Philippine Canadian Inquirer Issue #112

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VOL. 4 NO. 112

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APRIL 25, 2014

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Ancient enigmatic carvings in danger of disappearing

Tagle: Start new life with true peace

Jinggoy says Gigi won’t testify against JPE

Filipino-Canadian in Focus: Jose Antonio “J.A.” Tan

A PCI Special: Slipping into Inner Peace

FAITH ENDURES

The Slow Sad Truth: PH has poorest internet speed in Southeast Asia

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer

EVEN AFTER Typhoon Yolanda, the residents of Pablo, Leyte give their time to greet Christ in this traditional “salubong” ceremony.

PHOTO BY MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Opinions split on Napoles turning state witness

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN AND TJ BURGONIO Philippine Daily Inquirer NEVER TRUST a con artist.

Levito Baligod, counsel of whistleblowers in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam, is worried that taking in businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles as state witness will do more harm than

good in the government’s plunder case against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. “Only one person will benefit from taking Napoles as state witness and that is Napoles herself because she will be gifted with a ‘get out of jail’ card for free,” Baligod said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “We must not forget that she

❱❱ PAGE 10 The Slow

Philippine Canadian Inquirer

South Korean president calls actions of sunken ferry’s crew ‘murderous’ GMANETWORK.COM

❱❱ PAGE 7 Opinions split

ODDLY ENOUGH, the home of the “selfiest city in the world” (and also the ninth selfiest city) has the poorest internet speed in Southeast Asia.

The Philippines ranked 12th out of 12 countries noted by ASEAN and 158th out of 190 countries around the world according to Ookla.

The main study was conducted by Ookla—the company behind www. speedtest.net and the “world standard in internet metrics.” The results were obtained through its NetMetrics database, which then runs a series of tests

❱❱ PAGE 21

m info@canadianinquirer.net A (888) 668-6059 facebook.com/ Philippine CanadianInquirer twitter: @philcaninquirer

APRIL 25, 2014

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FRIDAY 2

Philippine News

3 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

$57-B mega plan to solve Metro’s mega woes

BY JERRY E. ESPLANADA Philippine Daily Inquirer NOTING THAT Metro Manila’s traffic, infrastructure and housing problems can no longer be solved by the National Capital Region alone, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has come up with a “Dream Plan” for what it calls a “Greater Capital Region,” composed of the NCR and neighboring Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.

to $57.3 billion through 2030 to realize the overall impact encapsuled in five “Nos”—“No traffic congestion, no excessive transport cost burden for low income groups, no households living in high hazard risk areas, no barriers for seamless mobility of people, and no air pollution” in the Mega Manila area.

The dream plan’s vision is “growth with GPS,” short for “Gate to a wellspring of hope, Place for livable communities and Space for dynamic business centers.”

Five ‘Nos’

Edsa rehab

In a Jica study titled “Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and its Surrounding Areas,” a copy of which was obtained by the INQUIRER, the technical arm of the Japanese government’s official development aid program said “Regions III and IV-A must work out effective ways to maximize the positive aspects of their proximity to the buzzling capital region and at the same time contribute to mitigating the problems of the metropolis.”

The study, conducted from March to December 2013, recommended public and private sector investments of up

The Jica proposed the following shortterm projects aimed at solving Metro Manila’s worsening traffic problems, hazard risks and growth management: • Urban roads: Rehabilitation of major roads like the 23-kilometer Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, or Edsa, the country’s busiest thoroughfare; develop secondary roads; and completion of the so-called “missing links,” which refer to flyovers, interchanges and bridges.

• Expressways: Complete the North Luzon Expressway and South Luzon Ex-

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Philippine News

APRIL 25, 2014

FRIDAY 4

Search for Etihad passengers launched

BY CHRISTIAN V. ESGUERRA, JOCELYN R. UY, NESTOR P. BURGOS JR., AND NASH MAULANA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) may have to track down more than 200 passengers of Etihad flight number EY0424 even if a returning male Filipino nurse who earlier tested positive for the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome- Corona Virus (MERSCoV) has been cleared.

President Aquino presided over an almost five-hour closed-door meeting on MERSCoV with some of his Cabinet officials on Saturday to discuss the “continuing effort to trace and contact the passengers” of EY 0424, said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma, who joined the meeting at the DOH in Tayuman, Manila.

The meeting, which started at around 2:45 p.m., ended shortly before 8 p.m.

“The President emphasized

the need to trace, contact and test all the passengers of EY 0424 as the virus is transmitted by close contact with a known carrier,” Coloma said in a statement.

The MERS-CoV is a respiratory virus that is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which spread in China 12 years ago.

Its symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath and diarrhea.

The Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi arrived in Manila on April 15 with a total of 415 passengers, among them a Filipino nurse who earlier tested positive for MERSCoV in the United Arab Emirates.

Out of the flight’s 415 passengers, the DOH has traced and contacted 119, of whom 72 have been tested. So far, 40 were negative of the virus. The health agency is still awaiting the rest of the results.

As of 1 p.m. yesterday, Coloma said the DOH had contacted 34 more passengers, and are

tracking 213 more.

The health agency in Western Visayas (DOH-6) has taken samples from 11 passengers of the same Etihad Airways flight.

The passengers were also put on quarantine in a hospital in Iloilo City pending results of swab tests taken on Saturday, according to Dr. Jessie Glen Alonsabe, regional epidemiologist.

Alonsabe said the specimens were sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City for MERSCoV testing.

The 11 persons quarantined were among the 18 passengers fromWestern Visayas.

The DOH earlier confirmed that an OFW on the same flight tested positive for the virus but did not show symptoms of the illness.

Alonsabe said they were still tracing the seven other passengers from Western Visayas who were still in other regions or could not be located.

Coloma said the President has “directed that efforts to trace and contact all other pas-

sengers be continued until all had been tested.”

“This is to rule out the possibility that there may be others who are positive for the virus, considering that all of them traveled from the Middle East (Arabian Peninsula) which is the source of the virus, and considering further that there is a 14-day maximum incubation period,” he said.

Already, a female OFW from Maguindanao, who had worked in Saudi Arabia about five years, has died of suspected MERSCoV, according to her family.

Tidting Khalifa of Matanog, Maguindanao, said his 44-yearold daughter, Husna, had been taken to the King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah and died there on April 12.

Husna, Khalifa said, had been in Saudi Arabia since 2009 on an assumed passport belonging to a Norisa Naing.

“It was given to her by her recruiter,” he said, without naming names.

Khalifa, quoting information

the family got from sources, including other relatives working in Jeddah, said his daughter had suffered from flu-like symptoms before being taken to the hospital. She died a few days later.

Her remains were buried there due to quarantine restrictions, he said.

MERS-CoV has been giving Saudi health authorities a serious headache since it was first discovered there in 2012.

About half of the 206 victims diagnosed with the viral disease had died, according to the Saudi Ministry of Health. ■ With a report from Tina G. Santos

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Philippine News

5 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Positive in UAE, returning Pinoy nurse tests negative

BY TINA G. SANTOS Philippine Daily Inquirer NEW TESTS conducted by the Department of Health (DOH) yielded negative for the male Filipino nurse who returned from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV).

In a press conference yesterday, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said further tests done by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) on the overseas Filipino worker (OFW), who came home to Manila in the afternoon of April 15 and had been initially diagnosed with MERS-CoV, showed that he no longer carried the virus.

The RITM conducted two tests on the OFW and both yielded negative results.

MERS-CoV is a communicable disease that may be passed on to others through exposure or close contact with a positive carrier. The incubation period for the disease is up to 14 days, the DOH said.

It is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Ona said the health worker has been discharged after results of the tests were released.

Overcoming the virus

Asked to explain the seemingly conflicting results, Ona said the test result was positive when it was done in the Middle East but, most likely, hewas able to overcome the virus.

“It means there is no virus circulating in his body anymore,” Ona said.

Last Wednesday, the DOH confirmed that the nurse was the first reported case of MERS-CoV in the country based on initial test results from the UAE. The OFW was believed to have been exposed to the virus through a Filipino paramedic in the UAE who died last week after contracting MERS-CoV. He was ordered to take laboratory tests but he left for Manila before the results were released.

Upon his arrival in Manila,

At 77, Erap has Easter treat for Manila cops but keeps City Hall folk in agony

BY ERIKA SAULER Philippine Daily Inquirer

the results from the UAE was released, showing he was infected. This prompted the DOH to put him and his family in quarantine for further tests.

In the UAE, five Filipinos infected with the deadly virus remained quarantined at a hospital but were in stable condition, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Assistant Secretary Charles Jose, DFA spokesperson, made this announcement yesterday, citing a report from the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

The Filipinoworker who died of the virus on April 10 is set to be cremated in the UAE. His name has been withheld by the DFA but Jose said the embassy “is helping the family comply with necessary procedures for the cremation of the remains.”

Last week, the DFA called on Filipinos across the Middle East to take precautionary measures amid the continuing threat of the virus and “follow the advice of the local health authorities in their host countries.”

Apart from the male nurse, 40 other passengers who were with him on Etihad Airlines flight EY 0424 from the UAE, also tested negative for MERSCoV. Waiting for results

Out of the flight’s 415 passengers, the DOH has traced and contacted 119, of whom 72 have been tested.

“We’re still waiting for the results of the tests conducted on

the other passengers, they’re still being processed,” said Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, DOHprogram manager on emerging infectious diseases. He explained that it takes about nine to 10 hours to get the test results.

Lee Suy said there is no epidemic or outbreak in the country or in the Middle East where the virus is believed to have originated from.

“That is why the World Health Organization (WHO) has not imposed travel restrictions to and from theMiddle East,” he said.

Ona said the OFW’s family— his wife and two children—as well as a household helper who traveled with him from the UAE and five others who fetched them at the airport also tested negative for MERS-CoV. He said the DOH Task Force MERS-CoV, which was mobilized to create awareness about and prevent the spread of the disease, continues to trace other passengers of EY 0424.

“Although the OFW now tested negative for the disease, at the time he was traveling from Abu Dhabi to Manila last April 15—a seven-hour flight—he was still deemed a positive carrier of the virus, and that all his fellow passengers were exposed to him. Anybody who may have been in close contact with him for the duration of the flight, were at risk of infection,” he said. ■ With a report from Tarra Quismundo and AFP www.canadianinquirer.net

TURNING 77 on Black Saturday, former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada unveiled an Easter treat for city policemen but asked local government employees to make a post-Lenten “sacrifice.”

“For my birthday, I have set aside funds to give P10,000 per policeman,” Estrada said in an interview, referring to the financial assistance totaling P29.58 million for members of the Manila Police District (MPD).

The amount represents the P2,500 monthly allowance due each MPD member since January, which Estrada said would be drawn from City Hall’s special activities fund under nonoffice expenditures.

The mayor explained that since his birthday fell on a holiday, he decided to schedule the distribution of the money next week. In December last year, he also distributed P6,000 to each Manila policeman, representing P1,000 a month since he assumed office.

His predecessor, Alfredo Lim, suspended the release of the police allowance in his last two years in office.

But for City Hall employees who had been grumbling about their deferred salary increase, Estrada said they had to make some more “sacrifices” for now.

“At least they have a job, others don't. I myself haven't received

a single centavo of my salary since I started.”

Several employees have been complaining that they haven't received the fourth tranche of the government-mandated salary increase pending since January last year.

“It was much better during the previous administration when half of the amount was given at the end of the year to comply with the law,” one employee told the INQUIRER, requesting not to be identified for fear of reprisal.

“Wala muna (None for now),” Estrada said. “(The money) is needed for the greater good of the greatest number. Let's prioritize the people first, the health centers, the hospitals.”

Citing the conditions set in a budget circular in a previous interview, City Treasurer Liberty Toledo explained that “you're only allowed to grant the increase if you qualify under the 45-percent personal services limitation.

The main reason why we can't grant that even if the mayor wanted to is this limitation.”

Estrada said he was giving priority to the policemen in view of his campaign platform focusing on peace and order.

Estrada, who spent his past birthdays handing out food and other gift items to residents in depressed areas, did not make any public appearance on Saturday. Diego Cagahastian, chief of the City Development Information Service, said the mayor went on an out-of-town trip. ■

Members of the Manila Police District are happy, but for City Hall employees who had been grumbling about their deferred salary increase, Estrada said “Wala muna (None for now). (The money) is needed for the greater good of the greatest number. Let’s prioritize the people first, the health centers, the hospitals.”

PHOTO FROM MB.COM.PH

Philippine News

APRIL 25, 2014

FRIDAY 6

Indigenous aspiration in Bangsamoro

BY GERMELINA LACORTE Philippine Daily Inquirer BEFORE SUNRISE on Wednesday, the “waliyan,” priests of the Erumanen Manuvu indigenous communities in Bukidnon province and Carmen town, North Cotabato province, held a synchronized ritual to implore the gods that their appeal to President Aquino for respect of their rights will finally be heard in the Bangsamoro governance setup.

In the ritual called “pined redsa ne pengeni ngeni,” Datu Al Saliling of the Erumanen Manuvu in Eruman, Carmen, voiced out the anxiety felt by indigenous peoples (IP) that in the proposed Bangsamoro territory, their rights to the land—where their identity as a people begins and ends—would be glossed over.

“We are not rejecting the peace pact between the government and MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front). In fact, we are supporting it,” Saliling said. “But as much as possible,

The “Waliyan” (main ritualist) is the man garbed in an all-white outfit with headgear.

PHOTO COURTESY OF INITIATIVES FOR INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUES

we should not be part of the Bangsamoro identity because we have quite an identity of our own.”

Recognition

The indigenous peoples want recognition of their territorial rights to be put in writing in the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which will be passed by the Congress.

Their experiences in the Au-

tonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which will be supplanted by the Bangsamoro, made them wary over the fate of their ancestral domain.

Since the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Ipra), or Republic Act No. 8371, was signed into law in October 1997, no certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) has been issued in the ARMM despite applications filed by the Teduray, Lamban-

www.canadianinquirer.net

gian, Dulangan Manobo and Erumanen Manuvu.

Saliling said the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) had failed to issue any CADT in the ARMM in the last 17 years because all of the tribal concerns in the region were handled by the Office for Southern Cultural Communities (OSCC), an agency under the ARMM. Unlike the NCIP, the OSCC has no mandate to is-

sue the titles.

It was only after the NCIP came up with an en banc resolution in January that the legalities over the issuance of CADTs were resolved, and the Teduray, Lambangian and Dulangan Manobo tribes in Central Mindanao started delineation proceedings over their ancestral domain claim, covering an area of 201,850 hectares, in the ARMM. But Timuay Alim Bandara, head of an ancestral domain claimant organization in Central Mindanao, said his people were at the beginning of a long process that would include social preparation and actual land survey. “We’re still at the first stage of a three-stage process, the fastest of which will take about an entire year to finish,” he said.

Bandara remained hopeful despite funding problems and an OSCC statement questioning the NCIP move that the latter had overlapped its jurisdiction in the ARMM. ❱❱ PAGE 11 Indigenous aspiration

Philippine News

7 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

AFTA to kill agri industry in 2015–JV

BY JUAN ESCANDOR JR Inquirer Southern Luzon DAET, CAMARINES NORTE— Neophyte Senator JV Ejercito raised concern that the country’s agriculture sector would be devastated when the Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), which lifts all tariffs on agricultural products among the 10 member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is enforced in 2015, or less than a year from now.

Ejercito, chair of the Senate committee on economic affairs, said he would move for the suspension of the AFTA enforcement because Filipino farmers cannot compete with the prices of agricultural products like rice and sugar from Asean countries like Thailand and Vietnam that are expected to flood the local market when the tariff barriers are lifted.

“It will kill the agriculture industry,” Ejercito said on April 15 at the sidelines of the province’s 94th founding anniversary celebration where he was the guest speaker.

Similar to EU

Asean was founded in 1967

by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore, later joined by Brunei in the

Neophyte Senator JV Ejercito, chair of the Senate committee on economic affairs, said he would move for the suspension of the AFTA enforcement because Filipino farmers cannot compete with the prices of agricultural products like rice and sugar from Asean countries like Thailand and Vietnam that are expected to flood the local market when the tariff barriers are lifted.

PHOTO BY ART PHANEUF / LOSTARTS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

1980s (the so-called Asean-6) , and by Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in the 1990s.

The regional body envisions an economic integration process similar to that of the European Union that would expand the market and business opportunities for member countries.

The plan involves the liberalization of trade in goods through the reduction and elimination of tariffs under the Asean Free Trade Agreement of 1992 (AFTA). The plan is to achieve zero tariff for all products by 2010 for the Asean-6 countries,

and 2015 for the remaining four, according to Asean information documents.

Ejercito said sugar-producing provinces are expected to be affected with the expected entry of Thai sugar, which is cheaper than Philippine sugar, claiming Thailand subsidizes agricultural production in its country.

Contrary to existing Philippine free trade commitments, Ejercito now proposes to subsidize agriculture.

He said they have initially discussed in his committee where to get funds to subsidize

agriculture and he proposed to partake of the budget for the conditional cash transfer (CCT), a government program that grants monthly cash allowances to poor families to boost education and health care for children.

Ejercito noted the Aquino administration started with a CCT budget of P20 billion, increased it to P39 billion, and at present pegged it at P60 billion.

“The P60 billion budget is huge. That is, looking at it from all angles, it is dole out. Twentyfive percent of the CCT budget

could do much to subsidize fertilizers, upgrade post-harvest facilities, modernize and mechanize farm system,” he said Ejercito said it was only last year that the preparation for the AFTA enforcement was brought out during the budget hearing.

He said he had asked Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, during the budget committee hearing and on several other occasions, about the government’s preparation for the enforcement of AFTA but was not satisfied with his answers. “(I am not) satisfied (with their) preparation. (Because when they talked about it), it seemed like 2015 is three years away... It’s just seven months from now,” said Ejercito.

He said the government has to act with urgency and it must have a deadline. Ejercito said he filed the Sugarcane Bill which aims to modernize aging sugar mills, most of which are 50 years old, resulting in high production costs.

“I will push to ask theWorld Trade Organization to extend to delay the enforcement of AFTA especially for sugar and rice. We need this because our industry is not prepared for the entry of cheap products from Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia,” he said. ■

Opinions split... has been a con artist even before this pork barrel scam.”

Baligod pointed out that the Office of the Ombudsman had found probable cause to file plunder charges against the senators even without the cooperation of Napoles.

In the hearing last Nov. 7 in the Senate, Napoles denied involvement in dubious foundations that allegedly siphoned off congressional allocations in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) into ghost projects and kickbacks.

“The defense can use her Senate testimony to destroy her credibility as a witness.

That was her chance to come clean on the scam, and she blew it,” said Baligod.

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano warned the Department of Justice (DOJ) ❰❰ 1

against rushing to embrace Napoles.

“I’m 100-percent supportive of her telling all, but she should do that first without conditions,” he said. “If there’s any leniency that should be granted by the government, she should return the money and be penalized. Otherwise it will send the wrong message.”

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said in a text message: “How could the person who put up the infrastructure for the PDAF scam be qualified as state witness? Isn’t the architect of the whole scheme the most guilty, hence disqualified from being state witness? She could be muddling the whole picture out of desperation … Since she’s facing the prospect of life in prison, so why not bring as many down with her just to muddle the whole issue. We should be

Janet Lim Napoles, the woman at the center of the pork barrel scam, is seen seated beside Justice Secretary de Lima at a November 2013 Senate hearing.

De Lima visited Napoles Monday night at Ospital ng Makati, and claims the businesswoman gave her more information beyond what they got from whistleblower Benhur Luy. PHOTO FROM INTERAKSYON.COM

careful.”

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago was upbeat. “I expect that she will name more than the three senators that have already been named by the Ombudsman and the blue ribbon committee,” she said in an interview by phone. “This prospect is going to make senators quake in their shoes. She knows www.canadianinquirer.net

more, that’s why the number of senators implicated in the scam is going to increase.”

Estrada was unfazed. “I am concerned if the DOJ or the NBI would force her to mention our names. That’s my concern.

But if Secretary (Leila) de Lima will not influence Mrs. Napoles, we do not have anything to worry about,” he told reporters.

Revilla’s counsel, Joel Bodegon, said that if Napoles would implicate Revilla, contrary to her claims she had no transactions with him, that meant “she was forced to do so at the sacrifice of truth.”

Representatives Giorgidi Aggabao of Isabela and Elpidio Barzaga of Cavite said the government needed Napoles to nail down the lawmakers involved.

“The case against Napoles is ironclad. I think the outcome of the cases against her is fixed and certain. But the same cannot be said about the cases against the members of Congress. Although quite strong, the cases are still porous,” said Aggabao, the deputy House speaker.

“Napoles’ testimony is very crucial. Her full disclosure will be the final nail in the coffin of the pork barrel issue,” said Barzaga. ■

Philippine News

APRIL 25, 2014 FRIDAY 8

Ancient enigmatic carvings in Miriam scoffs at danger of disappearing rushing defense pact for Obama visit Philippine Daily Inquirer

BINANGONAN, RIZAL—On a small rock wall a short drive from Manila, enigmatic carvings that are believed to date back 5,000 years are in danger of disappearing before their mysteries can be solved.

The 127 engravings of people, animals and geometric shapes are the Philippines’ oldest known artworks, but encroaching urbanization, vandals and the ravages of nature are growing threats.

“Eventually they will disappear … preservation is out of the question,” veteran anthropologist Jesus Peralta, who did an extensive and widely respected study of the carvings in the 1970s, told Agence FrancePresse.

The artworks have been declared a national treasure, regarded as the best proof that relatively sophisticated societies existed in the Philippines in the Stone Age. “They show that in ancient times, the Philippines did have a complex culture. It’s a recording of our ancestors,” said Leo Batoon, a senior researcher of the National Museum.

Museum scientists

believe the carvings date back to 3000 BC, based on carving tools and pottery shards discovered at the site, indicating they originated before the use of metal tools.

This makes them far older than the country’s second oldest known artworks, a series of geometric shapes in the mountainous northern Philippines that are believed to date to 1500 BC, according to Batoon.

But museum workers say it is difficult to conclusively determine the age of the carvings—scientifically referred to as “petroglyphs”—due to technical and financial constraints.

“Most of our artifacts in the museum are sent abroad and only if we have partners and proponents to spend for such dating,” Batoon said.

Little-known carvings

Little else is known about the figures, or the people who etched them.

BY TJ BURGONIO Philippine Daily Inquirer

Some Filipino students line up to examine the carvings on a rock wall in Binangonan, Rizal province. The enigmatic carvings are believed to date back 5,000 years.

PHOTO FROM NEWS.YAHOO.COM

One clue is that many of the human carvings appear to be in a squatting position, which has led scientists to theorize that the area was a place of worship.

The carvings were first documented by acclaimed Philippine artist Carlos Francisco in 1965 while he was leading a Boy Scout troop on a hike.

Since then, they have been known as “the Angono Petroglyphs,” after Francisco’s hometown nearby.

The World Monuments Fund, a New York-based private group that works to protect historical sites, placed the Angono Petroglyphs on its list of endangered monuments in 1996 and has provided help in their preservation.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has also placed the petroglyphs on its “tentative list” of world heritage sites.

But that has done little to stem the powerful tide of neglect.

The carvings are in mountains about 90 minutes’ drive from Manila that only a few decades ago were entirely forested.

But most of the trees have since been chopped down to make way for the country’s fast-growing population, with a holiday resort, a golf course and upper-class housing now surrounding the rock wall.

A real estate developer owns the land on which the petroglyphs sit. He donated the hillside on which the carvings are located back to the national museum but allowed only a small buffer zone, and a road runs just 10 meters from the carvings.

Wind and rain, as well as plant roots creeping through the stone, have also damaged

the soft rock where the carvings are etched.

The poorly funded National Museum cannot afford to pay for adequate security so vandalism is also a constant worry.

People have scrawled their names on the rock and there are slash marks on some carvings that archaeologists have determined were only made recently.

Mining at a nearby gravel pit a few years ago also shook the ancient site, Roden Santiago, a National Museum guide, told AFP. Fortunately, after the museum made a request, the pit owners found a less threatening way to extract their minerals, according to Santiago, but he fears the foundations of the rock wall face more threats.

He said planned new housing developments nearby would mean more underground pipes, which could weaken the hillside.

And despite their rich importance to the nation's history, the carvings are not a major tourist attraction.

The National Museum has constructed a small wooden viewing deck so visitors could get a good look at the petroglyphs without getting close enough to deface them, but there is little lese to attract.

Tattoo artist Myke Sambajon did make the trip from Manila to see the carvings and said it was worth the long motorcycle ride despite being initially disheartened by rudimentary nature of the tourist site.

“I felt pride because I never knew our people had anything this old,” Sambajon told the AFP “I though only other people had these things. We realized we also have an ancient history.” ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

WHAT’S THIS, Easter present?

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Sunday scoffed at the idea of rushing a deal allowing increased US military presence in the country in time for President Obama’s visit next week.

Santiago, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, reminded government officials that there’s no international doctrine that says a visiting head of state should be welcomed with a present.

“Why, what kind of gift is this? Easter present, Christmas present, birthday present?” she wondered aloud in an interview over dzBB. Besides, Santiago said, the defense and security agreement was an “important matter” that should not be rushed given the clear constitutional provision banning the basing of foreign troops in the country.

“We should stop this superstitious mentality that visitors should be shown good behavior,” she said.

Besides, Obama’s visit to the country is just part of his swing through Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, the senator said.

Shooting war

“He didn’t want to provoke China because this might erupt into a shooting war,” she said.

The two sides hoped to finalize the terms for the Agreement on Enhanced Defense Coopera-

tion before Obama embarked on his Asian tour.

Under the deal, the Philippines agrees to allow the United States access to the country’s military bases amid China’s increasing aggressiveness in the West Philippine Sea. Philippine authorities, on the other hand, can have access to US facilities inside local military bases.

