Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 6859

Nationwide round-up (04/04/21)

Rail operations to be limited

RAILWAY operators scale down operations after hundreds of workers tested positive for COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019).

Rail officials on Sunday said they would scale down operations this week as they continue to conduct coronavirus mass testing for their workers.

“We found that 60% of our workers had direct or indirect exposure to asymptomatic cases,” Philippine National Railways (PNR) General Manager Junn B. Magno said at an online news briefing.

Ninety-one PNR workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, he added.

Out of 604 employees of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) who got tested, 107 were positive, Director Michael J. Capati said at the same briefing. Many of them were station staff and drivers.

Meanwhile, 94 out of 281 Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) workers who got tested had been infected, said Fidel Igmedio T. Cruz, Jr., transport assistant secretary at the company, which has 1,185 workers. Most of them did not show symptoms, he added.

Hernando T. Cabrera, a spokesman for the Light Rail Transit Authority said 136 out of 529 workers at the LRT-2 had tested positive for the coronavirus. The line has 1,696 workers.

Starting Monday, only 10 to 12 MRT-3 trains would be dispatched, according to the Transportation department.

“The trains will be operating with a limited capacity of 372 passengers per train set or 124 passengers per car to comply with the predetermined number of passengers per station,” it said in a statement. LRT-1 will deploy 17 trains, while LRT-2 will dispatch five trains.

Buses will be augmented to accommodate passengers who will be affected by railways’ limited operations, the agency said. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Court closures extended

THE SUPREME Court has extended the closure of trial courts in Manila, the capital and nearby cities and provinces after President Rodrigo R. Duterte lengthened the strict lockdown until April 11.

Court hearings would remain suspended except on urgent matters, the tribunal said in a circular released on Saturday night. The deadline for pleadings due on March 29 to April 11 was extended to April 19.

Only pleadings and other court submissions on urgent matters may be filed.

“The respective heads of offices within these courts are directed to maintain a skeleton staff, as may be necessary, to attend to all urgent matters, including the payment of salaries,” according to the order signed by acting Chief Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago

‘Household lockdown’ sought

A LAWMAKER urged the government to impose a “household lockdown” amid a fresh surge in coronavirus infections in Metro Manila.

Household members of a family with at least one positive case should be prevented from leaving the house, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo said in a statement on Sunday.

“A more localized lockdown needs to be implemented at the smallest possible unit — the household,” she added.

Companions of the COVID-19 patient should be presumed to be positive and should be barred from leaving the house, Ms. Quimbo said. Local governments must help deliver basic goods to such families, she added.

“Keeping lockdowns at the household level will allow local government units to not only target their meager resources effectively but more importantly, it will allow them to properly track and record the correct number of COVID-19 cases in their areas,” she said. — Gillian M. Cortez

Faster vaccine rollout urged

A LAWMAKER on Sunday asked the government to fast-track vaccine rollout during the extended strict quarantine in the capital region and nearby provinces.

In a statement, Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate said an effective COVID-19 vaccination rollout and better contract-tracing and isolation measures should be.

“Without massive free mass testing, aggressive contact-tracing, effective and timely isolation and treatment, as well as fast-tracked vaccination rollout, extending the lockdown would be next to pointless as this does not squarely address the problem of COVID-19 infections,” he said.

Mr. Zarate said as many as 130,000 people need to be tested daily versus the 40,000 being tested now.

He said the state should hire more health workers and set up more isolation and treatment centers to minimize crowding in hospitals. — Gillian M. Cortez

IBP hails new chief justice

THE INTEGRATED Bar of the Philippines (IBP) welcomed the appointment of Alexander G. Gesmundo as the country’s 27th chief justice.

“His experience, dedication and integrity as a public servant will greatly matter as he leads the judicial branch during these challenging times,” IBP President Domingo Egon Q. Cayosa said in a statement at the weekend.

The lawyer’s group said it would work with Mr. Gesmundo to achieve quick justice, which it is lobbying for through the use of technology.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte had appointed Mr. Gesmundo, his chief lawyer Salvador S. Panelo said last week, citing Senator Christopher Lawrence T. Go, a close friend of the President. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago

Regional Updates (04/04/21)

Lockdown aid

WORKERS are busy packing food aid at the Caloocan Sports Complex on April 4. About P23 billion worth of aid for Filipinos affected by a strict lockdown in the capital region and nearby provinces will be released to local governments starting Monday, according to the Interior and Local Government department.

Bill to create Davao agency

A SENATOR has filed a bill that seeks to create a Metro-Davao Regional Development Authority to boost the region’s growth.

