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In landmark case, Japan court rules  ban on same-sex marriage is  unconstitutional

TOKYO — A Japanese court ruled on Wednesday that not allowing same-sex couples to marry is “unconstitutional,” setting a precedent in the only G7 (Group of 7) nation not to fully recognize same-sex partnership.

The ruling by a district court, the first in Japan on the legality of same-sex marriages, is a major symbolic victory in a country where the constitution still defines marriage as being based on “the mutual consent of both sexes.”

While a new law will be needed before same-sex marriages can actually take place — which could take some time in socially conservative Japan — LGBT activists celebrated the ruling and said it had the potential to change their lives.

“I’m really happy. Until the ruling was announced, we didn’t know this was what we’d get and I’m just overjoyed,” said 44-year old Gon Matsunaka, director of activist group Marriage for All Japan and representative at Pride House Tokyo.

“Its value is absolutely measureless.”

While Japanese law is relatively liberal by Asian standards, social attitudes have keep the LGBT community largely invisible in the world’s third largest economy.

Under the current rules, same-sex couples are not allowed to marry, can’t inherit their partner’s assets — such as the house they may have shared — and also have no parental rights over their partners’ children.

Though partnership certificates issued by individual municipalities help same-sex couples to rent a place together and have hospital visitation rights, they still don’t give them the same full legal rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples.

The Sapporo District Court threw out the demand for damages by the six plaintiffs — two couples of men and one of women — who had asked that the Japanese government pay 1 million yen ($9,168.42) each in acknowledgment of the pain they suffered by not being able to legally marry.

But the “unconstitutional” ruling was the victory the plaintiffs, their lawyers and activists had been hoping for as a key step forward and one that sets an important precedent.

Similar cases are currently being heard in four other courts around Japan and this ruling may indirectly influence the outcome of those by changing public opinion, Mr. Matsunaka added.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
While homosexual sex has been legal in Japan since 1880, social stigma means many have yet to come out even to their families.

Some in the business world say Japanese rules not allowing same-sex marriage hurts the country’s competitive advantage, by making it difficult for companies, especially foreign companies, to attract and keep highly-skilled labor in an increasingly international economy.

A number of companies have taken their own steps to work around the situation, including both international companies and Japanese firms such as Panasonic. But there are limits.

“For things that are part of the national system, such as pensions, there’s nothing they can do,” said Masa Yanagisawa, head of Prime Services at Goldman Sachs Japan and a board member of Marriage for All Japan.

“All the other advanced countries have this, so Japan will lose out competitively. Then there’s the fact that people can’t be who they are. It becomes quite business critical.” — Reuters

France finds coronavirus variant that evades gold-standard tests

A NEW COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) variant is spreading in the French region of Brittany, where several patients developed tell-tale symptoms but tested negative for the virus.

Early analysis doesn’t suggest the mutated pathogen is more contagious or causes more severe disease than other versions, France’s health ministry said in a statement late Monday. Experiments are underway to determine the variant’s response to vaccination and antibodies from prior COVID infection, the ministry said.

A handful of patients whose infection was confirmed with samples from blood or deep in the respiratory system had tested negative at first with gold-standard tests, called PCR. Health authorities have increased surveillance amid concern globally about other variants that can thwart vaccines, spread quickly or foment worse symptoms.

The mutation was confirmed by sequencing in eight patients within a cluster of 79 at the hospital in Lannion, in northwestern Brittany, according to the statement. — Bloomberg

COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant women could protect babies, Israeli researchers say

JERUSALEM — Pregnant women vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could pass along protection to their babies, according to a new study in Israel.

According to the research conducted in February, antibodies were detected in all 20 women administered both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine during their third trimester of pregnancy and in their newborns, through placental transfer.

“Our findings highlight that vaccination of pregnant women may provide maternal and neonatal protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the study said.

The findings by researchers from Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Medical Center were posted this month on medRxiv—an online distribution service for unpublished research manuscripts that have not been peer-reviewed—and reported by Israeli media on Tuesday.