Santiago asserted that the increased rotational presence of American troops under the deal would violate the Constitution.

Rules-conscious

“It’s clear in our Constitution that you could not increase American soldiers in the country. It’s not that I’m opposing this, or others are opposing this, but it’s clear in our Constitution that foreign military bases, foreign military troops or foreign military facilities shall not be allowed in the Philippines except under a treaty duly concurred by the Senate,” she said.

She said US Ambassador Philip Goldberg should tell Obama that Filipinos were “rules-conscious,” a mind-set that they imbibed from the Americans themselves.

“They should give us the courtesy and read our Constitution,” she said.

The Bayan Muna party-list group has vowed to question the constitutionality of the deal, claiming it would practically bring back the US bases more than 20 years after the Senate rejected the Bases Treaty in 1991. ■

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Sunday scoffed at the idea of rushing a deal allowing increased US military presence in the country in time for President Obama’s visit next week.

PHOTO FROM EVERETT COLLECTION / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Philippine News

9 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Tagle: Start new life with true peace

BY TINA G. SANTOS Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA ARCHBISHOP Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, in an Easter message issued yesterday, exhorted Filipinos to start a new life “with true peace coming from the Risen Christ.”

“We call on Jesus to breathe the Holy Spirit into the Filipino people so that we may experience a fresh start in our quest for peace, especially in the Bangsamoro autonomous region; in communities ravaged by earthquakes, typhoons and armed conflicts; in our fight against corruption, unscrupulousness, human trafficking, new forms of slavery, abuse of children and women, dehumanizing destitution and the wastage of creation, to name a few,” Tagle said.

“Peace is a gift of the Risen Jesus to frail, weak and sinful disciples. Peace is an offer of mercy and reconciliation to those who have been unfaithful. It expresses the hope that the sinner may become whole again. It is a plea to start again.

With true peace coming from the Risen Christ, we can all start a new life,” he said.

Tagle said the faithful should also be ready to be sent on a mission, the way Jesus was sent to earth by the Father.

“Easter is indeed a missionary event, transforming timid and fearful disciples into bold and determined missioners,” he said.

“I call on all Christians, especially the lay faithful, in this Year of the Laity to heed the Risen Lord who sends us to bring his word, peace and hope to all strata of human life and society. If peace and new life are illusive in our time, it is partly because we do not fulfill our mission,” Tagle said.

Stewards of health

The Catholic Bishops’ Con-

ference of the Philippines (CBCP) also exhorted Filipinos to renew their faith in the resurrection of the body and be good stewards of health.

“As we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, let us also renew our faith in the resurrection of the body. This body … is a gift from God…. Taking care of the body is a spiritual duty as good stewards of health,” LingayenDagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the CBCP, said in a pastoral letter on stewardship of health.

Villegas said the Church teaches that the body is not simply a material vessel for the soul, as it is an integral and essential aspect of who humans are as beings created in the image and likeness of God. According to Villegas, due to the various challenges that contemporary times present to living a healthy life, including the passage of the reproductive health (RH) law, the CBCP decided to issue the pastoral letter to guide the faithful in becoming responsible stewards of bodily health.

“The passage of the RH law prompted us to lay down these teachings about the Christian understanding of health. While we respect and recognize the duty and the right of the State to pass laws, we deem it our duty as pastors to teach you about the Christian understanding of health, which the present RH law seems to misunderstand,” Villegas said in the pastoral letter titled “Where, O Death, Is Your Victory? Where, O Death, Is Your Sting?”

The Church remains adamantly against the RH law, Villegas said.

“With or without the Supreme Court decision, it is the duty of the Church to be teaching life. Our duty does not depend on civil laws. Our duties come from God,” Villegas said in an interview with report-

ers before the Supreme Court ruled on April 9 that the RH law is “not unconstitutional.”

But after the court announced its decision, Villegas urged critics and supporters of the law to move on.

Virtuous life

Part of the CBCP pastoral letter calls on the faithful to lead a virtuous life and take care of one’s health by taking proper nutrition, adequate exercise and sufficient rest.

“The virtue of temperance can help us deal with our appetites for certain types of food and drink that can cause harm to our health. Temperance teaches us self-control and discipline with regard to our appetites in pursuit of the goal of good health. The virtue of prudence guides our practice of temperance by reminding us not to consume toomuch or too little; one needs to discern the right type and quantity of food and drink that are appropriate to maintain one’s health,” the bishops said.

Pursuing what is good for one’s health also means avoiding what is harmful to one’s

www.canadianinquirer.net

well-being, such as the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine, the bishops stressed.

“Prudence would remind us that there are substances and activities that should be avoided if we desire to maintain our physical well-being for the present and the future,” they said.

While doing little to take care of our health is wrong, the bishops said doing too much to achieve physical perfection can also be unhealthy and harmful.

“Vanity, idealized body images and excessive competitiveness can lead people tomanipulate their bodies in ways that do not respect the human body’s health, integrity, dignity, and intrinsic value. Examples of such harmful manipulation of bodies include excessive use of cosmetic surgery, unhealthy forms of dieting and the use of banned substances in sports,” the bishops said.

A time for everything

Filipinos must also distinguish between atonement and leisure, according to outgoing Kidapawan Bishop Romulo de la Cruz.

De la Cruz, who will soon

depart to become head of the archdiocese of Zamboanga, said that while he is glad that many people still go to Mass, he has noticed that even more people fill beach resorts during Holy Week, even on Good Friday, the holiest day in Christendom.

“There is a proper time for everything, there is a place for enjoyment and Holy Week is not among them,” he said.

De la Cruz said that instead of swimming at beach resorts, Catholics should spend Holy Week to “reflect and spend time with the Lord.”

“There is nothing wrong with enjoyment because everybody needs to enjoy. But during Holy Week, spend time with the Lord, repent and be sorry for our sins,” he said.

De la Cruz said that what people should do during Lent is to “admit that they are sinners and be sorry for their sins.”

“Instead of going to beach resorts and other tourist destinations, try to examine your conscience. See your priests and confess your sins,” he said. ■ With a report from Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao

Philippine News

APRIL 25, 2014 FRIDAY 10

Jinggoy says Gigi won't testify against JPE

BY TJ A. BURGONIO, CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO AND GIL C. CABACUNGAN Philippine Daily Inquirer TAKE IT from Sen. Jinggoy Estrada: Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes isn’t out to save her own skin at the expense of her former boss, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.

Estrada, who is now in the United States, said he had no information that Reyes, Enrile's former chief of staff, had been pressured to returnto bolster the government's plunder case arising from the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.

The Office of the Ombudsman has found sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of plunder charges in the Sandiganbayan against Estrada, Enrile, Sen. Ramon Revilla, businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, her former aide Ruby Tuason and four others over the alleged diversion of lawmakers' allocations from the Priority Development Assistance Funt (PDAF) to ghost projects and kickbacks.

Tuason, a former aide of Napoles who also fled to the United States last year, told the Senate blue ribbon committee on her return that she handed Reyes millions of pesos in PDAF kickbacks intended for Enrile. Reyes, along with the others accused, has denied wrongdoing.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday that Reyes

remained among the principal accused. She said Reyes had not asked to become a state witness and that whether she could qualify as such was a “big question mark” for the Ombudsman to sort out.

The 51-year-old Reyes left the country last August, a month after the PDAF scandal hit the headlines and sparked nationwide indignation. She returned on Black Saturday on a flight from San Francisco.

“I’m ready to face the charges. I’ve always faced it,” Reyes told airport reporters on her arrival. Her brother, Patrick Gonzales, said Reyes was consulting her lawyers and would issue a statement shortly.

Levito Baligod, a private complainant and lawyer for most of the whistle-blowers in the PDAF case, told the INQUIRER in a phone interview yesterday that Reyes was unlikely to turn state witness against Enrile.

He said that based on reports he had received, Reyes returned to attend to matters related to her plunder case that needed her personal appearance.

Baligod said the biggest question was whether Reyes would stay or leave again before the plunder case reaches the Sandiganbayan, expected middle of next month. Plunder is punishable by life imprisonment and is nonbailable.

On April 7, Reyes filed a motion for reconsideration of the Ombudsman’s finding. She

Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes left the country last August, a month after the PDAF scandal hit the headlines and sparked nationwide indignation. She returned on Black Saturday on a flight from San Francisco.

PHOTO FROM INQUIRER.NET

denied allegations that she received kickbacks. Her lawyers are demanding due process be accorded her and have sought copies of the affidavits of the state witnesses.

In a text message to reporters, De Lima said she was not surprised Reyes had returned.

“I don’t think she could stay out of the Philippines indefinitely. It’s not easy for such personalities to be ‘on the run,’ so to speak, or live in obscurity,” she said.

“Maybe it’s out of necessity because she felt she had run out of options, or out of self-preservation,” De Lima said. “Let’s just wait and see.”

Reyes has not contacted the

The Slow... on “internet, mobile, fiber, and even satellite [networks].”

A series of NetMetrics data composes the Net Index ranking, which is “a free and powerful advocate we created to help the global Internet computing community get the most from their broadband provider and enhance their connected lifestyle” according to Ookla.

The Net Index rankings revealed that the average speed in the Philippines is only 3.54 megabits per second (mbps).

“Ookla solutions have been adopted by nearly every Internet Service Provider in the world, and have been translated into over 30 languages for use by thousands of small busi❰❰ 1

nesses, federal and state governments, universities and major organizations such as AT&T, BBC, Cisco, Comcast, FCC, Reuters, Time Warner, Verizon, Vodafone and Vonage,” Ookla said.

Top ten countries

1. Hong Kong - 77.16 mbps 2. Singapore - 65.32 mbps 3. Romania - 55.50 mbps 4. South Korea - 53.02 mbps 5. Switzerland - 52.88 mbps 6. Lithuania - 47.41 mbps 7. Andorra - 45.84 mbps 8. Netherlands - 41.29 mbps 9. Japan - 40.89 mbps 10. Sweden - 40.82 ■

Source: http://www.netindex. com/download/allcountries/ www.canadianinquirer.net

Department of Justice (DOJ) or the National Bureau of Investigation since she left the country, reportedly for Macau in August last year, the justice secretary said.

“As far as the NBI/DOJ is concerned, she remains one of the principal players/respondents in the PDAF cases who have been rightfully indicted for plunder and other graft [charges and] for her remarkable role vis–à–vis JPE’s PDAF,” she said.

De Lima said Reyes “must face the charges and be dealt with by our justice system.”

If she comes clean, this will bolster the government’s case, De Lima said. “But as to whether she would do it only as a state

witness or, more pointedly, whether she can qualify at all as a state witness, is another matter. To me, it’s a big question mark. But then again, the decision lies with the Ombudsman,” she added.

Deputy Speaker and Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao said that while it was difficult to divine Reyes’ intentions, he doubted that she would turn against Enrile.

“I don’t think she would qualify as a state witness. If she plans to flee ahead of the warrant of arrest, she should not have come home altogether because the warrant will surely be issued. I think she plans to face the charges foursquare,” he said.

Aggabao said Reyes’ return showed what she felt about her situation. “She is probably confident that given the evidence the government has disclosed so far, she stands a good chance of beating the raps,” he said.

Gonzales said his sister’s return had no blessing from Enrile. A month after she left the country, Reyes issued a statement via her Facebook account slamming Enrile’s camp for distancing itself from her role in the pork barrel scam.

She said that if these statements were sanctioned by her former boss, this was tantamount to a betrayal by him, whom, she noted, she had servd for 25 years “with full dedication, honesty and loyalty.” Enrile has denied betraying her former aide. ■

Philippine News

11 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Retrieve trash in PH, Canadians urge gov’t

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer EVEN CANADIANS want their government to take back their trash shipped to the Philippines.

More than 11,000 Canadians have signed a Filipino-initiated petition for the Canadian government to “reexport” some 50 containers of adult diapers and household waste that arrived at the Manila container port last Jan. 21, sparking outrage among environment and health groups here.

In an update on petition platform Change.org, Anna Kapunan said “more Canadians are empathetic to the issue,” one that a coalition of Philippine organizations has been actively pushing for resolution by the Canadian government.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has found that the shipment, declared as “scrap plastic materials for recycling,” contained waste materials, including adult diapers and household waste.

Ontario-based Chronic Inc. shipped the containers to Manila through its Valenzuela-based consignee Chronic Plastics. The containers remain unclaimed at the port in Manila, worrying local groups about the risk to public health and the environment. The firm has denied it shipped anything illegal.

“I can’t even comprehend the reasons why these containers would ship to the Philippines. How horrible for the Philippines!!! This definitely should be stopped and Canadian garbage should remain on Canadian soil for Canadians to deal with. I’m truly sorry this is happening. Here’s hoping our petitions and government can make it stop,” said Roxanne Letourneau of Winnipeg, Canada, commenting on the petition.

Susan Dales of Mississauga, Ontario, wondered why it was taking too long to resolve the issue.

“The fact that now, in April, this illegal hazardous waste has not been totally cleaned up and all involved agencies of

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the government in the Philippines have not been reimbursed is disgusting. As a Canadian, I’m insulted,” Dales said. “It is my hope that the fine (there will be one, right!) imposed on the offending Ontario company will be of such size as to deter any other party anywhere in the world from attempting the same action.

And maybe a jail sentence?”

Jean McLaren of Gabriola, Canada, among 1,326 Canadians who posted a comment on the petition, said: “I think it is appalling that Canada would send our garbage to the Philippines. We have no right to do that.”

More than 20,000 people have signed the petition.

The coalition, composed of ANG NARS party-list, Greenpeace, Ecowaste Coalition, Mother Earth Foundation, Green Convergence, Ban Toxics, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation and Ateneo School of Government, on Monday handed their petition to the Canadian Embassy in Manila.

“We are examining this issue between our government and the government of the Philippines to determine what exactly has transpired that would bring us to a situation where these containers have now arrived and the allegations that they were not brought here properly,” Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder said in a recent interview. “We don’t want this to be a stain on our very, very good relationship.”

The BOC earlier called on Canada to take back the shipment under the 1995 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of HazardousWaste and their Disposal, which provides that “the exporting country must take back the waste materials if the receiving country refuses to accept them.”

The Philippines and Canada are among 180 parties to the agreement.

The BOC also filed criminal charges against Chronic Plastics last month for alleged violations of the Revised Penal Code, the Tariff and Customs Code, and the 1990 Toxic Waste Act. ■

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Indigenous aspiration...

Timuay Macapantao Manamba, chair of the NCIP provincial delineation team, said his office intended to finish the delineation proceedings as fast as it could. He said that for the first time in 17 years, the NCIP finally showed the political will to implement the Ipra within the ARMM. Earlier, indigenous peoples living in areas covered by the proposed Bangsamoro had asked the President why the Ipra, or the law that ensures the recognition and protection of IP rights in the country, was not mentioned in the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro and other documents signed in the peace pact with MILF. Leaders of the Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan and other tribes appealed to the President in a letter to interfere in what they called the “problematic” implementation of the Ipra in the ARMM. “We believe that our rights won’t be significantly entrenched in the BBL since the Ipra, which is supposed to be a national law and thereby set as the minimum standard for any legal reforms, has obviously been put aside,” they said.

Their assertion of their territories within the proposed Bangsamoro area is only an affirmation of their kinship to Mamalu, the ancestor of the Tedurays and other non-Islamized tribes, they said. Mamalu made a sacred pact over the delineation of their land with Tabunaway, his brother, who had converted into Islam and became an ancestor of the Islamized tribes of Central Mindanao. ❰❰ 6

Peace

Petitioners urged the Canadian Embassy in Manila: Re export the 50 (forty footer) container vans filled with mixed waste and trash from the Philippines to Canada @CanEmbPH @AmbCanPH @ ec_minister @HonJohnBaird PHOTO FROM CHANGE.ORG

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That pact also allowed them to live in peace and harmony in the land.

“The sacred pact was made and sealed by the highest form of ritual called the ‘safa,’” Timuay Bandara said.

“Although they (MILF and the government) actually signed the peace pact, we are actually already living it, day after day, for years,” Saliling said.

www.canadianinquirer.net

In their open letter to the President, the IP leaders said the government and MILF talks also touched on their very own ancestral domains, natural resources and people.

“When this latter phase all started, something we felt was already missing and wrong,” the letter said. “The framework and final agreements may have answered consensus points for the Moro people, but it raised a lot of crucial questions for us indigenous peoples.”

By not including the Ipra in the agreement, they said, the government seemed to have “surrendered our rights to a political entity, which has yet to prove its mantle to govern.”

“Isn’t it that by empowering and providing us our rights to govern our own territory, exercise our culture, and recognizing that we are distinct peoples part of the overall peace process?” they asked. “But where are we in the entire picture? Are we talking about a different peace in the Bangsamoro?”

The IP leaders raised the competing and contradictory policies over land and ancestral domain by the government and the MILF themselves.

Support

“Government instrumentalities are supporting us for as long as the ARMM is not yet abolished, they say the Ipra can still take effect,” they said. “But the MILF Central Committee publicly states its position on a single ancestral domain and not allowing ancestral domain delineation processes,” they added.

They were referring to the April 1 editorial of the MILF official website publication, luwaran.com.

Despite their anxiety, the NCIP provincial delineation team had already conducted a series of information and education campaigns on the Ipra at Nuro Central Elementary School in Upi, Barangay Ramongaob, South Upi, and in Barangay Tubak, Ampatuan, both in Maguindanao province, in March. ■

Philippine News

APRIL 25, 2014 FRIDAY 12

More gov’t spending seen

BY NORMAN BORDADORA Philippine Daily Inquirer THE AQUINO administration is expected to hasten and pour more funds into infrastructure development and poverty alleviation towards the end of its term, a Malacañang spokesperson indicated over the weekend.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said Cabinet secretaries have “signed off” on performance targets with President Aquino regarding the revised Philippine Development Plan (PDP) that Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan revealed last week.

“The President and the Cabinet are determined to implement more vigorously the revised PDP targets, especially those on poverty reduction and infrastructure development,” Coloma said in a text message to the INQUIRER. Coloma said each department’s targets are already “embedded in the [2014 General Appropriations Act].”

“Spatial or area specific targets have been set in provinces with high poverty incidence and those that are highly vulnerable to disasters. Every Cabinet secretary has signed off on a performance contract with the President,” Coloma said.

Coloma made the remarks in reaction to criticisms that the Aquino administration’s imple-

mentation of its new development plan would likely be slow just as it has been over the past three and a half years.

Former Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, an economics professor at the University of the Philippines, has been quoted as saying that if the slow roll-out of the administration’s public-private partnership program was any indication, the implementation of the updated PDPwould also likely be sluggish.

“So far, for the last three and a half years, the administration has consistently failed to implement what little has been budgeted. It has to demonstrate better capability to complete projects,” Diokno was quoted as saying.

Malacañang spokespersons have in the past repeatedly blamed the slow roll-out of infrastructure projects to efforts at removing the “landmines” of corruption in the various line agencies.

The INQUIRER earlier reported that the revised PDP sets more ambitious economic targets to address continuing concerns of poor Filipinos who are not enjoying the benefits of the country’s recent dramatic economic growth.

Among the new targets is the lowering of the poverty incidence from 25.2 percent of the population in 2012 to 16.6 percent by 2016, economic officials were quoted as saying. ■

Philippine government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer.

PHOTO FROM AUTHINTMAIL.COM

MILF help sought for release of 30 kidnap victims

BY ALLAN NAWAL Philippine Daily Inquirer DAVAO CITY—Government chief negotiator Miriam CoronelFerrer has sought the help of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the release of all kidnap victims in Mindanao and also not to condone the alleged illegal acts of some of its members.

In a media statement furnished the INQUIRER on Sunday, Ferrer said nearly “100 cases of abductions of children as young as a year old, students, businessmen, foreigners, journalists, senior citizens, barangay officials and teachers” occurred in Mindanao, and “many of these kidnap victims are still in captivity while some have been killed.”

She said that for the kidnap victims, their “freedom from captivity” would be “their best Easter gift ever.”

“This year alone, 23 kidnapping cases were recorded in Basilan, Sulu, Zamboanga and Lanao provinces, involving around 30 victims,” said Ferrer.

“Let us join hands in redeeming them from a most terrible fate of being held hostage,” she said.

In seeking the MILF’s help, Ferrer said it was established that some of its members, particularly those in Basilan, were affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf, led by Furuji Indama.

She cited the April 11 military operations against the Abu www.canadianinquirer.net

Sayyaf in the villages of Silangkum and Baguindan in TipoTipo town in which an MILF fighter was killed alongside eight bandits.

Three other alleged MILF members, including a certain Imamul Mande, were wounded, Ferrer said.

She said the incident showed the affiliation of some MILF men with the Abu Sayyaf.

“As an organization that signed the peace agreement, the MILF must not tolerate the criminal acts of any of their individual members,” she said.

She had also urged MILF officials to “do their part in arresting the impunity long enjoyed by these unscrupulous individuals.”

She said MILF leaders could make their members choose between war and peace, hinting that more operations against suspected criminal groups would be launched, regardless of whether MILF members were involved with them.

“They should expel from their ranks those who reject peace and are directly or indirectly abetting the hostagetaking and preventing development to set in,” she said.

Reacting to a recent MILF criticism of the Basilan military operations as “noncoordinated,” Ferrer said the MILF should not use the peace process “to shield criminals from their accountability for their crimes against innocent civilians.”

As this developed, the Abu

Sayyaf freed one of its victims in Sulu on Saturday.

Capt. Ryan Lacuesta, spokesperson of the 2nd Marine Brigade, said Bonifacio Salinas, an employee of Jolo Mainland Water District, was released in Barangay Baunoh Bangkal, Patikul town, after spending 59 days in captivity.

Salinas was abducted along with his wife, Marie Claire, on Feb. 19. The wife was released on March 21.

Lacuesta said the military had no information if ransom was paid for the separate release of the couple.

The militant Cotabato Citybased group Suara Bangsamoro said kidnappings and other forms of unpeace in Mindanao had resulted in the continuing militarization of Moro communities, which could spoil the peace process.

Suara Bangsamoro said the militarization of Moro communities could trigger massive human rights abuses in the guise of an “antiterror” campaign.

“Such policy has caused the disregard of the Moro people’s civil and political rights, such as arresting falsely accused individuals in the name of thwarting terrorism,” Jerome Succor Aba, Suara Bangsamoro spokesperson, said in a statement issued on Sunday.

He urged the Moro people to be “more vigilant in fighting for their rights.” ■ With a report from Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao

Philippine News

13 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

$57-B mega... pressway connection, including their access to the country’s major ports; build the C-6 Extension, Laguna lakeshore dike road and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport expressway; and finalize an overall metropolitan expressway network plan.

• Urban railways: Finish committed urban rail projects and their connectivity; build the North-South Commuter Rail, which aims to connect Malolos, Bulacan in Central Luzon and Calamba, Laguna in Southern Tagalog.

• Road-based public transport: Modernize bus and jeepney operations and facilities, as well as improve and expand sidewalks and pedestrians. ❰❰ 3

Traffic

• Traffic management: Strengthen traffic enforcement capacities; introduce systematic road safety interventions; and conduct comprehensive traffic management studies.

• Gateway airports and ports: Conduct studies on the development of a new international airport that will replace the aging Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which can be closed and converted to a business district, and options like putting up a new facility in Sangley, Cavite City; development of the Clark International airport in Pam-

panga into a secondary gateway airport; redevelopment of Manila’s Port Area, but a cap should be placed on the expansion of Manila ports; and facilitate the diversion of Manila port operations to Batangas City and the Subic Freeport in Zambales.

‘Doable’

According to Jica, “transport can be a catalyst to integrate cities, growth centers, gateways, urban and rural areas, facilitate local economic development and promote environmental protection sustainability, as well as facilitate the planned and guided growth and expansion of Metro Manila.”

For short-term programs, it said these were “doable or with a high possibility of being completed” during the period 2014 to 2016.

In its proposed action plan, the agency also called for the clearing of backlogs in unimplemented government infrastructure projects; close monitoring of the delivery capacity of transport agencies; improving management control of unsolicited proposals for road and railway projects to ensure network integrity; creating clear policy frameworks for privatization of railway lines to avoid direct state involvement in rail operations; harnessing resources of lo-

Danish filmmaker among 18 nailed to the cross

cal government units in the construction of secondary roads; and outsourcing project studies to support current institutional weaknesses.”

The Jica study noted that about 500,000 people live in “high hazard risk areas” in Metro Manila and 1.4 million people in similar areas in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.

On the other hand, about 700,000 people reside in “moderate hazard risk areas” in the NCR and P1.8 million people in similar communities in Regions III and IV-A. Housing backlog

The agency also reported that there was a “backlog of 800,000 housing units in Metro Manila,” and the “need to resettle 300,000 additional households,” including informal settler families.

It proposed that informal settlers living in high risk areas and those who need affordable housing can be accommodated in “planned new urban areas with good accessibility and living environment” in the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna.

“Attracting and retaining the best international talent to fill skills shortages in key occupations is critical to Canada’s economic success.”

- Hon. Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Employment and Social Development

BY TONETTE OREJAS Inquirer Central Luzon CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A Danish filmmaker and 17 other men were nailed to the cross in three sites in this Pampanga capital on Good Friday, an indication that the bloody, painful reenactment of Jesus Christ’s last hours is not a dying tradition.

Signboard maker Ruben Enaje capped the 60th staging of the Via Crucis on the street through the real-life crucifixion in Barangay San Pedro Cutud’s Purok Kuatro, where local folk carved out a hill out of Mt. Pinatubo’s “lahar” to simulate Mt. Calvary.

Enaje has taken to the cross for the 28th time since 1986, the year after he survived a fall from a three-story building in Tarlac City. He said he wanted to end the annual ritual but the village council has not found a worthy replacement for him.