The National Government should step in and help establish the region as a metro center and major contributor to the development of Mindanao and the entire nation, Senator Maria Imelda Josefa R. Marcos said in the explanatory note of Senate Bill 2116.

The bill also seeks to create a network of growth centers aligned with the Philippine Development Plan for 2017-2022.

These will complement urban growth centers in boosting productivity and ensuring ample opportunity to prevent overcrowding in urban areas, the senator said.

“Rural areas will be developed for economic and industrial prosperity, as well as for border and territorial security,” she added.

Under the bill, services under the Davao agency include those that have a metro-wide impact and which transcend legal and political boundaries, or which entail expenditures that local government cannot undertake on their own.

These services include development planning, uniform transport and traffic management, solid waste management, flood control and sewerage management, urban renewal, zoning, land use planning and shelter services.

The bill allotted P5 billion for the initial operation of the Davao agency. It may levy fines and fees for its services. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

Palawan area declared red tide-free

THE BUREAU of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said the northwestern coast of Palawan island is now free from red tide contamination.

People may eat shellfish from the area, it said in a bulletin.

Areas still affected by red tide include Dauis and Tagbilaran City, Bohol; Tambobo Bay, Negros Oriental; Calubian and Cancabato Bay, Leyte; Dumanquillas Bay, Zamboanga del Sur; Balite Bay, Davao Oriental; and Lianga Bay and Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur.

“The areas are still positive for paralytic shellfish poison that is beyond the regulatory limit,” BFAR said.

All types of shellfish and Acetes sp. or alamang harvested from red tide-positive areas are unfit for human consumption, but all other marine species may be eaten with proper handling, it said.

Red tide is caused by algal blooms, during which algae become so numerous that they discolor coastal waters. The algal bloom may also release toxins that can cause illness in people and animals.

Eating contaminated shellfish can lead to paralytic shellfish poisoning, which affects the nervous system.

The usual symptoms of red tide poisoning include headaches, dizziness and nausea. Severe cases may result in muscular paralysis and respiratory issues. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

The message of Resurrection (the music)

 

For Easter 2021, amid the many deaths we witness, the message of Resurrection has all the more become relevant. But instead of attempting to write some sort of a secular homily on this, I think it will be more inspiring to share my feelings on the music of Resurrection. I refer to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, popularly known as Resurrection.

Three days before my beloved friend Eddie died, I wrote to him that for some reason, I listened to Mahler’s Resurrection. The music made me feel his physical and spiritual condition. Eddie was suffering excruciating physical pain; yet, he conveyed a feeling of serenity and happiness. His equanimity projected the readiness to face death… and to see eternal light.

Listening to Mahler’s Resurrection was my way of embracing Eddie. I told him how Mahler’s Resurrection releases an intensity of feelings. The struggle between dark and light, between pain and joy is resolved with life being triumphant.

So I said to Eddie: “Would like to share the music with you. Love you, buddy.” And he replied: “Yes, please. Love you too, Men.” This turned out to be our last communication.

I have always associated Mahler’s Resurrection with Lent and Easter. This symphony is fitting to reflect on Christ’s death and resurrection. But the meaning of Mahler’s Resurrection goes beyond its significance for Lent and Easter.

Absorbing Mahler’s music goes beyond religious observance. More importantly, it’s an intense and profound spiritual, philosophical experience that embraces our whole world.

It’s about pain and suffering, joy and triumph, and redemption. Mahler’s music, like Beethoven’s, depicts or evokes life’s contradictions: the ups and downs, sadness and jubilance, serenity and dissonance, defeats and victories, vulnerabilities and heroism.

But the flow and the dynamics of the music are unpredictable. Darkness and light, distress and tenderness, despair and hope alternate.  To illustrate, the prayer for the dead and a “death shriek” give way to jubilant, rousing music. It takes almost one and a half hours to go through this rollercoaster of contradicting emotions before the tension is resolved.

The description of the music provides the backdrop as to why I shared Mahler’s Resurrection with our childhood friend. Mahler’s epic depicts Eddie’s journey.

The symphony’s first movement is about the hero’s death. The question that arises: Is there life after death? A funereal mood, dark and serene, sets in, but is tempered later by graceful and triumphant music. However, the energetic music transitions to gloom.

The second movement is about the happy times of the hero’s life, of youth and lost innocence. The movement, marked “andante moderato,” alternates light and darkness, but light and lyricism prevail in the movement’s ending.

The third movement is characterized by flowing, dancing music, a depiction of “life as a meaningless activity.” The lively, humorous, and meandering lines of the strings and woodwinds are drawn from Mahler’s setting of a song that depicts a drunk San Antonio de Padua giving a sermon to the fishes.