The authors noted the small size of the study and said further research was necessary to gauge the effect of vaccination at different stages of pregnancy, and the safety and efficacy of the different vaccines now available.

One of the researchers, Dana Wolf, was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying the group will now start looking at how long the antibodies triggered by the vaccinations will last in the babies.

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said last month they had started a 4,000-volunteer international study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women.

The trial will also assess whether vaccinated pregnant women transfer protective antibodies to their babies.

A separate US study posted last week and also awaiting peer review, found that the antibodies induced in pregnant women from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, such as the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Inc shots, were transferred to the babies via the placenta or breast milk. — Reuters

Australian regulator says AstraZeneca vaccine rollout to continue

SYDNEY — Australia’s pharmaceutical regulator on Wednesday said the rollout of the AstraZeneca coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine would continue despite many European nations pausing vaccination to investigate serious side effects reported in some recipients.

John Skerritt, the head of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, said he held talks with more than a dozen European countries overnight and current evidence suggested there were no reasons to halt the immunization drive.

“We did a preliminary look at the evidence last night and while we are working very closely on this, we don’t have any signals that it will stop in Australia,” Mr. Skerritt told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television.

Germany, France, Italy, and several other European countries suspended use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine pending the outcome of investigations into unusual cases of a rare cerebral thrombosis in people who had received it.

Europe’s medicines watchdog on Tuesday said the benefits of the vaccine continued to outweigh the risks.

Australia began inoculating people with the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 7 and has secured nearly 54 million doses for its population of 25 million. Inoculation with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine started in February.

The country’s most populous state of New South Wales on Wednesday reported one new locally acquired COVID-19 case in a returned overseas traveler in hotel quarantine. A security guard at the same hotel contracted the virus earlier this week, ending the state’s run of zero cases for nearly two months.

Australia has reported zero or low single-digit daily cases for several weeks. It has reported just over 29,100 cases and 909 deaths since the pandemic began. — Reuters

Munching maggots help Singapore startup secure lucrative biomaterial

SINGAPORE — In a quiet, mainly residential district of Singapore, trays of writhing black soldier fly larvae munch their way through hundreds of kilograms of food waste a day.

The protein-rich maggots can be sold for pet food or fertilizer, but at Insectta—a startup that says it is Singapore’s first urban insect farm—they are bred to extract biomaterials that can be used in pharmaceuticals and electronics.

“What these black soldier flies enable us to do is transform this food waste, which is a negative-value product, into a positive-value product,” said Chua Kai-Ning, Insectta’s co-founder and chief marketing officer.

Black soldier flies are renowned for their ability to consume any kind of food waste and their speed and efficiency at transforming that waste into body mass, Ms. Chua said. The hundreds of millions of larvae at the farm eat four times their body weight in food waste every day.

Working in conjunction with Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Insectta’s technology uses a proprietary and environmentally friendly process to extract lucrative substances such as chitosan, melanin, and probiotics from the larvae, it said.

The substances, which are worth a few hundred dollars per gram, are sold to other companies. Melanin conducts electricity and can be used in semiconductors, supercapacitors, or batteries, while chitosan has anti-inflammatory properties and is useful in the manufacturing of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

“Traditionally melanin has never been extracted, other than from squid ink,” said Insectta co-founder and chief technology officer, Phua Jun Wei, adding that the production of chitosan usually requires large amounts of corrosive and environmentally damaging solvents.

With the global market valued at $7 billion and expected to grow sharply, Insectta said it was seeking to expand the industrial applications for its high-grade chitosan to wound healing, filaments for organic 3D-printing, and drug delivery agents. — Lee Ying Shan/Reuters

Japan Inc. offer lowest pay rises in eight years as pandemic bites

TOKYO — Japanese companies are offering the lowest wage increases in eight years as labor talks wrap up on Wednesday, in a sign the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is putting an end to the benefits brought on by former premier Shinzo Abe’s stimulus policies.

Over the past seven years, major firms have offered pay rises of 2% or more in annual “shunto” spring wage negotiations, in a nod to government efforts to eradicate two decades of grinding deflation. Mr. Abe’s policies, dubbed “Abenomics,” targeted wages among other reforms to help reflate the economy.

The country’s chronic labor shortage from a rapidly aging population also prodded companies to offer higher salaries to lure talent.

But the coronavirus pandemic has dealt a blow particularly to service-sector firms such as restaurants, transportation, hotels, leisure, and tourism, forcing them to prioritize job security over annual base pay increases, analysts say.

“Many companies are relying on government subsidies to retain jobs amid slumping profits. If the situation lasts longer, more and more firms could lay off workers,” said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

“In recent years unions had a clear advantage over companies as they faced a labor crunch. The pandemic has changed all that, forcing employers and labor unions to prioritize job security over pay increase.”

The annual wage talks serve as a barometer of corporate strength and household purchasing power, both of which are needed to generate sustainable economic growth and achieve the central bank’s 2% inflation target.

Many companies and labor unions have lowered or foregone base pay hikes—a key factor for determining the strength of wage gains or lack of it for full-time employees—which come on top of seniority-based pay rises.

Toyota Motor Corp., once seen a bellwether in wage talks, offered salary hikes of 9,200 yen ($84.36) a month, up from the previous year’s offer of 8,600 yen, but did not say whether base pay rose or not. Nissan Motor Co. offered wage hikes worth 7,000 yen, unchanged from last year.

Fujitsu Ltd. and other major electrical machinery makers agreed with unions to keep base pay hikes largely unchanged from the prior year’s 1,000 yen a month, domestic media reported.

In contrast, labor unions of industries hit hard by the pandemic, such as airlines, have shelved demands for base pay hikes. This has resulted in shunto results varying among industries, between those affected and unaffected by the pandemic.

“As corporate profits deteriorate and uncertainty remains on the outlook, management will likely be cautious” about responding to union demands for higher pay, said Koya Miyamae, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities.

Some firms are shifting away from across-the-board wage hikes towards a more varied approach on remuneration. More of them are adopting merit-based wages, rather than seniority-oriented pay, to lure young talent.

The move coincides with structural changes in Japan’s labor market. About 40% of workers consist of part-time staff and contract workers, double the proportion seen in 1990, many of whom do not belong to labor unions. — Tetsushi Kajimoto/Reuters

Blacklisted Chinese firms eye lawsuits after Xiaomi win against Trump ban

Image via Reuters

Chinese companies targeted by a sweeping investment ban imposed by former President Donald J. Trump are considering suing the US government after a federal judge on Friday suspended a similar blacklisting for Beijing-based smartphone maker Xiaomi.

Lawyers familiar with the matter said some of the banned Chinese companies are in talks with law firms including Steptoe & Johnson and Hogan Lovells, emboldened by US District Judge Rudolph Contreras’ preliminary order halting Xiaomi’s inclusion on a US list of alleged Communist Chinese military companies that are subject to an investment ban.

The Trump administration’s move to blacklist Xiaomi Corp., which knocked $10 billion off its market share and sent its shares down 9.5%in January, would have forced investors to completely divest their stakes in the company.

“Companies are reaching out to lawyers to challenge the listings and the grounds for the listings,” said Wendy Wysong, managing partner of the Hong Kong office of Steptoe & Johnson, a worldwide law firm headquartered in Washington. Ms. Wysong and a person familiar with Hogan Lovells, another global law firm, declined to name the companies involved in discussions.

Mr. Contreras flagged the US government’s “deeply flawed” process for including the company in the investment ban, based on just two key criteria: its development of 5G technology and artificial intelligence, which the Defense Department alleges are “essential to modern military operations,” and an award given to Xiaomi founder and Chief Executive Lei Jun from an organization said to help the Chinese government eliminate barriers between commercial and military sectors.

The judge noted that 5G and AI technologies were fast becoming standard in consumer electronics, and that over 500 entrepreneurs had received the same award as Mr. Lei since 2004, including the leaders of an infant formula company.

“The facts that led to Xiaomi’s designation are almost laughable, and I think it absolutely is going to lead to additional companies seeking relief,” said Washington lawyer Brian Egan, a former legal adviser in both the White House and State Department who also works at Steptoe.

GOVERNMENT UNDECIDED ON PATH FORWARD
In a joint filing on Tuesday, the government said it had not decided on the “appropriate path forward” in the Xiaomi case in light of the judge’s decision.

A spokeswoman for the US Department of Justice, which is defending the case, declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense referred questions to the White House, which has not responded.

Xiaomi and 43 other companies were added in the waning months of the Trump administration to the blacklist, which was mandated by a 1999 law requiring the Defense Department to publish a compilation of companies “owned or controlled” by the Chinese military.

Seeking to cement a tough line on China and box his Democratic successor, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., into hardline policies, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that was later expanded to bar all US investors from holding securities in the named companies beginning on Nov. 11, 2021.

Other companies listed include video surveillance giant Hikvision, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.

SMIC, Hikvision, and CNOOC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Luokung Technology Corp., a mapping technology company on the list, also sued the U.S. government earlier this month, and is expected to seek preliminary relief similar to that awarded to Xiaomi. —  Karen Freifeld and Alexandra Alper/Reuters

Urban gardening flourishes, ensures food security in Las Piñas

Deputy Speaker and Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar today said urban gardening is a viable means to promote a sustainable livelihood and an essential source of healthy food for the city’s dwellers.
“We continue to empower our citizens through urban farming as we are actively promoting this as an alternative and additional source of livelihood especially for those affected by the pandemic. Not only do they have extra income but they also help ensure food security as they have an immediate solution to possible food shortages due to crisis,” Villar said.
The lady lawmaker recently spoke about the importance of urban farming in an online forum during the celebration of International Women’s Day. She said she salutes Filipino women for leading their way toward becoming agrichampions and helping promote food security.
According to Villar, produce from urban gardens make their way to local communities.
“Hindi lang natin sila tinuturuang maging self-sufficient kundi pinapaalalahanan din natin ang importansya ng recycling, composting at paggamit ng kitchen wastes bilang organic fertilizers sa kanilang mga tanim,” Villar added.
Urban gardening projects were established in Las Piñas in 2013 as part of the annual food festival showcasing the works of barangays, homeowners associations and schools in terms of farming and planting skills, landscaping, and design. The project has also evolved into income generation and source of fresh, safe, affordable and nutritious food.
During the pandemic, Villar distributed seeds and organic fertilizers to help Las Piñas residents establish their own backyard farms.
As one of the authors of House Bill No. 8385 or the proposed Integrated Urban Agriculture Act, Villar is advocating for urban farming to help families produce their own food.
Under the proposal, idle or abandoned lands, buildings, and open spaces will be converted into urban gardens. It has been approved on the third and final reading by the House last month.

Putin likely directed 2020 US election meddling, US intelligence finds

WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin likely directed efforts to try to swing the 2020 US presidential election to Donald J. Trump, according to an American intelligence report released on Tuesday that sources said would likely trigger US sanctions on Moscow.

The 15-page report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, added heft to longstanding allegations that some of Mr. Trump’s top lieutenants were playing into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims made against then-candidate Joseph R. Biden, Jr., by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election. It also added new findings that Mr. Putin either oversaw or at least approved of the election meddling to benefit Mr. Trump.

Washington is expected to impose sanctions on Moscow as soon as next week because of the allegations, three sources said on condition of anonymity.

The findings about Mr. Putin’s role are likely to receive particular attention given the report’s conclusions that Russia-backed figures such as Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach enlisted unnamed US political figures in their campaign to smear Mr. Biden and his son Hunter.

The report named Mr. Derkach, who met Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani in 2019, as someone whose movements were tracked, if not directed, by Mr. Putin.

“Putin had purview over the activities of Andriy Derkach,” the report said. “Other senior officials also participated in Russia’s election influence efforts—including senior national security and intelligence officials who we assess would not act without receiving at least Putin’s tacit approval.”

Mr. Biden, a Democrat, defeated Mr. Trump, a Republican, and became president in January.

US intelligence agencies and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously concluded that Russia also interfered in the 2016 US election to boost Mr. Trump’s candidacy with a campaign of propaganda aimed at harming his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Mueller found extensive contacts between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia. Mr. Trump while president also faced questions about ties by his associates with Russia and Russia-linked figures in Ukraine. The US House of Representatives impeached Mr. Trump in 2019—the first of two times—on charges arising from his request that Ukraine investigate the Bidens.

The US intelligence report also found other foreign attempts to sway American voters in 2020 including a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” by Iran intended to undercut Mr. Trump. As president, Mr. Trump pulled the United States out of a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran and imposed fresh sanctions.

CHINA COUNTER-NARRATIVE
The report also punctured a counter-narrative pushed by Mr. Trump’s allies that China was interfering on Mr. Biden’s behalf, concluding that Beijing “did not deploy interference efforts.”

“China sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught,” the report said.

US officials said they also saw efforts by Cuba, Venezuela, and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to influence the election, although “in general, we assess that they were smaller in scale than those conducted by Russia and Iran.”

The Russian, Chinese, and Cuban Embassies in Washington did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The Iranian mission to the United Nations and the Venezuelan Ministry of Information also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran routinely deny allegations of cyberespionage and election interference.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether sanctions would be imposed on Russia as early as next week, which was first reported by CNN.

Asked about CNN’s report, a US official said Mr. Biden had “been clear” Washington would respond to destabilizing Russian actions and noted US steps to respond to Russia’s alleged use of a chemical weapon against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

“There will be more soon,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

Two sources told Reuters the sanctions could address the cyber hack blamed on Russia that used US company SolarWinds Corp. to penetrate US government networks as well as reports Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Moscow has denied involvement in the hack and brushed off the bounties allegations.

The intelligence report assessed with high confidence that Russian leaders “preferred that former President Trump win re-election despite perceiving some of his administration’s policies as anti-Russia.”

A key role was played by another man with Russian intelligence ties, Konstantin Kilimnik, according to the report. It said Messrs. Kilimnik and Derkach met and gave materials to Trump-linked people to push for formal investigations, and Mr. Derkach released four audio recordings seeking to suggest Mr. Biden tried to protect his son Hunter from a corruption probe in Ukraine. Mr. Giuliani was among those promoting such claims.

Mr. Kilimnik was an associate of Paul Manafort, who served as Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman. Trump pardoned Manafort last year for a criminal conviction stemming from Mueller’s investigation.

Russian agents also tried to hack subsidiaries of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, “likely in an attempt to gather information related to President Biden’s family,” it said. Hunter Biden had served on Burisma’s board. — Christopher Bing, Joseph Menn, and Raphael Satter/Reuters

Biden administration looking for ‘deeds not words’ from China

WASHINGTON — The United States believes it will go into talks with China this week with an “increasingly strong hand” and will lay out deep concerns about Chinese behavior on a wide range of issues, including human rights, senior US officials said on Tuesday.

Briefing journalists ahead of the talks scheduled for Thursday in Alaska, the officials said Washington would want to see “deeds, not words” from Beijing if it wants to improve ties.

The talks in Anchorage will be the Biden administration’s first face-to-face meetings with senior officials from China, a country it has identified as its most formidable challenge.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan will meet China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and State Councilor Wang Yi fresh from visits to stalwart allies Japan and South Korea aimed at emphasizing the US commitment to the Indo-Pacific in the face of Beijing’s rise.

“We are coming in with what we feel like is an increasingly strong hand,” one US official told reporters.

“Beijing has been talking about its desire to change the tone of the relationship. And of course, we’re going to be looking at deeds, not words, on that front,” a second official said.

The US side would make clear its “deep concerns” about China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, as well as its economic coercion of US allies and partners and aggressive moves towards Taiwan, the first official said.

Washington was not expecting specific negotiated deliverables from the meeting, but would lay down specific areas where it believes Beijing needs to change its course, the official said.

The second official said Beijing had a “pretty poor track record of keeping its promises” and Washington had realistic expectations about the possibilities for change.

At the same time, it did not want China “to be operating under illusions about our tough-minded approach to their very problematic behavior,” the official said.

“We’re looking to have a nice, robust, and very frank conversation with a power that is going to be a big competitor of ours,” he said.

The first official said China’s actions, including its “malicious cyber activity,” fell short of acceptable behavior and Washington would ask China to abide by international rules.

The official stressed that the Biden administration was unified in its approach on China and would not let Beijing pit different parts of the US government against each other—an apparent reference to differences within the previous Trump administration about how to deal with Beijing. — Reuters

TPB Philippines spearheads Tourism and Technology Forum (TTF)

The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines, the marketing and promotions arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT), kicked off the first hybrid Tourism & Technology Forum (TTF) on Wednesday at Okada, Manila with the theme “Accelerating Digital Technologies for Sustainable and SMARTourism”.

The two-day hybrid event aims to provide a learning platform for industry stakeholders to take advantage of recent developments and innovations in technology through a series of informative sessions and open discussions from distinguished guests and speakers.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat and TPB COO Maria Anthonette Velasco-Allones led the hybrid opening ceremony attended by more than 900 registered participants, most of whom are attending virtually with limited participants on site, and from various tourism industry sectors. Also gracing the event were Tourism Congress Philippines President, Mr. Jojo Clemente, and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) CEO, Mr. Mario Hardy, both of whom gave solidarity messages.

“One of the Department of Tourism’s strategic objectives is the pivot to SMARTourism. We want to strengthen digital platforms, ensure data-driven planning, and expand other tools for promotions and marketing,” said Secretary Puyat during her keynote message.

“Smart tourism is defined according to technological capabilities of a particular destination, attraction or the tourists themselves. Just like any other destination, the ultimate aim of smart tourism is to improve the efficiency of resource management, upgrade the level of our competitiveness, and to enhance sustainability through the use of technological innovations and practices,” she added.

Plenary sessions will feature tech industry giants including former DICT Commissioner and CEO of IdeaCorp., Prof. Emmanuel Lallana, who will discuss “Digital Transformation in PH Tourism”; and Singapore-based Global Chief Public Services Industry Scientist of Huawei Technologies, Mr. Hong-Eng Koh, who will take on “The Imperative for Digital Public Services towards SMARTourism”, to name a few.

De La Salle University Professor Dr. Francisco Magno, Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research and Bournemouth University Professor, DimitriosBuhalis, and Baguio City Tourism Officer Mr. Alec Mapalo, whose VISITA app is one of the first local tourism contact tracing platforms, will also discuss frameworks and trends in a panel entitled “Sustaining Smart Tourism within Smart Cities”.

“Our tourism stakeholders continuously improve their operations to thrive in the competitive market and craft strategies to keep tourism alive amidst the challenging times.  The forum hopes to expand the discourse not only to generate best practices and new ideas in response to the current situation but also to foster good relationships and strengthen collaboration within the sector to plan future projects relative to the promotion of Smart Tourism in the Philippines.

Changes in the travel and technology landscape go beyond improving our processes or the tourist experience; it entails transforming the entire tourism system itself.

“I do hope that the Tourism & Technology Forum will encourage everyone to continue to rethink travel by building a dynamic Philippine tourism; enhancing our destinations’ product offerings, and meeting the demands of our increasingly tech-savvy international and domestic travelers,” Secretary Puyat concluded.

Powering a regenerative and decarbonized future

The global COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced one of the most important lessons from climate change, in that any and all actions of human beings have corresponding consequences on the environment. More so, adverse impacts circle back to threaten and devastate human existence itself.

That is why in recent years, the call for sustainability in all sectors of society has been louder than ever in order to address climate threats. In business, the question posed in particular has been how to redefine value for stakeholders. This has led to the often-repeated mantra of “people, planet and profit,” emphasizing the goal of doing less harm or avoiding harm, to the environment,

However, the pandemic as a public health crisis has seemingly disproved the notion that such measures suffice in ensuring the welfare of future generations. Whereas doing no harm to the environment and making prudent use of scarce resources may be part of the solution, clearly, these may not be enough to ensure the survival of humankind.

Today, the challenge lies in not only minimizing the bad but growing the good. From an enterprise mindset of leaving things as one had found them, the greater mission is to leave things in a better state than before—to grow, nurture and elevate everything that a business touches across all aspects of its operations, to produce more positive outcomes..

This is the spirit of regenerative development that pioneering renewable energy company and geothermal energy producer Energy Development Corporation (EDC) has undertaken as its revitalized mission. Coupled with its relentless pursuit toward a decarbonized environment, it sees these approaches as part of an effective framework to mitigate this century’s single most defining issue of climate change.

Committing to this mission could not have come at a better time than in the wake of recent worldwide catastrophic events and also as the company marks 45 historic years of shaping the energy agenda of the country. What began as a response to cope with the geopolitical oil crisis in the 1970s sparked lifelong advocacy of a cleaner energy mix for the Philippines.

EDC’s regenerative mission touches five key stakeholder groups. With employees comprising the lifeblood of daily operations that deliver power to consumers, elevating them means treating them with “malasakit” or a deep concern for their welfare. This is a core value of the Lopez Group that EDC is part of. At the start of the pandemic and up to this day, “malasakit” has been the touchstone of management directives to work from home, disburse financial assistance, and repurpose benefits to keep team members and their families comfortable and safe.

“Malasakit” extends as well to EDC’s communities of operations, where the health and safety of residents are top priority. More than that, elevating them means building their capacity through livelihood and educational opportunities. The SIKAT scholarship program, for instance, has been providing not only scholarships to underserved youth but career opportunities and long-term professional development. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as perennial natural disasters and climate threats, the resilience of these communities is fortified through partnerships with local government units and assistance to various public healthcare and other needs.

With geothermal energy relying on the natural steam beneath the earth’s surface, the environment is a key impact area that EDC elevates primarily through its flagship BINHI greening program. For more than a decade, BINHI has been increasing forest cover across the country by focusing on native tree species, which enjoy long-term survival and resiliency. The program has successfully identified 96 threatened Philippine native tree species as a priority and continuously elevating them from extinction through propagation.

The ongoing success of BINHI is in no small part due to another stakeholder, which is EDC’s strategic multi-sectoral partners. The company elevates these partnerships through the exchange of knowledge and information dissemination that seeks to enrich the science behind environmental conservation. Among EDC’s most notable partnerships are with the Global Tree Assessment program of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through its secretariat, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), with the University of the Philippines Institute of Biology for EDC’s biodiversity and conservation monitoring program, and with the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) for the protection and propagation of the endangered national bird.

Healthy watersheds through BINHI recharge EDC’s geothermal reservoirs

Last but not the least, all that EDC does is for the ultimate benefit and welfare of its energy consumers. Baseload geothermal or what the company refers to as “Geo 24/7”, as well as wind, solar, and hydropower provide an alternative choice for renewable and eco-friendly power for all Filipinos—increasingly so as modern technologies continue to make them more cost-efficient as well.

Renewable energy elevates the entire nation from the destructive consequences of fossil fuel-based power and its attendant negative impact on the planet. Making a choice for such alternative energy sources is the least that citizens and enterprises can do so that the difficulties of the devastating pandemic may not be in vain. EDC’s unrelenting commitment to a regenerative and decarbonized energy future through collaborative partnerships seeks to illuminate this path for the entire planet to follow. This is our hope. This is our mission.

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