Itinerant faith healer Artemio Anoza began the practice of crucifixion in Cutud 54 years ago.

Danish filmmaker Lasse Spang Olsen, 48, was nailed to the cross in Cutud after

“Opportunities exist for largescale new towns development” inRegions III and IV-A for both public and private properties in these areas.

The Jica stressed the need to “strengthen development control and guidance to the private sector to maximize benefits to both public and private sectors.”

Other key government interventions include “an integrated transport mobility, disaster preparedness and resilience, good environment and highquality public space, affordable housing policy and delivery program, and land use management and development control.”

In its study, the Jica study said it consulted several Philippine government agencies, including the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation and Communications, and the Metro Manila Development Authority, as well as some private sector stakeholders. ■

Respond to Canada’s need for immigrants.

Become a Regulated Immigration Consultant Danish national Lasse Spang Olsen, a 48-yearold filmmaker, re-enacted the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in San Pedro Cutud village, Pampanga province, northern Philippines on Friday, April 18, 2014.

Full-time | Part-time | Online Apply online at www.ashtoncollege.com or contact a program adviser at (604) 899-0803.

PHOTO FROM DR.DK

10men finished the Lenten ritual on the same hill.

Olsen arrived in Pampanga on Monday and was baptized as a Roman Catholic by Fr. Ronnie Cao on the same day, according to an INQUIRER source. The source was one of the Danish’s local contacts who helped coordinate the ritual. ■

Ashton College | Vancouver, BC 604 899 0803 | 1 866 759 6006 w w w. a s hto n co l l e g e. co m

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Philippine News

APRIL 25, 2014 FRIDAY 14

New plant to boost supply of clean energy

BY DAXIM L. LUCAS Philippine Daily Inquirer THE PHILIPPINE economy has been growing robustly in recent years mainly as a result of President Aquino’s transparency policies and the flood of cheap funds made available globally by the United States to revive its own economy.

For the Philippines to sustain this upward momentum, however, it has to have a stable supply of electricity, which is critical in attracting fresh local and foreign investment.

To this end, three companies—all leaders in their fields of expertise—have come together to develop a clean energy project that will help ease the country’s tight electricity supply.

Natural gas processing plant.

First Natgas Power Corp., a subsidiary of the Lopezowned First Gen Corp., and Siemens broke ground earlier this year for a natural gas-fired, 414megawatt (MW) power plant beside the Sta. Rita-San Lorenzo natural gas plants in Batangas City.

The P28-billion project—to be built by Sta. Elena Construction and Development Corp.— will be finished in 2016, and will use natural gas from the Malampaya platform and eventually imported liquified natural gas.

The Filipino-German partnership calls for the construction of two more gas-fired plants starting 2017 to bring the total new power output to more than 1,300MW.

consortium during the groundbreaking ceremonies “for their faith in our country and in our economy, which they have expressed not merely in words, but in [actual] investments.”

Mr. Aquino said it was expected that the Luzon grid’s energy demand would rise to about 11,000MWby 2016 from the present demand of 10,294 MW. Since power plants take two to three years to build, the government is laying the groundwork now for new plants, he said. The goal, he stressed, “is not simply to meet demand, but to surpass it.”

Mr. Aquino emphasized that demand for natural gas is growing, with its share in the country’s total primary energy supply expected to grow from 8 percent to 14 percent between now and 2030.

Surplus capacity

Clean energy

From Malampaya platform

President Aquino thanked the

Natural gas-powered genera-

tors emit only half as much carbon compared to coal-powered plants, resulting in cleaner energy that fulfills the country’s commitment to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Named San Gabriel, the new power plant will also use Siemen’s state-of-the-art sea water cooling structures, designed to provide safe, highly reliable, efficient and low-cost electricity.

Mr. Aquino said that while the plan to guarantee sufficient energy for the country “may just be a single item in the catalog of things to be done in the grand and collective task of nationbuilding,” projects such as San Gabriel are fitting symbols of the country’s economic success.

Local partner

Siemens and First Gen contracted Sta. Elena Construction and Development Corp. to build the entire power plant, including the cooling towers,

citing its expertise and track record in delivering projects despite tight deadlines.

“Sta. Elena’s expertise in delivering major infrastructure projects and their unblemished track record made the consortium confident that we were making the right choice in a local partner who could deliver the project up to specifications and in a timely fashion,” Siemens Philippines president and CEO Jacky Chan said.

The Lopez group currently generates 1,500MWof electricity from its Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo plants. With the new plant, it will increase its output to more than 2,800MW. End to power outages

“Without new power supply, consumers in the Luzon grid will suffer from rotating brownouts and or pay for running more costly and less efficient oil-fired plants,” First Gen president Francis Giles

Puno said.

“The shortage will also disrupt the country’s positive growth momentum and hamper the government’s efforts to create more jobs,” he added.

The new plant, which will start commercial operation in 2016, will augment the power supply on the Luzon grid.

First Gen chair Federico Lopez said the San Gabriel plant was the first of three additional power generators planned for the site.

“Our vision is to build an additional 1,342 MW between now and 2019,” he said. “Adding more capacity like San Gabriel will lessen our dependence on expensive oil-fired peaking plants and have the effect of taming opportunistic behavior that can ensue from tight supply conditions.”

Other investors

The rising demand for electricity is drawing other conglomerates to invest in power generation.

Ayala Corp. has said it wants to complete a 405-MW coalfired power plant in Lanao del Norte by 2018 to help reduce the supply deficit in Mindanao.

The construction of the power plant, whose capacity could be expanded to 540 MW, is expected to start by the second half of this year after the conglomerate completes financial closing and obtains permits. $1.5M-$2M for 1MW

As a rule of thumb, it costs anywhere from $1.5 million to $2 million to build one MW of generating capacity, suggesting a total minimum investment of about $600 million for the Ayala group. ■

‘Koko’ backs German think tank’s stand vs dynasties

BY NORMAN BORDADORA Philippine Daily Inquirer SEN. AQUILINO “Koko” Pimentel III yesterday welcomed a German think tank’s analysis that there won’t be any true progress in the Philippines unless the country’s political dynasties are dismantled.

“That’s great news because we need outside pressure and

help to succeed in dismantling political dynasties,” Pimentel, son of former Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., said in a text message to the INQUIRER. Pimentel, the chair of the Senate committee on electoral reforms and suffrage, said he planned to hold a hearing on Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s antidynasty bill in May. He added that he would also fast-track the drafting of his

own version of the bill called for by no less than the constitution almost 30 years ago. “[The hearing on political dynasties] will already be in May. I’m studying the [proposed basic law on the] Bangsamoro this break,” Pimentel said.

The passage of the proposed Bangsamoro basic law is a priority of the Aquino administration.

The creation of the Bangsamoro in the southern Philippines www.canadianinquirer.net

is provided for in the peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The INQUIRER last week reported that German think tank Bertelsmann Foundation said true progress in the Philippines would be out of reach unless oligarchies that control both politics and businesswere dismantled.

Bertelsmann was quoted as

saying that the dominance of entrenched family clans in politics and the economy should be reduced in order to make politics and economics more transparent and competitive. It said an antidynasty law must be passed.

The dominance of a few political families in the country has kept Congress from passing an antidynasty measure since the post-Edsa constitutionwas ratified in 1987. ■

Philippine News

15 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Bar proctor suspended for photographing test papers

BY JEROME ANING Philippine Daily Inquirer

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said it would be logical for President Aquino to order government officials to bring home eyewitnesses in the “galactic corruption” to pin down its brains.

PHOTO FROM PHIL.NEWS.YAHOO.COM

Miriam sees Palace hand in Gigi’s return

BY TJ A. BURGONIO Philippine Daily Inquirer

officials.

“I don’t think she reached the decision on her own,” she said, pointing out that as things stood, Reyes was facing plunIT’S NOT farfetched that the Aquino ad- der charges before the Sandiganbayan. ministration has convinced Jessica LuReyes, 51, flew home before dawn cila “Gigi” Reyes to testify against Sen. Saturday eight months after fleeing the Juan Ponce Enrile over the alleged P10- country in the middle of the scam, vowbillion pork scam in exchange for her ac- ing to face the charges against her. quittal, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago A staff member of Enrile said yestersaid yesterday. day he was not issuing any statement as Santiago said it would be logical for Pres- of now. nd The INQUIRER broke the story on ident Aquino to order government officials to bring home eyewitnesses in the “galactic the conversion of P10 billion in lawmakcorruption” to pin down its brains. ers’ Priority Development Assistance The former trial judge said Enrile was Fund or pork barrel into kickbacks over the mastermind who convinced Sena- 10 years beginning with the Arroyo adtors Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla ministration.

Jr. to take part in the scam.

The pork barrel funds were funneled If reports were true that Enrile was into dubious organizations using forged unaware of the abrupt return of Reyes, signatures of local officials, fake enhis former chief of staff, this could mean dorsement letters, and the acquiescence that they had “broken up,” said Santiago, queen Janet Lim-Napoles, earlier of who has a running feud with the former budget officials. testified in the Senate Senate president. that she delivered 1 Corinthians 15:58(ERV) Santiago said she would write Sen. When the scandal broke, Enrile’s lawTeofisto Guingona III, chair of the blue yer Enrique de la Paz said the senator 11,his2014 ribbon committee, to call Reyes 10:30am; as a wit- didMay not give blessing to what Reyes ness “to complete” the story. had done in the releases of his pork barBest Western Westwood Inn Before Congress adjourned the Rd, rel funds.

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Reyes insisted that her boss would Edmonton West (10:30am-12:00pm) Best Western Westwood Inn “If I were President Aquino, that’s designate or anyAlliance of the deputy chiefs Edmonton North (3:00pm-5:00pm) her Gateway Church, the first thing I would order: Find those to sign endorsement documents on his 13931 140 St, Edmonton who have fled the country, and(4:00pm-5:30pm) convince behalf60 to Liberton the Department Budget and St. Albert Drive St.ofAlbert them to come home and turn state wit- Management. ness on the promise that they will be Ruby Tuason, a confessed bag-woman cleared just so we could trace the key to of alleged pork-barrel queen Janet Limcorruption,” Santiago said over radio.

Napoles, earlier testified in the Senate “If you’re asking me a hypothetical that she delivered bags to Reyes for Enrile. question, my answer is definitely a yes,” Despite her role in the scam, it was she added when asked over dzBB wheth- all worth it for the government to allow er the administration convinced Reyes Reyes to turn state witness, Santiago said. to come home and turn state witness.

"What will be her future if she doesn't “That’s the first thing you should do: testify? Her passport and visa will exFind the mastermind.” pire. She will become a stateless person Santiago said she believed Reyes came because you need a passport and a visa," home on the urging of administration Santiago said. ■

2

THE SUPREME Court has suspended for a month without pay a Court of Appeals clerk who brought a digital camera and took snapshots of questionnaires when he proctored during the 2011 bar examinations.

The court en banc found Melchor Tiongson, head watcher of the 2011 bar exams held at the University of Santo Tomas campus, guilty of simple misconduct for violating instructions given by the Office of the Bar Confidant (OBC).

He was also permanently disqualified from serving in all future bar exams.

According to a decision dated April 1, which was uploaded last week on the Supreme Court website, Tiongson brought a digital camera on Nov. 13, 2011, the second Sunday of the exams.

He was seen by other watchers taking pictures of the questionnaires on civil law and mercantile law. One of the watchers reported the incident to the office of the OBC chief, lawyer Ma. Cristina Layusa.

Layusa revoked Tiongson’s designation as head watcher for the remainder of the exams and conducted an investigation. He was administratively charged for violating instructions to the head watchers against the bringing of cameras and electronic gadgets to the exams.

Tiongson apologized for his violation and admitted bringing his camera inside the exam room. He said he did not surrender it to the badge counter because he wasworried that the people there might be negligent in handling the gadget.

The OBC found Tiongson guilty of dishonesty and gross misconduct, but the Supreme Court lowered the offense to just simple misconduct.

“As Court of Appeals employee, Tiongson disregarded his duty to uphold the strict standards required of every court employee, that is, to be an example of integrity, uprightness and obedience to the judiciary. Thus, he must be reminded that his infraction was unbecoming of a court employee amounting to simple misconduct,” the court said in a sixpage ruling written by Justice Antonio Carpio. ■

Annual

THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION

“Stand Strong: Let Nothing Move you!”

2nd Annual

THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION “Stand strong: Let nothing move you!”

1 Corinthians 15:58

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Opinion

APRIL 25, 2014 FRIDAY 16

THERE’S THE RUB

Biases

By Conrado De Quiros Philippine Daily Inquirer WHEN BARACK Obama comes here this weekend, he will run smack into two formidable biases harbored by Filipinos.

The first is a welcome one for an American president, which is the Filipinos’ staggering pro-Americanism.

We are a country and people that wave the American flag more energetically than Americans themselves, as witness the patriotic fervor we showed at the American responses to 9/11, which was to bomb Afghanistan to the Stone Age for harboring Osama Bin Laden and invading Iraq for, wala lang, it happened to be there and Saddam Hussein fitted the role of a “harborer” of weapons of mass destruction.

Obama can only be expected to keep the fires burning. He has not exactly proven to be the iconoclastic emancipator his circumstances—the first black American president—suggested he might be. Least of all the emancipator of people from their mental shackles, never mind their physical ones. I was one of those who thrilled to his tectonic-plate-shifting victory over John McCain and felt a jolt of excitement when he said, “Change has come to America.” Alas, not really.

The real change—to the world and

not just America—did not come six years ago, it came a year ago. It did not come from Obama, it came from Pope Francis. But that’s another story.

To go back: Obama will be coming to a country that loves Americans and things American. A thing that has been magnified over the last year or so by Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, reviving the other side of the coin, which is that this is a country that hates Chinese and everything Chinese—except Chinese food, Chinese gold, and CDR-King.

Recently, government has been announcing that its enhanced defense cooperation agreement, which would give the United States wider access to Philippine bases—and which is really harboring the US bases within the Philippine bases—has met with nearuniversal approval from the public. I can believe it, given the whipping-up

by Filipinos themselves of a 1950slike Cold War paranoia that says—in lieu of “The Russians are coming!”— ”The Chinese are coming!”

It’s all very fine, except for one thing: Right now government can go on and announce that it has negotiated an agreement to bring back the US bases and it will be met with widespread approval by the public. This is a forgetful country. April 2014 is not September 1991. The difference is not just measured in years, it is measured

in lifetimes. There’s little the United States can ask for today that won’t be granted by our government—and that won’t be approved enthusiastically by us.

In fact, government can go on and announce that it has initiated a campaign calling on the United States to make us the 51st state of America, and it won’t just be near-universally approved by us, it will set us into a frenzy of jubilation. Probably even more than a Pacquiao victory. Except

In fact, government can go on and announce that it has initiated a campaign calling on the United States to make us the 51st state of America, and it won’t just be near-universally approved by us, it will set us into a frenzy of jubilation. of course that the Americans will find such an idea as welcome as a hole in the head, at the very least to go by the plight of the Filipino veterans.

I remember during the 1990s several studies that tried to gauge the extent of our Filipino identity.

Elementary school kids were asked what nationality they preferred.

The number one answer unsurprisingly was American. The number two was Saudi Arabian, reflecting a time

when jeepneys carried mud flaps that said, “Katas ng Saudi.” Filipino only came third—or in some studies fourth or fifth. I suspect it’s still the same today, with only Saudi changing into some other Arab (?) nationality.

Indeed, I remember how in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s time a survey came out that asked whom we trusted the most. The number one was not any Filipino official, many of whom got negative ratings. It was George W. Bush.

Which brings me to the other formidable Filipino bias that Obama at least, if not all American presidents, will not find very welcome. Bush is white. Obama is black. Obama will be coming to a country that, if it does not necessarily hate black and things black, at least does not hold them in high regard. Courtesy of colonialism, of which American colonialism was part. We hold black-skinned people as objects of ridicule, making them, along with the pandak and kinkyhaired, the foils of sitcoms.

This is a country of skin whiteners, a product that is freely advertised in utter disregard, or obliviousness, to the disparagement it does dark skin.

Indeed in utter disregard or obliviousness to foreigners braving local transportation to get to our beaches in hopes of darkening their skin.

More to the point, this is a country

that openly sympathized with Hillary Clinton when she battled Obama in the Democratic primaries. One would imagine that was so for a number of ideological or programmatic reasons, but it was not. It was, as one Filipino expostulated in an interview as though he were expressing a truth we hold to be self-evident—”because he’s black.”

Harry Thomas never became the toast of the town the way Kristie Kenney was though he loved jazz and went out of his way to places in Quezon City that played jazz while Kenney only loved Gloria and went out of her way to dance in “Wowowee.”

Frankly, I don’t know what the Americans were thinking when they assigned Thomas here. This is a country that will take the word of a dolt like Dubya as gospel truth and that of a, well, tepid Obama as suspect.

This is the country the president of the United States of America will be visiting next week. The official reception of course will register a triumphal foray into the home of an old friend. The unofficial one, well, I’d be curious to see what kinds of text jokes it spawns. Particularly when Obama gets to shake the hand of the selfstyled dark horse of Philippine elections, Jojo O’Binay. It should be fun.

They will at least have a contrast in height. ■

AS I SEE IT

There is plenty of water behind Wawa Dam

By Neal H. Cruz Philippine Daily Inquirer Here we go again. Every summer, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) warns of a water shortage and an impending water rationing.

Isn’t it ironic and strange that every rainy season we have too much water—too much, in fact, that the resulting floods drown hundreds of people—but in summer, only a few months later, there is too little.

What happened to all that water that swamped that country only a few months earlier?

The MWSS is at it again. It has warned that the water level in the Angat Dam in Norzagaray, Bulacan, which supplies water to Metro Manila’s 10 million residents, has receded closer to its minimum operating level of 180 meters above sea level (masl).

Last Wednesday, the MWSS said, the water level has dropped to 187.03 masl. Below 180 masl, the dam’s hydroelectric power plant can no longer generate power and the National Irrigation Administration would have to stop supplying water to Bulacan and Pampanga rice farms. The priority,

MWSS said, is to supply the domestic water needs of Metro Manila.

The National Power Corp. has already reduced the discharge of potable water from 46 cubic meters per second (cms) to 41 cms to conserve water. It has also reduced irrigation water to farmlands. Should the water level go down to 180 masl, irrigation water supply would be totally stopped and the dam’s hydroelectric power plant would limit its power supply to only 15 megawatts.

What this means is that the already thin supply of electricity in the Luzon grid would be further reduced and may result in brownouts.

It also means that the rice plants already growing in the fields would be deprived of irrigation water which could result in either reduced yields or rice crops being totally lost.

The government will be resorting to cloud seeding operations to induce rain in the Angat watershed. But that is effective only if there are clouds to seed. Without clouds, no amount of seeding can induce rain to fall.

The perplexing thing is that the MWSS has a ready source of additional water supply behind the Wawa Dam in Antipolo. This dam used to be

the main source of water for Metro Manila before the Angat Dam was built. When Angat was completed, Wawa was abandoned, and the pipes leading from the dam to the La Mesa reservoir were stolen.

Every summer when there is the perennial water shortage, Wawa’s stored water merely flows over the dam, down the Marikina River to Ma-

Isn’t it ironic and strange that every rainy season we have too much water— too much, in fact, that the resulting floods drown hundreds of people—but in summer, only a few months later, there is too little. nila Bay where it is wasted.

All that the MWSS has to do is put new pipes from Wawa Dam to La Mesa reservoir and Metro Manila will have enough water even during the hottest summer.

A private company, the San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders, has offered to put the pipes from Wawa to La Mesa at its own expense, no cost to the MWSS or to the government. But for some strange reason, the MWSS refuses to

www.canadianinquirer.net

allow it to do that. The MWSS refuses to say why. It just pretends that the Wawa Dam does not exist. And every year, millions of cubic meters of water are wasted.

A possible explanation is that the two water concessionaires, Maynilad and Manila Water, also want to tap Wawa. However, there is a law that says whoever makes the first offer to develop a water source should get the contract, and San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders was first. In other words, Maynilad and Manila Water cannot steal the project from San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders.

So what the MWSS is probably doing is to dribble the ball until San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders loses interest and the project can then be awarded to its favorite water concessionaires.

But there is another law that prohibits water distributors from developing water sources in the same way that power distributors are barred by law from generating electricity.

That is to prevent a monopoly of such valuable commodities as water and electricity. And it does not look like San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders is losing interest.

And so the MWSS just sits on its

a– and does nothing until a way can be found around the laws to favor the concessionaires.

Every summer, when the water supply runs short, I harp on this paradox like a broken record, but there is no explanation from the MWSS for its strange actions.

Is it because the MWSS has no money? But it is spending P2.6 million for just one cloud seeding operation. And every year, it gives its officials and employees million-peso bonuses. MWSS officials and employees have one type of bonus or another every month. And anyway, more water to consumers will mean more money for MWSS. So why oh why? What is the mystery?

And San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders is going to spend its own money. The MWSS can have enough water for its consumers and still have its beloved bonuses. So what can be the possible explanation? I would like to hear one, but so far there is none. The MWSS just keeps quiet and pretends there is no problem. Maybe President Aquino should step in and ask them why. This paradox—a water shortage in the midst of plenty—is making a laughingstock of his administration. ■

Opinion

17 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

VIEWPOINT

‘Blind spot’

By Juan L. Mercado Philippine Daily Inquirer “FOR THE more adventurous, island hopping can be arranged… to the neighboring Hilantagaan Island” off Bantayan in northern Cebu, the travel blurb offered.

Hilantagaan and two neighboring islets—Ocoy and Sillon—offer far more. They’re the site of the first scientific effort to gauge the damage inflicted by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” on rehabilitation efforts’ “blind spot”—below the surface of the seas.

Fish and reefs clone what the UN Food and Agriculture Organization earlier called the other “overlooked crisis.”

Storm-battered highlands were barely glimpsed by agencies funneling aid into accessible lowlands. And media focused on photo-opportunity capitals.

Post-Yolanda rehabilitation ranges from rebuilding schools to boosting mangrove programs to replanting, with fast-growing hybrids, the 15 million coconut trees flattened

by Yolanda. These are visible. That’s not the case with resources below the sea’s surface. And seas make up 96 percent of the earth’s water.

Fish density losses from Yolanda bolted to almost 90 percent, marine biologist and Ramon Magsaysay

awardee Angel Alcala told an Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center forum. There was a 60-percent drop in biomass, the former Silliman University president added. This new report is anchored to a 2012 study conducted before the storm. Alcala and team returned for a below-the-sea surface assessment last February.

Coral reefs are nature’s fish nurseries. Yolanda’s “intensive wave action” inflicted extensive damage— ”especially (on) branching corals and other fragile forms.” Even before Yolanda, only 4 percent of Philippine reefs were in “pristine condition,” thanks to dynamite fishing and other abuse. Haiti, Vanuatu, Tanzania, Fiji and Indonesia are in the same fix.

“Corals may be able to recover in five to 10 years, if left alone,” Alcala added in his copresentation with Abner Bucol. “But if these areas are disturbed by fishing activities, they can’t.”

Even within marine sanctuaries, where fishing is banned, there was a 22- to 60-percent slump in fish biomass or total volume. A catch of four small fishes after three hours of fishing, using a gill net, in Hilantagaan islet is a stark example.

Reefs must be allowed to recover.

That would require banning the current widespread use of three-ply

nets which trap even juvenile fish.

Catching parrot fish and surgeon fish should be a no-no. These feed on fleshy algae that help coral reefs.

Spillover of fish larvae was not determined, Alcala and team reported.

“But it will practically be nil.” That would spiral into unsustainable levels, in the near future, for coral reef fish.

There’s an implicit question in this pioneering analysis: Did Yolanda inflict similar damage as it tore through Quezon, Guimaras, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Eastern Samar and Leyte?

Aid is needed in terms of non-marine fish food for coastal fishermen.

More basic is how to shift fisherfolk to alternative livelihoods.

Protracted recovery of wrecked corals and reefs poses a devil-or-deep blue sea quandary for Yolanda survivors, Cebu Daily News reported. Many depend mainly on fishing for today’s meal.

The Alcala study led the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) to freeze its plan to donate bancas in Bantayan. Rafi became leery after groups rushed banca donations in Eastern Visayas. That led to severe overfishing, executive director Evelyn

Nacario reported. We’ll take a second look before plunging into an “intervention that’d cause more harm.”

Aid is needed in terms of non-marine fish food for coastal fishermen. More basic is how to shift fisherfolk to alternative livelihoods. Most of the areas are municipal waters. So, the main responsibility mostly falls on local government units where the mindsets of many officials are mired in pork barrel casts.

Are fish losing their survival instincts, asks a James Cook University of Australia study. In Papua New Guinea, fish which normally shy away from the smell of predators are now attracted to it. “That’s incredible,” says professor Philip Munday. “They also swim further from shelter” as the world’s oceans become more acidic because of climate change.

“Fish appeared to have failed to adapt to high levels of carbon dioxide…. They didn’t seem to adjust,” says the study published last week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released end of March its second report. The previous study said that the world’s surface temperatures were “flat-lining”; but it cautioned climate scientists to regard this as “a pause in an upward trend.” The second report asks:

How do weather alterations disrupt ecosystems and livelihoods? “Profoundly, is the headline answer,” The Economist reports. Climate change is having an impact—from the equator to the poles. The subtler story is how to factor in adjustments to health systems, rural development and how to craft new policies.

Rising levels of warming seas could shove average sea level to go up 20 inches by the end of the century. That would affect people living in coastal cities. They would number 345 million by 2050, according to the report.