That probably describes our juvenile life. We also had our own drunk or stoned experiences of talking to fishes.

The dancing as well as rousing passages deceive as jarring sounds disrupt the flow. The movement’s end is punctuated by what Mahler called a “cry of despair” or a “shriek of death,” which nevertheless gives way to a ray of hope.

The fourth movement revolves around the contralto’s song. She sings about the beauty of the simple things in life, symbolized by the rose. But then she expresses that amid the hero’s “greatest pain,” she would rather be in heaven, and that the loving God “will light me to blissful everlasting life.”

In the long final movement, the death shriek emerges before the chorus enters to deliver the resurrection message, culminating in an outburst of brass, bells, drum rolls, and an orchestra at full throttle. The chorus sings: “Die I shall, so as to live!”

So intense, so overpowering. Listening to the part that the final movement was climaxing, I was already weeping.

Resurrection overwhelms our feelings because of the depth of the pain and the power of victory and liberation that it conjures. To quote Mahler himself, the symphony is “like the world. It must embrace everything.”

Do listen to the symphony in its entirety to “embrace everything.” It’s almost 90 minutes long, but it’s a most rewarding spiritual experience even as it is dramatic and spectacular.

To our beloved Eddie, to the countless who died during the pandemic period — regardless of cause of death — the chorus sings the finale for you:

Rise again, you will.

my heart, in a trice!

Your pulsation

will carry you to God.

(The piece is written in memory of Eddie Kalaw.)

 

Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III coordinates the Action for Economic Reforms.

www.aer.com

Anti-Asian racism is also rising in Canada

AMERICAN LIBERALS often look north for a vision of what could be. Canada: land of publicly funded healthcare, evidence-based gun regulation, and immigrant-driven multiculturalism.

These virtues are not exactly myths. The population of Vancouver, where I have been for the past several weeks, is roughly equal parts European Canadian and Asian Canadian, with each representing more than 40% of the total. But Canada is not liberal Valhalla, and Canadians, contrary to the Dudley Do-Right clichés, are not always super nice. As Americans grapple with a COVID-era spike in racist violence against Asian-Americans, there is evidence of a similar wave in Canada.

A new report, funded by the Canadian government, suggests that Canadians of Asian descent have been targeted for abuse by their countrymen. Compiled by civic groups such as the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, the report documents “anti-Asian racism across Canada one year into the COVID-19 pandemic.” From March 10, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021, researchers recorded 1,150 anti-Asian incidents in Canada. They included physical assaults, instances of coughing or spitting on victims, and verbal harassment.

Amy Go, president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, told me that there were more anti-Asian incidents per capita in Canada in the past year than in the US. In Vancouver, police documented 98 anti-Asian hate crime incidents last year, up from 12 in 2019.

I met Ellen and Doris — they didn’t want their family names used, they said, for both safety and professional reasons — on the corner of Main and Hastings in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Years ago, someone had described the adjacent block of Hastings to me as one of the worst in North America, owing to the concentration of chronic drug use, crime, and homelessness. The area continues to be squeezed by gentrification, but I didn’t notice much of a change on the block in the almost six years since I’d last visited.

Ellen and Doris are cofounders of Project 1907, which describes itself as a group of Asian women who aim to “elevate Asian voices that are underrepresented and undervalued” in mainstream discourse. “The organization was formed during COVID,” Doris said, “but we’ve been talking about this for a while.”

Indeed, Doris and Ellen, both in their 30s, made it clear that most of their experiences of racism in Canada precede COVID. “You can’t live in Vancouver without a conversation about real estate,” Ellen said. The undertow of some of those conversations is resentment over the wave of wealthy Chinese who have purchased Vancouver property over the past quarter century, a time during which affordability and homelessness have become acute public concerns. The average sales price of a home in Vancouver in March was more than $1.1 million in US dollars.

While Vancouver’s foreign buyers are wealthy, many who live and work in Chinatown are not. Pender Street, which once housed an opium factory, looks like Chinatown in many North American cities — featuring grocers, a restaurant equipment and supply store, a butcher with chickens hanging in the front window.

Project 1907 takes its name from the year of a three-day rampage through this neighborhood and Vancouver’s adjacent Japantown. Known as the “anti-Asian riots,” the violence followed years of mounting resentment and anti-immigrant laws, including the Chinese Head Tax in 1885 to restrict immigration. Prominent Vancouver leaders were members of the Asiatic Exclusion League, whose anti-immigrant rally at city hall sparked the riots.

Like the US, Canada is reckoning, sometimes just as awkwardly, with racist history. The authors of the report on anti-Asian attacks during COVID refer to themselves as “racialized settlers” in Canada. The first sentence of the report states: “We recognize our work against racial violence takes place on stolen Indigenous land.”

