Philippine Canadian Inquirer #155

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VOL. 2 NO. 155

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

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Palace to Ramos: Wait for Probe Results

PH a Top 5 Ocean Polluter

Paralyzed foreign worker asks for compassion

RRSP or TFSA?

Pacquiao agrees to $5-M fine for drug use

‘Don’t be the scapegoat’

Blame goes all the way up, FVR tells Napeñas

BY ERIKA SAULER Philippine Daily Inquirer FORMER PRESIDENT Fidel V. Ramos last week said Director Getulio Napeñas, the sacked commander of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF), should stop blaming himself for the Mamasapano debacle and instead throw the “real blame” at higher officials.

From the start, the former SAF chief has taken full responsibility for the operation during which 44 police commandos were killed in gun battles with guerrillas from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Speaking at ceremonies in Intramuros marking the 70th anniversary of the

Chinese culture among Filipinos remains intact

BY LADY MARIE DELA TORRE Philippine News Agency MANILA — Kiong Hee Huat Tsai (Happy New Year).

In the Hokkien language that most Chinese Filipinos speak, Kiong Hee Huat Tsai is the Chinese New Year greeting. The Cantonese version dominant

in Hong Kong is Kung Hei Fat Choi and the Mandarin is Gong Xi Fa Cai which means “Congratulations and Be Prosperous.”

This year’s Chinese New Year celebration, Feb. 19 declared by Malacañang as a national special (non-working) day in the Philippines, is as “one of the most ❱❱ PAGE 10 Chinese culture

❱❱ PAGE 7 ‘Don’t be’

Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Chinese New Year - An Epic Celebration! ❱❱ PAGE 26

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

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Philippine News

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

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In muddled command chain, P-Noy unscathed

BY AMANDO DORONILA Philippine Daily Inquirer

ceasefire was being enforced as part of the peace agreement it had signed with the government.

Ramos stopped short of criticizing the agreement but was scathing in his criticism of the Aquino administration’s handling of the crisis that followed the disastrous SAF operation.

He criticized the administration for “hemming and hawing” in the aftermath of the clash, in which 44 police commandos were killed.

IT TOOK former President Fidel V. Ramos to shed light on the convoluted chain of command, which is now being blamed for the Jan. 25 massacre of 44 commandos of the elite Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF)

by Moro guerrillas in Maguindanao province.

When Ramos spoke on Saturday to say that Director Getulio Napeñas, Law enforcement the sacked SAF commander, was “be“You must balance your actions with ing made a scapegoat” for the debacle hot pursuit. This is law enforcement in Mamasapano, he provided valuable with peacekeeping,” he said, recalling insight into the responsibilities and ac- the military action against rebel groups countability of top political leaders and that burned down Ipil town in Zammilitary and police officials who could boanga Sibugay province in April 1995 not get their act together in dealing with ahead of the signing of a peace agreethe crisis. ment with the Moro He informed the National Liberation debate over the enFront during his adcounter in Mamasaministration. pano, Maguindanao, On the chain of between SAF comcommand, Ramos mandos and guerpointed out that the rillas from the Moro The military Constitution clearly Islamic Liberation [chain of states that the PresiFront (MILF) and command] is dent is the Comtheir cohorts in the a bit different mander in Chief of Bangsamoro Islamic from the all state armed forces Freedom Fighters PNP chain of and of the civilian with his expertise as command, but government. defense secretary in both have one “As I said before, the Cory Aquino adcharacteristic— there are many ministration and as the President chains of command— former chief of staff is the military, police, civilof the Armed Forces Commander in ian, NGO, the media. of the Philippines Chief.

The military [chain and commander of of command] is a bit the Philippine Condifferent from the stabulary-Integrated PNP chain of comNational Police. mand, but both have From this platone characteristic— form, Ramos called the President is the on Napeñas to stop blaming himself for Commander in Chief,” Ramos said. the debacle and instead throw the “real “As military Commander in Chief, blame” at higher officials who were his chain of command goes down to the washing their hands of responsibility for chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the the bungled SAF operation.

Philippines. The secretary of defense is just an alter-ego. Same with the inteWhich officials? rior secretary [and the chief of the PNP].

He praised Napeñas for “being brave They cannot order operations unless as a patriot and as SAF commander delegated by the President,” he said. to accept the blame,” but said maybe Napeñas “should stop blaming himself Clearance for operation and put the real blame on higher offiThis point was raised in connection cials.” with the question of whether the PresiRamos, however, did not name the dent gave the go-signal for the SAF operhigher officials. ation to get Marwan and Usman. It was Napeñas has admitted that he did not also related to the question why Roxas inform the officer in charge of the PNP, and Espina were not informed about the Deputy Director General Leonardo Es- operation. pina, and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr., AFP about the SAF operation to arrest inter- chief of staff, and Defense Secretary Volnational terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias taire Gazmin were also not told about “Marwan,” and his Filipino deputy, Ab- the operation, but Gazmin and Roxas dul Basit Usman, who were given sanc- told a Senate hearing on Thursday that tuary by the MILF in a zone where a they heard about the the Mamasapano

clash in the morning of Jan. 25 but did not tell the President about it in Zamboanga City, where they were together throughout that day, because they did not know what was really happening.

The President learned what was going on from Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, chief of the AFP’s Western Command, during a briefing in Zamboanga City that afternoon. At that time, the 44 SAF commandos were already dead. They had been pinned down in a cornfield by MILF guerrillas, but their calls for reinforcements had gone without response.

Withholding info

Why were government officials and security forces withholding important information from each other—information relevant to the safety of law enforcers sent on missions to capture terrorists?

Up to now, after so many speeches by the President, it is not clear who gave the order to the SAF to enter dangerous and hostile ground without adequate cover from the military.

Hearings at the Senate inquiry into the Mamasapano clash showed deep PNP distrust of the military bedeviled the SAF operation.

Roxas and Gazmin told the hearing

that they did not realize the urgency of the Mamasapano encounter because the initial reports they had received were about a skirmish—”a typical incident in the area”—and they did not have then a complete picture of what happened.

Executive privilege

The suspended PNP chief, Director General Alan Purisima, the President’s close friend who knew about the operation, clammed up when asked whether he informed Mr. Aquino about what was going on in Mamasapano that day.

“Your honor, may I be given time to seek clearance from the President to answer that question?” Purisima asked.

Sen. Grace Poe, head of the peace and order committee, who granted his request.

At some point, Purisima admitted talking with the President about the SAF operation while he was under suspension.

When asked if either he or the President was responsible for the operation above the level of the SAF commander, Purisima said “No.” Napeñas has taken full responsibility for the debacle, but Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said he should not be entirely blamed for the disaster. ■

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Philippine News

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FRIDAY

Palace tells Ramos: Wait for probe results

BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN AND MARLON RAMOS Philippine Daily Inquirer MALACAÑANG THIS week urged former President Fidel V. Ramos and other critics to wait for the results of the police investigation before blaming President Aquino for the deaths of 44 police commandos in a clash with Moro rebels in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province, on Jan. 25.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma also assured the public that the police and the military are on full alert amid reports of efforts by some sectors to unseat President Aquino over the Mamasapano debacle.

“We respect the opinion and view of former President Ramos as a senior statesman of our country. It is better that we wait for the results of the ongoing investigation of the Philippine National Police board of inquiry and other agencies doing their own search for the truth … like the Senate and the House of Representatives to determine the full and complete narrative about what happened in Mamasapano,” Coloma told reporters.

Ramos, speaking at ceremonies in Intramuros commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Manila on Saturday, said Director Getulio Napeñas, the sacked commander of the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) who had taken full responsibility for the debacle, should stop blaming himself and instead throw the “real blame” at higher officials.

“I said it before, there are many chains of command— military, police, civilian, nongovernment organization, the media. The military [chain of command] is a bit different from the PNP chain of command, but both have one characteristic—the President is the Commander in Chief,” Ramos said.

Two former SAF officials also said that as Commander in Chief, President Aquino should take full responsibility for the disastrous ending of the SAF operation to take down international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino deputy, Basit Usman.

They said Mr. Aquino could

ers has been posted on YouTube by the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

Shielding President

Malacanang Palace this week urged former President Fidel V. Ramos (pictured centre) and other critics to wait for the results of the police investigation before blaming President Aquino for the deaths of 44 police commandos in a clash with Moro rebls in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province on January 25.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

have saved many of the 44 SAF commandos had he ordered the military to launch a mission to rescue the policemen, who had been pinned down in a cornfield by guerrillas from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

P-Noy not informed?

Mr. Aquino was in Zamboanga City on Jan. 25 supposedly visiting the victims of a car bomb explosion there on Jan. 23. He could have learned about the fighting in Mamasapano, which began early that morning, but Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, both of whom were with him in Zamboanga, did not inform him about it.

Speaking at a Senate inquiry into the Mamasapano clash on Thursday, Roxas and Gazmin said they received reports of the fighting in the morning of Jan. 25, but did not tell Mr. Aquino about it because clashes were daily occurrences in Maguindanao and they did not have a complete picture of what was going on in Mamasapano.

Coloma sounded irritated when asked whether Malacañang would reprimand officials who failed to inform the President about the fighting in Mamasapano.

“This question is based on

a conclusion or based on conclusion on what we have heard from statements to testimonies from the hearings in the Senate and the House of Representatives. In our view, it is not proper to immediately accept this conclusion while the report of investigating bodies has not yet come out. It is better and proper to wait for the full result of these probes,” Coloma said.

The SAF commandos killed Marwan during the operation but got into gun battles with BIFF and MILF guerrillas as they withdrew from Mamasapano.

Forty-four commandos, 18 MILF guerrillas and five civilians were killed in the 12hour gun battle.

Usman was wounded, but managed to get away.

President Aquino has come under heavy criticism for not accepting responsibility for the SAF disaster.

Take full responsibility

The two former SAF officials, who asked the INQUIRER to withhold their identities for fear of reprisal from their superiors in the PNP, said Mr. Aquino, being the Commander in Chief, should tell what he knew and take full responsibility for the deaths of the 44 police commandos.

The first officer, who served as a tactical officer in the SAF for four years, said Mr. Aquino www.canadianinquirer.net

could have minimized the SAF casualties had he directly ordered the military to step in and rescue the beleaguered policemen.

He noted that the President admitted during a brief speech to SAF members on Jan. 30 that he knew about the fighting in Mamasapano.

“I was told of the results of the [police operation] to arrest Marwan in the morning.

While the investigation of the Zamboanga bombing was being conducted, the report [about the Mamasapano incident] was coming in,” Mr. Aquino told the SAF troopers after condoling with the families of the slain policemen at SAF headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

“What did he do after being told about the incident? Did he instruct the military to immediately carry out a rescue mission? For me, that’s the most important question that the President should answer,” said the police officer, who now occupies a key post in the 150,000-strong police force.

“I believe in the President’s advocacy of ‘tuwid na daan” (straight path). This is the most opportune time for him to prove to the Filipino nation that he can still be trusted and that he will not lie to us,” he said.

An official video of the President’s talk with the SAF troop-

The police officer urged the senators and representatives looking into the Mamasapano clash to watch the video.

“That video is very revealing because the President himself admitted knowing that a gun battle was [taking place] between the SAF and the [Moro rebels] in Mamasapano and yet his senior security officials claimed they did not tell the President about it,” he said.

“It’s very obvious that they were lying through their teeth, possibly because they wanted to protect President Aquino.

But the people, especially the families of the [slain] SAF officers, deserve to know the truth,” he said.

The second police officer, who spent the early years of his career in the SAF, said the President should explain why he agreed to let Director General Alan Purisima, the suspended PNP chief, take control of the mission to arrest Marwan and Usman.

Jan. 9 briefing

He said the President should also make public the discussion he had with Purisima, Napeñas and Senior Supt. Fernando Mendez, head of the PNP Intelligence Group, during their meeting on the SAF mission in Bahay Pangarap, his residence at the Malacañang compound, on Jan. 9.

Mr. Aquino must also explain why he agreed to Purisima’s “advice” that Napeñas not inform Roxas and the PNP officer in charge, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, about the operation.

“Oplan Exodus was finalized during that meeting in Bahay Pangarap. That only means the President was fully aware of the operation,” the police officer said.

“Instead of trying to escape accountability, President Aquino should man up and accept the fact that he failed to do what’s necessary to save the lives of the SAF troopers,” he said.

“With just one call to the military, President Aquino could have saved the lives of many of those 44 brave men,” he said. ■

Philippine News

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

5

For love’s sake, De Lima restores NBP stay-in visits

BY TARRA QUISMUNDO Philippine Daily Inquirer INMATES AT the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) definitely felt the love this past Valentine’s Day, as their wives have again been allowed conjugal visits on weekends, and an overnight stay on the day of romance.

Relenting in the name of love, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima restored overnight conjugal visitation at the Muntinlupa City prison after months of withdrawing the privilege following raids at the facility late last year that yielded contraband goods and revealed luxury accommodations within the compound.

“I have allowed (conjugal visits) for Valentine’s, (and) the stay-in privilege,” De Lima said last week.

“I have restored the visitations but for weekends only, especially now that there’s Valentine’s (Day),” the justice official said. “But again, it’s subject

to certain restrictions, like only the immediate family can visit and only within limited hours,” she added.

De Lima said she restored the weekend visitation privilege at the NBP a few weeks back, but granted an overnight stay for the inmates’ wives especially on the day of hearts.

The concession was granted more than a week after the inmates’ wives, who had organized themselves into the Alliance of Inmate and Detainees-Dalaw (AID-Dalaw), met with De Lima to appeal for conjugal visits for today’s special celebration.

Inmates also “desire to be loved and cared for by their families and relatives,” as prison life can “get lonely,” the group said in their appeal.

De Lima said the visitation privilege was restored two weeks back, but was limited to two days a week. “(The group) just proposed adding another day—Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday—and it’s timely be-

The air-conditioned, fully-furnished units have since been torn down.

Limited visitations

A man tries to convince a flower stand owner at Quirino Ave. in Paranaque City on Valentine's Day (Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015)to cut prices of flowers before buying them.

AVITO C. DALAN / PNA

cause it’s Valentine’s Day,” she added.

Visits at the NBP were originally allowed from Tuesdays to Sundays, but the schedule was changed and conjugal visits suspended as part of stricter se-

www.canadianinquirer.net

curity measures enforced after a series of raids in December.

During the raids, De Lima and the raiding team found contraband including cash and illegal drugs in luxury villas known to belong to convicted drug lords.

The justice secretary had 19 high-profile inmates transferred to a detention facility at the National Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters in Manila and soon decreed limited visitation rights.

“The inmates understand why we’re doing this because the situation is still volatile. We don’t want any untoward incident, like an explosion, to endanger visitors,” De Lima said, referring to the Jan. 8 blast that rocked the NBP and left one inmate dead and 19 others wounded.

Aside from relaxing visitation rules at the NBP, De Lima also allowed more visitation days at the NBI facility, where she had earlier barred the visits, prompting the inmates’ lawyers and wives to file petitions in the court demanding that they be allowed to see their loved ones. ■

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Philippine News

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FRIDAY

Indonesia postpones moving 6 drug smugglers for execution, allows Australians more family time

BY ALI KOTARUMALOS The Associated Press

Philippines in Forbes list of best retirement places in the world

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — The Philippines secured a spot in the Forbes magazine’s ”20 Best Foreign Retirement Havens for 2015.”

THE WEBSITE said that the country’s low cost of living makes it one of the few countries that people might consider in choosing the best country to settle down after retiring.

“For U.S. retirees the principal appeal of the Philippines is a low cost of living in a tropical environment full of English speakers and outdoor beauty,” the website said.

The website also noted that foreign income is untaxed in the Philippines.

Aside from that, foreign nationals can also easily gain permanent residency in the country by presenting their retirement income.

Forbes is a business magazine which releases lists and rankings of places and personalities.

“Popular locations include Tagaytay, a suburb of Manila, the capital, that is elevated and therefore cooler, and Subic Bay, with an infrastructure from the old U.S. Navy base. Non-stop flights between Manila and the US average 15 hours,” it added.

A complete list of the 20 best countries for retirement includes: 1. Australia 2. Belize 3. Canada 4. Chile 5. Colombia 6. Costa Rica 7. Croatia 8. Ecuador 9. France 10. Ireland 11. Italy 12. Malaysia 13. Mexico 14. Nicaragua 15. Panama 16. Philippines 17. Portugal 18. Spain 19. Thailand 20. Uruguay ■

indication yet that Indonesia would face diplomatic consequences if it rejected Australia’s appeals for clemency.

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — In“We will be making our disdonesia has postponed the pleasure known. We will be transfer of six convicted drug letting Indonesia know in absosmugglers, including five forlutely unambiguous terms that eigners, to a prison island we feel grievously let down,” he for execution due to technisaid. cal problems and to allow the Abbott declined to say whethtwo Australians among them er Australia was considering to spend more time with their trade sanctions or recalling its families, an official said Tuesambassador. day.

“I am sick in my stomach They are among eight conat the thought of what might victs who are facing imminent happen to these two unfortuexecution despite international nate young Australians in a appeals for clemency. Among very short space of time if the them are Andrew Chan and Indonesian government does Myuran Sukumaran, the ringnot treat our representations leaders of a group of nine Auson their behalf with the same tralians arrested in 2005 for respect that it expects its repreattempting to smuggle 8.3 kilosentations on behalf of its citigrams (18.3 pounds) of heroin zens on death row to be treatto Australia from the Indoneed,” Abbott said. sian resort island Six former of Bali.

Australian prime Authorities ministers — Malhad said Monday colm Fraser, Bob that the eight The decision to impose the death Hawke, Paul Kewould be moved penalty by the Indonesian court is ating, John Howthis week to not directed to a particular country ard, Kevin Rudd Nusa Kambanor a national of certain country. and Julia Gilgan prison off lard — on Monthe main island day added their of Java. voices to calls to Two convicts spare the Austraare already being held on the not to grant mercy to any other lians. island while six others would be drug offenders because IndoIndonesian Foreign Minismoved from Bali, East Java, Yo- nesia is suffering a “drug emer- ter Retno Lestari Marsudi said gyakarta, Banten and Sumatran gency.” she understands the position province of Palembang.

Australia has abolished capi- of Australia government to give But Attorney General’s Office tal punishment and opposes representation on their behalf, spokesman Tony Spontana said executions of any Australian but noted that the death penTuesday that executors survey- overseas. alty is part of Indonesian law. ing the island found it was not The seven other members of “The decision to impose the ready to handle the executions. the group — dubbed the “Bali death penalty by the IndoneHe said the inmates would be Nine” by Australian media — sian court is not directed to transferred after the location received prison sentences from a particular country or a nais ready, but did not give a time 20 years to life. tional of certain country.” she frame.

Australian Prime Minister said. “It should be underlined Spontana said that “the exe- Tony Abbott said on Wednes- that the issue is purely law encution plan is still on schedule” day he was continuing to make forcement, a law enforcement since the inmates’ clemency ap- personal representations to against serious crime, law enpeals have been rejected. “The Widodo to spare the Austra- forcement by a sovereign counchange is the plan of transfer, lians’ lives. try, Indonesia.” which was to have been carried “This is an encouraging sign, Indonesia has 133 people on out this week,” he said, adding but that’s all it is,” Abbott told death row, including 57 for drug that prison officials have sug- reporters, referring to the pris- crimes and two terrorists. ■ gested the transfers take place oner transfer postponement. three days before the execu- “It certainly isn’t an indication Associated Press writers Niniek tions. that there is now a serious pros- Karmini in Jakarta and Rod McThe postponement was also pect of clemency.”

Guirk in Canberra, Australia, in response to requests from Abbott made his strongest contributed to this report. www.canadianinquirer.net

Australia’s government to allow Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, to spend more time with their families, Spontana said. The two are being held in a prison in Bali.

The other convicts to be executed are five men from France, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia, and a woman from the Philippines.

Spontana said Rodrigo Gularte, Brazilian prisoner who is already in Nusa Kambangan, needs medical examination due to mental illness.

“Due to lack of facilities, the Attorney General is considering permission for being examined outside Nusa Kambangan,” he said.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has rejected appeals by Australia’s government for clemency for Chan and Sukumaran, and has vowed

Philippine News

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

7

‘Don’t be’... ❰❰ 1

Battle of Manila, Ramos said Napeñas was “being made a scape-

goat.”

“He’s brave enough as a patriot and as SAF commander to accept the blame. But maybe he should stop blaming himself and put the real blame on higher officials. Pity the SAF,” Ramos said.

Earlier, Ramos took off his barong Tagalog to show a shirt bearing a message dedicated to the 44 SAF troopers killed in Mamasapano and donned a beret with the SAF insignia before starting his speech.

Ramos was cofounder of the SAF, which was set up in 1983 under the then Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP).

Napeñas has admitted that he did not inform the officer in charge of the PNP, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas about the SAF operation to take down international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and the Malaysianborn bomb expert’s Filipino deputy Abdul Basit Usman.

Ramos said that the Consti-

tution clearly states that the President is the Commander in Chief of all state armed forces and the civilian government.

“I said it before, there are many chains of command— military, police, civilian, NGO, the media. The military [chain of command] is a bit different from the PNP chain of command, but both have one characteristic—the President is the Commander in Chief,” Ramos said.

“As military Commander in Chief, his chain of command goes down to the chief of the [Armed Forces of the Philippines]. The secretary of defense is just an alter ego.

Same with the interior secretary [and the chief of the PNP].

They cannot order operations unless delegated by the President,” he said.

Together all day

Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, AFP chief of staff, was not informed about the SAF operation.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin was also not told about the operation, but he and Roxas told a Senate hearing on

ANG BAGONG

CANADA APPRENTICE LOAN

The 44 police officers who died during the Mamasapano clash PNP SAF WEBSITE

Thursday that they heard about the Mamasapano clash in the morning of Jan. 25 but did not tell President Aquino about it in Zamboanga City, where they were together throughout that day, because they did not know what was really happening.

Mr. Aquino and the Cabinet officials traveled to Zamboanga that day to visit the survivors of a car bomb explosion in the city on Jan. 23 and inspect the blast site.

But Ramos said that as head of the civilian government,

President Aquino could have called a barangay councilman in Mamasapano to ask what was going on.

Mr. Aquino learned what was going on from Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, chief of the AFP’s Western Command, during a briefing in Zamboanga that afternoon.

At that time, the 44 SAF commandos were already dead.

They had been pinned down in a cornfield by MILF guerrillas but their calls for reinforcements had gone without re-

sponse.

Ramos said that whether Mr. Aquino was in Zamboanga to sympathize with the victims of the bomb explosion—who he said were “very few”—or for a “future purpose,” only he knew.

But the security officials who were with him should have immediately told him about the fighting in Mamasapano, Ramos said.

“That should be the immediate approach if they know their beans,” he said. “If not, they should go back to civilian life.” ■

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FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FRIDAY

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BY GIL C. CABACUNGAN, LEILA B. SALAVERRIA, AND NIKKO DIZON Philippine Daily Inquirer CONGRESS HAS no choice but to approve the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) because the alternative is the resumption of war with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a leader of the House of Representatives said.

“We have to come out with something.

We cannot just keep quiet and let things unfold without doing anything. Because if we do so, we are practically telling the MILF to continue its fight. That’s it.

That will be our posture,” said Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II. But Gonzales said the MILF could not demand that the BBL be faithful to the draft peace deal it signed with government negotiators because members of Congress were not part of the talks.

“If the MILF had wanted that in the first place, they should have included the lawmakers in the initial discussions,” he said.

Approval of the proposed BBL would pave the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro autonomous region. The bill would include wealth- and powersharing arrangements between the national government and the new Bangsamoro political entity.

Hearings suspended

Both the Senate and House of Representatives have suspended hearings on the BBL as they focus on their inquiries into the deaths of 44 police commandos, on a mission to arrest two terrorists, in clashes with Moro rebels on Jan. 25 in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province.

Sen. Sonny Angara said Congress’ suspension of discussions on the BBL was an opportunity to determine whether this was a measure that would be good for the state.

Like a number of lawmakers, Vice President Jejomar Binay saw the need to go slow on the passage of the proposed BBL following the Mamapasano clash.

In a statement, Binay, who had gone to visit not only the wakes for the fallen Special Action Force members but also the wounded, said there should be justice and accountability for the fallen commandos.

“I have always supported the call for peace in Mindanao, but given what has transpired in Mamapasano, I believe we cannot achieve peace without justice and accountability,” he said. “All the more reason not to rush the approval of the BBL.” P-Noy must defend deal

In Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, a top leader of the MILF said President

A Philippine Navy SEAL member confronts U.S. Sailors portraying crewmembers aboard military sealift command rescue and salvage ship USNS Safeguard during a training exercise. Members of congress have said that if the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were to break down entirely, it would be a signal for the two sides to continue fighting.

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Aquino must fight for his policy to bring lasting peace in Mindanao following the Mamasapano debacle, which dealt a major blow to the ongoing peace process.

“I believe that because President Aquino is very serious and sincere, he should fight for his conviction, in his belief that his policy is right to settle the Bangsamoro issues, which have become the major cause of the Mindanao conflict,” said Ghazali Jaafar, first vice chair of the MILF. “He should pursue his policy and belief to settle the issue in a peaceful way,” Jaafar told the INQUIRER in an interview over the weekend.

But the MILF leader, much like members of the government peace panel, conceded that the proposed BBL would no longer be passed by March 20, when Congress ends its session.

Timetable derailed

“We no longer would be able to follow the timetable,” Jaafar said.

Amid the setback, a billboard still keeps a countdown to March 20 in Camp Darapanan, the MILF headquarters in Maguindanao.

In Cotabato City on Sunday, government peace negotiator Senen Bacani said in a press conference that passing the BBL by March 20 was “unlikely.”

The reality, he said, was that the timetable projected by the government and the MILF suffered a setback.

Acknowledging the situation, chief government negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said both panels had always adopted a “problem solving approach.”

“Adjustments would have to be made and mutually agreed,” she said.

Eye of a needle

Ferrer said the proposed BBL would certainly “go through the eye of a nee-

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dle.” “It won’t be easy,” she said. But both the MILF and the government have reiterated that they will not give up on the peace process just yet.

Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, told the INQUIRER in a separate interview that the President, in his two national addresses following the Mamasapano debacle, had clearly spelled out that he remained steadfast in pursuing the peace process.

“His message was very clear about the peace process. Certainly, the peace process is something that we cannot give up,” Deles said.

Asked if there was a need for Mr. Aquino and MILF chair Murad Ebrahim to meet following the Mamasapano incident, she said the “communication lines [between the government and the MILF] are very much alive through many means.”

“I think both the principals are getting messages that are not difficult to understand,” she said.

Rebuild trust

Just like the MILF, the government needs to take steps to save the peace agreement, according to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III. While MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal conveyed the group’s desire for peace and tried to rebuild strained relations when he appeared in the Senate hearing last week, the group must still prove its commitment through actions, said Pimentel and Angara.

“Both sides of the peace agreement would, however, need to do acts to rebuild trust,” Pimentel said in a text message yesterday.

Popularize protocols

He said one thing the administration should do was to see to it that all govern-

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

ment agencies were aware of the protocols and peace agreements that the government had with various groups.

He said the government should revisit its protocols with the MILF and ensure that both sides were clear on these.

The Mamasapano incident involved a fierce firefight between the SAF and the MILF, and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), following a police operation to arrest Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino associate Abdul Basit Usman.

Some have contended that the police’s lack of coordination with the military for the mission to get Marwan and Usman led to the firefight with the MILF, the BIFF and other private armed groups in the area.

Police officials have explained that the decision to coordinate with the military only when the troopers were on the ground was done to prevent the operation from being compromised once more.

The police and other parties have also decried the overkill in

the killing of the SAF personnel, some of whom were shot at close range, in what others some described as an execution. A video of a SAF trooper being shot at close range has further stoked public anger.

Good face

The MILF must take part in investigations in good faith, Pimentel added.

Angara, for his part, said Iqbal was able to show “humility and empathy” and tried to restore trust between his group and the government.

“But words must be backed up by actions. Surrendering arms taken from the SAF is a

favor of the concept of peace, there must also be justice.

But he also noted that the MILF had testified to its efforts to stop the firefight between the police and its forces. “Let’s also understand that the MILF is a big organization. So that’s one aspect that could be studied,” he said.

Pimentel said Iqbal was a “good” face for the MILF and was “knowlNo full control edgeable, fluent, In the House and diplomatic” of Representawhen he faced tives, Magdalo the senators, but Rep. Gary Alemore was exjano said the Words must be backed up by actions. pected from the MILF’s lack of Surrendering arms taken from the group. full control of its SAF is a start. We hope for more.

One thing armed troops on it could do is the ground could to submit the lead to complinames of their cations once leaders and comthe BBL was apmanders involved in the fight- start. We hope for more,” An- proved. ing “ahead of any finding of li- gara said in a text message.

“We have received informaability on the part of anybody,” tion on the dynamics inside the he said.

Don’t harbor terrorists MILF where the leadership is It should also return all govInterviewed over radio dzBB, not working in unison because ernment-issued equipment Angara said the MILF must they themselves were competand personal belongings of the prove it was not harboring ter- ing with each other on influencSAF commandos in its posses- rorists and must show good ing their troops on the ground. sion. The MILF has promised faith, amid public distrust.

They are already anticipating to this but has not said when.

He said that while he was in what position they will get in

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9 the Bangsamoro government,” Alejano said over dzBB. He said the lack of control by the MILF leadership on its forces was evident in the Mamasapano incident when the MILF contingent ignored calls for a ceasefire in the early morning of Jan. 25. The joint ceasefire committee was able to enforce the ceasefire only at 3 to 4 p.m. that same day when 44 SAF members were already dead.

‘Interchangeable’ troops

Claiming that the MILF 105th Base Command had not cut ties to the BIFF, Alejano said it was easy for their respective troops to change uniforms depending on the situation.

He cited reports that the MILF and the BIFF had maintained “interchangeable” troops in anticipation of a rejection of the BBL or approval of a watered down BBL. This was the reason for the recruitment of more MILF members and more joint training with the BIFF while the ceasefire with the government was holding, he said. ■

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Philippine News

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FRIDAY

Chinese new year decorations and items adorn marketplace stalls.

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Chinese culture... ❰❰ 1

revered and festive events celebrated not only in China but also in the Philippines by both Chinese-Filipinos and ordinary Filipinos as well.”

Brother Ben Borras, Feng Shui practitioner of Yin Yang Charms and Feng Shui Stores located in Sta. Cruz, Manila, said that Chinese-Filipino (Tsinoy), a Filipino of Chinese heritage, consider Chinese New Year (Chinese Spring Festival) as a family reunion “a must do dinner” where family members shared meals, most significantly a Feast on New Year’s Eve. “In Manila, because the house is not so big so most of the time

they will eat out in Chinese restaurants,” Borras said, noting that Tsinoy (who are not 100 percent full blooded Chinese) do not religiously practice the 15-day festival tradition.

While New Year’s customs vary or others may have gone what remains is that Chinese celebration of Chinese New Year is the same — a sincere wish for peace, happiness and prosperity for family members and friends and respect for the elders, Borras said.

In welcoming this year’s Chinese Spring Festival Year of the Goat many Chinese, Tsinoy and even Filipinos cleantheir houses before the New Year,

one of the traditions in Chinese culture.

The house is given a thorough cleaning, on the belief that it will sweep away any misfortune or bad luck during the departing year and make way for the incoming good luck and good fortune that will surely arrive during the new year.

As part of cleansing the house, doors and windows are given new coats of paint, and paper cutouts with the themes of ‘happiness,’ ‘wealth’ and ‘longevity’ are used as decoration around the home.

After cleaning, people will go shopping and buy new clothes and even red underwear for the

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festival. Chinese people believe that since this is a year anew they should buy a lot of new things. Purchasing new items symbolizes welcoming new things and getting ready for a new start.

Red is considered the luckiest color and everyone tries to dress in it and have red things all around. Red is considered a bright, happy color, sure to bring the wearer a sunny and bright future. It is believed that appearance and attitude during New Year’s sets the tone for the rest of the year.

Gold is another suitable color; try combining the two for a festive look. Avoid wearing too

much black during the celebration period. Black symbolizes bad luck and even death.

Making sure there are healthy, preferably blooming, plants around the house as they symbolize life and renewal.

Other traditions that have been imbedded in the Chinese culture include shooting off firecrackers on New Year’s Eve, the Chinese way of sending out the old year and welcoming in the New Year. On the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, every light in the house is sup-

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

posed to stay lit, the door in the house, Early in the morning, after sunrise, and even windows, have to be open to al- the children receive the red packets, low the old year to go out; often containing money from their Planning out the food : Fruits like parents. Then the family visits doororanges are good, for it has golden to-door to exchange New Years’ greetcolor and homophone with the word ings-- first to relatives, then to neigh“Ji” in some dialects (means good luck bors. In some Chinese neighborhoods, in Chinese). Fish is also traditionally mandarin oranges are also exchanged served (the Chinese character for fish as offerings of good will and good forsounds the same as that for ‘abun- tune. dance’.). Chicken with its head and Lucky money is prepared for children feet intact, which symbolizes pros- by adults and the elderly and given after perity. Noodles should be left uncut the reunion dinner. In folk culture, the for it symbolizes a long life. Candy is children will live safe and sound for the good for it symbolizes a “sweet” year. whole year if they get lucky money. This Plants and flowers also play a signifi- custom still remains and the amount of cant role in symbolizing rebirth and money is increasing. Children use their new growth. A home is thought to be money to buy books or other school lucky if a plant blooms on New Year’s supplies. Some families also save the Day, as this foretells the start of a money for future use or use it to help prosperous year; cultivate in their and children the habit of Gift giving: Nian saving.

Gao or tikoy is a popMany companies ular gift item during use this opportunity the New Year. The to offer a set of red traditional Nian Gao packets to customers is round to look like who buy their prodmoney hence means ucts or patronize wealth. It is sticky their services. rice for luck to stick Chinese New Year to you. It also pulls celebration in Binoneverything that is While New do District, Manila dear to you togethYear’s customs (the primary Chinaer. The red-colored vary or others town) and even in a packaging is believed may have gone few other cities in the to drive away evil; what remains is Philippines where The Chinese culthat Chinese there is a sizable ture also has some celebration of Chinese presence, prohibitions which Chinese New features a parade of include:Do not use Year is the dancing lions or a knives or scissors on same — a dragon.

New Year’s Day as sincere Lion dance is a rethis may cut off forwish for peace, markable piece of tune; happiness and folk performance No cleaning of prosperity art and sports. The homes on the first for family lively display of the day of Chinese New members lion dance animates Year. You don’t want and friends and the air of festivity in to risk sweeping away respect for the Chinese New Year the good luck of the elders. celebrations.

New Year; The New Year is All debts had to considered a time of be paid by this time. reconciliation. Old Nothing should be grudges are set aside, lent on this day, as and the atmosphere anyone who does so is marked by warmth will be lending all the and friendliness. year; To pray in a temple Everyone should during the Chinese refrain from using New Year is said to be foul language and bad or unlucky words. blessed, and will lead to a smooth comDeath and dying are never mentioned ing year. Most temples welcome particiand ghost stories are totally taboo. Ref- pants not of Chinese descent. erences to the past year are also avoided Fifteen days after New Years’ Day, as everything should be turned toward the celebration’s end is marked by the the New Year and a new beginning.

Festival of Lanterns. It is a time for If you cry on New Year’s day, you will lantern shows and folk dances. cry all through the year. Therefore, chilBorras said that some of these tradidren are tolerated and are not spanked, tions and customs by our ancestors are even though they are mischievous. still practiced, whether you believe or It is considered unlucky to greet any- not, to provide continuity with the past, one in their bedroom so that is why ev- family identity, family bonding together, eryone, even the sick, should get dressed and even good for business. ■ and to sit in the living room.

11

CBCP head challenges P-Noy to disclose role

BY JOCELYN R. UY Philippine Daily Inquirer THE HEAD of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) this week challenged President Aquino to disclose his role in the police operation in Mamasapano that led to the deaths of 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF).

The Senate and the House of Representatives are investigating the Mamasapano debacle, but Speaker Feliciano Belmonte will ask the House investigative committees to suspend the hearings to allow public anger over the killing of the 44 policemen to cool down.

In a strongly worded statement on the Mamasapano debacle, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the policemen went after “high-value targets”—international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino deputy, Abdul Basit Usman—because they were ordered to do so.

“The President and his advisers must give a full satisfactory accounting of their actions in respect to this tragic loss,” said Villegas, noting that policemen, even the SAF, “do not order themselves.”

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“Indeed, that is what corroborated statements now clearly establish: The decision was made at the highest levels to go after these ‘high-value targets,’” Villegas said.

“The only thing that was awaited was ‘the window of opportunity,’ a judgment that is made by people on the ground,” Villegas said.

Villegas also echoed the same questions that were thrown by various groups and individuals following the bloody operation: Why were the officer in charge of the Philippine National Police, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas left out of the loop in the SAF mission.

He also asked why a suspended police officer, referring to the resigned PNP chief, Director General Alan Purisima, played more than merely an advisory role and gave orders.

“And if he was in fact issuing orders and commands, should it not be clear that his authority to do so, precisely because he was laboring under a legitimate order of suspension, emanated from higher levels?” Villegas said.

Also yesterday, House Majority Leader ❱❱ PAGE 12 CBCP head

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Philippine News

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FRIDAY

BBC journalist to Chinese envoy: Stop it, make some friends

BY NIÑA P. CALLEJA Philippine Daily Inquirer A BRITISH journalist and author of a book on the South China Sea territorial disputes gave an official of the Chinese Embassy in Manila a dressing down at a forum organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday.

“These countries (in Southeast Asia) are petrified of what you are doing. Stop doing it and make some friends,” Bill Hayton, a reporter of the British Broadcasting Corp., told Shan Ao, secretary to the ambassador of China to the Philippines.

Hayton’s statement drew applause from the audience, composed mostly of diplomats and government officers, at the DFA headquarters.

Shan earlier approached the microphone during the open forum to point out that China has no intention of waging a war to defend its nine-dash-line claim in the South China Sea. “China is not going to start a war. It is not true. [What it aims] is peace and stability in the region,” Shan said shortly after Hayton gave his lecture on “The South China Sea and China’s Geopolitical Interests.”

‘Collective hallucination’

Hayton and former National Security Adviser and West Philippine Sea coconvenor Roilo Golez were speakers in the conference, which is part of the Foreign Service Institute Mangrove Forum on International Relations.

Hayton is the author of the book “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia,” published last year by the Yale University Press.

Hayton described as “collective hallucination” China’s reclamation works in the disputed reef in the South China Sea, the Panganiban Reef, also called Mischief Reef.

“Why has China screwed up so badly in the last five years?

In 2009, the US is worried about the financial crisis, the war in Afghanistan. You have the Arroyo regime which is proChina, China has just become Malaysia’s trading partner. Five years later, everything has gone

CBCP head... ❰❰ 11

Neptali Gonzales II said Belmonte would meet with Negros Occidental Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer, chair of the committee on public order and safety, and Basilan Rep. Jim Hataman-Salliman, chair of the committee on peace, reconciliation and unity committee, to reschedule their

joint hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“I think it is better if we let the issue cool down first and not to investigate in this heated atmosphere,” Gonzales said in an interview on dzBB radio.

With a report from Gil C. Cabacungan

Sandiganbayan denies birthday furlough on Sen. Estrada

BY SAMMY F. MARTIN Philippine News Agency Maritime claims in the South China Sea.

wrong for China. Why?” Hayton said.

“Why did you muck it up so badly? Is it because of the South China Sea? Why, by attaching that U-shaped line to that map that you submitted to the UN (United Nations) in May 2009, you irritated the entire region,” he said.

Just this month, the DFA lodged a diplomatic protest urging Beijing to stop the construction of what appears to be an artificial land in the resource-rich waters of West Philippine Sea. Participating by nonparticipating

The Philippines has a pending arbitration case against China, questioning the ninedash-line or U-shaped-line claim over the West Philippine Sea and invoking the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

The International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (Itlos), a five-man tribunal, is hearing the case of the Philippines against China.

“China is participating in Itlos proceedings by nonparticipating. It is airing its side through other media, without submitting to the Itlos process,” Golez said.

If Itlos will decide in favor of the Philippines, Golez believed China will abide by the ruling.

“Other countries will come into the picture. Malaysia, Vietnam will be encouraged to act.

It will make China appear like a

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bully,” he said.

At the forum, Hayton expressed his optimism that the Philippines will win the arbitration case.

“I am so confident that the Philippines’ case will be successful because on civil geographical description, its description is right,” he said, referring to the Panganiban Reef where China has been doing its reclamation works.

He noted that under the Unclos, a reef is not covered by the 200-nautical-mile-zone claim from a country’s continental shelf.

Interviewed over ANC yesterday, Hayton said China was “clearly concerned” about the Philippines’ case before the UN tribunal and had offered “various inducements for it to drop its case.”

‘Smart way to get int’l attention

“It seems to me a fairly smart strategy for a country which, let’s be honest, is militarily weak compared to China,” Hayton said.

He said the Philippine case was also a “smart way” to get the international opinion behind it.

The nine-dash claim of China covers 90 percent of West Philippine Sea which would effectively reduce the Philippines exclusive economic zone where it has exclusive rights for fishing, drilling and other economic activities. ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

MANILA — The anti-graft court on Monday denied the birthday furlough being asked by detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada, saying that “confinement restrains the power of locomotion or actual physical movement.”

Estrada asked Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, chaired

by Associate Justice Roland Jurado, to grant him birthday furlough dated Feb. 12, 2015 so as to allow him attend a three hour natal mass on Feb. “Wherefore, the Motion to be Allowed to attend Natal Mass on February 17, 2015 filed by accused Senator Estrada is denied,” the resolution signed by Jurado and his two Associate Justices Alexander Gesmundo and Ma. Teresa Dolores Estoesta read.

In his request, Estrada wanted to attend mass with his family on his natal day at Pinaglabanan Church in San Juan City.

“This met the opposition of the prosecution which, while commiserating with the desire

Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada.

of the accused to attend a natal mass with his family, is constrained as such because of his detention. The prosecution cited the previous rulings in this court in accused’s Motion to be Allowed a Pass for five (5) hours on November 1, 2014 and Motion to be Allowed a Furlough on December 25, 2014 and December 31, 2014 to January 1, 2015,” the court argued in the resolution.

The court explained in its resolution, that what the accused sought was not of an emergency in nature.

“Allowing the accused to hear mass outside the confines of his prison would accord him the liberties of a free man with all the privileges appurtenant to his position. Such an aberrant situation not only elevates accused status to that of a special class, it also would be a mockery of purposes of the correction system,” the court explained on their decision.

With that, the Fifth Division of Sandiganbayan said that “at the risk of bad precedent, therefore, accused’s reprieve from jail for his natal day cannot be accommodated.” ■

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Philippine News

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

13

Philippines ranks third in top five biggest polluters of the ocean

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer SAN JOSE, United States — Scientists announced on Thursday, February 12, that eight million metric tons (17.6 billion pounds) of plastic refuse ended up in the ocean, in 2010, and that the top 5 culprits responsible for the litter were China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

The study pointed to the slipshod management of waste products, as well as littering across the globe as the roots causes of ocean pollution, which bears a great impact on the safety and survival of marine life.

This is the first study to ever measure the amount of refuse going into the ocean from 192 countries with coastlines. Previous studies all measured the amount of trash already in the ocean.

Scientists employed a mathematical model based on the amount of waste generated on a per-person basis in each of the 192 countries. This helped

A study found that, based on data collected in 2010, the Philippines is among the top 5 global ocean polluters along with China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. The US ranked 20th.

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to determine the amount of garbage that went into the surrounding oceans.

The study found that: • one percent of the waste was thought to be plastic • one percent was thought to be mismanaged waste (garbage dumped on land, but not properly contained and ended up in the ocean).

Jenna Jambeck, a researcher from the University of Georgia, told reporters from the Agence France-Presse at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose, California, that the situation “can get worse.”

“If we assume a business as usual projection — with grow-

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ing populations, increasing plastic consumption and increased waste generation — by 2025 this number doubles,” Jambeck explained.

She also noted that countries in the middle income countries with rapid rates of economic expansion were generally the biggest polluters of plastic waste in the ocean, as their waste man-

agement systems are not up to par with their rate of growth.

According to the study, the top twenty countries on the list of ocean polluters accounted for 83-percent of the total amount of mismanaged plastic.

As such, it is vital to improve waste management and cutting down on plastic, in order to help solve the problem.

“We need to prevent plastic from entering oceans in the first place. Helping every nation develop a sound solid waste management infrastructure is a top priority,” said the study’s co-author, Roland Geyer, an associate professor at University of California Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.

Greyer also pointed out that it “is equally important” to boost efforts to re-use and recycle plastic.

Landing in the 20th spot on the list, the United States was the only wealthy nation to rank as a top polluter; likely on account of its lengthy stretch of coastline, as well as the large volume of waste produced by its citizens. ■

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Philippine News

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FRIDAY

PNP celebrates 24th anniversary: cites achievements, honors 44 SAF heroes

BY C. LLOYD T. CALIWAN, ANTONETTE B. TAGNIPEZ AND MARIANE CLARIZE V. NORIEGA Philippine News Agency MANILA — The Philippine National Police celebrated its 24th anniversary on Monday, highlighted by the giving of awards and recognition to the good performing units of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) for their contributions to the success of the NCRPO undertakings.

“Today, as we celebrate the 24th founding anniversary of the Philippine National Police, we will also honor another milestone in the history of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO). Looking back at exactly eight months before, on June 16, 2014, we started to initiate new strategies with the aim of tilting the balance of the growing adverse public perception about rising criminality in the National Capital Region (NCR),” Deputy Regional Director for Operations Police Chief Supt. Allen Bantolo told the PNP officers and men gathered at the NCRPO Headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.

Bantolo noted the significant improvement in the anti-crime campaign with the launching of the “Oplan Lambat Sibat,” which is a multi-dimensional approach in addressing criminality in urban setting.

He also cited the PNP’s integrated patrol system, management tools for field commanders and the manageable operational results as their accomplishments against criminality in the past year.

“As we reinvigorated our anti-criminality campaign, or the Oplan Lambat Sibat, we have all

Members of the Philippine National Police line up during a training exercise for the recent papal visit.

PNA

witnessed the remarkable and significant improvement in the NCR crime situation,” he said.

“Oplan Lambat,” as implied by its name, was designed to function as a net for petty criminals. Each strand represents a smaller police operation such as increased checkpoints, mobile and beat patrols, intensified serving of arrest warrants, and customized police deployment and operations in densely populated areas, including malls, MRT and LRT stations, and other transport terminals.

On the other hand, “Oplan Sibat” was designed as a unified intelligent target operations of the PNP, using combined intelligence resources of various operating units.

“Our Oplan Lambat Sibat has been able to yield tangible results by organizing our weekly crime trend and reducing the

number by 50 percent from its comparative baseline period from Dec. 21, 2013 to June 15, 2014. In eight months, we have learned to embrace the doctrine of the whole of PNP approach. We have truly appreciated the essence of impact of deliberate, systematic and programmatic development of policy,” he explained.

During the celebration, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II, as the guest of honor and speaker, honored the fallen 44 Special Action Force (SAF) heroes on behalf of a grateful nation.

“Their lives and memories are forever etched in our minds and hearts for the ultimate sacrifice that they gave for our people and our nation. We cannot deny their nobility, their courage, and their sacrifices which led to the

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death of Marwan. They did their job, to the ultimate. We honor them every day by likewise doing our work, professionally, competently and responsibly.

The mandate of the police is very simple: to serve and to protect,” Roxas said.

He also proudly cited how the PNP, through the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), served and protected the citizens of the NCR in the last seven months.

“From more than a thousand incidents a week of theft, robbery, carnapping and motorcycle-napping, it has been reduced through the NCRPO command and PNP to 436 last week, 522 in the week before that, 577 the week prior to that, and 563 in the week prior to that. For four weeks, the number has stayed within the 500 level and recently reduced to

436. These are due to your efforts,” Roxas told the officers and men.

Roxas noted that it was hard to achieve that number, but week after week, they have learned from their mistakes of the preceding week and they have strengthened and fortified their efforts.

According to the DILG secretary, the Northern Police District (NPD) covering the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela recorded 73 unresolved cases of robbery, theft, car-napping and motorcyclenapping within their areas of responsibility in the first half of 2014, but the figure was reduced to 42 last week.

The Eastern Police District (EPD) encompassing the cities of Makati, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasig and San Juan managed to reduce its record

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

unresolved cases of 110 to 81 cases.

In the same vein, and Manila Police District, reduced the number of its unsolved cases from 220 cases to 97.

In the Southern Police District (SPD) covering Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, Pasay, Paranaque, Taguig and Pateros, the number of unresolved cases was down from 222 last year to 75 this year.

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD), which previously had 270 recorded cases, halved this number to 141.

Taking the above statistics into account, Roxas concluded that NCR is much safer this year compared to 2014 as a result of the perseverance, dedication, professionalism and service of the police officers.

“All of you who wear the uniform, take an oath. All of you who wear a uniform, every day, you know the possible peril you may be involved in when you wear that uniform. We owe a lot to the men and women in uniform; all the support, the resources, the effort so that when you do your part, the rest of the government also does its part.

It will not only be an effort of the whole PNP but it will be a whole government approach so that we may apply the efforts and achievements in NCR to the whole country,” Roxas said.

“To the men and women of NCRPO, the men and women of the Philippine National Police nationwide, although we are celebrating our 24th PNP Foundation Day, it is really over a hundred years since the first constabulary of police force was set up in our country. Over that century, there have been ups and downs, good and bad, happiness and sadness. Today, naghahalo ang lungkot at tuwa. Lungkot sa nangyari sa ating heroes sa Mamasapano; tuwa naman sa accomplishment ng NCRPO na naipababa sa kalahati ang bilang ng krimen dito sa NCR (It was mixed emotions. Sad due to the Mamasampano incident; happy because of the accomplishment of the NCRPO to lessen the crimes),” Roxas said.

Meanwhile, 38 police commanders, commissioned and non-commissioned officers were given Medalya ng Paglilingkod Laban sa Kriminalidad sa NCR during the event. ■

15

Mamasapano farmer returns helmet, radio of Fallen 44 PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY

PNP Special Action Force and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Barangay Tukanalipao.

SHARIFF AGUAK, MaguinThe farmer said several other danao — Police authorities in villagers also took the fallen Maguindanao are expecting policemen’s items like guns, more personal items, gadgets mobile phones, comouflage and equipment uniforms and of the Fallen 44 combat shoes. to be turned to “I hope other the government villagers or the after a farmer MILF and BIFF who asked not I hope other villagers or the MILF will return the to be named for and BIFF will return the items owned items owned by security reason by the slain policemen. the slain policehanded over men,” Jocson three items of said. slain police comFo r t y- f o u r mandos in the commandos, 18 January 25 Mamasapano de- set and ballistic plate of bullet Moro rebels and four civilians bacle. proof vest. were killed in a police surgical Senior Supt. Rodelio Jocson, The items are now at the po- operation that also killed MaMaguindanao police chief, said lice provincial office in Shariff laysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir the farmer brought the items to Aguak, Maguindanao. alias Marwan. the police office bringing with Jocson said the farmer was His Filipino cohort, Abdul him three items he found in among those who arrived at Basit Usman, escaped but was the battlefield in Barangay Tu- the encounter site between seriously wounded. ■

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kanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

“He was a farmer living in Barangay Tukanalipao. He asked not to be named for security reason,” Jocson said of the farmer who turned over a SAF Kevlar helmet, a two-way radio

Opinion

16

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FRIDAY

AS I SEE IT

Massacred?

By Neal H. Cruz Philippine Daily Inquirer THE MORO Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) insists that the 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos who died in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, were not “massacred.” Yes, they were not. They were butchered.

Medicolegal findings on the autopsy of the 44 bodies show that nine of the commandos were shot at close range in the head and 18 others had bullet wounds in the “head, trunks and extremities.” All but one of the seven officers were shot in the head. Three of the slain policemen sustained wounds in the trunk which should not be possible because they were wearing bulletproof vests. This indicates that their vests had been removed as they lay wounded and helpless before they were shot at close range.

Now who are the animals who could have done that? The SAF cops had a gun battle with fighters of the MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. The MILF has been negotiating with the administration for a peace agreement since 2011. It has promised to “look into the possibility that its fighters executed some of the SAF commandos

after the firefight.” and were awakened by gunfire. We built a “world-class” parking building The MILF should turn over to the thought we were being attacked so in his city. He will be our next presiauthorities the beasts who murdered we fired back. But when we learned dent? (Waaaaaaaah!) those policemen. More likely, howev- that they were government troopBishops, leftist groups and opposier, the MILF will say that the execu- ers, we stopped shooting. That is tion politicians: Maawa naman kayo tioners were members of the break- why around 30 of them survived. If sa mga tao (Have mercy on the peoaway group BIFF and “private armed we had not, none of them could have ple). You do not know what you are groups” and that its own MILF fight- survived. doing. The aging bishops should seek ers behaved like perfect gentlemen, Emphatic answer: We are sorry divine guidance. The militant groups giving aid and succor to wounded for what happened. It will never hap- and oppositionists should not fall for cops but who died anyway. pen again (crossed fingers). We want the wiles of the Janus-faced politiDid the MILF fighters see those PEACE. cian who is egging them on. who butchered the These groups wounded commanwant P-Noy to The MILF will say that the executioners were members dos? Possible anstep down without of the breakaway group BIFF and “private armed groups” and swer: Yes, but they thinking of who will that its own MILF fighters behaved like perfect gentlemen, could not rememreplace him. giving aid and succor to wounded cops but who died anyway. ber the killers’ faces To their credit, because they were the bishops also concentrated on helping the wound*** want Binay to step down (which is ed cops.

Some bishops, militant and leftist like wishing for the moon) but do not Did the MILF fighters took the groups, and opposition politicians know who will become president. It guns of the policemen and looted urge President Aquino to step down should be a “transformation countheir bodies? Possible answer: May- because of the Mamasapano massa- cil,” they said, but do not know who be one or two guns (we will return cre. A “rich man” is supposed to be will compose the council. Should we them), but loot the bodies? Never. urging a coup d’etat. In the words of gamble our future on an unknown We will never do that. It was the oth- INQUIRER columnist Winnie Mon- group of “councilmen”? Chances are er fighters who did that and stole the sod: “Are you out of your minds?” they would be a bunch of fortune rest of the guns.

Who will succeed P-Noy? Under hunters and power grabbers.

Why did you shoot at the police- the Constitution, it should be the Why not just wait for P-Noy’s term men of the government with which vice president. And that is nobody to expire? They have only about a you are holding peace negotiations? else but (hoo, hoo, hoo!) Jejomar Bi- year to wait and P-Noy would be in Possible answer: We were sleeping nay, the former mayor of Makati who the past tense. Then they can vote for

the best presidential candidate. And the best should not include corrupt politicians.

One reason the bishops’ call for P-Noy to step down is not credible is that one of its two nonclergy supporters is Norberto Gonzales, national security adviser during the Arroyo administration. I don’t have to say anything more. It shows the quality, or lack of it, of the future members of the Transformation Council that the bishops are proposing.

Bishops: Pray and ask God to clear your minds. *** Why do Filipino nurses go abroad to work? Because they are among the world’s best and other countries want them. I have been a hospital and clinic patient more than the average person here and abroad, and I can attest to the fact that Filipino nurses are more loving, caring and patient than other nationalities.

For this reason, I am extending belated Valentine’s Day greetings to some of the nurses of Nephro Care: Amy, Ruselle, Dada, Ginny, Jesse, Thony, Diana, Nessie, and the others whose names I cannot remember. Keep it up. You deserve salary increases. ■

AT LARGE

Telling the world

By Rina Jimenez-David Philippine Daily Inquirer “THE world should know what the Philippines is like,” said Celia Tischler Black, who was in the country recently partly to attend the alumni homecoming of the American School (now known as the International School) and also to speak about her experience as the daughter of refugees who fled Germany to find succor from the Nazi persecution of Jews.

Celia, more familiarly known as “Topsy,” spoke of the years during which her family found sanctuary in the Philippines. In fact her grandfather is buried here. It was Topsy (and not Gordon Lester, as I erroneously reported in a previous column) who told the story about Filipinos having a hard time pronouncing her maiden name, and since her father was named “Adolf,” he sometimes ended up being called “Adolf Hitler.”

There were six such “witnesses” at the press conference organized jointly by the Israeli Embassy and the Pilipinas Sandiwa Heritage Foundation. The foundation seeks to promote Philippine culture and history and increase Filipinos’ appreciation of their heritage. And apparently, knowing about the “open door”

policy adopted by President Manuel Quezon for European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution, saving more than a thousand of them from almostcertain death in the Holocaust, is part of that effort. It’s time we talked about the role we played in world history, and educated our young people about it. *** Indeed, as Mary Brings Farquhar exclaimed, “how wonderful it is to be back home!” Born in Manila in 1943, “in the middle of a huge typhoon in the middle of the Japanese Occupation,” she, with her parents and grandmothers, became a Filipino citizen after World War II. Her father Theodore was a physics professor at the University of Vienna but was dismissed when Austria fell under Nazi control. At first hoping to teach in Australia, he brought his wife and mother on board a ship but was told en route that the position was no longer available. So they decided to disembark in Manila, where Theodore ended up teaching physics at the University of the Philippines while his wife Paula taught physical education at Assumption and St. Theresa’s.

Prefacing his account with the salutation “mga kaibigan (my friends),” Hans Hoeflien opened with an expla-

nation for the scratches on his face.

“Stepping out the church last Sunday,” he said, he tripped and fell on the sidewalk and immediately three Filipinos approached him, took him inside the church, and cleaned him up as best as they could. One of the group then volunteered to take him to his hotel, but once inside his room, Hoeflien worried that he might need an antitetanus shot and tests. So he went down to the lobby, told the Filipino manager about his concerns, and at once the manager himself drove him to a nearby hospital and waited until Hoeflien was given his shot and cleared for checkout.

The story, he said, was just illustrative of “the way Filipinos are,” a quality he has appreciated since he and his family arrived here before the war, during his student days at De La Salle, and up to the time he flew to the United States to study at MIT. *** While Topsy was the “baby” of the group, the eldest among them was Ralph Preiss, who arrived in the Philippines with his family in 1939. His father had been a doctor in a village in what is now East Germany. Since there was no immediate replacement for him, the elder Preiss continued ministering to the village folk until

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the Nazis found a younger replacement. The doctor began looking elsewhere for a placement and began buying medical equipment to set up his own clinic. But when they arrived in Manila, Filipino physicians had succeed in lobbying the government to limit the practice of medicine to Filipinos. Selling the equipment, Dr. Preiss moved to San Pablo, Laguna, and left Ralph to study at De La Salle, boarding with some family friends.

After the war, recalled Ralph, his father went into drug distribution, notably of the drug Warfarin, which is used for, among other things, inducing bleeding in rats for which he was cited by the Philippine government after a serious rat infestation.

When fighting grew fierce in Manila and environs, Ralph was pulled out of school and brought to join his family in Laguna. After “Liberation,” Ralph took up engineering at UP Diliman. But his studies were halted when the Quonset hut housing the engineering department was destroyed by a twister—something he witnessed as he alighted from a public bus. Ralph later moved to the United States, enrolled at MIT, and there married and started a family. *** One of the ironies of the refugees’

situation was that, under the Japanese occupation, they faced little persecution. Instead, when asked to show their papers and the Japanese discovered that they held German citizenship, they were called “the good guys,” unlike Americans and other foreigners who were interned at the University of Santo Tomas.

But the street-by-street firefights when “Liberation” began, and the land mines planted in areas like Malate and Ermita, spared no one, friend or foe. The survivors’ stories tell of hiding in foxholes or hastilybuilt underground shelters, not knowing if the footsteps they were hearing belonged to desperate Japanese soldiers, who were shooting or bayoneting anyone they saw, or friendly troops. One of them remembered a soldier lifting the steel sheet that concealed their foxhole and asking loudly: “Anyone here want a Chesterfield?”

Manila was liberated, but at tremendous cost in life and property damage. Someone wrote recently that the capital has yet to fully recover from the damage it suffered at war’s close. Helping achieve that recovery is something the survivors say they want to do, in gratitude to the nation and people that saved them. ■

Opinion

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

17

WITH DUE RESPECT

Who won in new DAP ruling?

By Artemio V. Panganiban Philippine Daily Inquirer IN AN en banc resolution, the Supreme Court modified its earlier decision declaring unconstitutional four specific acts under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

While the Court issued a press statement on Feb. 3, the resolution itself, also dated Feb. 3, was released to the public only on Feb. 11.

Original decision. To understand fully the changes made, we must first review the original decision dated July 1, 2014, as follows: Annually, Congress enacts the General Appropriations Act (GAA) or budget containing an itemized list of expenditures for the three main branches of government (legislative, executive and judicial) and the independent agencies like the Commission on Elections.

Under the Constitution, money allotted in the GAA for one program, activity, or project (PAP) cannot be spent for another PAP. Much less can it be spent for a PAP not included at all in the GAA. Even Congress cannot “authorize the transfer of appropriation” from one budget item to another.

However, the Constitution allows one exception: “... [T]he President, the President of the Senate, the

Speaker of the House of Represen- tification from the national treasurer came from augmentations. tatives, the Chief Justice of the Su- that the revenue collections exceeded The Court also clarified that the preme Court, and the heads of the the “total of the revenue targets.” “authors” enjoy the presumptions of Constitutional Commissions may, The Court further ruled that, un- innocence, good faith and regularity by law, be authorized to augment any der the doctrine of operative fact, in the performance of official duties. item in the [GAA] for their respective these four acts, though unconstitu- These presumptions can be eroded offices from savings in other items tional or illegal, remain valid and the only if and when, after proper chargof their respective appropriations.” public officials who committed them es are filed and due process observed (bold types mine) This limited ex- in good faith are not culpable. But in specific cases, other tribunals (like ception is called the power of aug- the doctrine “cannot apply to the au- the Department of Justice, Office of mentation. thors, proponents and implement[e] the Ombudsman and trial courts) Unconstitutional acts. The Court rs of the DAP, unless there are con- find enough evidence showing their held that the following DAP acts of crete findings of good faith in their bad faith and culpability. transferring funds Further, in relaare unconstitutional tion to Item 3, the Everyone, including the “authors,” should be given the or illegal, because Court said that “as they failed to follow long as there is an presumptions of innocence, good faith, and regularity in the the strict requireitem in the GAA for performance of official duties. ments of the excepwhich Congress has tion: favor by the proper tribunals deter- set aside a specific amount of public 1) Transfers of savings “prior to the mining their criminal, civil, adminis- fund, savings may be transferred thereend of the fiscal year”; savings are not trative and other liabilities.” to for augmentation purposes.” And in generated unless the PAP for which Changes made. In its new resolu- relation to Item 4, UFs may be used on they are intended have been legally tion, the Court deleted “proponents a quarterly basis “upon proof that the “completed, discontinued or aban- and implement[e]rs” but retained “au- total revenues exceed the target.” doned.” thors.” Proponents refer to lawmakers, Who won? Plainly, the government 2) Transfers at any time from one governors, mayors, etc. who requested won because the Court partially grantbranch to another branch of govern- funding for the PAPs and the imple- ed its motion for reconsideration by ment; hence, a “crossborder” trans- menters are the executive officers who limiting personal liability only to the fer from the executive to the legisla- built or undertook the PAPs. “authors” of the DAP, and only after tive is unconstitutional. 3) Transfers This deletion is fair because the other tribunals find evidence showing to a PAP not included in the GAA. 4) proponents and implementers were bad faith and culpability. Otherwise Transfer of “unprogrammed funds” innocent participants. Even Sen. stated, the DAP decision cannot, by or UF (money from unexpected Jinggoy Estrada, who “exposed” the itself, be a source of liability. sources, like dividends) without a cer- DAP, did not know that the funds Clearly, the above-quoted consti-

tutional exception is quite difficult to comprehend. In fact, on March 5, 2013, the Court itself asked for the cross-border transfer of P100 million from the Department of Justice’s budget to the judiciary for the construction of the Malabon Hall of Justice. This request was, however, withdrawn on Dec. 23, 2013, after the petitions questioning the constitutionality of the DAP were filed.

This shows that even the keenest legal minds can misconstrue the exception. Hence, it is fair and reasonable that the doctrine of operative fact should validate past acts, and that everyone, including the “authors,” should be given the presumptions of innocence, good faith, and regularity in the performance of official duties.

Far from condemning it, the DAP, said the Court, “is a policy instrument that the Executive, by its own prerogative, may utilize to spur economic growth and development.”

Moreover, unlike in the case involving the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund), the Court did not find any public money malevolently flowing into private pockets, or to pseudo foundations, or to fake nongovernment organizations.

At bottom, I think it is reason, logic and fairness that really won. ■

GET REAL

Peace is the answer

By Solita Collas-Monsod Philippine Daily Inquirer IT HAS become a three-ring circus, these investigations of the Mamasapano Misencounter. To shift the attention to what are at least equally important matters, I dust off the Philippine Human Development Report (PHDR) 2005, titled “Peace, Human Security and Human Development in the Philippines,” and recommend that it be read by all concerned Filipinos, but most especially by our legislators, who seem to have taken their eyes off the ball, diverted by the thrill of the said three-ring circus. What it says still resonates.

Even just the cover of PHDR 2005 is a sharp reminder to us: “It is a shadow play of fingers mimicking the images of guns. But the shadows also represent the finger-pointing among members of society based on prejudice, ignorance, and misrepresentation that often give rise to violence and armed conflict.” Isn’t that what we are being treated to right now?

PHDR 2005 proceeds to tell us what armed conflict in the Philippines has cost us, and distinguishes between the NPA (New People’s Army) conflict and the Moro conflict.

It provides a matrix of these costs, divided vertically into nonmonetary

and economic costs, and horizontally land, some driven to virtual ghettoes 2005: “...[T]he Moro conflict has been into direct costs, implicit costs and where they are reduced to penury, viewed as an exclusively ‘Mindanao isspillover costs. and face discrimination and preju- sue’ but should be a pressing question For example, between 1970 and dice by the majority. of human development and human 1996, more than 100,000 were killed And that’s “just” the nonmonetary security that touches all Filipinos.” In due to the Moro conflict, of whom 20 costs. Now for the economic costs of other words, we are all affected. percent were noncombatants (this the Moro conflict. Estimates of the So let us not get distracted from estimate is by Gen. E. Ermita). In economic cost, including foregone the ultimate objective: peace. And if 19691976, during the fiercest fight- investment (in both the region and anyone says we have to make war to ing between the government and the country) amounted to larger than gain peace, my reply is that we tried the Moro National Liberation Front, P10 billion annually in 1975-2002 that, too (with our major counterof60,000 were estimated killed, 54,000 (total: P370 billion). A better way of fensives by Marcos and Estrada). It wounded and 350,000 displaced. looking at it: These costs amounted got us nowhere, at the tremendous PHDR 2005 continues: From the to approximately 2.5 percent of the costs we outlined above.

1970s, as many as And we are taktwo million people ing out our anger on If anyone says we have to make war to gain peace, my may have experithe wrong people, reply is that we tried that, too . . . It got us nowhere, at the treenced dislocation methinks. Because mendous costs we outlined above. due to the Moro since 2010 or 2011 conflict. On a flow basis, around regional GDP of central and south- there has been not one encounter be1.4 million were displaced in 2000- western Mindanao, or about 0.5 tween the government and the Moro 2004. The largest movements in in- percent of national GDP (which, at Islamic Liberation Front. And the ternally displaced persons occurred current prices, would mean roughly painful fact is that this Mamasapano when the government launched ma- P60 billion) annually. If it is any com- Misencounter, may I venture to say, jor offensives. ( This occurred dur- fort, the economic costs of conflict was not started by the MILF either. ing both the Estrada and the Arroyo in other countries average about 11.3 Even the MILF’s reluctance to appear regimes, although the largest one percent of GDP per year (circa 2005). before the legislature was painted in occurred during the Marcos years.— See what continued conflict would the most uncomplimentary terms, SCM) Furthermore, the toll among mean in terms of lives lost and dis- as were most of its other statements. evacuees even in the relative “safety” placed, and economic costs? National Painful. What is wrong with its wantof evacuation centers—disease, lack Economic and Development Author- ing to finish its investigation so that it of food—cannot be ignored. Any- ity Director General Arsy Balisacan, would have its facts straight before facwhere from one-fifth to one-third of who was president of the Philippine ing the Senate? Or what is wrong with major Moro ethnic groups now live in Human Development Network at the saying that it remains a revolutionary areas outside their ancestral home- time, wrote in his foreword to PHDR organization until the peace agree-

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ment is implemented, at which event it would transform into a social one? Is that not what anyone would do?

PHDR 2005 also puts some perspective on one of the most gruesome aspects of the Mamasapano Misencounter: the alleged killing of wounded police commandos by head shots at close range (ascribed, without any basis, to the MILF), and the alleged mutilation of the dead. These have enraged the public, and rightly so. These should be condemned, and the perpetrators should be brought to justice.

But it should be remembered that similar atrocities have been committed against our Muslim brothers—the Jabidah massacre (anywhere from 28 to 64 Muslims killed by their Christian officers of the Philippine Army, none of whom was punished), the Ilaga’s (Christian vigilantes’) torture, mutilation and massacre of 70 people who were at a mosque, the shooting of a young evacuee couple (husband in the head, seven-months-pregnant wife in the belly). All equally enraging.

The moral of the story is the same.

Conflict creates its atrocities. Peace heals. Human security is the external condition for human development.

Peace is the answer.

Let’s keep to our quest for peace.

Pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Now. ■

18

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Canada News

NEWS BRIEFS

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

FORMER PART-TIME SOLDIERS NOW WAITING UP TO TWO YEARS FOR SEVERANCE OTTAWA — Part-time soldiers who leave the military are now facing longer waits for severance pay — in some cases as long as two years — as a result of an old, moribund system the Department of National Defence promised to fix in 2013.

A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CF-18 Hornet taking off. The deployment of such planes for combat against the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, in addition to other military operations, has so far cost the Canadian Government $122 million since last fall, a cost that the government says is "entirely reasonable" given the importance of the mission.

PAUL STEIN / FLICKR

Cost of Canada’s war against ISIL estimated at $122 million and counting

BY MURRAY BREWSTER The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Canada’s combat mission against the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant is expected to cost about $122 million in the current budget year.

The country’s new defence minister released the figure Monday night, and it is the estimated incremental cost for the current mission, which began last fall.

Jason Kenney says he’ll be tabling the figures in Parliament this week, but they shouldn’t be taken as the last word.

He said in a statement the costs will ultimately be higher than that, “but how much higher will depend on whether we wrap up the operation at the end of March, or extend it, so total final costs are still difficult to calculate.”

But to date Kenney says the “hard costs we are incurring are $122 million, which will be reflected in the estimates,” which the government is

obliged to table as part of its regular reporting to Parliament.

The figures reflect what is being spent in the current budget — or fiscal — year on the CF-18 bombing campaign, which is based out of Kuwait, and the deployment of special forces troops who are training Kurdish peshmerga forces in northern Iraq.

“We think these costs are entirely reasonable given the importance of this mission where Canadian Special Operations and our Royal Canadian Air Force are having a meaningful impact against this genocidal terrorist organization, the so-called ‘Islamic State.”‘ Kenney said in a statement.

To this point, the government had refused to say what it believed the costs might be, and the release comes one day ahead of an expected report by the parliamentary budget office, which has done its own calculation.

How much it may differ from the government’s estimate remains to be seen.

It was the opposition NDP who

asked the budget watchdog to crunch the numbers after weeks of stonewalling by former defence minister Rob Nicholson.

Both New Democrats and Liberals have complained that other countries, notably the United States, release running tallies on how much their military missions against the Islamic extremist organization costs.

According to government sources on Monday, part of the reluctance to talk about Iraq costs related to the controversy that erupted for the Harper government during the Libya bombing campaign when former defence minister Peter MacKay’s estimate of $50 million turned out to be wildly off the mark.

The incremental pricetage for that mission ended up being $103.6 million, according to figures released months after the campaign ended.

The figure, like all defence estimates, represents the incremental cost — the amount of money the department spends over and above the routine expense of maintaining an army. ■

CANADA AGAINST 15 PALESTINIAN TREATY ATTEMPTS OTTAWA — Canada has formally opposed Palestinian attempts to join 15 different United Nations treaties and conventions — a position that puts the federal government on the wrong side of history and at odds with its citizenry, the Palestinian envoy in Ottawa says.

Canada is objecting in writing to the UN because it maintains Palestine is not a legal state.

The Palestinians have formally replied to Canada’s objections in writing, issuing a pointed reminder that they won non-member observer status in November 2012 at the UN General Assembly.

NOTABLE CANADIANS PUSH HARPER ON FAHMY CASE TORONTO — A number of prominent Canadians are calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene “personally and immediately” in the case of a Canadian journalist on trial in Egypt. Mohamed Fahmy was released on bail last Friday after spending more than a year in a Cairo prison, but he is set to return to court next week for the continuation of his retrial on terror-related charges that his family has called ridiculous.

3 NEW CASES OF MEASLES CONFIRMED IN ONTARIO TORONTO — Health officials say three new cases of measles have been confirmed in Ontario, for a total of 14 confirmed cases in the province so far. All three cases are in the Niagara Region, and people who attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel elementary school on Feb. 9 and 10 or Saint Michael high school between Feb. 6 and 10 are being asked to review their immunization records. Both schools are in Niagara Falls.

Canada News

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

19

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Outspoken host Ezra Levant grateful for ‘freedom’ at shuttered Sun News Network

BY VICTORIA AHEARN The Canadian Press TORONTO — Ezra Levant says he’s grateful for the freedom he had as an outspoken host on the shuttered Sun News Network, and while he doesn’t know what he’ll do next, he still has “a lot of things to say.”

“I still have a point of view that some people like, some people don’t like, but I think it has its place in the spectrum of opinion,” said Levant, noting he was “overwhelmed” by feedback from fans.

“I think that people had a passionate response to the Sun, pro or con, that they didn’t feel for all news channels.”

Levant’s provocative comments were sometimes a flashpoint for controversy on the conservative, 24-hour all-news channel. It went off the air early Friday after negotiations to sell the troubled channel were un-

successful.

Dubbed “Fox News North” by critics, the station launched in early 2011 but faced an uncertain future in recent months after Postmedia Network Canada Corp. announced plans to purchase the Sun Media newspapers and websites from Quebecor. The Sun News channel was not included in the deal.

Reports said the closure affects about 150 full-time employees.

Though Levant was sad about the closure, he said he mainly he felt gratitude.

“Best job of my life with amazing people,” he said. “It was a lively, independent, spirited place to work. I felt like the freest journalist in Canada.”

The Calgary-born Levant is a columnist, author, lawyer and founder and former publisher of the Western Standard.

As host of Sun News Network’s evening talk show “The Source,” he generated much

Ezra Levant.

controversy.

In June 2012, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ordered him to apologize on air for telling a Spanish banana executive, in Spanish, to have sex with his own mother.

The following March he apologized to the Roma community after on-air remarks that prompted a hate-crime investigation.

And last September Sun www.canadianinquirer.net

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Media apologized to Justin Trudeau after Levant’s monologue about the Liberal leader and a wedding photo he appeared in.

Asked Friday if he still wants to be on-air, Levant pointed to the possibility of working in the online realm.

He noted the Internet doesn’t come with the same regulatory hurdles Sun News Network faced. (In 2013, the Canadian

Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced the channel didn’t meet the criteria for mandatory carriage.)

“My most popular show I ever did on the Sun News Network was a series of videos I did that went viral,” said Levant.

“When we actually aired those shows, maybe I had, say at most, 50,000 viewers on TV. But I did a series of shows that got over 300,000 or 400,000 views each on the Internet.”

As for why Sun News Network didn’t work, he said he wasn’t an expert on such matters but felt “it was certainly not for lack of ideas or enthusiasm.”

“We elicited a passionate response from those who liked and disliked us, and I think we had a disproportionate impact on the country.

“We were a small, niche news channel on channel 1 million, but we always seemed to be what people were talking about.” ■

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Canada News

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FRIDAY

Demise of Sun News due to regulatory, cash hurdles, not Canadian tastes: Akin

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD The Canadian Press OTTAWA — The first journalist hired by Sun News Network says its demise had more to do with regulatory hurdles and shrinking resources than with the size of Canada’s appetite for a conservative-minded TV channel.

Shortly after Sun News hit the lights for good last Friday, Parliament Hill bureau chief David Akin suggested the outfit’s failure had more to do with the shifting plates on the media landscape it had pledged to shake up.

Sun News Network took to the airwaves nearly four years ago with a promise to counterbalance what it considered the left-leaning bias of traditional media, a mandate that earned it the nickname “Fox News North.”

Akin, a veteran Ottawa reporter, said the turning point came in 2013 when the federal broadcast regulator refused the network’s request for mandatory carriage, which would have included the channel in basic cable and satellite packages

across Canada.

“I think in the end it was their view, that wouldn’t have done A guaranteed spot on the dial own ideas and their own ridicu- us any better if we didn’t have would have generated signifi- lous rhetoric that did them in,” the cable deals,” Levant said in cant revenue for the Quebecor- said Jeffrey Dvorkin, director an interview. owned network, which had of the journalism program at “If you have a favourable struggled in the ratings since its the University of Toronto. cable deal, that’s the most imcreation.

Canadians have different val- portant thing from a business “Had we got that our way, ues than Americans, particu- perspective, right?” we’d still be around,” Akin said larly when it comes to freedom Christopher Waddell, a jourin an interview. of speech, said Dvorkin — a dual nalism professor at Carleton Akin expects the network’s Canadian and U.S. citizen who’s University in Ottawa, agreed critics to blame its downfall on intimately familiar with the mandatory carriage would controversies created by out- Fox News dynamic that served have allowed Sun News to spoken, conservative Sun News as the Sun News model. turn a profit — even if nobody hosts like Ezra Levant.

“Canadians are uncomfort- watched.

But it wasn’t about the con- able with those rather extreme The problem was Quebecor’s tent, said Akin, timing, Waddell who added he said. believes Canada The push still has a vito land such a able market for a Canadians are uncomfortable with critical base of channel like Sun those rather extreme expressions of funding ran up News. free speech. against a growAlthough he ing subscriber a c k n ow l e d g e d revolt against the network the traditional could have inmodel of payvested more in how the final expressions of free speech.” ing for bundles of TV channels, product looked on TV, Akin Levant, the outspoken, often which often include unwanted remains convinced the market controversial on-air columnist content, he noted. What’s more, was there to support his former whose notoriety made him the fewer and fewer young people employer. de-facto face of the broadcast- are signing up for cable and sat“Was Canada ready for a er, disagreed that the problems ellite TV. conservative news network? I were linked to its editorial or All of that has been adding think, sure.” ideological views. up to pressure on the regulator, Not everyone agrees.

“If we had a liberal point of the Canadian Radio-television www.canadianinquirer.net

and Telecommunications Commission, to start limiting the number of mandatory channels, not increase it, he said.

Sun News also suffered from quality issues, Waddell acknowledged. Case in point was a chronic shortage of video footage to accompany stories, a symptom of the fact Sun News had few local stations providing supplementary images.

“You’re really left with people sitting around talking about stuff,” he said. “That’s not very compelling television.”

Unlike Dvorkin, Waddell said he didn’t think the network’s aggressive approach or the political leanings of its commentators had much — if anything — to do with its fate.

Everyone agrees on one thing, though: the network’s closure means fewer journalists keeping an eye on Canadian politics.

Sun News was the only national TV network with reporters on all the major party campaign buses during provincial election campaigns across Canada in recent years, Akin said.

“We made a real serious commitment to covering politics in this country.” ■

Canada News

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

21

Radio Canada employees hate conservative values, Harper tells Quebec station

BY MELANIE MARQUIS The Canadian Press

view.

“I understand that there are many at Radio-Canada who hate these values, but I think that these values are the true OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen values of a large percentage of QuebecHarper says “a lot” of Radio-Canada em- ers.” ployees “hate” conservative values.

The Conservatives hold just five seats Harper says those values that are in the province, compared to seven for loathed by many employees of CBC’s the Liberals and 54 for the New DemoFrench-language network are the same crats. ones that he says are supported by a It wouldn’t be the first time the Conlarge number of Queservatives have atbecers. tacked Radio-CanaHarper made the da. comments during a In February 2011, French-language inWhile in Jason Kenney acterview with Quebec Quebec last cused the public City radio station week Prime broadcaster of “lying FM93, conducted Minister all the time” in relast Friday and aired Stephen sponse to a question this week.

Harper said from a journalist.

The comments in a radio More recently, about Radio-Canada interview that Harper’s spokesman came in response to ‘Quebecers Carl Vallee wrote a question about how are not leftists, that it was becoming Harper plans to concontrary to “more and more difvince Quebecers to the image ficult for (him) not vote for his party in conveyed by to conclude that (his) the upcoming federal some media or worst suspicions election. the opposition about Radio-Canada He says he doesn’t parties.’ held true.” believe that voters in Vallee was reactQuebec are predomiing to a documentary nantly left-leaning. aired last year about Rather, he says, Quebecers approve of the religious right in Canada which exthe measures taken by his government: plored links between evangelical Chrislowering taxes, staying tough on crime tian groups and the Harper governand cracking down on the threat of ter- ment. rorism.

Radio-Canada ombudsman Pierre “I remain convinced that Quebecers Tourangeau concluded that standards are not leftists, contrary to the image governing the presentation of journalconveyed by some media or the opposi- istic views were not correctly applied in tion parties,” Harper says in the inter- the case of the documentary. ■

PM.GC.CA

Winter storm wallops Maritimes while central Canada spends Sunday in deep freeze THE CANADIAN PRESS HALIFAX — A savage winter storm pounded Maritimes on Sunday, causing damage, delays and dangerous driving conditions on Sunday while people in parts of southern Ontario and Quebec were braving biting winds and frigid Arctic temperatures.

The Maritimes were hard hit by a weather system. In Halifax snow changed to rain causing some flooding problems, and Environment Canada issued a flash freeze warning Sunday afternoon.

Motorists were asked to avoid the flooded streets. The statement also asked residents to help clear storm drains of snow and ice to alleviate clogging.

Bus and ferry services in the city were suspended until Monday. At Halifax

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Stanfield International Airport, the majority of flights for Sunday afternoon were cancelled or delayed.

Snow build-up caused the roof of a curling club to partially collapse in the city’s south end Sunday, according to Halifax Regional Police.

Police said the Halifax Curling Club appears to have been vacant at the time and no injuries were reported.

An intense low pressure system was expected to cross Nova Scotia later Sunday before moving into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Monday, Environment Canada said.

In New Brunswick, RCMP advised drivers to stay off the roads Sunday afternoon if possible. The provincial government said several highways in the province were impassable.

A blizzard warning was in effect for ❱❱ PAGE 37 Winter storm

Seen & Scenes: Vancouver

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FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FRIDAY

KAPIHAN ATBP.

LUNAR NEW YEAR EVENT

The University of the Philippines Alumni Association kicked off this year’s festivities with a joint birthday bash, kapihan, bingo, karaoke session, string band and piano recitals, plus the surprise guest appearance of Bert Quibuyen’s braddah, Mala'ki' Kunana Kapa’amu, from the Big Island.

Minister Teresa Wat (center) posed with Lita Nuguid (R) and Mary Ann Burog during the Lunar Year Celebration at Floata Restaurant on Feb. 16, with special guest Premier Christy Clark.

FILCANES VALENTINE'S PARTY The Filipino Canadian New Era Society celebrated Valentine’s day on Feb. 15, at Capri Hall in Vancouver, B.C. Highlights of the event were the coronation of Miss Valentine, Little Miss Valentine and Valentine Queen. MP for Vancouver Kingsway Don Davies graced the celebration.

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

Seen & Scenes: Toronto

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FLAG DAY Senator Enverga joins members of the Filipino-Canadian community in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Flag at Our Lady of Assumption Church in Toronto, On. on Feb. 14. The Canadian flag is one of the most recognized symbols in the world (Photo from Senator Enverga’s FB).

BASKETBALL FREE THROW CONTEST The Knights of Columbus Council #9144 conducted their community youth project, the Basketball Free Throw competition, at the Divine Infant Catholic School in Scarborough.

The Basketball Free Throw compettion is the largest participating worldwide sport of the Knights of Columbus. In north Scarborough, a hundred elementary students from six catholic elementary schools participated in this council level. The student winners will compete in the district/ region level. Further winners will be named in the international worldwide winners list of the Knights of Columbus.

The Knights who conducted this youth program in Scarborough include Grand Knight SK Keith Coutinho; SK Ed Prillo; SK George R. Poblete; SK Berty Nadarajah, Bro. David Mathias and Bro. Archie Carvalho. They are shown in the photo below with the boys & girls winners of the four age groups who received their medals and certificates.

SCARBOROUGH DOJO The Scarborough Dojo held their 23rd Kagami Baraki (New Year opening ceremonies for 2015) at the Agincourt Recreation Centre in Scarborough.

The Judokas demonstrated their skills, and had a randori with their black belt instructors. Dojo Shu Jonathan Judah was presented his Godan, which he earned last year from Judo Canada.

Head Sensei Jim Doherty, Rokudan, who started this Judo Club, presented the 5th degree black belt to Sensei Jonathan Judah. The former chairman of the Scarborough Society of the 1970's were guests on this memorable evening.

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Immigration

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FRIDAY

Paralyzed temporary foreign worker ordered to leave country asks for compassion THE CANADIAN PRESS

plication to be allowed to stay in Canada as a permanent resident.

He says Venancio wouldn’t get the same kind of health care treatment in the Philippines.

“She is working with her doctors and the University of Alberta here and actually mak-

Venancio said she was originally told by a doctor that she wouldn’t be able to walk again.

EDMONTON — A disabled “But still right now I’m able temporary foreign worker to move around on my own, from the Philippines has been and I’m starting to be more ordered to leave Canada but is independent,” she said. “Even asking that she be allowed to though I’m in a wheelchair, stay on humanitarian grounds.

I’m still hoping and trying to Maria Venanstill help my cio was parafamily.” lyzed in June Venancio was 2011 when she an employee was riding her She is working with her doctors and with McDonbike to work and the University of Alberta here and ald’s. Her conwas hit by a car. actually making some tremendous tract entitled her She’s been isprogress in her mobility. to some medical sued an exclubenefits, which sion order, which she says she did means she must not receive. Her leave the country for at least a ing some tremendous progress lawyer said she will be seeking year. in her mobility,” Bataluk said compensation from the franA decision about her removal Monday. chise. is to be determined at a future “She’s told me recently she’s It’s uncertain when Venancio hearing before the Canadian been able to stand on her own, will find out whether she’ll be Border Services Agency. which from when we dealt with allowed to stay in Canada or if Chris Bataluk, Venancio’s her car accident a few years ago she’ll be forced to return to the lawyer, says she has filed an ap- was almost unimaginable.”

Philippines. ■

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TWITTER PHOTO

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Happy Chinese New Year

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year: An Epic Celebration!

BY ANGIE DUARTE Philippine Canadian Inquirer

good fortune in the coming year.

In feng shui, a clean, clutterfree house is believed to be a conductor of positive energy and of a good , unhampered flow of prosperity.

CHINESE NEW Year is a major holiday and one of the grandest celebrations in Chinese culture. There is no fixed date for this, as it is dependent on the cycles of the moon.

The celebration begins on the first New Moon of the year. This is considered to herald spring (therefore it is also known as the ‘Spring Festival’), a season always associated with rebirth. The festivities of the New Year last for 15 days, according to the moon cycles.

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, not only has a particular animal from the Chinese zodiac attached to it, but also a feng shui element. In the case of 2015, it is the Year of the Year of the Green Wooden Sheep, and the New Year falls on February 19.

All knotted up and seeing red

Rather sheepish

2015 marks the Year of the Sheep. Those born under this sign are said to be kind-hearted, tender, polite, filial, and clever.

These people possess an inclination towards art and beauty.

They are generally faithful in terms of their spiritual beliefs or religion, and have an inclination towards quiet living. They are wise, gentle and compassionate. Business wise, they tend to be more cautious, and are economical in their spending habits.

Celebrate good times, fifteen days straight

for

The Chinese New Year is one of the most auspicious celebrations, worldwide, not just in China. Where there is a Chinatown, there is guaranteed to be a big celebration of the Lunar New Year. A 15-day long shindig, in fact! This makes it the longest Chinese festival the world over, and nothing short of epic as celebrations go.

Apart from China, it is especially big in countries such as Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

Rich in symbolism and tra- nese New Year, as a climax to union dinner for family and dition, the celebration of the the festivities. In this tradition friends. Food items are choChinese New Year is rooted in of lights, candles in red paper sen and served for their meanage-old customs, beliefs and lanterns are lit on the streets ing and relation to particular practices. Festivities and tra- of Chinese neighborhoods to energies. Certain food items ditions are aimed at creating a symbolize the dawning of the are served on specific days of positive flow of energy in one’s light of a New Year and the good the long celebration. Typical life. tidings this dawning brings. dishes to include in a Chinese Customary New Year dinner ways to celebrate menu include include explodsteamed whole ing fireworks fish, a sticky to ward off evil Apart from China, it is especially fruitcake called spirits and ring big in countries such as Hong Kong, Neen Gow or in good luck on Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Nian Gow, unthe eve of the Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, cut noodles, and Lunar New Year; and Thailand. round fruits. the giving of the The family “ang pao” red greets the New envelope with Year together, money inside, which is tradiFamily plays an important staying up until midnight. This tionally done on New Year’s role in celebrating the Chinese practice is called Shou Sui. Day; an exchange of small gifts New Year, and most everyone between family members and does their best to go home and SWEEPstakes friends; the performance of the be with their kin. This period Chinese believe the New Lion, Dog, Dragon Dance, to right before the New Year is Year to be the perfect occasion eliminate and send away any called chunyun, and it is the for spring cleaning. Cleaning residual negative energy from busiest travel time of the entire must be done before the eve of the year that passed herald year. the Chinese New Year. It is begood fortune; and the Festival The celebration of Chinese lieved that as one sweeps the of Lanterns, which is celebrat- New Year is never complete house clean, bad luck is swept ed on the 15th day of the Chi- without the traditional big re- away, which helps to ensure

Red decorations are considered lucky throughout the year, but especially to herald a new one. Propitious red-colored items bear gold inscriptions of the symbols for happiness, prosperity, long-life, and other things of that nature. Money envelopes are red. Many who celebrate Chinese New Year also choose to wear red outfits.

Aside from red decorations, the mystic knot is one of the most popular symbols for the Chinese New Year. In feng shui, it is said to be a good luck and protection cure, and symbolizes a long and happy life that is full of good fortune. It is a combination of six times the infinity symbol, and sometimes known as the endless knot, bearing the appearance of “swallowing its own tail.”

Shout it out!

The louder, the better, on Chinese New Year.

People often greet each other by shouting encouraging phrases believed to bring good luck.

Among these: Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái , “Congratulations and be prosperous”; the more popular variant, Kung Hei Fat Choi , translated as “May prosperity be with you” (note, though, that this is actually Cantonese and not Chinese and therefore considered an improper New Year greeting, by many traditional Chinese); and the more forward and audacious Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái, hóng bāo ná lái, which is often said by children, and means “Congratulations and be prosperous, now give me a red envelope!”

Ring in the New Year of the Green Wooden Sheep with some of these fun and festive traditions. And may we all enjoy prosperity, good fortune, and health throughout 2015! ■

Chinese New Year

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

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Munching on Luck: Chinese Chow for a Prosperous New Year

BY CHING DEE Philippine Canadian Inquirer BRING OUT the ang pao and tikoy because the Chinese Lunar new year is here. Other than the festive lanterns and parades – and not to mention the gifts! – Pinoys have taken a fondness of celebrating this important day with the Chinese.

And when it comes to food, Chinese influences in Filipino cuisine are undeniable.

A Pinoy take on Tsinoy Classics

One of the most famous Chinese fares that we Filipinos have come to love and embrace as our own is pancit. No Filipino fanfare, fiesta, party, or gettogether is complete without a bilao of home-cooked delicacy of stir-fried glass noodles and vegetables.

We love it so much that almost every region—if not household—has its own version of pancit. There’s pancit habhab from Quezon Province, pancit malabon from—well—Malabon, pancit at dinuguan from Manila, and pancit bato or pancit bicol from Camarines province.

We are also big fans of siomai, which is the Filipino interpretation of the Chinese shao mai or shu mai (siu mai), which is basically steamed pork dump-

lings encased in a soft wanton wrapper.

With our love of flavor and sauces, we often accompanied siomai with toyomansi—soy sauce and calamansi (a tiny, spherical equivalent of a lime).

For an added kick, don’t forget that garlic and chili oil.

Bus and train stations—and even malls—have siomai carts to answer every Pinoy’s siomai craving anytime. It is reasonably priced and adequately tasty. I personally remember how I survived on Papu’s siomai back in college when allowance was tight and I was miles away from home.

Siopao is another Pinoy merienda staple that traced its roots from the Hokkien baozi, which literally means “steamed buns.” Whether it’s asado or bola-bola, Pinoys are no stranger to this pillowy white bun generously filled with steaming sauce and meat. Today, fillings vary from chicken to chorizo and even vegan options.

Filipinos also have a thing for eating on the go, so if Mexicans have the burrito and Vietnamese have their spring rolls, let’s thank the Chinese for bringing us lumpia.

Granted it is also technically a spring roll, but in time Pinoys gave this humble pika food (finger food) a twist or two. We have lumpiang sariwa (fresh lumpia)

Year of the Goat 2015 is the year of the Goat, which is the 8th animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.

made of fresh vegetables like carrots, mungbean sprouts, and egg/flour wrapper. Then there’s lumpiang shanghai – fried spring rolls usually filled with a delectable mixture of ground pork, minced vegetables, and seasonings. A staple in almost every Pinoy celebration, lumpiang shanghai will surely bring a smile to your face. And don’t forget that tangerine elixir to go with the fried lumpia: the sweet-and-spicy dipping sauce.

Of Luck and Traditions

Considered as the most important dinner of all, the New Year’s Eve dinner is an event

GOOD LUCK Numbers: 2, 7, and numbers containing 2 and 7 (like 27) Days: the 7th and 30th days of a month according to the Chinese Lunar calendar Colors: Brown, red, and purple Flowers: Carnations and primroses Direction: North

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for the entire family. Reunions are often scheduled around the same time as the Chinese New Year celebrations.

For dinner, a whole fish and dumplings (jiaozi) are usually served. These two dishes symbolize prosperity and abundance in which the family can all partake in at home.

Jun Shan, a Chinese culture guide, also shared with Chow. com that hiding a coin in one of the dumplings is a common practice. Whoever gets the coin will gain good luck this coming year.

Chinese families also never forget to offer a sacrifice to

Zao Jun (or Zao Shen) – the Kitchen God (‘Stove God’ for some). Nian gao (sticky rice cake) is a very popular offering to Zao Jun. Children may also rub some honey on the Kitchen God’s small statue. These sacrifices are done in order to get a favorable report of the family’s character when Zao Jun returns to heaven.

Citrus fruits like tangerines and oranges are also given to children and guests during the Chinese New Year celebrations.

These fruits symbolize good fortune and wealth.

Last but certainly not the least, each Chinese household prepares a ‘tray of togetherness.’ It’s usually an octagonshaped tray with eight compartments – each filled with various delicacies like lotus seeds and lychee. The tray signifies a sweet and favorable beginning to the New Year.

Lucky Food for Lunar New year

- Tangerines and Oranges - Jai - Noodles (preferably long) - The Tray of Togetherness - Nian Gao - Long Beans or Leafy Greens - Yuanbao or Jiaozi (dumplings) - Citrus, like Pomelo - Whole Fish - Sweets ■

BAD LUCK Numbers: 6 and 8 Colors: Green, blue, and black Direction: Southwest Worst lunar months: 3rd, 6th, and 10th.

Most compatible animals: Rabbit, Horse, Pig Least compatible animals: Ox, Dragon, Snake, Dog

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Community News

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FRIDAY

Filipino migrants hail Erwiana’s victory GLOBAL ALLIANCE of overseas Filipinos Migrante International celebrate the victory of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih after the Wanchai District Court in Hong Kong found her employer guilty on charges of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation.

Migrante International said that Erwiana’s victory is a victory for all migrant workers who continue to stand up against modern-day slavery. “Erwiana continues to serve as a great inspiration for Filipino migrant workers, especially Filipina domestic workers all over the world. Her victory is wellfought and much-deserved. We celebrate her victory as we also prepare to commemorate the 20th death anniversary of Flor Contemplacion this year,” said Sol Pillas, Migrante International secretary-general.

Erwiana’s case, the latest most gruesome case depicting the suffering and plight of domestic workers, especially

women domestic workers, is testament to how forced migration and labor export have become the worst cause and manifestation of all forms of abuse, oppression and exploitation of women all over the world.

Pillas said, since Contemplacion’s execution in 1995, the “feminization” of labor migration driven by the rise in number of domestic workers and caregivers going abroad has perpetuated very specific vulnerabilites that women migrant workers face because they are women. “They suffer sexual discrimination and other gender-specific abuses, exploitation and violence in the sorts of work where they tend to predominated. This is especially the case for domestic workers.”

“They are most vulnerable to abuse and often mistreated by employers. Many are beaten and raped, and many are murdered. They are lowly-paid and

Erwiana’s victory.

do not enjoy social protection, isolated and discriminated against and without legal recourse because their work is not considered as work and not covered by any existing legal frameworks. Worse, their marginalization is implicitly condoned by States as principal agents peddling domestic workers like ordinary commod-

ities without guarantee of protection or avenues for redress of grievance,” she said.

Migrante International also extends its solidarity with other migrants’ organizations and advocates that fought for Erwiana. The Justice for Erwiana and All Migrant Domestic Workers Committee, of which Migrante is part, led 5,000 do-

mestic workers and supporters in a protest march and rally in Hong Kong last year. Other Filipino and migrant domestic workers also held solidarity actions and activities for Erwiana as her case was being heard.

“But, while we won this battle, a war continues to rage.

There are still many Erwianas and Flors elsewhere in the world who have fallen victim to trafficking, abuse, exploitation and government neglect.

May Erwiana’s recent victory further encourage Filipino migrant workers to unite, organize and galvanize collective action to oppose anti-migrant policies and end modern-day slavery,” Pillas said.

Migrante International and its chapters all over the world are gearing to kick-off its yearlong “Remember Flor@20 Campaign” on Mar. 17, the date of Contemplacion’s death anniversary. (Migrante BC) ■

FilCan running for MP in Mississauga

BY TONY A. SAN JUAN, OCT FILIPINO-CANADIAN Julius Azarcon Tiangson firmly believes Canada is a distinctive land of hope and opportunity as well as a place for realizing one’s full potentials. Being in his country of choice as a young immigrant in 1987, he is now meeting challenges to further realize his dream of contributing toward his adopted country’s political process.

Tiangson, a practicing Christian and a former church minister, has been officially nominated the candidate of the Conservative Party for Member of Parliament in the new riding of Mississauga Centre in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario.

As a young man in 1985, Tiangson came to Canada from Davao, Philippines through a job-exchange program in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and became a landed immigrant two years later. He is happily married for over 26 years to the former Nona Lee”Bunny” Molina.

They have three children: Dana Mae, 24; Francis, 22; and Nathan, 20. Remarkably a devoted www.canadianinquirer.net

Tiangson.

family, the Tiangsons faithfully believe in “serving God, serving people and serving community”.

Tiangson was the founder and former director of The ❱❱ PAGE 30 FilCan running

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS:

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

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.”

This year, we are welcoming nominations for the 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.

Fill up the nomination form online by scanning the code with your smartphone or by visiting InFocus.canadianinquirer.net.

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Immigration

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FRIDAY

FilCan running... ❰❰ 28

Gateway Centre for New Canadians, an immigrant -settlement and integration organization in Mississauga, On. He successfully collaborated with over 40 community associations in the Greater Toronto Area and reached out to the Filipino, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian communities, as well.

Tiangson’s strong passion and advocacy work for ordinary Canadians and immigrants has established an enviable record and solid history of community-building experience and engagement. He led and founded local, national and business organizations in Canada with a particular focus in “newcomer integration, race relations, refugee advocacy, spirituality and youth mentoring”. Also, he co-founded Gateway Homes, Gateway Capital and Gateway Wealth Strategies — enterprises that are “social-good conscious extensions” of the Gateway Centre for New Canadians which addresses the “economic integration of newcomers through accelerated home ownership and wealth creation strategies”.

A graduate of Ateneo de Davao University in the Philippines with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce - Accounting, Tiangson is now completing his masteral degree in Intercultural Studies through Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta.

A Philippine Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he practices his profession in Canada as a licensed financial advisor and has an Alternative Investments Certificate. He enjoys flower gardening and is an avid golfer, playing the game unashamedly, with a 23 handicap.

As a notable FilCan com-

munity leader, Tiangson has been involved in various multicultural boards, associations, committees, and coalitions. These include Filipino Political Action Group of Mississauga, Erindale Riding; Honourary co-chair for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, Rotary Club- Mississauga, Baguhin Coalition; Canadian Filipinos towards Active Citizenship; First Ontario Alliance of Caregivers Canada; Skills for Change Skilled Trades Advisory Council (Brampton); Institute for Canadian Citizenship Mississauga Committee.

He also served as expert witness at the Justice and Human Rights Committee and as immigration round-table participant for Mississauga at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

With his strong community involvement and leadership, Tiangson is a recipient of distinctive honours and recognition, among which are: the Government of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award and the City of Mississauga’s Civic Award of Recognition, for 10 years of active civic-volunteer service in the city.

Asked why he is running for MP, Tiangson said, “I want to represent the new Mississauga Centre.... being one of Canada’s most diverse and exciting places to live, work, and play.”

He added, “It is truly a microcosm of Canada and the ideals of what this nation is all about.”

He said his journey “will take a lot of hard work, but with your help we can do it.” To volunteer or donate contact: Tel. 647-2927849 or Email:jtiangson4mp@ gmail.com ■

SHUTTERSTOCK

Toronto woman faces 39 charges in immigration fraud case linked to jobs agency THE CANADIAN PRESS

paperwork submitted to government agencies in the foreign countries.

TORONTO — A Toronto woman But police say the applicants is facing dozens of charges in would then be denied entry to connection with a $1.5-million Canada due to the fraudulent immigration fraud investigation. documents submitted on their Police say they behalf and the began a probe applicant would in October after be banned from they were conInvestigators say the company re-applying for tacted with alreceived more than $1.5 million in two years. legations that fees from more than 500 applicants Imelda Frona large number recruited in six different countries, da Saluma, 46, of people had and that many of the foreign faces 39 chargbeen defrauded applicants were of Filipino descent. es including 11 by a recruiting counts of fraud agency primarily over $5,000, nine dealing with imcounts of passmigrant workers. were of Filipino descent. ing off wares or services, eight It is alleged that individuIt’s alleged that payment counts of fraud under $5,000 als, their family members and was requested so that positive and nine counts of obtaining friends from other countries documents, references and em- money by false pretence. were recruited for jobs in Can- ployment contracts could be Police say it’s believed there ada by the agency, identified as provided to applicants and the may be more victims. ■

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GoWest Jobs International.

Investigators say the company received more than $1.5 million in fees from more than 500 applicants recruited in six different countries, and that many of the foreign applicants

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Entertainment

Saving fuel challenges for showbiz’s Shell lady champion driver

BY DANNY O. CALLEJA Philippine News Agency MANILA — Did you know that actress and former disc jockey and now TV host Bianca Gonzales is also an expert driver and a driving habit analyst for Asia Shell-Eco-marathon 2015 competition to be hosted by the country this month?

Rightly so, because the Ateneo communications graduate is the Shell Fuel Save Celebrity Driver of 2014 that culminated in Singapore.

Gonzales, who recently married JC Intal of PBA’s Barako Bull said that she is participating in the Shell Eco-Marathon on Feb. 26 to March 1 where some 150 team from 18 countries, including 33 from the Philippines will partake.

Here, students from different educational institutions in engineering would present prototypes of their small car invention showing which would come out with the best fuel efficiency and cost-saving measures.

Media was given preview of what and how the tiny race cars look like. Some have caught the eye of some car manufacturers but it remains to be seen if they arepassable for mass production and high grade marketing.

Gonzalez said she is happy to note that our car manufacturing engineers are getting better and so our young future car makers who are out to prove to the world that they can be world class soon despite the fact that we are still lagging behind the

Actor/DJ/TV Host/Author/Racecar driver Bianca Gonzales will be taking part in the Shell Eco-Marathon from February 26 to March 1, where around 150 teams from 18 countries will take prototypes of their small car inventions and pit them against each other to see which one would have the best fuel efficiency and cost-saving measures.

FACEBOOK PHOTO (LEFT) / BIANCA GONZALES-INTAL (@IAMSUPERBIANCA) / INSTAGRAM (RIGHT)

advanced, rich and human resources and materially-blessed countries.

But the fact the cost of fuel oil is rising again worldwide has put champion racers like Gonzales into some kind of jitters. Now, she is suggesting that the public learn to save time, money and resources on the roads.

Since she is into the international Shell Eco-Marathon competition, she said she follows some tips like removing your roof rack if not in use so as not to affect the aerodynamic efficiency of your vehicle and create drag, reducing fuel economy by as much as five per cent.

She added that Shell suggests

that if tires are underinflated by just one psi, they should be checked once a week whenever filling up because neglect would result into fuel reduction by three percent.

The celebrity driver said you must simply make sure your cap is properly screwed after fill up to prevent fuel and money from going up to smoke.

Other tips are avoid driving aggressively to shun burning a third more fuel and try not to brake or accelerate too hard; avoid excess weight because for every extra 100 lbs or 45 kilogram in your car, your fuel efficiency can drop by one to two percent.

Then there’s the check air filter where car engines are tough

but they still need protection from impurities to work efficiently. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve fuel economy by up to 10 percent.

When it comes to engine, excess idling should be avoided because it gets you nowhere and yet burns fuel. A dirty engine increases fuel consumption so change worn out spark plugs to reduce consumption by five per cent.

Further, do not rev in the red but rather change gear in good time when you pull away or when accelerating.

What about windows? Gonzales said you should keep it closed since driving with open window slows you down by making you put your foot down

harder and using more fuel.

And don’t forget to keep windows closed because open windows slows you down. This makes you put your foot down harder and using more oil.

Besides it is safer not to be bothered by street toughies and urchins with the goal of mulcting.

It is very important as well to keep yourself hydrated since drinking water keeps you refocused as you drive more efficiently.

And last but not the least for every driver, car manufacturers recommended motor oil that can improve fuel economy by one to two percent and using higher quality lubricant like Shell also helps. ■

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Entertainment

Christine Reyes shares baby’s photo

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — Actress Christine Reyes shared a photo of her newborn baby with boyfriend Ali Khatibi via Instagram.

Reyes gave birth to baby Amarah last Sunday and the baby’s photo was posted by the actress five days later.

She noted how bad she felt not to go home with her baby as the she was born prematurely.

“It breaks my heart at the time when Ali and I have to leave the hospital without her in our arms. It’s sad but we have to be strong,” Reyes said in her post.

Reyes also blasted her critics who were blaming her for the baby’s premature birth.

“I did everything to make sure that she was healthy.

I read books, [sought] advice from my in-laws, family, friends and professionals to make sure all was well. I just don’t think it’s fair when people judge me and [say] that it was my fault,” Reyes said.

The actress is still hopeful that her baby will overcome her condition adding that her daughter will be a “champ” like her father.

“Our baby is getting stronger every day and we will be with her throughout the fight.

“She’s our wonderful blessing. She will win this battle like a champ just like her father,” Reyes said. ■

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FRIDAY

Super Kilig “English Only, Please” with Jennelyn and Derek showing in Canada starting Feb 20 FROM FEBRUARY 20 to March 5, 2015 - the recent Metro Manila Film Fest 2nd Best Movie, the romance comedy, “ENGLISH ONLY, PLEASE” is slated to show in selected theaters sa Canada! In BC, it will be at the Landmark Guildford in Surrey and Landmark Esplanade in North Vancouver. Fresh from its successful showing in the Philippines, “English Only Please” is a big winner and much-talked about movie for its lead stars, JENNELYN MERCADO and DEREK RAMSAY. A lighthearted romantic comedy film, English Only, Please is a combination of optimism, broken hearts and the fuzzy warmth of a newfound true love.

“OO NA! AKO NA! AKO NA ANG MAG-ISA!” - Tere Super in ang mga dialogues and so real! Best watched with friends and loved ones as the lines deliver what’s in the hearts of anyone who can identify with love, laughter and relationships. English Only, Please tells of the charming rom-com story of the bond that develops between Fil-Am Julian Parker (Ramsay) and Tere Madlansacay (Mercado), the Filipino interpreter he hires. The two comes from different worlds who have one thing in common – they are both brokenhearted.

Julian comes to Manila from New York with only one goal: to perfectly recite the Filipino translation of his angry letter to his half-Pinay ex-girlfriend Megan (Isabel Oli) — all with the help of the perky and feisty

Tere, the Filipino-English tutor he hired online.

Awards galore

Derek proved to be a perfect foil to the adorable Jennylyn, who both turned in the finest performance of their careers.

Both fit their characters to a T and act very naturally and charmingly in the movie. The awards the movie received are proof that English Only, Please is a refreshing and welcome change to the usual slapstick or horror movies lately being shown at Filmfests. Amongst these are:2nd Best Picture, Best Actor (Derek), Best Actress (Jennylyn), Best Director (Dan Villegas), Best Story (Antoinette Jadaone and Dan Villegas) and Best Screenplay: (Jadaone). Di ba sulit?

Social media success

Celebrated indie filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone, who cowrote the unheralded romantic comedy with Anj Pessumal, verified the film’s success through its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter messages, with photos

of sold-out and SRO screenings.

Scriptwriter Antoniette Jadaone, who is also behind last year’s “Beauty in a Bottle” and “Relaks, It’s Just Pag-Ibig,” agreed: “There is no publicity like positive word-of-mouth. I never imagined this would happen. There are people asking for a sequel… it’s heartwarming that viewers want to follow the lives of the characters we created.”

She has heard from netizens who saw the film more than once—“Three or four times, with different sets of friends.

They shelled out hard-earned money to share the experience.”

Watch ENGLISH ONLY, PLEASE! Showing February 20 to March 5, 2015 at CINEPLEX ODEON INT’L VILLAGE, VANCOUVER; LANDMARK CINEMAS 12 GUIILDFORD in SURREY, BC and LANDMARK 6 ESPLANADE IN NORTH VANCOUVER! Save the date with your friends and barkadas!

Showing across Canada din so tell your friends and family! For details , visit www.facebook. com/EnglishOnlyPleaseUSandCanada ■

Mommy D challenges boyfriend to face media PHILIPPINE CANADIAN INQUIRER MANILA — Mommy Dionisia Pacquiao, mother of boxing champ, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao challenges his boyfriend Michael to face the media on their first anniversary.

Mommy Dionisia will be celebrating their anniversary on the 20th of this month alone as

her boyfriend is processing his papers for employment abroad.

She added that she feels “sorrowful” as she will be celebrating the Valentine’s day alone.

The “Pacmom” also challenges her boyfriend to face the media on the 20th.

This, according to her is his way of knowing if Michael really loves him.

“Doon kita masusukat. Kung totoong mahal mo ako, makikita

kita sa 20. Ipaparinig ko lang sa mga kapatid niya, kung totoong mahal niya ako, hindi niya ako iiwan sa aming anniversary. Sino ba kasama niya sa anniversary?

(That’s how I can measure (your love for me). If you really love me, I will see you on the 20th. I will just have his siblings hear that he really lobes me and he will not leave me on our anniversary. Who’s going to be with him?) ■ www.canadianinquirer.net

FACEBOOK PHOTO

Entertainment

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Yeng weds fiance on Valentine’s Day

“Poging Pulis” dedicates Mister International title to 44 SAF Heroes

BY LEI FONTAMILLAS Philippine Canadian Inquirer MANILA — Singer Yeng Constantino marries her partner, Victor Asuncion on Saturday in a cermony held in Tagaytay.

Constantino first met him back in 2013 and became his first boyfriend. They got engaged in March 2014.

On earlier reports, Constantino said that she is thankful that Asuncion taught him the meaning of unconditional love.

Asuncion is a worship director at Victory Christian Fellowship church and a former band member.

He also said: “Actually nung first time pa lang ako nagsabi sa kanya na liligawan ko siya, alam ko na na siya talaga ‘yung gusto ko. Siya talaga ‘yung gusto ko habambuhay.”

(The first time I told her that I want to court her, I already knew that she’s the one I really wanted. She’s the one I want to be with for a lifetime.)

Meanwhile, a photo showing Constantino in her wedding gown was posted by Star

33

PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY

Yeng Constantino.

Magic ™ OFFICIAL (@starmagicphils) on Feb 14, 2015 at 12:30am.

The couple also revealed in

an interview on morning talk show, Kris TV that they will be spending their honeymoon in Maldives. ■

MANILA — Police Officer 2 (PO2) Mariano Perez Flormata, Jr., dubbed as “Poging Pulis,” dedicated his Mister International 2014 title to his fallen comrades.

“I am offering this fight to them, as I condole with their families,” Flormata said.

The 29-yearold police officer from Tondo, Manila, also known as Neil Perez and an Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) technician of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Aviation Security Group, said that seven of the 44 slain troopers

were his batchmates in Batch Mabalasig 2008.

PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr. expressed delight over Flormata’s victory in behalf of the police force.

“Of course we are happy for him. It’s an honor not only for the PNP, but the whole country as well. From the Officer-incharge PNP Police Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina down the line are all proud of his extraordinary accomplishment,” Cerbo said.

Flormata emerged a champion with Mister Lebanon placing first, followed by Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia respectively. ■

HOROSCOPE ARIES

(MARCH 21 - APRIL 19) Today is the best day to reinvent your strategies, Aries. The stars will give you an opportunity to achieve that greatest goal you have for this week if, and only if, you will innovate new ways to successfully reach your targets.

TAURUS

(APRIL 20 - MAY 20) Opening up will help you avoid further conflict with friends and workmates this week. Do not be afraid to speak up and share what really is in your mind. You might not know it but the people around you are only waiting for you to say the right words.

GEMINI

(MAY 21 - JUNE 21) Patience will be a very good lesson that you’ll learn the hard way today, Gemini. You will be faced with challenges that will require keeping calm and thinking positive, always. It might be hard at first but you’ll eventually find a way to make it easier.

CANCER

LIBRA

(JUNE 22 - JULY 22) A fresh, new look will help you regain that sense of confidence you’ll need to ace the opportunities. Going for a haircut, a change in nail color or re-styling your wardrobe will allow you to re-establish a different kind of personality, for the better.

LEO

(SEPT 23 - OCT 22) The best of the best opportunities will knock at your door only once, Libra. The moment it arrives at your doorstep, never let it pass. Open the door and do not be afraid to take risks or else you’ll never hear it knocking again in how many lifetimes.

VIRGO

Do not turn your back on a difficult task. Remember that the reason why it was given to you is that the people who gave it believe in your capacity.

More than anyone else in your group, you’re the only one who can do the task better, so go ahead and accept the challenge!

AQUARIUS

Holding on will be the best decision to make, if you are a hundred percent sure that what you’re holding on to is worth the fight. You do not want to wake up the next morning crying of that lost thing you really wanted.

Recovering from a fight might be really hard. You will cry all the tear there is but you will eventually grow and learn from it. Always remember one rule: do not cease to live your life to the fullest.

(OCT 23 - NOV 21)

SAGITTARIUS

(AUG 23 - SEPT 22) Be mindful of unsolicited advice. There a lot of reasons to believe what your friends are saying. But no matter how good those reasons are, keep in mind that the decision is still something you, not your friends, have control over.

(DEC 22 - JAN 19)

SCORPIO

(JULY 23 - AUGUST 22) You will be missing something really bad in the coming days. It may be a loved one, a favorite gadget, a food you’ve been craving for or a hobby you haven’t been doing for quite some time now. Whatever it is, do find some time to indulge and give in to reliving that nostalgic moment.

CAPRICORN

(NOV 22 - DEC 21)

Living like your dying may help you make the most of the wonderful chances that await you this week.

There will be tons of them so do not hesitate to grab the most that you can!

www.canadianinquirer.net

(JAN 20 - FEB 18)

PISCES

(FEB 19 - MAR 20) The people around you will find it hard to communicate what they feel or think about your ideas. Be the one to break the wall. Open up to them and indulge them in a conversation. It might be hard given the kind of personality you have but you will do it, in the name of success.

34

Entertainment

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FRIDAY

The move to bump the release date of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" movie from last summer to this past Valentines day proved to be a good one, as the movie raked in an astounding $94.4 million domestic and $172 million international.

FIFTYSHADESOFGREYMOVIE-INTL.COM

How Universal roped men into seeing “Fifty Shades of Grey” and turned it into a blockbuster

BY LINDSEY BAHR The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — When Universal bumped “Fifty Shades of Grey” from August 2014 to Valentine’s Day, 2015, it seemed like a cheesy gimmick. Now that box office results are in, it’s clear that was the most brilliant stroke of all.

The adaptation of author EL James’ erotic novel debuted to an astounding $94.4 million domestic and $172 million international across the long President’s Day weekend, breaking box office records for the month of February, female filmmakers and R-rated movies in what is proving to be a perfect storm of intrigue, brand, and crafty execution by Universal Pictures.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” was always expected to be a fruitful endeavour — that’s why nearly every studio in town clamoured to scoop up the rights to James’ phenomenally successful trilogy in 2012. When Focus Features and parent company Universal were the lucky winners, the hype only intensified as fans hungered for everything from casting rumours, to first

photos of stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, and clues about what would make the final cut.

But fans alone don’t explain a blockbuster debut, especially when the entire Northeast was battling severe winter storms.

Produced for a modest $40 million with no tested starpower in front of the camera, Universal and Focus were hedging their bets from the beginning, keeping costs reasonable and stoking the buzz machine with a coy marketing campaign playing on the interest of those who hadn’t read the book.

Not only did it spark a culture-wide dialogue, it became an event movie centred on a single date: Valentine’s Day. “It follows in the tradition of the edgier, naughtier, so-called romance movies, and that paid off. Audiences like a good Rrated escape,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box office firm Rentrak, noting racy films like “Last Tango in Paris,” “9 1/2 Weeks,” and “Basic Instinct.”

“Fifty Shades of Grey” is poised to surpass all of them.

“Certainly the fan base came out, but to reach these numbers, you have to go broader

than the built-in audience,” added Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com.

The somewhat random fact that Valentine’s Day fell on a Saturday in 2015 was key: it ensured that interest would stay high for at least the first two days of theatrical release.

Day one would be for the diehard fans. Day two would be for the couples.

“That was a shrewd move,” said Pandya. “This is the one weekend of the entire year where men will see a film that they do not want to see. The other 51 weeks of the year are a little different.”

Whereas most films with ardent fan bases drop off dramatically on day two, “Fifty Shades of Grey” grew. The first “Twilight” film fell 40.8 per cent on its second day. “Fifty Shades” spiked 21 per cent.

Nick Carpou, Universal’s President of Domestic distribution sees the film as a resounding victory on all levels. He credited the “careful choice” of a release date and an enticing marketing campaign that emphasized “qualities of the piece that are universally accepted,” such as romance.

“We overachieved in the www.canadianinquirer.net

South and the South Central and, interestingly, in the Northeast, which is weather challenged,” said Carpou. “It’s a very motivated audience base.”

An estimated 68 per cent of opening weekend audiences was female (that number was even higher on Friday night), with 42 per cent under the age of 25-years-old for the R-rated film.

Racially, an estimated 52 per cent were Caucasian, 22 per cent Hispanic, 15 per cent African American, and seven per cent Asian.

Still, moviegoers didn’t seem to be thrilled with the results.

According to market research firm CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a dismal C+ rating.

“I’m expecting very large declines and rapid erosion in the days and weeks to come. This is one that is not going to have much stamina going forward,” said Pandya.

That said, Pandya does note that the way the movie is tracking internationally, it could ultimately make over $600 million worldwide.

“It’s going to be remarkably profitable and I’m sure they’re getting the next film up and running,” he said.

Although director Sam Taylor-Johnson and Dornan have

alluded to imminent sequels in interviews, Universal, who holds the rights to the trilogy, is staying mum on the topic. Any suggestions of planned shooting and release dates are just speculation at this point.

As for what comes next for this franchise, Pandya thinks that “Twilight” is a good comparison for the future of “Fifty Shades of Grey” and not just because James’ book started out as “Twilight” fan fiction.

The second film in the popular vampire series doubled the first film’s opening weekend.

“Universal knows it has a franchise that is huge now, but can be made even bigger with future films if they play their cards right,” he said.

But copycats should take note: The success of “Fifty Shades of Grey” does not necessarily mean that S&M is going to be a fixture in mainstream cinemas going forward.

“I don’t think that this is going to open the floodgates to a lot more S&M movies. I think this worked not because it was some random S&M story. It was a popular book which happened to have this type of material,” Pandya said. “This is a specific brand. It’s one entity.” ■

35

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Lifestyle

Should you invest in an RRSP or TFSA? Both if you can, says financial advisers

BY LINDA NGUYEN The Canadian Press TORONTO — Instead of debating the merits of an RRSP or a TFSA, Canadians should consider socking away money in both types of accounts for the best tax breaks, financial advisers say.

But since that can be a challenge for most people, the decision of where to save boils down to what you want to use the money for, your income and how much you expect to earn in retirement.

“In a perfect world, people would be maximizing both their RRSPs and TFSA contributions,” said Susan Stefura, a certified financial planner with Bespoke Financial Consulting in Toronto.

“But, of course, the world isn’t perfect and most Canadians don’t have the funds available.”

Launched in 2009, Tax-Free Savings Accounts were created as a way to encourage Canadians to invest and save without paying taxes on those gains. In contrast, money socked away in an Registered Retirement Savings Plan generates a tax deduction when it is invested, but it may be taxed when it is withdrawn.

Stefura suggests Canadians look at their tax rate and what they expect it to be in retirement.

For those who are in a high income bracket and expect that their tax rate will be lower in retirement, an RRSP contribution will allow them to take ad-

vantage of the lower rate upon Monique Maden notes RRSP “All withdrawals from an withdrawal without risking old contributions can only be made RRSP count in the calculaage security (OAS) benefits.

by Canadians until the age of 71. tions, where the same amount “But if your income is too So older investors will want to of money taken from a TFSA high (in retirement), you consider a tax-free savings ac- isn’t part of the OAS clawback won’t get that because it’s eftax benefit and fectively out of it will clawed the tax system,” back,” Stefura Maden said. said.

In a perfect world, people would TFSAs can also Factors to conbe maximizing both their RRSPs provide more sider that might and TFSA contributions . . . But, of flexibility than affect your taxcourse, the world isn’t perfect and an RRSP. able income in most Canadians don’t have the funds That’s another retirement: reavailable. reason why a ceiving a genTFSA may be erous pension more attractive and not having to young savers a spouse to take advantage of count if they have extra money who want to have an accessible income-splitting rules, the sale to invest. emergency fund or save up for a of a business or property, or the Money held in TFSAs are large purchase like a car or vaexpectation of a large inheri- tax-free and are not factored in cation, said Chris Buttigieg, a tance. when calculating old age secu- senior manager of wealth planCertified financial planner rity benefits. ning strategy with BMO Finan-

cial Group.

“The TFSA makes sense early on because of the flexibility that they offer. You can make withdrawals at any time for any amount for any reason,” he said.

Money can be taken out of an RRSP account before retirement but investors will be taxed on the withdrawl unless they are taking advantage of homebuyer or lifelong learning programs.

In an ideal situation, Buttigieg suggests taking the tax refund from an RRSP contribution and investing it in an TFSA to maximize the financial benefits.

“Use the two vehicles to complement each other so you can try to save as much as you can,” Buttigieg said. ■

36

Lifestyle

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FRIDAY

As long as there have been vaccines, some people have feared and hated them, historians say

BY MIKE STOBBE The Associated Press NEW YORK — They’re considered one of mankind’s greatest medical achievements, yet people have balked at vaccines almost since the time of the first vaccination — in 1796, when an English country doctor named Edward Jenner inoculated an 8-year-old boy against smallpox.

In the mid-1800s, people protested in the streets of Victorian England after the British government began requiring citizens to get the vaccination.

Many opponents mistrusted doctors and were wary of a medical treatment they didn’t understand. In the early days, the closely related cowpox virus was used to immunize people against smallpox.

“People were afraid that if you got the cowpox vaccine you would turn into a cow,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who is an outspoken critic of anti-vaccination groups.

More than a century and a half later, there’s still an undercurrent of vaccine dislike and distrust in the United States as illustrated by the measles outbreak that started in December at Disneyland — likely brought in from overseas as has been the case in recent years. Many of those who got and spread the highly contagious illness hadn’t gotten the childhood shots.

All this despite medical science’s proven successes in wiping out not only the muchfeared smallpox and polio, but nearly eliminating other serious illnesses like diphtheria, German measles, lockjaw and mumps in the United States.

Through it all, anti-vaccine sentiments have ebbed and flowed.

“It is fair to say that for as long as we’ve had vaccines, governments have worked to promote those vaccines — and segments of the population have resisted,” said Jason Schwartz, a medical historian who studies vaccine policy at Princeton University.

In the U.S., opposition to vaccines was most intense in the late 1800s and early 1900s, said

Susan Lederer, chair of medi- dance vaccination laws were ralysis each year. cal history and bioethics at the shot down by the U.S. Supreme When researchers in 1955 University of Wisconsin.

Court. Vaccine makers came showed Salk’s vaccine worked, That’s when organizations under more federal regulation, the news spurred jubilation. like the Anti-Vaccination and the shots were better and One medical leader pleaded League of America and the safer. And some of the richest with adults not to grab the limAmerican Medical Liberty and most influential opponents ited doses of the vaccine.

League led the charge. Some died off.

“Give the children priorused photos depicting vacciBy the end of the 1930s, re- ity,” begged Dr. Dwight Murnated children with scars and sistance had declined dramati- ray, chairman of the American missing limbs and eyes, claim- cally. And by the 1950s, the Medical Association’s board of ing immunizatrustees. tions were to Enthusiasm blame. for the polio vac“For a long cine persisted time in history, even after news people treated For as long as we’ve had vaccines, surfaced — only anti-vaxers as governments have worked to weeks later — irrational and promote those vaccines — and that some early anti-progress — segments of the population have batches had kind of a lunatic resisted. caused polio in fringe. But there children. were good rea“If something sons to be leery similar hapof vaccines” back then, she said. pendulum had swung. Medical pened today, it’s hard to imagVaccines sold at the time science was widely respected, ine a vaccination program were unregulated, and many doctors were considered sages, going forward,” Princeton’s were not only ineffective but and one of the nation’s greatest Schwartz said. also risky because of how they heroes was Dr. Jonas Salk — inThe anti-vaccine movement were made or given. Some ventor of the polio vaccine. overall kept a fairly low prowere not sterile and infected Polio — a crippling and po- file until 1998, when a British children with other germs, like tentially fatal infectious disease medical journal published a tetanus.

— terrified the nation. In the now discredited study in which But opposition faded. Legal early 1950s, outbreaks caused researcher Andrew Wakefield challenges to school-atten- more than 15,000 cases of pa- and his colleagues suggested a www.canadianinquirer.net

link between the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism.

It was a small series of observations in just a dozen children, not a full medical study. But it exploded in the media, and resulted in a big drop in immunization rates in Britain. The effect was not nearly as dramatic in the U.S., but researchers estimate that as many as 125,000 children born in the late 1990s did not get the shots because of the report.

The United States then was on the verge of seeing the end of “homegrown” measles — health officials declared that goal accomplished in 2000.

Still, the Wakefield study knocked even prominent U.S. vaccine experts off balance and emboldened vaccine skeptics and some legislators to raise alarms about vaccines. The years 1998 and 1999 marked a low point for those who championed vaccines, Schwartz said.

But the situation soon changed. When other researchers did larger and welldesigned studies, they found no link to autism. Wakefield’s work was discredited and his paper retracted. But all this happened during an era of growing rates of autism diagnoses, and an array of parents groups and some celebrities continued to believe vaccines were the cause.

Overall, vaccination rates for kindergarten pupils have held steady across the country, although health officials have noted certain communities have seen increasing numbers of families who have refused to vaccinate their children.

The situation sat at a low boil until the Disneyland outbreak.

It struck a nerve with public health advocates, parents who support vaccination and even comedians.

“I’ve never seen this level of anger at parents who’ve chosen not to vaccinate their children,” Offit said.

He thinks a large reason is that the outbreak was launched at Disneyland “It’s the Garden of Eden. And what have we done? Brought this virus into the Garden of Eden,” he said. ■

Lifestyle

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Majority expect to still be working past 65 to pay for basic expenses: poll THE CANADIAN PRESS

surpassed the number of those who expect to be retired (27 per cent).

The survey showed 27 per cent of respondents expected to be working part-time, 12 per cent did not know whether they would still be working and one per cent did not expect to be

in order to “live well” (16 per cent).

The survey found the averTORONTO — A new poll has age expected age for retirement found there are more Canadiamong those polled was 64 — ans who expect to be working the lowest age it has been since past age 65 than those who ex2009. In last year’s survey, the pect to be retired. average expected age for retireThe annual Sun Life poll ment was 66. showed about The Sun Life 60 per cent of poll was conrespondents anducted online by ticipated they 60 per cent of respondents Ipsos Reid with a would be workanticipated they would be working sample of 3,000 ing either full or either full or part-time when they working Canadipart-time when reach 65, compared to 27 per cent ans between 30 they reach 65, who plan on being fully retired. to 65 years old compared to 27 from Dec. 5 to per cent who 22. plan on being fully retired by alive at 65.

The polling industry’s prothat age.

The top reasons given by fessional body, the Marketing Sun Life Financial says it’s those polled as to why they Research and Intelligence Asthe first time since it started the would still be working were: sociation, says online surveys survey seven years ago that the paying for basic living ex- cannot be assigned a margin of number of Canadians polled penses (21 per cent), a lack error as they are not a random who expect to still be working of confidence in adequate sample and therefore are not full-time past the normal re- government benefits (18 per necessarily representative of tirement age (32 per cent) has cent) and the desire to work the whole population. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net

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Winter storm... ❰❰ 21

much of New Brunswick on Sunday. Environment Canada said parts of the province could expect up to 40 cm of snow by the end of the weekend.

The national weather forecaster also issued storm surge warnings for P.E.I. It said coastal areas of the island could see flooding as sea ice moves onshore.

The Confederation Bridge that links P.E.I to New Brunswick closed Sunday afternoon. A travel advisory said the bridge would not re-open until the weather improves.

An extreme cold warning was in effect for a large swath of Ontario and Quebec causing icy winds and numbing temperatures.

Several Ontario cities experienced record lows, including Windsor, Waterloo and Hamilton. Windchills in the Toronto area reached the low -40s.

Environment Canada meteorologist Mitch Meredith cautioned anyone venturing outdoors.

“At these temperatures when it’s getting windy, the skin can freeze in just a couple of minutes when exposed,” he said.

In Quebec, the Gatineau Loppet, the biggest crosscountry skiing event in Canada, decided to shorten its races for security reasons after temperatures dropped to -36 with windchill.

Environment Canada was predicting windchill values between -35 to -44 in some areas and warned people venturing outdoors to exercise extreme caution. The winds were expected to ease by Sunday night but temperatures were expected to remain in the -30s in many areas into Monday morning.

People in Mississauga, west of Toronto, were taking the cold in stride.

“I’d say this is erring a bit on the side of too cold. I think I’d prefer minus 15, something like that is a little more pleasant,” said Tim Edwardson, who is from Ottawa.

“Hey this is Canada, I’m thankful to live here and we need to just dress warm.” ■

38

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Business

HQ Vancouver, a new partnership between the B.C. and federal governments and the Business Council of B.C., will attempt to coax Asian companies to locate their North American head offices into the city.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

B.C., federal governments launch initiative to lure Asian companies to Vancouver

BY LAURA KANE The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — Politicians and business leaders have initiated a $6.5 million plan to entice Asian companies to bring their headquarters to Vancouver.

HQ Vancouver, a new partnership between the B.C. and federal governments and the Business Council of B.C., launched last Friday and will attempt to coax Asian companies to locate their North American head offices in the city.

It’s estimated that Asian corporations will represent more than half of global Fortune 500 companies by 2035, said Industry Minister James Moore at a news conference.

“All kinds of firms are looking to North America as an opportunity to set up shop, and B.C. is particularly well positioned to realize gains from this growth in Asian businesses,” he said.

The goal is to attract two

head office accounts by the end The federal government has was try to persuade businesses of 2017, plus a commitment promised to invest over $1.9 to invest and locate in Britfrom three organizations to es- million in the next three years, ish Columbia,” he said. “Why tablish their head offices in B.C. while the business council will you need another $3.3 million by 2019, he said. invest $1.2 million and B.C. is to duplicate that same work, I B.C. Minister of Interna- expected to provide $3.3 mil- don’t understand.” tional Trade Teresa Wat said lion in funding and in-kind supHe added the province alMetro Vancouver is now the port. ready has an initiative called most Asian city outside of Bruce Ralston, interna- AdvantageBC, a non-profit soAsia, with 43 per cent of resi- tional trade critic for B.C.’s ciety that offers tax breaks to dents having attract internaAsian heritage. tional compa“Trade and nies to B.C. investment Yuen Pao Woo, with Asia are All kinds of firms are looking to North former head of critical to growAmerica as an opportunity to set up the Asia Pacific ing B.C.’s dishop, and B.C. is particularly well Foundation of verse economy,” positioned to realize gains from this Canada, has she said, addgrowth in Asian businesses been appointed ing that head president of HQ offices generVancouver. He ate a number of will lead a team direct benefits including job Opposition New Democrats, focused on engaging business creation. pointed out the province has leaders and identifying head ofShe touted the province’s a number of trade offices in fice opportunities. strategic location on the Pacific China, Japan and India, and “We are indeed one of the Rim and its competitive tax the premier and international most, if not the most, livable rates, with companies paying a trade minister travel regularly cities in the world,” Woo said. combined federal and provin- to Asia.

“However, most of our Asian cial corporate income tax of 26 “I would’ve thought that friends don’t know that we per cent. that was part of what they did, are an excellent destination

as a head office location for their North American operations.”

He said his team will articulate a forceful case for the city and disseminate the message far and wide in Asia.

Donald Campbell, a distinguished fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation, said despite a slowdown in Chinese economic growth, many Asian companies — particularly in Japan — are looking to move more production and decision-making offshore.

Campbell said one big challenge is that Toronto has already established itself as the country’s financial centre. But he said Vancouver could attract companies in the life sciences, as well as in information technology.

“I think the kinds of jobs that we’re looking for are higheducation, high-value jobs,” he said. “I think this will be in the information technologies and in the whole world of entertainment and gaming.” ■

Business

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

39

Summer job seekers may need to broaden search following retail closures: experts

BY LAUREN LA ROSE The Canadian Press TORONTO — Students and new graduates on the hunt for summer jobs may find the search even more daunting given the recent grim news on the homegrown retail front.

With Target shuttering its 133 Canadian locations and Jacob, Mexx, Sony, Parasuco and Jones New York closing up shop, will short-term job opportunities be tougher to come by with so many workers getting pink-slipped?

Hershi Rubinoff, president of career site CPG Connect, said she’s seen a huge influx of visits from Target employees since the Minneapolis-based retailer announced its exit from the Canadian marketplace.

“I think that’s the biggest problem that students and new grads are going to run into this summer because as they’re applying for those part-time retail positions, there’s going to be a plethora of candidates in the market from Target and ... other retailers,” Rubinoff said.

“Because there’s going to be so many of them looking for work, they’re going to have the experience, and they’re likely going to be willing to accept a lower wage.”

But Lauren Friese, founder of TalentEgg, a Canadian job site and career resource for students and recent graduates, said it’s still unknown how many of the eliminated jobs would have been available to young people.

The job market for teens and young adults remains a tough one.

Statistics Canada data revealed the youth unemploy-

A Japanese woman with a mobile flip phone.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

2014: The Year of the Flip Phone in Japan?

PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY ment rate declined by 0.7 percentage points in January to 12.8 per cent, with 30,300 more young people working compared to the year prior. Still, the youth unemployment rate far exceeds the national figure of 6.6. per cent.

Rubinoff said young people should be diversifying their job searches and looking to different sectors for potential opportunities.

“I know that event marketing is always something that is very big and definitely picks up in the summertime as the different consumer packaged goods companies look at grassroots ways to reach their target audience,” she said.

Friese recently gave an hourlong presentation in which she stressed three main points on pursuing summer and postgraduate work: being resourceful, creative and taking action.

“Being resourceful starts with being very organized and figuring out all the different types of resources that are out there to help you, whether they’re in the online world or the offline world,” said Friese, whose website features “Bright Ideas,” an online initia-

tive aimed at crowd-sourcing solutions to improve Canada’s youth employment.

Friese said she thinks the exciting part of summer employment is that students get the chance to gain experience in an area they may be uncertain they like or want to pursue for the long haul.

“Once you graduate and enter into ‘the real world’ you don’t get those opportunities to take career sabbaticals. You don’t get those opportunities to just try something new,” she said.

“You commit to something and you’re expected to stay there long-term. And if you do jump around a lot, you’re thought of as a job-hopper that’s not sure of what they want to do.

“If you do it while you’re still in school it’s a completely different impression,” she added.

“You’re seen as someone with a lot of varied experience that likes to try new things and is investing in their own personal development so that they can make the best decision for their career in the future. I think it’s an incredible opportunity and I don’t think a lot of students see it that way.” ■

EXCHANGE RATES

MOSCOW — The Japanese, once considered innovators in mobile phone manufacturing, are now seemingly content to stick with older flip models, according to mobile phone shipment figures for 2014, in contrast to the market domination of smartphones in the rest of the developed world.

According to data from MM Research Institute Ltd, last year shipments of flip phones rose by 5.7 percent to 10.58 million, while shipments of smartphone fell for a the second successive year, by 5.3 percent to 27.70 million.

Despite the more generous subsidies offered by networks for smartphones, which can consequently even be a cheaper alternative, Japanese consumers still have a fondness for what they call "feature phones."

The trend has been referred to as a manifestation of the country’s exceptionalism, termed "Galapagos syndrome" after the uniquely divergent species encountered by Darwin on the Galapagos Islands.

The high-tech luxury resort in the Huis Ten Bosch amusement park in Nagasaki prefec-

ture will have ten “actroids” supplementing the human staff.

In March 2013 MM Research’s Tadayuki Shinozaki predicted that feature phones would retain a 30 percent share in the Japanese market, telling Japan’s Rocket News that as well as having batteries that can last longer without being charged, the phones also appeal to certain demographics.

"They’re easy to carry for the elderly. There are panic buttons for children to use. These special needs are conveniently and affordably filled by feature phones."

The predilection for older style phones comes in spite of Japanese phone manufacturing having once been at the forefront of mobile phone innovations.

The world’s first smart phone for web browsing, called imode, was released by NTT DOCOMO in 1999 and is still popular in Japan, and in 2000 the Kyocera Corporation released its VP-210 VisualPhone, the world’s first mobile video and camera phone.

The first commercial launch of third generation of mobile telecommunications technology was also made by NTT, in October 2001. ■

As of February 18, 2015, from finance.yahoo.com PRICE

CHANGE

% CHANGE

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1.2407

+0.0014

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35.6689

-0.0184

-0.0516%

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40

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Travel

DOT offers Sorsogon’s eco-tourism marvels other than Donsol’s whale sharks

BY DANNY O. CALLEJA Philippine News Agency LEGAZPI CITY — Sorsogon maybe an obscure province but its utterly charming beaches kissed by exotic marine liferich waters should not be overlooked and skipped by idyllic tropical holiday seekers who want heartening places away from the arduous urban crowd.

Blissfully leaned on the southeastern tip of Luzon, Sorsogon is an unassertive province of one city — Sorsogon City, the provincial capital — and 14 towns.

Notwithstanding, however, the coastal location of all these localities, except the landlocked town of Irosin — that is wrapped along superb beaches — oftentimes, the province is ignored.

The province also boasts of high mountains to climb beneath verdant forests of exotic wildlife, an active volcano from where hot and cold natural springs emanate and plenty of historical sites featuring antique structures like centuryold churches, watchtowers and monuments.

The regional office of the Department of Tourism (DOT) based in this Bicol’s tourism center wants travel enthusiasts to grasp these as an offer of the bests of the province’s come-ons, other than the famous whale sharks of the town of Donsol.

One place to go not far from the Donsol is the Panumbagan Sand Bar, a five-kilometerlong tamarind fruit-shaped islet richly endowed with fine, pearly white sand belonging to the nearby town of Pilar.

The local government provided the islet with a wellengineered series of facilities like floating cottages connected with each other by floating bridges made of industrial bamboo and built in style in three octagonal rings.

More developments are in

Sorsogon City Hall in Sorsogon City.

the offing for this site through a Php 3.5-million fund allocation provided by the DOT via the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP) of the agency under the 2015 General Appropriation Act, Maria OngRavanilla, the DOT regional director for Bicol, on Tuesday said.

“At this point and time, escapade in Donsol would no longer be complete without experiencing what Panumbagan Sand Bar offers — like the taste of sea grapes (locally called “lato”) that are abundant at the surrounding Panlatuan Bay and could be harvested from under the water by visitors themselves and eaten fresh,” Ravanilla said.

Panlatuan Bay, a cove covering three barangays of Pilar, is the ancient site of Astillero de Panlatuan, the once-famous shipbuilding yard established after the end of Galleon Trade in 1650.

Sea grapes (Caulerpa lentillifera), an edible seaweed variety reported to have antibacte-

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

rial and antifungal properties and believed to have a cure to hypertension and rheumatism, abundantly and naturally grow under the pure seawater of the bay for its high salinity.

This pretty green seaweed — which studies show to contain high amount of minerals, balanced amino acid profile and iodine — is made up of tiny oblong, greenish crystalline balls.

Edible sea urchins, locally named “suwaki” (Sea Urchin Roe) that are known as aphrodisiac in Japan for thousands of years, can also be found around the area.

Panumbagan could be reached via a 50-minute motorboat ride from the Pilar port, passing along the Bantigue Point and Marine Sanctuary Reserve — a cool place for diving and snorkeling, viewing and interacting with various colors, shapes and types of corals, fishes and other underwater characters.

Both places are perfect for nature lovers who want to be embraced by peaceful ambiance, hear the music created by

the sea breeze, and enjoy sun bathing, bare foot sand walking, swimming, and savoring tranquility.

Ravanilla describes these places as among Sorsogon’s perfect getaways from a busy life that are now among the most visited places in the province because of its proximity to the whale shark sanctuary of Donsol.

Tourists, mostly Malaysians and Russians coming for the whale sharks, have been making side trips to these areas to discover for themselves these wonderful add-on experiences, she said.

Other than whale shark interaction in Donsol, Ravanilla said, the DOT has also provided GPBP fund for the putting up of a Visitor Center and Landing Area for tourists who are fascinated by firefly watching along the coastline of the town’s giant marine mammal sanctuary.

Firefly watching has been the nighttime attraction that entices visitors to stay in Donsol during the night after their day-

time whale shark encounters, and these facilities are designed to make their night outing convenient and comfortable, she said.

Other developments in the Sorsogon tourist sites are the canopy walk and floating wellness center provided by the DOT for Bulusan Lake out of its 2014 GPBP fund worth Php2.8 million.

The lake sits at the bosom of Bulusan Volcano Natural Park, a 3,672-hectare protected area serving as home to various species of endangered animals and considered the most exciting ecotourism site in the province next to Donsol.

The park also boasts of several springs and waterfalls that originate from the mountains.

One of the springs is the bathing-favorite Masacrot, a manmade earthen pool with cool mineral waters coming from underground springs.

Bulusan Lake itself, which is situated at the very foot of Mt. Bulusan — one of the most active volcanoes in the Pacific Rim of Fire, is a spectacular ecotourism destination for its scenic and exquisite beauty.

Rising 340 meters above sea level, the lake that occupies an area of more than 16 hectares is dubbed as the “Swtizerland of the Orient” for its pristine perfection and the coolness of its mountain breeze.

Another tourist attraction at the Bulusan town is the Punta Diamante, the muralla (stone fort) that encloses the church complex of St. James the Greater Parish which remains grand in its antiquity together with the belfry, the largest of the four watchtowers dotting the historical complex.

A tourist access road between Bulusan town and Matnog passing through the town of Sta. Magdalena is also in the offing with the recent approval of the project for Php300 million and appropriation this year of Php50 million for the start of the works, Ravanilla added. ■

Travel

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

41

Experts say consumers still have options amid deal binge in online travel; Expedia buys Orbitz

BY DAVID KOENIG AND MICHELLE CHAPMAN The Associated Press NEW YORK — A wave of deals in the online travel industry has increasingly put some familiar names under two corporate umbrellas: Expedia and Priceline.

For now, industry executives and travel experts say, consumers won’t notice much of an impact. They will still have plenty of options for booking flights, hotel rooms and vacation packages, including shopping directly with airline and hotel websites.

Expedia said last week that it is buying rival Orbitz Worldwide Inc. for about $1.3 billion.

The deal adds the Orbitz brand and sites including CheapTickets and HotelClub to a lineup that already includes names such as Hotels.com, Hotwire, Trivago and Australia’s Wotif. com. Expedia is also in the process of buying Travelocity.

In a conference call with analysts, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that even though big in the online segment, his company is “only a small player” in a $1.3 trillion travel market that in-

cludes giants like Google and many newcomers. Expedia says its booking account for only 4 per cent of global travel spending.

The purchase of Orbitz would leap Expedia ahead of The Priceline Group Inc. in travel bookings, although Priceline would still be larger by revenue and stock market value. Besides its namesake website, Priceline owns Booking.com, Kayak and restaurant-reservation site OpenTable. Then there are smaller players such as airfaresearch site Hipmunk and lastminute deal site HotelTonight.

Khosrowshahi said he was optimistic that antitrust regulators would approve the deal.

Some analysts agreed. They said consolidation in the online travel industry is in the early stages, and it’s an industry with low barriers to new entrants.

“In broad terms, the less players that you have, consumers have less choice ... and obviously less price competition is not good for consumers, but I don’t think we’re at that point yet,” said Tuna Amobi of S&P Capital IQ. “There is still a tremendous amount of alternatives out there to make online travel reservations.”

Daniel Kurnos, an analyst for The Benchmark Co., said the deal might even help consumers by giving Expedia more size to negotiate better deals with airlines and hotels.

Gary Leff, a travel blogger and co-founder of frequent flier discussion website MilePoint, said for most consumers, the deal wont make a big difference. He recommends that consumers use online travel agen-

cies to comparison-shop, but unless there’s a reason — such as an itinerary that includes more than airline — it’s better to book directly with the airline or hotel.

That way, if you need to change a trip or there is some other problem, “it’s a whole lot easier dealing just with the airline than with the airline and an online agency,” he said.

Leff said the industry is evolv-

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ing, and the winning companies will be those who develop the best mass technology for catering to an individual consumer’s preferences — not just finding the cheapest flight.

Expedia will gain Orbitz’s highly regarded technology, especially in searching airfares — Orbitz was started in 1999 by five of the largest U.S. airlines to counter the advent of online travel agencies including Expedia. It went public in 2007.

Expedia, based in Bellevue, Washington, said that it will pay $12 per share, a 25 per cent premium to Orbitz’s closing price of $9.62 last week.

The boards of Expedia and Orbitz approved the sale, but approval would still be needed from a majority of Orbitz shareholders. Expedia said it couldn’t predict when the deal would close.

Expedia had 2014 revenue of $5.76 billion. Priceline hasn’t reported fourth-quarter results, but in the first nine months of 2014, it had $6.6 billion in revenue compared with Expedia’s $4.41 billion. In travel bookings, Priceline had $39.64 billion, Expedia was right behind with $39.14 billion, and Orbitz had $9.69 billion. ■

Long term forecast taken from: www.weathernetwork.com

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42

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Sports

Manny Pacquiao has stated that he has agreed to a $5 million fine if he is caught using illegal substances in his fight with Floyd Mayweather, after Mayweather alleged that Pacquiao had used performanceenhancing drugs in his previous fights.

TRACY LEE / MANNY PACQUIAO OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE

Pacquiao insists inclusion of $5-M fine in their contract with Mayweather if found using illegal drugs

BY SAMMY F. MARTIN Philippine News Agency MANILA — Sarangani Rep. Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao disclosed on Monday the inclusion in the contract that a fine of USD5 million be imposed as fine for using illegal substance in his fight with Floyd Mayweather.

Pacquiao said his proposal was borne after consistent allegations of Mayweather that he was using performance-enhancing drugs in his previous fight.

“Hindi problema iyung illegal drugs. In fact sa kasunduan ako ang nag-suggest na magmulta

ng five million dollars kapag nag-positive sa drugs. Ako ang nagpa-insert noon dahil kailangan iyun, [Illegal drugs is not a problem. In fact, I was the one who lobbied to insert the provision of US $5-million fine if found positive of using illegal drugs,]” Pacquiao told reporters after visiting the media center of the House of Representatives.

Like what he said in the previous interviews, Pacquiao said his fight with Mayweather is almost done.

“Almost done deal na. Malapit nang matapos ang negosasyon at hintayin nating sila ang magannounce ng fight. Nag-agree na tayo sa terms and conditions

(It’s almost a done deal. We’re nearing the end of the negotiation and we’re just waiting for them [Mayweather’s camp] to announce the fight. We already agreed on the terms and conditions),” Pacquiao told House reporters.

“Announcement na lamang nila, wala tayong karapatan.

Sila ang magsasabi niyan. Agree na tayo sa lahat ng demands (It’s their announcement, we don’t have the right [to announce it for them]. They will announce it themselves. We already agreed to all of their demands),” Pacquiao added.

The eight-division champion refused to make a fearless forecast when asked about the out-

come of the fight.

“Mahirap magsabi ng tapos ngayon, napakagandang laban (We can’t really speak with finality. It’s going to be a great fight),” Pacquiao stressed.

When asked about his absenteeism, Pacquiao said “marami naman akong nagawa sa aking distrito (I have done many things for my district).”

Aside from lawmaking and boxing, Pacquiao is also the playing-coach of KIA Carnival in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Of 70 sessions of the House of Representatives fromJanuary 20 to Dec. 17 last year, records bared that Pacquiao and Negros Occidental Rep. Julio Ledesma

IV registered the lowest attendance after attending only seven session days while former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Lanao del Norte Rep. Abdullah Dimaporo posted no attendance.

Mrs. Arroyo is currently detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City since November 2012 following her plunder case before the Sandiganbayan.

Dimaporo who is facing malversation case has been under hospital arrest since 2013.

Only 65 lawmakers, including Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., have recorded perfect attendance in the 70 sessions. ■

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Seen and Scenes

43

ROTARY DONATION Members of the Rotary World Help led by Elena C. Agala of Vancouver, B.C. donated hospital equipment, computer hardware and software to the City of Panglao in Bohol, during the Winter Escapade 2 Bohol leg.

Philippine Ambassador to Canada Petronila P. Garcia presented the donation to city officials.

HEARTS DAY A Valentine’s Day party was held at the Holiday Inn in Calgary

by Filipinos resplendent in their red and black dresses and suits.

Super sweet dĂŠcor and festive goodies completed the romantic event.

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

44

Sports

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

FRIDAY

Curling tradition rules the day at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts

BY GREGORY STRONG The Canadian Press MOOSE JAW, Sask. — There is something wonderfully simplistic about the live curling experience.

It’s a throwback to the days when spectators didn’t have to deal with thumping dance music and the inundation of constant in-game entertainment during every break in the action.

The scoreboard offers a muted television feed and the hollering and heckling that can be prominent in some sporting arenas is essentially nonexistent. Curling fans are quite knowledgeable and passionate, they just enjoy the action in a quieter kind of way.

Tradition rules the day at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

A piper will walk the competitors into Mosaic Place as fans politely clap in unison before the player introductions.

The national anthem follows along with a word from the event MC. Remarkably, he sticks with the same joke when informing the crowd before each draw that flash photography is not allowed (‘no flashing,’ in case you’re wondering).

The ‘Good Luck and Good Curling’ message is conveyed and it’s game on over four sheets of ice.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The crowd is well behaved with polite applause for quality shots, oohs and ahhs for hits or misses and the occasional provincial shoutout (Ont-airrrrreeee-oh!!) or cowbell clang. The soft whir of the stones moving down the ice provides a soothing soundbed as curlers bellow their commands to teammates.

There are three big sports in this town of some 36,000 about

an hour’s drive from Regina — curling, football and hockey.

The Western Hockey League’s Warriors call the 5,000-seat venue home, but they’re on the road for a couple weeks with the women’s national curling championship in town.

The beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders are always front and centre. Green and white

jerseys, sweatshirts and hats can be spotted at every turn. It doesn’t matter if you’re on hand at the curling tournament, in line at the post office or eating at a restaurant.

Need proof of the province’s love affair with the CFL team?

Try walking from one end of the rink to the other with a Riders’ beat reporter. He can’t go more than a few steps at a time

without being stopped by fans who want to say hello or talk a little pigskin.

The Scotties is the main talking point this week though.

Sit down at a local coffee shop and you may hear conversation about host skip Stefanie Lawton’s chances, the so-called Big Three of Rachel Homan, Jennifer Jones and Val Sweeting, or maybe the new qualification round that saw two skips go home early.

Local residents are remarkably friendly and seem thrilled to have the event in their town.

They showed their mettle by fighting through a wicked blizzard to post impressive attendance numbers on opening day.

That morning, a hotel bellhop informed a visitor from out of town he was glad the storm would be ‘missing’ Moose Jaw and that the weather was worse outside of town. This despite whiteout conditions and a minus-35 wind chill.

If he was joking, kudos were deserved for the straight face.

The curlers are also a delight.

No entourages, multi-million dollar contracts or attitude here. Chances are good you’ll even find a few teams mingling with fans in the nearby lounge after the game.

It’s a taste of the old-school sporting experience. And a welcome one at that. ■

Online interactive graphic captures China’s massive Lunar New Year migration, and more THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIJING — This map of China’s Lunar New Year travel tells a story of massive migration home from the big city.

The interactive, updating graphic posted online by the Chinese Internet portal Baidu shows a “heat map” of lines tracing the trips of individual travellers. The brightest spokes emanate from eastern employment hubs Beijing, Shanghai and the southern nexus of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and

Dongguan.

About 80 million people were travelling on Monday alone, mostly by road, according to government estimates. Baidu was able to illustrate many of those journeys thanks to the 350 million active users of its smartphone map and other apps that use location positioning.

If someone uses a Baidu app in Beijing in the morning, then pings from the southwestern city of Kunming in the evening, a new trip will be registered and a straight line added from Bei-

jing to Kunming.

Lines glow white-hot during the biggest travel days of the holiday, which officially runs from Wednesday through Feb. 24 but unofficially includes many days on either end. The period of heightened travel is considered 40 days long.

“You’re basically looking at the serious intensity of travel in this holiday. It’s not just the world’s biggest human migration, it’s the biggest mammalian migration,” Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo said. “It’s a sight to www.canadianinquirer.net

behold. It’s quite miraculous that nothing goes terribly wrong.”

The Baidu Migration interactive also includes data for individual cities, airports and train stations, and could help transportation officials plan future seasons, Kuo said.

If he used Baidu apps, 28-year-old Li Shengtao would have contributed to the Baidu interactive when he departed by train from Shanghai where he works as an interior designer for his annual, 1,100-kilometre journey to his

northern hometown of Shijiazhuang.

“Even if you don’t manage to buy a ticket you have to get home somehow,” Li said.

“That’s the tradition of us northern Chinese.”

The interactive has been employed for more than details on holiday travel. Last Lunar New Year season, some media outlets suggested, rather dubiously, that many of the bright lines on the map emanating from the city of Dongguan were prostitutes fleeing a crackdown there. ■

Events

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2015

45

New WelcomePack Canada Distribution Centre

By WelcomePack Canada Inc. WHEN/WHERE: 1 to 5 p.m., Mon, Tues, Thu & Fri at the Filipino Centre Bldg., 597 Parliament St., Suite 103, Toronto, On. MORE INFO: Call (416) 928-9355 Acoustic Night with the Soloistas – Canada Tour WHEN/WHERE: 7:30 p.m., Feb. 27, at John Bassett Theatre, Metro Toronto Convention Centre North Bldg., 255 Front St. West, Toronto, On. 7:30 p.m., Feb. 28, at Century Casino, 1010 42 Ave. SE, Calgary, AB MORE INFO: Featuring DJ Mike (formerly of Akafellas), Jimmy Bondoc, Luke Mijares, Paolo Santos and Jinky Vidal

YUKON NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

NUNAVUT

BRITISH COLUMBIA ALBERTA

MANITOBA

SASKATCHEWAN

BC Home and Garden Show WHEN/WHERE: up to Feb. 22, at BC Place Stadium, 777 Pacific Blvd., Vancouver, B.C. Winter-Spring Training 2015

By ISS of BC WHEN/WHERE: 14 Saturdays till Apr. 18, at the Immigrant Services Society of B.C., Royal City Centre – Rm. 280 610 – 6th St., New Westminster MORE INFO: Contact Liza at 604-395-8000 ext.

1706 or email: liza.delarosa@issbc.org Drop-in Conversation Circles for Work Permit Holders (Burnaby)

By Mosaic WHEN/WHERE: Saturdays, 1 to 3 p.m., till Mar. 21, at Brentwood Community Resource Centre, 2055 Rosser Ave., Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Call 604-292-3907 for details.

Ross Salvosa’s Final DMA solo recital WHEN/WHERE: 8 p.m., Feb. 24, at Roy Barnett Recital Hall, School of Music Bldg, University of British Columbia, 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver, B.C. English Corner

By Richmond Public Library WHEN/WHERE: 10 to 12 nn Fridays, up to to Feb. 27, and on Sundays, Jan. 11 to Mar. 1 at the Brighouse (Main) Branch, 2nd floor Community Place Rm., 7700 Minoru Gate.

MORE INFO: To register, visit any branch of

ONTARIO

CANADA EVENTS

View all events by scanning this QR code or visiting

Toronto, ON (416) 646-0444 MB: Winnipeg Cineplex Northgate Winnipeg 1399 McPhillips Street Winnipeg, MB (204) 334-6234 ON: Scarborough AB: Calgary Cineplex ScarborCineplex Sunridge NEWFOUNDLAND ough Town Ctr Spectrum 300 Borough Drive 2555 32 St NE Scarborough, ON Calgary, AB QUEBEC (416) 290-5217 (403) 717-1200 ON: Toronto NEW Landmark 16 Famous BRUNSWICK Players Country Hills Canada Square 388 Country Hill Cinemas Blvd, NE#300 2190 Yonge St. Calgary, AB T3K 5J6 English Only Please

By Above the Line Events WHEN/WHERE: Feb. 20 to Mar. 5, in theaters across Canada:

http://bit.ly/ PCI-Events

(403) 226-8685 AB: Edmonton Cineplex Movies 12 Edmonton 5074 130th Avenue Edmonton, AB (708) 472-9779 BC: North Vancouver Landmark Cinemas Esplanade 200 West Esplanade North Vancouver Surrey Landmark Studio 12 Guildford 15051 101 Avenue Surrey, BC (604) 581-1716

Richmond public Library, register online at www. yourlibrary.ca/events or call 604-231-6413

Mosaic Burnaby Centre for Immigrants, 5902 Kingsway St., Vancouver, B.C.

ISS of BC Hiring Fair

By ISS of BC WHEN/WHERE: 1 to 7 p.m., Feb. 27, at Douglas Recreation Centre, 20550 Douglas Crescent, Langley, B.C. MORE: Bring your questions and resumes. Be prepared to have on-site interviews. Now accepting online registration at http://goo.gl/forms/7BIW9P81lY or by phone 604-684-2504.

Family Sunday

By Richmond Art Gallery WHEN/WHERE: 1 to 4 p.m., Feb. 22, Mar. 22, Apr. 26 and May 24, at Richmond Art Gallery, 7700 Minoru Gate Richmond, B.C.

Burnaby Seniors’ Club Free Activities for Immigrant Seniors

By Mosaic Settlement Services WHEN/WHERE: (Burnaby North) Beginners’ English Practice – till Mar. 5, Wednesdays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m Taichi – Till Mar. 27, Fridays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

English Conversation Circle – Till Mar. 27, Fridays, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Brentwood Community Resource Centre, 2055 Rosser Ave., Burnaby B.C. (Burnaby South) Upper Beginners’ English Practice – Till Mar. 23, Mondays, 9:30 to 11:30 Beginners’ English Practice – till Mar. 27, Fridays, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Knitting Club – till Mar. 27, Tuesdays, 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Seniors’ Conversation Circle – till Feb. 12, Thur., 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. www.canadianinquirer.net

What About

By PBJ Band WHEN/WHERE: 8 p.m., Feb. 27, at Hippos Sports Bar & Grill, 725 SE Marine Dr. Vancouver, B.C. MORE INFO: Call 778-918-1135 Victoria Filipino Canadian Caregivers’ Association 30th Anniversary Valentine Party By: VFCCA WHEN/WHERE: 6 p.m., Feb. 28, at Hotel Grand Pacific, 463 Belleville St., Victoria, B.C. Physical & Mental Health for New Immigrants

By Mosaic WHEN/WHERE: 1 to 3 p.m., March 3, at Burnaby Learning Centre, Burnaby B.C. MORE INFO: Call 604-438-8214 for details.

Canadian Citizenship Preparation

By Mosaic WHEN/WHERE: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mar. 4 & 5, at New Westminster Public Library, 716 6th Ave MORE INFO: Call 604-438-8214 for details.

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