In the oceans, both animals and plants are now migrating from the tropics to temperate latitudes in search of cooler waters, adds the IPCC report. Laymen know benthic algae as seaweeds. They anchor marine food chains. Seaweeds are now shifting their ranges poleward at 10 kilometers a decade. Planktons are moving by 400 kilometers in the same span.

That will alter radically fish yields by 2055. In temperate latitudes they could be 30 to 70 percent higher than in 2005. Tropical yields could slump by 40 to 60 percent.

Meet the “new normal”: A world where relationships to seas and earth are still evolving into a world we now can only dimly glimpse. ■

AT LARGE

Couponers, pilgrims and Earth Day

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer ONE OF my favorite shows on cable TV is called “Extreme Couponing.”

It’s about how some Americans— mostly housewives, although some men, including a college student, have also been featured—dedicate themselves to snipping discount coupons from newspapers, magazines and booklets, collecting these, then using the coupons to bag grocery items at discounted rates of up to 90 percent.

They’re suspenseful, those scenes in which the total amount in the cash registers steadily fall as each coupon passes the cashier’s scanner. Often, even if the total reaches hundreds of dollars, the extreme couponer ends up paying less than $20. In one episode, a shopper even ended up being owed a few cents by the supermarket, even if she left with a small train of shopping carts filled to the brim.

If you’re wondering where all that merchandise goes, the show also visits what the couponers call their “stockpile”—shelves, cabinets, drawers, tables and every available space filled with their shopping loot. The stockpile tour often leaves me in shock and awe: dozens of deodorants, rows and rows of spaghetti sauce, a mini-forest

of laundry detergents and fabric softeners. I mean, how much stuff does one person, one family need?

In a few shows, some couponers have shown another motivation for their shopping sprees: They donate their loot to groups that operate food banks or deliver essentials to poor or homeless families. In the most recent show I saw, a husband who was getting sick and tired of having his home overrun with the growing stockpile, issued an ultimatum. If his wife needed to scratch her shopping itch, she could go to the supermarket and use her coupons but would have to promise to donate the entire haul to a charity.

In the supermarket, the wife suddenly stops and starts tearing at the thought that none of her bargain buys would go to build up her already enormous stockpile. I wanted to bop her on the head with a jug of detergent. *** The extreme couponers came to mind when I read reports on the Easter “urbi et orbi” message of Pope Francis, where he denounced “immense wastefulness” in the world “while many go hungry.”

I thought back to the basements, kitchens and sometimes even bedrooms and living rooms in the homes of the extreme couponers. They

could live off the goods for a year or so and not even need to buy one more item, but some of the featured couponers said they make trips to the supermarket once a week!

Clearly it’s no longer need that drives them to collect coupons, spend their days snipping and classifying, and shop for groceries for as long as five hours a trip. Some even pose for pictures with their loot—keeping the proof of their couponing abilities in an album.

The extreme couponers came to mind when I read reports on the Easter “urbi et orbi” message of Pope Francis, where he denounced “immense wastefulness” in the world “while many go hungry.”

Is it avarice? How many deodorants does a person need in a week? Is it the need to show one’s ability to put one over commercial interests? One or two successful shopping sorties should have proven that already. Is it simply an incessant need and hunger for that moment when everyone’s eyes at the take-out lines are on you, amazed at the fantastic discounts you’re getting? Probably. Fame and admiration can be addicting.

I don’t know if Pope Francis watches

www.canadianinquirer.net

“Extreme Couponing,” or even those food shows where personalities take on the challenge to finish humongous burgers or fiery chilis. But even if he doesn’t, he makes a good point. Some folks’ hunger may have nothing to do with others’ greed. But the comparison and contrast is scandalous and immoral. *** Consumerism surely has something to do with why we observe “Earth Day” today. Years ago, the occasion seemed to be nothing more than a “feel good” moment when we celebrate nature and express gratitude for its abundance.

But these days, in the wake of global warming and its consequences, and the damage being done to our forests, water sources, soil, seas and air quality, Earth Day is becoming as much a day of protest as of celebration.

Sen. Loren Legarda, who chairs the Senate committee on the environment, chose to focus her Earth Day message on the need to protect our oceans and the vast diversity of creatures dependent on them.

“We are fortunate to have been blessed with abundant natural resources. In fact, we are one of the 17 megadiverse countries, home to majority of Earth’s species. Unfortunately, we are also one of the world’s top biodiversity

hotspots, with a large number of species that are endangered or threatened with extinction,” she lamented.

The country has one of the world’s richest marine ecosystems, Legarda pointed out, including “extensive coral reefs, sea-grass beds and dense mangroves.” But even with such rich resources, she noted, “about 3.9 million families still experience hunger,” while families living in coastal communities are among the poorest in the country.

Like the Pope, she urged Filipinos to “turn away” from what she called “extractive and consumptive way of living.” *** And as a final note, the Ecowaste Coalition once again laments and sharply criticizes the “widespread littering” committed by religious pilgrims walking from spots of Metro Manila up to the Antipolo Shrine during the Holy Week.

Aileen Lucero, Ecowaste’s national coordinator, described the “massive littering of major streets by pilgrims who were supposed to fulfill an act of penance” as “unholy, unkind and unacceptable.”

“Why dirty the environment with garbage as we beg for forgiveness for our sins and renew our faith? Why spoil the air with cigarette smoke as we seek reconciliation with the Lord?” she asked.

Why indeed? ■

FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

18

Canada News

Feds pull troublesome questions about Economic Action Plan ads from opinion poll

NEWS BRIEFS

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

BY BILL GRAVELAND The Canadian Press OTTAWA, ONT.—The Finance Department has ordered its pollsters to stop asking Canadians potentially embarrassing questions about Economic Action Plan advertising.

In 10 public-opinion surveys since 2009, Canadians were asked whether they took any action as a result of seeing ads placed with newspapers, TV, radio and the Internet on the benefits of the Economic Action Plan, the catchall Conservative government brand.

Results have been in sharp decline in recent years, with only a tiny fraction of those polled in 2013 saying they visited the EAP website or called a toll-free number, as the ads urge.

And so the Finance Department now has eliminated the question altogether, along with three other questions that asked Canadians to rate the government’s performance.

There, too, the numbers had been dropping to new lows.

“The common measurement tool is periodically revised and was most recently modified last fall, in order to streamline data collection to questions most useful in assessing a campaign’s objectives—notably recall, recognition and message retention,” department spokesman Jack Aubry said in an email.

The Finance Department paid poll-

BAGGAGE HANDLERS TO BE FIRED OVER INCIDENT

The late Minister Jim Flaherty tabled Economic Action Plan 2014, which was the pathway for the Government to return to balanced budgets in 2015.

FROM THE WEBSITE OF CANADA’S ECONOMIC ACTION PLAN

ster Harris Decima almost $31,000 to conduct a truncated survey of 2,000 Canadians in early November about their reactions to a pair of 30-second TV ads and two radio ads.

The ads’ content was described in detail to respondents, but as few as 13 per cent recalled seeing or hearing the action-plan spots, which ran between Oct. 7 and Nov. 3 last year.

And there was no data collected on any specific actions respondents might have taken in response to the ads, or on their rating of the government’s performance, because those questions were quietly dropped from the survey.

The Conservative government ran yet another set of action-plan ads between Feb. 17 and March 31 this year,

following the Feb. 11 budget. Aubry confirmed there are no survey questions being asked about any actions taken or about government approval ratings.

Previous Finance polls have showed the government’s approval ratings in decline, from the mid-40 per cent range initially in 2009 to about 38 per cent in the last two surveys in April and June last year.

Dropping the key survey questions has also eliminated any snarky comments previously recorded by the pollsters, including claims the ads were a “waste of money” and represented “propaganda,” cited in an April 2012 survey.

CALGARY—A friend of Jordan Segura reassured mourners at his funeral on Monday that the university student wasn’t alone when he died.

Jayda Shreenan told more than 300 people at the service in a Cal-

gary chapel that Segura was surrounded by those who loved him as he took his last breath.

“Myself and a couple of friends were with him right at the end and I want you all to know that Jordan was not alone,” said Shreenan, choking back tears.

Segura, who was 22, was one of five young people killed last week

PRO-LIFE GROUP PUTS PRESSURE ON NEXT PREMIER ST. JOHN’S—The man poised to become the next premier of Newfoundland and Labrador is facing pressure from a pro-life group to follow the lead of Prince Edward Island in restricting abortion access in the province. Frank Coleman’s views on abortion have sparked controversy after he said Friday that he attends a rally each year in Corner Brook opposing abortion.

STOWAWAY MUSSEL RIDES TSUNAMI DEBRIS TO B.C.

❱❱ PAGE 44 Feds pull

Mourners reassured: friend says Calgary stabbing victim did not die alone

BY BILL GRAVELAND The Canadian Press

TORONTO—Two Air Canada baggage handlers set to lose their jobs over a video showing bags being dropped several metres into a bin on the ground were working under intense pressure to move the items quickly, their union said Monday. Bill Trbovich, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said when there’s no more room for carry-on luggage inside a plane, handlers are forced to take the rest outside in a rush to be stowed elsewhere so the flight isn’t delayed.

in an attack at a party marking the end of classes at the University of Calgary.

Shreenan remembered Segura as a generous and wonderful friend, who was always ready with a compliment.

“I am so thankful that I was able ❱❱ PAGE 44 Mourners reassured

VANCOUVER—A sea creature unfamiliar in Canadian waters has hitchhiked its way across the Pacific ocean on a piece of suspected tsunami debris. The federal fisheries department has identified a non-indigenous mussel on one piece of wreckage believed to have drifted to B.C. from Japan.

FLOOD THREAT EASES IN NEW BRUNSWICK PERTH-ANDOVER—A voluntary evacuation order has been lifted in the northwestern New Brunswick village of Perth-Andover, bringing relief to the community that was devastated by flooding two years ago. A massive ice jam breached the Grand Falls dam north of the community early Sunday and started heading for Perth-Andover, prompting concerns the St. John River would spill its banks.

Canada News

19 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Canada’s middle class surpasses that in the U.S., says New York Times report

BY JULIAN BELTRAME The Canadian Press OTTAWA—There is a middle class crisis, but it’s happening south of the border, not in Canada, according to a New York Times report on incomes around the world.

The newspaper says an analysis it conducted with the LIS data centre shows that while Canadian median income per capita trailed the U.S. badly at the turn of the century, it had caught up by 2010 and now likely is ahead.

And overall, the study shows Canada tied with the U.S. for the highest per capita median income of the countries compared, including Germany, France and Britain.

The median income numbers represent the mid-point of income distribution so that one half the population will be above and one half below. The levels are per person in a family, which includes non-earning children and in some cases spouses.

During the decade, the median per capita income in the Canada rose 20 per cent to reach the U.S. equivalent of US$18,700 after taxes (C$20,607)—or about US$75,000 for a family of four.

At the same time, median income remained stagnant in the United States between 2000 to 2010.

The Times speculates that Canada’s middle class has likely surpassed the U.S. since 2010 as incomes have grown faster in Canada since then.

“The findings are striking because the most commonly cited economic statistics—such as per capita gross domestic product—continue to show that the United States has maintained its lead as the world’s richest large country,” the newspaper noted.

“But those numbers are averages, which do not capture the distribution of income. With a big share of recent income gains in this country (the U.S.) flowing to a relatively small slice of highearning households, most Americans are not keeping pace with their counterparts around the world.”

The middle class crisis has become a hot political issue in Canada. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has pressed the issue almost daily in question period, while NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has also pledged to work to reduce income disparities.

The Times report does not directly refute Canadian critics of income inequality since the catch up is mostly due to stagnant middle class incomes south

of the border, more than robust growth here.

Still, Employment Minister Jason Kenney took to Twitter to trumpet the report.

“Canada is officially home to the richest middle class on the planet,” he retweeted, and, “If Justin Trudeau is interested in evidence-based policy on the middle class, he should read this,” among other messages.

In recent weeks, Kenney and other government ministers downplayed the income inequality problem by referencing a February Statistics Canada report showing that median net worth rose almost 80 per cent to $243,800 between 1999 and 2012, although much of that increase was due to home values.

But David Macdonald, an economist with the left-leaning Centre for Policy Alternatives, says the Times study used different methodology in order to compare a diverse range of countries and that Statistics Canada data show median incomes rising at a slower pace than reported by the newspaper.

“Picking the U.S. in 2010 also discounts the fact there was a major global recession whose epicentre was the U.S. and hurt a lot of the big European countries as well,” he said. “This was at the worst times for the U.S. middle class.”

He adds that Canadian families are among the most indebted with a record high household debt of about 164 per cent of after-tax income.

The Times report does suggest that whatever income inequality exists, the gap has grown appreciably wider in the U.S. than in Canada.

While Canadian median income has caught up, at the 95th percentile Americans still make 20 per cent more than their northern counterparts with annual after-tax income of US$58,600 per person, not including capital gains.

On the other hand, Canada and Western European countries do much better than Americans at the low-end of the income distribution.

The Times cites several factors in the recent trend, including that educational attainment has risen more slowly in the U.S. than in many other advanced countries, top corporate executives make substantially more in the U.S., and U.S. corporations distribute a smaller slice of their earnings to their workers.

“Finally, governments in Canada and Western Europe take more aggressive steps to raise the take-home pay of low and middle income households by redistributing income,” the paper states. ■

‘Housing First’ approach may put homeless youth last, report warns

BY LEE-ANNE GOODMAN The Canadian Press OTTAWA—A new report says the success of so-called “Housing First” programs could have a limited impact on young Canadians living on the streets.

The report warns against what it calls the “Housing First Jr.” approach, saying youth homelessness demands a unique focus on the developmental, social and legal needs of young people that can differ significantly from homeless adults.

The 44-page report, obtained by The Canadian Press, was written by York University professor Stephen Gaetz and is part of the so-called “Homeless Hub” series of studies on homelessness in Canada.

The Housing First approach provides individuals and families with stable housing as an initial first step towards addressing other social issues, rather than the other way around.

It was founded in the early 1990s in New York as an inner-city experiment.

Since then, it’s had an 85 per cent success rate in the U.S. in permanently housing mentally ill homeless people.

An estimated 30,000 Canadians sleep on the streets every night. The Conservative government is focused on the Housing First strategy, which the Mental Health Commission of Canada has concluded is showing concrete and costeffective results in five cities.

But Gaetz says it remains an open question whether that approach works for homeless youth.

“We cannot take an established approach that works for adults and simply create Housing First Jr. by changing the age mandate,” says the study’s executive summary.

www.canadianinquirer.net

“Young people have complex needs, but these may be profoundly different than those associated with adult homeless populations.”

Social Development Minister Candice Bergen defended the government’s approach.

“Housing First is a proven, evidencebased model that is delivering better results for the most vulnerable, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity, while ensuring the tax dollars of hard-working Canadians are spent wisely,” she said in a statement.

“This model has been recognized internationally for its effectiveness and is helping people here at home.... We are proud to be focusing our efforts and resources on programs that will have the largest, long-term impact.”

Canadian communities are free to invest in other proven approaches at the local level, such as specific initiatives for homeless youth, she added.

A massive pilot project called At Home-Chez Soi was created in 2008 following a $110-million investment from the federal government. The program helped find and pay for homes for mentally ill homeless people in five cities across Canada, and also provided recipients with as many social services as they needed to stay housed.

As of April 1, the Conservative government’s $600-million Homelessness Partnering Strategy shifted to a Housing First approach.

But Gaetz’s study, entitled “Coming of Age,” suggests Housing First isn’t necessarily effective for homeless youth.

“Whether and how it works for youth still remain an askable question,” the ❱❱ PAGE 40 ‘Housing First’

World News

APRIL 25, 2014

FRIDAY 20

FBI: California teen ‘lucky to be alive’ after stowing away in wheel well of Hawaii bound jet

BY OSKAR GARCIA The Associated Press HONOLULU—Officials say a 16-year-old boy is “lucky to be alive” and unharmed after flying from California to Hawaii stowed away in a plane’s wheel well, surviving cold temperatures at 38,000 feet and a lack of oxygen.

“Doesn’t even remember the flight,” FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu told The Associated Press on Sunday night.

“It’s amazing he survived that.”

The boy was questioned by the FBI after being discovered on the tarmac at the Maui airport Sunday morning with no identification, Simon said.

“Kid’s lucky to be alive,” Simon said.

Simon said security footage from the San Jose airport verified that the boy from Santa Clara, Calif., hopped a fence to get to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45 on Sunday morning.

The child had run away from his family after an argument, Simon said. Simon said when the Boeing 767 landed in Maui, the boy hopped down from the

The teen from Santa Clara, Calif., hopped a fence to get to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45 on Sunday morning.

PHOTO BY VACCLAV / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

wheel well and started wandering around the airport grounds.

“He was unconscious for the lion’s share of the flight,” Simon said. The flight lasted about 5 1/2 hours.

Hawaiian Airlines spokes-

woman Alison Croyle said airline personnel noticed the boy on the ramp after the flight arrived and immediately notified airport security.

“Our primary concern now is for the well-being of the boy,

who is exceptionally lucky to have survived,” Croyle said.

A photo taken by a Maui News photographer shows the boy sitting upright on a stretcher as authorities get ready to load him into an ambulance.

Simon said the boy was medically screened and found to be unharmed.

His misadventure immediately raised security questions.

A congressman who serves on the Homeland Security committee wondered how the teen could have sneaked onto the airfield at San Jose unnoticed.

“I have long been concerned about security at our airport perimeters. #Stowaway teen demonstrates vulnerabilities that need to be addressed,” tweeted Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat who represents the San Francisco Bay Area’s eastern cities and suburbs.

A Mineta San Jose International Airport spokeswoman said airport police were working with the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration to review security at the facility as part of an investigation.

“Our concern is with this

young boy and his family.

Thank God he survived and we hope his health is OK,” spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said.

Officials at Kahului Airport referred questions to the State Department of Transportation, which did not return a phone call seeking comment. A TSA spokesman who declined to be named referred questions to the FBI and airport authorities.

The boy was released to child protective services and not charged with a crime, Simon said.

In August, a 13- or 14-yearold boy in Nigeria survived a 35-minute trip in the wheel well of a domestic flight after stowing away. Authorities credited the flight’s short duration and altitude of about 25,000.

Others stowing away in wheel wells have died, including a 16-year-old killed after stowing away aboard a flight from Charlotte, N.C., to Boston in 2010 and a man who fell onto a suburban London street as a flight from Angola began its descent in 2012. ■ Associated Press writer Daisy Nguyen contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

Japan PM sends offering to shrine commemorating war criminals days before Obama visit

BY MARI YAMAGUCHI The Associated Press TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a religious offering Monday to a Tokyo shrine that honours the dead, including executed war criminals—long a source of tension with Japan’s neighbours China and South Korea.

Abe’s offering at the Yasukuni Shrine marks the April 2123 spring festival, one of the shrine’s key annual events. But the move suggests he will not go to Yasukuni ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit beginning Wednesday.

Abe presented a pair of “masakaki,” traditional Shinto-style decorations of tree branches and other ornaments,

along with a wooden plate carrying his name and title.

Two ministers of his Cabinet have prayed at Yasukuni recently—the national public safety chief on Sunday and the interior minister the previous week—ahead of the festival during which most pro-Yasukuni lawmakers visit. Dozens of lawmakers are set to visit the shrine Tuesday.

This year’s spring festival at Yasukuni partially overlaps with President Barack Obama’s trip to Japan, part of an Asian tour that also includes South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Late last month, Obama helped to bring together Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye for their first face-to-face meeting since

they took office more than a year ago. The absence of such a meeting between the leaders of key U.S. allies in Asia was a deep concern for Washington.

Yasukui enshrines 2.5 million war dead including 14 Class A war criminals from World War II. The shrine has been a flashpoint between Japan and neighbours China and both Koreas. They see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism, and repeated visits by Japanese leaders as a lack of remorse over wartime history.

Abe’s past remarks suggesting revisionist views about Japan’s wartime history, and his push to step up Japan’s national security and defence has prompted caution from the neighbours.

Conservative politicians who www.canadianinquirer.net

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. PHOTO BY 360B / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

visit the shrine argue they are only making a pacifist pledge by praying for those who died in the war. Abe was mum Monday about his donations.

Abe regularly visited Yasukuni until he became prime minister, and has visited only

once in December since taking office at the end of 2012. That visit has infuriated South Korea and China, worsening ties with already chilling ties with them over territorial and history issues. Washington said Abe’s visit was disappointing. ■

World News

21 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

South Korean president calls actions of sunken ferry’s crew ‘murderous’

BY GILLIAN WONG AND HYUNG-JIN KIM The Associated Press JINDO, SOUTH KOREA— South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Monday that the captain and some crew members of the sunken ferry committed “unforgivable, murderous behaviour,” while criticism of her own government’s handling of the disaster grew.

The captain initially told passengers to stay in their rooms and waited more than half an hour to issue an evacuation order as the ferry Sewol sank Wednesday. By then the ship had tilted so much it is believed that many of the roughly 240 people still missing could not escape.

Park said at a cabinet briefing, “What the captain and part of the crew did is unfathomable from the viewpoint of common sense, unforgivable, murderous behaviour.” The comments were posted on the website of the presidential Blue House.

Park said instead of following a marine traffic controller’s instructions to “make the passen-

FOR INFORMATION PLEASE CALL TREENEE 604-773-9192 MALOU T 778-988-1410 VMS– 604 731-4648

gers escape,” the captain “told the passengers to stay put while they themselves became the first to escape.”

“Legally and ethically,” she said, “this is an unimaginable act.”

The captain, Lee Joon-seok, and two crew members have been arrested on suspicion of negligence and abandoning people in need, and prosecutors said Monday that four other crew members have been detained. Senior prosecutor Ahn Sang-don said prosecutors would decide within 48 hours whether to seek arrest warrants for the four: two first mates, a second mate and a chief engineer.

Lee, 68, has said he waited to issue an evacuation order because the current was strong, the water was cold and passengers could have drifted away before help arrived. But maritime experts said he could have ordered passengers to the deck— where they would have had a greater chance of survival— without telling them to abandon ship.

Video showed that Lee was among the first people rescued.

Some of his crew said he had been hurt, but a doctor who treated him said he had only light injuries.

Lee spoke of “pain in the left rib and in the back, but that was it,” said Jang Ki-joon, director of the orthopedic department at Jindo Hankook University.

Jang said he did not realize Lee was the captain until after he treated him.

Many relatives of the dead and missing also have been critical of the government, which drew more outrage Monday with the resignation of Song Young-chur, a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Security and Public Administration.

Song, chief of the Regional Development Policy Bureau, reportedly tried to take a commemorative photo Sunday evening of the situation room on Jindo, an island near the sunken ferry, where government officials brief relatives of the missing.

Yonhap news agency reported that one family member shouted, “We are having a nervous wreck here, and this is something to commemorate for you?”

PHOTO FROM GMANETWORK.COM

Blue House spokesman Min Kyung-wook said the government accepted Song’s resignation “as a warning to others, as he has raised public resentment by trying to take commemorative photos without understanding the feeling of the families of the victims and lost persons.”

It was the latest of several missteps. Soon after the sinking the government announced that 368 passengers had been saved; the real number is just 174. Some relatives of the missing issued a statement saying that hours after the ship sank, no one from the government

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was available to brief them and they were turned back when they tried to get closer to the accident site.

There also has been criticism of the government’s emergency preparedness. Various ministries set up “central emergency centres” across the country without co-ordinating their efforts. Some leaders lacked experience in disaster relief, including the deputy head of the Central Relief Center, who formerly led the National Archives of Korea.

So far 64 bodies have been recovered. About 250 of the missing and dead are students from a single high school near Seoul who were on their way to the southern tourist island of Jeju.

Divers were unable for days to enter the submerged ship because of strong currents, bad weather and low visibility. Over the weekend they were able to use a new entryway through the dining hall, resulting in a jump in the discovery of corpses.

On Jindo, relatives of the missing must search white signboards giving sparse details such as gender, height, hair length and clothing to see if their loved ones have been found.

No names are listed, just the slimmest of clues about mostly young lives now lost. Many favoured hoodies and track pants.

One girl painted her fingernails red and toenails black. Another had braces on her teeth.

“I’m afraid to even look at the white boards,” said Lim Son-mi, 50, whose 16-year-old daughter, Park Hye-son, has not been found. “Because all the information is quite similar, ❱❱ PAGE 37 South Korean

www.canadianinquirer.net

Immigration

APRIL 25, 2014

FRIDAY 22

PANGARAP : SO, OUR JOURNEY BEGINS

So, Is God in Canada?

BY BOLET AREVALO FOR AS LONG AS THERE ARE RAINBOWS IN THE SKY, LIFE WILL BE GOOD AFTER THE RAIN. I am jumping to this topic in the spirit of the Holy Week that has just passed us by to continue to remind ourselves that God is alive and is everywhere.

One day during the first six months after I landed in Canada, I was feeling tired and exhausted thinking about my next steps. I asked for a sign to let me feel His presence. I asked for God to show me a rainbow. I love rainbows. They constantly remind us of the calm after the storm, of the pot of gold at the end of them, of a promise of sunshine after the rain. Lord, please show me a rainbow.

This is what I wrote to friends on that day— “Today, on my way home, I asked God to show me a rainbow to assure me that He is there and that He is listening to me. All the time I was on the bus, I was looking up the sky but saw no rainbow. I got home, sat on my computer and Googled aimlessly until I got to You Tube and watched my friends' “Thank You’” video again, which I always do when I am lonely.

“As I was watching, I moved my eyes to the right of the screen, and saw listed as related video that of Rainbow, a song popularized in my country by the band South Border. I listened and I cried because God did not only show me a rainbow, He talked to me. And this is what He said from the song Rainbow—

"...Life's full of challenge, not all the time we get what we want But don't despair, my dear You'll make each trial and you'll make it through the storm ‘Cause you are strong My faith in you is clear, so I say once again This world's wonderful, and let us celebrate Life's so beautiful. So beautiful Take a little time, baby See the butterflies' colors Listen to the birds that were sent to sing for you and me Can you feel me This is such a wonderful place to be Even if there is pain now, Everything will be all right For as long as the world still turns, there will be night and day Can you hear me There's a rainbow always after the rain."

Is God in Canada? How offensive for me to have even asked that question, don’t you think?

I am not about to let anybody think that God is not omnipotent. In whatever name or form you have known your Almighty to be, He will certainly follow you wherever you go.

If you believe in your Almighty God, you will also believe that He follows you everywhere. It is so irreverent to even think that He is not omnipotent. Ask Him a sign if you may. The rainbow is my sign that He is alive and that He will bring calm after each storm.

Do We Know What to Pray About?

EDUCATION IS YOUR WEAPON AGAINST POVERTY. FAITH IS YOUR SHIELD

AGAINST WEAKNESS. I grew up practically alone. I did not have a mother or a father. I fended for myself after being left in the care of poor relatives who struggled to keep me in school. Yet, I did not feel I was alone. My Tito (uncle) and my Tita (aunt) were such benevolent people. I would think they were people sent by God to take care of “orphans” like me.

Yes, my Tito and Tita were poor folks, but they gave me the most precious gifts anybody can give anyone—my education and my faith. They sent me to school and brought me to church regularly. They instilled in me the two institutions that are the very foundation of my whole being today. If one has both, he cannot go wrong one way or the other.

Education is your weapon against poverty. Faith is your shield against weakness.

Who was I? What was I? Without having been educated and having lived my life in constant faith, I would be nobody, practically nobody. And now as I write, I wish I can confidently let my children set sail on their own, but only if I am able to give

them both or make them realize that education and faith in God are the only things they should hold on to in life.

But these gifts do not leave me with nothing to pray about each day. For each day, when you are in a strange country, where your education is not recognized as much, then you are left with faith alone. I know I felt I had been stripped. You will almost feel like there is no more dignity to speak of because you find yourself almost wanting to beg for the job you want.

Only faith keeps you strong.

You pray— First, that your faith may continue to be alive deep within you; Second, that you will be strong enough to take the beating; Third, that you will have a reason to wake up each day and something to be thankful for each morning; Fourth, that your family and friends will continue to be there for you; Fifth, that one day, you will look back and be thankful that you have weathered the storm.

Pray that you continue to live in faith, with your family and friends. Pray for strength to take the beating, and a reason to wake up each morning Pray that one day you can look back and thank God that you have persevered. ■ Nobody ever said that our journey, will be easy. But as I write and as you read, we share our strengths and we can hold to the promise that “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them,” Matthew 18:20.

Bolet is a marketing communications practitioner and dabbles in writing as a personal passion.

She is author-publisher of the book: The Most Practical Immigrating and Job Hunting Survival Guide, proven simple steps to success without the fears and the doubts. The book is available in Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, the Reading Room and other online bookshops worldwide, and in National Book Store and Power Books in the Philippines. Please check out https://www.amazon. com/author/boletarevalo

PH consulate moves to Canada Place THE PHILIPPINE Consulate General in Vancouver has announced that it is moving its office on April 24, 2014 to a temporary location at Suite 629, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3E1.

By August 2014, the Consulate expects to move to a perma-

nent office at Suite 660 in the same building and just adjacent to the temporary location after all the necessary renovations and furnishings are completed in the new premises.

“We would like to inform the public that beginning April 24, all consular transactions will

take place at this new address, which is just steps away from our old office, and is more accessible by both public and private transport,” Consul General Neil Ferrer said.

The move is part of the Consulate’s commitment to better serve its constituency and enwww.canadianinquirer.net

hance Philippine official representation in British Columbia and Western Canada.

Consul General Ferrer assured that there will be no disruption in consular services, and that policies, procedures, requirements and fees for all consular transactions will re-

main the same despite the move.

The Consulate has occupied its present office at the Pacific Centre building on West Pender Street for almost 15 years, but the office space is no longer sufficient to serve the Consulate’s growing clientele and effectively deliver its expanding range of services. ■

Immigration

23 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

ON THE MOVE

An immigrant’s journey: Becoming a nurse in B.C.

BY FRANCES GRACE QUIDDAOEN AND LEO MARCO LUI Philippine Daily Inquirer THIS IS a story of a Filipino professional’s creativity and determination to succeed in Canada even if it involved totally changing careers and reinventing herself.

In the summer of 2000, Aljonita (Tats) Montinola, her husband, Allan, and their twoyear old daughter Alex, left the Philippines for a trip to Chicago, Illinois. While visiting as tourists, they found jobs in Chicago. This was a welcome opportunity because employment prospects were not so great in the Philippines. Tats, who was

a Sociology graduate from the University of the Philippines, worked as a domestic violence advocate in 2001 in Chicago.

Well-liked for her attitude and dedication, she was sponsored by her employer to become a green card holder, but unfortunately, the processing of their family’s application did not move forward.

In 2003, while staying in the US, Tats decided to file an application under Canada’s immigration program for Federal Skilled Worker. As she has an aunt who lives in Burnaby, B.C., that looked like a much better option for permanent residency. In November 2005, after a 2-year wait for the approval of their immigration papers, the family, together with Andy, the youngest child who was born in the US in 2003, landed in British Columbia.

Tats and Allan were wholeheartedly set on making Canada their new home and did not

Tats and family.

let the non-recognition of their professional credentials stand in the way of their job search.

Tats was willing to do whatever it took and worked at Tim Hortons for 3 months to gain Canadian experience that every employer seemed to be looking for in applicants. Allan, who was a graduate of a Hotel and Restau-

www.canadianinquirer.net

rant Management Course in Manila, was able to land a front desk job at the Executive Hotel in Burnaby within the same month of their arrival.

Wanting to better her employment prospects, Tats enrolled in a licensed practical nurse course in 2006 and thereafter landed a job in a nursing

home. Encouraged from having moved up in the employment ladder, Tats pursued the study program to become a registered nurse in 2009. Even while studying, she found the doors of opportunities constantly opening for her. In the course of her studies, she participated in Fraser Health’s Employed Student Nurse Program where she was assigned at Eagle Ridge in Port Moody. She maintained her employment at the nursing home by working on-call in the evenings. Her husband remained very supportive of her career plans and managed the household when Tats was working, reviewing and studying for the licensing exam that she eventually passed.

In January 2011, Tats accepted a part-time job at Fraser Canyon Hospital in Hope, B.C. where she remains in its on-call roster. Due to her employment ❱❱ PAGE 46 An immigrant’s

Seen & Scenes

APRIL 25, 2014

FRIDAY 24

EASTER VIGIL Several Filipino-Canadians celebrated the Easter Vigil at Our Lady of Mercy Parish.

The Easter Vigil is one of the most beautiful Eucharistic celebrations in the year. Photos

by Angelo Siglos.

VAHMS OPENING The Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS) and the David Lam Centre of the Simon Fraser University held the Media Launch of the Asian Heritage Month & explorASIAN 2014 on April 16, 2014 at the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre – Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Simon Fraser University at149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver.

Also launched during the event was the Filipino First Families, First Stories Project, a collaboration between VAHMS, Juan TV and other partners. An excerpt of the interview of historian Jim Wong Chu and VAHMS VP Esmie Gayo-Maclaren was shown. On display at the venue were artworks by artists J.A. Tan (see related story on page 26), Danvic Briones, Hai-Ping Lee and other notable Vancouver artists.

For photo submissions, please email info@canadianinquirer.net. www.canadianinquirer.net

Seen & Scenes

25 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

2014 PINOY FIESTA & TRADE SHOW SCHEDULED ON JUNE 28 IN TORONTO Members of the Filipino community in Toronto, Ontario, are about to have some serious fun on June 28, 2014 because of the slated Pinoy Fiesta & Trade Show at the “Hall A” of the Metro Toronot Convention Centre, North Building.

A yearly project of the Philippine-Canadian Charitable Foundation (PCCF), the event aims to showcase the best of Philippine beauty, talent, entertainment and trade offerings.

The PCCF beneficiaries include ANswering the Cry of the Poor (ANCOP), GMA Kapuso Foundation, seniors services groups, youth advocate organizations, newcomer assistance centres, victims of calamities in the Philippines, among others.

In the meantime, the officers and members of the Philippine Canadian Charitable Foundation (PCCF) are strongly promoting the Philippines as a foreign tourists destination country not only in Canada, United States but also in other countries in Europe, Middle East and South East Asia.

For more information about the 2014 Pinoy Fiesta & Trade Show, kindly send an email to pinoyfiestatoronto@gmail.com and/or call 1 - 416 - 284 - 9299. Romeo Ayson Zetazate, St. Jamestown News Service, romeoaysonzetazate@gmail.com

JOJO TADURAN WITH “EAT BULAGA” AND FELLOW BICOLANOS IN TORONTO Journalist Jojo Taduran is shown in photo together with fellow Bicolanos Wally Bayola and Anjo Yllana of the 34 years old “EAT BULAGA” of GMA TV PINOY when they entertained the members of the Filipino Community at the Sony Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on April 12, 2014. Anjo Yllana is an incumbent City Councilor in Quezon City. Romy Zetazate, St. Jamestown News Service

I AM NOT A LAUGHING MAN The play is a devised-theatre piece that explores extraordinary poetry and other written works of Bulosan, a self educated Filipino migrant worker in USA during the 30’s. The assemblage of texts looks to reveal the depth of his penetrating vision of the world. At the age of 17, he emigrated to America to escape destitute poverty and find his dream of freedom but instead discovered many new hardships.

In pursuit of his vision he became a labour organizer and socialist writer - the latter of which caused Bulosan to be blacklisted. Denied a means to provide for himself, his later years were spent in flight and poverty. I Am Not A Laughing Man looks into the migratory experiences of Bulosan’s lost/found dreams amidst estrangement, displacement, and alienation.

Scenes from “I Am Not A Laughing Man”, a play directed by MFA Directing student Dennis Gupa and shown at the Theatre at UBC from April 15-17, 2014.

I Am Not a Laughing Man was devised using texts from Carlos Bulosan by the director, Dennis Gupa along with the BFA Acting students who perform it: Jonathan Bell, Natan Cotell, Thomas Elms, Matt Kennedy and Demi Peterson.

The creative team includes BFA Design & Production students Becky Fitzpatrick (Stage Manager), Chanel McCartney (Costume Design), Nick Preston (Music Director), Patrick Fouchard (Sound Design) and Shelby Page (Makeup Design). www.canadianinquirer.net

APRIL 25, 2014

FRIDAY 26

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS:

Jose Antonio “J.A.” Tan

BY MELISSA REMULLABRIONES Philippine Canadian Inquirer J.A. HELD his brush as if it were a talisman and an extension of himself. He then let the colours cascade on canvass, while the camera panned alternately to his hand, his brush, his face. He was immersed in the moment, caught in the words he was trying to speak.

It was at once stark and beautiful.

The video, shown to me after the interview, was made

by J.A.’s brother, Thomas, a screenwriter by profession, and it spoke of J.A.’s journey, of his autism, of his art. Of how everything was difficult but perfect for J.A., because he found a way to speak his truth.

Sanctuary

Granville Island boasts of “fine waterfront restaurants, theatres, galleries, studios, unique shops, cafes and the most spectacular fresh food market you’ve ever seen.”

It is infused with colour and energy and showcased Vancouver’s sea to sky magnificence.

It is also a hotbed for art.

For Jose Antonio “J.A.” Tan, however, it is a sanctuary. It is there—at the Saltwater Studios off of Duranleau Street in Granville—that he spends his days speaking his mind through expressions/explosions of wonder and beauty.

To him, it was the flowing water that surrounds Granville, which one could barely hear in the distance, that soothed him best (the False Creek Inlet was few steps, in fact, from his studio) and allows him to bring to life his inner world.

J.A.’s world

J.A. was diagnosed as a high functioning child with autism before his third birthday. Describing himself as “an artist challenged with autism,” he gives us a deeper insight in his Artist’s Statement for “Victory”: “One young boy listening to a different tune as he makes sense of the world around. Not an easy task as he perceives the world differently from others.

He is met with confused looks, angry looks, disturbed looks,

J.A. with his favourite painting entitled, “Festivity.”

Artist J.A. Tan.

happy looks, questioning looks… so many questions but no one answer. Yet this young boy continues on his journey never giving up…”

“Victory” was one of the featured pieces on United Nations Stamps that commemorated Autism Awareness Month in April 2012. It was one of only eight pieces chosen from over 200 worldwide submissions, and it catapulted J.A. to membership in the exclusive club of artists who have designed stamps for the United Nations.

Of this United Nations experience, J.A. divulged that he was excited but felt really nervous “because of the big place.” Like a true virtuoso, however, he has gotten over his initial apprehension of crowds and having too much attention.

Immigration and art

Canada figures prominently in J.A.’s victory. His family immigrated to Canada May 2006 and it was here that he found freedom, peace and happiness.

“I am in a rich artistic and cultural environment. I like the different seasons especially spring, fall and winter. I also like it that summer is not so hot like in the Philippines. I am able to commute on my own and go around places feeling safe,” he says.

He applied to and was accepted at Emily Carr University of Art+Design. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in May 2010.

“Art is an integral part of my existence as each work represents a personal journey of me with myself, and myself with

the world. Creating art pieces brings me a feeling of peace and happiness since the world around me becomes clearer through the visual pictures I paint and draw. I paint to bring out my thoughts, feelings and ideas and use my art to understand the world we live in.

Through the colours and textures I use and the shapes I paint and draw, I communicate without having to use words.

My painting is my journey,” he explains.

What couldn’t you do without?

He says “brushes,” with both a smile and a flash of panic in the eyes. He loves it that in Granville Island, he can buy quality paints, canvasses and other art materials easily.

He tells me his influences include abstract expressionist painters Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell, John Murrow, Philip Guston and Claude Monet.

But on hero status in J.A.’s life are his great art teachers and mentors. He is very close to Jeanne Krabbendam, a visual artist and art educator who continues to give him art sessions (he actually shares her studio space); John Wertscheck, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Emily Carr; Rodney Konopaki, Associate Professor; and Professor/Assistant Dean Landon McKenzie. They visit him from time to time at his studio. Their best advice to him: Never give up and always do your best.

This is also his advice to other aspiring artists: Never ever give up.

Author Donna Williams dewww.canadianinquirer.net

J.A., hard at work.

scribes the world of autism in her book, Nobody, Nowhere: One move In a world under glass, you can watch the world pass | And nobody can touch you, you think you are safe |But the wind can blow cold, in the depths of your soul |Where you think nothing can hurt you till it is too late.

J.A.’s story, however, has a happier, more uplifting ring to it. He says on his Victory Artist Statement: “Supported by his immediate family—all five of them always a strong presence in his life— friends, and professionals, this young boy today has claimed victory over the many challenges of his life. Today, with happy faces around him he shows the world the “victory” of an artist with autism achieved with patience,

discipline, perseverance, love, and a positive attitude.” ■ J.A. comes home to Manila once a year to share his talents and promote his advocacy. He also actively speaks at conferences, sharing his personal story about overcoming challenges and pursuing his passion for art. On May 3, 2014, J.A. will be one of the artists featured in the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society’s (VAHMS) Generation One group exhibit entitled, “So this is Canada: a juried art exhibition of impressions of Canada” on May 3 at 2pm at the International Arts Gallery, International Village Mall, 88 Pender St., Vancouver, B.C. You can visit J.A.’s works at artofjatan. com and https://www.facebook. com/artofjatan

27 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

The first to go

nationwide CALL FOR NOMINATIONS:

FILIPINO-CANADIAN IN FOCUS IN PRINT

We are Now

Every week, the Philippine Canadian Inquirer celebrates the unwavering Filipino spirit through a feature called “Filipino-Canadian in Focus.”

DAILY on the web

The feature recognizes the achievements of Filipinos living in Canada who have shown concern for the community, success in spite of trials, and the uniquely Pinoy practice of “bayanihan.”

everywhere, anywhere This year, we are welcoming nominations for the News at your fingertips daily next subject of “Filipino-Canadian in Focus.”

Mechanics: - All nominees must have (a) Filipino heritage/ancestry - All nominees must be residing in Canada at the time of nomination - Nominees from all industries are welcome (e.g. medical/health, politics, community service, business, entertainment, charity institutions, etc.)

- Who can nominate? Anybody.

Please include the following details: Name of Nominee: Nominee’s Profession: Nominee’s contact info: Why should (nominee) be the next Filipino-Canadian in Focus?

Kindly send your nominations to InFocus@canadianinquirer.net. www.canadianinquirer.net

PHILIPPINE CANADIAN

CANADA’S FIRST AND ONLY NATIONWIDE FILIPINO CANADIAN NEWSPAPER

www.canadianinquirer.net

PhilippineCanadianInquirer

FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

28

Inner Peace

In Need of Inner Peace

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer AT SOME point as school children, we were all taught about life’s basic necessities; those things a human being cannot do or live without—the lack of which may result in death.

These are often listed as food, shelter, water, and clothing.

Some lists include air or oxygen (yes, breathing would be nice.)

These are generally considered the bare essentials—the primary factors, if you will, that enable survival and enhance human existence.

Many odd years later, the school of life has taught me that there is something that is perhaps not as basic but just as necessary for our survival and enhancement as humans: INNER PEACE. Sure, you can literally survive without inner peace. Question is, would you want to? And, for how long?

Without waxing philosophic, I say this with all confidence and certainty: If you have lived in this world long enough, you will have come to realize that it is virtually impossible to live without a sense of inner wellbeing. Life has a way of beating on you—of beating you down, even—and if you let it, it will reduce you to nothing but a blubbering fool in search of your marbles. A basket case like no other (it is interesting to note that this term derives from early 20th century slang, originally used to denote a soldier who had lost all four limbs, thus unable to move independently.

The lack of inner peace robs you of your ability to live life to the fullest!)

Yes, life—for all its harsh realities—will do this to you.

IF you let it.

We all need a little shelter

Growing up in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, I adored Cinderella. Not the one-glass-slippered princess (although she’s pretty

cool, herself.) The band. The big-haired, leather-clad, skinny-legged demi-gods of glam.

Among my top picks from these gurus of glitz and glitter rock is a screechy, gritty, catchy little ditty called Shelter Me. I could go ahead and type every single lyric, and end this piece, really, but I will leave that between you and Google, and give you the just a snippet: Everybody needs a little place they can hide / Somewhere to call their own / Don't let nobody inside / Every now and then we all need to let go…We all need a little shelter / Just a little helper to get us by / We all need a little shelter / Just a little helper (ooo) and it'll be alright.

Inner peace is that shelter.

It is a respite from life’s “harsh weather conditions,” if you will.

It is a flourishing, pleasant oasis and place of refuge, in the midst of a barren and arid area of lack.

Strong, in the face of stress

Inner peace, often also referred to as or peace of mind, is the state of being mentally and spiritually at peace. The person in possession of inner peace has what it takes and is equipped with sufficient understanding to stay strong in the face of stress. To borrow a highly-overused marketing tag line these days, this is the ability to ‘KEEP CALM AND…” You fill in the rest of the line.

The state of being “at peace” is the opposite of “being anxious” or “being stressed,” despite circumstances that would otherwise bring on a stressreaction. Inner peace is often associated with bliss, happiness and contentment.

If we can liken it to a flashlight, inner peace is the ability to shine or illuminate the positive things in your life, even in the presence of negative things and challenges. If all we ever do is beam our attention on the negative things; if we give in to the spirit of “doom and gloom” (think Glum from Gulliver’s Travels, and his constant lamentations of “We’ll

neeeeeeveeeeer make it!), this is pretty much all we will see in our lives. Eventually, this will consume, overwhelm and break us.

Recharge your batteries (and so much more!)

Your shelter from the stress of daily life protects you form many undesirable effects. Cultivating a sense of inner peace provides numerous benefits; among them, the ability to revitalize and recharge your mind, body, and soul (including your emotions.) Think of it as a way to recharge your batteries, so to speak.

Inner peace revitalizes you from the inside out, and this helps you feel happier, be healthier, and even look younger! And who does not want THAT? Plus—as if all that we not enough—being in tune with your sense of inner peace or allowing your peace of mind to prevail enables you to be more in control of yourself and your reactions to situations. You may not have much control of events around you, but you will definitely have greater control of events within you, and of your reactions to external factors and stressors. Ultimately having a sense of inner peace allows you to take greater control over your life; to really be “in charge.”

A lack of inner peace, on the other hand, generally produces stress, frustration, restlessness, anger, annoyance, and other negative feelings aimed at yourself and others. Not good!

The website peacerevolution. net lists the many benefits of inner peace. Here are some of them: Physiological benefits: • It lowers oxygen consumption.

• It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.

• Increases exercise tolerance.

• Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.

• Good for people with high

blood pressure.

• Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.

• Decreases muscle tension.

• Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.

• Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.

• Enhances the immune system.

• Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress.

• Enhances energy, strength and vigor.

• Helps with weight loss.

Psychological benefits: • Builds self-confidence.

• Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behavior.

• Resolves phobias & fears.

• Helps control own thoughts.

• Helps with focus & concentration.

• Increases creativity.

• Increased brain wave coherence.

• Improved learning ability and memory.

• Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.

• Increased emotional stability.

• Improved relationships.

• Mind ages at slower rate.

• Easier to remove bad habits.

Spiritual benefits: • Helps keep things in perspective.

• Provides peace of mind, happiness.

• Helps you discover your purpose.

• Increased self-actualization.

• Increased compassion.

• Growing wisdom.

• Deeper understanding of yourself and others.

• Brings body, mind, spirit in harmony.

• Deeper level of spiritual relaxation.

• Increased acceptance of oneself.

• Helps learn forgiveness.

• Changes attitude toward life.

• Creates a deeper relationship with your God. Amazingly, those I have listed above are but a few of the benefits! For the complete listing, please visit peacerevolution. net.

Inner Peace How-to’s

By now, you should be sold on the idea and necessity of having or strengthening your state of inner peace. I know I am more sold on the idea than a shopaholic on Boxing Day. But how to get from wanting it, to actually having it?

The ways and tips from getting to “A” to “Zen” are as numerous as the benefits. I have narrowed them down to five of the more essential ones.

I learned these at self-help classes I used to attend, dealing with anxiety and depression; so you can probably say I learned these “the hard way.” Still, I am ever—so grateful that I have learned these: 1. SIMPLIFY. More is not always better! Cut out that which ❱❱ PAGE 31 In need

29 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

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Inner Peace

APRIL 25, 2014

FRIDAY 30

Where to Find Peace: Dwellings for Inner Reflection

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer EVERYBODY NEEDS some good, quality “me time.”

Perhaps a day or two to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city; a weekend to get away from a toxic work schedule, a nagging boss, or a suffocating corporate existence; a few days to reflect on one’s self and re-evaluate some things; a couple of hours to re-energize and find the inner peace one has lost months—if not years—ago.

If you’re getting tired of your day-today routine that resembles a mechanical contraption or if you’re looking for some peace and quiet away from stress, here are some places you could visit to lose yourself and perhaps find a fresh perspective in life.

A few hours from Manila

Tagaytay is a haven for weekend warriors who are looking for the charm of the countryside without losing the conveniences of the city.

At the same time, Tagaytay is teeming with retreat houses and facilities that welcome the weary.

Moon Garden is more famous as a couple’s destination, but that doesn’t mean that solo travelers seeking for some quiet time aren’t welcome. Famed for its rooms without TVs and no wifi (other than the common area) and a walk-through bathroom short of being majestic, one can find solace away from the distractions of modern living.

Another Tagaytay spot is Sonya’s Garden. It’s not just a place for great vegan food. It also offers accommodations that embrace nature and tranquility. With art lying around everywhere, lush gardens, shabby chic furniture, and great healthy food—one can’t help but feel all the stress flow right out of the body. Be

Coron.

sure to try Sonya’s art in a plate: a salad made of colorful edible flowers.

About 90 minutes away from Tagaytay is Calaruega in Nasugbu, Batangas— a postcard-perfect Transfiguration Chapel and retreat compound on a hill.

It boasts of landscapes that look like as if it came straight out of a magazine. Its perfectly manicured lawns and exquisitely landscaped gardens overlooking the hills of Batulao are open for “people of goodwill longing to be in touch with themselves, with others and with God through prayer and quiet moments.”

Calaruega is recommended for spiritual retreats for the faithful (and even the prodigal). The beautiful scenery is the perfect venue to be on a pensive mood.

If you have some cash in stash for quality me time, why not spend a day or two at another Batangas spot: The Farm at San Benito along the foothills of Mount Malarayat. The Farm has a holistic approach of European inspirations when it comes to taking care of their guests.

Their Prevention, Recovery and Wellness Retreat Programs are grounded on the principle that a person’s lifestyle greatly affects his/her mental, emotional, and physical health. The Farm has everything in their compound to pamper all aspects of existence: spa services for the body, organically grown produce and healthy offerings for sustenance, licensed doctors and spa therapists for a holistic health approach, and an atmosphere of relaxation best for meditation and being alone with one’s soul.

Soak up the sun

This summer, if you have the time and the money to burn, why not take a much needed vacation to revive your weary spirit? Book a flight, pack your bags, and soak up the sun by the beach. Here are some of the best beaches to soak up the sun with a good book and a cold drink.

Che, the brave soul behind travel blog

Backpacking Pilipinas posted about pristine beaches in the country worth seeing this summer.

According to Che, “Northern Luzon is home to some of the beaches that you can still call ‘untouched.’ Two of the best are Palaui Island and Anguib Cove which are both located at Sta. Ana, Cagayan.

From San Vicente Port in Sta. Ana, you may rent a boat going to Anguib Cove, it has a white sand beach likened by many to the White Beach of Boracay.”

When in Sta. Ana, stay at Country Inn

By The Sea and enjoy legendary Pinoy hospitality. The hotel also has a dining area overlooking the West Philippine Sea—as if beckoning the waves to take your cares away.

Another beach in Che’s list is Calaguas.

“Definitely one of the best beaches I've seen and despite the attention it's been getting lately, I still consider it unspoiled for the lack of [infrastructure] near the beach front,” Che wrote.

True to form, Calaguas offers a much needed escape from city life. No mobile phones, no cable, no internet to receive your boss’ emails.

“The best form of entertainment you have is the beach,” she wrote. “Frolic in the superbly fine sand and just be blown away by the crystal clear waters.”

Check out Che and her adventures at www.backpackingpilipinas.com.

There’s an island in Coron, Palawan dubbed as Banana Island. Well, you

Country Inn, Sta. Ana Cagayan.

www.canadianinquirer.net

guessed it—it’s shaped like a banana.

But with its powdery white sand, perfect sunset view, and unspoiled charm, you could almost physically feel all your worries dripping off of you as you step off the boat and onto the island.

Siquijor is another destination to check out if you’re looking for some quality time by the beach minus the crowd. Salagdoong Resort offers great food at dirt cheap prices. The beach is small enough to make you feel like as if you’re on your own island without making you feel recklessly abandoned. It’s a bit more developed compared to other hidden gems around the island, but make sure you drop by the resort. Literally, DROP BY. Salagdoong is famous to tourists for its diving platform that goes straight to the turquoise waters. And with a view welcoming your descent, it’s a leap you’d be willing to take.

‘Yolanda’ (international name ‘Haiyan’) may have ravaged the island town of Bantayan in northern Cebu, but like most Filipinos, the brave residents are pulling themselves up from the rubble and starting anew. Its beaches are still immaculate, its people still warm and welcoming, and the waters are as inviting as ever. This destination may very well be your source of inspiration to find the courage and start all over again even.

The perfect sunrise is just as beautiful as the future that holds the new and improved you. ■

PHOTOS BY CHING DEE

Inner Peace

31 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Create a habit of unplugging with digital detoxification

Finding your life’s purpose

BY THESSA SANDOVAL Special to Philippine Canadian Inquirer

BY KATHERINE MARFALTEVES Philippine Canadian Inquirer

FROM MASTER Cleanse to Dr. Oz’s 48-hour weekend cleanse, surely you have heard about detox diets—the trendiest form of dieting known today. Detoxification or “detox” is the process of flushing out toxins from the body and is said to also help in losing weight. Although there is no scientific evidence yet to support the health claims of these diets, there is a kind of detoxification that can bring immediate, positive effects to one’s health and overall well-being— it’s called the “digital detox.”

Every day, people from all corners of the globe spend countless hours in front of a screen and tapping on their “iGadgets.”

According to a survey published

by Statistics Canada, major cities like Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal all had Internet usages above the national average of 83% in year 2012.

Even during the Holy Week, which was supposedly a time for quiet prayer and reflection, a lot of people, especially Filipino youth, used social media

WITH THIS busy world we are living in, how often are we able to reflect and scrutinize the life we have at the moment? Are we happy? Are we contented? Do we yearn for more?

The magic question then pops out: Have we already discovered our life’s purpose?

Life is indeed a long and winding road, but there are steps that we can take to unravel the reason for why we are here. Here they are:

Seneca Hiking Trail.

PHOTO BY FOREST WONDER/ CC BY-SA 3.0 US (WIKIMEDIA)

to post about vacation trips they’ve taken and Lenten sacrifices they made—regardless of their location. An infographic published by iNewMedia.org shows that Filipino web users are 17% more likely to visit social media sites than any other users around the world.

Sitting in front of a computer or being glued to an electronic device for most of the day does not just take a toll on one’s physical health, but also on relationships with others as it prevents faceto-face interaction and creates a false sense of connectedness.

Digital Detox, an organization based in the U.S., is popular for its three-day retreats and

camps. These sabbaticals are offered to everyone who is interested in disconnecting from the digital world and reconnecting with the real world. However, if the mere idea of three days without Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is enough to make you feel weak and nauseous, there are small steps you can take to balance your time spent online and offline.

Unlike detox dieting, which normally needs to be done for days or weeks, digital detoxification can be done a day a week or even for just a few hours every day—depending on what

forgiveness of self. This creates a root of bitterness that eventually chokes out the very life of your soul. Forgiveness is the ax that cuts down the bitter root.

4. BE STILL. Take time for time out. Seek out an environment that allows for moments of stillness. Turn the noise off!

Break the vicious hustle-andbustle, seemingly endless cycle of DOING. In today’s world, there always seems to be “too much to do, and never enough time to do it.” This is the antithesis to nurturing inner peace. Tune the busy-ness out, and tune yourself in. Meditate, listen to soothing music, lie down in a quiet space, practice yoga, indulge in relaxing downtime, go to the spa. The time you make for time out will eventually pay off and translate into more energy and productivity for you. As we learn the art of stillness, we will be

able to find that stillness within us, and draw from this deep well when things around us grow crazy.

5. VISUALIZE AND AFFIRM. Think of your favorite place, or memory; any positive mental image that you can see in your mind’s eye when the you-know-what hits the fan.

Close your eyes and visualize the good and positive! Along with your visualizations, activate your affirmations. Write down some positive thoughts and phrases, and repeat them to yourself—out loud, if you have to—until they become like a mantra.

6. TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF. Be mindful of your health. Exercise, and set those endorphins free. Eat right! The more junk you take in, the more junk you put out in the forms of health and weight problems, mood problems, etcetera. Get

Know your Life’s Vision

Write all your dreams. Possible or seemingly impossible, it does not matter. Beside each dream, put a check mark if you have already fulfilled that dream. If that dream has not yet been fulfilled, write a particular action that you plan to take so you can achieve it. Sometimes, all it takes are baby steps and a determined mind.

Start a New Hobby

What is this one activity that you want to do if only you have ❱❱ PAGE 46 Finding your

❱❱ PAGE 38 Create a

In need... is unnecessary from your life; these are mere burdens that weigh you down. Keep your daily “To Do” list as short and essential as you possibly can; schedule your plans and activities as efficiently as you possibly can.

2. ACCEPT AND LOVE YOURSELF. Realize that you ARE worthy! Worth is something you ARE, and not something you HAVE or ACQUIRE. Worth is your state of being, as a unique and special individual!

You cannot work for worth; it is already IN you, waiting to be released, realized, expressed and activated. Sadly, many fail to see this; even sadder, others neglect or throw it away. You ARE worthy!

3. FORGIVE. For your own sake. Begin with yourself. The most deep-seated issues of bitterness often stem from un❰❰ 28

www.canadianinquirer.net

adequate amounts of sleep.

7. BREATHE! Don’t forget to breathe, and to do it properly: in through the diaphragm, out through the nose. When things start to get stressful, pause and take three deep, cleansing breaths. Keep your positive visualizations going while you breathe.

8. GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR SPIRITUAL SELF. You are more than just your flesh.

Get in touch with your spirit, and its unique expressions: art, music, compassion, love, poetry, God; just some of the many.

9. DO WHAT YOU ENJOY. Life’s too short to be miserable.

This is not mere hedonistic enjoyment, mind you; but the kind that brings true gratification. Nurture the relationships that matter. Connect with loved ones, friends, family.

10. GUARD YOUR INNER PEACE. Once you’ve found it—

guard it! Keep it! Take care of it! As a precious gem amongst fool’s gold, so is your inner peace in the world.

The ripple effect

Yet another most awesome aspect inner peace is the ripple effect it creates. Like the ever-radiating and expanding ripples created when an object is dropped into water, the inner peace “dropped” into you ripples across your life incrementally.

It touches your family.

It touches your friends.

It touches your community.

Your city.

Your nation.

And if enough ripples are created from each individual across communities, cities, and nations, then who’s to say that our inner peace can’t touch the world?

I, for one, say that it CAN. ■

FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

32

Entertainment

CHARICE: A rising star

BY RODRIGO JUATCO “WHEN YOU wish upon a star.

Makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you.”

--Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio (1940) Walt Disney had an almost magical way of capturing the imagination, for most of us (if not all of us) know what it means to wish upon a star. How often have we listened to celebrities sing on the radio, act on T.V. and in the movies and simply lose ourselves in that moment? Enter Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco (born May 10, 1992)—popularly known by the mononym, Charice—a Filipina-singer who rose to popularity through YouTube. Dubbed by Oprah Winfrey as “the most talented girl in the world,” she released her first international studio album Charice in 2010. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number-eight, making Charice the first Asian solo singer in history to land in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Charice released the single “Pyramid” which featured singer Iyaz. It is her most successful single to-date, charting within the top 40 in a number of countries, and debuting on The Oprah Winfrey Show where she sang live vocals. Crossing over to acting on television, she joined the cast of TV series Glee as Sunshine Corazon. She has released a new lead single, “Before It Explodes,” written by Bruno Mars, from her international album, Infinity.

Charice was born in the province of Laguna, Philippines and was raised by her single mother, Racquel. To help support her family, she began to enter singing contests at age seven, from town fiestas in various provinces to singing competitions on T.V. She is said to have competed in almost a hundred such contests.

The Filipina songbird first

entered the scene in 2005, when she joined Little Big Star, a talent show in the Philippines loosely based on American Idol. Eliminated after her first performance, she was called back as a wildcard contender and eventually became one of the finalists. Although she was a consistent top scorer in the final rounds, she did not win the title in the finale and only placed third.

Charice made minor appearances on local television shows and commercials, but essentially fell off the radar after her stint at Little Big Star. It was not until 2007 that she gained worldwide recognition after an avid supporter posted a series of her performance videos on YouTube. These videos received over 15 million hits making her an internet sensation In June 2007, Ten Songs/ Productions, a music publishing company in Sweden, invited Charice to a demo-recording after producers saw her videos. She recorded seven songs—six covers and an original song called “Amazing.” She was then invited to the South Korean talent show Star King on October 13, 2007, where she sang “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” and a duet of “A Whole New World” with Kyuhyun, from Super Junior.

Ellen DeGeneres, who watched Charice Pempengco’s Star King performance on YouTube, became the first to bring her to the United States through an on-air invitation to be a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Pempengco flew to the United States for the first time and performed two songs on the December 19, 2007 episode of the show—”I Will Always Love You” and “And I Am Telling You.” Following her American debut on Ellen, she made a second appearance on Star King as the “Most Requested Foreign Act” of the show. On its December 28 edition, she performed Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and sang a duet with singer Lena Park. In Janu-

ary 2008, she was invited to Malacañan Palace where she performed for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The rising star returned to the international scene when she guested on the April 8 episode of The Paul O’Grady Show in London, England. Her Philippine debut album, Charice, was released in May 2008. The mini album, consisting of six songs and six backing tracks, was awarded gold certification in the Philippines in October 2008. The album eventually achieved platinum status in 2009. She appeared on the May 12 edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show in the episode “World’s Smartest Kids,” where she performed Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.” After the show, Oprah Winfrey contacted David Foster to see what the music producer could do for Pempengco.

Charice performed with Foster for the first time as one of the entertainers on the May 17 opening of the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut. She made her debut on the international concert stage in Foster’s May 23 tribute concert, Hitman: David Foster and Friends, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. She performed a medley of songs from The Bodyguard as well as her standard, “And I Am Telling You.” When Charice guested on the “Dreams Come True” episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 9, Oprah referred to her as “The Most Talented Girl in the World.” She sang Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” with David Foster on piano, after which Oprah surprised her with an appearance by Celine Dion via satellite, who invited her to sing a special duet at New York City’s Madison Square Garden as part of Dion’s Taking Chances Tour.

She performed her promised duet with Celine Dion on September 15. They sang “Because You Loved Me,” dedicated to Pempengco’s mother. The per-

formance received rave reviews in The New York Post and The New York Times. The duet was eventually featured on the September 19 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. She would then perform at the Andre Agassi Grand Slam for Children Benefit Concert at the Wynn Las Vegas casino resort. In November, she and David Foster guested on Good Morning America to promote Foster’s tribute album, Hitman: David Foster and Friends.

She performed The Bodyguard medley and “I Will Survive.”

In May, she released her Philippine second album, My Inspiration. The album consisted of 12 tracks, including “Always You” and a cover of Helen Reddy’s “You and Me Against the World” performed as a duet with her mother. The album was certified gold in the Philippines within two months after release, and then platinum in December 2009. Also in May, she would again perform

at a David Foster and Friends concert held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. On the May 18 episode “Finale: Oprah’s Search for the World’s Most Talented Kids” of The Oprah Winfrey Show, she debuted her first internationally released single, “Note to God,” written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster. The single was made available for digital download on the same day and debuted at #24 on Billboard’s Hot Digital Songs chart, #44 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, #9 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles chart, and #35 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart.

She staged her first major concert called Charice: The Journey Begins on June 27 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia, Philippines to a sold-out audience. Her guests included Christian Bautista, Kuh Ledes❱❱ PAGE 34 Charice: A

Entertainment

33 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Awarded TV couple brings Jesus’ life to the big screen

BY RUBEN V. NEPALES Philippine Daily Inquirer LOS ANGELES—Happy Easter, dear readers! On this special day, I bring you the story of the couple behind “Son of God” and “The Bible.” He’s the Emmywinning producer of “Survivor,” “Shark Tank and “The Voice.”

She’s a Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated actress best known for playing an angel in “Touched by an Angel.”

Married since 2007, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey produced the very popular “The Bible” TV miniseries and now, “Son of God,” themovie that quickly became a global hit.

Bigger than TV

On a recent afternoon at the Fox Studios lot, Mark and Roma, who also plays Mary, Mother of Jesus in “Son of God,” talked about how they met, how they found Diogo Morgado and brought the story of Jesus’ life to the big screen. Holding hands most of the time during our interview, the couple finished each other’s sentences, or effortlessly completed each other’s answers.

Mark recalled how the idea for yet another retelling of Jesus’ story on the big screen, this one directed by Christopher Spencer, came about. “It was in the very early days of filming ‘The Bible’ in Morocco,” Mark said in his crisp British accent. “Roma said to me, ‘We should have made a big film.

This is much bigger than TV.’ We thought about it. We realized, just do it. Let’s shoot more—let’s pay to edit, get going on this, not knowing if we would ever get it into the movie theaters. We knew we could pay a theater or two to show the movie because we believed it should be seen this way (on movie theater screens). But we didn’t even dare to dream.”

Mark continued, “We got a call from 20th Century Fox. Jim Gianopulos (Fox chair and CEO), having seen the movie, said, ‘We are going to release this wide—3,000 screens.’ It was on this lot [that] we sat down and made that decision with Jim.”

Of playing one of the most beloved female figures of all time, Roma said: “It’s probably the most challenging but most meaningful role of my career, to step into playing Mary, mother of Jesus. Having loved Jesus my whole life, I hadn’t considered what it must have been like to be his mother. Those scenes, especially the one at the foot of the cross, are among the most moving that I’ve ever had to step into. It was emotional for everybody in the cast and crew to reenact the horror of the death of Jesus.”

Roma elaborated: “We know that Mary was the mother of the son of God. But shewas also the mother of a son. It was her humanity, the personal story, that we tried to bring to the screen, to show the breaking of a mother’s heart. We know that Jesus said only seven things from the cross... and in one of those, he [expressed love and concern for] his mother.”

Chosen by God

Asked how Mary resonates in her own life, Roma replied, “I was raised a Catholic. My mother died when I was just a little girl. So Mary was such a comfort to me as a child growing up, to have in my prayers and in my spiritual walk. I have loved Jesus and his mother my whole life. What I took from playing her is how to trust God because she was such a young girl when the angel came to her, when she was chosen by God to bring His son into the world.

She wasn’t just some vessel. She was a woman chosen by God. “I don’t know if she knew all the answers or knew what her son’s would be, except that He was exceptional. We have a scene where Jesus falls with the cross. His mother is desperate to come close and touch him, to speak with him. He assures her… echoing what Gabriel said at the Annunciation: ‘Fear not… all things are possible with God.’ [This was] a woman who trusted God, who stood fast though I am sure her instinct was to run and hide.”

Answered prayer

“We prayed for him,” Roma said, laughing, when asked how she and Mark found Diogo Mor-

gado, a Portuguese actor, who played the title role. “We were just a few weeks from beginning principal photography and we did not have an actor cast. We found Diogo through a series of extraordinary coincidences— hewas brought to us. Wewere looking for an actor who could be strong, charismatic but also had a natural humility and could portray compassion and kindness. In essence, we were looking for an actor who could be the lion and the lamb. Diogo gave us both.”

Roma said filming the torturous march and crucifixion scenes were “certainly the most emotional days on the set. Those were also logistically challenging days because we had to put aman up on a cross.

We had to figure out how to bolt the cross to the ground, make sure Diogo was safe, make sure that the cross didn’t fall over.

There were very high winds on one of the afternoons and on another day, therewas intense sunshine.”

Painful to watch

She continued: “We also had to figure out how Diogo was going to get down from the cross.

There were all those physical challenges that added to the intensity of the day. Then, for anyone to recreate what was a truly brutal, awful way to die, to see man’s inhumanity to man play out in that way—it was very humbling.

“We worked to get a PG-13 rating. We didn’t want the violence in the scene to appear gratuitous in any way. So there are moments when it cuts back to those at the foot of the cross— Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the disciple John the Beloved and others— so the camera didn’t linger on nails being driven into hands and feet and so on. But it’s still painful to watch.”

Roma volunteered an interesting sidelight: “We had aman whose job was to clear the location of snakes and scorpions because we were shooting in a desert region. On any given day, he would clear one or two snakes. But on the morning of the crucifixion shoot, we asked everybody we knew to pray that the filming would be safe. www.canadianinquirer.net

Pals warned them that working together was a huge mistake. Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, however, found their collaboration a “joyous experience.”

PHOTO BY JOE ALBLAS/IMDB.COM

Scene from “Son of God.” PHOTOS FROM INQUIRER.NET

When I got on the set, the snake man had a cloth bag on the side of the road, and it was writhing.

He cleared over 40 snakes from the rocks around the cross. The symbolism of the snake was not lost on us.”

Embarrassing story

Mark said that working together only deepened his relationship with Roma. “We were told many times, ‘You are making a huge mistake working together on a project, any project.’ We’ve had such a joyous experience since we got married. We are the best of friends.

It’s just great to have done this together.”

Roma chimed in, “And still be speaking to each other.” Mark agreed: “Yes. She always says that. It’s hard being married to an angel. We really are best buddies. We do a lot together.”

“People thought working together this closely could end up damaging our relationship. But we have experienced the opposite,” Roma stressed.

They met through good oldfashioned flirting, but Hollywood style. Mark narrated, “I was getting a haircut. I looked up and I saw this beautiful woman looking at me in the mirror. She looked away. I was

like, okay, she’s way too beautiful. She’s just being nosy.

No way, she’s looking at me. I looked back and she was looking again.”

Roma said with a smile, “There’s no way I was going to look back a third time but I did.

I got caught a third time and I was just blushing. Mark left in his car and drove off. As I was paying my bill, I very discreetly asked the receptionist, ‘That guy who just left. Who was he?’

She said, ‘ Well, isn’t it funny that you asked, because he just asked me who you were.’”

Mark admitted, “The story gets really embarrassing. After I got Roma’s number, I called the receptionist and got her to call Roma and ask, ‘If he calls to ask you out, will you say yes?’”

“So cute, right?” Roma quipped. “He was hedging his bets.”

“I didn’t want to get rejected, that’s the truth,” Mark remarked, with a big smile. “Amessage came back saying, ‘ Why would I give mynumber if Iwas going to reject you?’ So we went out and the first date was…”

“He took me to a Stevie Wonder concert at the House of Blues,” Roma said, grinning.

“The rest, as they say, is history.” ■

Entertainment

APRIL 25, 2014 FRIDAY 34

Charice: A... ma and Little Big Star finalists. On June 28, 2009, during her concert, Charice let the news slip about her planned duet with the legendary pop king Michael Jackson. She explained that Michael’s lawyer approached her and said Michael chose her to be his special guest on his tour.

Upon announcing this news, Charice said “Yesterday morning, we were all shocked by the very sad news, the legendary pop singer Michael Jackson has gone away. Only two more weeks I was supposed to be with him on stage. We were going to perform Billie Jean.”

Pempengco contributed to two Christmas albums in 2009. The first as David Archuleta’s duet partner for the song “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” in his Christmas album, Christmas from the Heart. The second is a compilation Christmas album, A Very Special Christmas Volume 7 in which she contributed her own rendition of “The Christmas Song.” She was one of the headlining acts in the David Foster and Friends 10-City North ❰❰ 32

American Tour that ran during the fall of 2009. She made a cameo appearance in her first feature film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, released in North America on December 23. She is also part of the official movie soundtrack with her rendition of “No One” by Alicia Keys accompanied by The Chipettes.

Her self-titled international debut album with Reprise Records was released on May 11, 2010. On its first week, the album reached #8 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, making her the first Asian to enter the Top 10. On the same day as part of her album launching, she again made a guest appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show along with another YouTubediscovered singer Justin Bieber.

Pempengco’s world-wide promotion of her album was shown in a 12-part mini-documentary 30 Days with Charice, which was filmed by Alloy T.V. and published at Teen.com. On June 22, Pempengco confirmed that she would join the cast of the hit US television series Glee on its second season. Cast in a recur-

ring role, she plays an exchange student from the Philippines named Sunshine Corazon who presents serious competition against lead character Rachel Berry (played by Lea Michele).

It was announced that she began to record new material for her upcoming sophomore international album, “Before It Explodes,” her comeback single, written by Bruno Mars. It was released on April 18, 2011. The following day after its release, another single, “One Day” was released on iTunes, which was co-written and co-produced by Nick Jonas. “Louder,” the second single was released on May 20 which was bundled with another song, “Lost The Best Thing.” On September 14, 2011, it was revealed in a Japanese broadcast that she would be singing the theme song to the video game Final Fantasy XIII-2, “New World.”

Her second studio album, Infinity, was released exclusively in Japan on October 5, 2011. On January 18, 2012, she launched a 10-city tour across Asia to promote the official release of her studio album, Infinity.

On June 8, 2013, she revealed plans to release a third album in the Philippines entitled Chapter 10, containing covers of her favourite modern songs before heading back to Los Angeles to record more of her new international album. The album was released on September 6 through Star Records. The lead single was a cover of “Titanium.”

On August 3, it was announced that GMA Network’s Drama anthology series Magpakailanman aired an episode titled “The Charice Pempengco Story” on August 10. The episode was a re-enactment of her life and she played as herself. On February 2, 2014, it was announced that she would be singing “Right Where I Belong” for the directto-DVD movie The Swan Princess: A Royal Family Tale.

In an ABC News interview, David Foster mentioned that Charice has the ability to mimic other people’s voices, which, according to him, is a characteristic of good singers. In a separate interview, Josh Groban stated that Charice’s voice is one of the most beautiful voices he has

heard in a long time. The New York Post once called her a vocal prodigy for being able to sing ‘big songs’ at a tender age. Ryan Murphy, the executive music producer of the hit US television series Glee, said, “When that girl opens her mouth, angels fly out.”

Charice was featured in Oprah’s bookazine, “Oprah’s Farewell Celebration: Inside 25 Extraordinary Years of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and is mentioned to have a “soaring soprano voice.” She released a web series “30 Days With Charice,” in early 2011 and on its 3rd episode, “Charice On The Road : NYC” her manager Marc Johnston said of Charice: “Vocally, she’s probably the greatest female pop singer in the world right now...what other great vocalists are out there that can do what she’s doing?” ■ Watch this rising star for yourself, on SUNDAY JUNE 1 2014, when CHARICE performs LIVE IN VANCOUVER, presented by PINOY TIMES ENTERTAINMENT, TFC, and PINOY BUZZ.

Why Lucky has not bought an engagement ring for Angel

BY MARINEL R. CRUZ Philippine Daily Inquirer

are engaged or tying the knot next year, the 32-year-old TV host-actor noted, but he isn’t going the same route anytime soon. “I want to make a little more money, to give my future family a good life,” Luis said.

“With my current income, that would probably take three to five more years.”

LUIS MANZANO, who dated Jennylyn Mercado for two years before “rekindling old flame” with Angel Locsin, is aware of negative reactions to what happened. In fact, he told the INQUIRER recently, “Some people thought there was connivance with our respective partners.”

He and Angel are “thankful to those who believed our [reconciliation] was really by chance, by destiny,” Luis said.

Angel had been separated from football star Phil Younghusband for only two months when she announced that she was back with Luis. Neither of them discussed why they left their previous relationships.

The proposal

No talkies

“Angel and I avoided each other for three years. There were occasions when we had adjacent dressing rooms at ABS-CBN, but we never said hello. When we spoke again,

PHOTO FROM ENCHOS.COM

everything was pleasant,” Luis told reporters during the launch of Sensodyne’s “No to

Pangingilo” campaign, of which he is a spokesperson.

Many of his show biz friends www.canadianinquirer.net

He has laid out the scenario for his marriage proposal, though. “I can’t give details,” he said, and no, he hasn’t bought a ring.

“I was surprised at the cost.

All this time I thought P1 million was far out. And then I find out there are rings that cost up to P2 million, even P3 million!”

If he got Angel such a ring, Luis said, “We’d get married in an adoration chapel, Seriously, they have not discussed where. “There’s that sense of lawfulness and legitimacy when you’re married inside a church. On the other hand, there’s beauty in doing it outdoors, the way my friends Iya (Villania) andDrew (Arel-

lano) did it,” he said.

Hopeless romantic

He’s not ashamed to admit he’s a hopeless romantic. “Iwas more romantic and expressive than Angel in the first part of our relationship,” Luis revealed. “Ngayon, humahabol na siya (she’s catching up).” To illustrate: “She’s the type who hardly holds her cell phone.

Now, she sends me text messages as soon as she wakes up or when she gets home. She makes effort to tell me how her day went. It’s these small things that really count forme.”

Luis recounted Angel’s most recent meeting with his mom, Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos.

“My mom said something like, ‘Welcome back to your home.’

I just sat back and watched them. I didn’t want to intrude; it looked like they were making up for lost time.”

He hopes to have as close a relationship with the actress’ dad, Angel Colmenares. “Things between us look great, but I don’t want to speak on Tito’s behalf,” Luis said. ■

Entertainment

35 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Summer movie preview: Hollywood bets big again in season of Marvel, ‘Maleficent’ and a monster

BY JAKE COYLE The Associated Press NEW YORK—Like jumbo jets on the runway, Hollywood’s summer movies are lined up, ready for takeoff. Will they hit any turbulence?

If the movie business had a “fasten your seat belt” light, it was certainly flashing last summer. A number of high-profile films tanked while onlookers like Steven Spielberg warned of a coming “implosion” for an increasingly blockbuster-bound Hollywood. A kind of blood sport took hold where—even though the summer’s box office ended up setting a record high—some took glee in the downturns of Hollywood’s roller coaster ride. “‘Blood sport’ is the perfect word for what I saw last year,” says Michael Bay. This year, he’ll release “Transformers: Age of Extinction” (June 27), a cast makeover for the franchise, and produce another reboot, “Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles” (Aug. 8). A blockbuster veteran, he’s accustomed to the frenzied pressures of the season.

“They try to take my movies down every time,” says Bay. “The worse reviews I get, the better the box office is. Go figure.”

Box office will be the chief barometer of success for the nearly 50 wide releases to open between May and Labor Day in Hollywood’s yearly rite of superheroes, sequels and spectacle. It’s the time of year when Hollywood bets big on seemingly can’t-miss concepts that nevertheless occasionally miss.

This summer kicks off with “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (May 2), Sony’s second installment of its second Spider-Man series. With two sequels and

two spinoffs (for Venom and Sinister Six) planned, SpiderMan proves the intensive, high-speed nature of franchisemaking in today’s Hollywood: Sequels are now developed by the bushel.

Among the summer’s other biggest potential blockbusters: the monster re-do “Godzilla” (May 16), the time-travelling mutant thriller “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (May 23), the warped fairy tale “Maleficent” (May 30), the animated sequel “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” the Clint Eastwood-directed musical “Jersey Boys” (June 20), the gun-toting gorilla tale “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (July 11), the demigod drama “Hercules” (July 25) and Marvel’s outerspace adventure “Guardians of the Galaxy” (Aug. 1).

The steady drumbeat of highdecibel drama will leave little room for error.

“I’ve been the windshield and I’ve been the bug,” says Jon Favreau, the director of the widely popular “Iron Man,” as well as the less successful “Cowboys & Aliens.”

This summer, Favreau takes a break from tentpoles with “Chef” (May 9), an independent film he wrote and directed about a big-name restaurant chef who loses his job and opens a food truck. For Favreau, it’s a happy hiatus from “the politics of marketing and release schedules.”

The biggest summer films will be among the most testscreened, audience-tracked releases of the year, carefully shaped to entertain audiences whose social-media appetites are whetted by months of trailers and sneak-peaks.

Whereas some studios have been pulling back on their production schedules, focusing on fewer but bigger movies, War-

Angelina Jolie in “Maleficent.”

PHOTO FROM DISNEY.WIKIA.COM

ner Bros. is running the other direction. This summer, the studio will release a leading eight movies.

“The domestic box office and the worldwide box office are at record heights, and it’s continuing to grow, especially in the international world with China and Russia, in particular,” says Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros.

“We’re going to let it fly this summer.”

But unexpected events and swift changes in taste have a way of interrupting Hollywood’s increasingly finely planned release strategies. (Marvel president Kevin Feige recently said he’s plotted its movies through 2028.)

This summer, two anticipated films—”X-Men” and “Magic in the Moonlight” (July 25)— will have to navigate recent sexual abuse allegations of its directors, Bryan Singer and Woody Allen, respectively. (Both have

www.canadianinquirer.net

denied the allegations.)

There are few non-superhero certainties in the movies right now, but Melissa McCarthy is one of them. The star of “The Heat” and “Identity Thief” is virtually unparalleled in her ability to almost single-handedly open a movie. On July 2, she’ll debut “Tammy,” a roadtrip comedy she wrote with her husband, Ben Falcone, who also directs.

“I feel like every day of my life I’ve been hit with the lucky stick,” says McCarthy. “There’s not a point where I’m like, ‘This seems normal.’ It’s all crazy.

I’m crossing my fingers that it will continue as long as it will.

I’m just going to hang on until there’s a turn in the universe.”

Marvel expands its own allpowerful universe with “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a more comical twist for the comics maker about a gang of oddballs in the farthest reaches of space. Chris Pratt, the “Parks and Recre-

ation” actor, transforms to bigbudget action movie star.

“It really felt like being drafted by a major league baseball team,” says Pratt, who was given a personal trainer and a private gym to prepare. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before in terms of their involvement with all of my preparation and just having a huge budget.”

Just as “Guardians” shows Marvel extending beyond its comfort zone, “Maleficent” finds Disney pushing into darker territory. Starring Angelina Jolie in her first major onscreen performance in years, it’s “Sleeping Beauty” from the villain’s perspective.

It’s helmed by Robert Stromberg, the production designer of “Avatar.” Even for a longtime visual effects veteran, it’s a staggeringly large film for a directorial debut.

“You enter into this position of directing one of these movies with the idea that there are potentially a lot of people who feel maybe the better story is watching the Hindenburg burn,” says Stromberg. “What I can do is be the best I can at something, with a lot of great people, and present it, and let the chips fall where they may.”

In between the blockbusters, releases like Seth MacFarlane’s “A Million Ways to Die in the West” (May 30) and “22 Jump Street” (June 13) will offer comic relief. In “Neighbours” (May 9), Seth Rogen and Zac Efron star as next-door rivals.

“For us, the summer is a treacherous landscape where the rewards can be big, but there’s a lot of competition,” says Rogen. “One of the hardest things to replicate at home is the feeling of seeing a really funny movie in the theatre with hundreds of people. So that’s one thing we have going for us.” ■

FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

36

Lifestyle

Cheese bits: Facts and Politicians, writers around the world tips about cheese react to death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Canadian Press CHEESE IS popular with Canadians in every category of dining, from snacks and appetizers to desserts and even drinks.

Here are a few facts about it: Some cheeses are ripened from the outside in (“surfaceripened”) and some from the inside out (interior-ripened).

Some cheeses are cooked and others are not.

“Medium” cheese has been aged four to nine months, “aged” cheese from 10 months to one year, “extra aged” from two to seven years.

“Bloomy rind” is the name for the white, edible rind of cheeses such as brie and Camembert.

“Processed” describes a cheese made from a blend of similar cheeses, such as various cheddars, which have been heated and melted together.

“Curdling” is the separation of the liquids (whey) from the solids (curds) by addition of the fermenting agent. All cheeses undergo this initial step.

“Washed rind” refers to the process by which the rinds of certain cheeses are washed periodically during ripening, resulting in a coppery or beige

coloured rind.

Most cheeses should be tightly wrapped and stored in a crisper or on the lower shelves of a refrigerator, away from other smelly food. Plastic wrap provides the tightest seal to protect from moisture loss, odours and possibly mould.

Bocconcini and feta should be stored in the brine it was sold in or in lightly salted water.

If whitish spots of mould appear on cheese, cut off at least 1 cm (1/2 inch) around the affected part. Wrap it in new plastic wrap and eat it as soon as possible.

All cheeses can be frozen, but this can affect their texture and character, so thawed cheeses are best used for cooking. To freeze, wrap in plastic wrap and place cheese in an airtight freezer bag. Let cool before freezing. Allow frozen cheese to thaw slowly in the refrigerator, which helps it regain the moisture lost while frozen.

Bring cheeses to room temperature by taking them out of the refrigerator a maximum of one hour before serving. ■ Sources: Canadian Dairy Farmers and Canadian Dairy Information Centre.

The Associated Press REACTION TO death of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez: “A thousand years of loneliness and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time!”— Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos.

“With the passing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the world has lost one of its greatest visionary writers - and one of my favourites from the time I was young ... I offer my thoughts to his family and friends, whom I hope take solace in the fact that Gabo’s work will live on for generations to come.”— U.S. President Barack Obama.

“A great man has died, one whose works gave the literature of our language great reach and prestige,” Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, who had once famously feuded with Garcia Marquez.

“A great artist is gone, but his grand art remains with us.

Most authors are only shadows, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez belonged to those who cast a shadow, and he will continue to do so long after his death.” Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Nobel Prize-awarding Swedish Academy.

“One would really have to go back to Dickens to find a writer of the highest literary quality who commanded such extraordinary power over whole populations.”— British novelist Ian McEwan, to the BBC. “On behalf of Mexico, I express my sadness for the death of one the greatest writers of our time: Gabriel Garcia Marquez.”— Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

“From the time I read ‘One

Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

PHOTO FROM FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE EN GUADALAJARA / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Hundred Years of Solitude’ more than 40 years ago, I was always amazed by his unique gifts of imagination, clarity of thought, and emotional honesty ... I was honoured to be his friend and to know his great heart and brilliant mind for more than 20 years.”— former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

“With Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a writing giant who gave worldwide reach to the imagination of an entire continent has passed. ... His committed articles as a journalist and his tireless struggle against imperialism made him one of the most influential South American intellectuals of our time.”— French President Francois Hollande.

“His unique characters and exuberant Latin America will remain marked in the hearts and memories of his millions of readers.”— Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff “He is like the Mandela of literature because of the impact that he has had on readers all over the world. His influence is universal, and that is a very rare thing.”— Cristobal Pera, editorial director of Penguin Random House in Mexico.

“Gabo’s death is a loss for Colombia and for the entire world.

His work will safeguard his memory.”— Colombia’s largest rebel group, The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, said in a tweet.

“He had the capacity to see stories that many of us have in front of us and don’t even notice. He was unique in that.”— Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramirez Mercado.

“In recent times it wasn’t easy to communicate with him, although he understood and continued the conversation. He was always loving and generous and extraordinarily clever.”— Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, director of Mexico’s National Council for Culture and the Arts.

“Gabo has left us and we will have years of solitude. But his works and his love for the motherland remain. Farewell until the victory, dear Gabo.”— Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

“If you’ve read him, you know that he’s not really gone. He is in an afterlife of his own creation, his own Macondo.”— Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-American author.

“Cuba suffers from this death, as do all readers of a writer who is an icon.”— Miguel Barnet, Cuban author and essayist. ■

Lifestyle

37 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

‘City folk just don’t get it:’ dating website for farmers sets sights on Canada

BY CHRIS PURDY The Canadian Press DANIEL SEITZ was at home on his family’s farm in southeastern Saskatchewan, watching a TV agriculture report, when an ad popped up on the screen and tugged at his lonely heart.

An online dating site called FarmersOnly promised to steer him clear of city slicker singles and hook him up with potential partners looking for a man just like him, one comfortable in cowboy boots and living life on the land.

Two years later, the 27-year-old electrician and cattle farmer is newly married to a horse-riding farm girl who won him over with her smile, with a fouryear-old step-daughter and a new baby on the way.

It’s an online love story that FarmersOnly founder, Jerry Miller, is hoping to see more of in Canada.

“There’s two different types of people,” Miller says from his office in Pepper Pike, Ohio.

“There’s people in the major cities in the corporate rat race. And then there’s people who are just more down to earth and easy going and like to be outdoors more. It’s just a different lifestyle.”

Miller was doing agricultural marketing when he came up with the idea for the dating site in 2005. A divorced, female friend was having trouble meeting men while working long hours on her farm, and found suitors on other dating websites didn’t have a clue about what

her life was like.

Miller started promoting his new business with flyers at feed stores. At one point, he had to redesign the site when he realized most farmers had dialup modems.

The little dating site that grew now has about 1.5 million members. With more high-speed Internet available now in rural areas, Miller says many farmers look for love on the site with their cell phones while riding on their tractors.

It’s one of many niche dating sites that have popped up in North America in recent years. There are those for different religions and diets, widows and single parents, nudists and smokers, fans of Star Trek and vampires. Even big dating sites, such as Cupid.com and Plenty of Fish, have added speciality categories

for people looking for that special someone with a common interest they don’t want to live without, including a love of farming.

FarmersOnly counts 10 per cent of its members as Canadian, and boasts about 300 successful matches. In an effort to make more love and money north of the border, Miller says an advertising blitz is underway.

Some of the company’s corny and comedic ads have become popular on YouTube and created online spoofs. In one commercial, a lonely woman walks through a field as a talking horse discusses her dating dilemma. Another is a twist on the American Gothic painting, with an older couple on a farm holding a heart-shaped balloon tied to their pitchfork, and the slogan: “City folk just don’t get it.”

Chelsea Henderson, 29, had lived in every Western Canadian province and had enough of city boys before she head-

South Korean... whenever I look at it, my heart breaks.”

Relatives have already lined up to give DNA samples at the gymnasium where many are staying, to make bodies easier to identify when they are recovered.

A transcript released by the coast guard Sunday shows the ship, which carried 476 people, was crippled by confusion and indecision well after it began listing Wednesday.

About 30 minutes after the Sewol began tilting, a crew member repeatedly asked a marine traffic controller whether passengers would be rescued if they abandoned the ship off South Korea’s southern coast.

That followed several statements ❰❰ 21

from the ship that people aboard could not move and another in which someone said it was “impossible to broadcast” instructions.

The cause of the disaster is not yet known, but prosecutors have said the ship made a sharp turn before it began to list.

The Sewol’s captain was arrested Saturday, along with one of the ship’s three helmsmen and a 25-year-old third mate.

The third mate was steering at the time of the accident, in a challenging area where she had not steered before, and the captain said he was not on the bridge at the time.

Senior prosecutor Yang Jung-jin said the third mate has refused to tell investigators why she made the sharp turn. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

ed home to her family’s ranch near Pierson, Man. After being an Internet dater for years, she tried FarmersOnly and even travelled to Kansas and Indiana to meet a few possible mates. Then she sent a message to Seitz and, after he was finished with haying season, he got back to her. He lived a three-hour drive away in Montmarte, Sask.

On their first date, they met in the middle in the town of Estevan, had supper at a local restaurant, then drove around and talked for hours in his pickup truck.

They were engaged five months later.

He moved his cattle down to her horse ranch and became “Dad” to her little girl. They married last September, the weekend after her family’s annual horse sale. They cleaned the muck out of the riding arena and got hitched there in their cowboy boots.

“Daniel is just the most sincere, genuine man any woman could ever hope to find,” says Henderson, who has since taken the last name Seitz.

“And there’s lots more out there like him.” ■

Lifestyle

APRIL 25, 2014 FRIDAY 38

She brought Belgian waffles to NYC’s 1964 World’s Fair but she’s not giving up the recipe

BY ULA ILNYTZKY The Associated Press NEW YORK—The notion of introducing a new food to the American public is almost inconceivable in an era of TV chefs, global cuisine and foodie websites.

But that’s what happened 50 years ago at the 1964 New York World’s Fair in Queens, N.Y., when a family from Belgium introduced Belgian waffles, topped with fresh whipped cream, powdered sugar and sliced strawberries.

Once Maurice and Rose Vermersch and their daughter MariePaule began serving the delicacy, there was no turning back the crowds.

“From the moment we opened there was a line. We couldn’t see the end,” recalled MariePaule Vermersch, 66, who helped her parents serve an average of 2,500 waffles a day during the fair, which opened 50 years ago on April 22, 1964.

“It was wild.”

They were supposed to be called Brussels waffles—named for the Belgian capital, where

they were a specialty—but her mother soon realized many Americans didn’t know where Brussels was.

The Vermersches first served the treat two years earlier at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, and for years after they made the waffles at the annual New York State Fair in Syracuse. But it was at the 1964 event in New York City that the waffles became a sensation.

Compared to American waffles, the Belgian treat was light,

crispy and fluffy. To this day, baby boomers fondly recall the memory of enjoying them at the fair.

Vermersch said that for years she ran a coffee shop, MariePaule’s Authentic Belgian Waffles, in her current home of Albuquerque, New Mexico, that featured a picture of the 1964 World’s Fair.

“People would look at the name and see the picture and say, ‘I ate those waffles at the World’s Fair,’ and they’d pick

up the phone and call their parents,” said Vermersch, who is in New York to attend the fair’s 50th anniversary celebration this month, and also to care for her 95-year-old mother, who lives in Queens. “I couldn’t believe how often that would happen.”

What made the waffles so good? Vermersch cited a special cast-iron pan that heats up to 500 degrees. “As soon as the batter touches the grill, it gets crispy on the outside and soft

on the inside,” she said. “You don’t want to put anything syrupy on it or it will turn it into a sponge.”

They served the waffles with whipped cream, adding handsliced strawberries for colour.

Waffles in the United States date back to the Pilgrims, who were familiar with them from time spent in the Netherlands, which has a similar waffle culture. And during the latter part of the 18th century, “waffle parties” were all the rage. Today, a version of the Belgian waffle can be found in diners and restaurants across the country.

Vermersch said she vowed never to create an instant mix because the recipe requires fresh, carefully prepped ingredients: pure vanilla, fresh yeast or self-rising flour, melted but cooled sweet butter, and eggs at room temperature, with egg whites added at the end.

But that’s as much information as she’ll divulge. About 12 years ago, she sold the Maurice Authentic Belgian Waffle recipe to a Syracuse family on condition that it be served only at the New York State Fair. The exact recipe, she says, is a secret. ■

Create a... you can commit. In a New York Times interview, Cisco Systems executive Padmasree Warrior says her “digital detox” habit includes spending her Saturday mornings away from emails and calls, and painting and writing poetry. She also meditates every night. It makes her feel calm and renewed according to her.

Because technology is invented to enhance life and not to take over it, allot one day every week (or a few hours a day) doing these simple activities with your devices out of sight: ❰❰ 31

Keep a journal

Instead of blogging or constantly posting on social media about how you feel, write it in a journal. According to Maud Purcell of Psych Central, journaling helps in clearing thoughts and feelings that are in disarray.

Jotting down thoughts and feel-

ings helps you get in touch with your inner self and improves well-being.

exercises. “In studies on longterm and even short-term practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, subjects report the experience of a fundamental level of unity and wholeness in their awareness, ” says Dr. Robert Schneider in an article he wrote for Medical News Today.

He also says that meditation gives stress relief and a deep feeling of peace and connectedness. If you find it hard to focus and meditate without the guidance of an instructor, enroll yourself to a yoga class.

Take nature hikes

In an article published on WebMD titled “Hiking in Nature May Boost Creativity”, writer Denise Mann says that hiking trips is good for the brain as research shows that backpackers scored 50% better on creativity tests after spending time with nature while unplugged.

Evidence from another study made by Cecily Maller also revealed that viewing nature aids in stress recovery and improves concentration and productivity. If you don’t have time for a mountain trek, a stroll in the park is also a good idea.

Engage in arts or sports

In 2002, a Canada West Foundation research found that engaging in arts and culture have mental and psychologi-

cal health benefits, including enhanced personal motivation, feelings of connectedness to others, a more positive outlook on life, reduced sense of fear or isolation, and increased confidence, sociability and selfesteem.

While another study titled “The Relationship between www.canadianinquirer.net

Organized Recreational Activity and Mental Health” states that those who participate in sports clubs and organized recreational activity are more alert and more resilient against the stresses of modern living.

Meditate

Start with simple breathing

Give someone a hug

A post in the Digital Detox blog suggests that, a nice big hug (at least 9 seconds long) can give a dose of oxytocin and lower stress levels. “Balance the dopamine and oxytocin that we’re getting from social networks and our cell phone alerts with real human interaction,” says the author. ■

Lifestyle

39 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

www.canadianinquirer.net

Business

APRIL 25, 2014 FRIDAY 40

“Make It In America” Conference To Encourage Asian Investments and Entrepreneurship in the US Four-Day Conference Nov. 19-22 at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido will be Presented by the Asian Heritage Society, Chaired by Congressman Scott Peters and Supervisor Dave Roberts and Hosted by Escondido Mayor Sam Abed VIDEO GAMES, delivery drones, sensor technology, holograms, cyber security, and paper-less paper—all investment possibilities—will be some of the topics explored in the first of its kind conference to take place Wednesday-Saturday, Nov. 19-22, 2014, at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, San Diego County, California.

“Make It In America: Boosting Possibility Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship” will also focus on latest advances in stem cell research, nanotechnology, virtual reality and other disciplines in science and technology, as well as how to do business in America and Southern California. The conference, a collaborative effort by federal, county, local and non-profit officials, will provide a venue for overseas investors and innovators to examine potential partnerships in San Diego and elsewhere in Southern California.

Guests will come from China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam and include business leaders from the four-county region. U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, representing California’s 52nd Congressional District, and San Diego County District 3 Supervisor Dave Roberts will chair the conference; Escondido Mayor Sam Abed will serve as host.

While Asian participants are invited to consider America’s potential for investment, regional businesses should attend to raise awareness about what they do, meet potential partners and investors or gain additional insights on improving their products or industries.

“The goal of this three-anda-half day round of activities is to bring together like-minded innovators and investors to generate new product or industry in the most lucrative market in the world,” said Peters.

“Even though your business may be elsewhere, you will understand the purchasing power of this market and learn how to reach it effectively.”

“This is truly a bipartisan effort,” said “Make It In America” creator Rosalynn Carmen, president of the Asian Heritage Society, referring to Peters and Roberts, both Democrats, and Abed, a Republican.

The conference is not related to President O b a m a ’s Make It In America Challenge, which seeks to rebuild the manufacturing sector of our economy. According to Carmen, the U.S. needs to move beyond that.

“Times change. We have to evolve,” she said. “If anything, the last two decades should have taught us that we can’t bring back those repetitive blue collar factory jobs that eventually will be replaced by robots and machines. We need a paradigm shift.

“For 200 years America has taught the world how to build things and build them cheaper.

We can wait for the standard of living and incomes in these countries to rise so that it’s less

expensive to do it here again, or we can evolve to the next stage by building a platform that combines the diligence and tenacity of Asia and the freedom and creativity of America.

That’s the paradigm shift that our ‘Make It In America’ conference is all about. ” The conference is not only about how to make it in the United States, but will showcase the stories of people like McDonald’s leading franchisee C.C. Yin, AIDS researcher Flossie Wong-Stahl and billionaire-health care industrialist Patrick Soon-Shiong, who have made it in America because of their achievements.

“Immigrants have always been an integral part of America’s success story,” said Carmen, adding that it was this mixture of immigrant tenacity and the American freedom of spirit that propelled her 12 years ago to launch the first English-language publication for Asian Americans in California— ASIA, the Journal of Culture & Commerce— and follow it up with the prestigious Asian Heritage Awards two years later. However, much of that spirit in the last decade and a half has been daunted by global economic change, said Carmen, citing estimates of a half million to a million and a half jobs, including 30 percent of all information technology jobs,

lost to outsourcing. According to a recent report by a University of California, more than 14 million white collar jobs could be lost by the next decade if the trend persists.

“What can‘t be replaced is the spirit of innovation and creativity that is part of the American DNA. And that has been and will always be the driving force that guides change on our planet,” said Carmen. “My teacher and author, Dr. Richard Bandler, used to tell me that some day somebody is going to figure out how to suck the pollution out of the sky and sell it. Well, that’s being done right now,” added Carmen, referring to Newlight Technologies from Irvine, which has been invited to demonstrate how they take carbon dioxide and transform it into a saleable commodity — plastic. “This is the kind of innovation we will spotlight in our conference. Imagine what this can do for China, where air pollution is now the fourth leading cause of death.”

Other presentations will feature solar-powered water reclamation pumps being developed in the Philippines by AquaSan, a Colorado company; a life vest for surviving typhoons and hurricanes for up to three days, created by Filipino entrepreneur Danvic Briones, and a demonstration by actor Woody Harrelson’s Prairie Paper Ventures, a company that makes paper from agricultural waste to save destruction of old growth forests.

Also, advances in stem cell and Hepatitis B therapies will be demonstrated, respectively,

by GIOSTAR, a San Diego company, and Dr. Robert Gish, a

world-renowned researcher in liver disease, also based in San Diego.

The ultimate goal of the conference is to create new jobs and industry here in Southern California—but jobs and industry with a purpose to do good.

“We can’t leave progress up to corporations and government anymore,” added Leonard Novarro, secretary and board chairman of the Asian Heritage Society. “We already know what’s not working. Now it’s time to find out what works, tackle the problems, change things and spread the solutions throughout the planet to change societies. It sounds like a big order, and it is.

Government and big business had their chance. Now it’s the social entrepreneurs who have seized the day.”

A call for presentations will be issued by Peters, Roberts, Abed and the Asian Heritage Society. Topics for discussion are on the website www.makeitinamerica.net, which also includes cost of registration and sponsorship opportunities. The cost for a single display booth is $1,500; for two, $2,500.

“This is all about innovation,” added Novarro, explaining that those born after 1985, known as Generation Y, will have to become innovators and entrepreneurs as traditional jobs dwindle.

“This conference is also for them. They are becoming the largest consumer base in history. Not only do we need to know how to reach them; they will need to know how to reach out to the rest of the world if they are to survive.” ■

The report suggests governments develop strategies to prevent young people from ending up on the streets after leaving child protection, mental health or juvenile detention facilities, identify a stronger role for schools as part of the solution and help strengthen families while offering young

people a way back home.

“We also understand that many young people can no longer return home or in some cases have no home to go to,” the report says.

“For these young people we need strong models of accommodation and supports that will help them move forward

with their lives.”

The study concluded that Canada also needs to make broader, societal changes to truly vanquish the plight of homelessness.

“We need to ensure that there is an adequate supply of affordable housing,” it says.

“We need to ensure young

people have the opportunity to earn a sufficient income to pay the rent, purchase food and have fulfilling lives and/or receive rent supplements if they cannot earn a living wage. We must ensure every young person has the opportunity to go to school and fulfill his or her dreams.” ■

‘Housing First...’ summary states.

Gaetz cites other research that argues that while many young people thrive in a Housing First environment, those with mental health and addiction issues “find that the choice and independence offered by the model” can be overwhelming. ❰❰ 19

www.canadianinquirer.net

Sports/Horoscope

41 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

Kevin Martin thought others would retire from curling as well this year

BY SCOTT EDMONDS The Canadian Press WHEN KEVIN Martin decided to retire this year, he thought he’d have plenty of company.

The dean of Canadian curlers—with four national titles, a world championship, both a gold and silver at the Olympics and a record 18 Grand Slams on the World Curling Tour— looked around and saw plenty his age or older holding brooms.

“I thought this year there would be a lot of guys retiring,” Martin, 47, said Tuesday.

“I thought I would just be one of the many. As it turns out, I’m the only one. There’s nobody else, I’m the only guy!”

Instead of retiring, other senior skips have played a game of musical chairs as teams have reformed and players have moved about the country. And

Martin says the desire to secure that all-important Olympic berth is the reason.

“The shuffling I think is completely because of the Olympics and that curling has become a four-year sport,” he said.

Younger teams are looking at skips at or near 50-plus and wondering whether they have what it takes to compete, not just next season but also down the road.

And those skips who have never won that Olympic berth (as Martin did three times, failing to earn a medal in 1992) are reluctant to give up while they think there’s still a chance.

Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton, 50, who has parted ways with his former team and formed a new one and Ontario’s Glenn Howard, 51, who has seen his squad fragment as well, are cases in point.

“It’s hard I think for young guys to be with a 50, 51, 52 or

whatever age guy and think four years down the road,” Martin said. “That’s not easy.

“Jeff and Glenn still play brilliantly but will they in four years? I don’t think they can answer that.”

The result has been a lot of movement.

“It’s really exciting. It’s probably the most excitement I’ve seen in our sport in a long time,” said Martin. “I think the young guys that are coming up are dealing with it really well by doing all of these shakeups and trying to figure out how they can get the very, very best team.”

The latest move was Kevin Koe’s former Alberta team, which is the reigning national champion, picking up former B.C. skip John Morris on Tuesday to take them into key events next season, including a return trip to the Tim Hortons Brier. It’s the first time the cur-

rent men’s champion will get an automatic ticket without having to win a provincial title.

Two younger teams at the elite level remain intact: Olympic gold-medallist Brad Jacobs, 28, and his team from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and Mike McEwen, 33, from Winnipeg.

Former Olympic champ Brad Gushue, 33, from Newfoundland and Labrador has made only one move, returning former teammate Mark Nichols, who had been curling with Stoughton.

After finishing out of the medals at the world championships, Koe, 39, announced a new team that includes Marc Kennedy at third, Ben Hebert at lead and Brent Laing at second. Kennedy and Hebert won Olympic gold with Martin and Laing was a two-time world champion with Howard.

“Those are your top four I think going forward,” said Mar-

tin of those four teams.

After watching all the moves, though, does Martin have any second thoughts about his decision to quit the game?

“I am so ready. To be honest with you, I think I was ready after Vancouver,” he insists.

But Martin recognizes that had he pulled the plug then, at the age of 43, he might have come out of retirement. There’s no chance of that now.

“I’m in a real good spot, I’m busy outside the ice,” he said.

“There’s tons of stuff going on.”

As for the only thing he regrets in a lifetime of curling, it was that failure to medal in 1992, when curling was still an Olympic demonstration sport.

He knew he wasn’t good enough to win gold that year.

“The one game . . . over all the years that I’d like to have back is that bronze game in 1992,” he added. ■

HOROSCOPE ARIES

CANCER

LIBRA

CAPRICORN

(MARCH 21 - APRIL 19)

(JUNE 22 - JULY 22)

(SEPT 23 - OCT 22)

(DEC 22 - JAN 19)

Messages from a distant state or foreign country, possibly through fax, email, or website, might not be totally accurate, Aries. If any information presented in this fashion sets off an alarm bell in your head, be sure to do some research on your own and check out the facts. Don’t accept any news at face value today. The lines of human and technical communication are definitely out of whack today.

A friend or neighbor you need to contact could be in and out all day, Cancer, and so you could have trouble reaching him or her. Phone or email probably won’t work, since your friend could be too busy to check messages. The best way to make contact might be to hop in the car and drive to wherever they might be. Take the side streets, however.

The main roads are probably clogged with traffic!

TAURUS

LEO

(APRIL 20 - MAY 20)

(JULY 23 - AUGUST 22)

This could be a very busy day in your community, Libra. Some kind of rally, protest, or other public gathering might take place. If you attend, you may not hear much because of all the noise, and the event could seem disorganized at best. It could also render traffic impossible! If you can, stay home today. Going out could be more trouble than it’s worth. Protest with your vote or your wallet instead.

SCORPIO

Your natural psychic or intuitive abilities could be short-circuited today, Capricorn. Interference from the minds of other people could cloud issues, and this won’t do you any good. Your imaginative faculties could be rather garbled as well. The best possible advice would be to take the day for your own needs. You can go back to your usual routine tomorrow.

AQUARIUS (JAN 20 - FEB 18)

(OCT 23 - NOV 21) Staying in touch with a love partner could be difficult today, Taurus, almost to the point of causing a minor panic. Don’t jump to any unwarranted conclusions about possible problems in the relationship. What’s causing the silence is probably beyond your friend’s control, and could well be related to sudden and unexpected crises, or possibly something as mundane as a computer breakdown. Hang in there.

This probably isn’t a good day to do work that concerns money, Leo. Your mind may not be in the right space. You could make errors that cause problems. If possible, also avoid working on any kind of creative project, since your mind might not be very clear and you probably won’t be happy with the results. However, this is a great day for routine work that doesn’t require much concentration.

A future course of action that you may or may not take could depend on information you might receive today, Scorpio. However, don’t be surprised if the information is vague and needs to be clarified.

On top of it all, you might not be able to reach the person who can clear it up for you! Hang in there.

The atmosphere around you could seem somewhat unreal today. If you get a weird vibe from someone, Aquarius, take everything this person says with a grain of salt. He or she has an agenda and isn’t above distorting the truth to achieve it. If what they say doesn’t affect you, don’t worry about it. If it does, take pains to learn the facts before acting on it. You’ll be glad you did.

GEMINI

VIRGO

SAGITTARIUS

PISCES

(MAY 21 - JUNE 21)

(AUG 23 - SEPT 22)

(NOV 22 - DEC 21)

(FEB 19 - MAR 20)

Are you having problems with the lighting or heating in your home, Gemini? If so, you might not be able to get a professional out today. There could be problems in the entire neighborhood. You might have to get out the candles and flashlights to get you through the evening. Don’t let this throw you. It’s a minor inconvenience that will be fixed soon. Think of it as an adventure!

A lost object could have all the members of your household going through every room trying to find it, Virgo - probably without success. Visitors could pitch in as well and help with the search. The item is probably in a fairly large room that everybody uses, probably among other objects. If no one locates it, however, let it go for now. It could reappear later as if by magic.

Are you unhappy or uncertain about your current profession, Sagittarius? Are you thinking of making a change?

News could reach you today of possible avenues to explore, but you shouldn’t make any decision today. Your mind isn’t as objective as it should be to think through everything. Think about it, by all means, but wait a day or two before giving serious consideration to anything vital.

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Communication could take some extra effort today, Pisces.

A business or romantic partner could seem like they’re keeping things from you. You might get some uneasy vibes and wonder if there’s trouble with your partnership. Don’t be afraid to ask. Your friend probably won’t tell you what the problem is, but will reassure you that it has nothing to do with you. If so, it isn’t your business. Let it go.

FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

42

Travel

Banahaw continues to lure pilgrims, trekkers

BY DELFIN T. MALLARI JR. Inquirer Southern Luzon DOLORES, QUEZON—Authorities might have closed most parts of Mt. Banahaw but its devotees continued to come to pray, kiss its sacred ground, feel its cool, pristine water and enjoy its blissful serenity.

“This is our 10th year here on Mt. Banahaw,” said Julie Aguilar, 52, a tailoring shop operator in Cabuyao City, Laguna province.

Around her were five colorful tents that had been occupied by her children and relatives since Palm Sunday.

“We also pray, but we’re not religious pilgrims. We just come here to enjoy the peace.

Sort of a nature trip,” she told the INQUIRER. Her husband Jun said he enjoyed the tranquility of the place. “At least for a week, we’re far from the maddening metropolis,” he said.

Except for some areas at the foot of Banahaw, the rest of the mountain has been closed to the public since 2004 for rehabilitation.

The base of the mountain in Kinabuhayan has been transformed into a camping ground for devotees, nature trippers and mountaineers.

The visitors enjoyed the gushing cool water of the Kinabuhayan River, but the Protected Area Management Board, which has supervision over Banahaw, prohibits the use of soap and shampoo in the area.

Holy mountain

The Dolores side of Banahaw, particularly the villages of Kinabuhayan and Sta. Lucia, is host to most of the “puestos (sacred spots),” which for the legions of pilgrims symbolize the holiness of themountain.

In 1936, the late Agapito Illustrisimo, founded the religious sect “Tatlong Persona Solo Dios ” and established a settlement in Kinabuhayan.

A devotee prays at one of the “sacred spots” on Mt. Banahaw in Dolores town, Quezon province.

PHOTO BY VIEL POLINTAN / INQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR

Some visitors, like Yolanda Tesoro, go to Banahaw for “divine” purposes.

For Tesoro, 67, a widow from Caloocan City, her annual visit to Banahaw was in obedience of the “whispered order” from an unseen woman she claimed was the “Mahal na Ina” or the Blessed VirginMary.

“I often come here because I was ordered by the Mahal na Ina to help me in my mission to heal the sick,” Tesoro said.

She arrived in Kinabuhayan on Palm Sunday aboard two jeepneys with more than 20 mostly women “apostles” from her organization called “Sagrada Pamilya.” They lit candles and read the passion of Christ along Kinabuhayan River.

“The people have to repent for their sins to escape the wrath of God,” Tesoro suddenly exclaimed during the interview.

“Suprema de la Iglesia Del Ciudad Mystica De Dios,” one of many religious sects based in Banahaw, observes Holy Week starting March 7 every year.

“We observe Good Friday every March 15. It’s a fixed date,” said Magtanggol Barrion, 51, a native of Sta. Lucia.

Daylong praying

The sect members pray the whole day in different puestos in a ritual they call “pamumuesto,” which Barrion described as similar to the Station of the

Cross of the Catholics.

Anyone who joins the ritual is barefooted.

Most of the puestos, some of them landmarks, caves or waterfalls, were named after saints. A devotee has to squeeze his or her body through tight spaces to get inside, light candles and pray.

Barrion said they spent the whole day praying in one puesto and the next day in another puesto. They also fast during the ritual. “We bring only water and biscuit,” said Barrion, who works as a forest ranger on Banahaw.

A sect member has to bring a canister for his urine and waste during the whole day of prayers and bring it back with him as he leaves the puesto to show respect to the mountain spirits.

There are more than 100 known puestos scattered around Banahaw, according to Department of Environment and Natural Resources park area superintendent Salud Pangan.

The ritual takes seven to eight years for a devotee to complete, according to Alfredo Garcia, a Mystica member and village councilor of Sta. Lucia.

Garcia said that once a pilgrim completed the Holy Week rituals of praying at different “holy spots” located in the multiuse zone at the base of the mountain in Kinabuhayan and Sta. Lucia, a devotee should climb the mountain to also

pray in different puestos at the peak to complete the spiritual journey. “It’s a must for the sect member to reach the top and pray,” he said.

Forbidden heights

But he claimed that no member of their sect had been to the peak since Banahaw’s closure in 2004.

On Maundy Thursday, hundreds came in cars, vans, SUVs, jeepneys and buses that lined up toward Sta. Lucia to pray before several puestos in the area.

Danilo Cuadra, 75, who walked with a cane and aided by his sons, got off from a van.

One of his sons said the old man’s wish was for them to bring him to Banahaw during HolyWeek until his death.

In one of the puestos called “Altar ng Jerusalem,” two longhaired males in red robes were reciting prayers with fellow devotees.

Both claimed to be the spiritual personification of “Lolo Uweng” and “Lolo Simon,” both believed to be divine beings.

Despite the prohibition, Banahaw continues to lure pilgrims, mountaineers and nature trippers to scale its forbidden heights.

Veteran mountaineer Noel Suministrado explained that the peak and bosom of Banahaw, classified by hikers as a major climb, never fail to offer

a myriad of natural attractions and challenges.

“The difficulties and ingredients of trekking challenges are all there, and I guess this is one the reasons behind its allure,” said Suministrado, a United Church of Christ in the Philippines pastor.

He said he never got tired of climbing Banahaw until it was closed “because every time I climb it, it has a way of changing its personality, one from sizzling hot, sunny day to a cold and rainy downpour on the trails,” he recalled.

“It is where I experienced a circular rainbow, and the best place to sipmorning coffee with the grandeur of the volcanic crater and Tayabas Bay from afar as the view,” he said.

He remembered the peak of Banahaw as one place where he “wrestled life’s questions and found answers as well, sometimes much more than I expected.”

Efrelyn Escultura-Calabano, special project officer of Tanggol Kalikasan Southern Tagalog, also attested to the physical and spiritual challenges posed

by Banahaw to climbers.

Spiritual connection

She said she had climbed Banahaw three times and had felt a “spiritual connection” with every climb. “If the climber is a sinner, he or she should pray while making the climb to lessen the hardship,” she said.

For devotees, the mountain is home to divine spirits, elements and otherworldly beings.

Believers trek its dangerous slopes to reach its different puestos, pray for forgiveness of sins or ask for divine intervention to overcome life’s challenges or to experience something mystical particularly during the Lenten season.

Banahaw, an active volcano, has a land area of 10,900 hectares, and is 2,170 meters above sea level.

The mountain straddles parts of Laguna and Quezon. ■

43 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

HEALTH IS . . .

. . . playing outside to give me a strong body and mind!

Celebrate Move for Health Week with more than 50 free or low cost activities from May 5 to 10. On Saturday, May 10, get your friends and family moving at the Move for Health Festival at Minoru Park. Find out more at www.richmond.ca/moveforhealth.

HEALTH 2014

www.richmond.ca/moveforhealth

www.richmond.ca

#RichmondMoves

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APRIL 25, 2014

Mourners reassured... to have Jordan in my life. It wasn’t long enough, but the impact he made on me and the inspiration that he is is something I’m going to take with me for the rest of my life,” she said as mourners wiped away tears.

“I look out and see all of these people who just loved him so, so much. What happened a week ago is an absolute tragedy and he was taken from us far, far too soon.”

Segura’s older brother, Jullien, said Segura was all about integrity and speaking the truth.

He drew chuckles from the crowd when he talked about how he took being the big brother very seriously.

“I would pick on him just because I was bigger, but I made sure everyone knew that only I was allowed to pick on him,” he said.

“It is great to hear that Jordan spoke so highly of his family when he was with his friends.

We are grateful for all of them.

His friends were his family.”

Segura’s love of family was ❰❰ 18

FRIDAY 44

Feds pull... a focal point in the one-hour service. Mourners heard he had two tattoos— one of his grandfather’s favourite car, a Bel-Air, and another showing a red heart with “mom” written through it.

Pastor Wes Gorman, who presided over the funeral, described Segura as an “amazing young man.”

“This is a sad day after a sad and painful week,” Gorman said.

“He’s been tragically and suddenly taken from our presence.

I know you have questions. We know your loss is deep,” he said.

“Jordan’s not here ... the whole city and the whole country are heartbroken.”

Segura’s plain wooden coffin was covered with a bouquet of white carnations and white roses. A photo montage showed him as a youth and with family and friends.

A reggae version of the original Bread song “Everything I Own” played in the background.

Segura had mentioned to a coworker once “that’s the song I want played at my funeral.”

“I would give everything I own, just to have you back again,” the lyrics said.

The funeral was one of three being held on Monday for those who died in the attack. Services for Kaiti Perras and Josh Hunter were also planned.

Segura, Perras, Hunter, Zackariah Rathwell and Lawrence Hong were all attacked at the house party last Tuesday.

Another party-goer, Matthew de Grood, 22, has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder. Police are still trying to determine a motive.

De Grood, who is the son of a senior Calgary police officer, had completed a psychology degree from the University of Calgary last year and had been accepted into law school for the fall.

The suspect is due to appear in court Tuesday to face the allegations.

Segura was a religious studies student at the University of Calgary and had worked for the past year at McInnis and Holloway, the funeral home where the service was held. ■

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The opposition parties and even some conservative commentators have called the action-plan ads thinly disguised propaganda. Editorials at major news organizations, including the National Post and the Globe and Mail, have said the ads are a waste of taxpayer dollars, designed to promote the Conservative party with public money.

Finance Canada paid Acart Communications Inc. almost $15 million to run TV, radio and Internet ads for the Economic Action Plan in 2012-2013, the latest year for which statistics are available.

The department set aside a $10-million action-plan ad budget for 2013-2014. Aubry would not provide actual costs for the year, saying the numbers would be published eventually.

The Finance Department also commissioned a series of focus groups last October to provide feedback about Canadians’ impressions about the government’s management of the economy. ❰❰ 18

The focus-group report by Ipsos Reid included a short section detailing comments about Economic Action Plan advertising. The results strongly suggested the campaign is missing the mark.

“There was minimal unprompted recall of the Economic Action Plan (EAP) beyond vague references to having seen or heard ‘an ad’,” says the report.

“When participants were further pressed for recall of any specific EAP measures, few could answer.”

Aubry said the ads nevertheless have continuing value.

“In an uncertain global economy, it is important that Canadians are aware of the measures and programs in the EAP and how they will lead to jobs, growth and long-term prosperity,” he said.

“The advertising campaign highlighted key policies and initiatives flowing from the EAP.” The department has spent at least $383,000 since 2009 polling Canadians on their reaction to Economic Action Plan ads. ■

FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

45

CANADA

Hiring Kitchen Manager and/or Line Cook

AD SALES The Philippine Canadian Inquirer—Canada’s first and only nationwide Filipino-Canadian newspaper, is looking for dynamic sales executives from Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.

Each sales executive must be a dynamic self starter who will treat this opportunity as their own exclusive business with the potential to earn serious money.

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Be part of an amazing in-store team!

Interested? Send us your resume now and let’s change your life!

We are currently recruiting for Sales Associate and Customer Service Representative to join us in Promenade, Toronto.

Email your resume to info@canadianinquirer.net

We’re looking for confident, sales and customer service oriented team players with: · Passion for telecom products and services · High standards of customer service · Excellent English communication skills · Previous retail experience You will be responsible for: In return, we will provide you with: · Selling long distance, · Professional sales training homephone, Filipino TV · Ideal pay package with channels commission and incentive · Providing an opportunities* exceptional customer · Career growth with service experience internal promotional · Sharing product opportunities knowledge information · Flexible hours

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PHILIPPINE CANADIAN

For your daily dose of the most current and up to date news

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CANADA’S FIRST AND ONLY NATIONWIDE FILIPINO CANADIAN NEWSPAPER

APRIL 25, 2014

An immigrant’s... in Hope she qualified under the Student Loan Forgiveness Program of B.C. and the B.C. component of her student loan was forgiven. Since July 2011, she has been a full-time registered nurse at Burnaby Hospital, working as a home health liaison, and now a case manager. Ever wanting to improve and make use of her abilities and believing in the importance of continuing education, Tats plans to get a teaching diploma in nursing.

Reminiscing and looking back at their struggles and challenges, Tats and Allan were evidently pleased at the way their lives have turned out in Canada especially in knowing that their two daughters are happily-adjusted and performing well in school. It helps too, that they have met many friends, immigrants like themselves who provide support, comfort, and fun to their life’s journey.

While Tats’ career path diverged from being a sociologist to becoming a registered nurse, an internationally-trained nurse who wishes to migrate to Canada may do so under certain provincial nominee programs.

Across BC, health care workers, such as physicians, nurses, psychiatric nurses or allied health professionals are in demand and may be eligible to apply to the BC Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in the health care professional category.

As this stream is employer-driven, an applicant must have an indeterminate job offer for a full-time position from one of BC’s five health authorities and for a nurse, he/she must be registered with the College of Registered Nurses of BC or the College of Registered Psychiatric Nurses of BC. Health care professionals looking to work in BC are encouraged to get connected to Health Match BC (http://www. healthmatchbc.org/).

Recently, Nova Scotia has launched its Regional Labour Market Demand

Path to Canadian Citizenship

❰❰ 23

COMMUNITY

IMMIGRATION SERIES

A F R E E community information session on current and up-coming changes to the Canadian Citizenship rules.

Frances Grace Quiddaoen & Leo Marco Lui

Saturday, April 26, 2014 1:00pm—3:30pm

4288 Joyce Street (a block from Joyce Skytrain station) Light refreshments will be served.

If you need child minding let us know in advance

CITIZENSHIP TOPICS Are you eligible to become a Canadian citizen?

How to calculate your residency requirements?

What you need to know about the up-coming changes to Canada’s citizenship rules and how might affect you Learn about the application process and processing times How to prepare for the citizenship test?

kcaguioa@cnh.bc.ca 604-435-0323 ext. 263

Resource Persons Grace and Leo are both Regulated Immigration Consultants and members of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council.

They write a joint column titled, “On the Move” published in the national newspaper, Philippine Canadian Inquirer and have guested to discuss immigration topics at “The Filipino Edition”, RED 93.1FM and at “Checkpoint”, Juan Radio, 96.1FM.

Organized by:

Supported by:

the chance? Write it down.

It may be learning a new language, joining a theatre group or joining a singing competition. Work on it. Make it happen.

Join a Community

Every single day, you are swamped with your office job or your demanding role as a parent. Have you ever thought of joining a community that has your same issues and problems? Join this community, meet new people and advocate with them. You never know— you might find your life purpose this way.

Stream Provincial Nominee Program (http://novascotiaimmigration.com/ immigrate/regional-labour-marketdemand). While it is only accepting 150 applicants belonging to the list of indemand occupations, registered nurses and managers of health care facilities are on the list. This stream is for professionals who meet the labour market needs and while applicants are not required to have a permanent, full-time job offer from a Nova Scotia employer at the time of submission of their applications, they must intend to pursue employment in the province and live there permanently.

Most often, the idea of financial instability is so daunting that some have even exchanged what would truly make them happy for stability and the tried and true. But ask them if they’re happy and contented and the answers are always an imperceptible shake of the head or an uncertain yes.

Equip yourself with useful knowledge

Read inspiring books, feed your mind, believe you are capable.

Reading can give you a sense of possibility, a sense of what's out there. It can resonate with you and prepare you for what the universe has to offer.

Identify what you really want in life

Some people buy the lie that they cannot find their life’s purpose because of lack of money.

Publisher Philippine Canadian Inquirer Editor Melissa Remulla-Briones editor@canadianinquirer.net Associate Editor Laarni de Paula Correspondents Gigi Astudillo Angie Duarte Katherine Marfal Frances Grace Quiddaoen Ching Dee Socorro Newland Graphic Designer Victoria Yong Photographers Angelo Siglos Danvic Briones Operations and Marketing Head Laarni de Paula (604) 551-3360 laarni.liwanag@canadianinquirer.net

CANADA’S FIRST AND ONLY NATIONWIDE FILIPINO-CANADIAN NEWSPAPER

An applicant approved as a nominee in a province, will be nominated by the province to the federal government for permanent residence. Provincial nominee programs are often updated and new ones are introduced. To keep abreast with new information, visit the respective provincial government website or contact an immigration consultant. ■ Grace and Leo are both licensed immigration consultants and members of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council. They may be contacted at (778)- 840-4295 or (778) 227-7679 or by email at onthemovecolumn@gmail.com.

Finding your... ❰❰ 31

FRIDAY 46

Go out on activities

“Purpose

Exploration”

Continue exploring. This may be

through attending workshops, conventions, and other gatherings where you can find people who share your passion.

Try something new, an activity that is not related to your passion, perhaps.

You never know—this may lead you to your life's purpose.

Reflect for 60 minutes every day

In a journal, write down all your feelings at the end of the day. Ask yourself, “Am I happy?” “What can I contribute to improve the world I am living in?”

Cry, laugh, rant, rage, express your fears and your innermost thoughts in this journal. Only by dwelling within and paying homage to what's actually inside you will your path and purpose be clearer. ■

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Advertising Sales Alice Yong (778) 889-3518 alice.yong@canadianinquirer.net Antonio Tampus (604) 460-9414 antonio.tampos@canadianinquirer.net PHILIPPINE PUBLISHING GROUP Editorial Assistant Phoebe Casin Graphic Designer Shanice Garcia Associate Publisher Lurisa Villanueva In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer digital edition Philippine Canadian Inquirer is located at 400-13955 Bridgeport Rd., Richmond, BC V6V 1J6 Canada Tel. No.: 1-888-668-6059 or 778-8893518 | Email: info@canadianinquirer. net, inquirerinc@gmail.com, sales@ canadianinquirer.net Philippine Canadian Inquirer is published weekly every Friday.

Copies are distributed free throughout Metro Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto.

The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors named, and are not necessarily those of Philippine Canadian Inquirer Editorial Team.

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47 FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014

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APRIL 25, 2014

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FRIDAY 48