Canada did not have large-scale African slavery — although it had some, partly due to British loyalists fleeing to Canada with their human property as revolution unfolded in the American colonies. Of course, Canada also did not produce cotton, rice, tobacco, or sugar, the commodities around which slavery was organized in the Western hemisphere.

While Canada’s reputation as a promised land for fugitive American slaves is much celebrated, the racism many of those fugitives experienced once they arrived is less heralded. By the mid-19th century perhaps 20,000 to 40,000 Black people lived in Canada. Slavery had been abolished in 1834, but racially segregated schools, restaurants, theaters, and neighborhoods were common. A theater in Windsor, Ontario, offered a segregated “crow’s nest” for Black customers, while a Montreal theater called its segregated upper balcony the “monkey cage.” The Ku Klux Klan also mustered a presence in Canada, and its terrorism was no less real there.

The history of Asian immigration to Canada is as saturated in racism as immigrant history in the US. Some of the language is even identical. From 1923 to 1947 in Canada, “Chinese exclusion” legislation kept Chinese immigrants out. In 1942, the Canadian government interned Japanese Canadians in camps, just as the US did to its Japanese citizens. On the whole, Asians in Canada today are more likely to live in poverty than Asians in the US.

Still, Canada is Canada. The national government has remained very supportive of immigration — to the detriment of US companies competing for talent. And in 2016, while their mother country and southern neighbor were descending into anti-immigrant embarrassments, Canadians kept their heads.

American liberals’ occasional threats to move to Canada, in the event some Republican or other is elected president, are almost always hollow. But that doesn’t discount their admiration for what New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik once called “our northern neighbor’s relative lack of violence, its peaceful continuity, its ability to allow double and triple identities and to build a country successfully out of two languages and radically different national pasts.”

Making amends for those not-so-radically different pasts entails similar pursuits on either side of the border. In 2018, Canada put the image of Viola Desmond on the $10 bill. Desmond is a northern Rosa Parks, a Black Canadian who in 1946 refused to leave the Whites-only section of a movie theater in Nova Scotia. She is the first Black woman on Canadian currency. In the US, meanwhile, Harriet Tubman is still waiting for her long-delayed bill. What that says about the exchange rate of racism is hard to know. 

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Talent is enough

To celebrate Easter, let me share a story of a man of humble origins, beating the odds to become a star in his field.

Cyril Mitchel Agan’s background is typical of many lower-middle income Filipino families. His father, Leonardo, immigrated to Manila from Siquijor to seek a better life. His mother, Ma. Lucille (nee Tecson) a native of Marinduque, did the same. The couple married and eventually had three children between them, Cyril being the eldest.

The Agans lived modestly in a rented apartment in Paco, Manila. Leonardo was a tailor who owned a franchise of Topper’s Tailoring. Lucille, although having a Chemistry diploma under her belt, could not pursue her studies in medicine since she needed to work to support the family. She landed a job as a bank teller and remained there for many years.

Cyril was academically gifted. He studied at JASMS Manila where he was an honor student. He did so well that he was transferred to Manila Science High School, a public institution for the academically gifted. But Cyril was different. He didn’t fit in. Sure, he was smart, but unlike his peers, he had little interest in contact sports and other testosterone-charged pursuits. He was more inclined to the arts. Even as a child, Cyril had a natural eye for everything beautiful, be it in literature, the performing arts, and, yes, even in the human form. Cyril is part of the LGBTQ community and this would later on prove to be his secret weapon as an aesthetic physician.

After high school, he decided to pursue medicine upon the prodding of his father. Confident of his grades (or maybe due to youthful hubris) he applied to only one school — the UP College of Medicine. Luckily, he passed and eventually became a general practitioner.

It was at this time that the financial situation of the Agans deteriorated. The tailoring business had become out of date and customers waned. Bills piled and Cyril’s parents were finding it difficult to make ends meet.

Cyril’s specialization had to wait. He needed to work to help pay the bills.

He looked for a job abroad since it was the easiest way to earn well. The young doctor landed a job in a Miami-based aesthetic clinic that serviced luxury cruises. He flew to Miami to learn the science of using injectables as a way to enhance the human face. Apparently, there are four types of facial injectables: Hyaluronic acid, which act as a filler for depressed or sagging areas; Botulinum Toxins (Botox) which is a chemical used for facial contouring and controlling wrinkles; Poly-L-lactic Acid Threads that are used for lifting sagging areas; and Deoxycholic Acid which is used to melt fat on the cheeks and chin. Injectables are ideal for facial enhancements, said Dr. Cyril, since they offer improvements as dramatic as cosmetic surgery without being invasive. Its effects are far more remarkable than laser treatments.

