LA Midweek Edition -- January 13 -- 15, 2016

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E DITION January 13-15, 2016

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T h e F i l i p i n o –A m e r i c A n c o m m u n i T y n e w s pA p e r

Volume 26 - No. 4 • 3 Sections - 20 Pages

Also published in: • Orange County/Inland Empire • Northern California • Las Vegas • New York/ New Jersey Also published in: • Orange County/Inland Empire • Northern California • Las Vegas • New York/ New Jersey

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PH top court rules EDCA constitutional Tels: 818.502.0651 • 213.250.9797 • Fax: 818.502.0858 • 213.481.0854

by Agnes

ConstAnte AJPress

CONSTITUTIONAL. In this file photo, Philippines’ Exercise Director BK15 Vice Adm. Alexander Lopez and US’ Assistant Exercise Director BK15 Brig. Gen. Christopher Mahoney unveil bilateral exercises between FIlipino and American forces. On Tuesday, Jan. 12, The Supreme Court upheld the legality of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States.

DATELINE

USA

FroM THE AJPrESS NEWS TEAM AcroSS AMEricA

LAPD: Crime in Los Angeles rose rapidly in 2015 LAST year, for the first time in over a decade, all categories of crime rose across Los Angeles, according to data from the Los Angeles Police Department.

As law enforcement has struggled to take control, violent crime in LA climbed 19.9 percent, and property crime increased 10.3 percent through Dec. 26, compared with the same period last year. The data marked the second year in a row that violent crime rose, but the first time since 2003 that both violent and property crime rose, reported the Los Angeles Times.

The increases follow more than a decade of steep declines in overall crime, particularly in homicides. Police officials said that the recent upswings should be viewed in that larger context.

“We ask people to keep this in perspec-

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Gov. Brown proposes $171-B state budget CALIForNIA Governor Jerry Brown announced a $170.6 billion spending plan for the state, covering funding for schools, climate change programs, and services for the poor, elderly and disabled.

At a Capitol news conference on Wednesday, Jan. 6, Brown, in his fourth term as California governor amid a crippling recession, repeatedly warned of the possibility of another economic downturn, and rejected calls for more robust spending increases. He also criticized ballot measures that seek to extend temporary tax increases which he championed in 2012, faulting them for exempting revenue from Proposition 2, the budget reserve voters approved in 2014, reported The

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THE Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday, Jan. 12, upheld the constitutionality of an executive agreement between the Philippines and the United States that permits increased rotational presence of US military troops in the country.

In a 10-4-1 vote, the top court ruled in favor of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which was signed by the Philippines and US in 2014 but was not implemented due to legal challenges.

The agreement, which has a 10-year lifespan, also allows troops access to Philippine military bases. Furthermore, the US will be allowed to store and pre-position weapons, defense supplies, vessels, and aircraft, among other things.

The decision comes amid the ongoing dispute between the Philippines and China regarding conflicting claims in the

South China Sea. It will also support US efforts to reassert its presence in Asia, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The US has also indicated it opposes China’s claims in the disputed territory, citing the need for freedom of navigation in the area, GMA News reported.

The Court’s ruling is based on Article 18, Section 25 of the Philippine Constitution, “which allows the president to enter in an executive agreement on foreign military bases if it is not an instrument that allows foreign military bases or it aims to implement existing law or treaty holding that EDCA is one such agreement,” Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said, according to GMA News.

Among those in agreement with the decision was the Department of Foreign Affairs, stating the Philippines and US can finalize the full implementation of an agreement that is key in efforts to bolster

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Duterte to lease Philippine islands if elected

by RobeRtzon

RAmiRez

Philstar.com

MANILA — If elected president, Davao City Mayor rodrigo Duterte said he would allow multinational companies to lease some of the country’s islands.

In a recent interview with dzrJ, Duterte said business islands should be established to entice multinational companies to invest here.

“If we can lease our land for military bases, why not lease an island… to create our own version of Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore?

The jobs will come here. Going abroad must be a choice, not a necessity,” he said.

“We have over 7,000 islands. Let’s lease one island or islands to them and let them create their own police force, rules, ports,

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Sen. Grace Poe

“If we can lease our land for military bases, why not lease an island… to create our own version of Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore? The jobs will come here. Going abroad must be a choice, not a necessity,” Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said. Philstar.com file photo

Marcos to Palace: Prove you’re clean

by JeffeRson

AntipoRdA

ManilaTimes.net

MALACAÑANG — if it really has nothing to hide–should welcome the reopening of the Senate inquiry into the January 25, 2015 Mamasapano incident that killed more than 60 persons dead, including 44 Phil-

ippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) commandos, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Sunday, Jan. 10.

“It is unfortunate that instead of awaiting the outcome of the investigation, Malacanang insinuates bad faith in the reopening of the Mamasapano probe,” Marcos,

Abu Sayyaf rebels pledge allegiance to ISIS

THE Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), a notorious radical terror group in Southern Philippines, had “officially” pledged allegiance to the caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The group also named new leaders aligned with the international Islamic extremist group, according to a video released by the ASG. The video, which was up- Members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) hoist black flags and shout after pledging loaded at Archived.org web- allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). site on January 4, showed new name of the ASG which is known for more than 30 armed militants led by Isnilon Hapilon hiking in the having carried out kidnappings, bombing hinterlands of Basilan province while and other criminal activities in Mindanao in chanting the “Dawlah Islamiyah [Islamic the past. The US government offered a $5 State]” after which they recited an Arabic million dollar reward for Hapilon’s head.

In the video, Hapilon was with Abu Harith script of bayah or pledge allegiance.

Hapilon alias Abu Abdullah was named Al-Filibbieni [Filipino], an alleged deputy in the video as the new leader of the “Ha- commander of the al-Ansar Infantry Divirakatul Islamiyah [Islamic Movement]” the u PAGE A3

SC affirms TRO on Poe DQ cases by edu

an independent candidate for Vice President, said in a statement to the media.

The senator was reacting to an earlier comment by President Benigno Aquino 3rd that politics could be behind the reopening of the Mamasapano probe.

1

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Philstar.com file photo

punAy And ChRistinA mendez Philstar.com

MANILA — The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, Jan. 12, affirmed the orders temporarily stopping the disqualification of Sen. Grace Poe from the presidential election this May, which were issued by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno during its holiday recess.

Voting 12-3 in their first session for this year, the SC justices decided to uphold the two temporary restraining orders (Tros)

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A JANUARY 13-15, 2016 • LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (213) 250-9797

From the Front Page

PH top court rules EDCA… PAGE A1 t

NEW AMBASSADORS. President Benigno S. Aquino III and Foreign Affairs Acting Secretary Laura del Rosario pose with residents and non-residents ambassadors to the Philippines who presented their credentials on Tuesday, Jan. 12 in Malacañang. The ambassadors, from include HE Tumur Lkhagvadorj (Mongolia), HE Yahya Ngam (Mauritania), HE Drazen Margeta (Croatia), HE Amanda Louise Gorely (Australia), HE Mohammad Tanhaei (Iran), HE Marcin Kubiak (Poland), HE Askhat Orazbay (Kazakhtan), HE Nasreddine Rimouche (Algeria), and HE Abubacarr Jah (Republic of Gambia).

Malacañang photo by Rolando Mailo

SC affirms TRO on Poe DQ…

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issued by Sereno last Dec. 28, enjoining the Comelec from implementing the disqualification ruling of its two divisions against Poe. The TROs, effective immediately and until rescinded, specifically stopped the poll body from implementing the rulings of its two divisions canceling Poe’s certificate of candidacy (COC) for the presidency due to misrepresentation on her citizenship and residency eligibilities.

The orders effectively allowed Poe to keep her slot in the ballots to be printed by the Comelec in February.

The Chief Justice has the power to issue TROs on urgent cases while the high court is in recess, but rules require that the orders be confirmed by the full court when session resumes.

SC spokesman Theodore Te told a press conference that the magistrates also confirmed the setting of oral arguments on Poe’s petitions on Jan. 19 at 2 p.m.

The Comelec and four petitioners in the disqualification cases against Poe - former senator Francisco Tatad, De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras, former University of the East law dean Amado Valdez and former Government Service

Insurance System counsel Estrella Elamparo - have filed their respective answers before the SC and sought the dismissal of Poe’s petitions.

The high court, however, rejected the plea of the senator for consolidation of her petitions against the Comelec rulings to that of Rizalito David, which assailed an earlier decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) that declared her a natural-born Filipino.

The SC decided to hear David’s petition separately in oral arguments on another date to be announced by the court.

Poe welcomed the decision of the SC to uphold the issuance of a TRO against the Comelec’s disqualification order against her.

Poe was in a provincial sortie with her running mate Sen. Francis Escudero when she received the good news.

The SC decision bolstered her belief that she is a qualified candidate for the May poll, Poe said.

Escudero also thanked the SC magistrates for affirming the TRO. “This confirms that Sen. Grace Poe remains a candidate for president and whose name stays on the official ballot, notwithstanding the orchestrated efforts to disqualify her,” he said.

Escudero remains hopeful that

the SC will also uphold the laws and long established jurisprudence when it decides on the other petitions in connection with Poe’s candidacy.

Justices won’t inhibit The three SC justices who voted to unseat Poe in the SET over a citizenship issue have decided not to inhibit from SC cases involving her disqualification from the presidential polls.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion rejected the plea of Poe for the justices to inhibit in her petitions assailing the Comelec rulings disqualifying her from the May 2016 polls.

Te confirmed this in a press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 12, saying Carpio, De Castro and Brion participated in the high court’s deliberations on Poe’s cases on her Comelec disqualification in their first full court session for the year.

He said they have voted against the issuance of the TROs by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno stopping the implementation of the Comelec rulings.

The three justices are then expected to participate in oral arguments on Jan. 19.

The three justices inhibited earlier in the separate petition filed

national security and disaster relief capabilities, according to AP. “This decision bodes well for deepening our defense cooperation with a key ally,” and will “redound to improving our capability to perform our mandate to protect our people and secure the state,” said armed forces chief Gen. Hernando Iriberri, AP reported.

Washington welcomed the court’s ruling. In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila said the United States welcomes the high court’s decision and that it is a mutually beneficial pact and would strengthen the two countries’ bilateral relationship.

“We look forward to working closely with our Philippine partners on the implementation of this agreement,” the statement said.

The Court emphasized that the EDCA is an executive agreement, not a treaty requiring Senate concurrence. It added that the president has the option to select a form of agreement that is not a treaty, as long as it is not the principal agreement that first allowed foreign military bases, troops or facilities entry or presence in the Philippines.

“EDCA is not constitutionally infirm as an executive agreement,” Te said during a news conference following the ruling.

Opponents Despite praise from advocates,

the pact has faced opposition from groups and individuals who argue it is more beneficial to the United States than the Philippines. Other opponents, including Justice for Filipino Americans (JFAV), a nationwide alliance of Filipino World War II veterans organizations and community advocates, say the benefits of the court’s decision to uphold the agreement are “superficial” because it has “disturbed” the balance of powers between the branches of government.

“They are using the constitution against the constitution,” Arturo Garcia, national coordinator of JFAV, told the Asian Journal.

“They are circumventing the process because [EDCA] should be a treaty, not an executive agreement.... The US is not accountable to the Philippines because it’s a mere agreement - it’s not a treaty.”

Garcia added that the decision “reeks” of opportunism.

“We don’t have respect for the Supreme Court because they are subservient to foreign interests,” he said.

Left-wing activists in the Philippines said they would consider filing an appeal.

Opponents also said increasing US military presence would not address the Philippines’ concerns about China in the disputed territory.

“This is another sad day for Philippine sovereignty,” said

Duterte to lease Philippine islands if…

PAGE A1 t

roads, power plants, steel mills, petro chemical plants, their own offices and telecoms and wireless Internet connections, subject to their own rules,” he added.

He said multinational companies are looking for another base in Asia.

Duterte said it is the country’s “chance to catch the wave” as the cost of labor in China is increasing. He said China is also creating enemies with its territorial expansion activities, citing Japan’s decision to bring their investments out of China.

“Multinationals have gone to Vietnam. War-torn until recently, Vietnam has overtaken us and is u PAGE A3 launching two integrated steel

mills in 2016 and 2017 with an output of four million tons,” he said.

He said creating business islands patterned after Singapore and Hong Kong would be the best solution to the unemployment rate in the country.

Duterte, however, clarified that the government would still have jurisdiction over the islands to preserve the country’s territorial integrity.

He said these foreign investors should also ensure the hiring of Filipino workers, pay a minimum rent or five percent of their gross output and protect the environment.

He said multinationals should also agree that the ownership of

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left-wing activist Renato Reyes, who was among those who challenged the legality of the defense accord before the high court, according AP. “We maintain that the EDCA is not the solution to the problems of China’s incursions.”

Some, including former senators, filed petitions against the EDCA, but were denied by the Supreme Court.

One petition filed by former senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tañada said that the terms and provisions of the EDCA were “lopsided in favor of the Americans.”

Another petition stated that the agreement would give the United States “carte blanche power to establish and operate de facto military bases anywhere on Philippine soil, minus the cost of paying for one.”

The Philippines has one of the weakest armed forces in Asia, GMA News reported, and has been heavily dependent on US military aid for weapons and training.

Officials on Tuesday declined to provide details regarding how soon the pact will be implemented, according to GMA News. The AP reported that the Philippine military said at least eight local camps have been designated as harboring areas for Americans, including some near the South China Sea and in areas susceptible to natural disasters. n

their factories and infrastructure would revert to the Philippines after 50 years.

“From the 51st year to the 99th year, they will pay rental for those buildings and infrastructure from the Philippines, thereby creating the country’s income,” he said.

Duterte said there is no need for the Philippines to acquire foreign loans since the multinationals would become the financier of the country’s development.

He said that he would invite United Nations officials to witness the agreement on the lease of the islands to ensure the continuity of the project.

Duterte said he would also scrap contractualization and im-

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From the Front Page

LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL • JANUARY 13-15, 2016

A

Abu Sayyaf rebels pledge allegiance…

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sion of the ISIS, and Mohd Najib Husen alias Abu Annas Al Muhajir [Migrant], an alleged division head of the Ansar al-Sharia of the ISIS. In the video, they said the “mujahideen [soldiers of Islam]” had previously done the bayah and they were doing it again “officially” in front of their named leaders.

It was unknown when the footage was created but it was released after the Army’s Western Mindanao Command claimed last month that Husen was killed during operations in Basilan against the ASG bandits.

Husen was with other Malaysian foreigners namely Mahmud Ahmad, Muhammad Joraimee Awang Raimee, Amin Baco and Jeknal Adil, who fled to the COASTAL CLEAN UP. Senator Cynthia Villar leads the Manila Bay clean-up activities organized by Baseco Compound barangay, Kabalikat sa Southern Philippines reportedly Kaunlaran ng Baseco, and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources(BFAR) 4A. The office of Villar, a staunch advocate of environmental to recruit militants and send them protection, have been conducting regular cleanups and urging various sectors to do the same. Joining the cleanup were BFAR Director to “Dar al-Harb [place of war],” Esmeralda Paz Manalang, BFAR Assistant Regional Director Virginia Bartolome and Kabalikat President, People’s Organization Jeorjie referring now to Syria and Iraq, Tenolete.

Senate photo where the ISIS had established its own caliphate state.

It has also succeeded the last month video of the ISIS’s Alhayat Media Center showing Philipgation. death of the SAF men.

PAGE A1 t pines as among countries in In fact, she said, she is already “So, if Malacañang really has Poe has set the reopening of nothing to hide, it should wel- the probe for January 25, the satisfied with the findings of her Southeast Asia they were plancome the reopening of the inves- first anniversary of the mas- committee contained in the 120- ning to expand its “Khilafah [capage draft report that was signed liphate].” tigation. I believe majority of the sacre.

The ASG were now using new Filipino people sincerely want But Senate Majority Leader by 21 senators.

Roxas, DILG chief at the time, styled black flag the same as the answers and would be discerning Alan Peter Cayetano has called enough to recognize any attempt on his colleagues who are run- was with the President in Zam- Khilafah Islamiyah Movement (KIM) were hoisting and other at grandstanding merely to score ning for higher position in this boanga on January 25, 2015. hardline radical jihadists in the As Interior chief, he could have political points,” the chairman of year’s polls, to follow his examthe Senate Committee on Local ple and inhibit themselves from brought information he received world like the Boko Haram in to Aquino’s attention much Africa.

Government said. the inquiry.

Marcos is one of many senaCayetano said while the reopen- earlier so that coordination betors who backed the reopening ing of the probe is necessary, tween the military and police of the Mamasapano inquiry initi- senators who are also candidates could have been hastened, but ated by Senate Minority Leader in the May 2016 elections should he did not.

Aside from Roxas, Defense Sec- PAGE A1 t Juan Ponce Enrile in a privileged stay away from the proceedings retary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Sacramento Bee. speech delivered in October to ensure that the investigation “That, in my judgment, is a 2015. remains impartial and free from Forces chief Gregorio Catapang fatal flaw,” he said to reporters. and PNP Officer-in-Charge LeonEnrile was not able to partici- partisan politics. pate in past Mamasapano hearHe particularly mentioned Poe ardo Espina was also with the “It’s just a matter of balance.”

Brown’s proposal would proings because he was in detention – a presidential candidate – who President.

Marcos said he wants to find vide a boost to public educawhen Sen. Grace Poe’s Senate will be presiding over the probe.

Committee on Public Order and Poe already gave assurances out why almost a year after the tion, increasing school spending Dangerous Drugs conducted the that she will not allow hearings incident, no criminal charges to $10,591 per student ($3,600 probe. to be used for politicking and in court have been filed against more than at the tail end of the those responsible, despite the recession). However, Brown exPoe, after conducting 10 hear- grandstanding. ings, came up with a draft comAs for concerns that she might government’s promise that jus- pressed reservations about a $9 billion bond measure to pay for mittee report signed by 21 sena- use the hearings to put in a bad tice will be served. school and community college “The families of the policemen tors stating that the President light former Interior secretary was ultimately responsible for Manuel Roxas 2nd—also a can- slain in the Mamasapano massa- facilities, suggesting he will seek the outcome of the Mamasapano didate for President—she said cre do not ask for anything from to negotiate an alternative with mission. she has no intention of grilling the government except for jus- the Legislature.

The bond measure, Brown A crucial piece of information Roxas during the hearings and tice,” he added.

Marcos wants former Justice said, “favors wealthy districts learned by her committee during that she will only serve as a modSecretary Leila De Lima to be over poorer ones because it says, its investigation was a decision of erator during the inquiry.

Aquino to allow then-suspended In response to claims that the invited by the Poe committee to ‘Hey, if you’ve got your applicaPhilippine National Police chief reopening of the probe is politi- the hearings in order for her to tion ready, you’ll be first in line,’ Alan Purisima, a close friend of cally motivated, Poe stressed that explain the delay in the filing of and that will favor the more afthe President, to be in charge she was not the one who asked criminal charges against those fluent and the more resourced of the operation that led to the for the reopening of the investi- who participated in the killing. n

Marcos to Palace: Prove you’re…

Likewise in Lanao del Sur province, also in ARMM, reliable sources said local militants of the Ghuraba or strangers was the “intelligence division” of the KIM, a group behind the black flag movement in the country.

Both the Ghuraba and KIM were being headed by certain Humam Abdul Najid, who was tagged in 2013 Cagayan de Oro bombings, and whose groups were operating in Lanao and nearby provinces.

