense was more than enough for Texas native Nathan Eovaldi (2-0), who picked up the win after allowing three runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Boston set the tone early by loading the bases before Martinez deposited a 1-0 fastball from rookie Luis Garcia (0-1) over the wall in right field. The grand slam was the first by a Red Sox player in the playoffs since Jackie Bradley, Jr. in Game 3 of the 2018 ALCS.

Boston kept the pressure on in the second inning after Kevin Plawecki worked a walk off Garcia, who exited with right knee discomfort.

“It came to our knowledge that this has kind of been bothering him a little bit on and off, but he hadn’t said anything about it,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said of Garcia. “It wasn’t bothering him enough not to pitch.”

Jake Odorizzi relieved Garcia and permitted singles to both Christian Arroyo and Hernandez before Devers sent a 1-1 cutter over the wall in right field.

“That’s a tremendous mountain to climb,” Baker said of the two grand slams.

Hernandez continued his sterling postseason in the fourth inning by crushing a 2-1 splitter from Odorizzi over the wall in left field. The homer was his fifth of this postseason, tying Todd Walker (2003) and David Ortiz (2004, 2013) for the franchise record.

The homer also pushed Hernandez’s total bases mark to 35, which is tied with Daniel Murphy (2015) for second in a seven-game postseason stretch in a single season. Carlos Beltran had 38 in 2004.

“I guess I’m feeling good and the importance of the game is allowing me to stay focused and stay locked in,” Hernandez told the FOX broadcast after the game. “Not thinking too much about it, I’m just glad I’m able to put up good at-bats and get on base or drive myself in to help us win and help us get to this position.”

Houston responded in the fourth inning, courtesy of Kyle Tucker’s two-out, RBI double and Yuli Gurriel’s two-run single.

Eovaldi settled down and two relievers bridged the gap to Darwinzon Hernandez, who yielded solo homers to Gurriel and Jason Castro before Ryan Brasier induced Jose Altuve to fly out to end the game. — Reuters

Preseason Lakers

October 17, 2021 | 7:56 pm

Much of the talk in hoops circles heading into the weekend focused on the Lakers’ atrocious preseason record. With the start of the 2021-22 campaign just around the corner, the purple and gold had yet to come up with a single victory in six contests. And it wasn’t simply that they lost each time out. Only in their last outing were they mildly competitive, with their average margin of defeat through their slate to date at 15 points. Needless to say, the development was far from expected given their status as contenders casting moist eyes on the Larry O’Brien Trophy they were proud owners of a mere 14 months ago.

Not that the Lakers themselves seem perturbed. To the contrary, they remain confident of their chances to succeed in their ultimate objective. For one thing, they understand that finding consistency in their output will take time in the face of the massive changes they made to their roster. For another, they believe they have cause to dismiss their tuneup matches because these featured little of their vaunted Big Three on the court together. As far as they’re concerned, they’ll do just fine once LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook become more comfortable with each other and jell as projected.

There are, to be sure, a lot of ifs in the equation. As with most other crucial ingredients to achievement, repetition is key to preparation and preparedness, and the very inability of the Lakers’ three stalwarts to burn rubber together serves to underscore the uncertainty surrounding their bright prognosis. And, not coincidentally, the results have been middling at best and extremely underwhelming for newcomer Westbrook, in particular, because he has yet to settle in and comprehend his place in the pecking order.

If there’s any silver lining, it’s that the Lakers have a clear Number One, and that they’re ahead by double-digits in the plus-minus column throughout James’ time on the floor. The bottom line, however, is clear: All 15 active players need to be on the same page for them to be crowned the best of the best, and the sooner they start to realize it and work for it, the easier it will be for them to inject truth to their pronouncements.

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

The economic mistakes of the Duterte administration

October 17, 2021 | 4:59 pm

This article is not meant to denigrate the economic achievements of the Duterte administration, nor to say the administration has achieved nothing but blunders. In fact, from a structural standpoint, the previous administration committed more grievous sins: extending the monopoly of the National Food Authority (NFA) and killing the initiative to change the economic provisions of the Constitution.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the mistakes so that the succeeding administration would not repeat them. The economic scarring taking place and the depth of the recession leave the succeeding administration no room for error. The future of the young generation of Filipinos hinges on the next administration doing things right the first time.

What then are the economic mistakes of the current administration?

1. Appointing the wrong people in key Cabinet positions. I wouldn’t say “incompetent” but certainly “wrong,” because they brought an anti-development mindset to their positions.

The Leftist appointments — to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) — were certainly a mistake. In the case of former Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, with his leftist oriented policies, he scared possible investors in agriculture. For example, he tried extending coverage of a clearly failed land reform program and tried to undo even successful joint venture programs (e.g., the Marsman case).

Appointing a populist politician to the key Cabinet portfolio of agriculture was also a major mistake. Agriculture Secretary and former Governor Manny Piñol had no programs in agriculture beyond free irrigation and free fertilizer. He actively opposed the dismantling of the NFA rice importation monopoly.

Another mistake was the appointment of the late Gina Lopez to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), not because Gina was an environmentalist, but because she had an extremist ideology that was anti-development. Responsible mining has a significant role in our economy — it generates export revenue and creates jobs in the countryside — but Gina Lopez had to have none of it. She even banned open pit mining, which is an accepted practice in many parts of the world, for example, in Australia and Canada, where responsible mining is practiced.

President Duterte did make course corrections, but already halfway in his term. The damage had been done.

There may have been political reasons for President Duterte to make those appointments, and he may have had the leeway to do them — the economy was growing 6% per annum at the time — but the next administration won’t have the luxury of making wrong appointments to key Cabinet positions.

2. Shifting away from PPP (Public-Private Partnership) to ODA (Official Development Assistance) and the Government Appropriations Act to finance and execute major infrastructure projects. The problem with President Duterte is that he brought his city mayor mentality to the National Government. He was an activist mayor who thought he could make National Government work in the same way City Hall does.

The reality is that the national bureaucracy is corrupt, inefficient, and ineffective. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and DoTr (Department of Transportation) regularly under accomplished and underspent their budgets. ODA from China suffered from long delays and the cost didn’t turn out any cheaper than if these had been done under a solicited PPP (Public-Private Partnership) arrangement. The Kaliwa Dam, which had been slated for a PPP, was scrapped in favor of Chinese ODA. President Duterte will soon be ending his term yet construction hasn’t even started.

President Duterte also had deep suspicions of the Makati-based oligarchy that seemed to corner the choice PPP projects. His tirades against the water companies are a reflection of President Duterte’s mindset. But this created an environment in which the government was viewed as not honoring its contracts, thereby chilling private sector interest in PPP.

3. Neglect of Agriculture. President Duterte, like all presidents before him, played politics with agriculture. He appointed a politician, Manny Piñol, to the DA. All that former DA Secretary Piñol did for agriculture were populist policies — free irrigation and free fertilizer — that didn’t do anything for agricultural productivity. The result is that Duterte will end his term with an agriculture growth rate way below population growth rate.

To his credit, President Duterte did make a course correction and appointed the competent Dr. William Dar to the Department of Agriculture. Unfortunately, this was another case of too little and too late. Before Secretary Dar could accomplish his programs, the department was confronted by the African Swine Fever in pork production and the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the agricultural market and supply chains. The budget which should have gone to agriculture went to the health sector instead.

4. Wrong timing of reforms. The administration spent its political capital in pushing through the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act. CREATE was able to revamp the fiscal incentive system to make it more performance-based and time-bound. In a sense, CREATE was a major accomplishment for fiscal reform.

However, the supply side effects of the tax cut in CREATE will be negligible unless investment restrictions are liberalized. The administration is now trying to do this by pushing for the passage of the amendments to the Public Service Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Law, and Foreign Investments Act.

The problem is that these liberalization measures are being pushed in the last two minutes of the Duterte administration, when President Duterte is seen as a lame duck and his popularity is waning. Consequently, the vested interests, who don’t want competition to threaten their oligopolistic positions in the telecommunications and transport sectors, have been emboldened and are doing their best to dilute these bills, thanks to a few misguided senators.

Moreover, President Duterte wasted the early years of his administration touting Federalism and Revgov, political solutions that won’t solve the country’s ills. Instead, at the height of his political popularity, he should have pushed for changes to the economic provisions of the Constitution and pushed for more investment liberalization measures. He could, for example, have also pushed for bilateral free trade deals with the United States or gotten the country to apply for membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), of which Vietnam and Malaysia had long been members.

5. Mismanagement of the pandemic. The administration’s mismanagement of the pandemic qualifies as a major economic blunder. Its heavily militaristic response, especially in 2020, caused the economy to suffer its worst contraction in decades. But the heavily militaristic response, with little or no regard for its economic effects, didn’t yield any public health benefit. The Philippines remains last in resiliency and low in country rankings in managing the pandemic.

To top it off, President Duterte eroded trust in institutions with the massive graft and corruption surrounding his administration’s response.

That said, these shortcomings don’t overshadow the administration’s single biggest achievement: the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL). No President ever dared dismantle the NFA’s monopoly in rice importation before President Duterte, given the entrenched syndicates in the NFA and the milking cow it became for the NFA leadership.

RTL benefited more than 100 million rice consumers, including farmers themselves who consume rice during the lean season, and has helped stabilize rice prices.

A more modest achievement is the improvement in broadband services with the entry of a third telco (Dito) and other measures which include an executive order liberalizing satellite broadband, a law on number portability, and reducing the number of permits for putting up cellphone towers.

To sum up, if we are to learn from the economic mistakes of the Duterte administration, the next administration must appoint competent leadership in the key Cabinet positions, not just in the economic cluster. It must pay attention to agriculture and adopt the right structural reforms. It must make solicited PPP a key component of Build, Build, Build.

Most importantly, it must spend its political capital on solving the principal binding constraints to Philippine economic growth early on: land fragmentation in agriculture, rigidities in the labor market, statism and overregulation in many sectors of the economy (e.g., fishery and forestry), unfriendly laws on foreign investment, and the dominance of monopolies in key strategic industries. This is the only way for the economy to bounce back.

Calixto V. Chikiamco is a member of the board of IDEA (Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis).

totivchiki@yahoo.com

Bring vaccines to the provinces

October 17, 2021 | 4:57 pm

Even though national supply is lacking, the government must find a concrete plan of action that will equitably distribute the vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccine rollout and deployment in the Philippines cannot ignore the needs of those places outside the main urban centers. The current spread of the virus has affected the whole archipelago, especially the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.

The National Government, in close collaboration with the regional and local public health and government units, must implement a rational and equitable allocation program of prioritization. With the supply allocation concentrated at the National Capital Region (NCR), slow-moving immunization in other regions and municipalities including Zamboanga City (which serves as a case study) must be corrected.

The COVID-19 vaccination rollout began on March 1 this year. The target is to immunize 50 million Filipinos. The immunization campaign list created by the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) prioritized groups assessed as the most vulnerable to the virus, namely senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, and frontline workers in the health sector.

The vaccination deployment intends to follow a cost-effective immunization strategy that is anchored on implementation by local government units (LGUs). Based on the guidelines of the National Vaccine Deployment Plan for COVID-19 by NITAG, priority population groups will be selected based on geographical areas. The prioritization is based on the COVID-19 burden of disease (current active cases, attack rate per 100,000 population in the past four weeks, and population density) and vaccination site and/or LGU readiness, particularly in relation to supply chain capability.

Supplies for vaccine rollout have been primarily distributed to the National Capital Region (NCR), with over 7.6 million residents having completed two doses of the vaccines out of the eligible population of 9.8 million (78% of Metro Manila’s total population), as of Oct. 11. Calabarzon’s full vaccination rate is 29.48%.

More distant regions have a lower rollout percentage. As a case in point, only 20.72% of the Zamboanga Peninsula regional population have been completely vaccinated as of Oct. 11.

Supply shortage is the most obvious factor for vaccine rollout delays in the country. Insufficient human resources, lack of healthcare facilities in most provinces, vaccine hesitancy, and delivery delays contribute to the slow vaccination progress, particularly in the regions outside of NCR.

Delayed immunization significantly explains the high COVID-19 transmission in the whole country. The unvaccinated people are the most vulnerable to getting infected, being hospitalized, and dying. The health of medical health workers is also harmed. They suffer from mental health issues, and many of them have likewise have gotten the infection.

Zamboanga City makes an illustrative case study. The report as of Sept. 27 showed that 98% of 1,654 cases were community acquired. Between August and September, infections in Zamboanga City, mainly caused by the Delta variant, increased by almost 37%.

But vaccination sorely lags. As of Sept. 27, Zamboanga City has administered a first dose for 179,578 residents and a second dose for 107,290 of the eligible population. But with a population of 977,234 (as of 2020), the number of fully vaccinated in Zamboanga City constitutes only 11% of the total.

Thus, Dr. Norvie Jailani, an epidemiologist at the government-owned Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC), has called on the Department of Health (DoH) and the local government to speed up the vaccination rollout.

The Asia Foundation and Alliance for Improving Health Outcomes, Inc. recently conducted a study through Project Converge, “Assessing the COVID-19 Vaccination Needs of Selected Municipalities and Cities in Mindanao” Zamboanga City is one of the selected municipalities for the study. Data was collected through phone or online interviews from July 15 to Aug. 2. The results show the different factors that have contributed to the slow vaccine rollout.

Shortage of staff, specifically healthcare workers to administer vaccination, has contributed to the low vaccination turnout. The vaccination sites lack capacity and are unsuitable for the online/ digital electronic nature of rollout. The capacity problems include shortage in electricity, weak connectivity, and inadequate laptops.

But the most apparent reason for the low immunization rate is vaccine supply shortage. The available vaccines for Zamboanga City are far from enough to meet the demand.

Vaccine hesitancy in Zamboanga City, according to a local government representative, is no longer a pressing issue. The representative said that most people in Zamboanga City have expressed their desire to be vaccinated. A lot of people want to be vaccinated, but they are not receiving updates regarding their vaccine registration.

The case of Zamboanga perhaps mirrors the situation in the whole country. Demand is already up, but supply is woefully lacking. Exacerbating the situation is the people’s lack of information regarding the vaccine supply and distribution and the performance of vaccines.

The government must do its job and address funding, supplies, and human resources. Transparency also matters for people to be informed about the vaccine distribution and the performance of vaccines.

We have stressed time and again that the government can generate the resources not only for vaccination, but for the whole response to the pandemic. The government, for example, has benefited from the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights, equivalent to around P140 billion. That amount should be used to procure additional vaccines and to provide augmented funding for other health and non-pharmaceutical interventions like social relief.

The government, too, can reallocate resources from the existing budget or from the proposed 2022 budget. A review of government spending shows a skewed priority for programs that are not responsive to fighting the pandemic, like the funds for counter-insurgency, unaccountable intelligence activities, and pork barrel.

Still, we acknowledge the tight global supply. In this context, the government must ensure the equitable distribution of scarce vaccines. The data show that vaccination has favored the NCR and the main growth centers. But this has meant sacrificing the poor regions like the Zamboanga peninsula and the Bangsamoro region. (The full vaccination rate for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, as latest figures show, is a dismal 9.5%! Compare that to the rate of 78% for NCR.)

The greater the number of people vaccinated in the country across all regions, the higher the vaccine effectiveness rate will be. That means a sharper reduction in infections and deaths.

Our call then is for the government to: 1.) increase the budget allocation for vaccination and other related health and socio-economic interventions, 2.) reform the vaccination system that gives premium to strategic guidance, logistics, training, and planning, and, 3.) implement the vaccine rollout equitably, for the benefit of the poorer LGUs.

No one is safe until we are all safe.

Emmanuella Iellamo is the researcher for the health policy program of Action for Economic Reforms.

How Filipinos can succeed in creative industries and global markets

October 17, 2021 | 4:56 pm

In an environment where Filipino manufacturers are hard-pressed to compete due to high manufacturing costs, those who thrive must be celebrated and emulated.

I have known Rita Nazareno since our teenage years when she was still a high school student at St. Scholastica Manila. After graduating college at the Loyola Marymount University in California, she went on to earn a master’s degree in Communication Arts from the Academy of Arts University in California and another master’s degree in Design Management from the London College of Fashion. She is among the few Filipinas with a double master’s degree in these fields. Rita represents the best of Generation Z.

Rita comes from a family of strong women entrepreneurs. Her grandmother is the legendary Segundina Cornejo Vizcarra, the “mother” of Philippine hand embroidery and fine hand-made crafts. S.C. Vizcarra Corp. was founded in 1925 and has since become among the country’s most prolific exporters. Even before the likes of Jollibee and Bench, S.C. Vizcarra was the first Filipino entity to have a retail footprint abroad, having stores in Guam, Hawaii, and the US mainland. Under the baton of Segundina’s daughter (Rita’s mother), Vicky Vizcarra Amalingan-Sales, S.C. Vizcarra rose to even greater heights as the country’s principal exporter of high-end crafts.

After working abroad for more than a decade, Rita decided to come back to the Philippines in 2011 to play her part in nation building. She established Zacarias1925, a brand named after her paternal grandfather (the husband of Segundina) and one that leverages on S.C. Vizcarra’s 96 years of handweaving expertise. Zacarias 1925 is a vanguard in design-forward bags and home accessories that caters primarily to the export market. Rita’s products are sold in Milan, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo and other fashion capitals.

I asked Rita how she was able to penetrate the highly competitive international market considering that Filipino-made products are often out-priced by alternatives from China and other low-cost producing countries. It is all about finding one’s competitive advantage, Rita asserts. For Zacarias 1925, she purposely anchored the brand on impeccable handweaving quality, a 96-year manufacturing pedigree, and progressive designs. While competition from China churns-out predictable products, Zacarias 1925 surprises with unexpected, ingenious, functional, and highly desirable counterparts.

Given our fragmented supply chain, expensive labor, and power cost, Filipinos manufacturers can no longer compete in low-cost commoditized products. Our manufacturers must migrate to the premium market where intelligent design, immaculate craftsmanship, impeccable quality, and a well-crafted branding strategy wins the day. Rita’s success with Zacarias 1925 provides a template on how Filipino manufacturers can compete abroad.

Creative industries generated $2.25 trillion dollars in global sales last year. The premium market is the Filipino manufacturer’s niche. This has become clear not only to Rita but to a handful of successful Filipino manufacturers such as Fino Leathercrafts, Aranaz Bags and the like. Emerging entrepreneurs will do well to follow their lead.

In 2014, Rita met Gabriel “Gabby” Lichauco, a product of De La Sale College of St. Benilde and the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan where he earned his master’s degree in industrial design. Gabby is the man behind Openstudio, a design consultancy firm that specializes in exhibit curation, space installations and product design. Gabby is arguably the country’s best in the creative field, having been included in Asia’s 100 leading designers by Design Asia.

While both Rita and Gabby have their own business interest, the two teamed up to form Nazareno/Lichauco Designs. The joint endeavor produces everyday objects that also double as fine art. One of their products is an electric fan that serves as a centerpiece artwork. Their products can be found in high-end stores in Europe, the United States, Japan, Chile, and Turkey, among others.

Apart from manufacturing wittily designed products, the pair also does product designs and materials development for other manufacturers. For material development, emphasis is given to indigenous Filipino materials such as woven fibers, metal, wood, paper, ceramic, and volcanic ash. They also do curation for trade exhibits. The duo was responsible for curating the Philippine Pavilion in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Maison et Objet in Paris where Filipino manufacturers bagged millions of dollars in export orders. They also curated exhibits in the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo among others in the UK and the US.

Again, Rita and Gabby emphasize, design is key for Filipino manufacturers to succeed in international markets. The product must speak for itself. Good design is not about being pretty, per se. It is about evoking emotions. Surprise, delight, awe, and amazement are emotions that drive product sales.

The Philippines is not lacking in creative minds. While only a handful have the opportunity to study abroad, many of our youth have an innate talent for creativity and innovation. It just needs to be fine-tuned to suit foreign markets, say Rita and Gabby. They regularly mentor aspiring and/or emerging designers.

Manufacturers of design-forward, high-end products cannot optimize their potentials without the support of government. The state must do its part in the branding effort. Just as the French government has helped France’s design houses become firmaments in luxury goods, the Philippine government must also promote Philippine-made products as vanguards of intelligent, functional design.

The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), a sub-agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, has the mandate to promote Philippine creative products abroad. The problem is that CITEM is extremely underfunded. This year, CITEM was appropriated a budget of only P141 million. This amount must fund its day-to-day operations, the cost of international promotions, and the cost to mount trade shows here and abroad. With a budget so miniscule, it is no surprise that Philippine-made creative products, no matter how superior they are, have little presence on the world stage. For context, President Duterte’s contingency fund alone is an eye watering P13 billion.

Based on Rita’s and Gabby’s body of work, we know without doubt that Filipino manufacturers can be a global force in creative industries. But our artists and manufacturers need government’s help in the branding effort, in product promotions, in trade linkages, in skills development and industry development.

At this juncture, it is too late to expect a realignment of priorities from this government. Our hope lies on the next administration. This is why we must support a candidate who is cognizant of the importance and potentials of our creative industries and one who will support it.

One can only imagine the avalanche of export revenues, employment opportunities, and prestige the country can realize if Rita’s and Gabby’s success were to be replicated by the thousands.

Andrew J. Masigan is an economist

andrew_rs6@yahoo.com

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Education is a powerful enabler to mitigate the climate crisis

October 17, 2021 | 4:55 pm

pollution-smoke-face — ORIGINAL PHOTOS BY CHRIS LEBOUTILLIER/ADRIAN SWANCAR-UNSPLASH

CLIMATE CHANGE poses the biggest existential threat to humanity. As world leaders prepare to renew their pledge to combat the crisis amid increasingly frequent natural hazards and the raging pandemic, one measure that so far remains grossly under-tapped is the transformative role that education can play in mitigating climate change.

In the lead up to COP26, more countries have been committing to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. This includes using regulation and policy to improve energy efficiency, develop alternative energy sources, reduce overall energy consumption, and minimize wastage.

These measures require financing, public consensus, and lifestyle changes. They will also have profound impacts on countries’ industrial structures and economic policies which may lead to a short-term jolt to the global economy.

But these actions are a vital step toward ending the worldwide, indiscriminate exploitation of low-cost natural resources that is now taking its toll on the environment and fueling the climate crisis. Asia and the Pacific is responsible for nearly half of global greenhouse gas emissions and more than 60% of people in the region work in sectors that are highly susceptible to changing weather patterns. It is clear that the battle against climate change will be won or lost in Asia and the Pacific.

This is why Asia and the Pacific must promote a new paradigm of economic development that can turn climate actions into drivers of economic growth that are ecologically sustainable and climate-friendly. Pursuing this new paradigm requires a fundamental transformation of the mindset and lifestyle of future generations.

Education in the region and beyond, can and must become an active agent in catalyzing climate mitigation and adaptation in line with the global agreements. Education can be transformative in at least three ways.

First, universal values such as global citizenry and sustainable development must be incorporated into mainstream, foundational, and formative years of study. This will help students become self-directed, lifelong learners. It will also help to raise self-awareness, enable a cultural transformation, and change the mindsets and lifestyles of future global citizens — equipping them with the tools to lead and actively support sustainable development.

This is why young leaders like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousufzai are inspiring millions of young people around the world to make societies smarter, greener, and more inclusive and resilient.

Second, more investment and better quality of expenditure in education to scale up learning — particularly for disadvantaged and marginalized groups including girls and women — is the best strategy to support sustainable development. The more well-educated people there are in a country, the better the capacity and agility of that country to prevent or mitigate future hazards.

Third, education can be more responsive in producing experts, innovators, and leaders with the skills to tackle climate change and other related development challenges. Such challenges include converting waste to energy, increasing food production and minimizing food waste to feed the growing population sustainably, transitioning to clean energy and transport, and creating and preparing for green jobs.

Education is the cornerstone on which the world needs to build a successful transition from effective short-term climate actions to sustained, structural medium- to long-term changes that are underpinned by new mindsets.

Developing this education system will require comprehensive cooperation between central and local governments, schools, universities, communities, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and the private sector. This collaboration is critical to develop education policies that will prepare and engage students in sustainable development through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects.

There are already good examples of climate change education led by some governments. Italy requires all students to take more than 33 hours of climate change classes each year in higher secondary education. The Department of Education in the Philippines has committed to intensify climate literacy and support climate action in schools. The Republic of Korea has started a project to transform schools into green campuses that will showcase education programs for environmental protection and use eco-friendly energy.

The international community, multinational corporations, and international NGOs are equally critical in harmonizing and providing this support. The Paris Agreement calls for its signatories to undertake educational and public awareness campaigns on climate change, and ensure public participation in programs to achieve its targets.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched the Climate Change Fund in 2008 and has since actively pursued ways to mainstream climate change issues in education. The bank is supporting clean energy in several education projects including preparing graduates with green skills.

The Ban Ki-moon (BKM) Foundation for a Better Future is urging governments and the international community to prioritize environmental education, encourage enthusiastic young international leaders, and empower women and young people.

The ADB and BKM Foundation will collaborate closely to mobilize more partners, resources, and expertise to do more and build back better from the pandemic.

At this critical juncture in the history of humanity, we must now reimagine education. This will bring about the early-stage mindset change that will help prepare the global citizens and innovators of tomorrow with the skills to address climate change and nurture the long-term health of our planet.

This piece is co-authored by Ban Ki-moon, chairman of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future and 8^th secretary-general of the United Nations, and Bambang Susantono, ADB vice-president for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development.

Netflix estimates Squid Game will be worth nearly $900M

October 17, 2021 | 4:20 pm

NETFLIX estimates that its latest megahit, Squid Game, will create almost $900 million in value for the company, according to figures seen by Bloomberg, underscoring the windfall that one megahit can generate in the streaming era.

Netflix differs from movie studios and TV networks in that doesn’t generate sales based on specific titles, instead using its catalog and a steady drumbeat of new releases to entice customers every week. But the company does have a wealth of data concerning what its customers watch, which the company uses to determine the value derived from individual programs.

Squid Game stands out both for its popularity, and its relatively low cost. The South Korean show, about indebted people in a deadly contest for a cash prize, generated $891.1 million in impact value, a metric the company uses to assess the performance from individual shows. The show cost just $21.4 million to produce — about $2.4 million an episode. Those figures are just for the first season, and stem from a document that details Netflix’s performance metrics for the show.

The document underscores just how successful this one show has been for Netflix, and offers the clearest picture yet as to how the world’s most popular online TV network judges the success of its programming. Netflix has released self-selected viewership metrics for a handful of TV shows and movies, but it doesn’t share its more detailed metrics with the press, investors or even the programs’ own creators. Guessing the popularity of a given show has become something of a parlor game in Hollywood, even as Netflix has begun to release data in dribs and drabs.

An attorney representing Netflix said in a letter to Bloomberg that it would be inappropriate for Bloomberg to disclose the confidential data contained in the documents that Bloomberg had reviewed. “Netflix does not discuss these metrics outside the company and takes significant steps to protect them from disclosure,” the attorney said.

Some of the figures are self-explanatory, and mirror data that Netflix and other services already report. About 132 million people have watched at least two minutes of Squid Game in the show’s first 23 days, smashing the Netflix record set by Bridgerton. The two-minute figure is the one Netflix releases to the public for some shows. The company said 111 million people had started the show earlier this month, but that was based on data that is a bit older.

While Netflix has disclosed the number of people who start a show, it has yet to disclose how many people stuck around to watch more of the show (stickiness) or how many people finished the series (completion rate). Linear TV networks report the average number of people who watch a program for its duration, which makes the Netflix two-minute numbers look inflated by comparison.

In the case of Squid Game, Netflix estimates that 89% of people who started the show watched at least 75 minutes (more than one episode) and 66% of viewers, or 87 million people, have finished the series in the first 23 days. All told, people have spent more than 1.4 billion hours watching the show, which was produced by closely held Siren Pictures.

The viewership details are likely to cheer investors, who have regained enthusiasm for Netflix after several bumpy months, partly because Squid Game has been so popular. The company reported its slowest pace of subscriber additions since 2013 in the first half of the year, and blamed the paucity of new hit shows for some of its struggles. It also blamed the coronavirus for slowing TV and movie production. Its stock has declined for much of the year, and trailed the market.

But shares in the company have climbed nearly 7 percent since the release of Squid Game on Sept. 17, valuing the company at $278.1 billion. Even investors critical of the company expect it will either lift its performance in the third quarter or its forecast for the fourth quarter — if not both.

“We think Netflix has found a sound and profitable strategy with its content internationalization efforts, with Squid Game a perfect example,” Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, wrote in an Oct. 14 note. Mr. Pachter has been Netflix’s loudest skeptic among Wall Street analysts. “This and its Seinfeld launch in Q4 should provide a solid cushion.”

Some of the metrics seen by Bloomberg are more idiosyncratic, and it’s impossible to glean from the document what data Netflix uses to calculate each formula. Squid Game scored 353 points in adjusted view share (AVS), which reflects not just how many people watched it but how valuable those viewers are considered. (An AVS of more than 9 or 10 is already considered high.) Viewers who are new customers or use Netflix less often are viewed as more valuable because that suggests those shows are a reason they haven’t canceled.

AVS is where Netflix’s evaluation of a show begins, according to current and former employees, and the impact value figure is an estimate of a show’s lifetime AVS.

What makes Squid Game even more valuable is how popular it is relative to its low cost. The show cost less than a recent Dave Chappelle special, or just a couple episodes of The Crown. Netflix measures this using a metric called efficiency, which measures viewership (or AVS) relative to cost. The show has a mark of 41.7X in efficiency, according to the document, when an efficiency of 1x is considered solid. Chappelle’s Sticks & Stones was 0.8X, as Bloomberg reported this week. — Bloomberg

Melbourne to ease world’s longest COVID-19 lockdown

October 17, 2021 | 4:20 pm

A woman walks across the city centre bridge in Melbourne, Australia, July 16, 2021. — REUTERS/SANDRA SANDERS

MELBOURNE — Melbourne, which has spent more time under COVID-19 lockdowns than any other city in the world, is set to lift its stay-at-home orders this week, officials said on Sunday.

By Friday, when some curbs will be lifted, the Australian city of 5 million people will have been under six lockdowns totalling 262 days, or nearly nine months, since March 2020.

Australian and other media say this is the longest in the world, exceeding a 234-day lockdown in Buenos Aires.

While coronavirus cases keep rising in Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital, the state’s double-vaccination rate is set to reach 70% this week, allowing for the ease in restrictions. “Today is a great day,” said Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews in announcing the lockdown. “Today is a day when Victorians can be proud of what they have achieved.”

When hospitality venues and some businesses reopen, their capacity will remain heavily restricted. More easing, including the reopening of many retailers, will come once 80% of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated — estimated by Nov. 5 at the latest.

On Sunday, Victoria recorded 1,838 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths. Neighboring New South Wales, which emerged last week from a 100-day lockdown, reported 301 cases and 10 deaths. Eighty percent of the state’s people have been fully vaccinated.

Australia, once a champion of a COVID-zero strategy of managing the pandemic, has been moving towards living with the virus through extensive vaccinations, as the Delta variant has proven too transmissible to suppress.

The new strategy makes lockdowns highly unlikely once 80% of the population is fully vaccinated. As of the weekend, around 68% of eligible Australians have been fully inoculated.

Australia’s health officials said on Sunday that quarantine-free travel from New Zealand’s South Island, where there is no outbreak, will resume on Wednesday. The government is also in discussions with Singapore about reopening travel between the two countries for the fully vaccinated.

Despite the rise in cases in recent months, Australia’s coronavirus numbers are low compared to many other developed countries, with just over 143,000 cases and 1,530 deaths.

Neighboring New Zealand, which is also learning to live with COVID-19 by accelerating inoculations, reported 51 new cases on Sunday, 47 of them in the largest city Auckland, which has been in a lockdown since mid-August. On Saturday, New Zealand vaccinated more than 2.5% of its people as part of a government-led mass vaccination drive. — Reuters

Pope pledges to continue being a ‘pest’ in defense of the poor

October 17, 2021 | 4:17 pm

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said on Saturday he realizes some people, including within the Church, consider him to be “a pest” for defending the poor and most vulnerable, but that it won’t stop him as it is part of Christianity.

“Thinking about these situations (of exclusion and inequality), I make a pest of myself with my questions. And I go on asking. And I ask everyone in the name of God,” said Francis, Latin America’s first pope.

He called on pharmaceutical companies to release patents to make vaccines for COVID-19 more available to the poor, noting that only 3%-4% of the population in some countries had been vaccinated.

Francis, 84, was speaking by video link to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, a grouping of grassroots organizations and social movements which bring attention to inequality in labor, land ownership, health care and other social issues in the developing world.

He called on industries such as mining and lumber, “to stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, to stop polluting rivers and seas, to stop poisoning food and people.”

Pope Francis said rich countries and financial institutions should cancel the debts of the poorest nations. Weapons manufacturers and dealers should to stop contributing “to those awful geopolitical games which cost millions of displaced lives and millions of dead.”

Technology giants should stop allowing hate speech, fake news, conspiracy theories, and political manipulation, he said, and called for a universal basic income and for countries to consider shortening the work day so more people could have jobs.

“This system, with its relentless logic of profit, is escaping all human control. It is time to slow the locomotive down, an out-of-control locomotive hurtling towards the abyss. There is still time,” he said. “And so, I persist in my pestering.”

He referred to criticism he has received in the past, especially from US church conservatives, when he has issued similar appeals.

“It saddens me that some members of the Church get annoyed when we mention these guidelines that belong to the full tradition of the Church,” he said referring to a compendium of Catholic social teaching issued by Pope John Paul II in 2004.

“But the pope must not stop mentioning this teaching, even if it often annoys people, because what is at stake is not the pope but the Gospel,” he said. — Reuters

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