In the cruise ship, Dr. Cyril’s job was to plan the enhancement procedures and administer them to clients, both men and women. He was given a quota — $10,000 worth of injectable per week — not an easy task considering that passengers have no intention of enhancing their faces when they first board the ship.

Persuading clients to fix their faces was a hard-sell. But count on Filipino ingenuity to save the day. Cyril recalls prospecting clients in the jewelry store and in VIP parties. Admittedly, mature ladies were easier to convince.

He would strike a conversation with them and somehow persuade them to go through the enhancement procedure. Filipino charm never failed him, he said. It helped that he is articulate and well versed in the arts.

After each procedure, the ladies would be so happy with the result that they would persuade their husbands and friends to do the same. Many more clients would normally follow.

The end product was Cyril’s best advertisement. This is where his natural eye for beauty comes in. He has an innate sense of how to bring out the best in a person’s features. It is a natural gift, he said, and cannot be studied. As a gay man, he knows what looks good on men and the features that are attractive to women. Conversely, he knows what features in women are attractive to men.

Dr. Cyril’s reputation grew to a point wherein he didn’t need to scope for clients anymore. Clients would join the cruise with the specific purpose of having their faces enhanced by Dr. Cyril. The young aesthetic physician was generating $50,000 a week with bookings back to back.

When asked to describe his technique, he said it is all about restraint. The facial enhancements should be significant enough to achieve a remarkable improvement, but subtle enough not to grab attention. There is no formula to beauty since every face is unique, he said. To this, he meticulously plans every procedure as a bespoke case.

Asked how one can tell a good doctor from a bad one, Dr. Cyril suggests looking at the end results of their patients. If they all look alike — you know that the doctor uses cookie-cutter techniques. Also, look at the doctor’s face, he advises. If the doctor’s face is over-altered, then you know the doctor is heavy handed.

After 40 cruises, Dr. Cyril’s fame was growing and so was his bank account. But he was getting burnt out. It was time to come home. By this time, Dr. Cyril was able to save enough to move his family from their rented house in Paco to a luxury condo in Ortigas. He also earned enough for his mother to quit her bank job and go back to medical school. She is now a licensed pediatrician.

Back in Manila, Dr. Cyril met Jan Raymond Conadera, an IT specialist who was a marketing executive for Warner Music. Jan became Dr. Cyril’s life and business partner. He is the moving force that takes care of all business matters in the couple’s growing empire.

In 2017, the couple opened their own clinic in Ortigas Center called Lift Aesthetic Clinic, but not before obtaining advanced training in Thailand, Taipei, Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea. As an authority in aesthetics, Dr. Cyril became a resource speaker and trainer for various pharmaceutical companies, here and abroad.

To make it easier for South-based clients to access Lift Clinic’s services, the couple opened their second site in Bonifacio Global City. Its core market consists of top executives, mostly male, who wish to be the best version of themselves. He has become the preferred doctor of corporate Manila. All enhancements are done on an outpatient basis, which means, no down time.

Dr. Agan has come a long way since being that kid from Paco who didn’t fit in. It just goes to show that everyone has their unique talents, no matter how unusual they may be. If these talents are honed, there is no limit to the success one can achieve. No one would have guessed that Dr. Cyril’s eye for beauty would be his ticket to success.

 

Andrew J. Masigan is an economist

andrew_rs6@yahoo.com

Twitter @aj_masigan

France sees surge in severe COVID-19 cases

REUTERS/CHARLES PLATIAU

PARIS — France reported on Saturday that 5,273 people were in intensive care units (ICU) for COVID-19, a rise of 19 from the previous day, as the country entered its third national lockdown to help combat the pandemic.

The government had been trying to keep the lid on new COVID cases with curfews and regional measures but from Saturday, and for the next four weeks, schools and non-essential businesses across the country will remain shut.

The rise in ICU patients on Saturday followed a much bigger jump the day before — the highest in five months, at 145. President Emmanuel Macron has pledged more hospital beds to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Mr. Macron had hoped to steer France out of the pandemic without having to impose a third national lockdown that would further batter an economy still reeling from last year’s slump.

But new strains of the virus have swept across France and much of Europe, amid a slower rollout of anti-COVID vaccines in the European Union than in some countries including Britain and the United States.

Health authorities did not publish new case numbers on Saturday, citing a problem with the flow of data from some test results. According to an Ifop poll of 1,021 people carried out online on April 1 and published on Sunday in Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) newspaper, a majority of French people expressed misgivings over the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Fifty-eight percent of people said they did not trust the vaccination campaign would be carried out according to plan.