In October 2014, the jihadists Ghuraba had claimed that they had established the “Khilafah” after courting other radical jihadists in the country to vow their allegiance to the Muslims’ caliph al-Baghdadi.

The Ghuraba had harbored foreign militants including an agent of the Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (JTJ), a group believed to be the original name of now infamous international threat group ISIS.

The KIM and Ghuraba militants officially opened its jihad or holy war in February 1, 2013, when they attacked the “White House” in Marawi City manned by military forces. One soldier was killed in the attack, which the group dubbed as “opening war” against America and its ally. The attack was being monitored by the JTJ unidentified agent, the sources said.

In Maguindanao and its nearby provinces, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Ansarul Khilafah had already pledged allegiance to the ISIS “officially” in the previous years.

It was not immediately known whether the BIFF and the Ansarul Khilafah had also their own divisions.

Radical militants in Indonesia and Malaysia including the Southeast Asian terror group Jema’ah Islamiyah had also done the same. (ManilaTimes.net)

SC affirms TRO on Poe…

PAGE A2 t

by David questioning the SET decision, where they participated and voted with the minority.

The assailed Comelec rulings cancelled Poe’s certificate of candidacy due to misrepresentation on her citizenship and residency in the country.

The same issue of whether or not she is a natural-born citizen eligible for election to top national posts was resolved by

the SET last November in deliberations where the three justices participated.

The tribunal, however, did not touch on the residency issue and only ruled on the citizenship issue.

In the SET, the three justices voted in the minority opinion that Poe is not a natural-born citizen unless she proves that either of her biological parents was a Filipino. n

Gov. Brown proposes $171-B state…

LAPD: Crime in Los Angeles rose rapidly…

PAGE A1 t

tive,” said Assistant Chief Michel Moore, who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department’s crimetracking unit. “The city is not on fire, the city is not falling into the ocean.”

Nonetheless, the increases in general crime have sparked concern in neighborhoods across the city, including areas in Southside that have seen more jumps in gang-related homicides, as well as more affluent areas where residents have complained about thefts and car break-ins.

In Venice, thieves have taken packages from doorsteps, pocketed smartphones from pedestrians and attempted to steal cars during the day, said resident George Francisco, co-chairman of the Venice Neighborhood Council’s public safety committee.

“I walked out of my apartment on Main Street and there was a dude just slim-jimming a car in full daylight,” Francisco said of an incident last summer. He called 911, and the suspect was apprehended before stealing the car.

Francisco said he routinely talks to officials at the LAPD’s Pacific Division and believes they are working hard to address the nearly 10 percent property crime increase in Venice Beach. But some residents are fed up.

“There is definitely frustration,” he added. “Once you are a victim of crime you look at things differently. I think people will learn and become aware when they hear more of these things happening.”

In South Los Angeles, troubling increases in violent crime were reported this year. In 2015, the region experienced its deadliest August since 2007, with 15 people killed in the last two weeks of the month.

City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who represents the area, praised police for increasing patrol officers, without creating an oppressive atmosphere for residents.

“There is the knee-jerk reaction of sending in the cavalry to occupy the streets, and I think they resisted that instinct,” HarrisDawson said. “I think their integration in the community makes it much easier for the community to work with the police rather than be concerned about what the police might do.”

Since the expansion of the Metro unit, which works with gang interventions, began in July, citywide violent crime figures dropped 1 percentage point, while the property crime rate did not change.

Police officials said they believe their strategies are overall a success. The Metro unit has taken 236 guns off the streets since July, nearly three times as many as in the first half of the year, Moore said. Felony arrests by Metro officers have also tripled.

But by the end of 2015, violent crime figures all showed increases: Police reported 280 homicides, up 10.2 percent from last year, and 1,097 victims of shootings (a 12.6 percent increase).

Rapes in the city were up 8.6 percent, and robberies rose 12.3 percent. The biggest crime climb,

however, was aggravated assault (27.5 percent).

Some portion of the increase in serious assaults was the result of improvements in how the department classifies those offenses, Moore said. LAPD officials quickly launched reforms, after a 2014 Los Angeles Times investigation found widespread errors in how assaults were classified.

Property offenses also fueled the overall increase, including burglary (4.8 percent), personal theft (6.3 percent), theft from vehicles (15.1 percent) and motor vehicle thefts (16.7 percent).

All 21 LAPD divisions reported crime increases this year, particularly Central Division—which includes parts of downtown, Skid Row and Chinatown—which led the city in both violent and property crime increases. Although the violent crime rate dropped by 15 percentage points since the summer, property crime was up slightly in the second half of the year.

LAPD officials were quick to note that other large US cities have also reported more homicides in the past year, including New York, Chicago, and Houston.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported more modest increases, with violent crime rising 5.5 percent, and property crime up 8.2% through the end of November compared with the same period last year.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti allocated an extra $5.5 million budget for the city’s Gang Reduction & Youth Development program. He

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Duterte to lease Philippine islands if…

PAGE A2 t

pose a 60-day deadline in the processing of business applications nationwide.

Death by hanging Duterte said he would also push for the re-imposition of the death penalty by hanging if he is elected president.

He said he wants to stop crime and corruption three to six months after his election.

“If I become president, I will exercise extra-judicial powers to stop crime and corruption in three to six months,” he added.

“I do not care what others think as long as I am clear with my agenda for the greater good of a greater number of people,” he

said.

Duterte is unfazed by recent surveys, which show him only in fourth place.

“Forget about me, I will not die if I do not become president.

I am in my sunset days, think of me in the last days of the campaign. If you love me, then I will love you,” he said.

Youth offenders Meanwhile, Duterte sought the repeal of Republic Act 9344, or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, saying it creates a new breed of criminals.

Duterte said RA 9344, authored by former senator Francis Pangilinan, allows minors impunity to commit crimes since it requires

law enforcement agencies to turn over juvenile offenders to social welfare agencies for rehabilitation.

The law exempts those aged 15 and below from any criminal liability, while 16- to 18-year-olds are made to undergo an examination by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Only those found to have committed the crime with discernment will be subjected to regular judicial proceedings.

Duterte said curfew for minors should also be made mandatory in order to prevent them from getting into vices, such as drugs and illegal gambling. (With report from Edith Regalado)

districts.”

The budget release serves as a reflection of the governor’s priorities; education, the poor, and the environment.

The governor reintroduced two major proposals for which he failed to secure funding last year: a multibillion-dollar plan to fund road repairs, and a modified expansion of a tax on health plans to help generate funds for Medi-Cal. He also proposed an “essential” additional $2-billion payment into the state’s rainy-day fund, growing the size of the reserve account to almost twothirds of its legally-mandated goal, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Brown, a longtime champion of environmental causes, also proposed using cap-and-trade

revenue – money polluters pay to offset carbon emissions – to fund programs to reduce petroleum use in motor vehicles.

The environmental proposal comes less than a month after Brown returned from international climate talks in Paris, and revisits a legislative defeat on petroleum last year.

As part of a $3.1 billion spending plan for cap-and-trade, Brown proposed $1 billion to reduce emissions in the transportation sector, including funding for mass public transit and incentives for zero-emission vehicles.

In an effort to win Republican votes and the support of health plans, Brown cast the tax plan Thursday, Jan. 7 as “a net gain” for the plans, and promised increased funding for the develop-

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A JANUARY 13-15, 2016 • LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL

Dateline USa

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Filipino, Uber rider killed in Pacifica, Calif. wrong-way mishap DALY CITY, Calif.– A 23-yearol Filipino from Daly City was apparently the wrong-way driver in a Christmas morning collision that killed an Uber passenger and seriously injured the ridesharing service driver.

Joebel Pagarigan was driving at 2:39 a.m. on Dec. 25 in the wrong direction in a Toyota Corolla on northbound Highway 1 in Pacifica, near Paloma Avenue when the crash occurred and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the California High- JOEBEL Pagarigan of Daly City and another way Patrol. person were killed in a Christmas Day collision Twitter photo Pagarigan collided with a Nis- in Pacifica, California.

san Maxima driven by someone working for Uber, who was seriously injured, CHP officials said.

The Toyota had overturned and caught fire. The Nissan had major damage, fire officials said.

The Nissan driver was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, while a passenger in the car, identified by the coroner’s office as 25-year-old Jason Gilbride of Pacifica, was also pronounced dead at the scene.

CHP officials do not yet know whether alcohol or drugs played a factor in the collision, which remains under investigation. n

Trump: Syrian Refugees ‘could be ISIS’ Silent Muslim protester removed from campaign rally

by Allyson

EscobAr

AJPress

FAMILY VISIT. The family of Filipino drug convict Mary Jane Veloso has arrived in Indonesia to visit Veloso in prison and to celebrate her 31st birthday. The Veloso family were all smiles as they posed for photos after arriving in the Indonesian capital Jakarta Monday afternoon. Veloso’s parents Cesar and Celia, her two sons Mark Darren and Mark Daniel, private counsel Atty. Edre Olalia and Migrante Rights and Welfare Program Coordinator Laorence Castillo will visit the Filipina drug convict in prison.

Photo from Migrante International Facebook page

Gov. Brown proposes $171-B state…

PAGE A3 t

mentally disabled if approved.

The new health plan tax would draw $1 billion in federal matching dollars, while generating additional money to help pay for in-home care givers and other programs, Brown said. Any increase, though, would require the votes of at least several Republican lawmakers.

“I know it’s a heavy lift,” Brown said, adding later, “There’s no deal.”

“Unlike last year’s health plan tax proposal – which would have hit the industry with several hundred million dollars in increased costs that likely would have been passed on to millions of Californians – the new proposal would net the industry $90 million,” said Michael Cohen, Director of Finance. “The proposal would offset corporate and gross premium taxes paid by the health plans.”

The budget includes more than $80 million in grants for the state’s network of regional centers, which arrange services for people with autism and other

developmental disabilities, and would increase payments for the blind, elderly and disabled.

“This will be a huge help to 1.3 million people with disabilities and seniors around the state who are struggling to pay the rent and get enough food to eat,” said Frank Tamborello, executive director of Hunger Action LA, noting that grant increases should be even greater to account for cost of living.

Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) called funding for people with developmental disabilities “one of the most critical needs we must address,” and added the health plan tax “needs to be done now.”

“The community has waited long enough,” Atkins said.

The governor’s proposal comes amid ongoing improvement in the state budget since the last recession, leaving Brown and lawmakers with more funds to try and allocate.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office projected in November that the state will end the current fiscal year in June

with $7.9 billion in reserve, at least $3.3 billion more than lawmakers expected last year.

Brown also included billions of dollars in one-time spending in his plan. State parks, which were strapped for cash during the last recession, would receive some of the $500 million in funds set aside for parks, levees and other maintenance work at state public works around California. Schools would also get a one-time increase of $1.2 billion to use however they want.

The budget is the second since California voters approved a new reserve fund that is aimed at protecting sharp swings in revenue and spending. Brown proposed shifting $3.5 billion into the reserve, $2 billion more than required by Proposition 2.

“Everybody thinks when they’re up here, it’s all wonderful. That’s what they thought before the dot-com, and that’s what they thought before the mortgage meltdown,” Brown said, pointing to budget revenue charts. “And so here we are again.” (Allyson Escobar/AJPress)

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump said Syrian refugees are “probably” ISIS during a campaign rally in South Carolina that was quickly disrupted by protesters, including a Muslim woman wearing a traditional head covering.

Refugees from Syria “could be ISIS ... and by the way, it is turning out that they probably are ISIS,” said Trump at a Winthrop University rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina. “There’s so many men, they’re so young, they are very strong. Where are the women? Where are the children?”

During his speech, a woman wearing a traditional hijab stood in silent protest and was swiftly escorted by police, along with a few other anti-Trump hecklers, NBC News reported. Some Trump supporters jeered and

LAPD: Crime…

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also directed the expansion of Domestic Abuse Response Teams, which are groups of civilian workers who accompany police officers on domestic violence calls.

“Despite the increase in crime, the city remains safer than at any time since the 1950s,” said Vicki Curry, a spokeswoman for Garcetti.

“But that’s little comfort to those whose lives have been impacted by crime.” (By Allyson Escobar/AJPress)

booed the woman, who was identified as 56-year-old Rose Hamid.

She was wearing a T-shirt that read “Salam, I come in peace.”

Other protesters wore yellow eight-pointed stars with the words “Muslim” and “Stop Islamophobia” written on them, symbolizing the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust (where the Jews were forced to wear six-pointed stars).

Women in headscarves have protested silently at two previous Trump rallies, but were not removed.

In December, Trump caused an uproar when he called for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the US, including Muslim American citizens, tourists and those trying to enter the country on visas.

Trump described his proposal as “very salient, very important, and probably not politically correct.”

Despite Hamid’s silence, Trump supporters around her began chanting Trump’s name, jeering and pointing at her and Marty Rosenbluth, the man alongside her who stood up as well. Members of the crowd roared as the pair was escorted out of the rally, booing and shouting at them to “get out,” reported CNN. One person shouted, “You have a bomb, you have a bomb,” Hamid said. “The ugliness really came out fast and that’s really scary.”

She also said she did not plan to shout or disrupt the event, but simply wanted to give Trump and his supporters a real idea of how

Muslims are, through the silent protest.

“I figured that most Trump supporters probably never met a Muslim so I figured that I’d give them the opportunity to meet one,” she told CNN before the rally on Jan. 8. “I really don’t plan to say anything. I don’t want to be disrespectful but if he says something that I feel needs answering I might--we’ll just see what strikes me.”

Major Steven Thompson of the Rock Hill Police Department told CNN Hamid was kicked out of the event because the campaign told him beforehand that “anybody who made any kind of disturbance” should be escorted out.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking why Hamid was escorted out of the venue.

“There is hatred against us that is unbelievable,” Trump said, immediately after the disturbance.

“It’s their hatred, it’s not our hatred.”

Within hours, leading Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), condemned Hamid’s removal from the rally, and called on Trump to apologize publicly.

“The image of a Muslim woman being abused and ejected from a political rally sends a chilling message to American Muslims and to all those who value our nation’s traditions of religious diversity and civic participation,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. “Donald Trump

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LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL • JANUARY 13-15, 2016

A

LA sets tourism record of 45.5m visitors in 2015

Regional Connector Project Closures

RECORD-LEVEL TOURISM. LA City officials announce a record-breaking 45.5 million visitors to Los Angeles in 2015. From left: LA Tourism & Convention Board President & CEO Ernest Wooden, Jr., LA Board of Airport Commissioners Vice President Valeria Velasco, Mayor Eric Garcetti, LA World Airports Executive Director Deborah Flint, City Councilmember Mike Blumenfield, and LA Board of Airport Commissioners President Sean Burton.

Photo courtesy of Los Angeles World Airports

“LA is truly a global city, as this year’s numbers demonstrate and confirm,” said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, chair of the Los Angeles City Council’s trade, commerce and technology committee. “We are a destination, not only for our natural beauty, mountains, and beaches, our theme parks and world famous landmarks, but also for those wishing to do business with the third largest metropolitan economy in the world; a global center for content generation, innovation, and more. Last year’s record-setting tourism numbers send a message to the world that LA is open for business, and I know that the world will respond in 2016 and in the years ahead.”

The growth in tourism was propelled by milestone accomplishments in 2015, including the success of the Special Olympics

World Games, the opening of the Broad Museum and the reopening of the Petersen Automotive Museum.

“We want to recognize and congratulate our hospitality community for their passion and dedication which has allowed us to celebrate our fifth consecutive year of record-breaking visitation. It’s these individuals and businesses that make Los Angeles such a dynamic destination that 45.5 million people traveled to experience it in 2015,” said Ernest Wooden Jr., president & CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board. “These figures help propel us to our goal of welcoming 50 million visitors by 2020.”

Los Angeles is matching the growth of its tourism sector with an unprecedented modernization program at LAX, which has become the nation’s busiest des-

Trump: Syrian Refugees ‘could be ISIS’

PAGE A4 t

should issue a public apology to the Muslim woman kicked out of his rally and make a clear statement that American Muslims are welcome as fellow citizens and as participants in the nation’s political process.”

In his rally proposal, which are viewed by many as anti-Muslim, Trump also lashed out at President Barack Obama and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“In Los Angeles, in California, you had the two people, the two wackos that came in,” he said, referencing the radicalized Muslim couple in San Bernardino,

who killed 14 people during a shooting rampage. “How about that? Came in on a what, a marriage visa?”

One of the perpetrators, Syed Rizwan Farook, was born in the US, while his wife, Tashfeen Malik, immigrated through a marriage license.

“And we have a president, we have a president that doesn’t even want to talk about what’s really happening,” he added. “We have a president that wants to kill the second amendment...We have Hillary Clinton who wants to destroy and take your guns away from you, by the way. She wants to take your guns away.”

Despite her chaotic early exit, Hamid was able to speak with the Trump supporters sitting around her in the stands, several of whom held her hand and said “sorry” as she was forced to leave the venue.

“The people around me who I had an opportunity to talk with were very sweet,” she commented, remaining optimistic. “The people I did not make contact with, the people who Trump influenced were really nasty.”

“This demonstrates how when you start dehumanizing the other it can turn people into very hateful, ugly people. It needs to be known.” n

Dateline PhiliPPines

Robredo to gov’t execs: Don’t use duty to further political ambition

by Julliane love

De Jesus

Inquirer.net

NOW that the election period has started, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo says politicians— including herself—should not take advantage of their duties as government officials to gain popularity.

Like her allies in Liberal Party, the vice presidential aspirant is also skeptic about the intention of some senators in their participation in the upcoming probe on the Mamasapano operation that led to the death of more than 60 Filipinos in Maguindanao province.

According to Robredo, presidential aspirant and Sen. Grace Poe and all senators seeking for reelection should keep their hands off politics in the reopening of the investigation into the controversial raid on Jan. 25. “(Mag-inhibit sila) para sana hindi nagagamit sa pulitika ‘yung trabaho. Pero ‘yung pag-iinhibit kasi is a personal decision,” she said during the Pandesal Forum at Kamuning Bakery in Quezon City on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

“Kandidato kami. Dapat mas maging maingat kami na ‘yung

Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo

trabaho namin hindi magagamit sa furtherance ng aming pulitika,” she said.

The reopening of the probe stemmed from the recommendation of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile—a member of the opposition—to discuss “possibly new evidence“ that could explain why 44 Special Action Force commandos were left to die in a cornfield in Barangay Tukanalipao after successfully taking down Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir or “Marwan.”

As chair of the Senate committee on public order, Poe, a rival of LP standard-bearer Mar Roxas,

will lead the Mamasapano probe, which will start on the first anniversary of the tragedy.

“Kasi parating magiging suspicious ‘yung aming ginagawa kung ginagawa ba namin ito dahil sa gusto namin mas lalo mapalawig popularity,” she said.

The Senate’s conclusion in their previous investigation on the single deadliest operation in the history of Philippine National Police found President Benigni Aquino III “ultimately responsible” for the death of his men.

In an earlier interview, Roxas said he was willing to attend the Senate probe if he was invited. n

1st PH-made satellite set to go into space real-time images that will help improve government’s response to natural calamities and the MANILA — It’s official. The monitoring of the country’s agPhilippines is launching its first ricultural, fisheries and forest Filipino-made satellite in space resources, according to Carlos in April this year.

Primo David, executive direcYoung Filipino scientists and tor of the Philippine Council for officials of the Department of Industry, Energy and Emerging Science and Technology (DOST), Technology Research and Deled by Undersecretary for Scien- velopment (PCIEERD). tific and Technological Services While the Philippines had in Rowena Cristina Guevara, are the past two communication satset to turn over on Wednesday ellites in orbit—Agila-1 and Agthe Philippine Scientific Earth ila-2—these were both privately Observation Micro-satellite owned and bought abroad.

(Phil-Microsat) to their counInterestingly, this developterparts at the Japan Aerospace ment in the Philippines’ space Exploration Agency (JAXA) in history comes almost 47 years Tsukuba City. since the country first won the Phil-Microsat, nicknamed Miss Universe crown and man “Diwata,” is the “first Filipino- made its giant leap in space exmade” and co-developed mi- ploration with the landing of the cro-satellite, which will provide Apollo II mission in the moon.

by Jovic

Yee Inquirer.net

More than four decades later, the Philippines has clinched for the third time the Miss Universe crown and is now set to actively join space exploration.

“It seems that it is written in the stars that we’ll win Miss Universe and launch our very own equipment in space [at almost the same time],” David told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

Following the turnover, Japanese experts will then conduct final tests on the micro-satellite’s space-worthiness before sending it over to the US’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration, David has explained.

NASA would then hand the device over to SpaceX, which would launch sometime in April a rocket carrying the micro-sat-

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tination airport, and the secondbusiest overall. The modernization, worth $8.5 billion, includes substantial capital improvements to virtually every terminal at the airport.

“LAX is the first and last impression of Los Angeles that visitors have,” said Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners President Sean Burton. “While the major U.S. airlines at LAX are investing more than $1 billion combined to renovate their terminals, Los Angeles World Airports is spending billions to improve the guest experience by rebuilding and modernizing its terminals, making changes to the airport’s dining and retail offerings to reflect LA’s culture, cuisine and lifestyle; upgrading technology and planning for future transportation enhancements that will significantly improve access to the airport.”

Another $5 billion will be invested in a rail system to ease mobility into and out of the airport, as well as between terminals; and a brand new consolidated rental car facility.

“Now is a pivotal time for LAX and for LA,” said Los Angeles World Airports Executive Director Deborah Flint. “We are changing and transforming the airport, bringing LAX into the modern era for the modern traveler by providing a worldclass experience, in world-class facilities. Visitors to Los Angeles and residents have a lot to look forward to.” (AJPress)

If you work or live in Downtown LA, please note that the Gold Line Little Tokyo/Arts District Station is closed for track relocation. A free bus shuttle takes passengers between Union Station, Little Tokyo/Arts District and Pico/Aliso Stations. Plan ahead to avoid delays.

For more information on closures in the Downtown LA area, visit metro.net/regionalconnector.

Register Your TAP Card Want to unlock the full potential of your TAP card?

Register it! You’ll enjoy great benefits such as being able to reload your card online, manage multiple cards with ease and have your balance protected if your card is lost or stolen. Learn more and sign up for free at taptogo.net.

Watch Metro Motion’s Latest Show Metro’s Emmy-winning news and feature show has returned with a look at Metro’s new Division 13 maintenance facility, an overview of new Silver Line Express service, plus much more. Check your local cable listings to see when “Metro Motion” airs in your area, or view the episode online at metro.net/metromotion.

Pledge to Go Metro this Year Still working on your New Year’s resolution? Why not get your company to buy you a Metro Pass? Metro offers a program that gives incentives to your employer and a relaxing commute to you. Call 213.922.2811 to get started.

metro.net @metrolosangeles losangelesmetro

16-1213ps_gen-v-16-008 ©2016 lacmta

LOS ANGELES tourism surged to its fifth consecutive year of record-breaking growth in 2015, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Monday, Jan. 11.

The Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board reported that a total of 45.5 million tourists visited the city last year, up by 1.3 million from the previous year.

The numbers are in line with Garcetti’s goal of 50 million annual visitors by 2020.

Momentum in the local tourism sector is building amid a period of booming infrastructural growth across Los Angeles. As Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) forges ahead with its $8.5billion modernization program, the downtown skyline continues an unprecedented transformation, and new transportation projects make moving through the city and region faster and easier than ever before.

“Los Angeles is a place where the world comes together for cultural experiences and celebrated attractions that cannot be found anywhere else,” said Garcetti.

“Our city can keep setting records in the tourism sector, which is vital to the third largest metropolitan economy in the world. And we are well-positioned for future growth — investing billions at our airport, in mass transit, and other assets that are making LA more exciting and accessible than ever.”

The increase in tourism from China to LA has been particularly pronounced, with more than 779,000 Chinese tourists visiting the City last year — more than 13 percent higher than in 2014. Visitorship from South Korea also spiked, with an increase of 11 percent over the previous year.

Overall, Los Angeles welcomed 6.7 million international visitors last year.

A JANUARY 13-15, 2016 • LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (213) 250-9797

OpiniOn

Features

Cost cutting

WHILE every life is a cause for celebration, taking care of the next generation by keeping tabs on the population is a daunting challenge. Stabilizing the population — to not outstrip economic growth and the country’s resources — is a more challenging task.

Environmental stress, biodiversity loss, climate change and pressure on natural resources signal that the Philippines is already overpopulated. But the numbers are still exploding.

The Philippine population hit 102.4 million by the end of 2015. This year, it is expected to increase to 104 million as 1.5 million babies are expected to be born. Based on the data gathered by the Commission on Population (PopCom), in five to 10 years, the country will probably have the “biggest number of women of reproductive age that we will ever see, at 25 to 30 million.”

With these alarming numbers, a hard look on the country’s population control policies is the best option. The government needs to vigorously implement its population policy, which are responsible parenthood and the advocacy for natural family planning.

Health Secretary Janette Garin stressed the need to provide young and poor couples with family planning services to allow them to make better choices and to give their children a better future.

She took note of the Philippines’ very young population, wherein women as young as 14 years old are getting pregnant. However, this option was made unavailable after the Senate struck off the P1 billion allotted for family planning commodities for

2016 from the national budget.

Garin said the Department of Health (DOH) originally earmarked P1 billion out of its proposed budget of P124 billion from the P3 trillion national budget for this year to cover the free provision of condoms, IUDs, birth control pills particularly for breastfeeding mothers, in health centers.

Following the budget cut, Garin said that the department will have to exhaust its resources to provide for 6.7 percent of the country’s population with “unmet” family planning services. She added that to be able to sustain its health program for the rest of the year, the DOH would now need to be aggressive in tapping its international partners like the United Nations Population Fund and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Sen. Loren Legarda justified the budget cut saying that the P1 billion will be used for increases in other agencies, “including for DND air assets upgrading, which is timely and equally important given the West Philippine Sea issue.” A part of the P1 billion, according to Legarda, will be redirected to the increase of budget for state colleges and universities.

Senators Pia Cayetano, author of the Reproductive Health law in the Senate, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago both were shocked by the budget cut.

Editorial

ManilaTimes.net photo

“This abandonment is immoral in a country where some 200 out of 100,000 women who give birth die. The enemies of reproductive health never sleep. We, too, must not rest in fighting for women’s health,” Santiago said.

Perhaps it is best to remind the people who allot budget appropriations that a ballooning population interlinks a myriad of issues and its control simply equates a matter of survival of the human race. While the causes of hunger, scarcity, disease,

poverty, war do not rest on the number of this planet’s inhabitants alone, controlling the population renders a chance for a better future.

It may be too late for this year, but in 2017, in preparing the country’s national budget, may the government also appropriate prudence and discover why managing population is an essential formula to achieve poverty alleviation, disease eradication, and even safeguarding the economy and national security. (AJPress)

Last State of the Union address: Has Obama fulfilled his campaign promises?

THE historic two-term tenure of the first AfricanAmerican president is almost over.

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, President Barack Obama delivered his last State of the Union (SOTU) address.

Deemed as his valedictory speech, the president reported to the American people what his administration has accomplished and set the road map to where he hopes the next leader of the most powerful country of the world would stir the nation moving forward.

He also declared, with a sense urgency, what he would still want to complete and deliver in the last 12 months of his presidency, appealing to Congress to work with him for the good of the American people they all have sworn to serve beyond party lines and personal interests.

In his SOTU, Obama also set the agenda on what the American people should be looking for, not only in his successor, but in other elected public officials, to make sure they continue to build on

the gains his administration has worked on and fought so hard The Fil-Am for.

As of press time, ahead of Perspective Tuesday’s SOTU, Pres. Obama sent out messages to his supporters, inviting them to watch his last report to the nation.

Gel SantoS-reloS Here is an excerpt: “When we took office, we were losing nearly 750,000 jobs a month. But over the last 69 months, our businesses have created more than 13.7 million new jobs -- the longest streak of private-sector job growth on record -- and the unemployment rate is down to 5 percent.

For the first time, more than 90 percent of Americans are now covered, and more than 17 million people have gained health insurance under Obamacare. Insurance companies can’t discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, or charge women more just for being

Is corruption the key issue in the 2016 election?

A RECENT public opinion poll conducted for Manila Stan- Street dard by research specialist Junie Laylo indicates that “corruption” Talk is considered “the most important problem of the country,” rating 31%, or more than twice the next highest ranking issue, “poverty” (15%). These are followed GreG B. MacaBenta by “drug addiction/illegal drugs” (14%), “unemployment/lack of jobs” (10%), “high prices of goods/services” (9%), “criminality” (7%), “low salary/income” (4%) and “traffic” (1%).

To the political strategists with an eye on the 2016 presidential elections, corruption, therefore, would seem to be the logical thrust of their campaigns: skewer the competition with allegations of corruption and consign them to the bottom of the survey rankings. This practically calls for a recycling of “Kung walang korap, walang mahirap!” (If no one is corrupt, no one will be poor), the 2010 slogan that supposedly catapulted Benigno S. Aquino III to the presidency.

But then, why has Vice-President Jejomar Binay surged back to the top of the recent poll rankings, in spite of the longest, most vicious character assassination campaign ever mounted against a presidential aspirant? And why is Binay’s principal “assassin,” Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, with pretensions of incorruptibility and integrity, a tailender in the vice-presidential race?

Even fellow Senate sub-committee tormentor, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, is behind Senator Bongbong Marcos in the vice-presidential rankings, despite Marcos’ carrying the burden of his father’s legacy of corruption?

And why is Liberal Party presidential standard bearer, Mar Roxas, having so much difficulty catching up with the lead pack in spite of being the prime proponent of Aquino’s anti-corruption platform, Tuwid na Daan (Straight Path)?

The clue may be in the adage: Research should be used as a lamp to illuminate, rather than as a lamp post to lean on.

Ten different analysts can interpret the same research data in ten different ways. Research findings must be analyzed and interpreted in relation to cultural and attitudinal nuances, as well as the

current socio-political environment.

This brings to mind the consumer research we conducted for Nescafé Instant Coffee, back in the early 80’s, to serve as basis for a new ad campaign. After a Focus Group Discussion (FGD), a member of the marketing team excitedly informed me that he had identified the reason why people drank coffee.

“They drink coffee to warm their stomachs,” he said eagerly. ”Let’s take it from there.”

“So what do you want us to say in our ad?” I asked, trying to keep a straight face. “’Drink Nescafé because it warms your stomach better!’?”

It took a deeper understanding of the Filipino psyche to pinpoint the consumer benefit that would give Nescafé a competitive edge. While most of the respondents declared that the reason they bought Blend 45 was because “it tasted good enough,” they conceded, after probing, that if they won in the Sweepstakes, they would buy Nescafé “because it tasted better.” Probed some more, they said it was because Nescafé was “imported.”

It was colonial mentality at play! In fact, Nescafé was already being made locally.

We took the cue and I wrote the campaign, “Nescafé – Enjoyed in the Great Cities of the World,” It became the longest-running and most successful ad campaign for the brand.

Like the Nescafé research findings, “corruption” as an issue may not give a candidate a competitive edge – at least, not for the 2016 elections. The reason is because, just as all brands of coffee can warm the stomach, all politicians are perceived as corrupt, and that appears to be truer now than in 2010.

Whether fairly or unfairly, these days, the term “honest politician” is an oxymoron. The pork barrel scam, the unconstitutional Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), the alleged bribing of Senators to ensure the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona, the unexplained withholding of millions in Yolanda disaster relief funds, the suspected use of Bottom Up Budgeting (BUB) and Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)

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women.

And America is now leading by example on climate change. The Clean Power Plan will cut carbon pollution from power plants by 32 percent by 2030. We’ve cut our oil imports by more than half, while doubling clean energy production from wind, solar, and geothermal -- creating steady sources of good jobs that can’t be outsourced.

Even as our economy is growing, America has cut our carbon pollution overall more than any other advanced nation on Earth. And we just helped secure the most ambitious global climate agreement in history.

These are your accomplishments, and that’s what I want to celebrate with you on January 12.

As long as you’re out there organizing, on whatever issue you’re organizing around, America has a bright future ahead.”

The stagecraft of his SOTU told much of his narrative. Each of his special guests were real people who stood for what his administration fought for, and what would have to be done - economic rebound after the recession; health care and education for all; immigration reform; keeping America safe and secure; stricter gun control measures; addressing the challenges of climate change; hope, equal opportunities and help the middle class and ordinary Americans regardless of economic status, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual preference, religious beliefs, immigration status, etc.

WHAT do you think? In the past seven years, has Obama delivered what his campaign promised? *** Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel. Santos.Relos

ALONG WITH MAMASAPANO, SENATE SHOULD ALSO INVESTIGATE THIS

Roxas squarely responsible for MRT-3 mess 2012.

IT is President Benigno S. Aquino’s criminal negligence Commentary Given the short period of time that resulted in 44 police comleft before said contract would mandos massacred; that should expire, the DOTC resorted to a convince us never, never again to simplified bidding process in have such kind of yellow leaderline with the Procurement Law ship, especially that of a hacien(Republic Act No. 9184) begindero scion. ning in the first week of October It is the criminal mismanage- riGoBerto tiGlao 2012.” ment by his candidate, Manuel Abaya lying Roxas 2nd, of the main mass transport system of Abaya was lying so the blame would be on MRTC, Metro Manila that has made the MRT-3 a daily hell that it suddenly stopped Sumitomo’s contract. for hundreds of thousands of commuters. That It was the DOTC’s MRT-3 General Manager Al should be enough to convince every Filipino never Vitangcol who told the MRTC in early September ever again to vote into any position of power any- that it would no longer agree to extend Sumitobody from the yellow cult, especially a haciendero mo’s contract. scion.

The DOTC officially informed the MRTC on OcConsider the facts and tell me if I am exaggerat- tober 4 that Sumitomo’s contract would not be exing. tended. It then scheduled a bidding in two weeks, For 10 years after MRT3 started operations, the a “simplified” one, which involved simply the subJapanese firm Sumitomo Corp. maintained the sys- mission of bids, and for government to negotiate tem under a contract with Metro Rail Transit Corp. with what it felt was the best bidder. It justified (MRTC), the MRT-3 builder. The train was so ef- this by claiming it was an emergency move taken ficient that Sumitomo would boast about MRT-3 in order to prevent, to quote its letter, “a stoppage in its sales pitch for bidding for similar projects of MRT-3’s operations, which would have severearound the world. ly disrupted the daily transportation needs of its Sumitomo’s contract expired July 2010, and was close to 600,000 riders.” renewed on a six-month basis only, but for four That was the start of MRT-3’s deterioration. times by the MRTC, subject to DOTC’s approval.

Note that all this time, when a proper bidding MRTC chairman Robert Sobrepeña told this writer could have been undertaken and bidders given all that Sumitomo was in a bind – it required a lon- the time to prepare for it – two years after Sumger time frame, so it would estimate how much of itomo’s contract expired July 2010 – the head of maintenance inventory it needed to keep, which the DOTC, the Cabinet member in charge of this actually cost half of its more than $1 million month- crucial mass transit system, was Roxas. ly contract. Sobrepeña and Sumitomo continually Totally unexpected however – although conwrote letters to the DOTC to request a bidding for spiracy theorists allege another scenario – was the a longer-term contract. “We got absolutely no re- death of DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo Aug. 18, ply,” he said. with Aquino announcing Aug. 31, 2012 that Roxas In the letter of DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio would replace him.

Abaya published in response to columnist Jarius However, Roxas assumed his DILG post only Bondoc’s well-researched exposes, the secretary Oct. 19, the day the Sumitomo contract expired, wrote: and an obscure PH Trams-CB&T, was designated “On 4 October 2012, the MRTC wrote the DOTC, winner of the simplified bidding. informing the latter that it would no longer proPH Trams-CB&T was a brand new company only cure a maintenance service contractor once Sum- two months old, and had a subscribed capitalizaitomo’s contract would expire (sic) on 19 October u PAGE A7

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LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL • JANUARY 13-15, 2016

A

Over P2-B RH funds still available – Palace by aurea

CaliCa Philstar.com

HEALTH-CONSCIOUS. FILIPINOS were found to be health-conscious at the end of 2015 with three out of five individuals citing staying healthy an urgent personal concern, according to a new Pulse Asia survey. The survey also showed most respondents’ national concerns were issues related to the economy.

Inquirer.net file photo by Jovic Yee

1st PH-made satellite set to go into…

PAGE A5 t

ellite to the International Space Station (ISS), David said.

The PCIEERD chief said that upon the entry of the 50-kilo “balikbayan-box-sized” microsatellite into the ISS, an astronaut would conduct a final check on the device before releasing it into orbit for at least 18 months.

Diwata would be the first of two micro-satellites to be launched into space until next year. It is part of a three-year P840.82-million program, which would also see the construction of a ground receiving station in Subic, Zambales, called the Philippine Earth Data Resources Observation (PEDRO).

PEDRO is tasked to receive and store data sent by Diwata, which is expected to take a daily average of 3,600 high-resolution images using its four cameras.

Joel Marciano Jr., Phil-Microsat program head, earlier said that the Diwata has been equipped with a high-precision telescope that could “determine the extent of damage from disasters,” like an onslaught of a storm, as well as “monitor cultural and natural heritage sites,” like the Mayon Volcano in Albay province.

He added that Diwata has been fitted with a space-borne multispectral imager with liquid crystal tunable filter that could “monitor changes in vegetation and ocean productivity,” a widefield camera that could observe “cloud patterns and weather disturbance,” and a middle field camera, “an engineering payload that would be used to assist in determining the location of each image captured by the other optics.”

Science Secretary Mario Montejo said on Tuesday that because of Diwata’s capabilities, the government could have better disaster response mechanisms because of the availability of real-time data.

He added that the cost of this project was just a “small investment,” noting that in 2013 when Supertyphoon “Yolanda” devastated Eastern Visayas, the government had to pay around P56 million for a single satellite image showing areas affected by the typhoon.

When asked why the government took so long to invest in a space program, David said that it could be because previous administrations “didn’t see its

practical purpose at that point in time.”

“We relied on the existing technologies [available abroad].

It’s only in this administration that we simply said, ‘OK, if I need this kind of data then I’d acquire it myself,’” David said.

He noted that while government could indeed buy particular services from other countries, “inherent advantages” to developing Philippine technologies prompted the creation of PhilMicrosat.

“In terms of capability-building, the value of whatever you produce will actually be much more [than you expect]. And since the know-how is there, sustainability then does not become a problem,” he said.

Once Diwata becomes operational, not only will it aid government in disaster events and monitoring resources, it will also capture the country’s natural wonders, which will be uploaded every day by the DOST on its website, according to David.

This endeavor, Montejo said, has shown that “sky’s the limit” for our Filipino scientists and innovators, and that “we can turn our dreams into reality.” n

funds to buy votes, the selective prosecution by the Ombudsman of political opponents while sparing allies, the shady dealings in the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), to mention a few, have generated as much criticism as the allegations of overpricing, bribery and bidrigging in Makati.

From another perspective, the attitude of people towards corruption appears to be in direct proportion to their perception of a politician’s competence and beneficence. The better he performs in office and the more services and benefits he provides his constituents, the more tolerable – even acceptable - his alleged corruption becomes. Think Robin Hood.

You may ask, why then did the anti-corruption platform work in the presidential campaign of Noynoy Aquino?

While that admittedly helped, it may not have been the most important factor. The death of President Cory Aquino may have had a much greater emotional impact on the citizenry. And her squeaky clean image was also a stark contrast to that of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Towards the end of her term, Arroyo had become the principal poster girl for corruption, its virtual personification, due to her long, 9-year tenure (next only to Marcos’ two decades-plus).

That negative image was so toxic that it severely affected the presidential hopes of Senator Manny Villar. Being branded as “Villarroyo” – by infer-

Roxas squarely responsible for MRT-3…

PAGE A6 t

tion of only P2.5 million, or equivalent to only a 120th part of the P300 million cost of the MRT-3 maintenance contract it was given.

One of its six investors was known in Pangasinan province as a Liberal Party financial supporter – Wilson de Vera. He had been accused by the Czech ambassador of attempting in July 2012 to extort $30 million from the Czech company Inekon in exchange for winning the contract to supply MRT-3 its train cars.

On Dec. 15, the Ombudsman filed charges against Vitangcol, who signed the contract for MRT-3 and all of PH Trams incorporators for corruption involving the contract’s award. That’s another case why I question the Ombudsman’s integrity: Why weren’t Vitangcol’s bosses, first Roxas, and then Abaya, charged?

Why did Roxas drag his feet for a month-and-ahalf to leave his DOTC post Oct. 19, even if Aquino had appointed him to the DILG post Aug. 31? Is this a huge coincidence that Oct. 19 was after the PH Trams closed the contract with MRT-3?

Am I too biased to suspect that Roxas was a segurista, that he wanted to make sure that his twoyear plot to get a favored contractor in place before he stepped down pushed through? Was it even a better scenario for him that his apparently witless lackey, Abaya, and Vitangcol signed the contract papers and, therefore, would be accountable if the scheme wax exposed?

What these morons did not realize, though, was that Sumitomo’s maintenance contract was not as profitable as it seemed. Half of the contract price was the cost of inventory for the MRT-3’s parts, which were expensive because many of them were precision-engineered and of the highestquality steel.

What the idiots didn’t know What these idiots did not know was the typical Japanese business model that is so different from the Americans. Japanese companies have a longerterm strategy, so that they agree to the smallest margins, as long as their reputation is built up for more and bigger projects. Its MRT-3 maintenance contract barely made a profit, but Sumitomo used the rail’s efficiency as a sample of its expertise in

light rail building.

Indeed, Sumitomo has built up a reputation as one of the best light-rail builders in the world, with its latest projects being the $500 million contract signed in 2012 to build Vietnam’s first urban rail system and a $398 million supply contract for Chicago Metra’ commuter rail cars.

Trying to scrimp on cost as much as it could from its contract, PH Trams didn’t build up a stock of spare parts that it had to cannibalize its other cars for the required parts. The result: the number of cars running at present stands at 14 at the most, down sharply from 70 when Sumitomo was running MRT-3.

Without replacements, the trains’ steel wheels have also become squeezed into ovals so that now these have to run slower or they would be derailed.

With maintenance becoming so messed up, MRT3 trains have been stopping at mid-stations, are so few, or run so slowly.

But Abaya may not really be the person he may think he is, since he appears so “what-me-worry?” confident even if it has become obvious to many that he messed up MRT-3, that it is an accident waiting to happen.

On Christmas eve, Abaya awarded a new P4 billion contract to a Korean-Filipino consortium consisting of Busan Transportation Corp., Edison Development & Construction, Tramat Mercantile Inc., TMCI Corp Inc., and Castan Corp. As what happened during Roxas’ time, Abaya claimed there was an emergency situation so that the “winner” of the bid was determined through negotiations.

Roxas, when he was about to assume the six-year term of the top DOTC post, awarded only six-month contracts for the MRT-3. Abaya – who is also the Liberal Party president, by the way – having only less than six months to go before he leaves the DOTC as its secretary, signs a contract for three years, i.e., until 2018, long after he is gone. I think Abaya turns out to be more clever than Roxas.

If the Senate is reinvestigating the Mamasapano massacre, they might as well investigate the MRT3 mess, which could, if uncorrected, lead to accidents killing more than those murdered by the Moro insurgents in Mamasapano. (tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.com(

indicates that up to 50 percent of pregnancies in the Philippines are unintended, largely due to lack of availability of modern contraceptive services,” it said.

The human rights watchdog said the funding cut “threatens to roll back hard-fought gains in maternal health and reductions in infant mortality over the past decade made possible by government-subsidized or free contraceptive services.”

It noted that the United Nations Population Fund has criticized the decision of Congress to cut funding for the RH Law as a threat to “the basic human right to health as well as the right to reproductive choices.”

“It also risks exacerbating the country’s HIV crisis,” it said.

The group pointed out that the Philippines is one of only a handful of countries at risk of a fullblown AIDS epidemic.

It said the funding cut was a victory for those who opposed the RH Law. The group lamented that while President Aquino had pushed hard for the passage of the reproductive health and responsible parenthood bill, he failed to stop the move to reduce funding for family planning.

Women workers urged for the restoration of the P1-billion budget for contraceptives.

Members of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) said the reduction of funding for family planning was a betrayal of the RH Law and the women’s cause.

“The hard-won victory of the RH Law is being killed by legislative maneuvering of anti-women lawmakers,” PM secretary general Judy Ann Miranda said.

She said senators who agreed to cut the budget for contraceptives are anti-women. (With reports from Jess Diaz, Marvin Sy, and Mayen Jaymalin)

Jinggoy, Bong pleas to attend wake rejected

meant he can no longer fully enjoy his rights.

“Suffice it to state that to allow THE Sandiganbayan on Tues- (Estrada) to leave his detention day, Jan. 12 denied the requests cell, especially at this time when of detained Senators Jinggoy Es- the court already denied his petrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla tition for bail, will not only set a Jr. for furlough to attend the wake bad precedent but will likewise ence, a clone of the outgoing president – became of veteran TV host and “Master be regarded as a mockery of the the mark of Cain for Villar.

Showman” German Moreno, administration of justice,” the In contrast, the cloud of corruptibility has hov- saying it’s a mockery of justice. court said. ered like a pall over the entire Aquino government, The antigraft court’s Fifth DiThe antigraft court’s First Diand the ruling Liberal Party, as much as those they vision reminded Estrada that the vision also turned down Revilhave aggressively tarnished. court had denied him bail which la’s request, saying it does not Recalling the Nescafé marketing case, if all brands of coffee warm the stomach, using that as a consumer appeal would not make sense. Similarly, if all politicians are perceived as corrupt, accusing a political rival of corruption is like spitting in the wind.

In sum, to correctly analyze and interpret research about the average Juan, Pedro and Maria, you must have the ability to fit in their shoes as well as in their tsinelas (slippers). And to understand the mind of the masses, you must feel their pain. Needless to say, if one were to the hacienda born and the only exposure to average folks is by way of the house help and the tenant farmers, that would not be easy to do.

Thus, to refer back to the findings in the Manila Standard research, while “corruption” may appear to be the biggest problem of potential voters, what could be more important to them is knowing who among the candidates can help them with food, jobs, education and good health.

Take it from our neighborhood tricycle driver: “Kung pare-parehong korap ang mga politiko, duon na ako sa makakatulong sa akin.” (If all politicians are corrupt, I’ll go for the one who can help me). (gregmacabenta@hotmail.com)

Is corruption the key issue in the 2016…

PAGE A6 t

MANILA — More than P2 billion in funding is still available for the implementation of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law this year, a Palace official said on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said the government has P2.275 billion for contraceptives and other family planning programs.

President Aquino had proposed an appropriation of P3.275 billion for the implementation of the RH Law this year.

The Senate, upon the initiative of Sen. Vicente Sotto III, had approved a reduction of P1.315 billion, bringing down the RH budget to P1.959 billion.

However, during the bicameral conference on the 2016 General Appropriations Act, the House succeeded in trimming the reduction to P1 billion, leaving P2.275 billion for the RH Law. Coloma said Sotto manifested during the Senate deliberations that he would move to delete the budget for the Implanon implant amid the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order against the distribution and selling of the contraceptive.

“So there are still funds that can be utilized by the DOH (Department of Health) for family planning aside from the amount from last year that has yet to be used,” Coloma said.

Senators bickering Senators are now bickering over their approval of the P1 billion reduction in funds for family planning in this year’s General Appropriations Act. Sen. Pia Cayetano, principal author in the Senate of the RH bill, is blaming finance committee chairman Loren Legarda for

the reduction.

Cayetano claimed the budget cut for contraceptives was not revealed to her and the other legislators at any point during the congressional deliberations on this year’s General Appropriations Act. Cayetano decried the lack of transparency by the Senate committee on finance when it came to reporting details such as the cut in the budget for the DOH’s Family Health and Responsible Parenting program.

According to Cayetano, the details of the budget cut were revealed only after the DOH exposed it.

“We are fooling ourselves here when the finance committee headed by Senator Legarda submitted a bicam report to senators that do not show the significant changes made. That is unethical and unacceptable,” she said.

Legarda reiterated that details of any increase or decrease in any appropriation was made available to all senators.

Former Albay congressman Edcel Lagman, principal author of the RH bill in the House, had accused Sotto of sabotaging the law by reducing funding for it.

But Sotto said his Senate colleagues are equally responsible for the funding cut because they approved it.

The reduction in funding for the RH Law is a serious step backward for Filipino women and low-income families, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

In a statement, the group said the reduction would cut vital support for lower-income Filipinos who rely on state-provided contraceptive services for protection from sexually transmitted infections and for safe birth spacing and family planning.

“Research published in 2013

by Dona

Pazzibugan Inquirer.net

consider attending the wake “a special circumstance” to allow him to leave detention for a few hours.

The two actors-turned-senators are being tried for plunder for allegedly amassing millions of pesos in kickbacks from their Priority Development Assistance Funds or pork barrel.

They are currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame. n

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COMMUNITY Journal

B

Business News Asian American Business Roundtable Macy’s closing 40 stores gathers unprecedented group of industry leaders for multi-day summit

by Agnes

ConstAnte AJPress

PepsiCo, JP Morgan Chase, and Zappos Among Key Speakers to Address Global Business Challenges and Help Foster Asian American Leadership in US, the Venetian Las Vegas to Host “Taking Risks and Changing The Game” Summit January 29-30, 2016

Los AngeLes — Asian American Business Roundtable (AABR) announced that it was launched to promote the growing prominence of Asian American executives throughout the Us and capitalize on Asia’s continuing emergence as an engine of global economic growth. As part of the launch, AABR will bring together the most accomplished, forwardthinking Asian American innovators and entrepreneurs, many of whom have been honored as “outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business,” at its first multi-day summit, in partnership with The Venetian Las Vegas, on January 29-30, 2016 (www.aabusinessroundtable.org).

“Asian Americans have a unique understanding of both Western and eastern cultures and business practices, which can be crucial in helping companies identify untapped business opportunities, reach new markets and operate cross-culturally,” said John Wang, President of Asian American Business Development Center, which formed AABR. “We are launching this

MACY’s will close 36 of its 770 stores following “disappointing” sales and earnings last year and weak holiday sales, as part of its plan to shut down 40 locations across the country.

The move is part of its plan to shut down 40 locations across the country as part of a restructuring plan to address the company’s slumping sales. It is expected to save the company approximately $400 million worth of expenses.

Four stores have already been closed.

“We are making adjustments to become more efficient and productive in our operations,” Terry Lundgren, chairman and chief executive at Macy’s Inc., said in a statement. “Moreover, we believe we can operate more effectively with an organization that is flatter and more agile so we can pursue growth and regain market share.”

The department store chain

the company. Three of the locations shutting down are in California. The remaining 36 will be closed in early spring and were set to launch final eight- to 12week clearance sales starting Monday, Jan. 11, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The move will also cut more than 4,500 jobs, the company

u PAGE B2

Philippines retains 3rd fastest vehicle sales position in Asean

by RiChmond

s. meRCuRio

Philstar.com

MAnILA — The Philippines sustained its position of having the third fastest vehicle sales within the Association of the southeast Asian nations (Asean) u PAGE B2 next to singapore and Vietnam.

Data from the Asean Automotive Federation showed Philippine vehicle sales surged 22.7 the Philippines suffered heav- the brunt of massive selloff by for- percent to 261,930 units in the by iRis gonzAles ily as doubts mounted about eign investors, plunging 287.17 first 11 months of 2015 as comp Philstar.com Beijing’s ability to manage the points to close at 6,288.26, its ared to the 213,427 units sold in MAnILA — World stocks fell to world’s second-biggest econo- lowest since Feb. 18,2014. the same period in 2014. near 2-1/2 year lows on Monday my. singapore posted the highest Monday’s drop was also the as a fresh pounding for Chinese MsCI’s broadest index of Asia- Psei’s biggest single-day decline sales growth at 63.2 percent durmarkets left Asia at a four-year Pacific shares outside Japan since Aug. 24, 2015, making the ing the period, followed by Viettrough and sent oil and commod- plunged 1.8 percent to its lowest Philippine equities the worst- nam at 58.3 percent. ity markets sprawling again.

Aside from singapore, Vietlevel in more than four years. performing market in southeast Asian stock markets including Philippine share prices took u PAGE B2 nam and Philippines, the remain-

PH, global markets in tailspin over China woes

announced its plan last year, with Lundgren citing that consumers are increasingly shopping online.

This year, Lundgren said Macy’s struggled due to unseasonably warm weather and lower spending among international tourists.

The 40 stores set to be closed are deemed underperforming of

ing four key automotive markets in the region registered lower sales from January to november last year.

Vehicle sales in Brunei dropped 20.4 percent as of end-november last year, while Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia posted drops of 16.8 percent, 11.9 percent, and 0.8 percent, respectively.

In terms of volume of vehicles sold, however, Indonesia topped the region with sales reaching 1.13 million units.

Thailand was second with 698,168 units sold followed by Malaysia with 597,273 units.

But despite the fast paced growth in sales enjoyed by the local automotive industry, the Philippines continued to lag behind when it comes vehicle pro-

duction.

Vehicle production in the country remained at the bottom among the five top Asean automotive markets, with total output growing 10.7 percent to 92,669 units as of end-november 2015.

Thailand remained the region’s biggest vehicle producer with 1.76 million units manufactured in the 11-month period followed

by Indonesia with 1.02 million units.

Total vehicles produced in the region during the period slipped 1.9 percent to 3.60 million units from the previous year’s 3.67 million units.

The Philippines is projected to become a major automotive market in southeast Asia by 2020 as

u PAGE B2

B JANUARY 13-15, 2016 • LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL

Business news

PH, global markets in tailspin over China…

PAGE B1 t Asia so far this year.

Analysts said there are too many negative news in the market which investors continue to digest – China’s economic woes, the continued decline in oil prices, the tensions in the Middle East and the refugee crisis in Europe.

“The sentiments are overwhelmingly negative that a bear market is inevitable,” said Astro del Castillo, managing director at First Grade Finance Inc. Net foreign selling amounted to P1.168 billion. Value turnover was at P7.229 billion, while decliners outnumbered advancers, 182 to 22.

With the trend, analysts said the Philippine stock barometer could even fall below the 6,000 mark.

“The momentum looks like 5,800 but some stocks have already bottomed ahead,” said Tony Herbosa, chairman emeritus of Philstocks Financials Inc. Paolo Hizon of Unicapital Securities said in the absence of fresh news that could support prices, the Philippine market may continue dropping further after breaking its April 2014 key support level at 6,555.

Market confusion China was again the epicenter of unease as the People’s Bank confounded analysts by guiding

Summit to leverage the collective knowledge, experience and networks of recognized industry leaders, and enable access to their unprecedented source of business intelligence and ability to enhance global relations.”

The Summit, Taking Risks and Changing the Game, will discuss issues of social and economic appeal, as well as game-changing strategies to inspire personal development and corporate growth. Key speakers to date include: Mehmood Khan, Vice Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer, Global R&D, PepsiCo; Phyllis Campbell, Chairman, Pacific Northwest, JP Morgan Chase; Jon Spector, President and CEO, the Conference Board; and Maggie Hsu, Chief of Staff to Tony Hsieh, Zappos. The Summit will address current national and global business challenges as well as key growth strategies, focused on the following topics: 1. Bringing New Talent into

Debt Relief Atty. LAwrence yAng

Asian stock markets including the Philippines suffered heavily as doubts mounted about Beijing’s ability to manage the world’s second-biggest economy. AP file photo/Mark Schiefelbein

the yuan’s midpoint rate sharply stronger, a move that might calm concerns about a competitive devaluation but only added to market confusion as to Beijing’s ultimate intent on its currency policy.

The move was an apparent reversal of the midpoint’s recent weakening trend which included the biggest one-day drop in the guidance rate in five months on Jan. 7.

“Authorities are reluctant to let market forces rule, which along with their indecisiveness and lack of transparency is exacerbating uncertainty,” said Tapas Strickland, an economist at National Australia Bank.

The uncertainty about the yuan only heightened tensions ahead of China trade data on Wednes-

day where declines are expected in exports and imports, underlining just how anemic world trade flows are right now.

Both the Dow and the S&P 500 had their worst five-day starts in history last week, and the corporate news flow is unlikely to get any cheerier with the coming results season expected to be a tough one.

S&P 500 earnings are forecast to have dropped 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter, a second straight quarterly decline led by the hard-hit energy and materials sectors.

The pain in stocks and worries over China even outweighed the positive impact of December’s upbeat US payrolls report and burnished the appeal of higherrated government bonds. n

Asian American Business Roundtable…

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http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (213) 250-9797

the C-Suite and Boardroom 2. Building Social Networks and an Innovation Marketplace 3. Retaining High Ability Women Innovators 4. Successful International Business Alliances “The Asian American Business Development Center does an incredible job of recognizing the contributions of Asian Americans in the business community, and we are grateful to partner with them in bringing this new concept to our Las Vegas resorts,” said George Markantonis, president and chief operating officer of The Venetian, The Palazzo, and Sands Expo. “We hope this new annual Summit will become a leading platform for knowledge-sharing among key executives and leaders in the Asian-American community.”

Through its Summit, AABR seeks to increase the visibility and presence of Asian Americans in US business, address national and global business challenges of

the 21st century, and develop a mentorship program to groom future generations of Asian American business leaders. AABR also looks to assist global corporations seeking to expand in Asia, as well as Asia-based companies seeking US partnerships.

Tickets and sponsorship opportunities Tickets and sponsorship opportunities for the Asian American Business Roundtable Summit are now available. For more information, please contact Xiaotang Huang, at (212) 966-0100 or xiaotang@aabdc.com, or visit www.aabusinessroundtable.org.

AABR Summit is taking place January 29-30, 2016 at The Venetian, Las Vegas.

Register Your Ticket Now! Enter promo code: AsianJ25 (25 percent off the ticket). This invitation code is only valid until Wednesday, 1/13/2016.

Book your hotel room at a special rate of $175++/night. Ends 1/13/2016. n

CLIENT is a specialty food retailer that started operations in a commercial center two years ago. Five partners invested $50K each for a total of $250K for a food business that sells a specialty product that everyone likes to eat. The problem with a business that’s based on a retail outlet in a commercial center is that the business lives or dies depending on the foot traffic of the commercial center. If the foot traffic is slow, there’s practically nothing the business can do to sell more. Indeed, if the foot traffic is slow, even if the business gives away the product for free, it will still be stuck with inventory. Every businessperson knows that when you go into business, you make money; break-even or you lose money. If the business is losing money, the owners will have to continue financing the loss by giving new money to cover the loss. There are no two ways about this. Some businesses make money from day one. I have a client who opened a specialty restaurant with a $100K investment, and in the first year, he made $500K of profit. The problem was that he had partners who decided to compete with him by opening their own.

Client food retailer seeks Chapter 7 relief On the other hand, there are businesses that never make money, no matter what the owners do to improve it. It’s just a money loser. In this case, client had a good concept but made the mistake of opening the business in a commercial center that had slow foot traffic. How did client end up in such a sorry commercial center? Apparently, there was some misrepresentation on the part of the commercial center owner who said that the foot traffic had doubled in the last 12 months, without stating any figures. When you say double, it doesn’t really mean anything does it? If the foot traffic was 20 people a month showing up in the place last year, and this year there’s 40 people showing up monthly, the traffic doubled, but its still not enough to sustain a profitable business that relies on “good” foot traffic.

The five partners checked out the center a couple of times for foot traffic before making the plunge, and for some reason, they must have seen “good” foot traffic. But when they actually started doing business, the center was almost a ghost town most of the time.

The only good month was December when they made some money. The rest of the year, the partners had to cover a deficit of $3K monthly. This is not a big loss, but this becomes $36K a

Macy’s closing 40…

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announced Wednesday, Jan. 6.

About 3,000 associates will be affected, but Macy’s said approximately half are anticipated to be placed in other positions, USA Today reported.

“In some cases, there will be short-term pain as we tighten our belt and realign our resources,”

Lundgren said in a statement.

“But our eye is on a long-term vision of Macy’s Inc. as a dynamic retailer that serves existing customers and acquires new ones through innovative approaches.”

Store shutdowns are also expected to negatively impact malls.

At least a dozen of Macy’s locations closing down are located in

year, or $72K loss in two years.

Including the initial investment of $250K, the partners are staring at a $320K loss in two years.

The kicker is that the lease is for another 4 years at $5K a month.

So, even if they stop the business, the business will still owe $240K on the commercial lease! Add that to the $320K lifetime savings that already evaporated into thin air, the partners are looking at a potential loss of half a million dollars. Even good business may suffer serious set backs initially.

Even, Walt Disney’s first venture into the famous mouse did not work, and Mr. Disney had to file for Chapter 7 for a fresh start.

After bankruptcy, Disneyland opened in 1956 in Anaheim. Now, of course, Disney is a multi billion-dollar business with another theme park opening in Shanghai this year. Who knows, my clients may now file for Chapter 7 relief but their business may later on become successful beyond their wildest imagination. This is America after all where capitalist dreams still come true. One may be bankrupt today but become a billionaire in the future. Just look at the failed business as a practice test that makes one better prepared to become successful later.

Another problem that surfaced is that each partner signed a

u PAGE B4 malls that are already struggling with dwindling sales and store closures, according to CNN. “The department store business, it’s the worst segment in retailing,” Howard Davidowitz, chairman of retail consulting and investment firm Davidowitz & Associates, CNN reported. “It’s the highest cost operator, they’re not growing, and they’re in a world where the customer is looking for a great deal.” n

Philippines retains 3rd fastest…

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domestic sales are seen posting continued stellar growth while local production is seen ramping up with the government’s Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program.

Meanwhile, motorcycles and scooters sold in the country rose eight percent to 773,685 units in the 11-month period ending November last year from 716,596

units a year ago, data from the Asean Automotive Federation showed.

The sales of motorcycles and scooters were 511,755 units more than the number of vehicles sold in the country during the period as many Filipinos still prefer using a two-wheeled motorized vehicle since it is considered as a more convenient option for transport during heavy traffic.

With the continued demand for

two-wheeled motorized vehicles in the country, the Philippine motorcycle and scooter market continued to move in the opposite direction of other markets in the region.

While the country posted an eight percent sales growth in the January to November 2015 period, sales of the other top motorcycle and scooter markets within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fell. n

(818) 502-0651 • (213) 250-9797 • http://www.asianjournal.com

Immigrant Living: 101 and Beyond Monette AdevA MAglAyA ONE man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

Flex the power of the dollar by hitting garage sales just for a little fun. There aren’t as many in the summer season as there are in spring. Despite the lingering malaise that currently afflicts the country and despite 93 million plus people still unemployed, many have to still deal with their accumulated stuff, a lot of which have long ago outlived their usefulness.

There are moving out sales or yard sales held to decongest and reclaim their living spaces, divest themselves of clutter or simply to make a few extra bucks.

If you have too much stuff and would like to simply reclaim your breathing space or to get rid of what has become dust catchers, you can have fun clearing out your stuff and convert them to cash by becoming the seller. The pace could be faster than selling your stuff on ebay.

Don’t just kibitz if you are a buyer. Enter the flow. Don’t forget to bring along a few kindred souls, some cash and have some fun garage “sale-ing.”

A note of caution is in order.

Garage “sale-ing” is one fun activity that can get out of hand if you let it. Particularly during these tough times, a good number of people are becoming creative on how to stretch the fast shrinking dollar and are looking at garage sales, either to sell or to buy. People are selling their stuff accumulated over the years, either at ebay or Craig’s List or right in their own front lawn to generate some extra cash.

Particularly for newly arrived immigrants or newly married couples starting a new life who are wary of getting into a whopping financial burden by going into debt at the outset, going to garage sales particularly in affluent areas might be an option.

Cash remains king. With a little cash, you can go to garage sales, tag sales, estate sales, swap meets and thrift shops to find practically everything that you will need, and more besides, to set you up in your new place — practically for pennies on the dollar, at least during the beginning years, when you are conserving your resources to prep yourself for the big purchase decisions, e.g. like buying a car or a condo or house, when the

Legal Commentary Atty. RomAn P. mosquedA THIS constitutional issue is before the Philippine Supreme Court for final decision on petitions for certiorari filed by Grace Poe from the COMELEC’s en banc decision.

Article VII, Section 2 of the Philippine 1987 Constitution states the 10-year residence requirement as follows: “No person may be elected President or Vice-President unless he is ... a resident of the Philippines for at least ten years immediately preceding such election.”

Thus, the critical period of residence of Grace Poe is from May 9, 2006 to May 9, 2016, the ten years immediately preceding the May 9, 2016 national elections.

Eligibility requirements patterned after US Constitution: Although the United States Constitution was not extended to the Philippines by the terms of the Treaty of Paris, deliberations of the 1934 Philippine Constitutional Commission show that the eligibility requirements for President: natural-born citizen of the Philippines and a resident of the Philippines for at least ten years immediately preceding the election in Article VII, Section 3 of the 1935 Constitution were patterned after the US Constitution.

Indeed, Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the 1776 United States Constitution states: “No person except a natural born citizen or a citizen of the United States ... shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall ... have been fourteen years a President within the United States.”

And such eligibility requirement on residence was merely carried over to the 1973 and 1987 Philippine Constitutions from the 1935 Constitution.

Commenting on the “residence” requirement for the Office of President in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the US Constitution, Joseph Story in 1833 stated: “By “residence”, in the Constitution is to be understood, not an absolute inhabitancy within the United States during the whole period, but such inhabitancy includes a permanent domicil in

Community Journal

On how NOT to become a Pack Rat Why do we do it?

Why do we encumber ourselves with possessions?

— Alice Thomas Ellis

time is right.You will be amazed at what you can find.

Newer communities with yuppies as residents will have newer, modern, mass-produced plastic or vinyl stuff, the kind that you get at Ikea while older communities will have items from the past, perhaps still in working condition but in outdated styles.

Unless those wily antique collectors and estate handlers beat you to estate liquidations as they most often will, if you’re lucky, you might stumble upon treasures or heirloom pieces that you only get to see on “Antiques Roadshow” ringing up unbelievable appraisals.

Be warned. Appraisals are just benchmarks of value given as expert opinions, from which buyer and seller can begin negotiation and arrive at a purchase price, which can be higher or lower than appraisal value, depending on the motivation and time frame of both buyer and seller and the perceived intrinsic value of the item being sold.

Simply because manufacturers are not making more of it, good handcrafted furniture pieces made from mahogany and other prized hardwood of over 100 years or porcelain ware, hold up their value comparatively well as sought-after prized antiques than disposable, ready-to-assemble furniture made from particle board and melamine mass produced in China. Still, there’s no accounting for taste and individual preferences. The younger ones prefer the sheen and gloss of lacquer or the spanking new, modern furniture of plastic, steel or formica over the patina of old, seasoned wood.

Whatever your choice, dare to be different. Be creative. Immerse yourself in the books written about styles you would like to emulate. You can have your own style with very little money. Let your imagination and a little elbow grease help you create your own unique haven. The really creative ones do it on a shoestring budget and still have great fun along the way while earning themselves some bragging rights in creating treasures out of junk.

Also, you’re doing your environmental bit by recycling.

America is a consumer society and the amount of discarded things is simply staggering. Out with the old, in with the new. Every season brings new fashions and trends and since closet, basement and garage spaces are limited (most times, bursting at the seams) and public storage units cost money, there is an endless round of garage sales going on in America, more so these days when money is tight for many households.

You will find that a lot of items, specially for babies and younger children who outgrow their things pretty fast, look almost new and highly usable. Plates, silverware, kitchen items, small and big appliances, decor, furniture, framed art, clothes, videos, audio and video tapes and tools are the usual fare. Many items are still new and in their original packaging. Sometimes, there are genuine antiques or priceless works of art hidden in dust and grime. That’s when you hit paydirt. But such instances are few and far-between, so keep yourself grounded. There is no sales tax. Check your local community newspapers or go online for these weekend events.

The early bird gets the early worm. The earlier you come during the day, the better the selection but the prices will be marked a tad higher unless the seller wants to seriously dispose of his merchandise fast and pack up early. The later in the day you come — from noon to early afternoon — the prices are cut drastically, practically at giveaway rates, but the selection is much less, with junk a-plenty.

Learn to negotiate. In America, what you get is not what you deserve. Very often, it is what you negotiate. If you are uncomfortable with haggling and if you happen to be with someone who can dicker with the seller in a courteous, pleasant way, get him to do it for you. The key is to be respectful. Never disparage what is being sold in the transparent attempt to get a

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Why Grace Poe has 10-year Philippine residence the United States.”

And the rationalé for residence requirement, according to Joseph Story, is: “...so that the people may have a full opportunity to know his character and merits, and that he may have mingled in the duties, and felt the interests, and understood the principle, and nourished the attachments, belonging to every citizen in a republican government.”

Residence is synonymous with domicile in election law: From the 1928 case of Nuval vs. Guray, the 1934 case of Lorena vs. Tenco, the 1954 case of Faypen v. Quirino to the 1995 case of Imelda R. Marcos vs.

COMELEC et al., the Philippine Supreme Court has equated election “residence” to domicile.

To successfully effect a change of domicile, one must demonstrate: (1) an actual removal or an actual change of domicile; (2) a bona fide intention of abandoning the former place of residence and establishing a new one; and (3) acts which correspond with the purpose.

On the other hand, domicile is defined as residence, that is a person’s principal, actual dwelling place, by US immigration laws and regulations.

Whether a citizen at birth or by naturalization, a US citizen is not required to be a domiciliary or resident of the United States to retain US citizenship.

A natural born or naturalized US citizen may voluntarily relinguish US citizenship by acts of expatriation such as obtaining naturalization in a foreign state, accepting or serving duties of employment of a foreign government, or making a formal renunciation of US citizenship before a US diplomatic or consular officer.

Residence of Grace Poe in US and Philippines: Grace Poe was adopted by Ronald Allan Kelly Poe and actress Susan Roces in or about 1973.

She attended elementary school at Saint Paul College in Pasig, Rizal and Makati. In 1982, she transferred to Assumption College in San Lorenzo for high school.

She then studied at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, majoring in devel-

opment studies for two years; and then transferred to Boston College in Boston, Massachussets, where she finished a degree in political science in 1991.

On July 27, 1991, she married dual citizen Teodoro Misael Llamanzares in the Philippines at age 22. She returned to the United States and lived a quiet life in Fairfax, Virginia, but returned to the Philippines to deliver her first born, Brian, on April 16, 1992, her second born, Hanna in 1998, and her youngest, Nikka, in 2004.

She became a naturalized US citizen on October 18, 2001, but after the death of her father on December 14, 2004, she and her family returned to the Philippines for good on April 8, 2005, to be with her widowed mother.

On July 7, 2006, she applied for dual citizenship under Republic Act 9225.

And her Philippine citizenship was restored as well as those of her three children on July 18, 2006.

She renounced her US citizenship before a Philippine notary on October 6, 2010, and before a US Consul in Manila on July 12, 2011. Her loss of US citizenship was approved on December 9, 2011.

She was appointed and served as Chairwoman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) from October 10, 2010 to October 2, 2012, when she resigned to run for Senator.

Running as an independent candidate, she won first place in the 2013 Senate elections with over 20 million votes.

Grace Poe has 10-year residence by May 9, 2016 There is no dispute that her domicile of origin under Philippine election law is the Philippines. She was born and then studied there up to college. She then moved to the United States to continue her studies and raise a family.

And although she became a lawful permanent resident of the United States and then a naturalized US citizen, she could and did retain her domicile of origin in the Philippines for election law purposes, so long as her US residence (not domicile) was the

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LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL • JANUARY 13-15, 2016

Calendar of Events across

B

America

ADVERTISE YOUR EVENTS! PRE-EVENT AND POST-EVENT GO DEEPER. GO WIDER. LET THE WORLD KNOW. CALL ASIAN JOURNAL: (818) 502-0651 DISPLAY AD SIZES AT SPECIAL RATES FOR NON-PROFIT GROUPS JA N UA RY 1 6

23rd Annual Santo Niño Fiesta The Batangas City Santo Niño Devotees, USA invites you and family to the 23rd Annual Santo Niño Fiesta on Saturday, January 16 at the St. Christopher Catholic Church (629 South Glendora Ave, West Covina, CA 91790). The fiesta starts with Holy Mass at 2:30pm at the Parish Hall, followed by the procession of the Santo Niño images and our Little Princes and Princesses around the church. Food and refreshments will be served, along with games for children and adults. Drawing of raffle prizes and dancing until 11:00 pm. Come, let’s adore and honor the Santo Niño. For more information, please contact: Tony Panganiban (714) 8283904, Emma Gutierrez (626) 913-5236, Edna Medrano (323) 605-8090, Marina Maranan (818) 894-9745, May Cabrera (626) 264-7822, or Evelyn Masongsong (626) 222-1287.

JA N UA RY 1 6 - F E B R UA RY 6

St. Finbar Catholic Church events - Saturday, January 16 – Feast of Sto. Niño celebration. Sinulog starts at 11:30am.

- Saturday, January 23 – Thanksgiving Mass, in honor of San Ildefonso, patron saint of San Ildefonso, Bulacan, at 5:00pm. Followed by lunch celebration from 12:30 - 3:30pm at New Town Buffet.

- Saturday, February 6 – Valentine Dinner dance from 7:00 - 11:00pm. Cost of ticket is $30.

For more information on all events, please contact Marian Nobleza at 818-219-6463.

JA N UA RY 1 7

29th Anniversary Feast of Santo Niño Santo Niño Cruzada USA, with the participation of the Cathedral Knights of Columbus and a Sinulog group, is inviting everyone for a holy mass to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the Feast of Santo Niño, the Divine Infant Jesus, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles (555 W Temple St, Los Angeles, CA 90012) on Sunday, January 17, at 3:30pm. The main celebrant is Monsignor Kevin Kostelnik, with Father David Gallardo as concelebrant. For more information, please contact any of the following officers: Romy & Tess Esturas (213-387-9682), Rey & Tess Edpao (818-469-7292), Lilia Figuracion (626-394-2661, Carmen Estrada (213-413-2881), Fe Montana (323-218-1587), Ester Paredes (213-864-1149), Fe Reyes (213-413-5286), Laurie Dolorfino (213-407-0097), and Cherry Guerrero (213-632-2096).

JA N UA RY 3 0

Infant Jesus of Prague 9 hour Novena and Mass The Infant Jesus of Prague Apostolic Group is celebrating 32 years of service and prayer, and will hold its 32nd annual 9-hour Novena and Mass in honor of the Divine Child Jesus on Saturday, January 30, at Saint Joseph the Worker Church (19855 Sherman Way, Winnetka, California). The Novena starts at 7:00am with Mass following at 3:20 pm. Based in San Fernando Valley, the Apostolic Group aims to promote the Gospel message of Jesus and spread devotions to the Infant Jesus. For more information, please contact Leo Nevada at (818) 633 3926 or visit www.IJPAG.com.

F E B R UA RY 6

Miss Magsingal Organization of America Coronation & Dinner-Dance The Officers and Members of Miss Magsingal Organization of America (MOA) cordially invites townmates and friends to attend our Miss MOA 2016-17 Coronation and Dinner/Dance on Feb. 6, from 5:00pm -12 midnight at the Hilton of Stockton (2323 Grand Canal Blvd, Stockton, CA). Our Royal Court to be honored and crowned are: Her Majesty Queen, Jillian Foronda; 1st Princess, Jemina Atanaya; and 2nd Princess, Jeramae Luczon. Attire is formal, dinner is $50/person, with live band entertainment. Limited seats are available on a first come first serve basis. For more details, please call Tereso U (209) 603-8440, Lanie (209) 814-8004, and Grace (209) 817-5674. Thank you.

F E B R UA RY 1 2

An Intimate Night with Miguel Vera Beat the Valentine’s Day rush and get your tickets to “An Intimate Night with Miguel Vera,” a special Valentine Show featuring Miguel Vera, performing the greatest OPM hits and romantic Filipino classics by Cayabyab, Canseco, and Cruz. The one-night-only concert will take place at the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel (7675 Crescent Ave, Buena Park, CA 90620) on February 12 at 8:00pm. Special guests include Annie Nepomuceno and Kit Navarro. Please call (714) 814-0412 or (818) 913-329 for tickets and information. Tickets are $40 each.

F E B R UA RY 2 0 -2 1

PCCHS / PUPLHS 1996 Golden Jubilee The Philippine College of Commerce High School Laboratory Batch 1966 (now Polytechnic University of the Philippines) will be celebrating its Golden Jubilee from February 20-21 in Manila, Philippines. According to the President of the PCCHS Batch ‘66 Alumni Association, ROLAND ATIENZA, about 55 batchmates from Australia, Canada and USA have confirmed attendance to the Homecoming and 50 from Manila local chapter. Activities lined up for the Golden Jubilee Celebration are as follows: February 20, 2016 -- 6:00-12:00 pm. Formal Program/Dinner at the Banahaw Ballroom, The Legend Villas, Mandaluyong City, Philippines February 21, 2016 -- 8:00 am - 9:00 pm - Visit the ANAWIM Home for the Abandoned Elderly, Montalban, Rizal Province (Fellowship/Lunch/Donate basic needs of the elderly) - Tour of Manila (Former PCCHS in Lepanto, Intramuros Tour (old churches and Cathedral, Rizal Park, Fort Santiago) - Dinner/Cultural Show, at Barbara’s, Intramuros February 22, 2016 - BREAKUP GROUP (To Palawan, Laguna and respective hometown provinces of the guests) For inquiries, please contact the following members of the CORE group: Agnes T. Sule # 09165567000 suleagnes@yahoo.com, Roland Atienza #09062947156 atienza8@yahoo.com, Rebecca T. Sayed 09064032624 rebecca.sayed@yahoo.com, Lourdes T. Flores lulutflores@ yahoo.com, Rebecca Sayed rebecca.sayed@yahoo.com.

APRIL - SEPTEMBER

Parathanal of Holy Trinity Parish Piligrimages Fr. Jose Joseph Parathanal of Holy Trinity Parish, San Pedro District, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, invites all to join Fr. Joseph Parathanal’s Pilgrimages to EASTERN EUROPE, OLGUADALUPE/Colonial Mexico, and INDIA. During the journey, pilgrims will pray to God for healing of body, mind and spirit especially for healing of the world from violence, terrorism and climate changes. Trip dates are: Divine Mercy/Infant Jesus of Prague/Austria/Hungary/ Medjugorje (Eastern Europe) April 17- April 30; OLGuadalupe and Colonial Mexico - June 20 - June 27; and Mother Teresa/St. Thomas/St. Alphonsa/St. Euprasia/St. Chavarra (India) - Sept. 15 - Sept. 29, 2016. For more details and pilgrimage information, please contact Bernadette at bcorp1114@hotmail.com or call 323-344-1548 & 323-547-6618.

M AY 27-29

PUP/PCC to hold 1st Global Reunion

Attention all graduates of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and the Philippine College of Commerce: join us in our FIRST GLOBAL REUNION being organized by the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Alumni Association, USA Inc. scheduled on May 2729, 2016 (Memorial Day Weekend) at the New Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. We promise a weekend of fun-filled activities, of friendship and camaraderie as we reminisce our best memories during our high school and college days. There will be lots of entertainment, singing and dancing and photo opportunities with your classmates and friends.

For more information, please contact any of the following: Loi Herrera at 562-544-8210 or loiherrera@yahoo.com; Monette Santillan-Rivera at 818-970-8317 or Monette_santillan@yahoo. com; Rose Mejia at 323-997-3838 or Rosemariemejia@kw.com; Marissa Sugay-Palanca at 818281-7460 or marispalanca@yahoo.com; Rose Maghari at 661-794-8906 or rmaghari@gmail. com; Sally Mendoza at 323-695-0235 or sally.mendoza616@yahoo.com; Honeylette De Leon at 562-480-5743 orhoney@worldclassfreight.com; Virginia Herbito at virginiaherbito@gmail.com; Connie Acosta at 323-854-5303 orconnieacosta1@att.net; Violeta D. Cristobal at 310-880-5808 or vee@cristobalcpa.com; Jun Mapoy at 323-627-5326 or jcmapoy@yahoo.com.

If you have an upcoming event and would like us to post it, please email us the details at info@asianjournalinc.com or calendar@asianjournalinc.com

B JANUARY 13-15, 2016 • LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL

Barrister’s Corner Atty. Kenneth UrsUA reyes ALL property, real or personal, wherever situated, acquired by a married person during the marriage while domiciled in California is community property. Family Code 760. However, there are situations in which the marriage may be held to be null and void.

These situations include, but are not limited to entering into a bigamous marriage, fraud and misrepresentation in entering into a marriage, etc. The legal consequences of having your marriage annulled by your spouse is that it results to you not having any community property interest on property acquired by your spouse during the marriage. A nullity may also cut off your claim for spousal support.

What options do you have if your spouse files a nullity against you? You may still have a claim to community property and support as a putative spouse. A party to a void or voidable marriage has “putative spouse” status only if he or she believed in good faith the marriage was valid. Family.

Code. § 225; Marriage of Guo & Sun (2010) 186 CA4th 1491, 1493, 112 CR3d 906, 908; Marriage of Vryonis (1988) 202 CA3d 712, 721, 248 CR 807, 813. A party who has the requisite objectively reasonable “good faith” belief may be a putative spouse where any legal infirmity in formation of the marriage renders the marriage invalid. Domestic Partnership of Ellis & Arriaga (2008) 162 CA4th 1000, 1005, 76 CR3d 401, 404; Estate of DePasse (2002) 97 CA4th 92, 107, 118 CR2d 143, 155; see Marriage of Vryonis, supra, 202 CA3d at 718–719, 248 CR at 811–812.

Community Journal

What happens when spouse files nullity of marriage?

A party’s “good faith” belief in the validity of the marriage is not tested by whether he or she believed a “marriage” lawfully occurred under some private, secular or spiritual set of standards. A putative spouse must have had a good faith belief in the existence of a lawful California marriage.

Estate of DePasse (2002) 97 CA4th 92, 107–108, 118 CR2d 143, 156; Welch v. State of Calif. (2000) 83 CA4th 1374, 1378–1379, 100 CR2d 430, 432–433; Marriage of Vryonis (1988) 202 CA3d 712, 723, 248 CR 807, 814–815 “Good faith” belief is tested by an objective standard based on facts that would cause a reasonable person under the circumstances to harbor a good faith belief in the existence of a valid California marriage. Domestic Partnership of Ellis & Arriaga, supra, 162 CA4th at 1005, 76 CR3d at 404; Marriage of Guo & Sun (2010) 186 CA4th 1491, 1497, 112 CR3d 906, 911; Marriage of Ramirez & Llamas (2008) 165 CA4th 751, 756, 81 CR3d 180, 183. Whether a party had an objectively reasonable “good faith” belief is a question of fact to be determined in light of all the circumstances.

Successfully proving putative spouse status or putative marriage status in court gives rise to certain property, support and attorney fees/costs rights, as well as certain other rights that ordinarily attach only between lawfully married persons. Property that would have been community or quasi-community property had the marriage been valid is deemed “quasi-marital property” and, in a proceeding to terminate the invalid marriage, “shall” be divided between the parties as if it were community. Family.

Code. § 2251(a)(2); Marriage of

Tejeda (2009) 179 CA4th 973, 983, 102 CR3d 361, 368; Quasimarital property divided pursuant to § 2251 is also liable for the parties’ debts to the same extent as if it had been community or quasi-community property. Family.Code. § 2252.

In addition, “temporary” and “permanent” spousal support may also be awarded in a nullity proceeding in favor of a putative spouse “in the same manner as if the marriage had not been void or voidable” Family Code Section 2254. The court may also award attorney’s fees pursuant to family code section 2030 in favor of a party found to be “innocent of fraud or wrongdoing in inducing or entering into the marriage, and free from knowledge of the then existence of any prior marriage or other impediment to the contracting of the marriage for which a judgment of nullity is sought.”

Family Code Section 2255. *** Attorney Kenneth Ursua Reyes is a Certified Family Law Specialist. He was President of the Philippine American Bar Association.

He is a member of both the Family law section and Immigration law section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has extensive CPA experience prior to law practice. LAW OFFICES OF KENNETH REYES, P.C. is located at 3699 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 747, Los Angeles, CA, 90010. Tel. (213) 3881611 or e-mail kureyeslaw@gmail.com or visit our website at Kenreyeslaw.com.

***

Please note that this article is not legal advice and is not intended as legal advice. The article is intended to provide only general, non-specific legal information.

This article is not intended to cover all the issues related to the topic discussed. The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. This article does create any attorney client relationship between you and the Law Offices of Kenneth U. Reyes, P.C. This article is not a solicitation.

(Advertising Supplement)

Client food retailer seeks Chapter 7…

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personal guaranty for the commercial lease. So, each partner is on the hook for $250K each!

Business people should never execute a personal guaranty for the debts of the business. It’s a good idea to incorporate the business so the business can assume its own liabilities. There is absolutely no sense that the shareholders should personally guaranty the debts of the business. If the business goes down, only the business files for bankruptcy. The investors keep their

good credit and have no personal liability. If the landlord asks you to guaranty personally the proposed lease of the premises by your company business, just say no. You will not regret it. If the landlord will not lease the premises to the business without your personal guaranty just look for another place where you do not have to give a personal guaranty.

I have had a client who was on the hook for $800K for unpaid commercial lease by way of personal guaranty when all he had to do to prevent this from happening was

to not execute the personal guaranty. Think twice before you sign that personal guaranty.

“Trust in Him at all times, o people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.” — Psalm 62:8

http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (213) 250-9797

The Kite Runner Prof. enriqUe M. soriAno “OUR life is what our thoughts make it.” That’s a powerful quote

by Marcus Aurelius.

According to writer Alyssa Sparacino, New Year’s resolutions are a bit like babies: They’re fun to make but extremely difficult to maintain.

But I want to resonate the eight powerful words above that might just change your life forever. And that, my dear readers, connects me to the story of Forever 21, the fifth largest specialty retailer in the United States that was started by a simple Korean immigrant with a dream.

The average Forever 21 store is 38,000 square feet; the largest is approximately 162,000 square feet.

It all began in a 900-square ft. shop on Figueroa St. in Los Angeles on April 21, 1984. Forever 21 did not start off as Forever 21, but instead, Fashion 21. Founded by South Korean husband and wife team Do Won Chang and Jin Sook, Fashion 21 was launched in Los Angeles in 1984. Back then, both of them were immigrants to the States.

Forever 21 has seen some remarkable accomplishments over the past 30 years.

With a goal to become an $8-billion company by 2017 and open 600 stores in the next three years, it’ll be exciting to see the company achieve in three years what it initially took 30 years to do.

Forever 21 has expanded to an international brand, with 480 stores worldwide that generates around $3 billion in sales every year. What’s the story behind it?

In 1981, Jin Sook and Do Won “Don” Chang, both 26 at the time, emigrated from South Korea to California penniless, speaking broken English, and without college degrees.

For three years, Don worked as a janitor, pumped gas, and served coffee to make ends meet. Then, a simple observation sparked a monumental shift in their direction, which

* * * Lawrence Bautista Yang specializes in bankruptcy, business, real estate and civil litigation and has successfully represented more than five thousand clients in California.

Please call Angie, Barbara or Jess at (626) 2841142 for an appointment at 1000 S. Fremont Ave, Mailstop 58, Building A-1 Suite 1125, Alhambra, LOS ANGELES — On Friday, CA 91803.

(Advertising Supplement) January 15, Interfaith Refugee

The husband and wife behind Forever 21’s global success would eventually make them billionaires.

“I noticed the people who drove the nicest cars were all in the garment business,” Don told the LA Times in a 2010 interview.

This realization led them to open a 900-square-foot clothing store in LA in 1984. They called it Fashion 21. Unlike the three failed businesses that had previously occupied the space, they raked in$700,000 in sales in the first year. After this initial success, they began opening new stores every six months and eventually changed the name to Forever 21.

Since launching and working on Forever 21, the husband and wife team’s personal net worth has been estimated by Forbes to be over $4 billion. The role is complemented perfectly between the both of them: Mrs. Chang approves the designs of the company’s merchandise, while Mr. Chang focuses on turning Forever 21 into the fastest fast-fashion chain in the business, and in the process he has made the company widely successful.

In an age where innovation is more than ever about being fastest to market, the Changs are faster than anyone.

What keeps Forever 21 going?

Do Won Chang replies, “We keep changing. We are always thinking about the customer, not just for the company. That’s why we are successful. Women’s fashion is very difficult because it is changing every day. Fashion changes so fast, so time is the most important thing. If you are too late, you are too late. If you are too early, you are too early.

So timing is very important.”

Why is Forever 21 so successful?

“The company keeps its prices low. It lives up to its motto, “Shop Chic Styles for Less,” by continually updating its merchandise to remain fashion forward”, replies Chang.

Even with the company’s tremendous growth, it still remains a family owned business.

Daughter Linda Chang, the chain’s marketing manager says, “The great thing about this being a family business is that we all care so much. The stressful thing is that my mum and dad are also my bosses. I don’t have a personal life. We don’t stop. We talk about business over dinner. We go on mission trips [to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan] instead of vacations.”

Her parents, who are bornagain Christians, go to church at 5 a.m. every morning. Mrs. Chang has been quoted as saying that when they came to America, she went to the top of a mountain to pray – God told her she should open a store. Today, Mr. Chang is famous for keeping a Bible open on his desk, and the bottom of every Forever 21 carrier bag reads “John 3:16”, the core Christian message. Does their Christian faith jar with the ethics of selling fast fashion?

How will British customers feel about the brand’s religious tilt?

“There is no religious tilt,” answers Linda firmly. “The faith of the founders is separate from the brand – the bag is simply a statement of faith.” (sorianoasia@gmail.com) *** Prof. Soriano is an ASEAN Family Business Advisor, Book Author, Executive Director of Asean-based Consulting group, Wong + Bernstein Advisory and Program Director for Real Estate and the former Chair of the Marketing Cluster of the ATENEO Graduate School of Business. He is slated to deliver a talk on Philippine Business and Franchising Opportunities. The first talk is in NY on Feb 1 at the Philippine Consulate and Boston on Feb 4 at the Harvard Campus and in LA. The talk is organized by the Philippine Consulate in New York, in coordination with the Bagong Kulturang Pinoy (bkpinc.org), The Harvard Philippine Forum, TFC with Asian Journal as media partner. For those interested to attend, pls email nzuelke@gmail. com. Prof Soriano’s business articles can also be accessed at www.Faminbusiness.com

(Advertising Supplement)

FREE citizenship workshop in Los Angeles

L.A. immigrant rights organization provides free legal assistance

becoming citizens through a free event as part of the New Ameriand Immigration Service (IRIS) cans Campaign.

This citizenship workshop will help local green card holders take the first step towards will provide lawful permanent

residents with free naturalization application assistance by professional and trained volunteers.

Individuals will also receive legal

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On how NOT to become a…

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lower price.

Many crafty buyers use this as a tactic and instead of getting a better price, all it does is irritate the seller. If you want a lower price on an item you like, ask politely, “Would you take less for this?” And then state the price you are willing to pay.

Very often, the seller will counter with a lower price and then you can proceed from there with the price getting tossed back and forth until you agree on the final figure.

Merchandise is sold on an “as is” basis and most of the time, is not returnable. Buyer, beware.

Inspect closely. There are more trustworthy sellers than there are hucksters. They will tell you if the item is working or if there is a crack or a flaw on it. If you are uneasy about not being able to return things, buy the item new in a department store which will usually take it back, if it is defective.

There are no guarantees when you buy stuff at garage sales. You decide on the spot and there is no turning back — most of the time.

If you want to hone and practice your decision-making, buying and negotiating skills as an immigrant, this is one inexpensive (translate that to cheap) way to

go. It is also a lighthearted learning experience of what people value and discard on the material level and a personal and up close method of interacting with people of various cultures no book or classroom can teach you.

Above all, have fun garage “sale-ing”. The joy of discovering something that you need or want practically at a price of a song and a dance is part of the whole experience. But as in all things good and bad, do this with balance and moderation. If you become obssessive-compulsive with even as trifling a thing as going to garage sales as a matter of habit, you can become a pack rat. Employ self-correction.

With time and as you accumulate things, you will find yourself holding your own garage sales because you have encumbered yourself with too much stuff.

Or you might find yourself renting storage spaces for stuff that won’t fit in your home. When this happens you’ve reached a dangerous tipping point. The time has come to trim your possessions down to size and take back some of that breathing space you used to have.

Better yet, when you buy one thing, discipline yourself to get rid of 2 items at the same time.

It is a feng shui principle to clear

the pathways in your home. Avoid “plaque build-up” in the spaces of your home. Expedite the flow of “chi” or life force by becoming a minimalist. Toss things out.

Less is more. From a practical standpoint, you get back the breathing space you had when you first moved in to your empty abode. Having less stuff also means possibly having more in your piggy bank, that will allow you to have better, more meaningful, fulfilling life experiences at the right time.

The ironic thing a recovering pack rat discovers about himself is that as he travels down life’s highways and byways, it is so much more liberating and more fun to travel light, refusing to be bogged down by mere possessions. The bonus is that one gets to journey farther without stressing and straining while loading up instead on life’s precious experiences.

In our final journey, the only thing we might bring with us in that big blue yonder, if Alzheimer’s doesn’t wreck our brains first, are our memories. Stuff, after all, is just stuff. *** Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail monette.maglaya@ asianjournalinc.com

Why Grace Poe has 10-year Philippine…

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permanent one for US immigration law purposes. She merely gained a new address in Virginia after her marriage.

Granting arguendo that she had abandoned her Philippine domicile of origin when she became a lawful permanent resident and then a naturalized US citizen, she could and did change domicile from the United States to the Philippines on April 8, 2005, when she and her family returned to the Philippines for good.

Her re-establishment of Philippine domicile by choice on April 8, 2005, sufficiently complies with the ten-year residence requirement from May 9, 2006 to May 9, 2016.

Counting her Philippine domicile from the earliest in July 7, 2006, when she applied for dual citizenship under Republic Act 9225, incorrectly assumes that: (1) a naturalized US citizen can-

not have domicile or residence outside the United States; and (2) the 10-year residence requirement pertains only to a natural-born Philippine citizen.

In the first place, the citizenship requirement is separate and distinct from that of the tenyear residence; see Frivaldo vs.

Comelec, 327 Phil 521 (1996).

Secondly, the ten-year residence requirement is not specifically conditioned to be that of a natural-born citizen. And thirdly, the rationalé of the residence requirement is to prevent a stranger or newcomer unacquainted with the conditions and needs of a community and not identified with that community; see Gallego vs. Vera, 73 Phil. 453 (1941).

Grace Poe’s uses of her US passport as a dual citizen on her travels to the United States were allowed and consistent with her dual citizen status. Officially, her loss of US citizenship was

approved only on December 9, 2011. Her earlier renunciation of her US citizenship before a Philippine notary was not recognized by US expatriation law, but strengthened her prior reacquisition of Philippine citizenship.

In any event, the citizenship qualification, because it is not expressly conditioned, unlike that of residence, is required only at the start of the term of office of the President, as ruled by the Supreme Court in Frivaldo, supra. *** The Author, Roman P. Mosqueda, is a dual Philippine and US citizen, and has published numerous articles on constitutional law, international law, immigration law and other areas of law. In 2016, he was selected Super Lawyer, Best Attorney in America, and Lawyers of Distinction’s Top 10% Attorney in the United States. Visit his website at www. mosquedalaw.com. He practices law in Los Angeles, California.

(Advertising Supplement)

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LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL • JANUARY 13-15, 2016

B

People and Events SCAAAI, Inc. Homecoming The Infant Jesus of Prague Apostolic Group celebrates 32 years of service

SCA Alumni Association International, Inc. is Homeward Bound in February of 2016.

The St. Catherine’s Academy Alumni Association International, Inc. is sending its Health Fair Team of Doctors, Surgeons and Nurses to conduct its first Medical, Surgical and Dental Health Fair in its hometown of Gattaran, Cagayan, Philippines.

They will be joined by local SCA alumni based in Gattaran who have already laid the ground work for this medical project.

The health fair will be conducted at two separate locations and dates. One at St. Catherine’s Academy gymnasium on February 12, 2016 and the

other is at Nagbaccayan Gymnasium on February 12, 2016.

This special medical mission is the fruit of a combined efforts of SCA Alumni Association International, Inc. and the local SCA Alumni Association based in Gattaran. This is also planned through the cooperation of the townspeople leaders who lined up their reciepients who needed special medical, surgical and dental treatments and live below poverty level.

Medical equipments, related medicines and drugs come from donations from solicitations and fund raising events by SCAAAI, Inc. n

FREE citizenship workshop in…

PAGE B4 t

counsel by probono attorneys and legal experts. Services are available in Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Russian and English.

The New Americans Campaign is an innovative partnership with organizations like Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service that seeks to help aspiring Americans overcome barriers to becoming citizens and achieve citizenship.

Clinics like these show the local community that there is assistance available and that the New

EMPLOYMENT

Americans Campaign is there to lend a helping hand through its network of partners and service providers.

WHAT: Free Citizenship Workshop WHERE: Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, 3621 Brunswick Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90039 WHEN: Friday, January 15, 2016 at 10:30 am RSVP: For more information and to register, contact IRIS staff at 213-819-1890

*** Led by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the New Americans Campaign is an innovative and unprecedented effort that brings together a coalition of funders, leading national immigration and service organizations, and over one hundred local service providers across 18 different cities to help aspiring Americans reach their dream of citizenship. To learn more about the New Americans Campaign, please visit www. newamericanscampaign.org. n

EMPLOYMENT

THE Infant Jesus of Prague Apostolic Group is celebrating 32 years of service and prayer and will hold its 32nd annual 9-hour Novena and Mass on Saturday, January 30, 2016, at Saint Joseph the Worker Church, 19855 Sherman

Way, Winnetka, California.

The Novena starts at 7:00 am and the Mass follows at 3:20 pm.

Based in San Fernando Valley, the Apostolic Group aims to promote and spread devotions to the Infant Jesus. They are dedicated to organize and conduct the year-

ly nine-hour novena in honor of the Divine Child Jesus. Through baptism, they share the Gospel message of Jesus and perform services to the People of God. For more information, please contact Leo Nevada at (818) 633 3926 or visit www.IJPAG.com. n

PCCHS / PUPLHS 1996 Golden Jubilee THE Philippine College of Commerce High School Laboratory Batch 1966 (now Polytechnic University of the Philippines) will be celebrating its Golden Jubilee from February 20-21 in Manila, Philippines. According to the President of the PCCHS Batch ‘66 Alumni Association, Roland Atienza, about 55 batchmates from Australia, Canada and USA have confirmed attendance to the Homecoming and 50 from Manila local chapter.

Activities lined up for the Golden Jubilee Celebration are as follows:

February 20, 2016 – 6:0012:00 pm. Formal Program/Dinner at the Banahaw Ballroom, The Legend Villas, Mandaluyong City, Philippines February 21, 2016 – 8:00 am - 9:00 pm — Visit the ANAWIM Home for the Abandoned Elderly, Montalban, Rizal Province (Fellowship/Lunch/Donate basic needs of the elderly) — Tour of Manila (Former PCCHS in Lepanto, Intramuros Tour (old churches and Cathedral, Rizal Park, Fort Santiago) — Dinner/Cultural Show, at

FOR RENT

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Barbara’s, Intramuros February 22, 2016 - Breakup Group (To Palawan, Laguna and respective hometown provinces of the guests) For inquiries, please contact the following members of the CORE group: Agnes T. Sule #09165567000 suleagne s@yahoo.com, Roland Atienza #09062947156 atienza8@yahoo.com, Rebecca T. Sayed 09064032624 rebecca.sayed@ yahoo.com, Lourdes T. Flores lulutflores@yahoo.com, Rebecca Sayed rebecca.sayed@yahoo. com. n

B JANUARY 13-15, 2016 • LA MIDWEEK ASIAN JOURNAL

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The Asian Journal

MDWK Wednesday, January 13, 2016

PhotoS CourteSy of MiSS univerSe organization

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cover story The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 13, 2016

MISS UNIVERSE PIA ALONZO WURTZBACH

The Amazing and Confidently Beautiful Miss (With a Heart)

by MoMar G. Visaya/AJPress

By now, the world…the universe, rather, already knows who Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach is.

Chalk it up to a confluence of things, or maybe an alignment of stars. When the Steve Harvey debacle happened on December 20, 2015 where he announced the wrong name as the Miss Universe winner, people’s minds went on full gear.

Conspiracy theorists made more than enough noise; was the wrong announcement planned all along? Other people said it was a design issue, saying that it wasn’t Steve Harvey’s fault since the design of the card that he was supposed to read was well, badly-designed. And still, others, including one of the evening’s judges Perez Hilton believed it was a human error.“He had a job and he didn’t do it well,” Hilton said.

The most beautiful mistake is now almost a month old, yet people are still talking about it.

Slow news cycle, yes, maybe the week that it happened. But week after week since the coronation, people have not run out of things to talk about.

But what happened to the main players?

Steve Harvey seemed to be the fastest to move on as he tweeted “Merry Easter, y’all!” on Christmas Day. Ariadna Gutierrez in her backstage interview said “things happen for a reason” and posted a statement on Instagram with a photo of her wearing the crown and saying “Forever your Miss Universe” and followed it up a few days later with a post congratulating the Filipinos for having a Miss Universe. A week later, she was on Colombian radio saying that she was embarrassed big time and that she wanted to share the Miss Universe crown.

And in between, she was also offered a million dollars to do a porn film.

Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach had graciously accepted her fate when Harvey announced Miss Colombia as the winner. There she stayed, away from the spotlight, on one dimly lit corner of the stage she shared with the second runner-up, Miss USA. Less than two minutes later, a camera was in front of them; Steve Harvey was walking back near Miss Colombia.

“I think you just won Miss Universe,” Miss USA Olivia Jordan whispered to Pia’s ear.

“I didn’t know what to do, I was looking for the stage managers and I was waiting for the announcement to make sure. I did not want to assume,” Pia said as she recalled the moment leading up to her coronation, the moment many pageant diehards believe was stolen from her because of what happened.

That ‘moment’, and the

Miss Universe 2104 Paulina Vega removes the crown from Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez before eventually putting it on PIa, the rightful winner.

inaugural walk, Pia had a chance for a do over as TV host Kelly Ripa asked her on their morning show just because she was deprived of that chance.

As gracious as she was in her initial loss, Pia was equally magnanimous in victory.

“I was concerned about Ariadna’s feelings, that is why I was not in a full celebratory mode,” she remarked.

She was concerned yes, but she was a little firm when she was asked about her thoughts on sharing the crown with Miss Colombia.

“I think it would be difficult for two girls to share a crown, but I have high hopes that this will give great opportunities for me and Miss Colombia and the rest of the contestants,” Pia told Good Morning America. Quite the right response since she won the title fair and square based on the unanimous votes of the judges, the viewers and their co-candidates.

The Philippines waited for 42 years before winning another Miss Universe crown. Pia now joins the elite group of Gloria Diaz who won in 1969 and Margie Moran who won in 1973.

With her reign, she hopes to shine some light on three of the causes near and dear her heart – HIV and AIDS awareness, helping calamity-stricken countries with relief operations and cyberbullying.

Despite, and maybe because of her stature as a beauty queen, Pia was the center of cyberbullying herself when she posted something back in May 2015 immediately after Manny Pacquiao lost against Floyd Mayweather.

“I watched the fight and I was so affected that he didn’t win. Just like everybody else, I wanted him to win. It was meant as a joke. I wasn’t trying to threaten anybody,” she said, recalling what transpired in those moments.“To me, I said it in jest. I was just trying to be funny.

A lot of people were not so happy with that tweet.”

The people who were not

Pia’s prophetic tweet, which she says was meant as a joke.

“It’s my first time cooking in my New York apartment. I’m so happy to finally be having a homecooked meal,” Pia said on this photo posted on the Miss Universe official Facebook page.

happy with that tweet bashed her endlessly on social media, saying she was too over-confident and that she should be more humble.

“I guess my mistake was that I did not put any emojis. It was for me, something to be taken lightly,” she explained.

For her diehard followers – some call themselves Pianatics – the tweet was not a big deal, that Pia was – that early – just claiming the Miss Universe title already.

For that, she was quick to dispel the issue.

“I have claimed it ever since 2013! I always said, ‘I’m going to be Miss Universe’. I’ve said it so many times in my head and I’ve claimed it so many times, even in public when I was with my friends,” she said.

And it became her mantra.

A couple of years later and here we were, doing this interview a stone’s throw away from the Miss Universe Organization offices along Manhattan’s Avenue of the Americas.

The irony is that her being Miss Universe hasn’t totally and fully sunk in yet for her.

When we ask about her current state of mind, Pia replied quickly.

“It’s starting to sink in because I am finally working. It is different when you are at home and resting.

You don’t get a grasp of what’s going on but when you’re actually at work and doing the duties and responsibilities of a Miss Universe, that’s when it started to sink in.”

Chasing Pia January 4, 2016 was Day 1 for Pia and her new job as Miss Universe.

It was a very busy and productive day (but very organized and well-managed too, she said) for her and she spent the day doing ten interviews.

Her first one was with “Good Morning America,” followed by” Live with Kelly and Michael,” and ended with “CNN with Don Lemon” and ABC’s “Nightline with Juju Chang.” In between, there was “Access Hollywood,”“Inside Edition,”“Entertainment Tonight,” a live interview broadcast in the Philippines for ABS-CBN’s morning show “Umagang Kay Ganda.”

The following day was step and repeat as she went through more interviews and guestings on Fox and Friends and other local shows.

What follows are excerpts of our one-on-one interview with the reigning Miss Universe.

On meeting Samuel Jackson I’m so happy that Samuel

Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach: “I believe in destiny but success is not handed to you, you work hard for it.

Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach is the Miss Universe 2015 winner.

L. Jackson was the first famous person I met because I am really a fan and I watch his movies. He’s such a good actor and he is so warm and friendly. When he saw me, he said, “Miss Philippines!” and we shook hands.

On her emotional sendoff in Manila I was just so relieved that it was finally my turn for a press conference and sendoff. I was also under a lot of pressure, it was so close to my flight to Las Vegas. And of course, we really wanted to win Miss Universe. It has been building up for so many years and I didn’t want to be the one to break that streak, of course not.

If for anything, I wanted to win, not just for myself but for everybody. All of that, the pressure, the relief, it was like I won again.

On being a breadwinner at a young age It was not hard as I was never forced into it. It was something that I enjoyed doing and I want to go back doing it after Miss Universe. It felt so natural to me.

I went to school on weekdays and weekends I had shoots and tapings. To me, it was a pretty cool job for somebody my age at that time. I matured quite a bit compared to my peers because of that and that actually had some benefits as well.

On her third attempt for the title I was in London because I was waiting for my sister Sarah to give birth. She was due around Christmas pero January na, wala pa

PIa with Samuel L. Jackson, who posted this photo on his Instagram page after their meeting on Monday, Jan. 4.

and we had so many false alarms.

It was almost my flight back home and she hasn’t given birth yet. I asked her if she wanted me to stay until she gave birth and she said, ‘You go! We’ve heard enough about this Binibining Pilipinas, it’s all you have been talking about since you got here. You obviously want it. Go!’ I flew back to Manila and I wasn’t really pageant-ready. I had to rush the preparation for the pageant, the rest of the training I did after na.

On destiny I believe in destiny but success is not handed to you, you work hard for it.

On loving museums I love visiting museums, even when I was in England or in the Philippines. I usually go during my free time and I’m there for hours. It’s fascinating to me. After an interview earlier, we walked past the Museum of Modern Art and I was making mental notes on where it is so I can go back if I have time.

On NYC as a foodie city I’m still trying to find out what is the local cuisine here because it is so diverse. We (she then pauses for a while) have everything here.

It’s actually my first time to say we, I mean, live here. I just noticed that everywhere you look, there are different cuisines. What is homegrown New York cuisine, that’s what I am trying to figure out.

On her culinary capabilities My mom is a better cook, I’m sure of that. She’s my biggest critic when I cook Filipino food because she’s the best. She has many dishes. I was not a fan of pancit before but now, when I think about it, I would love to eat her pancit, her lumpia and kare-kare, that’s my favorite. It’s my celebratory meal back in the Philippines. And pan de sal with Cheez Whiz, that’s my favorite thing to eat for breakfast.

On her Miss U friends I was really close with Myanmar, who was my roommate; Malaysia and China. We were under one supervisor and we had to stick to each other because you don’t want to get lost. If your supervisor is looking for you, you should all be together. They were my comic relief because at times, things would get so serious and competitive but when I was with them, I could just sit down and be me.

On her ideal man I like guys who have a sense of

Photos by Troi Santos

Photos from Miss Universe Organization

humor. He has to be smart as well.

On the legacy she wants to leave as Miss Universe I would like the people to remember me as someone who is very natural and relatable. I don’t want to be so stiff. I want to erase the image some people have of beauty queens, that we are so unreachable and poised all the time, that we can’t commit a mistake. That’s not true. We’re real people, we’re just like everybody else. I want to show that we’re human.

On Lea Salonga’s open letter welcoming her to New York I love her advice for me and the things that I have to remember. I have yet to reply to her so thank you for reminding me.

On the last thing she listened to (She went on to sing a few bars of a song with the lyrics ‘You are the universe…’ and asked if I knew that song.) I was singing it yesterday during a shoot and I asked if anybody knew that song.

Nobody knew it. Is it just me? Did I make this song up? (laughs) Last thing she ate (It was almost 2:00 pm) I haven’t eaten anything yet, I had raw juice from a local juicer. I have them send it every day. Green juice.

On her nightly prayers I say thank you.

Do you wish on stars?

All the time.

On what color she would be if she were a crayon.

Red, because I’m hot. (She giggles and follows it up with ‘I’m just kidding.’) Green. That’s my favorite color.

Favorite drink Coconut water.

Favorite sport I don’t play but I love to watch football, or soccer.

Favorite toy as a kid My Barbies. I had so much, my dad spoiled me with so many Barbie dolls.

What is Pia Wurtzbach afraid of?

Regrets, that’s why I always try to do my best because I don’t want regrets.

Best assets Physical? My eyes. Characterwise? My personality and my sense of humor.

On why she is where she is right now I had very good teachers, mentors, parents who made sure that I was on the right path.

Fil-Am wins Golden Globe entertainment 3 award for best animated film ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’ new judges ready for action The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 13, 2016

by Nimfa

U. RUeda

Inquirer.net

BEVERLY HILLS—A Pixar animation film codirected by a Filipino-American has won best animated feature at the Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton on Sunday night, Jan. 10.

“Inside Out,” codirected by Fil-Am Ronnie del Carmen triumphed over “Anomalisa,” “The Good Dinosaur,” “The Peanuts Movie” and “Shaun the Sheep Movie.”

“I feel so honored,” said Del Carmen, who watched the 73rd Golden Globe Awards night from his northern California residence with his wife and two children.

“I’m so lucky to be part of director Pete Docter’s team for the past five years,” he added.

The film is a colorful look at a young girl’s inner emotions.

“It felt like growing up is really hard, and that was an interesting subject to make a movie about,” Docter said in his acceptance speech.

Though Del Carmen could not make it to the event because of work commitments, he felt the excitement as he watched Docter receive the award. “I had a big smile on my face.”

It was the seventh Pixar movie to win in the 10 years since the award was created.

Dream big Del Carmen said he hoped the recognition would inspire Filipinos to dream big and tell

by

aRviN meNdoza Inquirer.net

TWO judges are out but three new ones are in.

With veterans Kris Aquino and Ai Ai de las Alas dropping out of the judging panel, “Pilipinas Got Talent” (PGT) is gearing up for its upcoming season with new judges Angel Locsin, Robin Padilla and Vice Ganda.

Aquino will not be returning this season after reportedly citing health problems, while Ronald “Ronnie” del Carmen, Filipino director and cowriter of the new computer-animated Pixar film “Inside Out.” Inquirer.net photo by Jilson Seckler Tiu De las Alas is already tied with GMA Network after transferring behind the Golden Globes, the their story. last year.

Hollywood Foreign Press As“I had dreams and aspiraRetired ABS-CBN head tions just like anybody,” he said. sociation (HFPA) and its Filipino Freddie M. Garcia will remain members Ruben and Janet “I concentrated on what I loved as the fourth judge for his fifth Nepales, for their support. to do. consecutive season. “We have Docter, in a press briefing, He encouraged Filipinos a lot of talent in the Philippines. described Del Carmen as a seeking success to work hard, We hope to discover them this “great storyteller.” keep going, be seen, show up season,” he said.

“We’re excited we got to and “seek mentors who can Real-life best friends Luis work with Ronnie,” he said. “He Manzano and Billy Crawford are show you the way.” is an integral part of our team “You also have to take risks keeping their hosting duties as and the whole team of Pixar.” … and start telling your story,” well.

“To the Philippines, thank said Del Carmen, who was reThe four judges were all cently honored by the University you for making Ronnie del Carpresent during the show’s red men,” Docter added. of Santo Tomas as an outstandcarpet opening and taping of Rachel Bloom, who won the ing alumnus. the first set of auditions on Golden Globe for best actress in Tuesday, Jan. 12 at Kia Theater He said he was very gratea television comedy or musiful to Docter and John Lasseter, in Quezon City. cal for her role in the musical Pixar Animation Studios’ chief “I am super ready, super comedy-drama series “Crazy creative officer, for supporting excited to be a judge,” said coprojects like “Inside Out,” which Ex-Girlfriend,” told the Inquirer median-host and box office star she appreciated learning about he described as a “unique and Vice Ganda in an interview.

Filipino culture on the show. courageous” movie.

Acknowledging that the Filipino culture ‘Thank you for Ronnie’ competition would be very Bloom plays the role of ReHe also thanked the group tight among the contenders, becca Bunch, a Manhattan lawVice Ganda said he was looking yer who follows her high school for an act who “will affect him boyfriend Josh Chan, a Filipinoand touch his heart and soul.”

American, to West Covina, a “I don’t want this show to Los Angeles suburb with a large be “Pilipinas Got Awa (sympopulation of Fil-Ams. pathy),” he said. “I want that The series made history after this would all be about talent portraying a Filipino family’s and the winner would be really Thanksgiving dinner for the first deserving.” time on American television.

Vice Ganda, who had previ“We realized that no one has ously served as a temporary ever made an effort to show a judge for the show, expressed Filipino family on an American excitement and said he was show,” she said. ready to have a fun time with “It has taught me a lot about his cojudges.

Filipino culture,” Bloom said.

Padilla, meanwhile, be“It also taught me about how Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera pose in the press room with the award for best motion picture – anilieves that the latest season mated for “Inside Out” at the 73rd annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 10, at the Beverly important diversity is. America is will be much more exciting Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

AP photo by Jordan Strauss Continued on Page 4 than the previous ones. “The

Retired ABS-CBN head Freddie M. Garcia, Angel Locsin, Robin Padilla and Vice Ganda are set to discover the Philippines’ biggest talents.

judges would be more excellent, as well as the talent of the performers,” the actor said.

He said he would be an ally of the contestants throughout the competition. However, he added that he would not be too kind nor too strict.

“I will not show off. And I will say things from my heart,” said Padilla, who also had previous experience in hosting a talent show.

For Locsin, talent is not the only key to succeed and win people’s hearts.

“I want good attitude. I want magic,” the award-winning actress said.

Locsin said she was lucky to have opportunities to showcase her talent in the past and now was the time to repay the acceptance and chances people had granted her.

“I want to say yes to all but that’s not possible because we have to be honest and fair to the contestants,” she said.

A new element in this year’s PGT is the power of each judge to pick one act that will dart straight to the semi-finals using the “Golden Buzzer,” accord-

ing to business unit head Lui Andrada.

First introduced in the country six years ago, PGT is the local franchise of the “Got Talent” format created by Syco Entertainment, a company coowned by music and television mogul Simon Cowell.

It is coming back for its fifth season this month, following the success of four Filipino acts who got through the grand finals of AXN’s first “Asia’s Got Talent” (AGT) last May, two of whom are PGT alumni.

Season 3 finalist shadowplay group El Gamma Penumbra emerged as the grand champion of AGT, while singer Gerphil Flores from Season 1 finished in third place.

The talent reality show showcases performers across the country such as singers, dancers, magicians, jugglers, ventriloquists and other entertaining aspirants, all competing for the chance to win P2 million.

The previous winners, who are all singing acts, include Jovit Baldivino, Marcelito Pomoy, the Maasinhon Trio and Roel Manlangit.

4

entertainment

The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 13, 2016

Filipina chosen as Asia’s Best Female Chef

by Raoul

J. Chee Inquirer.net

Kee

The Philippines is in the news once again with the announcement on Tuesday, Jan. 12 of restaurateur Margarita Fores as Asia’s Best Female Chef 2016 by the group Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Fores was emotional at the announcement held at Lusso, one of her restaurants at Greenbelt 3 in Makati.

“I’ve been hyperventilating since they told me this morning. I had to keep asking whether they were going to take it back,” she said, in refer-

Ai-Ai casts doubt on claims that ‘Beauty and the Bestie’ is No. 1

by MaRinel

R. CRuz, niMfa u. Rueda Inquirer.net

LOs ANGeLes—Comedienne Ai-Ai delas Alas has cast doubt on star Cinema’s claims that ‘Beauty and the Bestie’ has beaten ‘My Bebe Love: #Kiligpamore’ in the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) box-office ranking.

‘Kahit ‘yung No. 3, pwede ring sabihin na No. 1 din sila e (even the No. 3 topgrosser can also claim it’s No.1,’ Delas Alas Margarita Fores announced as Asia’s Best Female said on Monday, Jan. 11 at a chef for 2016 by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. press conference announcing Photo from Thelma San Juan Twitter account the screening of ‘My Bebe Love’ ence to the Miss Universe 2015 in 15 cities in California and brouhaha where Miss Colombia Texas starting on Jan. 8.

‘In our hearts, sa puso was mistakenly crowned the ng AlDub nation, sa puso ng winner. Miss Philippines’ Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach was eventu- sambayanang Pilipino, No.1 kami, kasi lahat ng ginagawa ally declared the real winner.

Fores was unanimously cho- namin, walang daya (we’re No.1 because we don’t cheat in sen the best female chef by a group made of 300 gourmands everything we do).’

‘Ayaw ni Lord ng nandadaya and experts in the service (The Lord doesn’t like cheaters). industry.

Karma is a bitch,’ she added, The awarding will be held in eliciting laughs from the crowd.

Bangkok, Thailand on Feb. 29.

Delas Alas was also in town to visit two of her children, who live in Los Angeles.

A star Cinema spokesperson has claimed that its MMFF entry, ‘Beauty and the Bestie,’ snagged the top spot as the As showbiz mourns the passing of German “Kuya festival entered its second week.

Germs” Moreno, a new reason Comedian Vice Ganda, who to rejoice took place with the costars with Coco Martin in the birth of Juana Luisa, the third movie, tweeted: ‘300 million. child of celebrity couple Judy Thanks to you, Madlang People, Ann santos and Ryan Agoncillo. for making us number 1 in your According to GMANetwork. hearts!’ com, the news was confirmed Delas Alas, Vic sotto and

by Agoncillo himself who the love team of Alden Richards posted a photo in Instagram and Maine ‘Yaya Dub’ Mendoza showing “success!”. It was sim- (more popularly known as Alply captioned “January 8, 2016 Dub) lead the cast of ‘My Bebe #JuanaLuisasantosAgocillo.”

Love.’ The movie was No. 1 on earlier in the day, he huropening day, grossing a recordriedly left the live showing of breaking P60.5 million. eat Bulaga to rush to the hospiDelas Alas made the statetal to be with his wife who was ment in the wake of reports about to give birth. of ticket-swapping that could At the noontime show, affect numbers that determine he announced to his co-hosts box-office ranking. and the whole audience, “OK The actress said people guys,kayo na muna ang magvery close to her had personally bantay sa tindahan dahil eto na! witnessed ticket swapping.

Lalabas na si Luna! hintayin mo ‘My Bebe Love’ director si Daddy!” (ManilaTimes.net) Joey Javier Reyes was the first to publicly confirm reports that tickets for the movie were swapped with tickets for ‘Beauty and the Bestie.’

‘Got word from producer: It is true. Make sure that the title of the movie on your ticket is what you want to watch. Beware of ticket swapping,’ Reyes tweeted recently.

‘My Bebe Love’ nearly reached the P300-million mark on Jan. 2, according to GMA Films president Annette GozonAbrogar. The movie was produced by APT entertainment, a subsidiary of Television And Production exponents (TAPe) Philippines Inc., a partner of GMA Network.

‘Beauty and the Bestie’ was produced by star Cinema, which

Judy Ann gives birth

AI-AI delas Alas and Vic Sotto in ‘My Bebe Love’

Coco Martin and Vice Ganda

is under GMA’s rival network, ABs-CBN. In southern California, ‘My Bebe Love’ will be shown at the southbay Pavillion 13 in Carson, Orange stadium Promenade 25 in Orange, and River Park 15 in Oxnard, according to Jemilynne Aguirre of sG Productions, one of the local event producers.

Star Cinema’s side Meanwhile, star Cinema, producer of the action-comedy film, ‘Beauty and the Bestie,’ said it would rather not react on the issue of alleged ticket swapping because ‘this has already been addressed by the Metro Manila Development Authority.’

The MMDA is the organizer of the annual festival. star Cinema Ad Prom official Roxy Liquigan said the film production company has been joining the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) for many years, ‘but it was never us that manned the movie houses. This was never an issue in the past years. I think it’s all hearsay.’

In a text message sent to the Inquirer, MMDA chair emerson Carlos said the agency has conducted an inquiry on the matter after the issue first came out last week. ‘[We] immediately issued a statement that there was no sufficient proof nor convincing motive for (the issue’s) existence,’ said Carlos. ‘We also admonished the public to be more responsible in publishing statements.’

The Inquirer sought the reaction of star Cinema on the recent controversial statement of Ai-Ai, the star of ‘My Bebe Love: #KiligPaMore.’

Delas Alas said she refused to believe the pronouncement of ‘Beauty and the Bestie’ lead actor Vice Ganda that the film has beaten ‘My Bebe Love’ in the box-office ranking. Delas Alas said this was because their film’s producer, M-Zet Films, does not resort to cheating.

Liquigan shot back: ‘We have had several film entries

in the past years, including the ‘Tanging Ina’ series, and this had never become an issue. I guess this is just a result of fans’ eager reaction.’ Delas Alas is the lead actress of the ‘Tanging Ina’ franchise.

On Friday, Jan. 8, the MMDA announced that the 14day gross of this year’s festival amounted to P1.02 billion as compared to the gross of P985 million In 2014.

Carlos also released the top four films among the festival’s eight entries. ‘In no particular order,’ the MMDA chief enumerated the movies as follows: ‘haunted Mansion,’ ‘My Bebe Love: #KiligPaMore,’ ‘Beauty and the Bestie’ and ‘#WalangForever.’

Asked for the agency’s reason for not providing the ranking this year, Carlos said that MMFF organizers ‘do not really release the official breakdown.’ he added that those that were published in the previous years might have come from other outfits.

Liquigan said ‘Beauty and the Bestie’ has reached P419.3 million as of Jan. 7. ‘Vice is set to break the record of his previous movie, ‘Praybeyt Benjamin,’ which earned P443 million,’ Liquigan pointed out. ‘We won’t lie about our gross result. We’re just very happy for Vice!’ he added: ‘I personally don’t think it’s possible to cheat. People should be able to tell ticket sellers what movie they want to see. The fact that they were able to get inside the theater of their desired film disproves this claim. I’m thinking that everyone is just high with emotions.’

Liquigan said it was possible that the group supporting ‘My Bebe Love’ reacted negatively ‘because they also wanted to break their own record.’ he added: ‘As for our film, it will be shown worldwide starting next week. It will be seen in 36 theaters in North America and soon in europe.’

KathNiel bags foreign best actor and actress awards in Vietnam

The KathNiel fever has officially hit Vietnam after fans over there voted for ABs-CBN’s Teen King and Queen, Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo, as Best Foreign Actor and Actress on Friday’s Face of the Year Awards in ho Chi Minh City.

The two got the highest number of public votes in the said categories for their portrayals in the series Got to Believe, which aired in 2015 on Vietnamese television via IMC’s Today TV. The show proved to be a big hit among viewers and rated very well on its 7 to 8 p.m. daily primetime slot.

As of press time, the teen

love team’s mother studio said that Kathryn and Daniel personally received their respective awards at the gala night in the capital’s Opera house.

Richard Yap and Jodi sta.

Maria also won the same awards in early 2015 for their series Be Careful with My heart, which was also phenomenal in the said country.

Other dramas that aired in Vietnam in recent years include Mara Clara, The Legal Wife, sana Bukas Pa ang Kahapon, and Ikaw Lamang.

ABs-CBN’s content is made available across other territories Continued on Page 5

Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla won acting awards at the IMC Face of the Year awards night in Vietnam for their TV series “Got to Believe” which aired their last year. Twitter photo by Roxy Liquigan

Fil-Am wins Golden Globe award for...

From Page 3

a melting pot and I don’t think this has been acknowledged as much as it should.”

Fil-Am achievers hFPA’s Janet Nepales, who wore a Michael Cinco gown, said she was proud to bring the media and Fil-Am achievers, including filmmakers, tourism promoters and fashion designers, to the prestigious hollywood event to represent the Philippines.

“It’s always nice to have the Philippines represented in a hollywood establishment because you bring the perspective of

other countries, not just the rich nations,” said Ruben Nepales, the first Filipino chair of the hFPA board.

Among the Fil-Ams at the event was Oliver Tolentino, who was recently in the news for helping Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach win her crown when he sent her gowns for the crucial preliminary competition, following a last-minute plea of the Miss Philippines team.

Hope for Filipinos Tolentino was accompanied by his business manager Andrew

Caruthers. Also at the event was renowned dermatologist Tess Mauricio and her husband James Lee, filmmaker senedy Que and Jose “Boboi” Costas, a grass-roots tourism and heritage conservation advocate.

“Being here gives me hope that Filipino filmmakers can also make it big in hollywood,” said Que, a multiawarded movie and TV screenwriter whose film credits include cowriting “small Voices,” the 2002 Oscar entry of the Philippines in the best foreign language film category.

Moonlighting

writing, there are people who end up in psychiatric clinics, if de Leon not a cemetery; people who turn into alcoholics, drug addicts and lunatics, or suicidal - that is when writing destroys, when it kills more than bombs.

DO we seriously think But to live and survive, we writing is all joy? It is also half pain. Sometimes, it is pain that must think. And to think, we must produce ideas. makes us write.

Is there anyone better to Think about the atrocious produce ideas than writers? solitude of a room that graduAway with the phony humilally becomes a prison, like a ity, however. The writer is a torture chamber. sponge that absorbs life, spitThe fear of the blank page ting it out again in the form of that stares at you mockingly, ideas -- the metaphor of the the torment of the word you dowser who finds water in any didn’t find -- and if you did, it rhymes with the adjacent word. desert, like the allegory of the eternally pregnant cow, who It is the martyrdom of a deliver calves in the form of sentence that limps, of the ideas, and the gift of wizard metrics that fall apart, the Merlin who has the ability to structure that struggles of see things others cannot see, the page that bores and to hear things that others paragraphs that you must dismantle and rewrite, rewrite, cannot hear, to imagine things rewrite -- until the words seem that others cannot imagine nor like food that recedes from the anticipate.

Today, I wish to transfer my famished mouth of Tantalus. thoughts on paper. I navigate Being cooped inside and through the treacherous water giving up the outside world, with the blues, the greens and of the longed-for novel and only the good Lord knows the pleasure of watching the where it will lead me. sky turn into an abyss of an I’m aware that a novel invention, is expressed through doesn’t yield its many secrets words and committed to a immediately -- it locks within papery essence. A creative itself a mine of hypotheses; work is polluted by human inconsistencies and duplicities, a myriad of good and bad whether written with a smile on surprises, so everything is possible, including the worst. the lips or a tear in the eyes.

The characters are imagiIt is a monkish discipline, nary, even when they are a hero’s sacrifice. Colette was inspired by some model or right when she said it is also a alleged models. form of masochism -- a crime I listen, spy and steal from against ourselves, a felony, that reality, then I correct it to should be punished by law, like other felonies. Because of such a degree that often, I no

by MyLah

longer remember what the original was.

However, they represent only a part of the human samples the novel will offer. It will be full of life -- not a silent, nor a black and white show, but an inexhaustible rainbow of colors, an unending concerto of noises, a phantasmagorical chaos of voices and faces, and creatures whose actions intertwine to weave the charms of events that determine the individual’s destinies.

Am I exaggerating? Or am I just succumbing to the rhetoric of enthusiasm, to the utopia of the neophyte?

The novel has always attracted me because it is a vessel in which one can simultaneously pour reality and fantasy, dialectics and poetry, ideas and feelings that provides a truth truer than the real truth.

Call it reinvented, universalized truth in which everybody can identify and recognize himself because, whatever story it recounts and what time or space a story unfolds, it’s about men -- human beings.

And no matter how a story (lived or invented) concludes, whether or not we’ve divined how it will conclude, there’s something disquieting in the curtain that recalls the precariousness of life -- its unrepeatability, its inevitable and ineluctable goal.

And let’s not forget that the writer is always entitled to a certain amount of wrong. ***

E-mail Mylah at moonlightingmdl@ aol.com

KathNiel bags foreign best actor and...

From Page 4

through ABS-CBN International Distribution.

The KathNiel fever has officially hit Vietnam after fans over there voted for ABS-CBN’s Teen King and Queen, Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo, as Best Foreign Actor and Actress on Friday’s Face of the year Awards in Ho Chi Minh City.

The two got the highest number of public votes in

features 5

When is writing not a joy?

the said categories for their portrayals in the series Got to Believe, which aired in 2015 on Vietnamese television via IMC’s Today TV. The show proved to be a big hit among viewers and rated very well on its 7 to 8 p.m. daily primetime slot.

As of press time, the teen love team’s mother studio said that Kathryn and Daniel personally received their respective awards at the gala night in the

capital’s Opera House.

Richard yap and Jodi Sta. Maria also won the same awards in early 2015 for their series Be Careful with My Heart, which was also phenomenal in the said country.

Other dramas that aired in Vietnam in recent years include Mara Clara, The Legal wife, Sana Bukas Pa ang Kahapon, and Ikaw Lamang. (ManilaTimes.net)

The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 13, 2016

Mango Mix

Avoid raising a ‘spoiled’ child

by Martin

Jason L. ita-as

NOwADAyS, it’s becoming easier and easier to accidentally raise a “spoiled” child. But what parents want to know is: “what am I doing wrong?”

Sometimes it can be a little tricky to know how to avoid raising demanding children who explode into a burst of tears when they don’t get their way.

This can extend to places like on family trips or places like churches, special events and more and can lead parents into very embarrassing situations. what are the steps to raising an understanding and patient child?

Avoid making them the center of attention Making your children the center of everything is one path to soiling them. Buying them everything they beg for or being overly extravagant with things you give them can send signals that make them feel like they are much more important than anybody else, even more important than their own parents. As they reach the age of reason (around 6-9 years old), this becomes even more difficult to control. Nip the bud early and try to keep a level head when it comes to pampering your precious little babies.

Don’t reward bad behavior Inexperienced and new parents can sometimes be guilty of this without even realizing they’re doing more harm than good. Caving in to your children’s demands constantly can lead to a demanding boy or girl who will cry and whine until they get their way. Remain firm and find ways to ignore their whining. Not feeding their egos and desires makes whining and crying seem like a fruitless effort and maybe avoid doing it in the future when they want something.

Setting behavioral boundaries Setting clear boundaries in behavior can help your child understand that there are limits to everything that they do.

Make it clear how long they can stay up late and why. give them appropriate time in playing with electronic gadgets and playtime outside the house. warn them about why too many sweets are bad for you and set an amount of candy they can eat at a time you’re both happy with. Also keep in mind that being too strict can also have a bad effect, inciting rebellion when they compare their predicaments with classmates and friends. A good balance is needed when setting the rules.

Stick to the rules It can get tiring, but making your family stick to the rules and boundaries you set are an important part of building up a good attitude in your kids and maybe even yourselves as parents. It’s okay to break the rules once in awhile but if it’s more than once a month, you’re probably doing something wrong. Learn to stick to the rules and put your foot down when it’s needed. This will pay in the long run and teach your kids the importance and reward of sticking to rules set down.

Be the role model Keeping a calm head and a proper composure can teach your kids the proper way of handling infuriating situations.

If you explode over every little

thing, your kids will follow suit and do the same. It’s easier for kids to pick up bad habits from the people around them because they don’t know any better and everything is absorbed as new stimuli. If you swear a lot, your kids will learn to do the same. If you throw items in anger, your kids are likely to follow suit. If you answer rudely with a loud voice, expect your kids to exhibit the same behavior. How you carry yourself while your child is young will definitely reflect on them later on.

Trying to avoid raising a spoiled child can be a real challenge, but the payoff of a respectful patient and responsible adult in the future is something you can look forward to. Keep these suggestions in mind and you’ll find it easier to avoid subconscious habits that can raise a self-absorbed kid. *** Mango Tours is a provider of quality, affordable and convenient travel services that include lowpriced airline tickets, customized Philippine and International Tour Packages, Cruises, Land Transfers, Passport and Visa Concerns. It is the #1 producer of reliable travel services particularly when it comes to Philippine travel arrangements to the Filipino-American community in the US Mango Tours is able to provide its customers with a number of travel options at affordable rates because of its consolidator contracts with over 11 airlines. Book your travel bookings with Mango Tours by calling its 24/7 U.S. toll-free number at 1-866-2-MANILA (1-866-2-626452). Visit www. mangotours.com to know more about its latest promos and travel offers.* *Advertising Supplement

6

The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 13, 2016

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3

$

$1.99 25%

$2.49 20%

$21.99 23%

SAVINGS

2

for

SAVINGS

99¢

WAS

$16.99 18%

WAS

16.99

$

SAVINGS

1.99

$

NATIONAL CITY 2720 E. PLAZA BLVD. NATIONAL CITY, CA 91950 (619) 475-1025

“WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO TERMINATE THE SALES PROMO WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. WE ALSO RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REPLACE ITEMS WITH PRODUCTS OF APPROXIMATE VALUE. NO RAIN CHECKS. PROMO GOOD WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. NOT VALID WITH ANY OTHER COUPON OR PROMO. PRICES MAY CHANGE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. GIVEAWAYS NOT VALID FOR CUSTOMERS WITH DISCOUNT.”

Silver Swan Soy Sauce 1L