Sunday, June 28, 2015

Try before you buy

Arts & Leisure

Posted on June 28, 2015 06:56:00 PM

Try before you buy

Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

PERHAPS it was part of Kiehl’s launch itinerary to switch off the air-conditioner of 12/10 Restaurant, a small, hole-in-the-wall bistro at Guijo St., Makati City, to test how haggard and washed-out anyone could become. Or maybe not -- the Kiehl’s folk kept on apologizing for the power failure.

KIEHL’S was launching its “try before you buy” campaign, which lets clients get sample products first, test them to see if they are effective, then come back later after two weeks.

But then again, on our tables were samples of Kiehl’s top products: Midnight Recovery Concentrate, Ultra Facial Cream, Iris Florentina Root Extract Essence, and Ultra Light Daily UV Defense, among others -- perhaps this was a stress test to see how well the products would work in unfortunate circumstances.

Beauty experts say one needs at least two weeks of religious use to test if a product works well. But when a room is as hot as an Arabian summer, anyone would feel right away the cooling, soothing effects of the products.

“The skin feels like [it is] drinking, doesn’t it?” said Kiehl’s brand manager Sheena Dy. She was referring to the Iris Extract Activating Treatment Essence infused with Iris Florentina root, which is known to retain the skin’s water, making it healthy, rosy, and glowing.

Aha, maybe the power failure WAS because of a conspiracy! Kidding aside, the blackout came as a true test because Kiehl’s was launching its “try before you buy” campaign, which lets clients get sample products first, test them to see if they are effective, then come back later after two weeks. Ms. Dy said that they are confident that the customers would come back. She said significant changes are visible within 28 days.

SKIN TEST FIRST
Established in 1851 in New York City as an old world-style apothecary that uses natural ingredients to make skin potions and lotions, Kiehl’s has successfully grown roots in Asia, including the Philippines, currently with 11 stores in Metro Manila. Clients can ask the counter managers of any branch to have a free skin assessment and product recommendation first before buying a product. Each person is given three samples to use.

The skin test starts with measuring how oily or dry your skin is. JM Dichosa, the counter manager who tested my skin, put two litmus papers on my face, one on the forehead (the oiliest area of a person’s face) and the other on the cheekbone (the driest part of a person’s face).

For basic users with normal to oily skin (like this writer, who only uses facial wash and moisturizer), Mr. Dichosa recommends the Calendula Herbal Extract Toner infused with handpicked Marigold flower petals to calm and soothe irritated skin. To even out the skin tone and say goodbye to eye dark circles, he recommends another best-seller, the Clearly Corrective Dark Spot Solution, a serum that makes skin radiant and luminous.

For a good night sleep, the Midnight Recovery Concentrate is everyone’s best bet. It is, after all, the brand’s top best-seller.

Partyphile, beauty junkie, and writer Regina Belmonte swears by the elixir, which is made from botanical and essential oils that repair tired skin making it plump, glowing, and hydrated in the morning. Ms. Belmonte said she gave bottles to her best friends as Christmas gifts because it is “the ultimate, post-night-out skin miracle.”

Amid the small talk and product trials, the electricity finally turned on.

And by that time, the Iris essence I slather on my hand was dry and already working its magic. Who could have known that the best beauty test was a brownout?

Saturday, June 27, 2015

From nets to carpets and cash

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

From nets to carpets and cash

THREE HOURS away from Tagbilaran Airport in Bohol is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country -- Barangay Guindacpan in Talibon, a community dependent on fishing.

PHOTO

DISCARDED FISHING NETS represent a large proportion of solid waste and pollution in the Danajon Bank

Edrich Baron, 45, a barangay council member, said that fishing wasn’t as good as it was before when the sea creatures were abundant and the community’s population was lower. Mr. Baron has two children in elementary school and juggles jobs as a fisherman and a seaweed harvester. In a month -- depending on the weather -- he earns P3,000 as a seaweed harvester. He barely makes ends meet. Any additional income is most welcome. But as much as Mr. Baron wants to change jobs, the community depends on the bounties of the sea, which, sadly, is not as bountiful as it used to be.

This is where Dr. Nick Hill comes in.

In 2012, Mr. Hill, then a Ph.D. student, was doing fieldwork in Bohol and Cebu, studying the interactions between seaweed farming and fishing and how to improve people’s livelihoods. Today he works on marine conservation as the project manager of Net-Works and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) Marine and Freshwater International department.

“I spent a year here in the Philippines during my Ph.D. so I know from experience that many communities need help… The support and enthusiasm and collaborative efforts of the Philippines [are present],” he told BusinessWorld during a media presentation and expansion of the British Embassy’s Net-Works project on June 10.

DISCARDED NETS
Net-Works addresses the growing environmental problems of discarded fishing nets in some of the world’s poorest coastal communities, starting in the Philippines. It is a collaboration between Interface, Inc., a global green carpet tile manufacturer, and ZSL, a charity devoted to worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. One of the main thrusts of the collaboration is to protect and conserve the environment while providing additional income for the community.

It does this by enlisting poor fishing communities to collect and clean discarded nets which are an ecological hazard. The nets are then sold to Net-Works for P14 a kilogram (kg) -- this provides supplemental income to the fisherfolk. (According to the Net-Works Web site, 10 kg of rice could be bought from the cash earned by selling 25 kg of waste net.) After the nets are sold, they are compressed, packed, and shipped to Cebu, then on to Slovenia, where they are recycled into Nylon yarn to make into beautiful carpets. Interface carpets are sold all over the world. In the Philippines, it has a local dealer in Pasay City called the Barrington Carpets, Inc.

Net-Works also provides financial services through community banks called Community Managed Savings and Credit Association (COMSCA), with Mr. Baron as chairman.

“The savings of COMSCA have grown bigger since 2012. When the savings are enough, the members can make loans to pay school fees or improve their livelihood. It’s a big help because we live a poor life in Guindacpan,” Mr. Baron said in Filipino. He said the fisherfolk have also learned how to save money -- extra money that comes from ZSL’s net recycling project. On average, Mr. Baron said he gets an additional P200 whenever he collects discarded nets. He said the P200 is a huge help to his family.

Net-Works initially started in 2012 at Bohol’s Danajon Bank, one of the only six double barrier reefs in the world (Australia’s Great Barrier reef has only one barrier). About 6,000 years old, it is right in the middle of a global marine biodiversity area. The Danajon Bank is the source of livelihood for 40 communities, including Guindacpan. The average family income in the area is P292.41 ($6.50) per day -- way below the minimum wage.

According to the United Nations Environment Program, lost, abandoned, and discarded fishing gear like nets make up about 10% of the world’s marine waste. The old nets can persist for centuries and can cause “ghost fishing,” with the old net trapping and killing fish, thus lessening the yield for fishermen.

If all of the fishing nets discarded in the Danajon Bank area alone were laid end to end, said Mr. Hill, they would circle the Earth 1.39 times. Since 2012, 66,860 kg of net have been collected by the residents in 14 communities in Danajon Bank and the Bantayan Islands in Cebu. Mr. Hill said that Net-Works aims to collect 38,000 kg every year, which is more than the average weight of an adult humpback whale.

SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIP
Net-Works started when Aquafil -- a partner, sponsor, and the world’s premium Nylon producer -- developed a technology that could recycle old fibers, said Mr. Hill. Aquafil then tapped Interface, a leading carpet manufacturer, which, in turn, talked to ZSL. The partnership aims to redesign the supply chain for nylon carpets in a way that creates a balanced ecology while providing additional livelihood opportunities.

Interface Asia-Pacific President Rob Coombs said that the partnership is an “inclusive business,” which benefits Mother Earth and her poor people in the long run. It’s not like any other supply chain. “This is not a charity, but a much smarter, more successful way to run a business,” he said.

In order to be successful, Mr. Coombs said suppliers should be treated as customers. An inclusive business, he said, affects both the socioeconomics and the environment by making profitable enterprises that create employment opportunity for low-income communities.

He added that Interface has an advocacy called “Mission Zero,” which is a commitment to eliminate dependence on virgin fossil fuel-derived raw materials in its supply chain by 2020. It is currently 60% on target.

LOCAL AND GLOBAL EXPANSIONS
But fishnets are not the only sea waste -- there are water bottles, food sachets, and plastic bags floating around the seas alongside many other items that have no business being there.

“We would love to tackle that,” said Mr. Hill when asked. “But we found out that about 50% of the trash along the beach and in the community we are working with are the nets. But the other forms of wastes? We’re looking for markets and for financial support. You have to be able to pay to take them off the islands to recycle. We haven’t got markets for these products but we’re working on them. We got to find companies who are willing to invest and recycle and buy the materials,” he said.

For now, the focus is on nets. After the success in Bohol and Cebu, Net-Works has announced its expansion into Northern Iloilo and in Lake Ossa region in Cameroon, Central Africa, where nets used for freshwater fishing create a similar environmental challenge.

Milliard Villanueva, the mayor of Concepcion town in Iloilo, expressed his support and enthusiasm for the project during the media presentation event. He said that his coastal community gets 70% of its income through fishing. The collection of discarded nets started a few months ago and he said it complements and strengthens the local government’s solid waste management program.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Health

Posted on 12:06 PM, June 18, 2015

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

There’s always a reason to smile

SCIENCE SAYS it takes 43 muscles to frown and only 17 muscles to smile. To achieve a lovelier smile, some people enhance their features and undergo beauty operations to pull off an Angelina Jolie lip or a Ben Affleck cleft chin -- which is actually a facial deformity like dimples. But cleft chin and dimples, though deformities, are considered “beautiful.” On the other hand, there are “ugly” deformities like cleft lip and cleft palate which not only make people frown but they snatch sufferers’ ability to live a normal life. According to research, a child is born with a cleft lip or palate every three minutes. A cleft is a fissure in the lip or the roof of the mouth or palate.

PHOTO

OPERATION SMILE: one of the young patients; operating on a cleft lip; Dr. Nikki Eileen Valencia at work -- CHARI T. VILLEGAS

Whether it is adding a “beautiful” deformity or correcting an “ugly” one, behind the nip and tuck is a reconstructive plastic surgeon. In a field often dominated by men, Dr. Nikki Eileen Valencia, 44, and mother of three, is on top of the game. She’s currently connected with De La Salle University Medical Center, the Quirino Memorial Medical Center, St. Lukes Medical Center BGC, and the House of Obagi. As if this was not demanding enough, she squeezes humanitarian work into her schedule. She is currently the team leader of Operation Smile Manila in Sta. Ana Hospital, which helps kids with facial deformities. As its team leader, she oversees the international volunteers from countries like Japan, India, and the US. She decides which cases to prioritize and need more attention and who needs more nutrition -- people with clefts are often undernourished because of a difficulty in eating and swallowing food.

BusinessWorld visited Sta. Ana Hospital last Saturday to witness how Operation Smile conducts the “Gift of Smile,” an eight-day surgical mission which is ongoing simultaneously in Manila, Bacolor, Bacolod, Cebu, and Davao from June 12 to 20. The makeshift tent outside the hospital was filled with the cacophony of wailing babies, pacifying parents, and the noise of public utility vehicles in the sweltering summer heat. In the middle of the crowd of 170 patients sat Ms. Valencia. Her expertise is complemented by her soothing and assuring voice, which is perfect for the children having tantrums who lined up for the free checkup. More often than not, the children with cleft lip and palate have low self-esteem and poor social skills.

FULFILLING CAREERMs. Valencia started her volunteer work in 2003 upon the invitation of a colleague. Since then, she has traveled around the country and across the world to help children with deformities. Operation Smile International (OSI) currently works with 60 countries in six continents. She said it’s fulfilling.

“Every child and every mission is different and has a story on its own,” she said, “but I think my latest mission in Dumaguete made a dent on me.” She said a 50-year-old man with a cleft lip made a request that she should not remove the bandage from his lips after the successful operation. “He said he wanted to surprise his siblings who often teased him with his looks.”

This is just one story. Ms. Valencia has done many operations. One of the many touching stories was a unique case where they repaired the deformities of four siblings, all of whom had clefts. One had a unilateral (one) cleft, the other bilateral (two) clefts, another had a cleft palate, and fourth had all of them. It was touching and successful.

Plastic surgeons not only physically heal their patients but also heal them emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. “The kids are always very special. It’s always fulfilling but because you do it often, it doesn’t mean you’re immune to it. I don’t cry, but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel it,” said the doctor. She added that her compassion doesn’t come from her being a mom. “I don’t think it has something to do with being a mother because humanitarian [work] is universal,” she said.

PRIORITY AND NO DISCRIMINATIONSince 1982, OSI has conducted more than 220,000 free surgical procedures for children and young adults born with cleft lip, palate, and other facial deformities. For its ongoing “Gift of Smiles” mission, the organization targets to treat 750 Filipino children with cleft problems. More than 300 volunteers from 17 nations are helping in the ongoing mission. Currently, the Philippine Operation Smile has 200 volunteers -- nurses, dentists, speech therapists, biomed technologists, and surgeons. Operation Smile has been conducting year-round missions in partnership with public and private groups around the country, with a strong network of highly trained local medical volunteers.

“We don’t discriminate but we prioritize,” said country director of development Roberto Manzano when asked who gets to be operated and who does not. According to Ms. Valencia, patients with cleft palate should see experts when they are as young as one year old, before they learn to speak, so the therapy would be easier and faster. Senior citizens, meanwhile, can undergo cleft lip reconstruction.

An operation costs at least P30,000 and only takes 45 minutes to perform depending on the gravity of the case. According to Mr. Manzano, the organization gets by through donors and sponsors like Watsons, Asia United Bank, J&J, Menarini, and United Parcel Service, among others. Private citizens can also make donations via the group Web site, www.operationsmile.org.ph.

That Saturday, when many were spending a day at a shopping mall or out of town, a bunch of volunteers, both local and foreign, spent it making people happier. After all, it’s easy -- it only takes 17 muscles to smile.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Millennials’ stop? The National Museum

By Jasmine Agnes T. Cruz and Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

Millennials’ stop? The National Museum

THE FRIDAY before Independence Day, at past 10 in the morning -- when shopping malls usually open and people already look forward to a Friday night out -- the National Museum was busy accepting guests who came in groups, alone, with a significant other, or with a friend. You could say the demographics were “cool” kids, the millennials, donned in their Nike Air Max, cropped tops, ripped jeans, taking selfies, lots of them, most especially with the star in the museum’s collection, Juan Luna’s Spoliarium.

It’s expected that there would also be an influx of visitors today, a holiday, until this weekend. While most people would spend a day off for an out-of-town getaway or a trip to the mall, a visit to the National Museum is seemingly the easiest, cheapest, and most appropriate itinerary for today’s celebration. It positions itself as relevant and important in (re-)discovering our identity. More than anything, the commemoration of our Independence Day should perhaps resonate most with the millennials, those born in the ’80s and ’90s, who grew up with the Kardashians, One Direction, and mobile applications, and barely knew and appreciate our own culture and history. The BusinessWorld writers and photographer for this story, who are all millennials, went to the museum to revisit our glorious past, ponder the present, and observe what it’s like to spend a day in the National Museum.

WARM RECEPTION
People are under the impression that a trip to the museum is often in the guise of a school excursion. But contrary to the popular belief that the cultural center established in 1901 along Taft Manila only comes alive during school field-trip season, the National Museum recently extended its free admission to the public until the end of June, thanks to the public’s warm reception. It offered free admission last month in celebration of National Heritage Month. “Due to a wonderful response from our museum audience last month and to celebrate both Independence Day and National Hero Jose Rizal’s birth anniversary [on June 19], the National Museum is happy to announce that it is able to make admission free to all its museum facilities throughout June,” went a post on the museum’s Facebook page.

But don’t think the National Museum was bursting at seams because of its one-month free admission alone, because according to our tour guide and protocol officer Jesusito Arella Jr., the museum’s usually jam-packed on weekends. Families and high school students are its regular visitors. Sometimes, foreign tourists like Koreans, Japanese, and Americans also visit the museum. The entrance fee costs P120 for senior citizens, P50 for students, P150 for adults, and it’s free admission for kids. On Sundays, it’s free for everyone. “The National Museum isn’t after the profit. If we would rely on profit for entrance fee alone, it wouldn’t suffice the monthly needs of the museum. Our main thrust is to promote and protect our culture and heritage,” Mr. Arella said. The government supports the National Museum, anyway, but the museum also has private donors and partners like the Museum Foundation of the Philippines.

Originally designed as a public library by American architect Ralph Harrington Doane, the National Museum, according to its web site, was initially occupied by the Senate and the House of the Representatives. The Legislative Building became a casualty in the onslaught of Manila’s liberation from the Japanese in 1945. It would be a key witness to subsequent events in the country’s political history -- including the First Quarter Storm of 1970, the declaration of martial law and the padlocking of Congress two years later, and the revived Senate’s historic vote to end the lease on the US bases in 1991. Five years later, the Senate moved out and the museum had this entire complex to itself. Renovations began in 2003.

Under its current director, Jeremy Barns, the museum has installed additional closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and has undergone other makeovers. According to Mr. Arella, the galleries were repainted and are now arranged chronologically. Gallery I, which showcases religious relics from the 17^th to 19^th centuries, is painted red to highlight and complement the brown statues and figurines. Gallery VIII, which highlights the grim events of the Pacific War, is painted apple green to stress the yellow tones of the paintings and sculptures. Each gallery has CCTV cameras and a guard watching over misbehaved kids who would sneak a feel of a painting or sculpture or take selfless with a camera flash. The National Museum also has a Chemistry and Conservation Laboratory, which maintains and preserves the collections.

Unknown to many, the National Museum has 15 branches around the country. Some of the branches have new or ongoing expansions and restorations. According to Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador, National Museum assistant director who serves as chief curator for the branches, the local culture is important nationally. She said that unlike majority of the small, provincial museums, which usually have mere reproductions on display, the National Museum’s branches have original objects. Nelson Aquino, an architect from the National Museum who is also currently working on several branch museums, added that several of the branches’ developments are targeted to be completed this year. The simultaneous constructions were partly spurred by the country hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but Ms. Labrador also noted that in terms of developing non-Manila based cultural sites and promoting tourism in the provinces, they are playing catch up. “We should have done this a long time ago. We don’t want them to get left behind. The local community deserves much more from their National Museum,” she said.

NATIONAL MEMORY
A trip to the museum shouldn’t be a once in a blue moon affair or when the school curriculum mandates a visit among the students. The National Museum is a bastion and a bank of our national memory. In its two buildings in the main branch lie painting, sculptures, artifacts, and mementos of our glorious past from preserved botanical plants to sculptures to Jose Rizal’s and BenCab’s paintings.

A visit to the National Museum on Independence Day is the most apt #ThrowbackThursday trip down memory lane. According to our tour guide Mr. Arella, an average visit to a gallery takes 45 minutes. When we were surveying the galleries, professor and historian Xiao Chua came in the room with a small group. He said he conducts museum tours with friends and students once a month. Other culture advocates like Ivan Man Dy and John Silva also do tour groups in the museum. While anyone can always read the captions, it’s better to visit the museum with a tour guide to be informed accordingly. The security guards keeping watch in each gallery also know something about each collection.

According to Mr. Arella, there is a vault hidden within the walls of the museum which houses some of the oldest, most battered, most ruined, and most important artifacts of the Philippines, which couldn’t be displayed because they are precious and vulnerable. The National Museum is mandated to preserve our cultural mementos, showcasing them only comes second. What could they be? Book a trip to the National Museum and (re)discover the answer.

Museums Beyond Manila

DID YOU KNOW that the National Museum mother building in Ermita, Manila, has 15 children across the archipelago? From the north, in Batanes, to the south, in Zamboanga, the people’s museum makes its presence felt across regions.

PADRE BURGOS’s ancestral home

VIGAN ATTRACTION
Recently declared as one of the New Seven Wonder Cities of the World, Vigan proves there’s more to it than its cobbled stones and longganisa. A trip to Vigan wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the National Museum. The Vigan branch was originally just the Padre Burgos House, the ancestral house of Jose Burgos (one of the Gomburza martyrs) that was turned into a museum showcasing the lifestyle during Padre Burgos’s time.

The museum wanted to expand its site, hoping to get the nearby library, but after talks with the Vice-Governor of Ilocos, the museum was offered Vigan’s carcel. “We were surprised,” said National Museum assistant director and branch curator Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador. The carcel was still being used by prisoners until 2013 when they were transferred to a new building that could accommodate their number. “But we were also up for the challenge,” she said.

The carcel turned out to be historically significant as it was the birthplace of postwar Philippine president Elpidio Quirino as his father was a jail warden. It was also beside the Burgos House so this gave the museum leeway to create its Ilocos Sur Regional Complex, which will encompass the carcel, the Burgos house, the old garage which will be turned into shops, and the women’s correctional, which will be turned into a station for the staff.

The carcel site had its inaugural exhibit in January, which showcased the return (it was in the Manila branch for restoration) of the 14 paintings by Esteban Villanueva that portrayed the historic Basi Revolt of 1807, when the Ilocanos resisted the Spanish administration’s restrictions on the production of sugarcane wine or basi.

ZAMBOANGA’S NATIONAL
CULTURAL TREASURE
The Fort Pilar Museum in Zamboanga, a complex with four buildings, is a National Cultural Treasure, the highest classification of a cultural property that recognizes the object’s historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value.

The museum opened a new exhibit last year, which featured the Dioramas of the Griffin shipwreck or the boat of the British East India Company. This ship wanted to trade with the datu of Sulu but a storm sunk the ship. The museum also has a lepa or boat by the Bajao tribe. The boat is suspended above so people can go around it and marvel at its entire structure.

The development in Zamboanga was controversial. Ms. Labrador admits that there was tension between the locals and the museum when it restored a part of the Zamboanga complex. One of the four buildings was a ruin that locals grew to love because they used it for wedding photo shoots. So when the museum restored it, the locals didn’t like it.

For Ms. Labrador, she was concerned with the objects that were to be exhibited inside the structure. She said that the site was near the sea, and since the exposed bricks that had to be removed could not make the structure air tight, salt air could seep in and degrade the ethnographic art.

Ms. Labrador said director Jeremy Barns supported the decision. It turns out that the structure became a ruin not because of war or disaster but because of neglect. “We don’t want to enshrine our neglect,” said Ms. Labrador.

FOOTHOLD IN BATANES
Batanes is known for its rolling hills, but did you know that there is also a National Museum being built there? Targeted to open next month, the museum’s site used to be a long-range navigation station that was abandoned in the ’60s. Aside from having exhibits that will encourage visitors to further explore the rest of Batanes, the site will revive the film screenings that were held at the station back in the day. A nearby swimming pool will also be open to the public.

BUTUAN’S BOATS
If you thought that museums are only indoors, think again. Scheduled to open next year is the National Museum’s first-ever archaeological park at Butuan.

The site is currently a swamp-like area with balangay (traditional Butuan boats) still predominantly buried. Archeologists believe there are 12 more boats to be unearthed, and one of them might be a mother ship because the pegs are as large as sardine cans, said Ms. Labrador.

There are many theories as to why the boats were found there, said Ms. Labrador. One is climate change in the 12^th century! -- redirecting the course of the Agusan River, toward where inter-island trade vessels were parked, turning this area into a marsh with buried boats.

Because the site will be open air, it will be a challenge to preserve the boats, and the museum also needs to consider that the area gets flooded from time to time, said Ms. Labrador. Yet even with these challenges, the museum is looking forward to this project. Not only will this be their first archeological park, but it is also already on the tentative United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage List.

Monday, June 8, 2015

PHL gov’t tech initiatives ‘not enough’: IT firm

Technology

Posted on June 08, 2015 08:28:00 PM

PHL gov’t tech initiatives ‘not enough’: IT firm

DESPITE initiatives like Project NOAH, the Philippine government hasn’t fully embraced technology yet despite the Philippines being labeled as Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) and texting capitals of the world, an official of an information technology company said.

At a media briefing announcing new partner IT companies, Computrade Technology Philippines (CTP) Managing Director Teddy Sumulong said the government can take advantage of advancements in technology to address social issues such as poverty and corruption.

“Other countries have fully embraced the technology as an enabler for government initiatives. [They] have used technology in... roads, airports, national I.D.s. It has made their social services more efficient. I think we don’t have enough of those. I think the closest to that is the government’s intention on private-public partnerships, which, at least from our side, is not enough,” he said.

He added that CTP, as a “technology evangelist,” can help the government upgrade and fully embrace technology.

“We feel that the government can do much more but we do understand also that there are other priorities like peace and order and corruption, we’re sensitive to that. But then again, the other countries have used technology and the consequences of that is less corruption. There are reactive and proactive ways to use technology,” he said.

A local subsidiary of the Computrade Technology International (CTI Group), CTP welcomed last June 3 five new IT companies to add to its growing portfolio in line with its optimism with the country’s market growth.

“The new partnerships are a testament of Computrade’s longterm commitment to the Philippines driven by the market’s growing demand for world class IT solutions,” Mr. Sumulong said. He added that the expanding portfolio addresses the needs of the enterprise market.

The top rank partners were launched during the press conference.

These are: Bluecat, a data driven intelligence company whose clients include Coca-Cola, Smart, PLDT, Globe, Sony, Volvo, and Western Union; SAS, a business analytics and business intelligence software provider; Hitachi Data Systems, a storage and compute systems and software provider; MapR Technologies, a big data provider whose customers include Linked, Yahoo, Facebook, iTunes, Google, McAffee, and Amazon.com, among others.

“The market for application delivery services is constantly evolving. We are seeing an exponential proliferation of apps, transformation of architectural infrastructure, and an increasing need to optimize and secure compute resources as enterprises moved to the cloud,” said F5 Networks Country Manager Oscar Visaya.

F5 Networks, an application provider, is also another Computrade partner. F5 Networks provides applications to the country’s top four telecommunications providers and top banks. It also developed the Department of Science and Technology’s Project NOAH application. -- Nickky Faustine P. De Guzman

Friday, June 5, 2015

Portal to History

Focus

Posted on 05:49 PM, June 04, 2015

By Jorge R. Mojarro, Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

The UST Library’s portal into history

MANY are unaware that the Philippines hosts a rich bibliographical heritage. The first xylographic imprints saw the light of day, as it were, in 1593, and the first modern presses started to print books in 1604 within the premises of the University of Santo Tomás (UST). Books printed in the Philippines until the first quarter of the 20th century are highly appreciated rarities now that can raise astronomical prices in auctions. But taking apart their market value, these rare books are landmarks in an important transformation in Philippine culture -- from orally transmitted knowledge to a new kind of knowledge which sought permanence. Ecclesiastical chronicles, old printed reports, and party books were printed in the Philippines in that span of three centuries and these are the main sources to discover how Filipinos lived during that largely unknown era. The Philippine National Library, the Lopez Museum, and Ateneo de Manila -- to cite three institutions -- have in their shelves many of those precious books we now broadly classified as Filipiniana, most of them written in Spanish and Latin.

PHOTO

Restoring a manuscript -- Chari T. Villegas

Then, there is, of course, UST -- which has one of the best collections of old western books in Asia. It can be said this library was built on the collection donated by its founder, the Dominican friar Miguel de Benavides, as well as the Spanish erudite Hernando de los Ríos Coronel and many other friars from Spain who brought with themselves thousands of books from Europe and Nueva España (the territories primarily comprising Mexico and Southwestern United States today).

Celebrating its quadricentennial in 2011, UST held an exhibition of these old books billed Lumina Pandit, Latin for “spreading the light.” The event not only showed extremely precious books such as De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543) by Copernicus, or La Guerra Judaica (1492) by Flavius Josephus, but also featured archival documents, museum artifacts, and even a replica of a 17th century printing press. This way, visitor could form a broad idea of how knowledge and culture were disseminated around the archipelago from Manila.

One visitor in this exhibition was UnionBank CEO Justo A. Ortiz, who thereafter embarked on a project of conservation, digitization, and conservation through the bank’s Corporate Philanthropy and Social Responsibility section headed by Maria Gonzalez-Goolsby, a UST alumnus. Thanks to this sponsorship, the UST library was able to avail itself of advanced technology to repair old rare books that otherwise would have crumbled literally in the passage of time. The repair of books is a slow, tedious process, requiring highly skilled personnel trained in handling such technology as the METIS Easy Digital Scanner Gamma.

A page needs to be checked six times and a 600-page book needs at least three months of restoration work. The process starts with the careful unbinding of the brittle books in the hands of those experts. Each book goes through physical and chemical analysis before it undergoes alkalization, bleaching, stabilization, drying, trimming, rebinding, encasing, and shelving. The books for digitization are also given a physical assessment before they are scanned. Once they pass the quality standard, the images are saved to digital file (jpeg), converted to PDF for watermarking, then uploaded on the UST Miguel de Benavides library website, which is public and free.

According to UST professor and archivist Regalado Trota Jose, since 2011, 51 dilapidated books have undergone restoration, eight catalogs have been produced, and a million pages have been scanned and made available in the UST library web site. The library has 30,000 more volumes up for restoration and digitization.

There are many notable titles since rescued for posterity -- among them, John Damascenus’s Barlaam y Josafat (1692), the first novel published in the archipelago (translated by the Dominican friar Baltasar de Santa Cruz). The only copy of the original Tagalog version is in the British Museum.

The digitization project aims to make this vast collection of books available for everybody, so researchers, students, and curious readers can have access to them from anywhere in the planet. As of today, hundreds of books, manuscripts, and photographs, along with a handful of newspapers, have been digitized. They can be accessed through library.ust.edu.ph/digitallibrary.html -- particularly for the benefit of universities and research centers worldwide. The bibliographical catalogues offer annotated lists and descriptions of the books held in the Miguel de Benavides Library and the UST archives. It’s an ongoing work with six catalogues and two exhibition books published so far.

“I saw the exhibit and it was to me a revelation in many ways. I guess many records were burned in World War II and it’s fortunate that these books survived,” Mr. Ortiz said in an interview during the launching of Lumina Pandit the Continuum on May 26.

“After visiting the UST exhibition in 2011, I came to realize that there is a huge gap between the way I have [learned] history in the school and what I saw,” Mr. Ortiz said, when asked why he endeavored this project. “Filipinos were reading the same books Europeans were reading at that time. In terms of education, we did not stay backwards. The way Filipino children learn history is completely wrong....How can we be proud to be Filipino if we are demonizing more than three centuries of our history? By refusing to know better that period we are refusing ourselves: this is also our history.”

“We have been told several times those 400 years of history are evil,” he continued. “That’s completely not true. There is a lot to be proud of as a Filipino, but we keep hiding our history with moral judgments. We have to know better ourselves. Unfortunately, the disappearance of the Spanish language during the 20th century has made Filipinos lose contact with an important part of their history and identity. Spanish should be back in the schools.”

Mr. Ortiz confessed how surprised he was after seeing the manuscripts in Baybayin, in particular, a contract of sale. “I was so interested with the Baybayin, not so much of the script itself, but the fact that it was a contract of sale of property by women. What does it say? It says that we had contract law, property rights, women owning properties, and a language of sufficient richness to do commerce and conversations. That’s interesting,” he said.

For Mr. Ortiz, the exhibit made him realize there were not a few things he needed to unlearn. The exhibit also emphasized, besides the Spanish heritage, the rich pre-Hispanic culture of the archipelago that became the Philippines. Then followed the assimilation as well as the collision of these cultures, as the country’s complex colonial experience went underway. “I’m not saying...that everything is great and dandy but you cannot erase 400 years of history just because you’ve been fed negative aspects. There are a lot of positive aspects,” he said.

“We cannot prosper as a people if we do not know well our identity, if we cannot identify ourselves as a part of a community. We are what we are. I completely disagree with the notion that we are a damaged culture,” he said, referring to James M. Fallows’s oft-cited 1987 article in The Atlantic which generated much buzz and controversy at the time and thereafter. “We are what we are,” he said. “We are an adapting, open culture. We embrace new things and we transform it in our way. This is Filipino too. We need to be part of a healthy community to grow. We cannot copy others all the time. Even in terms of governance, it should be adapted to our own culture.”

He may be proud of taking part in a restoration project of this scale, but Mr. Ortiz also plays down his role: “As a businessman, I am just a part of the community. We cannot expect the government to do everything. Every member of the society must contribute in order to improve the country: the businessmen, the government, and every single person. That’s the only way we can improve and prosper.”

Yet Mr. Ortiz is convinced that UnionBank’s participation in the Lumina Pandit project complements not only the preservation efforts of UST but also the larger cause of nation-building. Father Angel A. Aparicio, prefect of the Miguel de Benavides Library, relates how he was presented this cultural partnership with UnionBank. He cited a project with a budget of P400,000, then Mr. Ortiz said, “That’s peanuts. I want something big.” That’s how this ambitious project came to light. As of now, P30 million have been spent, with more catalogues and reissues of old valuable books soon to come. A new memorandum of agreement is expected to be signed this year to help provide continuity to this cultural enterprise.

Sought for comment, Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, UST Rector General, said in an interview: “We find ways and means to preserve [the books]. They are immortal and yet ephemeral. Immortal because they affect us, they make us better individuals. On the other hand, the ephemeral character of the books is that they age, wear, and tear by man-made and natural disasters. We don’t want this to happen. [What we want is for] knowledge in books to be passed from one person to another, but also from generation to the next. The cycle continues and never ends.”

Eskaya Escape

Travel & Tourism

Posted on 05:45 PM, June 04, 2015

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

Eskaya escape

When considering one last summer hurrah -- or perhaps a hasty June wedding -- keep Bohol in mind. There is an awful lot to do in the province, which is rich in both history and natural beauty.

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www.eskayaresort.com

Tourism in the province has slowed since the 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the province in 2013 and severely damaged many of its tourist attractions. But things are looking up with a new international airport set to be finished in 2017. And Bohol -- and nearby Panglao Island -- are ready to welcome the influx of tourists who will pass through its doors.

The scars of the earthquake which shook so many of the province’s famed churches into rubble are still there. But while the centuries-old churches await restoration under expert hands, the ruins have themselves become tourist attractions.

While shaken, nature is still there to be visited. The Chocolate Hills stand in all their brown glory, the forest is still home to the intriguing tarsiers, and the earthquake did nothing to the area’s many underwater treasures.

Water lovers can opt to go on island hopping in Panglao. The islands around Panglao are close to each other and a three-hour trip is enough to cover everything before the sun peaks at noon. Hotels can arrange an itinerary for travelers.

Wake up before the sun rises and sail across the Bohol Sea to see the dolphins. Snorkel in the Balicasag Island’s clear waters for a peek at the colorful underwater world. A makeshift eatery on the island sells bread to feed the fish which swarm around one’s legs. For photo shoots, take a 30-minute ride from Balicasag to the Virgin Island -- a pristine islet and powdery sand bar surrounded by clear, cerulean waters.

When weary from all their adventures, visitors will find that Panglao is also home to some of the best resorts one can hope for.

IF IT IS QUIET TIME one craves -- alone or with a lover -- Bohol has Eskaya resort.

A beautiful beach and resort spa nestled in Panglao Island, Eskaya was named after Bohol’s cultural minority, a hidden gem that guests keep coming back to.

Eskaya managing director (and son of the owner) Richard Lim, Jr. said that Europeans, East Asians -- especially Koreans and Japanese -- and Filipinos love visiting and revisiting the resort. Some have even expressed the desire to own a villa, saying that they love this piece of heaven on earth.

Eskaya is known for its luxury, exclusivity, and seclusion. It made the 2015 Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club yearbook which compiles the best and the most exclusive places in the world coveted by the upper crust. It is a favorite getaway of the rich and famous -- including business executives, and showbiz personalities like Liz Uy, Kris Aquino, Iza Calzado -- and is especially popular with newlyweds and lovers.

“We are an eco-friendly resort known for its luxurious service. This is what we want to [project] as a brand. With this, we hope we are helping Bohol and Philippine tourism,” said Mr. Lim. “When people think of Eskaya, we want them to associate it with authentic Filipino hospitality. We want to showcase what Filipinos are about,” he said, noting that the staff are Boholanos.

Designed by renowned Filipino architect Francisco Mañosa, Eskaya showcases Filipino aesthetics and takes inspiration from the traditional nipa hut and its high ceilings. The resort currently has 15 balais (villas), and is adding nine more villas which will be ready by the end of the year. The villas feature furniture and ornaments made from indigenous materials like bamboo, cogon, and rattan. Each villa has its own private pool, outdoor shower, whirlpool tub, Wi-Fi connection, and TV set. While completely private, do not be surprised by casual “visitors” thanks to the villa’s open configuration. The management warns the guests about one visitor in particular with a note on the table saying, “You might see Tokay Gecko (tuko) in your room but infrequently. We ask you not to panic. Please simply ignore it and it will go away.”

The 16-hectare resort has a mini library, an infinity pool, a swim-up bar, and facilities for water sports, scuba diving, volleyball, and badminton. For a total rest and relaxation, the Handuraw Spa offers traditional Filipino treatments. Eskaya is currently building a yoga room and gym which should open before the year ends.

After the earthquake struck in 2013, the resort faced its lowest occupancy rate since it opened in 2009, said Mr. Lim. But things are going back to normal.

“We have to take care of the service, that’s the best, universal selling point,” said General Manager Ruben Alcoriza. Besides the resort’s expansion plans, the management is looking toward extending the brand in other tourist spots, especially targeting Tagaytay and Palawan, while still maintaining its brand as an eco-friendly resort.

Monday, June 1, 2015

What it takes to make in fashion

One day you’re in, the next you’re out

What it takes to make in fashion

Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

ETC’s Project Runway Philippines ups the ante for its fourth season -- which premieres on June 14 -- as it creates “tougher and badder challenges” in the hopes of finding the next Pinoy designer who can make it from local to global fashion ramp.

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OUTFITS created by Project Runway season 4 contestants go down the runway at the launch of the new season