However, a majority of people, 51%, said they did plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine, with only 34% saying they would not. Another 15% said they had already been inoculated.

Mr. Macron has vowed to speed up France’s vaccination campaign, and the defense ministry said late on Saturday that seven military hospitals would be mobilized from April 6 to administer doses. — Reuters

Leaker says they are offering private details of 500M Facebook users

WASHINGTON — A leaker says they are offering information on more than 500 million Facebook Inc users — including phone numbers and other data — virtually for free.

The database appears to be the same set of Facebook-linked telephone numbers that has been circulating in hacker circles since January and whose existence was first reported by tech publication Motherboard, according to Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock.

Reuters was not immediately able to vet the information, which is being offered for a few euros’ worth of digital credit on a well-known site for low-level hackers, but Gal said on Saturday that he had verified the authenticity of at least some of the data by comparing it against phone numbers of people he knew. Other journalists say they have also been able to match known phone numbers to the details in the data dump.

In a statement, Facebook said that the data was “very old” and related to an issue that it had fixed in August 2019.

An attempt by Reuters to reach the leaker over the messaging service Telegram was not immediately successful.

Gal told Reuters that Facebook users should be alert to “social engineering attacks” by people who may have obtained their phone numbers or other private data in the coming months. — Reuters

In Myanmar, Easter eggs become symbol of defiance for anti-coup protesters

REUTERS

OPPONENTS of military rule in Myanmar inscribed messages of protest on Easter eggs on Sunday, while others were back on the streets, facing off with security forces after a night of candle-lit vigils for hundreds killed since a Feb. 1 coup.

In the latest in a series of impromptu shows of defiance, messages including “We must win,” “Spring Revolution” and “Get out MAH” were seen on eggs in photographs on social media, the latter referring to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing. Easter is not widely observed in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group monitoring casualties and arrests since the military overthrew the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, said the toll of dead had risen to 557, as of late Saturday.

“People across Burma continued striking for the end of dictatorship, for democracy and human rights,” the group said, using another name for the Southeast Asian country.

Despite the killings, protesters continue to turn out every day in towns big and small to reject the return of military rule after a decade of tentative steps towards democracy. Numerous candle-lit vigils took place on Saturday night.

Early on Sunday, hundreds of people protested in the country’s second city of Mandalay, some on foot, others on motor-bikes, according to images on social media, before police and soldiers moved in to disperse them.

Protesters also gathered in several other towns.

There were no immediate reports of violence.

Police and a spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.

BROADBAND CUT
Opponents of military rule have also mounted a civil disobedience campaign of strikes and they arrange often creative shows of defiance, which on Easter Sunday extended to eggs.

The AAPP said 2,658 people were in detention, including four women and a man who spoke to a visiting CNN news crew in interviews on the streets of the main city of Yangon last week.

A spokesman for CNN said it was aware of reports of detentions following the team’s visit.

“We are pressing the authorities for information on this, and for the safe release of any detainees,” the spokesman said.

The military is waging its own campaign to control information and stifle dissent.

It ordered internet providers to cut wireless broadband from Friday, depriving most customers of access, though some messages and pictures were still being posted and shared.

Authorities have also issued arrest warrants for nearly 40 celebrities known for opposing military rule, including social media influencers, singers and models, under a law against inciting dissent in the armed forces.

The charge, announced on the main evening news bulletins broadcast by state media on Friday and Saturday, can carry a prison term of three years.

‘CONSCIENCE CLEAR’
One of those charged, blogger Thurein Hlaing Win, told Reuters he was shocked to see himself branded a criminal on television and had gone into hiding.

“I didn’t do anything bad or evil. I stood on the side of truth. I followed the path I believe in. Between good and evil, I chose good,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“If I get punished for that, my conscience is clear. My beliefs will not change. Everyone knows the truth.”

The military ruled the former British colony with an iron fist after seizing power in a 1962 coup until it began withdrawing from civilian politics a decade ago, releasing Ms. Suu Kyi from years of house arrest and allowing an election that her party swept in 2015.

It says it had to oust Ms. Suu Kyi’s government because a November election, again won easily by her party, was rigged. The election commission has dismissed the assertion.

Many in Myanmar, particularly younger people who have come of age during the past decade of social and economic opening up, cannot accept the return of rule by the generals.

Ms. Suu Kyi is in detention facing charges that could bring 14 years in prison. Her lawyer says the charges are trumped up. The coup has also triggered clashes with autonomy-seeking ethnic minority forces that have announced support for the pro-democracy movement.

The Karen National Union, which signed a ceasefire in 2012, has seen the first military air strikes on its forces in more than 20 years and says it must fight to defend itself from a government offensive.

The group said more than 12,000 villagers had fled their homes because of the air strikes.

Fighting has also flared in the north between the army and ethnic Kachin insurgents. The turmoil has sent several thousand refugees fleeing into Thailand and India.

Ms. Suu Kyi’s party has vowed to set up a federal democracy, the main demand for the minority groups. — Reuters

Nietes wins in ring return

Elite super-flyweight fights next, says analyst

FILIPINO boxer Donnie “Ahas” Nietes marked his ring return after two years in impressive fashion in Dubai on Sunday (Manila time), beating Colombian Pablo Carrillo by unanimous decision to win the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) International super-flyweight title.

Mr. Nietes, 38, last fought in December 2018, but hardly showed rust as he dominated Mr. Carrillo, 99-91, 98-92 and 96-95,  in their scheduled 10-rounder played at the Caesars Palace Bluewaters, part of the “Legacy Dubai” event.

The former four-weight world champion Nietes showed his elite skills, using his jab well throughout the fight and catching Mr. Carrillo with a number of clean shots en route to the dominant win.

With the victory, Murcia, Negros Occidental native Nietes improved his record to 43 wins as opposed to one defeat and five draws while Mr. Carillo dropped to 25-8-1.

Meanwhile, local fight analyst Nissi Icasiano said Mr. Nietes did himself a favor with the quality win as the Filipino champion is now in a position to battle it out with the elite fighters in the super-flyweight division.

“It was a shutout victory for Donnie Nietes. The sizable gap in terms of skill and experience was evident from the get-go. Aside from that, Nietes effectively used his advantage in size. In addition, he showed no signs of rust despite the two-year hiatus. If you’re coming off a long layoff, this is the kind of performance that puts you on the radar,” said Mr. Icasiano in an online interview with BusinessWorld after the fight.

“At this point of his career, I think Nietes will still give the top fighters at 115 a run for their money. This could be his gateway to the elite of the super-flyweight division.”

The analyst went on to say that off the bat, a possible opponent for Mr. Nietes is Thailand’s Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.

In the headlining fight at the Legacy Dubai event, Jamel Herring of the United States stopped Carl Frampton of the United Kingdom in the sixth round of their headlining fight to retain his WBO super-featherweight title.

Mr. Herring’s height and reach were evident from the first bell, catching Frampton with shots as the Belfast man tried to get on the inside. The American then dropped Mr. Frampton in round five, but the “Jackal” was able to get back to his feet.

Another big knockdown came for Mr. Herring in round six, and while Mr. Frampton got up, trainer Jamie Moore threw the towel in shortly after to end the contest.

After the fight, two-weight world champion Frampton announced his retirement. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Barcenilla, Literatus power Laguna Heroes to inaugural PCAP title

TWO-TIME Asian Junior Champion Grandmaster Rogelio Barcenilla, Jr. and Fide Master Austin Jacob Literatus towed the Laguna Heroes to the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) All-Filipino Conference title on Black Saturday.

The two played heroes in Laguna’s conquest of the Camarines Soaring Eagles to become the inaugural champion in the country’s first-ever professional chess league.

Mr. Barcenilla, playing white, defeated Christian Mark Daluz after 55 moves of English Opening in the grand finals while Mr. Literatus, playing black, checkmated Ellan Asuela after 43 moves of Modern Defense.

Grandmaster Mark Paragua drew first blood in the Armageddon for Camarines after forcing fellow grandmaster John Paul Gomez to resign after 25 moves in the King’s Indian Skirmish.

“It was a total team effort,” said Mr. Barcenilla, winner of the last two Olympiad qualifiers, of their title conquest.

Laguna head coach Arena Grandmaster Dr. Alfredo Paez praised his players for holding their own despite the tough challenge posted by Camarines.

“Our championship match against the Camarines Soaring Eagles was the toughest and most intense among the matches that we had… It was anybody’s match. We were just lucky in the last and deciding game, Mr. Paez said.

The PCAP was established in collaboration with the National Chess Federation of the Philippines with the end view of bringing further to the fore the sport of chess, which has experienced a resurgence during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. — Marlon Bernardino

Muay thai federation finding a platform online amid pandemic

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

JUST like the others in the local sporting community, the Muaythai Association of the Philippines (MAP) saw its affairs and push for the sport in the country considerably disrupted by the ongoing health pandemic.

But instead of allowing itself to be swamped by the challenges of the prevailing times, MAP is staying resilient, finding ways to still bring the group’s vision and mission to stakeholders.

One way it is going about is through virtual competitions and activities.

Speaking at the recent Sport for Women’s Empowerment & Employment Program (S.W.E.E.P.) online conference organized by the Sport Management Council of the Philippines, MAP Secretary-General Pearl Managuelod shared that operating as an organization these days is tricky but they are managing.   

“When the pandemic hit, we had to be realistic and worked with what we had. We had to be creative and resourceful to keep the community motivated and sustain the momentum we have gotten,” she said.

Ms. Managuelod, who is also a member of the board of the Philippine Olympic Committee, said the local muay thai community was on a high before the pandemic hit as the sport was a solid medal contributor for the country in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held here.

Filipino nak muays won nine medals — three of which were gold, four silver and two bronze.

The MAP secretary-general said they were looking to build on their gains in 2020 and were slated to participate in international competitions until the pandemic derailed everything.

Athletes were then sent home as activities were effectively shut.

Ms. Managuelod said it was not only the elite athletes who were affected, but also those in the grassroots as they could not roll out their programs.

Inspired by Ironman virtual races, however, Ms. Managuelod said they in MAP saw an opportunity to tap the same for muay thai.

“We saw how the statistics could be tracked and athletes could compete in the comforts of their homes. It took weeks for us to conceptualize; setting goals and objectives was very important,” she said.

The result was “muay thai all-access” where they hold webinars, produce workout videos and offer instructor courses.

They also managed to hold virtual competitions done “on a budget amid the restrictions.”

Ms. Managuelod admitted that the pivot to the virtual platform was not easy and that they had to grapple with many challenges.

“Shifting to online was a new territory for us,” she said.

Among the challenges, they had to deal with covered Internet connection, video quality and format, monitoring and implementation, availability and commitment of technical officials, lack of funds for mobile data, technological know-how, scheduling of live events, missing the combat aspect (highlighting form for now), and revenue.

While they are still working on addressing these challenges as they move along, MAP is managing to pull it off and continuing to make headway, Ms. Managuelod was happy to report.

Going online has its advantages, too, MAP realized.

With no travel required, accessibility to the sport became wider, with the group seeing more participation from regional members and age groups.

They get to innovate as well how the events are to be presented.

It is also paving the way for the discovery of new talents.

Then there is the boost it gives to the group’s push to keep the motivation and connectedness of the muay thai community.

Ms. Managuelod said that they are looking forward to the day when they could resume with face-to-face activities, but online initiatives are something they would continue to pursue moving forward.

“We will continue this platform (online) even after we are allowed to hold live tournaments,” she said.

“Innovation is necessary so that even in the digital space, sport goes on.”

Utah’s three-point barrage sinks Orlando

DONOVAN Mitchell scored 22 points and led the Utah Jazz’s three-point barrage with six deep shots in a 137-91 victory over the short-handed Orlando Magic on Saturday night in Salt Lake City.

Joe Ingles and Bojan Bogdanović each scored 17 points, while Jordan Clarkson threw in 15 off the bench as the Jazz won their ninth straight overall and 22nd in a row at home.

Utah set an NBA record with 18 three-pointers in the first half, passing the 2018 Golden State Warriors (17). The Jazz finished hitting 26 of 55 from beyond the arc, including multiple makes by Mitchell (6-7), Ingles (5-7), Bogdanović (4-6), Clarkson (3-6), two each by Georges Niang and Ersan Ilyasova, and one apiece from Royce O’Neale, Jarell Brantley, Miye Oni, and Matt Thomas.

Wendell Carter, Jr. led the Magic with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Chuma Okeke added 16 points for a team whose criss-cross-the-country Los Angeles-New Orleans-Utah-Denver road trip ends on Sunday night against the Nuggets.

The Magic were without Michael Carter-Williams (non-COVID illness), Otto Porter, Jr. (left foot pain), Khem Birch (non-COVID illness), and Karim Mane (right hamstring).

Rudy Gobert tallied 11 points, six rebounds and four blocks. The Stifle Tower did that in just 20 minutes in a game in which no starter logged more than 24 minutes.

In addition to the three-point spree, the Jazz compiled 34 assists, 10 steals and a 50-39 rebound edge while shooting 55.4% from the field.

The Magic scored the first points on a Chasson Randle layup, but that lead disappeared 14 seconds later and there was no drama left in who’d come out on top by the end of the first quarter with Utah up 38-20. The Jazz followed that with a 40-20 second quarter for a 78-40 half time lead.

Orlando chipped away at the lead a little bit, never making a serious run, but the Jazz reserves finished strong with a 30-19 fourth quarter. That resulted in Utah taking its largest win of the season margin-wise (46 points) on the road for games in Dallas and Phoenix next week. — Reuters

1...6,8586,8596,860...12,819Page 6,859 of 12,819
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube