Manila Standard - 2016 September 20 - Tuesday

PAC-MAN KNOCKS OUT LEILA

By Joel Zurbano SENATORS on Monday voted 16-4 to oust beleaguered Senator Leila de Lima as chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, which was investigating the rise in summary executions of drug suspects since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power.

The 16 senators led by Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III declared Senators Richard Gordon and Panfilo Lacson as chairman and vice chairman of the committee.

“It’s a numbers game and it’s a political move,” De Senator Manny Pacquiao

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VOL. XXX • NO. 220 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Drug raps vs De Lima Senator ran billion-peso shabu trade at NBP—DOJ

Senator Lelila de Lima

By Rey E. Requejo

J

USTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Monday that criminal charges would be filed this week against his predecessor and now Senator Leila de Lima, whom he said started collecting money from drug lords in the national penitentiary as early as 2011, when she planned to run for the Senate in the 2013 mid-term elections.

SUSPECTS UNKNOWN. High-powered firearms, bombs and assorted ammunitions have been recovered by security authorities in barangay Kauran, Ampatuan, Maguindanao as part of the government’s continuing campaign against criminals. Major Filemon Tan, Jr., spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command, has said ground commanders and police are still looking into the identities of the suspects and the possible group to which they belong. (Contributed by the AFP)

Aguirre said information he received indicated that the influential inmate Jaybee Sebastian required the “bosyo” or the head of various gangs at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City to sell drugs to raise money for De Lima.

“Even before 2013, Jaybee Sebastian had stepped up the distribution of the drugs. He paid the gang leaders. In 2011, the drug money started flowing toward the

direction of Secretary De Lima because even before the 2013 elections, she already had plans of running [or the Senate]. She just postponed her senatorial bid,” Aguirre said at a press conference.

Aguirre said Sebastian ordered the gang leaders to sell as much as 50 kilos per month of illegal drugs, mostly methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, through their contacts outside the NBP. Next page

Nur wants anti-ASG drive on hold DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Monday Moro National Liberation Front chairman Nur Misuari had sought the suspension of the military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf “while he is still negotiating for the release of the remaining hostages.”

He told ANC that up to 13 hostages were still in the hands of the terrorist group after two Filipino hostages were released Sunday night.

“He [Misuari] asked me to suspend the operations on the road where the Abu Sayyaf were coming down to meet with him to hand over the hostages,” Lorenzana said.

“He said ‘If you can just tell your men not to fire on these people that are coming down,’ So I told the troops in Jolo to cooperate with Secretary [Jesus] Dureza.”

Lorenzana made his statement even as the MNLF expressed willingness to

Palace gets serious on ouster plot THE Palace said Monday it was taking the destabilization threats against the President seriously a day after it downplayed the ouster plots and called them “mere speculation.”

“If there really is [a destabilization threat], it is the concern for the government, it should be a concern for the nation because it’s destabilization talk,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told dzRH radio.

“It’s not right, because we are in a democracy and we placed a President in power through an election,” Andanar, citing reports from a Cabinet Official in New York, said there were Filipino-Americans who were planning

Drug lord turns state witness

finish off the Abu Sayyaf if ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte to do so.

MNLF spokesman Absalom Cerveza made the statement even if the terrorist group had released two Filipinos, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and three Indonesians.

Cerveza said Misuari was just waiting for Duterte to give the order and the MNLF would hunt down the Abu Sayyaf.

“We cannot move against the bandits unless Duterte authorizes us to hunt them down,” Cerveza said.

The military said Monday the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and Nasilan were still holding 12 foreigners and four Filipinos.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the hostages were in good condition but needed to be rescued.

“What we are aiming to accomplish [is] to rescue them or recover them safely,” he said.

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to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.

“There are Filipino-Americans in New York who plan to oust the President

by January 2017,” Andanar said.

“That’s why we are asking if there are direct evidence heard from these people.

There are many stories, many speculations. But at the same time, the surveys will show otherwise because many people here in the Philippines support the President.”

On Thursday last week, a group opposed to Duterte called on the people to converge at the Edsa People Power Monument on Friday to press for Duterte’s resignation, but no one came.

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JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday confirmed that Reynaldo Diaz, a big-time drug lord reportedly operating in Bicol, has been in the Justice Department’s witness protection program (WPP) even before his arrest by police in Sorsogon last Sunday.

Aguirre disclosed that Diaz, alias James Tan, has already executed an affidavit where he identified high-ranking government officials and former police generals who supposedly benefited from his illegal drug operations.

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CONTINUING OPERATIONS. The continuing intensified campaign against the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group in Sulu yielded Sunday night two more kidnap victims alive, after the bandit group released separately a Norwegian national and three Indonesians. Authorities identified the latest two kidnap victims as Daniela Taruc and Levy Gonzales, both sub-contractors of a Telecom company and employees of Power City Corp. kidnapped by armed men on Aug. 6, 2016. (Contributed by the AFP)

SALN, other FOI exceptions bucked THERE are exceptions in the Freedom of Information executive order issued by the Executive department that are not warranted, Senator Grace Poe said on Monday.

“There are legitimate exceptions, but there are some that I think do not need to be included [in the exceptions],”

S

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Poe said.

“That is why we need to study this carefully, we have to make specific mention of those in the new law so that these will override the executive order.”

One of the 166 exceptions is the release of the Statement of Assets and Liabilities and

Poll: 1.8m Filipinos drug users

By John Paolo Bencito

Net Worth of officials, which is among the main reasons the public is pushing for an FOI law.

The exceptions also include disclosing legitimate techniques for law enforcement investigations, confidential sources, trade secrets,

ALMOST 5 million Filipinos used illegal drugs at least once in their lifetime, the latest survey by the Dangerous Drugs Board showed.

The latest 2015 Nationwide Survey on the Nature and Extent of Drug Abuse in the Philippines presented Monday also revealed that more than 1.8 million Filipinos or 1.8 percent of the total

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

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News

M'sapano general promoted A

Just recently, Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan was designated Army vice commander after the mandatory retirement

of Maj. Gen. Rodolfo Demosthenes Santillan. Both officers are members of the Class of 1983 in the Philippine Military

Academy.

Pangilinan, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division before he was designated to his new position, is set to retire in less than two months when he reaches the age of 56.

Pangilinan became controversial when he refused to order his men to fire 155mm

Drug...

so that Sebastian could run the drugs on his own inside the NBP,” Aguirre said in Filipino.

The inmates said that Sebastian would threaten the other inmates that if they did not follow his orders, he would use his influence and connection with De Lima to have them transfered to other prison farms and colonies in the provinces managed by the Bureau of Correction.

In December 2014, De Lima personally led the raid at the maximum-security compound of the NBP where authorities recovered luxury items, cash and other contraband items inside the cell of high-profile inmates.

This prompted De Lima to order the transfer of 19 inmates to the NBI as part of the crackdown on illegal activities inside the NBP, particularly the drugs trade.

Aguirre said when he talked to Sebastian, the latter expressed willingness to cooperate, but eventually clammed up.

Aguirre earlier said inmate and convicted robber Herbert Colangco delivered P3 million monthly to De Lima.

He is also one of the witnesses that will be presented by the Justice Department against De Lima.

Former NBI deputy director

Rafael Ragos, who once served as officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Corrections, will also shed light on the P5 million he allegedly gave De Lima.

“The P5 million was brought to her home in Parañaque. De Lima herself accepted it, even though Ronnie Dayan [De Lima’s former driver and alleged lover] was there,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre said the Justice Department was preparing a criminal complaint against De Lima based on the testimony of witnesses linking her to illegal drugs in the NBP. “It so happened that we have this hearing in Congress. Besides, it’s not easy to prepare the case, especially against a high ranking public official like Senator De Lima,” Aguirre said.

“I assure you that we will file the case. Based on my assessment of the affidavits, there is strong case. We will file the case against public officials responsible for the proliferation of drugs at NBP. We will file it as soon as possible,” Aguirre vowed.

Aguirre admitted that the cases that will be filed against De Lima are based on affidavits executed by some members of the notorious “Bilibid 19,” the high profile inmates found to have been enjoying a lavish treatment inside the national penitentiary.

“A complaint may now be filed

mate of then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte in the May 9 elections, accused De Lima of using her committee “to go out after the President.”

“She is using the committee, not for fact finding on extrajudicial killings but to go after the President,” he said.

Cayetano delivered his privilege speech after De Lima presented witness Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed hitman, who said Duterte had given the orders to kill hundreds of drug suspects when he was still mayor of Davao City.

At the hearing, senators belonging to Liberal Party and members of the committee led by Antonio Trillanes IV ganged up Cayetano, who questioned Matobato’s credibility.

De Lima was earlier accused by President Duterte of taking money from drug lords to finance her Senate election campaign.

A staunch ally of Duterte on Monday slammed De Lima’s attack on the President.

In a privilege speech, Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles said the Senate’s ongoing probe of extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration was obviously aimed at weakening the President’s “change” agenda.

“The weapon used was a false witness. The platform from which the assault was mounted is a Senate investigation supposedly in aid of legislation,” Nograles said in his speech.

“The assault on the dignity and reputation of the sitting President of the Republic has only one ultimate objective --to destroy public trust and confidence in the President. So I ask Mr. Speaker--what is behind this

assault on the dignity and reputation of the President? Is the groundwork being laid for something sinister?” he said.

Nograles said a coordinated attack on the presidency appears to have been launched from within and from without, even as he called on the Filipino people to stand by the President’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.

“Lies are being piled one after another to waylay the President’s change agenda and stop the momentum for radical reform towards making government work as it should work for the people,” Nograles said.

“At stake is not simply the success of the war against illegal drugs or the agenda for reform of the Duterte Administration. At stake, in real terms, is not even the presidency--it is the stability and survival of our republic,” he said.

Nograles said De Lima used the Senate as platform to discredit the President by coming out with a ‘surprise’ witness during its probe last Sept. 16.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Monday urged his fellow senators to forgo hearing the testimony of Matobato, saying the hitman admitted he had no personal knowledge about the extrajudicial killings committed during the term of President Duterte.

Gatchalian issued his appeal after De Lima said she planned to call Matobato again to the next hearing of the committee on justice.

Earlier, Pimentel denied protective custody for Matobato because his testimony was not relevant to the resolution being investigated.

With Maricel V. Cruz

would fully scrutinize the exceptions in Executive Order No. 2 to guarantee that the exceptions were not used to cover up a crime, wrongdoing, graft or corruption.

Under Senate Bill 159, or An Act Implementing the People’s Right to Information and the Constitutional Policies of Full Public Disclosure and Honesty in the Public Service filed by Poe, the public would be granted access to records or information that are under the control of the government.

The bill lists 13 major exceptions and the information may be withheld if the information requested would jeopardize national security, foreign relations, law enforcement operations,

trade and economic secrets, an individual’s right to privacy, privileged information as considered in judicial proceedings, or information made in the executive sessions of Congress and those covered by presidential communications privilege.

These exceptions in the Senate bill were included in the FOI EO, but the Executive deemed it necessary to include a roster of exceptions for non-disclosure, but the resource persons in the hearing expressed apprehension on it.

Usability of information available to the public and easy access would also be considered by the lawmakers in the final draft of the measure, Poe said.

Joel E. Zurbano

CONTROVERSIAL general of the infamous Mamasapano massacre has been promoted barely two months before his mandatory retirement.

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“Jaybee was sure that Secretary De Lima will run in 2016, so what he did was to give each gang a quota of selling 20 kilos per month, 30 kilos per month, up to 50 kilos per month. The bosyo were required to meet the sales quota,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre declined to say how much money De Lima received, but said the drug trade “runs into the billions.”

Aguirre said an inmate who is the right-hand man of Sebastian in the Sigue Sigue Sputnik Gang said a certain Jad de Vera collected the drug money for De Lima.

Aguirre said the inmate said he was once summoned by Sebastian to his hut at the NBP and was surprised to see De Lima inside.

Aguirre said the inmates who were going to testify in today’s inquiry at the House told them that they were taken out of the NBP and transferred to the National Bureau of Investigation headquarters in 2014 so that Sebastian would be able to go on with the illegal drug trade freely inside the NBP. “I just talked to the five or six of the inmates, who said they were thrown to the NBP

PAC-MAN...

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Lima said in a television interview after her ouster. “All I know is the President is behind this.”

Only four senators voted against the motion to remove De Lima, namely Liberal Party colleagague Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon, Risa Hontiveros, Bam Aquino, and Francis Pangilinan.

De Lima was ousted as committee chairman after she walked out of the session hall during a privilege speech by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who accused her of destroying the integrity and reputation of the Senate and damaging the image of the country and the people worldwide.

“I cannot stand it so I’m going to deliver a privilege speech tomorrow instead of confronting him.

What is destroying the reputation of this country are the killings. It’s not me,” said De Lima after she stormed out of the session hall.

After Cayetano’s speech, Senator Manny Pacquiao moved to declare the chairmanship and the membership of the committee vacant.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III immediately called for a one-minute break but Drilon asked to be recognized first.

“Just to point out that under the rules, you can’t declare as vacant the chairmanship of a committee.

There’s no rule that allows that,” Drilon said.

Hontiveros seconded Drilon.

But Pacquiao reiterated his motion, prompting Pimentel to suspend the session.

Cayetano, the losing running

SALN...

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bank records, certain court records, and detailed reports on how congressional funds are disbursed.

But Poe said the Senate was poised to override the unwarranted exceptions, adding a strong FOI law crafted by legislators was needed to stamp out corruption and ensure transparency and accountability in the bureaucracy.

She said while the FOI advocates an open government, the 166 exceptions against disclosure was just too stringent and might be subject to certain abuses.

She said the Senate panel

and 105mm Howitzer canons on the Moro rebels’ positions, which could have minimized the casualties of the members of the Police’s Special Action Force in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

The clash between the Moros and the SAF men resulted in the death of 44 SAF commandos.

A source says when Pangilinan retires, he will be replaced by 1st Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Gerardo Abarientos, who is also a member of the PMA Class of 1983.

Pangilinan was replaced by Maj. Gen. Charlie Galvez, former deputy chief of staff for Operations or J3 and a member

and this will undergo preliminary investigation. The nature of the charges is on violation of antidrugs law and possibly of antigraft law also,” he said.

Those who receive proceeds from drug money are criminally liable under Republic Act 9165 or Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. Government officials who receive bribe money in exchange for protection of illegal activities are also culpable under Republic Act 3019, otherwise known as “Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.” While the witnesses are convicted felons, their testimony can be trusted, Aguirre said.

“I have been a litigator for 44 years... Just give me 10 minutes and I can tell you if a person is telling the truth or not,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre also revealed that the DOJ will present 30 witnesses and resource persons at the House of Representatives during the congressional inquiry Tuesday into the proliferation of illegal drugs trade inside the NBP when De Lima exercised administrative supervision as Justice secretary.

Allies of President Rodrigo Duterte in the House said Tuesday’s congressional probe on the proliferation of illegal drugs at the NBP will be fair.

At a news conference, Deputy Speakers and Reps. Ferdinand

Hernandez of South Cotabato and Frederick Abueg of Palawan disputed claims that the House probe would be directed at De Lima.

“This is purely concentrated on the National Bilibid Prison.

This is in aid of legislation. This is in no way to persecute anybody,” Hernandez said.

The House committee on justice, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, will conduct the probe through Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s House Resolution 105 seeking a congressional probe into the matter.

Abueg said the end goal of the House probe would be to strengthen the existing drugs laws by looking into circumstances that had caused the proliferation of illegal drugs at the national prison under De Lima’s watch, and not to persecute De Lima.

“We are duly elected representatives of our respective districts.

We are public officials, and we are doing this in aid of legislation. We are not just a private body seeking persecution of anyone,” Abueg added.

Hernandez also said the House probe would not be a scripted hearing even though the House is dominated by a “supermajority” headed by Alvarez, secretary general of President Rodrigo Duterte’s PDP-Laban.

With Maricel V. Cruz

Drug lord...

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“What happened was he asked permission from WPP to be reunited with his relatives in Bicol. But on his way there, he was arrested by police,” Aguirre said in a media briefing.

Aguirre said he has already discussed Diaz’s status as a witness with Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa.

“Reynaldo Diaz is the number two man of Jaguar who has been under our custody in the WPP after he executed an affidavit where he named the officials and police generals who received drug money from him every two weeks,” Aguirre said.

Dela Rosa earlier said that Diaz assumed the illegal drug operations in Bicol after his cousin, the top drug lord in the Visayas, Jeffrey Diaz alias Jag-

Nur...

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Before the handover, Lorenzana was communicating with Peace Adviser Dureza, who asked the military not fire at the people who would bring the hostages to Misuari.

“I only told the commander to use their judgment because they are on the ground. They can only, maybe, stop operations in the areas where the negotiations are taking place, not in all places,” Lorenzana said.

“We told our troops to keep the pressure on the Abu Sayyaf.

I think the pressure helped in the release because we are also afraid that during the operations, these hostages might be killed, and if the hostages get killed, you do not have any more leverage to negotiate.”

Lorenzana said the government offensive against the Abu Sayyaf was ongoing when Misuari and Dureza worked for the release of hostages.

Palace...

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In a text message through cellphone number 09994551233, the group asked the public to attend a rally on Edsa at 3 p.m. on Friday to call for Duterte’s res-

of the PMA Class of 1985.

Brig. Gen. Noel Clement, also a member of the PMA Class of 1985, was designated J3.

Clement also became controversial after he was linked to the abduction of activist Jonas Burgos, who remains missing.

Florante S. Solmerin

Poll:...

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On Saturday, the Abu Sayyaf released Sekkingstad, whom they abducted from a high-end tourist resort he was managing in September 2015.

Two Canadians taken hostage at the same time, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, were later beheaded by the group after a ransom demand of about P300 million was not met.

The Norwegian and Philippine governments have denied that ransom was paid to free Sekkingstad, though Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said he would not rule out a third party, such as Sekkingstad’s family, having paid ransom.

Lorenzana said the shift in the attitude of the bandits started when President Rodrigo Duterte started talking to Misuari.

“I think they talked several times, and after one of the conversations the President told me that Misuari is also working on the release of the hostages, but it took time,” he said. John Paolo Bencito, Francisco Tuyay and Florante S. Solmerin

population were using illegal drugs at the time of the survey.

The survey conducted by the Resources, Environment and Economic Center for Studies had a sample of 5,000 respondents nationwide with 1,000 respondents each from the National Capital Region, Northern and Southern Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

Noting the high retention rate of 28 percent for shabu and 24.7 percent for marijuana, DDB Chairman Benjamin Reyes said the government is working hard to prevent those who had tried drugs from going back to them.

“Our key message is do not try illegal drugs because the retention rate is high,” Reyes said.

The survey showed that six out of 10 of the respondents answered shabu when asked about which illegal drug comes to mind, while three of 10 said marijuana.

Ninety-one percent showed awareness of shabu, followed by marijuana with 78.6 percent, and cocaine at 10.2 percent.

Meanwhile, 76.3 percent of the lifetime users said they had tried using marijuana, while 47.7 percent had tried shabu, while another 10 percent of the respondents used other drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin.

On Sunday, President Rodrigo Duterte asked for a six-month extension of his most famous campaign promise to eradicate the spread of illegal drugs in the country, saying there are too many people involved in the narcotics trade and he “cannot kill them all.”

“I did not realize how severe and how serious the drug menace was in this republic until I became president,” Duterte said.

“I did not have that idea that there were thousands of people in the drug business and the worst [part] is they are operated now by people in government,” Duterte said.

Since July, over 700, 000 drug addicts have surrendered to authorities in his war on illegal drugs while some 1,105 drug suspects have already been killed in slightly more than two months since Duterte took office.

Another 2,035 have been murdered by unknown assailants, with human rights monitors saying these could be vigilantes, emboldened by Duterte’s repeated calls for the public to help him kill criminals.

The drug crackdown has already drawn severe criticism from the United States, the European Union parliament and the United Nations over what they say are extrajudicial killings.

But Duterte has rejected criticism, calling US President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” and UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon a “fool,” and vowing to continue his campaign.

Duterte promised on the campaign trial that 100,000 people would be killed during his crackdown and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that fish would grow fat from feeding on them.

Days after his election win, Duterte also offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers, and has repeatedly pledged to protect police from prosecution over the killings.

He argued that these robust measures are necessary to prevent the country becoming a “narco-state.”

ignation.

Andanar tagged the ouster plots as mere speculation, even as Duterte himself believed that the “yellows,” led by former President Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party, were behind a plot to kick him out of office.

But in the same interview, An-

danar feared that the “continuing attacks” by the international media against the President was not helping the President.

“If you have all of this news going around internationally, it not help. We are at the losing end in terms of media exposure,” Andanar said. John Paolo Bencito

uar, was killed by police in June.

Meanwhile, the Public Attorney’s Office has asked the Supreme Court to declare as unconstitutional a provision in the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 that bars plea-bargaining, saying this has led to congestion in jails and the loss of billions on the part of the government.

In the petition, PAO chief Persida Acosta said the provision violates the constitutional right to equal protection of the law, since those accused of other crimes, including murder and rape, are allowed to enter into plea bargains.

“At the very least, if plea bargaining is indeed not allowable in violations of [the Dangerous Drugs Act], the prohibition should apply only to those drug offenses involving capital punishment,” Acosta said.

Acosta noted that there are over 82,000 inmates small-time drug offenders are rotting in jail.

Rey E. Requejo

News

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Sorry, Sonny tells Alan

By Joel E. Zurbano SENATOR Antonio Trillanes IV on Monday apologized to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano for turning-off his microphone and engaging him in a heated argument during last week’s Senate hearing in connection with the series of summary executions in the country.

“This is to express my apologies for my demeanor during last Thursday’s hearing of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

It was brought about because of the intense passion and emotion of the moment.

Nonetheless, it was uncalled for,” Trillanes said in his letter to Cayetano.

“Be assured that such incident will not happen again,” the senator said.

Copies of Trillanes’ Sept. 19 letter of apology were also sent to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Senator Leila de Lima, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

Trillanes came up with the apology few days after Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III scolded him for his actions during the Senate hearing on the testimony of controversial witness Edgar Matobato.

“Turning off a fellow senator’s mic is an unacceptable manner because the Senate is a legislative body. Weapons are words because it is a deliberative body,” said Pimentel.

At the hearing, Trillanes and other senators belonging to Liberal Party ganged up on Cayetano who questioned the credibility of Matobato, who claimed President Rodrigo Duterte knew of a series of killings when he was still mayor in Davao City.

The witness, who claimed he was a member of the so-called Davao Death Squad, told the Senate panel that Duterte also ordered the killing of Jun Pala, a local journalist in Davao.

But Cayetano questioned the committee’s intention in presenting Matobato without any corroborating evidence or testimony, adding that the witness was there for the former administration’s “Plan B” to unseat Duterte.

NOT ON SPEAKING TERMS. After delivering a privilege speech on the Senate floor, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano (with back to camera) walks right past Senator Antonio Trillanes during Monday’s session. Lino Santos

Lawmaker seeks new housing dept

By Maricel V. Cruz

A

PARTY-LIST lawmaker is urging President Rodrigo Duterte and Congress to include in the priority legislative agenda the proposed creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, given that at least one-fourth of the country’s 102 million population remain homeless.

1PACMAN party-list Rep. Mikee Romero stressed the need for government to consolidate the functions of key housing agencies to address the burgeoning problem following the rising housing backlog.

Romero, author of House Bill 3639 or the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act of 2016, said his proposed measure would unify the functions of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council with the planning and regulatory functions of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.

Under the bill, key shelter

agencies such as the National Housing Authority, Home Guaranty Corp., National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., Home Development and Mutual Fund and the Social Housing Finance Corp. will be attached to the proposed department.

At the10-month housing summit during the 16th Congress, participating government agencies, non-government organizations and the private sector underscored the urgent need for a DHUD. Romero said with the consolidation of various functions of housing agencies, the DHUD is

FVR, Carpio to advise panel QUEZON City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday disclosed that former President Fidel Ramos and Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio will be among his top advisers on the issue on the disputed West Philippine Sea. Belmonte, chairman of the House special committee on West Philippine Sea, said Ramos and Carpio are both experts on the heavily contested waterway in light of the recent ruling of the arbitral tribunal under the United Nations Convention of the Law

of the Sea favoring the Philippines.

“The two [ex-President Ramos and Carpio] are experts and knowledgeable of the topic. ExPresident Ramos even led a series of annual conferences on various issues held in a city in China and he has a good relationship with China,” Belmonte, vice chairman of the minority Liberal Party, said in an interview.

Ramos was tapped as President Rodrigo Duterte’s special envoy to China to conduct talks regarding the recent internation-

al arbitral tribunal ruling.

In the case of Carpio, Belmonte said the SC justice may serve as his adviser in his private capacity being an expert on the dispute in the West Philippine Sea. “If I talk to him [Carpio] or tap him, it will be on a private basis and not as a Supreme Court justice because he is a very knowledgeable person. In fact, he was in The Hague during the hearings there,” Belmonte said, referring to the city on the North Sea coast of the western Netherlands. Maricel V. Cruz

expected to execute policies that would best address the 5.5 million housing backlog, including an estimated 590,000 informal settler families.

“The enormous and increasing number of housing backlogs require a more concentrated government intervention that effectively sets and implements policy directions on housing and urban development,” he said.

Romero stressed there were inherent institutional weaknesses that were noted under the currrent set up that allows HLURB, HUDCC and other housing agencies to operate independently.

The HUDCC sets the policy direction for the state housing probram but its limited resources and authority as a mere coordinating body prevents it from implementing an overall urban development and housing strategy.

On the other hand, the HLURB, despite being an attached HUDCC body, has regulatory functions that possess weaknesses and lacks enough authority to effectively resolve housing and urban development controversies.

“The creation of the DHUD will address the absence of an adequate and coherent institutional set up that formulates and implements a comprehensive, integrated, inclusive and sustainable management of the housing and urban development sector,” Romero explained.

He added: “The DHUD and its attached key shelter agencies would be equipped with a strengthened adjudication commission that would provide long-term solutions in designing and managing disaster-resilient, competitive, inclusive communities.”

The proposed department is tasked to formulate a national and urban development and housing policy and strategy and exercise the lead role in supervising and integrating all government activities relative to housing and urban development.

The DHUD will formulate effective and efficient finance policies and programs to promote self-sustaining, private sectorled housing finance system and manage the development of proclaimed housing sites.

DSWD sends aid to ‘Ferdie’ victims THE Department of Social Welfare and Development airlifted on Monday an additional 200 boxes of corned beef and generator sets for typhoon victims in Batanes as requested by the provincial government and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Earlier on Sunday, another batch of response team from DSWD and other member agencies of the NDRRMC provided aid in isolated areas in Batanes, specifically in the municipality of Itbayat.

The team, headed by NDRRMC Executive Director Undersecretary Ricardo B.

Jalad with DSWD Assistant Secretary Hope V. Hervilla and DSWD Assistant Bureau Director Carlos Padolina, arrived in Batanes at around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday via C295 plane to assess the condition of typhoon “Ferdie” victims and extended additional assistance.

Also accompanied by Batanes Gov. Marilou Cayco and Rep. Henedina Abad, the team brought 20 sacks of rice, four boxes of distilled water, 20 assorted boxes containing canned goods and family food packs, medical supplies, medicines, and generator sets to Itbayat.

PH slams Nokor test

EQUAL RIGHTS. Public Attorneys Office Chief Persida Acosta (middle) filed a plea before the Supreme Court asking for oral argument on plea bargaining agreements for drug cases. Danny Pata

THE PHILIPPINES has joined the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries in condemning North Korea’s recent nuclear test, carried out in disregard of repeated warning by the international community, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

In a statement, the DFA said the Philippine government is gravely concerned over North Korea’s latest nuclear test, carried out in flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

“It is a troubling and unset-

tling act. We strongly reiterate our call on DPRK (North Korea) to comply with its international obligations under relevant UN Security Council resolutions and also call on DPRK to exercise restraint for the sake of peace and stability in the region,” the DFA said in a statement.

The international community led by the United States, Japan and South Korea condemned North Korea’s recent nuclear test and called for tough new measures to further isolate the communist state. Vito Barcelo

Morales suspends Bukidnon governor

By Rio N. Araja OMBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio Morales ordered on Monday the six-month suspension of Bukidnon Gov. Jose Ma. Zubiri Jr., the father of Senator Miguel Zubiri, for grave abuse of authority.

At the same time, Morales ordered the filing of four counts of malversation and four counts of malversation through falsification of documents against former Bukidnon Rep. Candido Pancrudo Jr., who is facing eight counts of graft before the Sandiganbayan in a P49.2 million pork barrel fund scam in 2007.

Morales directed Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno to implement Zubiri’s suspension.

The Office of the Ombudsman found Zubiri guilty of not only grave abuse of authority “amounting to oppression” but also of violation of Section 5(a) of the Code of Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees or Republic Act 6713.

During investigation, it was found that in January 2013, Zubiri refused to sign the clearance and act on the request for commutation of Carlos Ycaro, the former provincial assessor.

As defense, Zubiri claimed Ycaro could not be cleared due to “missing chairs” which were his property accountability.

In a decision, the Ombudsman ruled “this cannot serve as valid excuse to deny approval of his application for leave commutation, especially where he has more than 300 days in commutable leave credits.”

Zubiri was also faulted for failure “to perform the mandate of Section 5(a) of RA 6713 by completely ignoring the two communications of complainant, addressed to his office.”

According to records at the Office of the Ombudsman, from November 2007 to June 2008, the Department of Budget and Management released P49.2 million as part of Pancrudo’s Priority Development Assistance Fund.

Pancrudo channeled his funds through the Technology Resource Center and National AgriBusiness Corp. with Farmerbusiness Development Corp. and Uswag Pilipinas Foundation Inc. as non-government organization-partners.

He–– said the P49.2-million PDAF was used to fund the training and livelihood seminars for his constituents in Bukidnon’s District 1.

“There is no evidence that the funds were used to finance training and livelihood seminars conducted, or to the purchase the training kits,” the report of the Commission on Audit read.

A4

Opinion

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

EDITORIAL

Adelle Chua, Editor

A plea for extension

W

E KNEW President Rodrigo Duterte’s promise to eradicate the drug menace in three to six months was fantastic to begin with. Still, because this man of drastic action said so, we took his self-imposed deadline at face value.

Even before he assumed office, Duterte showed us how resolute he intended to be in his war against illegal drugs. Even the drug users and pushers themselves seemed

to know he meant business, because they started surrendering in droves, for fear of their lives.

The unrelenting pursuit of those involved in the drug trade—and the extreme means by which they were eliminated—has called the attention of human rights groups and the international community.

The general response of Mr. Duterte to these critics is something better captured in colorful language.

And now the President says he needs more time to get the job done.

“I did not realize how severe and

how serious the drug menace was in this republic until I became president,” Duterte said, adding that the trade of illegal drugs is largely being operated by people in government.

A Palace spokesman exhorted the people to give the President a chance because he was providing a comprehensive solution to the problem.

It is not as if the public were crying out for more bodies. To date, more than 3,000 have been killed either by the police or by vigilantes and the Duterte administration has not reached the

three-month mark yet. By all means, Mr. President, take all the time you need. But do it well and do it the right way.

We are aware, as well, that the menace of illegal drugs is not the only ill that must be combatted by the Duterte administration. We understand that the time and attention of the President is finite.

We would rather measure success in terms of things accomplished: crimes reduced, cases filed and resolved in court, travel time saved, and families fished out of poverty—rather than in mere number of days and months.

EAGLE EYES TONY LA VIÑA

The travesty of the 1973 Constitution

ceedings, which will be presided over by her House counterpart, law-school fraternity brother and former fellow traveler on the daang matuwid, Rep. Rey Umali of Mindoro Oriental.

Umali’s presence as head of the House justice committee has apparently not convinced De Lima that she will get a fair shake in the Batasan, even if the Mindoro lawmaker has protested loud and long that he will be almost Rotary-like in truth and in fairness to everyone concerned.

Perhaps De Lima, who has derided the House probe as a “kangaroo court,” is worried that Umali was very much involved in that bicameral conspiracy that she also had a small hand in, the conviction and removal of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona. Maybe De Lima is afraid that Umali has found another “small lady” who has in her possession damning documents and other evidence

WHILE reformists called for the convening of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, the Marcos forces eventually hijacked it; as a consequence, the 1973 Constitution was turned into a tool by the Marcos regime to perpetuate itself in power.

Having declared martial law earlier, Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 86 calling for the cancellation of the plebiscite and instituted barangays’ citizens’ assemblies to ratify the new constitution by a referendum from 10–15 January 1973. This was challenged before the Supreme Court in what became known as the ratification and plebiscite cases. These involved petitions assailing the proposed ratification upon the grounds, among others, that the presidential decree “has no force and effect as law because the calling... of such plebiscite, the setting of guidelines for the conduct of the same, the prescription of the ballots to be used and the question to be answered by the voters, and the appropriation of public funds for the purpose, are, by the Constitution, lodged exclusively in Congress...” and “there is no proper submission to the people there being no freedom of speech, press and assembly, and there being no sufficient time to inform the people of the contents thereof.”

While the case was being heard, Marcos, on 17 January 1973, issued Proclamation No. 1102 certifying and proclaiming that the 1973 Constitution had been ratified by the Filipino people and thereby was in effect. This proclamation was questioned in Javellana v. Executive Secretary, which saw the Supreme Court severely divided on the issues.

Despite the voting, the Court decision stated in its dispositive portion that, “This being the vote of the majority, there is no further judicial obstacle to the new Constitution being considered in force and effect.” In that case then, there as no Supreme Court ruling that the 1973 Constitution has been validly ratified because six out of ten Justices held that there was no valid ratification in accordance with Article XV, Section 1 of the 1935 Constitution, which provides only one way for ratification,

Turn to A5

Turn to A5

Undressing Leila LOWDOWN

JOJO A. ROBLES TODAY’S (FAKE) SCOOP: Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV will attend the start of the House hearings on the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs at the New Bilibid Prison today but not, he said, as the representative of Senator Leila de Lima.

Trillanes, in a statement, said that he was only going to make sure that the microphones are all in working order and that no one speaks too long in the Batasang Pambansa during the justice committee investigation.

“I have decided that this is going to be my new advocacy,” Trillanes said. “I intend to file a bill that will make it mandatory for all legislative bodies, from the Senate to the barangay

councils, to prohibit ‘unli’ questioning, whether or not they use microphones.”

Trillanes also denied reports that he intends to challenge another supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Senate, neophyte Senator Manny Pacquiao, to “make porma” during the next hearing to be called by De Lima, the chairman of the justice committee, later this week.

Earlier, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano asked Pacquiao to attend the next hearing of the De Lima committee and to sit between him and Trillanes.

“If Trillanes makes any sudden moves to turn off my microphone, he will have to reach past Manny, who may think, because of his long training as a boxer, that Trillanes is throwing a jab,” Cayetano said.

“I will not be responsible for Senator Pacquiao’s retaliatory action, in that case,” Cayetano said. “I don’t even know if Pac-

quiao will write a letter of apology to Trillanes after he gives him a left hook to the face.” *** I know it’s an unsettling mental image. But I want to know

The Yellow exceptionalism of De Lima, Trillanes and Drilon makes them believe that everything Yellow is good. if Leila de Lima will finally be undressed in the House hearings on the proliferation of illegal drugs at the national penitentiary that will start today.

Of course, one of the best

things about the investigation of the House committee on justice is that Senator Leila is not in any way involved in conducting it. If she were, all we can look forward to is a repeat of last week’s parody of a Senate probe, featuring a poorly coached witness who wasn’t even testifying on the matter at hand and a committee chairman who shamelessly prodded that witness when he stumbled.

De Lima should be ashamed of how she acted as the de facto lawyer of Edgar Matobato, the self-confessed hitman, during the hearing of her committee last Thursday. Her partner in parody, Trillanes, has at least had the good sense to apologize in writing to Cayetano —although I do not accept that Trillanes was moved by “passion” when he bullied Cayetano and attempted to cut off his microphone.

De Lima has repeatedly said that she will not attend the pro-

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Opinion TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO

In between is the truth I FEEL a bit confused with As for De Lima, it’s her so many things happening in turn today to squirm on her government today. seat. Duterte’s allies in the I am confused at what House are out to roast her.

President Duterte really Justice Secretary Vitaliano meant when he said that the Aguirre is set to present witcountry would like to pursue nesses to accuse her of direct an independent foreign poli- involvement in the illegal cy. He now wants the 107 US drug trade. troopers in Mindanao to go Where do all these lead us? and leave the country.

A person is deemed innoBut, Santa Banana, the cent unless found guilty. next day, Defense Secretary The problem now as I see Delfin Lorenzana told us that it is that the truth has become the American soldiers must the victim in this charade. stay. The military needed The truth is somewhere inthem for intelligence gath- between. ering and technical training *** against forces of terrorism.

With regard to allegations At the same time, there’s about President Duterte’s Foreign Secretary Perfecto war on illegal drugs, we all Yasay Jr. going to Washing- know that there have been ton saying that “we cannot killings not by the police, but be the United States’ lit- by some groups, like vigilantle brown brothers forever.” tes or by the drug lords themThen, President Duterte an- selves, in an effort to cut all nounced that the Philippines ties with their drug pushers will now start buying mili- and assets. tary equipment from China While the police deny exand Russia, as a follow-up to tra-judicial killings, and in his alleged independent for- fact say that they are inveseign policy program. This, tigating them, the question while Yasay and the people is, can we rely on the police around him proclaim that our investigating themselves? ties with the US remain solid. Thus, there is need for an inSo which is dependent which? investigaD u t e r t e ’s tion body people seem to look for to be at crossthe truth.

Where is all purposes.

A n d , Politics makes this leading us? my gulay, our confusion the United worse.

Nations After neoHuman phyte Senator Leila de Lima Rights Watch wants to valiwas tagged as “immoral” date accusations of violation —an adulteress who has her of human rights. The UN as a driver for her lover, and for body should go through prowhom she built a house in tocol and have UN rapporPangasinan—now she is also teurs invited. Then, and only identified as a protector of il- then can we know for sure legal drugs, receiving money what’s happening in the war from convicted drug lords at on illegal drugs. Some 3,000 the New Bilibid Prison. have already been killed.

De Lima in turn presented And Santa Banana, with her witness, a certain Edgar President Duterte seeking Matobato, a self-confessed another six months extension member of the Davao Death on his war against illegal Squad during the Senate in- drugs, there might be another vestigation of summary kill- 3,000 killed. ings. Matobato accused DuAs I have said numerous terte of involvement in the times, the problem of illegal DDS. drugs will not end with the Questions have been asked killing of all those involved. about Matobato. His cred- As long as there’s demand for ibility was full of inconsist- illegal drugs, the cartels will encies. always be there to supply the Why now, when De Lima demand. is facing an investigation This is why there’s need (which starts today) at the for rehabilitation of drug deHouse of Representatives on pendents and drug addicts to the “Drug Matrix”? make them useful citizens Clearly the timing of the again. This is the more diffipresentation of Matobato, cult part of the war on drugs. who claimed that he him- It costs a lot of money to get self had killed dozens on the specialists to man these Duterte’s orders, is suspect. centers.

Aside from this, the presentaI know whereof I speak. tion by De Lima of Matobato I was involved in drug reis irrelevant to her Senate habilitation with the former resolution seeking to investi- LaSallete priest Bob Garon in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Have gate summary killings.

That’s precisely the reason the US or even China stopped why Senate President Koko the illegal drug menace dePimentel refuses to take Ma- spite their efforts to end it? tobato under Senate protec- The answer is a big no, since there’s always the demand. tion and custody.

There is also no assurance We witnessed how Senator Alan Peter Cayetano tried to that the addicts will not go defend Duterte from the ac- back to their habits. *** cusations of Matobato. We President Duterte could also saw Trillanes switching not have chosen a better peroff Cayetano’s speaker.

These two really acted like manent representative to the United Nations than Teddy clowns.

But we go back to the ac- Boy Locsin. Locsin has good cusations of Matobato against credentials, having been in the the Davao Death Squad. So, Cory Aquino Cabinet and a what now? The President can- congressman for many years.

He is a lawyer, a congressnot be sued while he is in office; he enjoys immunity. To man for many years, a pubbe honest, I do not think he lisher of Globe, Today, and can be impeached, either. This even Manila Standard Today process starts at the House of at one time. Teddyboy has Representatives, on which Du- gone full circle in media, both print and broadcast. terte has a firm hold.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

A5

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De Lima’s Senate probe is a farce HAIL TO THE CHAIR VICTOR AVECILLA THE ongoing investigation in the Senate headed by Senator Leila De Lima has become a farce. Officially, the investigation is supposed to find out if the recent deaths allegedly associated with the government’s current anti-drug abuse campaign are state-sponsored extrajudicial killings. De Lima’s numerous press statements suggest that she has already made up her mind that President Rodrigo Duterte is behind those deaths.

From the start of the political campaign in 2016, De Lima, who was running for a Senate seat under the Liberal Party of then President Benigno Aquino III, was so beholden to Aquino that she served as the LP mouthpiece in their relentless character assassination of Duterte, who was an early frontrunner in the presidential race.

Even when she was still justice secretary, De Lima had already publicly accused Duterte of being the brains of the so-called Davao Death Squad, an alleged vigilante group responsible for extrajudicial killings in Davao City. De Lima promised to conduct a thorough investigation but, as expected, no investigation took place because De Lima was busy preparing for her senatorial campaign.

De Lima also created a national controversy on the eve of her departure from the Department of Justice. The Iglesia Ni Cristo religious sect accused her of undue interest in a criminal investigation involving some ministers of the sect.

The travesty...

From A4 i.e., “in an election or plebiscite held in accordance with law and participated in only by qualified and duly registered voters.”

Moreover, that Supreme Court “resolution” could not be considered an outright decision on the merits. Nevertheless, because there were not enough Justices to grant the petitions to nullify Proclamation 1102, a majority of Justices agreed on the formula that there was no longer any further judicial obstacle to the new Constitution being considered in force and effect.

The Javellana decision removed the final legal obstacle to institutionalizing an authoritarian regime in the Philippines. Later on, because of this legitimation by the Supreme Court, Marcos and his supporters would claim that his regime was one of constitutional authoritarianism.

Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion, then sitting as head of the Supreme Court, dissented from the Javellana case, and famously added “I dissent.” right after the dispositive portion.

Disappointed by the Court’s decision, Concepcion would opt for early retirement. Later, he would have the last word as in the Chief Justice would later chair the Judiciary committee of the Constitutional Commission that would draft the 1987 Constitution. In the latter constitution, Concepcion made sure that never again would the Supreme Court shirk from its solemn duty to decide the most

Undressing... From A4 that the committee will use against her.

I can’t really blame De Lima if she now has developed a deathly fear of little women —after all, Gloria Arroyo has been released and remains a member of Congress. And everyone knows how De Lima, as Noynoy Aquino’s justice secretary, defied a Supreme Court restraining order that allowed Arroyo to leave the country

When De Lima denied taking undue interest in the investigation, the INC staged a largescale picket outside the DoJ headquarters in Manila. Later on, the picket moved to Edsa and Shaw Boulevard, where the demonstrators denounced De Lima.

Because the anti-De Lima rally caused a traffic nightmare in the metropolis, President Aquino intervened, and a closed-door meeting took place between him and some INC officers. After the meeting ended, the INC declared a victory and the rally dispersed peacefully.

Surprisingly, Malacañang made a similar claim to victory, but President Aquino and De Lima refused to disclose to the public what the government agreed upon with the INC. Even as of this writing, De Lima refuses to reveal what actually took place during that meeting.

The public got more curious if there was an exchange deal between the administration and the INC when the television news media aired a segment of De Lima, who was already an LP senatorial candidate, visiting the INC central office to seek the support of the sect in the elections. Although De Lima was politely received, she failed to get the INC nod. Her surprising win, placing last in the list of 12 successful senatorial candidates, did not erase the public’s curiosity.

De Lima refused to be interpellated by her colleagues right after she delivered her first privilege speech as a freshman senator, and she gave no reason for her refusal. However, after Manny Pacquiao, another freshman senator, delivered his first privilege speech on the

death penalty, De Lima asked Pacquiao numerous questions, all obviously designed to reveal that Pacquiao knew nothing about constitutional law.

For one who asks a lot of questions, De Lima sure dislikes being questioned.

After getting settled in her new job, De Lima virtually proclaimed herself as President Duterte’s nemesis in the Senate, even if Duterte had not yet served a hundred days in office. By taking on the highest elective official of the land, De Lima was probably projecting herself as a crusader to make up for her having placed 12th in the Senate race. What hogwash!

Nonetheless, even before De Lima could gain a momentum in her probe, the ghosts of her past came back to haunt and discredit her.

First, De Lima is currently facing a separate investigation undertaken by the DoJ regarding anomalies in the national penitentiary which took place when she was still the justice secretary. Those anomalies pertain to the extraordinarily special treatment afforded by prison officials to the convicted drug lords, including air-conditioned spacious quarters, catered meals, and access to modern appliances, laptops, mobile phones, firearms, drugs, cash, and the like. President Duterte himself accused De Lima of receiving large sums of bribe money from the imprisoned drug lords.

Second, it has been alleged that De Lima’s personal driver is also her secret lover, and that her driver collected, on her behalf, the bribe money from the drug lords. A photograph of a large house in Pangasinan which De Lima supposedly

gifted her driver appeared in the print media.

Unfortunately for her, De Lima’s ambivalent and seemingly equivocal denials have not done anything to dilute the public ridicule against her in the social media.

To all intents and purposes, therefore, De Lima’s Senate probe was going nowhere on account of the credibility problems faced by De Lima herself. On one occasion, she was virtually labelled as damaged goods.

Last week, De Lima made full use of the weeklong lull in her Senate probe and produced a witness, Edgar Matobato, who claims to be a former member of the Davao Death Squad. Testifying in De Lima’s probe, Matobato attributed many deaths in Davao City to President Duterte when he was still the city mayor.

For whatever the testimony of Matobato is worth, its timing is awfully suspicious. What took De Lima so long to produce this surprise witness, considering that she had been chairman of the Commission on Human Rights and, after that, Justice Secretary for the longest time?

If De Lima knew of Matobato back then, her delay in producing him in her probe suggests that she had been harboring a fugitive from justice. Now, if De Lima knew of Matobato only recently, then her overnight reliance on his anti-Duterte testimony is post-haste, self-serving, and reckless.

Allowing Matobato to testify in the Senate probe under such suspicious and anomalous circumstances, as De Lima has done, makes the Senate probe a farce, and increases the low regard thinking Filipinos have for the current Senate.

important disputes in our society.

During its lifetime, several amendments to the 1973 Constitution were introduced.

These were initially either initiated primarily to perpetuate Marcos’ one-man- rule, as exemplified by the aforementioned Amendment No. 6, or introduce to construct some semblance of democracy to his unpopular regime by experimenting with various political systems like the French presidential system. The referenda and plebiscites that were conducted to ratify the amendments were all rigged, orchestrated, and made possible by his total control of governmental agencies like the bureaucracy, the military, and the Supreme Court.

The 1976 amendments were ratified in the referendum-plebiscite held in October 1976, and were proclaimed in full force and effect also that month. The most controversial among the 1976 amendments was Amendment no. 6. While 1973 Constitution vested legislative power in the National Assembly or the Batasang Pambansa, this amendment granted the concurrent legislative authority with the parliament.

By virtue of Amendment No. 6, Marcos virtually became a one-man ruler. It granted him legislative power even after the formal lifting of Martial law on January 17, 1981. What made it worse was that the Batasang Pambansa was effectively a rubber-stamp legislature, always approving whatever the President proposed.

It must be said though that

there were a few exceptions in the 1978 and 1984 parliaments. Those who stood their ground against the dictatorship included assemblymen like Reuben Canoy, Nene Pimentel, Homobono Adaza, Hilario Davide, Marcelo Fernan, Orly Mercado, Lito Atienza, Eva Kalaw, Salvador Laurel, and others in the opposition.

The 1987 Constitution replaced the 1973 Constitution.

But unfortunately, certain concepts and provisions from latter were imported into the former.

Foremost is the choice of the presidential system over a parliamentary system and a unitary system against a federal system. These two fundamental governance options continued the imbalance among the three branches of government and between the national and local government units.

Filipinos like to think that the three branches of government are separate and equal, but neither is true both formally and in the operational code of actual exercise of powers. Under our presidential and unitary system of government, patterned less from the American system (where the US Congress has very strong powers that make it rise up to parity in influence as the President and a Supreme Court that is revered for its independence) but more from the office of the colonial governor general that had absolute powers to keep colonial Philippines in check and under control, the President is much stronger than the Congress and the Supreme Court.

We have seen this strong presidency in the controversy

around Aquino vs. Araullo when former President Noynoy Aquino did not hesitate to publicly pressure the Supreme Court to modify its decision declaring certain acts under the Disbursement Acceleration Program unconstitutional. The Araullo decision should be read together with Belgica v. Executive Secretary, another decision on constitutional issues regarding the budget which declared the Priority Development Assistance Fund and other pork barrel funds (defined as those where legislators continue to have a say on post-enactment budget decisions) unconstitutional.

The overall impact of these two decisions is to strengthen the role of the president in budget decisions even as Congress formally has the power of the purse. At present, the president has almost total control of the budget, which explains why legislators easily abandon their political parties to join the administration coalition.

Most dangerous of all, as I mentioned in the first column of this series on the lingering legal shadow of martial law, are the provisions in the 1987 Constitution giving the president the power to declare martial law. Because of that, we could repeat September 1972 and the travesty of a constitutional dictatorship all over again.

With President Duterte, we come full circle. In his hands now are the full powers of the presidency. And they are awesome.

for medical treatment using the flimsy, illegal grounds that she was still going to be charged for other, undeclared offenses.

But I think I understand where De Lima is coming from—how she can explain to herself that she is conducting an “impartial” hearing that everyone agrees is totally biased and how she can conclude that any investigation involving her is a kangaroo court even before the first hearing has begun. I call it Yellow Exceptionalism.

De Lima, Trillanes and Sena-

tor Frankin Drilon, to name just three orphans of the late, unlamented Aquino regime, continue to believe that everything Yellow is good and everything that is not is, well, the spawn of the devil. And they have vowed to bring down the foulmouthed man from Davao who stymied their plan to continue on the straight path for another six years and for many more after that, using all means, fair or foul.

But of course, the problem with the Yellows is that they

aren’t really as saintly as they want us (or themselves) to believe. Like De Lima (and Trillanes, Drilon and all politicians, really), they have skeletons to hide. And if these skeletons are unearthed from their shallow graves, there will be hell to pay.

So don’t be too disturbed by the thought of seeing De Lima naked in the literal sense. Tomorrow, when she is figuratively stripped of her hypocrisy and subterfuge, you may find the image that remains even more disgusting.

Facebook: tonylavs5 or Dean Tony La Viña Twitter: tonylavs

A6

News

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Journalists hit media bashing

By John Paolo Bencito mechanism currently availTHE National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on Monday deplored social media attacks made by supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte on broadcast journalists Gretchen Malalad and Al Jazeera correspondent Jamela Alindogan-Caudron who were only reporting the ongoing war on drugs.

“We call on Communications Secretary Martin Andanar to immediately cause an investigation and take action against the open threats against Ms. Malalad and Ms. Alindogan-Caudron, and to do its utmost to ensure that none of these are carried out,” Ryan Rosauro, NUJP chairman, said in a statement.

“We do take some measure of hope from the Duterte administration’s creation of a special task force to investigate media killings and other threats against the Philippine press. This might be the perfect opportunity for the task force, or an equivalent

able, to prove its worth.”

Several supporters of the President over social media undermined the credibility of Malalad and AlindoganCaudron after they wrote articles critical to the administration’s war against drugs.

Malalad, in particular, helped Indian journalist Rishi Iyengar, who wrote about the “tragic cost” on the antidrug campaign led by President Rodrigo Duterte.

In the September issue, the grim image is accompanied by the caption “Night Falls On the Philippines,” detailing the trajectory of the so-called war on drugs in the cover story.

Alindogan-Caudron, meanwhile, wrote about the Filipino couple who were hired as vigilante killers by the local police.

Because of their work, the two journalists gained the ire of Duterte’s rabid supporters, calling them paid hacks, and worse, asking for them to get raped and their families to contract cancer.

WHAT’S THE HOLD UP? Filipino hajjas listen to the explanation of an immigration officer who was instructed to scrutinize Filipinos arriving from Saudi Arabia in a bid to weed out Indonesians who are believed to be in possession of Philippine passports. Eric Apolonio

BI holds Pinoy hajjis; no Indonesians found

By Vito Barcelo and Joel E. Zurbano

T

HE Bureau of Immigration seized the special hajj passports presented by travelers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in a bid to weed out Indonesians who supposedly acquired Philippine travel documents for their pilgrimage to the Mecca.

Immigration Deputy Commissioner Mike Robles said the BI will keep the passports of travelers who went on the hajj but the passport holders can reclaim their passports at the Office of Muslims Affairs or the Department of Foreign Affairs after verification.

The team, led by BI technical assistant for airport operation Leo Ferrer and BI port operation division chief Red Marinas, put up four counters to check the documents of more than 200 pilgrims who arrived at the NAIA 1 and 2 on Sept.19.

Representatives of the Indonesian embassy were also at the NAIA to act as interpreter and to assist their countrymen who may be caught possessing Philippine passports.

Robles said Indonesians caught with Philippines passports will be turned over to the Indonesian embassy and will be deported.

Only recently, a total of 177 prospective pilgrims from Indonesia were caught and deported by immigration authorities for carrying illegal Philippine passports.

The Indonesians attempted to leave for Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj, a mandatory Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca for Muslims.

The pilgrims were attempting to check into their Philippine Airlines flight, but their inability to speak any Filipino or Filipino dialect raised the suspicion of immigration officials who held their tickets and passports.

Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi said the Indonesians were “victims of organized crime.”

Expectedly, many Filipinos who also went on the hajj complained of harassment after they were held at the airport for as long as two hours.

Immigration officer Dennis Robles said the move is in line with the agency’s increased vigilance

Agency passes red tape test

MMDA invites private projects

By Joel E. Zurbano THE Metro Manila Development Authority is open to suggestions and partnership with the private sector who would want to help the agency in its mandate, including the flood control program, MMDA officer-in-charge Thomas Orbos said Monday.

Orbos said the agency is encouraging private individuals and other sectors to come up with proposals and innovative projects with the use of advance technology to aid the agency on its mandates like flood control, solid waste management, health and public safety, and urban planning and renewal.

He said the MMDA is open to suggestions and partnerships with the private sector and individuals, foreign and local, in formulating smart-city concepts and IT-based solutions to the various mandates of the agency.

“We are continuously encouraging them to engage the agency about their concepts and technological solutions. We know that there are individuals and groups out there who are willing to help the government,” Orbos said.

He said a number of private individuals and groups have already approached him and pledged to share and apply their skills and talents to address the perennial problems in Metro Manila like massive flooding and solid waste disposal.

Though the agency has managed to hasten the subsiding rate of flooding in low-laying areas of Metro Manila, Orbos said there is still room for improvement.

“We are aware that talents abound our country. That’s why we are appealing to them to share their know-how on these concerns to the agency,” the MMDA official said.

He said that a technical working group will accept and subsequently evaluate the feasibility or the practical application of the proposals, subject to his approval.

The MMDA is also eyeing to utilize drones equipped with cameras to augment the agency’s present monitoring system.

The MMDA was first created during the Marcos administration, but was re-constituted in 1990 with the creation of the Metropolitan Manila Authority which later evolved to become the MMDA following the enactment of Republic Act 7924, also known as the MMDA Charter.

against “pseudo Filipinos.” He added they were alerted regarding 300 passengers attending Hajj in Mecca on board Philippine Airlines flight PR659 at 2:15 p.m.

Robles said they were ordered to scrutinize the Philippine passports or travel documents of the hajj participants to make sure that no foreigners might have mingled in their group.

One of the Filipino passengers identified as Amir Mama complained that they spent more than two hours at the holding area before the BI allowed them to go.

But the BI did not find any Indonesian in the group, the immigration officer said.

By Vito Barcelo

NEW NORMAL. Quezon City policemen inspect motorists and their vehicles at a checkpoint

on Kamuning Road as part of the state of national emergency due to lawless violence. Ey Acasio

Oil firms hike pump prices P0.20

By Alena Mae s. Flores THE country’s oil firms raised the price of gasoline

by P0.20 per liter but cut the price of diesel by P0.10 per liter starting Tuesday to reflect the movement of world oil prices.

Petron Corp., PTT Philippines, Seaoil Philippines, Unioil Philippines, Flying V and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines issued separate advisories of the latest oil price movements.

“Petron will implement the

following price adjustments effective 6 a.m. September 20: P0.20 per liter increase for gasoline and a P0.10 per liter rollback for diesel. These reflect movements in the international oil market,” Petron said.

Oil prices have been affected by ongoing speculations ahead of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-Opec meeting in Algeria to discuss a possible production freeze.

Traders and analysts continue to debate on how effec-

tive a deal would be to limit supply should Opec and nonOpec finally agree on the production freeze.

Gasoline prices in Asia remained supported by strong demand within the region and sharp fall in US gasoline stocks, according to the latest monitoring of the Energy Department.

The department said the supply woes in Asia was prompted by the spot import demand from India, seeking 40,000 metric tons of 92 RON gasoline this week.

THE Bureau of Immigration passed the anti-red tape act (ARTA) test conducted by the Civil Service Commission, aimed at ridding government agencies of cumbersome document processing that usually causes graft and corruption.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said that a CSC team conducted the compliance test at the BI main office in Intramuros by observing how the bureau’s frontline transactions were done.

“After the inspection, the CSC team reported that it found the BI compliant with the requirements provided under the ARTA,” Morente said.

CSC-Manila field office Director Eva Omedillo was also said to have lauded the BI for consistently passing the test through its acquiescence to the provisions of ARTA and the BI citizen’s charter.

It was learned that the CSC conducts the inspection of all government agencies every year to check the latter’s compliance with the anti-red tape act.

A committee on good governance under the office of the BI commissioner monitors the strict implementation of various initiatives and programs such as a citizen’s charter and a feedback mechanism that acts on complaints and suggestions from the public.

The BI’s ranking in the CSC report card was apparently bolstered by its recent move to drastically cut the processing time and documentary requirements for 16 frontline services at the bureau.

AFP brass appoints new JAG

By Florante S. Solmerin THE Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Board of Generals, led by chief of staff General Ricardo Visaya, has appointed a senior officer to take the position of Judge Advocate General based at the General Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Visaya said Col. Ukol Paglala, current Army Judge Advocate, will replace acting TJAG Col. Serme Ayuyao. The appointment of Paglala was approved by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Paglala has still one year remaining in service and the JAG is a one-star, or brigadier general, position.

When contacted, Paglala confirmed his appointment and he has been scheduled for turnover on Tuesday.

Earlier, the appointment of Ayuyao as JAG was questioned because he was the most junior candidate in the list. But after Visaya assumed command, the BOG shunned controversial appointments by sticking to established military rules.

Even before he was installed to power, Duterte had ordered Visaya to restore the BOG. “I have ordered to reactivate the Board of Generals,” Duterte said at his first press conference in Davao City after winning the election.

Duterte also warned government officials including the military and police not to ask favor from him or seek recommendation from senators, congressmen, governors, among others, just to get promoted.

QC traffic expected to worsen

By Rio N. Araja BRACE for heavy traffic today until Sept. 25 along Elliptical Road, Quezon City.

The city government advised motorists and commuters that usually pass through the Elliptical Road to take alternate routes because the Department of Public Works and Highways is scheduled to start a drainage improvement project in the area.

With heavy traffic expected during the construction of the project, the city government’s Department of Public Order and Safety has identified Visayas Avenue, Kalayaan Avenue and the University of the Philippines as alternate routes for motorists bound for Epifanio de Los Santos Avenue.

“Please plan your trip. If possible, avoid Elliptical Road in the meantime,’’ said Joselito Cabungcal, the city engineer.

Sports Fair play is Annika’s top agenda in golfest EVIAN—Sportsmanship and fair play are going to be top of the agenda for European captain Annika Sorenstam at next year’s Solheim Cup at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa.

At St Leon-Rot in Germany last year, the biennial event was overshadowed by controversy.

It all boiled over in the Sunday morning fourball when Suzann Pettersen failed to back down on an incident involving Alison Lee. The American thought a short putt at the 17th had been conceded and picked up her ball.

Pettersen said otherwise and so claimed the hole to go one up.

Pettersen and Charley Hull were playing against Lee and Brittany Lincicome and they went on to win the match at the 18th and gave Europe a commanding 10-6 lead going into the final 12 singles.

But, spurred on by feelings of injustice, the Americans roared back in the head-to-head singles session, and won the contest 14 1/2 - 13 1/2. It was the first USA win since 2009 and the closest margin in Solheim history.

“It was a shame,” reflected Sorenstam, who was a vice-captain to fellow-Swede Carin Koch a year ago. “Everyone talked more about the incident that the fantastic golf.”

The 10-time major champion also indicated that she would have insisted that Pettersen back down and that the final hole should have been conceded to make the match all square.

“But I wasn’t captain,” she said. “It was hard at the time but it should have been dealt with much quicker.

“The Solheim is the biggest match in women’s golf and we all have to be role models.”

Pettersen insists she has put the incident behind her and is unconcerned about any negative reaction from the US fans in 12 months’ time.

“I don’t care, I’m so over it,” said the Norwegian. “It was already too late by the time Annika told me to concede the 18th. AFP

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Hamilton: I’m still in this Formula 1 fight

S

INGAPORE—Lewis Hamilton insisted he could overhaul Nico Rosberg in the Formula One world championship for the second time this year after relinquishing his hard-won lead in the standings in Singapore.

Hamilton fought back from 43 points behind earlier in the season to establish a 19-point lead -- only for his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg to clinch his third straight win on Sunday to go eight points clear.

Rosberg won qualifying by more than half-a-second from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, with Hamilton back in third, and the German then led wire-to-wire for his eighth victory in 15 races this season.

Despite Rosberg’s increasingly impressive form, Hamilton, gunning for his third straight world title and fourth overall, said “with a good weekend” in each of the last six races he could again recover the deficit.

With a sizeable chunk of the record, 21-race season still to go, starting in neighbouring Malaysia in two weeks, Hamilton said he would take the positives from

a difficult weekend fraught with mechanical issues.

“This weekend has just been a bit of a tricky one for me, but I’m still glad I could get back up on the podium and get some points for the team,” said Hamilton, who finished third.

The Briton took solace from the fact that Mercedes have the best car, and also that the topsy-turvy season had taught him eight points was not much of a lead.

“We have a good car. We’ve got to have a good weekend,” said Hamilton, who lost half his Friday practice running with a hydraulic failure that limited his ability to fine-tune the car’s set-up.

“We’ve come from 43 points

down, so theoretically eight points isn’t anywhere near as steep as that, but still Nico’s been performing fantastically well,” added Hamilton.

“This weekend, he’s done an amazing job. I expect him to continue like that so I’ve got make sure that I do the same.”

Brake problems early in the race enabled Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen to get past into third place as Hamilton locked up under pressure.

But Hamilton started to gain pace near the end as the problem eased and he regained the podium by undercutting Raikkonen during the final pit stops.

“It was mostly because the car was getting lighter,” Hamilton explained of his late surge.

PHLPost rules darts tourney

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team’s German driver Nico Rosberg (centre R) celebrates his victory with runner up Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team’s British driver Lewis Hamilton (centre L) and their team members after the Singapore Grand Prix night race in Marin Bay, Singapore. AFP

Madis, Lagarde post twin wins at Mlang netfest TENIELLE Madis played true to form and matched Klyde Lagarde and Danna Abad’s twin title romps in the Palawan PawnshopPalawan Express Pera Padala Mlang leg regional age group tennis tournament at the Mlang Tennis Club in Cotabato last Sunday.

The top-seeded Madis trampled Reyman Saldivar Jr., 4-1, 4-2, to annex the 10-unisex crown in a repeat of her feat in the PPS PEPP Tuna Festival in Gen. Santos City two weeks ago before the local rising star trounced Jilian

“The brakes became a lot easier to control. Once my signal of brake overheating reduced, I was able to start to pick up the pace.”

Hamilton complained the problem of overheating brakes, also suffered by Rosberg, was hampering drivers -- and it would get worse with heavier cars to be introduced next year.

“I guess the thing that pops to mind is how much worse it’s going to be next year when we’ve got a heavier car,” he said.

“It’s a shame the cars are as heavy as they are because we can’t push, you can’t race very well when you’re behind people here.

But that’s maybe just the circumstances of this race.” AFP

Manangking, 6-2, 6-3, to pocket the 12-and-under diadem in the Group 3 tournament sponsored by the country’s leading pawnshop, remittance and claim center Palawan Pawnshop and presented by Slazenger.

“Madis has been dishing out top form, gaining much from her regular participation in the circuit put up to discover talents and provide young players like her the kind of competition needed to improve and excel,” said Palawan Pawnshop president/CEO Bobby Castro.

But Ma. Angelica Novis foiled her bid for a third title as the Malita, Davao del Sur ace pounded out a 6-2, 6-3 victory to claim the 14-U crown in the four-day tournament which served as part of Mlang LGU’s sports development program and hosted by Mayor Russel Abonado.

Second seed Lagarde, on the other hand, held off No. 4 Lordrens Pacheco in a thrilling duel, 7-5, 2-6, 10-8, to snare the boys’ 18-U title after the Gen. Santos native scored a 6-1(ret.) win over Eric

Comendador in the 16-U finals of the event backed by Asiatraders Corp., exclusively distributor of Slazenger, the official ball.

Abad, meanwhile, dominated Jazzele Madis, 6-2, 6-2, to nail the girls’ 16-U plum then broke Nicole Bautista once in each set to hack out a 6-4, 6-4 decision for the 18-U crown.

Kidapawan’s Eric Comendador bounced back from his setback in the 16-U finals by overpowering sibling JV Comendador, 6-2, 6-2, for the 14-U title while unranked Andre Sing, also from Davao,

took the boys’ 12-U title with a big 6-7(6), 7-5, 12-10 upset over top seed JV Comendador in the 12-U championship.

Meanwhile, the longest-running age-group circuit resumes Thursday (Sept. 22) in Davao with Sing, Abad and the Velez siblings, Patricia and John David, tipped to lead the title chase. Listup is ongoing.

For details, contact Bobby Mangunay, PPS-PEPP Regional Age Group Tennis Event organizer and Sports Program Development director at 0915-4046464.

Elorde’s grandsons battle Indonesians

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

AZKALS JOIN PRU LIFE UK SPORTSFEST. Azkals’ Team Captain Phil Younghusband and Misagh Bahadoran (in photo) do the Zumba during the opening of the Pru Life UK sportsfest at the Palms Country Club in Alabang. Their teammates Amani Aguinaldo and Patrick Deyto joined the fun games and teamed up with Pru Life sportsfest participants.

THE grandsons of the late world junior lightweight champion Gabriel “Flash” Elorde have been matched up against two unheralded Indonesians in the Rotary Club of Manila’s “Boxing Kontra Droga” at Cafe Lupe along the Sumulong Highway in Antipolo on Sept. 24.

World Boxing Organization Oriental lightweight champion Juan Martin “Bai” Elorde is featured in a 10-round bout at 136 pounds against Boido Simanjutak of Indonesia, a 32-year-old southpaw, with a record of 23 wins as against 40 losses and 2 draws, with 9 knockouts.

Boxrec.com records show that Boido lost 17 of his last 18 fights, dropping his last two bouts by TKO. He suffered a first-round TKO at the hands of James Mokogintain Jakarta and then against Agus Kustiawan.

“Bai” Elorde has a record of 201-1 with 8 knockouts and should make short work of his Indonesian opponent.

WBO Asia Pacific junior featherweight champion Juan Miguel “The Boss” Elorde faces Junior Bajawa, who has a record of 14-9 with 7 knockouts.

His Indonesian foe is expected to give Elorde a harder fight, although in the end, he should prove to be no match for the

29-year-old Elorde who has a record of 21-1 with 11 knockouts.

The best bout of the evening may well be the battle for the vacant Philippine bantamweight title between Glen “Lover Boy” Suminguit, who is 27 years old and has a record of 18-2 with 9 knockouts and Alvin Bais, who is one year older with a record of 15-6-1 with 4 knockouts.

Bais won by a first-round TKO in a scheduled eight-round bout over Jomar Ministerio on Nov. 14, 2015, following two successive setbacks to Ibrahim Balla to whom he lost by a second round TKO in a scheduled six-round bout on June 5, 2015 and a third-round TKO in a six-round bout against Jason

National U jins capture 3 golds in Best of Best taekwondo NATIONAL University made its mark in taekwondo recently by bagging three gold medals in the senior advance division of the SMART/ MVPSF Best of the Best championships at the SM Mall of Asia.

Anthony Mendoza, Jessica Canabal and Angie Dayag produced NU’s golds in the men’s and women’s senior competitions.

Vying in the men’s under 68-kilo-

gram event, Anthony Mendoza outfought University of Santo Tomas’ Joaquin Mendoza in the finals.

Canabal and Dayag triumphed in the women’s under 57kg and under 67kg categories, respectively.

Canabal topped fellow NU jin Rhezie Aragon, while Dayag toppled UST’s Camille Alyssa Asegurado in the finals.

Other senior gold winners were:

Men’s advance – Jenap Torillos, University of the East (under 58), Keybert Lumbania, San Beda (under 80) and Kris Uy, Delta (over 80).

Women’s advance – Noleen Lagnada, Ateneo (under 49) and Gabrielle Antoinette Yuchingtat, Delta (over 67).

The junior gold medalists were: Men’s advance –Dineson Caneda, Cebu (under 48), Kurt Barbosa, NU

(under 55), Harley Santos, Ateneo (under 63), Ramecess Bautista, Arellano University (under 73) and James Daniel Mina, Arellano University (over 73).

Women’s advance – Cami Miraflores, Hanan TKD (under 44), Catryn Janiela Balin, UST (under 49), Jullien Bermejo, Ateneo (under 55), Akila Gabriel Boloto, CDO (under 63) and Laila Delo, UST (over 63).

THE Philippine Postal Corporation darters won the overall championship in the team category of the Federation Dart Leagues, Corporate League Dart Championship 2016 held at Playland Dart Center, Level 4, Fisher Mall Quezon City last Sept. 16.

Team PHLPost bested government and corporate participants from CHED,- Pldt, DENR by the Bay, MAYNILAD, Philhealth, DENR-EMB, COA 2, St. Lukes Hospital, DAR, GMA 7, e-Pldt, DENR Central and DENR LMB, DAR and Makati City Hall.

The event was organized and sanctioned by the National Darts Federation Philippines.

The team is composed of Team Captain Jhun Capistrano, Rene Domingo, Frank Olbes, Bhong Babasa, Eric Reyes, Herold Faylona and Tony De Vera.

They said that the championship is dedicated to the late Nolan Landeta, their former teammate who died recently.

“Darts has been very popular among Filipinos not only as a hobby but also as a competitive sport. With this championship, team PHLPost showed it has great potential to compete among topcaliber dart players,” Assistant Postmaster General Luis D. Carlos, the team’s manager, said.

Casimero leads PSA guest’s list IT’S going to be a session featuring world champions in Tuesday’s edition of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Shakey’s Malate.

Reigning International Boxing Federation flyweight champion Johnriel Casimero shares the spotlight with the Philippine dragon boat team as they talk about their respective campaigns and future plans in the public sports program presented by San Miguel Corp., Accel, Shakey’s, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

Casimero will be joined by his team led by trainer Jhun Agrabio, promoter Sammy Gelo-Ani, cut man Aldrin Sta. Maria and Victory Central Malls general manager Roque Sendin in the 10:30 a.m. session to be aired live over DZSR Sports Radio 918. The Filipino boxing champ recently retained his 112-lbs belt with a 10th round TKO of Charlie Edwards at the 02 Arena in London.

LOTTO RESULTS 6/55 00-00-00-00-00-00 6/45 00-00-00-00-00-00 4 DIGITS 0-0-0-0 3 DIGITS 0-0-0 2 EZ2 0-0

P0 M+ P0 M

Riera U. Mallari, Editor Reuel Vidal, Assistant Editor sports@thestandard.com.ph sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

A8

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

Sports

Jay Bayron: Short game will be key to another title quest at Wack Wack East.

Cubs earn top seeding S

HARPSHOOTING Evan Nelle and Robi Nayve struck with 19 and 16 points, respectively, for the defending champion San Beda Red Cubs, who got back at the Arellano University Braves, 92-74, and formally earned the top Final Four seeding Monday at The Arena in San Juan.

The Red Cubs took control in the second quarter and never let go as they went on finish with 17 wins and a loss at the end of their elimination-round campaign in the 92nd National Collegiate

Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament.

Big man Sam Abuhijle added 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Eduardo Velasquez jr. hit 9 points, including a triple, which handed the

Games Thursday (The Arena, San Juan) 10 a.m. – EAC vs Mapua (Jrs.) 11:45 a.m. – JRU vs SSCR (Jrs.)

Mendiola dribblers a 37-27 spread in the last 4:48.

Nelle, who had five triples, connected with a trey in the last 4.2 seconds of the second canto and kept the Red Cubs ahead by 10, 46-36.

The Braves, who could not keep up with the Red Cubs’ pressing game, fell behind by 12 at the start of third, after Nelle

unloaded another trey and Abu Hijle quickly followed it up with a steal off Lars Sunga and a putback, 57-45.

“We prepared well for this game. Isa ito sa nakatalo sa amin sa first round,” said Red Cubs coach JB Sison.

Guilmer de la Torre scored a game-high 20 points for the Braves, who finished fourth with their 13-5 win-loss record.

In other games, the Lyceum Junior Pirates drew 29 points from McLaude Gaudana, including two crucial baskets in the extra period to put away the University of Per-

petual Help Junior Altas, 76-72.

The Junior Pirates finished with their five-year best record of nine wins and nine losses in fifth place.

Jasper Cuevas hit 19 points of the Junior Altas, who forced an overtime following a 64-all deadlock in regulation.

Benedict Buno banged in 17 points for the Jose Rizal University Light Bombers, who waylaid Letran, 61-54, while Maui Cruz made 32 points for the Emilio Aguinaldo College Brigadiers in beating the San Sebastian Staglets, 81-74. Peter Atencio

Racela: Argentina, Beating UE Croatia set up tested our Davis finale character

By Peter Atencio THE character of the defending champion Far Eastern University Tamaraws was tested after they pulled off a 67-59 triumph over the University of the East Warriors last Sunday.

Two of their key plays, Wendell Comboy and Richard Escoto, allowed other scorers and wingmen like Monbert Arong, Alejandro Inigo and Raymar Jose to come forward and step up.

The efforts of guys like Arong, Inigo and Jose keyed the Tams’ second win in four games in the 79th University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament.

Comboy, who poured in a season’s best 20 points for the Tamaraws when they bowed to the Ateneo Blue Eagles, 71-76, was not allowed to play by his doctor after sustaining a concussion in practice. The 6-foot Comboy, who came from the high school team, hit his head on the floor following a bad fall during practice.

Escoto, on the other hand, sat out their game with UE because of back spasms.

“It’s a test of character for us.

Having to recover from that loss to Ateneo, it was tough for us,” said FEU coach Nash Racela.

During the game Arong led with 16 points, while Inigo tallied 12 for the Tams.

The Red Warriors made efforts to stay in the fight and threatened, 59-62, in last two minutes.

PARIS—An emotional Leonardo Mayer led Argentina past defending champions Great Britain and into their fifth Davis Cup final on Sunday where they will face Croatia in November’s title showdown.

The 29-year-old Mayer, a late replacement for Juan Martin del Potro, secured Argentina’s place in their first final since 2011 with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over Dan Evans in the crucial rubber of their semifinal in Glasgow for a 3-2 victory.

Croatia, the 2005 champions, sealed their ticket to the November 25-27 final on home ground after Marin Cilic romped to a 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 win over Richard Gasquet and an unassailable lead over nine-time champions France in Zadar.

Argentina have a 3-0 winning record over Croatia in the Davis Cup, winning quarter-finals in 2002, 2006 and 2012.

Mayer’s victory, his 11th in 14 Davis Cup singles rubbers, ended Britain’s hopes of retaining the trophy they won for the first time in 79 years with a win over Belgium last year.

It also justified captain Daniel Orsanic’s decision to rest 27-year-old del Potro who had played for eight hours in winning a five-hour marathon singles rubber over Andy Murray on Friday before losing Saturday’s doubles alongside Mayer against the Murray brothers.

“I am very emotional,” said Mayer, whose ranking has slipped from 21 to 114 in the world.

“I haven’t been able to play because of injury so I am delighted to be back on form.

I do not know what it is about the Davis Cup it brings out the best in me.”

Earlier Sunday, world number two Andy Murray had to leave the court for a medical timeout in the third set but returned to wrap up a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Guido Pella which made it 2-2 in the semi-final.

“I have a lot of sharp pain in my right quad. I have to go and see what’s up and get some treatment,” Murray said. AFP

Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer is mobbed by his teammates after his win over Britain’s Dan Evans won them the Davis Cup World Group semi-final between Britain and Argentina at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. A tearful Leonardo Mayer fired Argentina into the Davis Cup final on Sunday after his victory over Dan Evans handed his side a 3-2 victory over holders Great Britain. AFP

Bayron seeks ICTSI repeat at Wack Wack JAY Bayron exudes confidence as he sets out for the closing leg of this year’s ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour, armed not only with the best record in the elite field in the last five legs of the circuit but also the honor of winning at Wack Wack just last month.

Bayron hit a clutch birdie on No. 15 to beat Malaysian Gavin Green by two and capture the Aboitiz Invitational crown six weeks ago. That sparked a sort of run for the veteran campaigner, who also won the next leg at ICTSI Riviera, finished third at ICTSI Classic at Mt. Malarayat, placed runner-up at Splendido Classic and ended up fifth at the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Open at Luisita over the weekend.

That should make him the marked player in the ICTSI Tournament Players Championship firing off tomorrow (Wednesday, Sept. 24) at the fabled East layout, notwithstanding Micah Shin’s two-shot win at CAT Open, and Tony Lascuña and Clyde Mondilla’s expected surge in their spirited duel for the Order of Merit title.

“It’s still anybody’s race but I hope to keep my form and try to build some momentum with a strong start,” said the soft-spoken Bayron, wary of the talentladen field chasing for the top P650,000 purse in the 72-hole championship sponsored by ICTSI. That includes Frankie Miñoza, who also won at Wack Wack in 2007 for his second Philippine Open triumph. The veteran campaigner stunned young ace Miguel Tabuena in a record five-hole playoff to snatch the ICTSI Negros Occidental Classic last July and is expected to figure in the title race in the event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. The rest of the starting 92-player cast, including sponsor invitees Nick Sherwood and John Michael O’Toole of the US and Aussie Peter Stojanovski, have also primed up for this week’s championship, all seeking to close out the season on a winning note.

Perlas PH opens bid vs Singapore Games today (Malacca Stadium) 3 p.m. – Philippines vs Singapore 5 p.m. – Thailand vs Indonesia 7 p.m. – Opening Ceremonies 8 p.m. – Malaysia vs Vietnam PERLAS Pilipinas open its SEABA Women’s Championship campaign against Singapore today at 3 p.m. in Malacca, Malaysia.

This is the first tournament Filipina cagebelles will be joining since making it to the Level 1 of competition of the FIBA Asia Women’s Championship last year.

The team had to make a last-minute change in their line up as Ewon Arayi, the longest-serving national team member, had to be replaced in the line up by Andrea Pontejos.

The veteran cagebelle was brought to V. Luna Hospital last week after being diagnosed with dengue. She has already recovered and joined the team here, but was not given clearance by the doctor to play. Arayi is an enlisted personnel of the Philippine Navy.

“Kaya ko na nga maglaro, kaso lang ‘yung doctor namin sa Navy ayaw ako bigyan ng clearance. Gusto niyang magpahinga pa ako,” added Arayi.

On Monday, three other key members of the team joined the 11 players, who left a day earlier.

Head coach Patrick Aquino arrived with Afril Bernardino and Jack Animam, with two of her players from the National University Lady Bulldogs. The three were unable to join the Sunday trip as they finished their game in the UAAP.

Olympian Morales to lead Cignal again OLYMPIAN Lynda Morales of Puerto Rico will be returning for another tour of duty when she leads Cignal in the 2016 Philippine Superliga Grand Prix women’s volleyball tournament next month.

Fresh from campaigning in the Rio Olympics, Morales will serve as the HD Spikers’ anchor on defense, together with Laura Schaudt, an explosive 6’5” open hitter from Oregon State University.

The HD Spikers also made a strong recruitment run during the mid-season when they tapped Paneng Mercado from F2 Logistics and Janine Marciano from BaliPure, while bringing back the league’s first Most Valuable Player Venus Bernal to form a three-headed monster that could light up the scoreboard.

“I like the composition of my team,” said Cignal coach Sammy Acaylar,

who still has Michelle Laborte, Jheck Dionela and Cherry Vivas to bank on.

“I know this is still early, but I think I can say that this is really a fighting team. Everybody is capable of bringing in big numbers from all categories.”

But it won’t be a walk in the park for the HD Spikers.

Foton and Petron, two teams who figured in an explosive finals showdown last year, would surely not go down without putting up a good fight.

Foton will be bringing back Lindsay Stalzer and Ariel Usher, while adding Dindin Manabat to join the already explosive core of Jaja Santiago, EJ Laure, Cherry Rondina, Angeli Araneta and Patty Orendain.

The Tornadoes will also parade a

seasoned Italian mentor in Fabio Menta, who steered them to a seventh-place finish in the AVC Asian Women’s Club Championship at the Alonte Sports Arena in Binan City two weeks ago.

On the other hand, Petron remains formidable as it drafted middle blocker Serena Warner and open spiker Niemer, who is said to be an explosive scorer and grizzled international campaigner after having stops in France, Puerto Rico and Azerbaijan.

“I am confident that they can address our needs both on offense and on defense,” said Petron’s new coach Shaq Delos Santos, adding that they also tapped April Ross Hingpit from Cignal. “We really pushed hard to acquire them because they are what we exactly need.”

Foreign firms shun PNOC Exploration B3

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandardtoday.com extrastory2000@gmail.com TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

B1

MPIC bags new expressway

By Darwin G. Amojelar

T

HE tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said Monday it secured the green light from the Public Works Department to build a P23-billion expressway linking North Luzon Expressway and South Luzon Expressway.

MPIC said Metro Pacific Toll- ways Corp., the original propoways Development Corp. and nent for NLEx-SLEx Connecsubsidiary Manila North Toll- tor Road Project, received the

notice of award from the Public Works Department on Sep. 19.

MPIC Group won the Swiss Challenge for the project in July, after no company submitted comparative proposals to challenge the latter’s offer. MPTDC reduced its internal rate of return for the project to 10.87 percent from 12.09 percent, by lowering the opening tariff from P100 to P87.

The Public Private Partnership Center earlier identified

seven companies that purchased bid documents for the Swiss Challenge of NLExSLEx Connector Road, including San Miguel Holdings Corp., Obrascon Huarte Lain SA, Hunan Road and Bridge Corp. and four law firms.

The project is an unsolicited proposal approved by the National Economic and Development Authority under the buildoperate-transfer scheme for the design, financing, construction,

operation and maintenance of an 8-kilometer elevated toll expressway over the right of way of Philippine National Railways.

The project starts at the junction of NLEx Segment 10 at C-3 Road/5th Ave. in Caloocan City and seamlessly connects to South Luzon Expressway though Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 Project in Manila.

The project will not require fresh equity infusion from MPIC. Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco said the first section of the project would start in 2018.

“ROW [right of way] acquisition first before we start construction. The government has 30 months from signing of toll concession agreement to deliver right of way. We are hoping though that the government can deliver the ROW in sections to enable us to start sectional construction before the 30-month deadline,” Franco said.

IN BRIEF

PSe comPoSite index

Closing September 19, 2016

8300

SEC defers Liberty offer

7840 7380

The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Vega Telecom Inc. to defer the tender offer for the remaining shares in Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc., pending submission of additional information on the sale of the telecommunication assets to PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. SEC’s market securities and regulations department said Vega Telecom should submit a new tender offer timeline to provide minority shareholders reasonable time to asses or evaluate the offer.

SEC said Vega should submit an amended tender offer report that would include a discussion on the reassignment of the high valued frequency from Tori Spectrum to BellTell, disclosure on the amount received from the assignment if any and how it was reflected in Liberty’s financial statement.

Minority shareholders of Liberty earlier asked the Philippine Stock Exchange and SEC to look into the Liberty deal after complaining about the P2.20 per share offered by PLDT and Globe. Jenniffer B. Austria

6920 6460 6000

7,575.84 22.08

PeSo-dollar rate

Closing SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 48.00 46.00 45.00

P47.815

44.00

CLOSE

43.00

HIGH P47.800 LOW P47.950 AVERAGE P47.868 VOLUME 512.000M

P392-P620.00 LPG/11-kg tank P35.70-P42.50 Unleaded Gasoline

oPriceS il P today

HEALTHCARE SERVICES CONFAB. Trade undersecretary for industry promotion group Nora Terrado (center) urges industries to tap

initiatives of the government in promoting their respective industries and to work collaboratively with the department in promoting trade and investments in the country. Shown with Terrado during the Healthcare Information Management Services Conference 2016 at Makati ShangriLa are (from left) Healthcare Information Management Association of the Philippines president Ma. Cristina Coronel, United Health Group country manager Roger Salazar, Department of Information and Communication Technology commissioner Monchito Ibrahim and Eastern Telecommunications head of marketing services Jedreck Estanislao.

P24.84-P28.27 Diesel P28.50-P36.85 Kerosene

Razon to push ahead with Quezon City casino

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Friday, September 16, 2016

F oreign e xchange r ate Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

47.7260

Japan

Yen

0.009791

0.4673

UK

Pound

1.301200

62.1011

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128899

6.1518

Switzerland

Franc

1.020825

48.7199

Canada

Dollar

0.756430

36.1014

Singapore

Dollar

0.730887

34.8823

Australia

Dollar

0.747700

35.6847

Bahrain

Dinar

2.652590

126.5975

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266617

12.7246

Brunei

Dollar

0.728226

34.7553

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000076

0.0036

Thailand

Baht

0.028643

1.3670

UAE

Dirham

0.272257

12.9937

Euro

Euro

1.115400

53.2336

Korea

Won

0.000889

0.0424

China

Yuan

0.149849

7.1517

India

Rupee

0.014911

0.7116

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.241721

11.5364

New Zealand

Dollar

0.725500

34.6252

Taiwan

Dollar

0.031556

1.5060 Source: PDS Bridge

BILLIONAIRE Enrique Razon is pushing ahead with plans to build a P20-billion ($418 million) resort in Quezon City, undeterred by President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on gambling.

The chairman and founder of Bloomberry Resorts Corp. said construction of the company’s second casino, in Quezon City in the northern part of metropolitan Manila, may start mid-next year and could be finished in 2019.

Razon’s planned resort will also include shops, a convention center and a hotel. He joins other investors building new casinos in the Philippines, including Universal Entertainment Corp. chairman Kazuo Okada, who

Regulator set to file raps vs RCBC execs

By Julito G. Rada THE Anti-Money Laundering Council is preparing to file cases within two weeks against other officials of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in connection with the $81-million money laundering from the account of Bank of Bangladesh in Federal Reserve in New York to an RCBC branch in February.

AMLC secretariat deputy director Vencent Salido said the council would definitely file cases to find the “missing link” and complete the facts of the scam.

“We filed cases against the branch manager, against Kim Wong, against the officers of Philrem [Service Corp.]. Now, there’s a missing link there.

What about the other RCBC officials,” Salido said at the sidelines of a Senate hearing Monday.

“The facts wouldn’t be complete without them. Because the transactions went through them, the exchanges, the foreign exchanges went through RCBC. Without it, the resolution would be half-baked… We still seek

clearance to the council. We’re still recommending [to file the cases],” Salido said.

Salido did not say how many bank officials would be charged.

He said the hard part of the case would be how to know if the officials were aware of the crime. He said looking into the counter-affidavit of the other personalities, “they all denied having knowledge of the predicate crime.”

Salido said there were other ways to establish direct knowledge and circumstances based on the documents of the transaction.

“It is like, you know exactly that the transaction is illegal but why did you allow it? So we had to find documentary evidence.

In so far as testimony, no one will tell us from the banks,” Salido said.

Senate investigations earlier found out that the $81-million account stolen by cyber thieves from the Bangladeshi bank entered the Philippine financial system through the branch of RCBC on Jupiter Street in Makati City.

will open a resort in Manila in November, and Andrew Tan and Lim Kok Thay, Philippine and Malaysian billionaires, who are also building a casino in the city.

Duterte’s campaign is focused on electronic gaming parlors that have been loosely regulated and could actually help companies like Bloomberry, Razon said in an interview in Manila Friday.

“I think cracking down on this, looking at it from our perspective, helps the licensed casinos,” Razon said. Bloomberry’s Solaire Resort and Casino on Manila Bay is operating at “full capacity” and there’s been an increase in visitors from China since Duterte was elected in May

as the new president seeks to improve relations between the two countries, he said.

Manila is aspiring to become the next Asian casino hub as high-stakes Chinese gamblers increasingly abandon Macau amid their government’s crackdown on corruption. Chinese and South Koreans are the two biggest groups of foreign visitors at Solaire, and Duterte’s plans to upgrade the airport and open a new toll road to the area where Solaire is should be good for business, the billionaire said.

“Razon is making a bet that President Duterte will deliver on his promises on infrastructure,” said Jonathan Ravelas,

chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc. in Manila. “Tourism has far more to go if only we have the right infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, International Container Terminal Services Inc., the Philippine’s largest port operator led by Razon expects new terminals in Australia, Congo, Colombia and Iraq to increase the cargo it handles, boosting profit in the next five years amid a slump in global trade and limited opportunities for investment.

“I don’t really see any light at the end of the tunnel yet” for the global economy, Razon, 56, said in an interview on Sept. 16 in Manila.

“These four new terminals are our spark plug for growth.” Bloomberg

BoP posts surplus

THE country’s balance of payments position swung to a surplus of $682 million in August from a $450-million deficit a year ago.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. attributed the surplus in August to foreign exchange operations and foreign exchange deposits of the national government, which were partly offset by payments for maturing obligations.

“With a cumulative BoP for the eight months of $1.531 billion, the projection for full year is within reach. But we continue to monitor global developments and market sentiments with regard to announcements of advanced economies’ central banks, including the Fed, as these could lead to global portfolio rebalancing away from emerging market economies including the Philippines,” Tetangco said in a text message.

“Nevertheless we don’t see any need to deviate from the current stance of keeping a market-determined exchange rate policy,” Tetangco said.

The August surplus was also 217 percent higher than the surplus of $215 million in July. This brought the BoP position in the first eight months to a surplus of $1.531 billion, or 3.5 percent lower than $1.588 billion a year ago. Julito G. Rada

Govt raises P100b from first treasury bond sale

By Gabrielle H. Binaday THE government raised P100 billion from the sale of retail treasury bonds, the first under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Bureau of Treasury said in a statement the nine-day public offer for 3.5 percent 2026 bonds

which closed on Sept. 16 drew “considerable demand.”

National Treasurer Roberto Tan said the government accepted P100 billion as a part of the government’s RTB program.

The sold RTBs were the 18th tranche of retail bonds issues by the Treasury and the first under

the Duterte administration. The previous administration in 2013 sold about P150 billion worth of RTBs. The Treasury originally sold P65 billion on the first day of auction on Sept. 6, but the size was expanded amid strong investors’ demand.

“The expanded issuance aims

MITSUBISHI HITACHI SERVICE CENTER.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd. opens a global service center in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. The center is set to utilize information and communications technology in providing thermal power services and offering advanced environmental technology expertise to power plant operators not only in the Philippines, but in various countries in Southeast Asia.

Shown during the grand opening of the center are MHPS president and chief executive Takato Nishizawa (left) and MHPS Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. managing director and chief executive Masao Ishikawa.

to ensure that the RTB attains its goals of reaching a wide investor base, promoting savings and interest consciousness among Filipinos and mobilizing domestic savings,” the Treasury said.

The Treasury said dealers who qualified as selling agents were given incentives to sell at least half of allocated volumes to retail investors.

It said the funding exercise was a part of the financing program to meet the government’s requirements as it aimed to increase infrastructure spending and improve social services.

“These are the key points in the administration’s socioeconomic agenda in which investors have shown confidence, as evidenced by the high demand this issuance has garnered,” Tan said.

The Treasury accepted P65 billion for the 10-year RTBs at a coupon rate of 3.5 percent, 71.8 basis points below the previous average of 4.218 percent.

It was higher than the secondary market rate of 3.4208 percent.

B2

Business

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Market rises; Bloomberry up

S

TOCKS rose Monday, in line with Asian markets as traders gear up for central bank meetings in the US and Japan this week, hoping authorities will press ahead with loose monetary policies.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, gained 22 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 7,575.84.

This brought total gains this year to 9 percent.

The broader all-share index, however, fell 16 points, or 0.4 percent, to settle at 4,541.97, on a value turnover of P7.2 billion.

Losers outnumbered gainers, 101 to 90, while 47 issues were unchanged.

Fourteen of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led

by casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. which climbed 5.5 percent to P5.36 and chemical producer D&L Industries Inc. which rose 2.5 percent to P12.10.

Property developer Ayala Land Inc. added 1.9 percent to close at P37.75, while infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. gained 1.8 percent to P6.63.

Meanwhile, most Asian markets outside Japan traded higher.

A lack of any firm promises from

a three-day weekend to play catch-up with Friday’s regional rally.

Shanghai, which was closed Thursday and Friday, ended up 0.8 percent while Seoul gained 0.8 percent and Singapore added 0.3 percent. Sydney, however, closed marginally lower at the end of a day interrupted by technical glitches.

Tokyo was closed for a public holiday.

In early European trade London jumped 0.9 percent, Frankfurt added 0.7 percent and Paris put on 0.8 percent.

The dollar held on to most of Friday’s gains against the pound and euro after the release of data showing an uptick in US inflation during August.

With Bloomberg, AFP

Tokyo about the Bank of Japan’s plans has sparked worries. Years of bond-buying and lavish government spending have had little effect on the country’s torpid economy.

“There are growing concerns about the limits of monetary policy’s impact on growth,” Bernard Aw, a markets strategist in Singapore at IG Ltd, said in an email to clients.

“Unlike the Fed, where investors have a binary view— hike or no hike—of US monetary policy, the BoJ presents a complicated situation. Governor [Haruhiko] Kuroda has repeatedly stressed that they still have many policy tools at their disposal.”

Hong Kong ended 0.9 percent higher as investors returned from

Vitarich exits 9-year corporate rehab plan

By Jenniffer B. Austria POULTRY and animal feeds producer Vitarich Corp. exited a nine-year corporate rehabilitation, six years ahead of the original plan.

Vitarich, a company controlled by the Sarmiento family, said in a disclosure to the stock exchange a Bulacan regional trial court granted its petition to exit rehabilitation. The company was ordered to pay the remaining unsecured creditors within a year from receipt of the court

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low

STOCKS

Close

75.3 124.4 107 56.5 2.49 4.2 17 30.45 10.4 0.92 2.6 1.01 100 1.46 30.5 91.5 137 80 361.2 57 180 1700 124 3.26

66 88.05 88.1 45.45 1.97 1.68 12.02 19.6 6.12 0.74 1.02 0.225 78 0.9 17.8 62 88.35 52 276 41 118.2 1200 59 2.65

Asia United Bank 48 Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. 111.00 Bank of PI 105.80 China Bank 38.1 BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. 3.85 Bright Kindle Resources 1.38 COL Financial 16.4 Eastwest Bank 20.4 Filipino Fund Inc. 6.80 First Abacus 0.7 I-Remit Inc. 1.9 MEDCO Holdings 1.000 Metrobank 86.15 Natl. Reinsurance Corp. 0.89 PB Bank 14.08 Phil. National Bank 56.35 Phil. Savings Bank 99.95 Philippine trust Co. 396 PSE 274.4 RCBC `A’ 36.95 Security Bank 248.6 Sun Life Financial 1410.00 Union Bank 73.25 Vantage Equities 1.47

47 5 1.46 2.36 15.3 89 148

35.9 1.11 1.01 1.86 7.92 40.3 32

20.6 85 36 65.8 2.97 4.14 21.5 21.6 11.96 9.13 11.8 2.89 31.8 109 20.75 15.3 9.4 0.98 241 79 3.95 4 33.9 90 13.26 293 0.62 5.25 12.98 15 2.65 7.03 3.4 4.5 6.3 7.86 1450 3.28 0.315 2.18 234 5.28 1.3 26 2.17

15.32 20.2 10.08 29.15 1.5 1.5 10.72 9.55 9.04 6.02 8.86 1.06 20.2 71.5 13.86 13.24 5.34 0.395 173 34.1 2.3 1.63 23.35 17.3 5.88 250.2 0.335 3.87 8.45 10.04 2.09 3.03 1.95 1 4.02 1.65 801 1.55 0.138 1.02 152 4.28 0.640 10.02 1.2

Aboitiz Power Corp.

44.75 Agrinurture Inc. 3.29 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 1.03 Alsons Cons.

1.62 Asiabest Group 16.88 Bogo Medelin 52.05 C. Azuc De Tarlac 200.00 Cemex Holdings 11.68 Century Food 16.88 Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ 125 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 24.05 Concepcion 57 Crown Asia 2.11 Da Vinci Capital 6.2 Del Monte 11.8 DNL Industries Inc. 11.800 Emperador 7.01 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 5.97 EEI 8.00 Euro-Med Lab 1.81 First Gen Corp.

25.1 First Holdings ‘A’ 71.4 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 12.48 Holcim Philippines Inc. 16.36 Integ. Micro-Electronics 6.2 Ionics Inc 2.220 Jollibee Foods Corp.

245.20 Liberty Flour 50.00 LMG Chemicals 2 Mabuhay Vinyl 4.45 Manila Water Co. Inc. 29.3 Maxs Group 29 Megawide 14.9 Mla. Elect. Co `A’ 311.80 MG Holdings 0.265 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 3.08 Petron Corporation 10.20 Phinma Corporation 11.60 Phinma Energy 2.19 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 6.00 Phoenix Semiconductor 1.56 Pryce Corp. `A’ 3.52 RFM Corporation 4.20 Roxas and Co. 2.25 San Miguel ‘Pure Foods `A’ 220 Splash Corporation 3.01 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.159 TKC Steel Corp.

1.71 Universal Robina 185.7 Victorias Milling 4.64 Vitarich Corp.

2.63 Vivant Corp.

33.00 Vulcan Ind’l.

1.28

0.59 59.2 30.05 2.16 3.4 3.35 823.5 10.2 84 3.35 4.92 0.66 1455 76 9.25 0.85 17.3 0.71 5.53 0.0670 1.61 2.99 84.9 3.5 974 1.66 1.39 156 0.710 0.435 0.510

0.44 48.1 20.85 1.6 0.225 0.23 634.5 7.390 12.8 2.6 2.26 0.152 837 49.55 4.84 0.59 12 0.580 4.2 0.030 0.550 2.26 59.3 1.5 751 1.13 0.93 80 0.211 0.179 0.310

Abacus Cons. `A’ Aboitiz Equity Alliance Global Inc. Anglo Holdings A ATN Holdings A ATN Holdings B Ayala Corp `A’ Cosco Capital DMCI Holdings F&J Prince ‘A’ Filinvest Dev. Corp.

Forum Pacific GT Capital JG Summit Holdings Lopez Holdings Corp.

Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp.

LT Group Mabuhay Holdings `A’ Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

Pacifica `A’ Prime Orion Republic Glass ‘A’ San Miguel Corp `A’ Seafront `A’ SM Investments Inc. Solid Group Inc. South China Res. Inc. Top Frontier Unioil Res. & Hldgs Wellex Industries Zeus Holdings

0.385 75.10 16.20 1.21 0.365 0.365 854.5 8.15 11.36 6.5 7.75 0.214 1401 77.20 8.07 0.84 16.84 0.490 6.51 0.0350 2.050 2.70 81.95 2.27 660.00 1.27 0.98 217.800 0.3200 0.2090 0.275

10.5 26.95 1.99 1.75 0.375 41.4 5.6 5.59 1.44 1.48 0.201 0.69 10.96 0.97 2.22 2.1 1.8 5.94 0.180 0.72 27 8.54

6.74 12 0.65 1.2 0.192 30.05 3.36 4.96 0.79 0.97 0.083 0.415 2.4 0.83 1.15 1.42 1.27 4.13 0.090 0.39 23 2.69

8990 HLDG Anchor Land Holdings Inc. A. Brown Co., Inc. Araneta Prop `A’ Arthaland Corp.

Ayala Land `B’ Belle Corp. `A’ Cebu Holdings Century Property Cityland Dev. `A’ Crown Equities Inc. Cyber Bay Corp.

Double Dragon Empire East Land Global-Estate Filinvest Land,Inc. Interport `A’ Megaworld MRC Allied Ind. Phil. Realty `A’ Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry Primex Corp.

7.330 6.20 1.27 2.750 0.280 37.050 2.83 5.1 0.560 0.990 0.169 0.590 58.8 0.790 1.00 1.86 1.14 4.55 0.186 0.420 37.00 3.28

High

Low

FINANCIAL 48.1 47.7 111.20 110.20 105.60 103.10 38.05 37.9 3.84 3.84 1.42 1.36 16.7 16.3 20.95 20.4 6.70 6.70 0.7 0.7 1.96 1.86 1.000 0.950 86 84.7 0.9 0.9 14 13.9 56.95 56.55 100 100 422 300 274 270 36.8 36 249.6 240.2 1430.00 1420.00 73.30 73.10 1.47 1.45 INDUSTRIAL 45.95 44.9 3.38 3.24 1.05 1.01 1.67 1.6 17 16.18 52.05 52 175.00 170.00 11.7 11.6 16.92 16.6 118.5 117.5 24.3 23.65 57 57 2.11 2.07 6.4 6.2 11.9 11.6 12.260 11.760 7.20 7.05 5.97 5.79 8.01 7.90 1.76 1.76 25.05 24.75 72 71 12.40 12.40 16.50 16.30 6.23 6.18 2.220 2.180 249.00 244.60 50.00 49.75 1.95 1.95 4.3 4.3 29.8 29 29.3 28.8 14.98 13.7 311.80 309.00 0.270 0.255 3.2 3.08 10.40 9.96 11.54 11.50 2.20 2.17 6.04 5.90 1.59 1.52 3.46 3.45 4.20 4.19 2.21 2.21 219.8 216.6 3.01 2.77 0.161 0.158 1.71 1.68 185.8 184 4.65 4.65 2.8 2.64 33.05 33.05 1.23 1.23 HOLDING FIRMS 0.390 0.385 76.00 74.90 16.30 16.10 1.27 1.20 0.365 0.360 0.365 0.365 858 853.5 8.35 8.19 11.64 11.38 6.49 6.05 7.95 7.79 0.213 0.213 1418 1401 77.60 76.20 8.09 7.93 0.84 0.83 16.84 16.5 0.470 0.470 6.69 6.48 0.0360 0.0350 2.080 2.020 2.70 2.69 82.00 80.40 2.28 2.28 660.00 654.50 1.29 1.22 1.00 0.96 218.000 216.000 0.3150 0.3100 0.2100 0.2090 0.290 0.275 PROPERTY 7.450 7.320 6.68 6.20 1.29 1.26 2.710 2.570 0.280 0.265 37.750 37.050 2.94 2.84 5.12 5.1 0.6 0.570 0.980 0.980 0.168 0.165 0.600 0.580 58.75 58 0.780 0.770 1.02 1.00 1.86 1.84 1.13 1.13 4.64 4.5 0.192 0.180 0.420 0.420 33.70 33.20 3.3 3.25

Close

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

48.1 110.50 103.80 37.9 3.84 1.36 16.7 20.5 6.70 0.7 1.9 0.960 85 0.9 14 56.60 100 322 272 36.3 249.2 1430.00 73.25 1.47

0.21 -0.45 -1.89 -0.52 -0.26 -1.45 1.83 0.49 -1.47 0.00 0.00 -4.00 -1.33 1.12 -0.57 0.44 0.05 -18.69 -0.87 -1.76 0.24 1.42 0.00 0.00

17,200 1,262,520 1,569,690 373,500 1,000 39,000 45,200 414,000 2,000 10,000 65,000 2,681,000 3,864,830 7,000 1,121,200 38,860 70 8,380 4,100 167,800 895,310 135 180,460 361,000

766,720.00 -51,374,623 12,105,236.00

45.75 3.25 1.01 1.6 16.88 52 170.00 11.68 16.92 118 24.1 57 2.1 6.28 11.8 12.100 7.05 5.97 7.93 1.76 24.9 71.3 12.40 16.36 6.2 2.190 248.60 50.00 1.95 4.3 29.45 29 14 311.80 0.270 3.09 10.28 11.52 2.20 6.00 1.55 3.46 4.20 2.21 219.8 3 0.160 1.70 185.8 4.65 2.64 33.05 1.23

2.23 -1.22 -1.94 -1.23 0.00 -0.10 -15.00 0.00 0.24 -5.60 0.21 0.00 -0.47 1.29 0.00 2.54 0.57 0.00 -0.88 -2.76 -0.80 -0.14 -0.64 0.00 0.00 -1.35 1.39 0.00 -2.50 -3.37 0.51 0.00 -6.04 0.00 1.89 0.32 0.78 -0.69 0.46 0.00 -0.64 -1.70 0.00 -1.78 -0.09 -0.33 0.63 -0.58 0.05 0.22 0.38 0.15 -3.91

1,889,000 1,543,000 4,394,000 2,331,000 3,600 240 620 2,552,000 720,400 930 170,300 18,390 278,000 409,600 38,500 14,546,500 6,484,300 13,409,500 372,600 3,000 327,000 195,360 1,800 174,400 689,900 896,000 184,010 900 20,000 4,000 7,480,100 360,200 6,328,800 226,750 78,000 431,000 5,907,200 11,500 282,000 1,086,300 86,000 38,000 98,000 2,000 90 39,000 2,530,000 524,000 1,233,700 5,000 47,584,000 300 42,000

7,705,680.00 -329,020.00 3,030.00 -2,753,140.00

0.390 76.00 16.26 1.27 0.365 0.365 856 8.3 11.56 6.05 7.95 0.213 1410 77.60 8.09 0.84 16.68 0.470 6.63 0.0360 2.050 2.70 82.00 2.28 655.00 1.28 0.97 218.000 0.3100 0.2100 0.275

1.30 1.20 0.37 4.96 0.00 0.00 0.18 1.84 1.76 -6.92 2.58 -0.47 0.64 0.52 0.25 0.00 -0.95 -4.08 1.84 2.86 0.00 0.00 0.06 0.44 -0.76 0.79 -1.02 0.09 -3.13 0.48 0.00

70,000 1,576,930 4,444,100 28,000 3,710,000 750,000 463,930 3,268,400 2,891,900 20,300 1,237,200 210,000 163,015 2,503,160 809,900 31,000 2,851,800 10,000 31,843,600 6,100,000 260,000 94,000 95,840 3,000 370,650 226,000 41,000 3,950 850,000 150,000 150,000

7.430 6.68 1.28 2.570 0.270 37.750 2.87 5.12 0.590 0.980 0.166 0.600 58.5 0.770 1.00 1.85 1.13 4.63 0.188 0.420 33.60 3.28

1.36 7.74 0.79 -6.55 -3.57 1.89 1.41 0.39 5.36 -1.01 -1.78 1.69 -0.51 -2.53 0.00 -0.54 -0.88 1.76 1.08 0.00 -9.19 0.00

715,000 2,100 1,051,000 1,555,000 1,840,000 8,736,600 50,100 9,200 11,571,000 5,000 18,330,000 3,287,000 203,960 14,000 4,121,000 2,910,000 26,000 17,931,000 73,060,000 80,000 2,100 134,000

-652,816.00 -4,114,635.00 17,090.00 1,920.00 -131,220,593.00 -14,597,800.00 -645,036.50 12,880.00 -1,014,570.00 -861,165 -64,862,212.00

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low

STOCKS

31.8 2.29 4.9 21.35 1.06 7.56 1.62 8.59

22.15 1.6 3.1 15.08 0.69 3.38 0.83 5.73

10.5 66 1.44 1.09 14.88 28.5 15.82 0.1430 5.06 99.1 12.3 2.6 7.67 4 1700 2720 8.41

1.97 35.2 1 0.63 10.5 18.2 8.6 0.0770 2.95 56.1 10.14 1.6 4.8 2.58 830 1600 5.95

1.97 119.5 7 5.8 0.017

1.23 102.6 3.01 4 0.011

0.8200 2.2800 5.93

0.041 1.200 2.34

12.28 3.32 2.53 3.2 95.5 2.46 15.2

6.5 1.91 1.01 1.95 3.1 1.8 6

1.040 22.8 6.41 4 185 22.9 3486 0.760 2.28 46.05 90.1

0.37 14.54 3 2.28 79 4.39 2748 0.435 1.2 31.45 60.55

11.6 0.85 10 1.9

7.59 0.63 5 1.14

0.0098 5.45 17.24 12.7 12.8 1.19 1.62 9.5 4.2 0.48 0.420 0.440 0.022 8.2 49.2 4.27 3.06 0.020 7.67 12.88 10.42 0.040 420 9 0.016

0.0043 1.72 6.47 6.5 5.11 0.85 0.77 5.99 1.17 0.305 0.2130 0.2160 0.013 3.240 18.96 2.11 1.54 0.012 5.4 7.26 2.27 0.015 115.9 3.67 0.0100

70 525

33 500

515 8.21 12.28 111 1060

480 5.88 6.5 101 997

1047 78.95 84.8

1011 74.5 75

Close

Robinson’s Land `B’ Rockwell Shang Properties Inc. SM Prime Holdings Sta. Lucia Land Inc. Starmalls Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. Vista Land & Lifescapes

High

Low

30.20 1.61 3.33 27.10 1.07 7.11 1.030 5.450

30.95 30.20 1.67 1.62 3.35 3.3 27.45 26.75 1.08 1.03 7.15 7.15 1.030 1.010 5.530 5.400 SERVICES 2GO Group’ 7.25 7.3 7.18 ABS-CBN 49.5 49.5 49 Acesite Hotel 1.33 1.35 1.29 APC Group, Inc. 0.570 0.560 0.560 Asian Terminals Inc. 11 11 11 Berjaya Phils. Inc. 5.65 5.6 5.6 Bloomberry 5.08 5.57 5.13 Boulevard Holdings 0.1010 0.1050 0.0990 Calata Corp.

3.62 3.6 3.45 Cebu Air Inc. (5J) 118.4 118.8 117.7 Centro Esc. Univ.

10.12 10.12 10.12 Discovery World 2.35 2.35 2.34 DFNN Inc. 6.70 7.24 6.72 Easy Call “Common” 3.10 3.00 3.00 FEUI 945.5 950 950 Globe Telecom 1961 1988 1960 GMA Network Inc. 6.34 6.36 6.24 Golden Haven 13.68 13.88 13.70 Harbor Star 1.78 1.78 1.70 I.C.T.S.I. 76.2 77.8 77 Imperial Res. `A’ 19.28 19.50 18.74 Imperial Res. `B’ 150 150 150 IP E-Game Ventures Inc. 0.0100 0.0110 0.0100 IPM Holdings 9.25 9.25 9.20 Island Info 0.255 0.255 0.250 ISM Communications 1.4000 1.4200 1.4000 Jackstones 3.43 3.59 3.45 LBC Express 12.4 11.3 10.5 Leisure & Resorts 4.12 4.18 4.06 Liberty Telecom 2.13 2.13 2.13 Lorenzo Shipping 1.03 1.03 1.03 Macroasia Corp.

2.21 2.46 2.45 Manila Broadcasting 21.25 21.10 19.08 Manila Jockey 1.98 1.99 1.98 Melco Crown 4.18 4.32 4.08 Metro Retail 5.50 5.52 5.39 NOW Corp.

3.450 3.570 3.360 Pacific Online Sys. Corp. 11.36 11.4 11.3 PAL Holdings Inc. 5.55 5.69 5.55 Paxys Inc. 2.8 2.8 2.8 Phil. Seven Corp.

143.00 139.00 138.00 Philweb.Com Inc. 6.13 6.64 5.91 PLDT Common 1666.00 1692.00 1666.00 PremiereHorizon 0.425 0.425 0.420 Premium Leisure 1.030 1.040 1.010 Puregold 44.95 44.95 43.90 Robinsons RTL 79.05 79.50 79.05 SBS Phil. Corp.

5.95 5.95 5.86 SSI Group 3.00 3.00 2.95 STI Holdings 0.600 0.610 0.580 Travellers 3.36 3.45 3.39 Yehey 5.550 5.560 5.550 MINING & OIL Abra Mining 0.0039 0.0039 0.0037 Apex `A’ 2.68 2.68 2.58 Atlas Cons. `A’ 3.95 4.00 3.90 Benguet Corp `A’ 2.2000 2.19 2.18 Benguet Corp `B’ 2.1800 2.3900 2.3000 Century Peak Metals Hldgs0.58 0.58 0.57 Coal Asia 0.400 0.410 0.400 Dizon 8.50 8.52 8.22 Ferronickel 0.850 0.850 0.830 Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. 0.270 0.275 0.270 Lepanto `A’ 0.204 0.204 0.202 Lepanto `B’ 0.207 0.208 0.206 Manila Mining `A’ 0.0110 0.0110 0.0110 Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. 1.66 1.67 1.62 Nickelasia 6.42 6.42 6.3 Nihao Mineral Resources 2.97 2.98 2.91 Oriental Peninsula Res. 1.0000 0.9900 0.9600 Oriental Pet. `A’ 0.0110 0.0110 0.0110 Petroenergy Res. Corp. 4.00 4.05 4.05 Philex `A’ 8.45 8.49 8.43 PhilexPetroleum 3.22 3.20 3.06 Philodrill Corp. `A’ 0.0110 0.0120 0.0110 Semirara Corp.

110.80 110.70 108.00 TA Petroleum 3.19 3.12 3.11 United Paragon 0.0099 0.0097 0.0097 PREFERRED ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. 49.4 49.4 48.85 Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ 540 540 540 DD Pref 105 105.5 105 GLOBE PREF P 541 550 550 GMA Holdings Inc. 6.01 6.01 6.01 Leisure and Resort 1.03 1.03 1.03 MWIDE PREF 112.8 112.8 112.6 PCOR-Preferred A 1091 1099 1099 PCOR-Preferred B 1160 1184 1184 PF Pref 2 1040 1045 1040 SMC Preferred B 78 78 78 SMC Preferred C 82 81.75 81.75 SMC Preferred F 80.65 80 80 SMC Preferred G 79 80 79 SMC Preferred H 78.5 78.4 77.8 SMC Preferred I 78.5 78 78 Swift Pref 2.18 1.9 1.9 WARRANTS & BONDS LR Warrant 2.320 2.420 2.330 SME Alterra Capital 3.2 3.11 2.85 Makati Fin. Corp.

3.6 3.48 3.15 Italpinas 4.61 4.61 4.46 Xurpas 14.12 14.12 13.76 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS First Metro ETF 124.9 125 123.8

MS -1,993,551.50

1,582,112.00 -8,111,064.00 -238,550.00 -868,680

-284,930.00

20,913,162.00 -38,217,162.00 28,246,677.00 -1,638,756.00

-685,310.00 -6,239,660.50

1,870,696.00 -679,522.00 4,400.00 -12,189,192.00

18,037,470.00 -3,477,130.00 -12,071,876.00 -6,103,934.00

946,980.00 -20,169,096.00 4,600.00 131,080.00 -313,080.00 3,040.00 -25,220.00 4,420.00

-1,600.00

-6,886,334

-366,620.00

7,406,360.50 18,271,526.00

18,250.00 -31,637,440 20,849,894.00 -18,147,642.00

-23,087,925.00 -15,767,903.50 -809,000.00 14,791,974.00 -90,884,149.00

-4,584,527.50 -61,096,740.00 -90,978.00

500,701.00 8,684.00 Err:522 -21,200.00 45,882,595.00 -264,120.00 -510,380.00

1.34

1

6.98

0.8900

15

3.5

12.88

5.95

130.7

105.6

TRADING SUMMARY

SHARES

FINANCIAL

13,129,863

INDUSTRIAL

131,044,126

-1,380,000.00 -37,336.00

HOLDING FIRMS

-907,800.00 -5,025,160.00

PROPERTY

195,369,985

SERVICES

413,827,751

-38,884,780.00 710,450.00

65,537,351

MINING & OIL

262,009,330

GRAND TOTAL

1,091,010,305

Close

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

30.50 1.67 3.3 27.00 1.05 7.15 1.030 5.430

0.99 3.73 -0.90 -0.37 -1.87 0.56 0.00 -0.37

436,000 26,000 79,000 10,465,300 6,832,000 200 479,000 4,349,800

7.25 49 1.29 0.560 11 5.6 5.36 0.1000 3.51 118 10.12 2.35 7.24 3.00 950 1980 6.25 13.82 1.70 77.75 19.40 150 0.0100 9.24 0.250 1.4100 3.59 11.3 4.11 2.13 1.03 2.45 21.10 1.99 4.28 5.50 3.510 11.36 5.67 2.8 139.00 6.30 1681.00 0.420 1.040 44.00 79.40 5.93 2.95 0.610 3.4 5.560

0.00 -1.01 -3.01 -1.75 0.00 -0.88 5.51 -0.99 -3.04 -0.34 0.00 0.00 8.06 -3.23 0.48 0.97 -1.42 1.02 -4.49 2.03 0.62 0.00 0.00 -0.11 -1.96 0.71 4.66 -8.87 -0.24 0.00 0.00 10.86 -0.71 0.51 2.39 0.00 1.74 0.00 2.16 0.00 -2.80 2.77 0.90 -1.18 0.97 -2.11 0.44 -0.34 -1.67 1.67 1.19 0.18

23,100 10,300 10,000 368,000 100 100 30,938,200 94,650,000 3,114,000 726,280 1,500 11,000 882,600 1,000 10 66,275 153,700 74,900 1,847,000 551,640 5,800 10 168,400,000 478,500 10,650,000 542,000 20,000 2,400 855,000 4,000 2,000 5,000 300 27,000 17,792,000 4,906,800 4,027,000 20,000 5,900 3,000 570 3,314,600 137,895 1,590,000 16,483,000 4,197,100 279,580 75,500 5,301,000 35,838,000 1,505,000 5,100

0.0038 2.61 3.91 2.1900 2.3000 0.57 0.410 8.50 0.830 0.270 0.203 0.206 0.0110 1.62 6.38 2.98 0.9900 0.0110 4.05 8.47 3.09 0.0110 109.00 3.11 0.0097

-2.56 -2.61 -1.01 -0.45 5.50 -1.72 2.50 0.00 -2.35 0.00 -0.49 -0.48 0.00 -2.41 -0.62 0.34 -1.00 0.00 1.25 0.24 -4.04 0.00 -1.62 -2.51 -2.02

232,000,000 464,000 57,000 12,000 26,000 826,000 1,030,000 300 3,037,000 450,000 5,370,000 3,130,000 3,400,000 65,000 2,751,500 59,000 116,000 100,000 3,000 2,167,700 1,460,000 1,600,000 337,120 39,000 2,000,000

49.4 540 105.5 550 6.01 1.03 112.6 1099 1184 1045 78 81.75 80 80 77.8 78 1.9

0.00 0.00 0.48 1.66 0.00 0.00 -0.18 0.73 2.07 0.48 0.00 -0.30 -0.81 1.27 -0.89 -0.64 -12.84

248,500 360 14,360 60 192,000 505,000 34,910 200 30 12,285 250 2,000 700 49,990 84,070 112,900 1,000

-889,905.00 -172,306,340.00 84,000.00 -15,293,903.00 -63,800.00 3,870.00

-14,360,717.00 26,510.00 -249,420.00 -12,490,268.00 738,883.00 28,523,650.00 178,360.00 -11,661,723.50 30,000.00 32,355.00

-1,170,690

-38,340,060.00 -5,712,056.00 -645,180.00 1,110.00 55,600.00 -727,383.00 -3,069,340.00 42,500.00 1,213,060.00 -100,858,760.00 8,790,837.00 -6,887,300.00 -103,800.00 -2,438,960.00 -190,000.00 10,400.00 181,210.00 57,500.00 228,000.00 930,950.00 10,350.00 65,200.00 1,526,752.00 -990.00 642,496.00 -198,310.00 -10,023,191.00 15,550.00 2,937,780.00

-1,153,920.00

-2,086,495.00 1,900.00

2.350

1.29

207,000

2.86 3.15 4.46 13.76

-10.63 -12.50 -3.25 -2.55

7,063,000 154,000 171,000 2,669,700

-837,660.00

125

0.08

10,430

-564,851.00

-10,550,700.00

VALUE 1,843.01 (down) 16.04 921,735,657.53 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 11,933.99 (up) 57.46 1,399,060,418.235 HOLDING FIRMS 7,511.06 (up) 23.60 1,620,423,099.40 PROPERTY 3,365.75 (up) 26.67 1,497.70 (up) 11.89 1,792,412,481.10 SERVICES MINING & OIL 10,436.03 (down) 109.75 1,335,083,018.015 PSEI 7,575.84 (up) 22.08 85,400,674.145 All Shares Index 4,541.97 (down) 16.20 7,214,276,076.895 Gainers: 90; Losers: 101; Unchanged: 47; Total: 238

order.

With the court approval, Vitarich will exit rehabilitation six years ahead of the 15-year rehabilitation plan.

The Bulacan court approved in May 2007 a 15year rehabilitation of Vitarich, a 65-year old company established by Sarmiento brothers Feliciano, Lorenzo and Pablo.

Vitarch board in 2014 directed executive vice president and chief operating officer Ricardo Sarmiento to ask the Bulacan regional trial court to allow the company to exit rehabilitation after the company substantially reduced its debt and increased its authorized capital stock to P3.5 billion from P500 million.

Vitarich earlier said the company had disposed several non-core assets to raise operating capital and pay off remaining debt.

It also converted most of its debt into equity, amounting to P2.37 billion which helped in reducing company’s debt to P800 million from a high of P3.2 billion.

Vitarich said with 86 percent of debt already settled, it was now ready to be competitive again without the protective mantle of a stay order.

The poultry producer filed for corporate rehabilitation in 2007 after it experienced difficulties in paying off bank loans and other liabilities which ballooned to P3.26 billion, from an outstanding loan of P2.6 billion.

CebuPac’s passengers increase 8%

By Darwin G. Amojelar Cebu Pacific Group said Monday passenger traffic grew 8 percent in the first seven months from a year ago.

The budget airline owned by industrialist John Gokongwei and subsidiary Cebgo carried 11.5 million passengers in January to July, up from 10.7 million passengers in the same period last year.

Load factor also increased 5.5 percentage points to 87 percent in the seven-month period from 81.5 percent last year.

Cebu Pacific and Cebgo carried 1.52 million passengers in July, up by 3.1 percent from 1.48 million last year. Load factor in July rose 6.7 percentage points to 85.9 precent from 79.2 percent last year.

Cebu Pacific Group aims to fly 20 million passengers this year.

The group announced the expansion of its operations at Clark International Airport with increased flights between Clark and Cebu from three to six times weekly starting Dec. 16.

Clark-Hong Kong-Clark flights will be increased from seven to 10 times weekly.

Cebu Pacific said by adding more flights between Clark and Hong Kong, it would further stimulate economic trade and investments from one of Asia’s largest financial hubs to North and Central Luzon.

Cebu Pacific is the only Philippine carrier that operates flights out of Clark and has done so since November 2008.

Cebu Pacific currently operates 21 flights weekly from Clark to Cebu, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore, utilizing 180-seater Airbus A320 aircraft.

Business

B3

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 extrastory2000@gmail.com

BNPP commissioning requires political will

POLISH INVESTOR. Trade Undersecretary and Board of Investments managing head Ceferino Rodolfo (center) meets with executives from the Pietrucha Group of Poland to discuss the newly-established production facility at Freeport Area of Bataan in Mariveles. Pietrucha, the first Polish company to establish a production facility in the Philippines, will produce high-strengthened polyvinyl chloride plastic sheet piles. With Rodolfo are (from left) BoI director for international investment promotion Angelica Cayas, Pietrucha Group board member and export officer Robert Kurowski, Design Science Inc. founder Roberto Tenchavez and BoI director for manufacturing industries service Evariste Cagatan.

Foreign firms shun PNOC Exploration

By Alena Mae S. Flores

S

TATE-OWNED PNOC Exploration Corp. urged the government to repeal Executive Order 556 requiring the company to conduct a bidding on oil and gas exploration ventures, saying it has been unable to find partners because of the ruling.

PNOC Exploration president Pedro Aquino said during a recent Senate hearing EO 556 mandated government corporations engaged in the upstream and downstream oil industries to conduct public bidding in farm-in or farm-out agreements.

“This has been our major stumbling block simply because

oil exploration is a very expensive business, high risk and it would be absurd for us to ask would-be investors or partners to undergo public hearing,” Aquino said.

He said PNOC Exploration was “finding it difficult to comply” with the EO since the rul-

ing was issued in 2006.

Aquino said the company followed the ruling and bid out service contract 37 in Isabela but there was no investor interest.

“We have about eight service contracts. We want to share the risk because even the big companies like Shell, they resort to farm-out to spread the risk...

Nobody wants to undergo public bidding just to participate,” he said.

Aquino said the prospect of finding oil and gas in the Philippines was very low and that investors wanted to take in more partners to spread the risk.

He said the standard procedure prior to the issuance of the EO was

simply to talk to the company and have the board and the Energy Department approve the transaction.

The official said like any other contractors, PNOC time-bound to the department under its work program.

“If we don’t comply (with our work program timelines), DoE will cancel our service contract,” Aquino said.

Energy Department spokesman Felix William Fuentebella said the agency was looking into the concerns of PNOC Exploration, such as the proposed lifting of the EO, Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations and Procurement Reform Act.

Labor issues to dominate next PCCI conference

By Othel V. Campos LABOR issues are expected to dominate the upcoming 42nd Philippine Business Conference in October 12 to 13, 2016 amid the controversy surrounding the end-of-contract scheme after President Rodrigo Duterte raised a concern on the issue.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry said labor was an issue affecting the entire country that included service providers, principals and workers.

PCCI honorary chairman and Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines president Donald

Dee said the win-win solution offered by the Trade Department needed some tweaking.

“We support that proposal in a way but we are not for the removal of end-of-contract system.

Somehow, Secretary (Ramon) Lopez must know that we should at least compromise on certain aspects of the proposal,” he said.

Dee said the issue could potentially be blown out of proportions by militant labor groups if not settled properly.

“Right now, we are talking within our ranks, (not) only with the Trade and Labor Departments and the service providers.

We need to come up with a solu-

tion the soonest possible time or yet we may have to include that in the list of resolution during the next PBC,” he said.

Dee added service providers could not take the full responsibility of providing for entire compensation of a workforce of a principal or client-company since their resources were also limited.

Dee stressed that the only way service providers or manpower agencies could afford to give the complete compensation package was to increase their service fees to 30 to 40 percent, “which will only render their services and perhaps, even existence, uncom-

petitive.”

Companies cannot also streamline the manpower because must follow labor regulations.

“What we can do is for us all to follow labor regulations,” Dee said.

The Trade Department last week offered “win-win” solution to the labor problem by repealing end-of-contract schemew and striking a stronger relationship between manpower agencies and the companies they serve.

Lopez said companies may directly hire employees of service providers and deploy some for a certain premium to enable them to enjoy the full benefitsof workers.

All these technical and operational risk issues have been exhaustively addressed in the past public discussions of the idea of BNPP’s being commissioned. It has all been said before. There is nothing more to be added on these issues.

Likewise, the historical background of the Morong plant has been the object of extreme discussion and examination on all the occasions when it has been in the arena of public discussion. Yes, BNPP was a Marcos-era project. Yes, it was bought from Westinghouse and Burns and Roe for $2.2 billion. And, yes, the purchase and installation appears to have been attended by bribery and hefty commissions. Like the safety and technical issues, these elements of the BNPP saga have been discussed and examined ad nauseam.

But BNPP continues to sit there, entailing P27 million of maintenance costs year after year. And if the new administration does not act decisively on the matter, it will continue to incur the maintenance cost every year.

BNPP is often carelessly referred to as a white elephant.

It is not a white elephant. It will be usable and operational after technical and engineering work that has been placed preliminarily at around $1 billion (P47 billion). There is a consensus that BNPP is capable of being placed on operational status.

To say that the P47 billion refitting cost might as well be spent on a number of other non-nuclear plants is to ignore the benefits derivable from a commissioned BNPP. Power that is considerably less expensive than power generated by oil-fired and coal-fired plants, is clean and operationally is less problematic. There are the benefits that BNPP will offer a highenergy-cost, power-short and environmentally challenged Philippine economy.

There is no need for more congressional hearings on the BNPP. The facts – the pluses and the minuses – are already on the table. All that is needed now is a decision by the Duterte administration either to shelve the Bataan plant indefinitely or to proceed with its commissioning.

In sum, a display of political will is all that is needed now.

THE Bataan Nuclear Power Plant issue – more precisely, the issue of whether the 620-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bataan should be commissioned and connected to this country’s energy grid – has been largely dormant since former President Corazon Aquino thumbed it down right after the Edsa Revolution, but it has from time to time come out into the arena of public discussion and then quickly returned to the back burner. The latest person to bring the issue back into the spotlight is the new Secretary of Energy, Alfonso Cusi, who has declared that BNPP”s commissioning is one of the energy policy options being considered by the Duterte administration.

No sooner had Secretary Cusi said “nuclear” than the usual chorus of anti-BNPP elements were storming the letters-to-the-editor newspaper spaces and social media with their arguments that they first put forward three decades ago. These arguments may be summed up in two words: safety and history.

The critics, who now apparently include the chairman of the Senate committee on energy, were quick to reiterate (1) that BNPP is unsafe and hazardous because of its location in an earthquakeprone area, (2) that the effects on human health of an accident like the accidents that occurred in Fukushima or Chernobyl would be horrendous and (3) that there would be a very difficult problem of nuclear-waste disposal.

These arguments, and the answers to them, have all been stated before. To repeat the answers here would be to sound like a broken record.

The supporters of BNPP’s commissioning have pointed to the fact that the Morong plant emerged virtually unscathed from the 7.2 Northern Luzon earthquake of 1990 and the following year’s Mt. Pinatubo eruption; the fact that the US, Japan and the other major industrial countries continue to be principally powered by nuclear energy; the fact that in the last 60 years there have been only a handful of nuclear-energy disasters and that nuclear-waste disposal is a concomitant of nuclear power and nuclear-energy countries E-mail: rudyromero777@ have learned to deal with this yahoo.com admittedly serious problem.

Fact-checking social media IT was the quintessential example of how easy it is to be duped by internet hoaxes. On March 26, 2011, the Philippine Star published a piece by columnist Carmen N. Pedrosa under the headline “The most gullible people in the world —Harvard.”

In her column (still available online here: https://goo.gl/p0QQAE), Pedrosa—a veteran journalist, political analyst and author—quoted extensively from a Harvard study that found Filipinos to be the first among “the world’s most gullible races.”

“The causes of this gullibility include the inability to question information and an overreliance on interpersonal sources,” she quoted the study as saying. “For Filipinos, a tsunami warning from the government does less than a mother’s directive to avoid the sea because of syokoys (mermen).”

She also quoted the study by the Harvard Institute of Socio-Political Progression, as saying: “What’s curious about the Filipino condition is that despite a respectable literacy rate, many of its people still believe that condoms cause cancer — or that Apollo Quiboloy, CEO of Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc. is the son of God.” “This is a serious allegation we should not ignore,” Pedrosa wrote. “For those who do not

have access to the internet I found this item in a blog called The Mosquito Press. It may seem like a trivial source but according to the authors the study involved content analyses of over 500,000 historical documents from 300 different societies. So we better take it seriously.”

Sadly for Pedrosa, she took The Mosquito Press—a satirical website that was active until 2013—way too seriously. There never was a Harvard study, and the Harvard Institute of Socio-Political Progression doesn’t even exist.

But Pedrosa need not feel too bad—even the Star’s main competitor, the Philippine Daily Inquirer screwed up big-time two years later, when it printed a bogus Time Magazine cover of then President Benigno Aquino III on the front page of its April 20, 2013 issue. The cover, which showed Aquino agape, was an internet meme that the Inquirer’s editors failed to vet.

More recently, a bogus news item that Disney would invest $350 million for Disneyland Philippines spread rapidly on Facebook as if it were fact.

To address problems like this, social networks and technology companies such as Facebook,Twitter, Google and YouTube have formed an alliance with news organizations such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, CNN, ABC News,

Agence France-Presse, The Telegraph, International Business Times and Aljazeera, to filter out fake news and improve the quality of information on social networks.

The alliance, announced last week, will launch a platform where members can validate dubious news reports by the end of October, said Jenni Sargent, managing director of First Draft News, a Google-funded coalition that is behind the new partner network.

“Today we are announcing the expansion of First Draft to include a new partner network of over 30 major news and technology organizations to tackle issues of trust and truth in reporting information that emerges online,’ Sargent said on the First Draft website.

“Filtering out false information can be hard.

Even if news organizations only share factchecked and verified stories, everyone is a publisher and a potential source. We are not going to solve these problems over night, but we’re certainly not going to solve them as individual organizations.”

Organizations interested in joining the partner network can fill out a form on the First Draft website (http://firstdraftnews.com), which includes essential news gathering and verification resources for journalists.

These include “A Journalist’s Guide to Work-

ing With Social Sources” that seeks to answer questions such as: How should I contact a social source?

How should I word call-outs to eyewitnesses?

Do I have to get permission before I can use eyewitness media?

How should I contact eyewitnesses when I need to gain permission to use their media?

What happens if people take down their content?

The website also includes short video references on Mastering Google Search to find eyewitness media, How to use Tweetdeck for newsgathering, How to find tweets by location, and How to find geolocated videos on YouTube.

Local news organizations would certainly benefit from using these resources—and become less gullible in the process.

Column archives and blog at: http://www.chinwong.com

Ray S. Eñano, Editor business@manilastandardtoday.com extrastory2000@gmail.com

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

Business

Melbourne port sold for $7.3b S YDNEY―An Australian-led consortium with Chinese investment won a 50-yearlease Monday on the nation’s biggest container and cargo port for Aus$9.7 billion (US$7.3 billion), the latest maritime asset to be privatized.

The Port of Melbourne, which deals with more than 3,000 ships annually, was snapped up by a consortium including Australia’s second-largest wholesale funds manager the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) and multinational firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

The Australian newspaper reported that GIP was acting partly on behalf of China’s sovereign

wealth fund CIC Capital, which it said had effectively secured 20 percent of the port.

A source close to the consortium confirmed to AFP that CIC Capital was represented by GIP but would not reveal the size of its investment.

The decision comes just months after the government introduced tougher rules for the sale of major Australian state-owned infrastructure to private foreign investors

following concerns over a 99-year lease for the Port of Darwin to China’s Landbridge Group.

The new rules, introduced in March this year, state that sales of crucial infrastructure to private foreign investors must be subject to a formal review by Australia’s foreign investment advisory body.

China was also part of an Australian-led consortium that secured an 98-year lease in 2014 for the world’s biggest coal export port in Newcastle.

That deal followed the longterm lease of Sydney’s Port Botany and Port Kembla further south as a growing number of major Australian ports are privatized.

“The Port of Melbourne is

core infrastructure―it is a critical and strategic piece of the Victorian and Australian logistics supply chain,” said QIC Global Infrastructure chief Ross Israel.

“Our consortium has developed a long-term vision and business plan. Leveraging our global port and regulated asset experience, QIC is focused on delivering long-term stewardship and improvements to the port and for its users.”

The price tag was well above expectations, with the Victorian state government initially seeking Aus$6 billion for one of Australasia’s largest maritime hubs for containerized, automotive and general cargo.

“The lease, worth in excess of

$9.7 billion, reflects strong bidder interest and the port’s value, as the biggest container and cargo port in the country,” the state government said.

Another consortium including Australian fund manager IFM Investors and Dutch pension fund APG Asset Management was also in the running.

A large chunk of the proceeds of the sale, which has been approved by regulators, will be spent on regional and rural infrastructure projects.

“Regional Victoria will be big winners from the lease, with significant funding to support projects they need, like better roads, and irrigation and energy projects,” said state Treasurer Tim Pallas. AFP

Hanjin cuts fleet on court advisory HANJIN Shipping Co., the South Korean container line that sought bankruptcy protection last month, received a court advisory to return all chartered vessels to cut costs while the company is in the midst of reducing its fleet.

Giving the ships back to the owners makes sense as they were chartered at high rates, a spokesman at the Seoul Central District Court said Monday, declining to be identified in accordance with court practices. Hanjin estimates it may face penalties of about $1.7 billion for the early return, but the contracts could be renegotiated if the company is revived, the spokesman said.

Hanjin declined in an e-mail to comment on the court’s recommendation.

The Seoul Central District Court is hearing Hanjin Shipping’s application for receivership and will decide whether it can be resuscitated or should be liquidated. A collapse of the firm will probably spark fresh consolidation among container lines as they attempt to ride out shock waves faced by the industry, Germany’s No. 1 carrier Hapag-Lloyd AG said last week. Bloomberg

ROYAL RIDE. Princess Eleonore (left) and King Philippe of Belgium take part in the Car Free Sunday on September 18, 2016, in the Brussels Capital region. In several cities and towns across Belgium, a Sunday without cars or other motorized transport is organized. AFP

Samsung starts to offer new handsets SEOUL―Samsung rolled out replacements for Galaxy Note 7s plagued by exploding batteries in South Korea on Monday, but only a handful of customers appeared to have taken the opportunity to swap their handsets.

The world’s largest maker of mobile phones recalled 2.5-million units of its top-ofthe-range model more than two weeks ago, after batteries began catching fire while charging.

But users snubbed the South Korean electronics giant’s offer of a temporary replacement until new Note 7s became available, and there seemed to be little urgency among consumers for the permanent fix offered on Monday.

The success of the recall is seen as crucial to Samsung retaining brand loyalty and preventing customers defecting to arch-rival Apple’s new iPhone 7 or cheaper Chinese-made models.

A Samsung spokeswoman confirmed the firm had started to offer the replacement handsets in South Korea and several European nations including Britain on Monday―and would follow suit in the US on Wednesday and expand to other markets by next week.

The company began offering replacements for users in Canada and Singapore last week and is set to start soon in other nations including Mexico, Taiwan, New Zealand the United Arab Emirates.

But with only a trickle of customers visiting stores in Seoul on Monday for their replacements, the fate of the much-hyped handset remained unclear, although consumers in the South Korean capital were sympathetic.

“I felt terrible when I heard about the battery explosion only days after I had bought my Note 7,” Kim Jung-Nam told AFP after receiving the replacement.

“But I liked that the company acted very quickly and decisively about the whole thing... so I decided to trust it once more,” he said. AFP

Opec may convene formal talks if members agree in Algiers OPEC may convene an extraordinary meeting if the group’s ministers reach a consensus on oil markets at an informal gathering next week in Algiers, Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said, according to Algeria’s official news agency.

Barkindo said he is “optimistic” about the informal session in Algiers to be held Sept. 27 on the sidelines of a conference of the International Energy Forum, Algeria Press Service reported. He made his comments in

Algiers after meeting with the country’s energy minister, Nourredine Boutarfa, it said.

Opec is close to reaching an agreement with producers outside the group on how to stabilize the market, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Sunday after talks with his counterparts from fellow Opec members Iran and Ecuador. A “definitive answer” for market stability could come this month, state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA

wrote on Twitter, citing Maduro.

Almost two years after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries set a strategy to eliminate the global oil glut by pressuring rivals with lower prices, markets continue to struggle with excess supply and crude remains capped below $50 a barrel. Opec plans to hold informal talks with competitor Russia in Algiers, fanning speculation that producers may agree on an output cap to shore up prices.

Benchmark Brent crude was up 1.1 percent at $46.27 a barrel on Monday at 11:54 a.m. in Dubai.

A freeze would be the group’s first decision to limit output since Opec adopted a Saudi-led plan in 2014 allowing members to pump more to protect market share from increased production from the US to Russia. Opec members and Russia failed to agree at a meeting in Doha in April to limit production after Iran declined to attend and Saudi Arabia refused

to proceed without all of the Opec states participating.

“We are close to an agreement between Opec and non-Opec countries to stabilize the market,” Maduro said, according to Petroleos de Venezuela. Maduro held “positive discussions” with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, he said at a news conference in Venezuela. Bloomberg

Celebrities join scramble for cannabis—the new California gold rush

By Jocelyne Zablit ADELANTO, United States— Two years ago, the city of Adelanto, a crumbling outpost in California’s Mojave desert, was facing a bleak future as it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and struggled with double-digit unemployment.

“We were about to vanish, to be incorporated into another city,” says councilman John “Bug” Woodard Jr. “The place was dying and in total despair.”

Today, however, the oncedesolate town is firmly back on the map, having joined a handful of communities in California in embracing largescale commercial cannabis cultivation—a move that smells of success as the state prepares to vote in November on legalizing the use of recreational marijuana.

Though California already allows the use of medical marijuana, the initiative to fully legalize the drug—seen as likely to succeed—is expected to transform the most populous state in the US and one of the world’s largest economies into a new epicenter for cannabis, bringing in billions in revenue.

According to the Arcview

Group, a cannabis investment and research firm based in California, medical and recreational marijuana sales are expected to more than double to $6.5 billion in the Golden State by 2020 if the drug becomes fully legal after November.

Nationwide, the legal cannabis market—which stood at about $5.7 billion in 2015— is projected to reach more than $23 billion by 2020, according to Arcview.

Apart from California, several other states including Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada will also vote on legalizing recreational marijuana on November 8, at the same time as casting ballots in the presidential race.

A similar ballot measure in California failed in 2010 but support has grown since, with Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker among backers of the latest initiative, which has the support of 58 percent of voters according to a recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

Celebrities join scramble For Adelanto, the signs pointed to an opportunity too good to pass up.

Last November, the town

Buildings at the site of a future marijuana farm are framed by the branches of a Joshua tree in the “green zone,” an area designated by the city for the development of industrial scale marijuana cultivation, on September 6, 2016 in Adelanto, California. AFP

became among the first in California to permit medical marijuana cultivation.

The decision to welcome marijuana growers led to a flood of high-end investors rushing to the town of 32,000 residents to buy up warehouses and plots of land in two so-called “green zones” earmarked for cannabis cultivation, local officials say.

“All of a sudden, we have people driving over here in Bentleys to look at property,” said Woodard, 57, a real-estate agent with wispy shoulder-length

hair who organizes an annual jazz festival in the desert.

“Here you have a building that was bought for $725,000 a couple years ago and now it’s worth four million,” he added, pointing to an expanse of land dotted with warehouses surrounded by Joshua trees and brush.

“When you say Adelanto now, everybody knows where it is.”

Among the celebrities who have reportedly joined the mad scramble to snag a producer license in the city, Woodard says, are rapper Snoop Dogg, one of

reggae legend Bob Marley’s sons, Ky-Mani Marley, and actor Tommy Chong, of cult comedy duo “Cheech & Chong.”

City officials said they expect cannabis production to easily reach 100 tons annually once farming gets fully underway, bringing in much-needed tax revenue to the decrepit town until now known more for its three prisons than for being potfriendly.

Blossoming industry “We are on the precipice of taking over the industry,” Jermaine Wright, a former pastor and member of the city council, said assuredly.

“We’re doing what no other city has done when it comes to marijuana and this is going to bring in other businesses and manufacturing.”

The city’s cannabis ordinance stipulates that 40 to 50 percent of the workforce must be drawn from the local population, a measure that should significantly reduce unemployment, local officials say.

So far Adelanto, which means progress in English, has issued 35 licenses to grow cannabis and expects to hand out more in

coming months, Woodard said.

Dan Olson, who owns a company that manufactures air filtration equipment in one of the “green zones,” said he has seen the town transform as it prepares for the expected windfall from cannabis farming.

“I go out for a walk in the desert every morning and I can see the change,” said Olson, whose company has been in the city for 12 years. “You now see all these cars with black tinted windows driving around and you see all these warehouses where the weeds have been pulled and you know it’s going cultivation.”

Christopher Goodman, 59, who is in the process of purchasing several warehouses in the city, said he expects to reap millions from his investment.

“The demand is here and the more people get educated about cannabis the more people will use it,” said Goodman, who was in the auto business before turning to cannabis farming several years ago.

“I’ll tell you what, I’d much rather smoke cannabis than drink beer and I mean that wholeheartedly.” AFP

LGUs LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

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FEAST. One of the attractions during the 15th anniversary of the Bañamos Festival in Los Baños, Laguna last week is the Barangay Booth Trade Fair. One booth’s decorations use Dragon Pandan leaves and fruit trees. Roy Tomandao

Estrada gives two new buses to PLM

By Sandy Araneta STUDENTS of the city-run Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) will now enjoy free bus rides courtesy of Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada.

Estrada recently acquired two brand new buses to ferry PLM students to and from the university campus in Intramuros.

“We’d like to help PLM students, our beloved city scholars, save money by providing them with free transportation,” the mayor said.

“This is just a simple gift from the city government to motivate them to study hard so that they’ll become responsible citizens in the future,” Estrada said at the formal turnover of the buses to PLM president Dr. Maria Leonora de Jesus.

The mayor rode the new bus from the city hall to the PLM campus, where he was warmly welcomed by De Jesus, students and members of the faculty.

It was the first time free rides was provided to PLM students, De Jesus said.

The 60-seater air-conditioned buses will have designated loading and unloading zones in strategic locations to pick up and drop students, she said.

“All the students here are scholars and they deserve to be provided with this kind of ser-

vices. PLM is one of the country’s top universities and the City of Manila is a leader in educational excellence,” Estrada pointed out.

Established in 1965, PLM is the first tertiary-level institution in the country to offer tuition-free education; the first university funded solely by a city government; and the first institution of higher learning in the country to have its official name in Filipino.

Its 11,000 students are all scholars who come from the top 10 percent of Manila’s high school graduates.

“Now that the city is debt-free, we can finally come up with more programs, especially in education,” Estrada further said.

In his first three years in office, Estrada introduced major improvements to the city-run university, one of which is the P250-million renovation of Gusaling Antonio Villegas, the three-story main building constructed in the 1960s.

The city has built 22 new school buildings, purchased P375 million worth of 50 digital computer laboratories and 1,600 desktop computers and P40 million worth of textbooks and instructional materials, and provided free school uniforms and supplies to 292,556 students in 2015 and 30,000 pre-schoolers.

DA rehabilitates CAR rice terraces

By Dexter A. See

L

AGAWE—Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol assured the provincial government that he will facilitate the release of P1-million seed money for the Ifugao Rice Terraces Rehabilitation Council, which will be created to oversee the rehabilitation of rice terraces and the enhanced production of heirloom rice.

Gov. Pedro Mayam-o said the council of multi-sectoral representatives will work together to increase the production of heirloom rice and make native rice competitive in the global market.

“The council will initially conduct an inventory of abandoned and damaged rice terraces that could still be rehabilitated to maximize the potential of the province as a major producer

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Essay contest on Taiwan set Davao speeds up infra projects

THE Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines has launched the contest, “An Amazing Short Break in Taiwan,” to encourage more Filipinos to discover the beauty of the Philippines’ closest neighbor up north.

Eligible participants are required to submit a 500-word essay on why Taiwan is an ideal and safe place for Filipinos to visit.

The essay can discuss Tai-

wan’s scenery, history, food, shopping, technology, cheap airfares, proximity to the Philippines, leisure farms, medical services, culture, lifestyle, Taiwan-Philippine interaction, shared values, folk arts, movies and education.

In addition, one photo showing the beauty of Taiwan and a two-minute video describing the essay and what impresses or amazes the participant most in

Taiwan are also required.

Two first prize winners will each receive one economy round-trip air-ticket between Manila and Taiwan with three days accommodation in Taipei.

Two second prize winners will each receive a Taiwan Asus Zen Phone 3 (worth more than P10,000), while the third, fourth and fifth prize winners will receive gift certificates worth from P4,000 to P6,000. PNA

Bagac to build tourism center THE youngest mayor of Bataan wants to promote his town as an ecotourism destination, it being adjacent to the mountains and the West Philippine Sea. Mayor Louise Gabriel del Rosario said more than 700,000 tourists visit Bagac yearly and he will try to attract more by building a tourism center and develop other ecotourism projects.

“We will build a tourism center that will become the first municipal tourism building in the 11 towns and one city of Bataan. Then, we will prepare our tourism programs so that Bagac will be more known not only in the Philippines but in other countries as well,” Del Rosario, who turned 22 last July, said.

He said that products and different places to visit will be showcased in the center.

of heirloom rice, and guarantee the upgrading of rice terraces in the different municipalities,” Mayam-o stressed.

The governor said Piñol’s visit to the province was fruitful because one of the priority programs of the Duterte administration is the enhancement of heirloom rice production, a welcome development for traditional rice farmers wanting to

SHORES. Line engineers, linemen and security staff of the Calbayog substation of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines join the company’s coastal cleanup at Barangay Carayman on Saturday. Mel Caspe

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera DAVAO CITY—Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio created a group to speed up the completion of special and priority infrastructure projects of her government.

Duterte issued Executive Order 8 creating a Task Force on Special Projects to oversee infrastructure projects worth P5 million and above.

“There are several slippages on some infrastructure projects of the city government of Davao,” Duterte’s EO read.

“All identified special/priority projects demand for regular constant attention to avoid the unwarranted delays that may cause inconvenience to the people and hinder the advancement of these infrastructure services,” it added.

The task force, which will be headed by the city mayor, is composed of the city administrator, the city engineer, and the city planning and development coordinator or a duly authorized representative.

The group will monitor, evaluate and fast-track infrastructure projects and the performance of the involved departments.

All projects worth less than P5 million, on the other hand, remains under the administrative control and supervision of the city engineer.

The group is required to submit periodic reports to the mayor.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

Japan to hire BPSU studes

By Butch Gunio

B

ALANGA CITY—The Bataan Peninsula State University and a job agency have approved in principle the internship program for university agriculture students in Japan, said a university official.

Dr. Hermogenes Paguia, BPSU OIC vice president for research, extension and training services, said BPSU president Dr. Greg Rodis and Prudential Employment Agency Inc. CEO Ephraim Alcazaren agreed to set up the program.

Alcazaren said applicants must have had agriculture work

experience, and must be 20 to 32 years old. He said applicants need not pay anything, and will have a good compensation package. He said they will be hiring 200 workers.

However, Paguia said, the agency still has to sign a memorandum of agreement with the BPSU. He said the internship in Ja-

pan is under the university internationalization program for students.

BPSU has six campuses all over Bataan. Its Abucay Campus offers agriculture courses.

The agency, through Gov. Abet Garcia, met on Friday provincial agriculturist Imelda Inieto, PESO manager Melchor Cui, legal

consultant Atty. Joey Angeles, agriculture officers and workers from towns of the province, and BPSU officials to announce the hiring of agriculture workers for internship.

The agency will conduct interviews and orientation on September 23 and 24 at the People’s Center capitol.

DPWH drafts Vis-Min plan A MASTER plan to address flooding and climate change in Visayas and Mindanao will be developed by the Department of Public Works and Highways.

In a memorandum, Senior Undersecretary Rafael Yabut who has charge of Visayas and Mindanao operations, directed DPWH regional directors and district engineers in Visayas and Mindanao whose jurisdiction includes areas with major river basins and major rivers classified under the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) to plan floodcontrol and climate-change mitigation interventions.

The plan will seek solutions to the overflowing of rivers during rainy days by following the river basin approach in planning. It will also enable the department to address the flood problem holistically and not in a palliative manner, Yabut said.

The DPWH Unified Project Management Office-Flood Control Management Cluster (UPMO-FCMC) said it will help the concerned offices draft their master plans.

The country has 18 major river basins. Cagayan River Basin is the largest with a drainage area of 27,753 square kilometers.

The DPWH recently started the improvement of Cagayan River Basin as part of its P356million flood-risk management projects. PIA

LULL. Fisherfolk rush to prepare their nets and boats shortly after Typhoon “Gener” left the Philippine area of responsibility. Ey Acasio

Davao City DRRMC to penalize 911 crank calls

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera DAVAO CITY—The Davao City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (DRRMC) is thinking of drafting an ordinance that would penalize crank callers to emergency hotline 911.

DRRMC officer-in-charge and Central 911 chief Emmanuel Jaldon said his council plans to propose the ordinance to Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

Jaldon said Duterte can issue an executive order or the city council through Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte can pass

it to reduce the number of crank callers.

He said Central 911 has been receiving numerous crank calls including bomb threats since the September 2 Roxas night market blast.

“All calls are not taken for granted. We are really respond-

ing to them,” Jaldon said.

He lamented that such callers hamper the council’s quick response to real emergencies because they clog the 911 call center.

“We will file the appropriate charges once there is already an existing ordinance [that would

penalize them],” he said.

Meanwhile, in the absence of a policy or an ordinance, Jaldon said they just block the offending numbers to prevent further access to 911 unless the owners explain to their office the reason for the crank calls.

Bridge connects 3 Catubig SB secretary hacked to death northern regions

By Mel Caspe

THE Department of Public Works and Highways has completed a P64-million bridge to connect the provinces in the Cagayan, Cordillera and Ilocos regions.

DPWH Region 2 regional director Melanio Briosos, said the two-span, 66-lineal meter Guiddam Bridge on the Manila North Road in Barangay Guiddam, Abulug, Cagayan is now open.

The new bridge is a prestressed concrete girders (PSCG) type V bridge with a 7.32-meter deck and .76-meter sidewalks on both sides. It replaced the old damaged steel

truss bridge.

Briosos also said the bridge makes possible the transport of agricultural and commercial products of Abulug to major trade centers.

The municipality of Abulug is known as a producer of rice, vegetable, fish and industrial products such as lumber. Its native cottage industries are matweaving, pottery, nipa shingle and native winemaking.

“The bridge will greatly improve accessibility and mobility in the Manila North Road which is the gateway to Region I and CAR through the Province of Apayao,” Briosos added. PNA

DA...

Ifugao produces at least seven tons of heirloom rice annually and the bulk of this is sold in the United States through a conduit non-government organization.

With the commitment of agriculture officials to provide supplementary sources of livelihood to traditional rice farmers that will serve as source of income while awaiting the harvest of heirloom rice, hundreds farmers who own damaged and abandoned rice terraces will surely go back to traditional rice farming and contribute to the expected increase in supply of the native rice that commands a high price abroad.

Mayam-o said the executive order for the operation of the Rice Terraces Rehabilitation and Development Council will be released the soonest to start the inventory of the abandoned and damaged rice terraces.

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avail of government assistance to sustain the production of the native variety of rice known as ‘tinawon.’

According to him, the council will coordinate with owners of the abandoned and damaged rice terraces to ensure their commitment to the continuous use of their rice fields for heirloom rice production after the appropriate interventions have been introduced in the different municipalities.

Mayam-o thanked Piñol and officials of the agriculture department for making heirloom rice production one of their flagship programs as more traditional rice farmers will be enticed to till their rice terraces and resume its production.

THE secretary of the Sangguniang Bayan of Catubig in Northern Samar was hacked to death and killed by still unknown assailants midnight of Sunday inside his house in Barangay Mercader.

Catubig Police Station chief Chief Insp. Garry Tungalo identified the victim as Jessie Tenedero, PhD, a polio victim.

According to the Catubig police, one of Tenedero’s three assailants, Casio Rubiano, was identified by the victim before he died in a hospital. Rubiano is a councilman of Barangay Mercader.

Tenedero is an active member of PLEASES Inc. and recently revived the provincial chapter, which voted him president. Not even his being a polio victim deterred his desire to serve his hometown of Catubig and his fellow Sanggunian secretaries.

He is the second SB secretary to be killed in Northern Samar. Early this year, Emil Go of Palapag was shot to death one morning in front of his house.

Police authorities are still investigating the motive behind the killing and identity of the perpetrators.

Tenedero

Bagac...

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Bataan’s only provincial tourism center is in Balanga City, more than 25 kilometers away from Bagac.

Del Rosario said the P2-million project will be funded with

P1.8 million from the bottom up budgeting and the rest from the local government. It will rise near the Philippine-Japan Friendship Tower.

Bagac had its share of world limelight when the finance ministers meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference was

held last year in the theme park Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar.

The mayor said there was a plan to conduct the Asean meet in Bagac next year.

“After Las Casas Filipinas, we want to show guests other tourist destinations in Bagac,” he said.

Bagac, along with Morong

town, is known for its beautiful sandy beaches along the West Philippine Sea. Aside from the beaches, Del Rosario said he wanted to develop two waterfalls—AmbonAmbon and Limutan Falls—that he believed will be loved by tourists. PNA

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK Manila

World

Standard

TODAY

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

Haze kills 100,000 J

AKARTA--A smog outbreak in Southeast Asia last year may have caused over 100,000 premature deaths, according to a new study released Monday that triggered calls for action to tackle the “killer haze.”

Researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US estimated there were more than 90,000 early deaths in Indonesia in areas closest to haze-belching fires, and several thousand more in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.

The new estimate, reached using a complex analytical model, is far higher than the previous official death toll given by authorities of just 19 deaths in Indonesia.

“If nothing changes, this killer haze will carry on taking a terrible toll, year after year,” said Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaign Yuyun Indradi.

“Failure to act immediately to stem the loss of life would be a crime.”

A spokesman for Indonesia’s

environment ministry did not immediately have any comment.

Indonesian authorities have previously insisted they are stepping up haze-fighting efforts, through such actions as banning the granting of new land for palm oil plantations and establishing an agency to restore devastated peatlands.

The haze is an annual problem caused by fires set in forest and on carbon-rich peatland in Indonesia to quickly and cheaply clear land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations.

The blazes occur mainly on Indonesia’s western Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo, with monsoon winds typically blowing the haze over Singapore and Malaysia.

But last year’s fires were among the worst in memory and cloaked large parts of the region in choking smog for weeks, causing huge numbers to fall ill and sending diplomatic tensions soaring.

The new study to be published in journal Environmental Research Letters, which combined satellite data with models of health impacts from smoke exposure and readings from pollution monitoring stations, estimated that 100,300 had died prematurely due to last year’s fires across the three countries.

They estimated there were 91,600 deaths in Indonesia, 6,500 in Malaysia and 2,200 in Singapore.

Greenpeace hailed a “groundbreaking” study they said for the first time gave a detailed breakdown of deaths from last year’s fires, but cautioned that the figure was a “conservative estimate”.

It only looked at health impacts on adults and the effect of dangerous fine-particulate matter, known as PM 2.5. It did not examine the effect on youngsters or of

the other toxins produced by the blazes.

In reality, infants are some of the most at risk from the haze, said Nursyam Ibrahim, from the West Kalimantan province branch of the Indonesian Medical Association on Borneo.

“We are the doctors who care for the vulnerable groups exposed to toxic smoke in every medical centre, and we know how awful it is to see the disease symptoms experienced by babies and children in our care,” said Ibrahim.

The study found an increase in the number of fires in peatland and in timber concessions in 2015, compared to the last haze outbreak considered major, in 2006, and that the number of fires in palm oil plantations fell.

Shannon Koplitz, a Harvard scientist who worked on the study, said she also hoped the model they had developed could help those involved with tackling the annual blazes make quick decisions “as extreme haze events are unfolding.” AFP

Former spy tweaks Modi’s foreign policy HE spent seven years undercover in Pakistan, recruited rebels as informants in disputed Kashmir, and once disguised himself as a rickshaw driver to infiltrate a militant group inside India’s holiest Sikh temple. Now some consider Ajit Doval the most powerful person in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi picked Doval as his National Security Adviser, a position that holds more sway than the ministers of defense and foreign affairs. It puts Doval in charge of talks with arch-rival Pakistan.

He visits arms manufacturers to discuss strategic capabilities, and orchestrates the response to militant attacks, liaising daily with Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, the nation’s top diplomat.

Since Doval took the job, he has supported a nationalist agenda while adopting a tougher line against hostile neighbors. That has growing economic ramifications as China funds a $45 billion trade corridor through Pakistan that bypasses India and as both China and India eye resource-rich neighbors in central Asia like Afghanistan.

“Every strategic issue in this region involves security in a way that it doesn’t in other regions,” says R. K. Sawhney, a former director general of military intelligence who’s known Doval for nearly two decades. “As the profile of the country grows, the profile of the national security advisor grows.”

Short, trim and bespectacled, Doval shuns the limelight and rarely appears in public. His office said he wasn’t available for an interview. Six people who have known him personally for

years—some of whom requested not to be identified because he dislikes publicity—said Doval is overseeing India’s most delicate diplomatic issues.

Shortly after taking office, Modi sent Doval as his special envoy to Afghanistan and brought him on his first foreign trip to Bhutan. He’s also special representative in charge of talks with China over a disputed border, a task made more difficult as China plans to invest millions into transportation links through Kashmir, an area claimed by both India and Pakistan.

In December, Doval flew to Bangkok for a secret meeting with his Pakistani counterpart in an effort to restart peace talks between the two nuclear-armed nations.

“He’s known as an Indian James Bond—he has this larger than life persona,” said Sadanand Dhume, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “There are tales and stories and legends attached to him that are very unusual in a national security advisor.”

Among the most famous concerns his part in the 1988 military operation that flushed Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar in northwestern India. According to Karan Kharb, a retired army officer who was one of the National Security Guard commandos involved, Doval posed as a rickshaw puller to gain entry to the temple. He convinced the militants holed up inside he was a Pakistani operative who’d come to help them in their goal of establishing an independent country called Khalistan. AFP

ERRORS & OMISSIONS

Republic of the Philippines Department of Finance Securities and Exchange Commission Markets and Securities Regulation Department IN THE MATTER OF

: : : : : -Registrant : x---------------------------------------------x CITY & LAND DEVELOPERS, INCORPORATED

SEC MSRD Order No. 12 Series of 2016 Registration of Commercial Papers (under Shelf Registration)

ORDER

FISHY. Indonesia’s crackdown on illegal fishing--with the public spectacle of seized boats blown to smithereens--has led to a significant drop in overfishing and replenished fishing stocks. Bloomberg

28 dead, 15 lost as typhoon hits China THIS year’s strongest typhoon killed 28 people and left 15 others missing as it tore through the Chinese provinces of Zhejiang, near Shanghai, and Fujian during the three-day nationwide holiday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian, where Typhoon Meranti made landfall on Thursday, announced Sunday primary schools would be closed for two to three days because of disruptions to power supplies and transportation networks, Xinhua said. The gale shut down industrial production as well, the agency said.

Fujian provincial authorities said Saturday that 18 people died and 11 others were missing, according to Xinhua. Direct economic losses in the province were estimated at 16.9 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) as more than 18,300 houses were damaged.

In Zhejiang, 10 people died

and four went missing after the typhoon brought heavy rainfall, Xinhua said. Most casualties were caused by landslides and flash floods in rural areas, Zhejiang provincial flood control headquarters said Saturday, according to Xinhua. More than 900 houses collapsed and over 1.5 million people were affected, Xinhua said. The storms occurred during the midst of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Powerful typhoons like Meranti have compounded devastation in southern China this year, caused torrential rains and deadly floods that inundated farms and wreaked heavy property damage. A Bloomberg survey showed flooding in July, China’s worst since 1998, may cut thirdquarter growth by as much as 0.2 percentage points. The economy grew 6.7 percent in three months through June. Bloomberg

showed graphic footage of the aftermath of the accident as passengers were pulled from the water while rescuers attempted to resuscitate stricken people on the bank.

Passengers were trapped on the lower deck of the pleasure boat, which was submerged in the swollen, brown waters agonizingly close to the bank.

Despite its wealth compared to regional neighbors and huge tourism sector, accidents are common on Thailand’s public transport network.

Safety regulations are often weakly enforced, including on boats with overcrowding, sinkings and crashes common--in particular in busy tourist areas.

The Chao Phraya, the main river that flows through Bangkok, is a key commuting artery, filled with often packed boats plying the waterways at breakneck speed. AFP

For the first tranche, the company applied to offer One Hundred Million Pesos (P100,000,000.00) worth of Commercial Papers.

The sale and distribution of the remaining securities under the subsequent tranches shall be conducted only after the issuance by the Commission of the pertinent permit.

SO ORDERED. EDSA, Mandaluyong City, Philippines, September 15,2016.

INVITATION TO APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY AND TO BID PR NO. 2016-2512 (MS-SEPT. 20, 2016)

1.

2.

This is to announce that SKYmobi will be available in Cebu and Davao starting September 20, 2016.

The City Government of San Pedro, Laguna now invites bids forthe following:

Plans to be available are the following packages:

UNIT gals gals vials pcs pcs gals sacks pcs

ANNOUNCEMENT

DESCRIPTION Dialysafe fluid (acid) Dialysafe fluid (bicarbonate) Heparin Sodium vial 5,000 iu/ml 5ml Bloodlines Dialyzer (high flux) Peraldecyde Sea Salt Diasafe filter

Delivery of the Goods is required within thirty (30) days upon receipt of Notice to Proceed. Bidders should have completed, within two (2) years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

In addition,bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

4.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from City Government of San Pedro, Laguna and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below during 8:30AM to 9:30 AM only.

Office of the BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. City Administrator’s Office City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

PACKAGES

MONTHLY SERVICE FEE (MSF)

SKYmobi Plan 499 • 3 GB monthly data allocation @ 12Mbps • 500 MB monthly data allocation to SKY On Demand website or app for 24 Months • Free data access to Facebook, Messenger, and Viber for 24 Months

P499.00

SKYmobi Plan 999 • 6 GB monthly data allocation @ 12Mbps • Free data access to SKY On Demand website and app, Facebook, Messenger, and Viber for 24 Months

P999.00

SKYmobi Plan 1499 • 10 GB monthly data allocation @ 12Mbps • Free data access to SKY On Demand website and app, Facebook, Messenger, and Viber for 24 Months

P1,499.00

SKYmobi-SKYcable Super Saver Plan 1399 • SKYmobi with 6 GB monthly data allowance and FREE data access* to SKY On Demand app/ website, Facebook, Messenger, and Viber • SKYcable with 67 Standard Definition channels and 18 High Definition channels

P1,399.00

*

With downlink speed of up to 12Mbps with 80% network reliability and minimum speed of 12 - 48Kbps where wireless broadband is not available All FREE Data Access services have a daily limit of 800MB. Once reached, all data services will be disabled until 12:01am of the following day. *** In excess of the SKYmobi data volume allocations indicated, subscriber will be charged at P1 per MB. **

(MS-SEPT. 20, 2016)

Republic of the Philippines DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders on thedate, time and address below and upon payment of a nonrefundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount of Php 5,000.00.

ISSUANCE OF ELIGIBILITY AND BIDDING DOCUMENTS:

September 20-October 5, 2016 8:30AM – 9:30AM BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. City Administrator’s Office City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

Bids must be delivered to the address below on or before the specified date and time. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.

DEADLINE OF SUBMISSION OF ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS AND OPENING OF BIDS:

October 5, 2016 10:00 AM BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. City Administrator’s Office City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

Bid opening shall be on the same date and time for deadline of submission of eligibility requirements and submission of bids and shall be conducted at the Office of the BAC Secretariat. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address given above. Late bids shall not be accepted.

5.

The City Government of San Pedro, Lagunaassumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify bidders for any expenses incurred in the preparation of their bid.

Further, City Government of San Pedro, Laguna, reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

6.

VICENTE GRACIANO P. FELIZMENIO, JR. Director

In Classified Ads section must be brought to our attention the very day the advertisement is published. We will not be responsible for any incorrect ads not reported to us immediately.

The City Government of San Pedro, Laguna through the 2016 Budget Approved by the Sangguniang Panglungsod (Philhealth Trustfund) intends to apply the sum of Php 2,023,572.00 being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for Supply and Delivery of Dialysis Supplies for Official Use of JLAEH. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

QTY 730 730 250 750 80 3 4 4

Thai boat crash kills 15 BANGKOK—The search for several missing passengers continued Monday after a boat carrying Muslim pilgrims sank on Thailand’s Chao Phraya river leaving at least 15 people dead, a provincial governor said.

The accident happened on Sunday afternoon near the ancient city of Ayutthaya, a popular tourist attraction, when a boat packed with pilgrims returning from a mosque hit a concrete bank in strong tides.

“The death toll is now confirmed at 15, with 11 people still missing,” Ayutthaya deputy governor Rewat Prasong told Agence France Presse, updating the overnight toll from 13 dead.

“Fourteen people are still in hospital,” he said, adding “the rescue operation resumed this morning to find those missing.”

No foreigners were believed to be among the dead.

Local television stations

Upon consideration of the Registration Statement and other papers and documents attached thereto filed on behalf of CITY & LAND DEVELOPERS, INCORPORATED, the Commission, in its meeting of 14 September 2016, favorably considered the application for shelf registration of Three Hundred Million Pesos (P 300,000,000.00) worth of Commercial Papers, in accordance with the requirements of Sections 8 and 12 of the Securities Regulation Code.

Let a Certificate of Permit to Offer Securities for Sale authorizing the sale and distribution of One Hundred Million Pesos (P 100,000,000.00) relative to the first tranche be issued in favor of the company.

Republic of the Philippines CITY OF SAN PEDRO Province of Laguna BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE

C3

For further information, please refer to:

MARITIME INDUSTRY AUTHORITY MARINA R.O. X 2/F SEJOLIM Bldg., Gemilina St., Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City Tel. No. (08822) 726522/Telefax No. (088) 856-9105 / Email: cdomro@yahoo.com

THE ARK GREEN DYNAMIC RESOURCES CORP., Petitioner/s. x- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

CASE NO. MRO X 16 – 001 Sale

NOTICE OF HEARING Petitioner/s requests for the Change of Company Name of the vessels DREDGER “THE ARK D-001” and MB “THE ARK T-001” from THE ARK MINERAL ORE MINING CORP., to the above-named Applicant in view of the amendment of the Articles of Incorporation and By Laws.

The applicant shall cause the publication of this Order once in any of the newspapers of national circulation in the Philippines, or in MARINA website within seven (7) day from the date of hearing.

Applicant shall present the jurisdictional, qualification and documentary requirements in a hearing to be conducted on 30 September 2016, Friday, at 11:00 o’clock in the morning at the MARINA RO X Conference Room, Se Jo Lim Bldg., Gemilina St., Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City.

The Applicant shall be required to make a written Formal Offer of Evidence (FOE), during the hearing or five (5) days thereafter.

WITNESS, the MARINA Administrator, Marcial Quirico C. Amaro III, PhD, this 06th day of September 2016, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines.

Mr. Merlin B. Paala Office of the BAC Secretariat San Pedro City Hall San Pedro, Laguna Telefax No. 847.1722

(SGD) ENGR. MARC ANTHONY P. PASCUA Regional Director-MRO X

(signed) ENGR. FILEMON I. SIBULO Chairman Bids and Awards Committee

cc: Applicant, THE ARK GREEN DYNAMIC RESOURCES CORP., Butuan City The Solicitor General, 134 Amorsolo St.Makati City File (MS-SEPT. 20, 2016)

(MS-SEPT. 20, 2016)

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

C4

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

Obama to meet with Netanyahu

World

WASHI NGTON--President Barack Obama will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the White House said Sunday.

The two leaders will have a bilateral meeting Wednesday, with discussion topics likely to include the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.

Earnest said the meeting would afford Obama and Netanyahu an opportunity to discuss “the strong ties between the United States and Israel.”

The two allies signed a new 10-year agreement last Wednesday in Washington. It calls for the United States to provide Israel $38 billion of defense aid, beginning in 2019, the single-largest pledge of military assistance in US history.

Netanyahu “will personally thank President Obama for the military

US probes terror links to 3 attacks N

EW YORK— Three attacks carried out in the United States on a single day--a New York bombing, a Minnesota mass stabbing and a New Jersey pipe bomb blast--were under investigation Sunday for potential terror links.

Authorities say there is no evidence that the attacks were coordinated but their timing in under 24 hours raises fears about security--already a major issue in the country’s deeply divisive presidential election battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Twenty-nine people were injured when a bomb exploded in New York’s upmarket Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night, damaging buildings, shattering glass and sending shrapnel flying across the street.

A second bomb was uncovered by police four blocks away and defused safely, before being sent to the FBI in Virginia for forensic examination.

Both bombs were filled with shrapnel and made with pressure cookers, flip phones, Christmas lights and explosive compound, The New York Times reported late Sunday, citing law enforcement officials.

CNN reported that officials had obtained surveillance videos showing the same man near the site of the explosion and where the undetonated device was found, according to “multiple” local and federal law enforcement sources.

Hours earlier, less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) south in New Jersey, a pipe bomb exploded in a trash can on the route of a Marine Corps run before the start of the race, causing no injuries but forcing its cancellation.

In the Midwest, an assailant reported to be Somali-American went on a stabbing spree in a shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, injuring nine people before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer.

US authorities said the motive of all three attacks was unclear, but elected officials quickly identified them as terror-related.

“If you look at a number of these incidents, you can call them whatever you want: they are terrorism though,” New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie, a member of the Trump campaign, told CNN. AFP

aid agreement signed last week,” the Israeli leader’s office said in a statement.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu will discuss with President Obama the challenges in the Middle East and the ways to advance progress in peace and security,” it said.

Obama and Netanyahu, who both took office in 2009, have had a notoriously difficult relationship, underscored by a series of incidents reflecting their strains.

The latest was Netanyahu’s last-minute cancellation of a White House visit in March. The US president, who learned of the cancellation through the media, did not hide his annoyance.

Obama is expected to arrive late Sunday in New York for his final attendance at the UN General Assembly before he leaves office in January.

His schedule includes numerous bilateral meetings, including with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. AFP

Clinton to abolish borders—Trump

DRAMATIC. Actor John Travolta, winner of Best Mini-Series or Movie for The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime

Story, poses in the press room during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on Sunday in Los Angeles, California. AFP

DONALD Trump said thousands of criminals who are undocumented immigrants or have overstayed their entry visas are putting the nation at risk, and characterized Democrat Hillary Clinton’s immigration plan as creating “grave peril.”

“Hillary Clinton is the first person to ever run for the presidency of a country effectively proposing to abolish the borders around that country,” the Republican presidential candidate said in Houston at an event held by the Remembrance Project, a nonprofit group that advocates for families whose loved ones were killed by undocumented immigrants.

Speaking in somber tones from a teleprompter, Trump, 70, said Clinton wants to “give lifetime welfare and entitlements to illegal immigrants.” Members of the group joined him on stage.

According to the plan laid out on her website, Clinton would introduce “comprehensive immigration reform” if elected, including a pathway to “full and equal” citizenship for many undocumented immigrants. The plan also calls for detaining and deporting “individuals who pose a violent threat to public safety.”

The real estate developer turned politician has made cracking down on undocumented immigrants a cornerstone of his campaign.

He’s said repeatedly that he plans to build a wall along the U. border with Mexico, and make Mexico pay for it.

During his campaign he has labeled some Mexican immigrants “rapists.”

Trump hinted how he’ll use the issue during the upcoming presidential debates, which he said would make for an “interesting” time. The first Trump-Clinton debate is scheduled for September 26.

“When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, the matter of this country refusing to take back their deported citizens came before Hillary Clinton’s desk,“ Trump said. “She failed to take forceful action, and ignored the federal law requiring her to suspend visas to countries that don’t take back their citizens.”

Trump specifically alluded to Thong Vang, who was accused of shooting two police officers in Fresno, California, this month.

Vang, a native of Laos, was paroled in 2014 after being convicted in 1998 of raping three underage girls as part of a gang. He served 16 years in prison. Bloomberg

Maduro supporters slam US ‘interventionism’ PORLAMAR—The NonAligned Movement wrapped up a summit Sunday in Venezuela with an expression of support for its embattled host, President Nicolas Maduro, and scathing attacks on US “interventionism” around the world.

The 120-member group issued a statement at the end of the two-

day meeting calling for peace, urging world powers not to meddle in other countries’ affairs and voicing concern over violence in Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories.

The 190-page document also urges support for “the struggle against terrorism, for solidarity with refugees in northern Africa,

and the Venezuelan people’s right to peace,” Maduro told a press conference.

Founded 55 years ago to give a greater voice to countries squeezed in the power struggle between the United States and Soviet Union, the Non-Aligned Movement has struggled to stay relevant since the end of the Cold War.

Just a handful of heads of state or government attended the summit on the Caribbean island of Margarita, though organizers did not say exactly how many.

But it was a key diplomatic encounter for Maduro, who has been left increasingly isolated as Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy has skidded into crisis amid

a collapse in global crude prices, fueling calls for his ouster.

The leftist leader, who accuses the United States of backing opposition attempts to remove him in a “coup,” emphasized that the summit had backed his government’s condemnation of US sanctions that declare Venezuela a threat to US national security. AFP

Game of Thrones wins 12 Emmys LOS ANGELES—Fantasy epic “Game of Thrones” made television history at the 68th Emmys on Sunday, becoming the most decorated fictional show since the awards began nearly seven decades ago.

The HBO series picked up 12 total Emmys this season-- nine awards in technical categories and three top prizes at the glitzy ceremony in downtown Los Angeles--television’s equivalent of the Oscars.

The blood-spattered, sex-filled saga about noble families vying for control of the Iron Throne took home the most coveted prize of the night, the best drama Emmy--along with statuettes for writing and directing.

That gives it a total haul over the years of 38--more than any other narrative series since the first Television Academy prize-

giving in 1949, overtaking the haul of 37 won by long-running comedy “Frasier.”

“We love ‘Frasier’ and he had a long run and we’re sure someone will come along and take it from us. We just hope it doesn’t happen until we’re all dead,” showrunner David Benioff told reporters.

It went down to the wire in the end, as “Thrones” drew a blank in the acting categories, despite being a hot favorite and having multiple nominees, and only set the record with the last prize of the night.

Three of its stars--Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke and Maisie Williams--dominated the betting in the supporting actress category, but the statuette went to Maggie Smith of “Downton Abbey.”

Peter Dinklage missed out on a supporting actor trophy, as did co-star Kit Harington, the cate-

gory’s favorite, with Ben Mendelsohn picking up the prize for Netflix family drama “Bloodline.”

“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” also glittered, picking up a total of nine awards this season, including the prize for best limited series.

“If your show doesn’t have a dragon or a white Bronco in it, go home right now,” host Jimmy Kimmel joked at the start of the three-hour broadcast, a reference to “Thrones” and the infamous car Simpson was in when he went on a wild ride through Los Angeles before his arrest.

The all-time Emmy list of winners--which includes nonfiction-is topped by NBC comedy sketch show “Saturday Night Live,” with 45 awards, one of them handed out Sunday to Kate McKinnon for best supporting actress. AFP

CLOSER. Brazilian singer Vanessa da Mata performs during the closing ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. AFP

Life ARTS, CULTURE & MEDIA

By Virgilio ‘Pandy’ Aviado

By Jose Santos P. Ardivilla

P

INOY printmakers go back to basics, so to speak and return to works on paper.

Paper, for all its apparent and perceived weakness and disposability, has endured through many of humanity’s technological and philosophical shifts.

Paper manifested and propagated human knowledge and expression. The humble and sturdy paper has been a testament of endurance and versatility. In cartography, where lines are drawn and warfare erupts, the paper played hosts to the shifting geographies in history.

In recording the myriad trajectories of human progress and accomplishment and, on the other side, denigration and regression, the paper bore witness to unfolding and emerging histories such as to relay lessons for the future. In even simpler and personal tones, the paper holds sway over jotted down memories, frustrations in journals, and even scrawled prayers are heaped upon it to be folded and inserted into cracks.

As such, the paper never gets lost in the cracks so to speak, even with the dangers of it being disposed of or at least ignored in the contemporary world. In the digital turn of communication, paper use is seen to be dwindling, a vestige of an old order. In the fickle and cynical art market route, works on paper are seen as less valuable compared to art works rendered on canvas, on wood, and other more “sturdier” materials.

The members of the Association of Pinoy printmakers took to task not just to pay homage to the paper, but also to prove the naysayers wrong. In their group exhibit entitled Papers and Layers, the printmakers prove that the paper is not a bland, flat plane, but an object of fascination, reification, re-configuration. The printmaking tradition owes its very existence to the paper. Yet, the participating printmakers do not focus on drab tradition. Instead, in their deft hands, they render the paper as anything but beige and disposable.

The printmakers engage with paper for its structural capacity and challenge the notion of the material’s perceived impermanence. The “layers” invoked in the exhibit are added nuances and details that change the planar from a blank sheet into the depository of expressions, emotions, and even incantations. The act of printmaking literally adds layers of ink that are pressed on to the paper to generate, mark, and transfer images.

In this exhibit, the “layers” aspect are niftily deployed by the printmakers in their avenues of expressions, be it in current political skirmishes, or exploration of the body, the self. In the basic sense, the works on paper here are in many degrees are like journal entries navigating through the tense contemporary demands and upheavals. From representations of the body and place to the pulsating abstractions that attempt to render time and emotion, the paper is the paramount key to transmit such complexities.

In this exhibition, the notion of value and worth are not translated to shrill monetary entanglements for collectors, but are invoked by the printmakers’ adoration for the material of paper. Not just its tactility of surface, the thickness of its weight, but the many possibilities one can play with the humble paper. This

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

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Print by Mica Cabildo and Maja Markovic displayed at Paper and Layers group exhibition

TESTAMENTS of Endurance

By Lenore RS Lim

By Mars Bugaoan

Jiggy Manicad ‘On The Edge’

as broadcast journalist

By Villia Jefremovas

marks its very endurance that can still thrive and cannot be easily torn away from vaulted and emergent artists. It is not the notion of its impermanence that should be taken into consideration, but paper will always have prominence and, in many instances, preeminence in visual art.

Papers and Layers runs until Sept. 25 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Second Floor Hallway Gallery and Little Theater Lobby.

Participating artists include Ambie Abano, Buen Abrigo, Virgilio Avi-

ado, Mars Bugaoan, Mica Cabildo, Benjie Torrado Cabrera, Kristen Cain, Salvador Ching, Joey Cobcobo, Jean Dee, Fil Delacruz, Janos Delacruz, Neil Doloricon, Noell EL Farol, Samantha Feleo, Jess Flores, Raul Isidro, Eugene Jarque, Lea Lim, Lenore RS Lim, Angelo Magno, Fara Manuel, Maja Markovic, Ged Merino, Jonathan Olazo, Renan Ortiz, Henrielle Pagkaliwangan, Rhoda Recto, Jun-Jun Sta. Ana, Suchin Teoh, Josephine Turalba, Wesley Valenzuela and the author.

FOR GMA News’ Jiggy Manicad, there is no other way to deliver news and tell stories but to present them as truthfully as possible. The broadcast journalist looks back at his award-winning coverage and news stories in the last two decades in a book he authored and titled, On The Edge.

“In the last 20 years, I have tried my best to practice journalism the simplest way possible and this is to get the facts no matter how difficult the obstacles may be. I have realized that this is the best way to serve God and my country,” shares Manicad, currently the co-anchor of GMA’s 24 Oras We e ke n d , c o host of public affairs program R e p o r t e r’s Notebook, and anchor of GMA News TV newscast Quick Response Team (QRT).

On The Edge deals with stories of national and international importance, with Filipinos at its core and context. In addition to narrating the stories behind each story, he also shares coverage techniques and lessons useful to students and broadcast news practitioners alike.

GMA News’ Jessica Soho, referred to in the network as news pillar and is a Peabody awardee, wrote the foreword on the book.

On The Edge was launched on Sept. 14 at the Manila International Book Fair held at the SMX Convention Center. It was one of the highlights of the event’s opening day.

Anvil Publishing published the book and is available at all National Book store and Powerbooks outlets nationwide.

Jiggy Manicad launches a book that tackles his news stories and coverage in the last two decades

Life

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 isahred@gmail.com

38 local and foreign artists in MCAD show

M

ANILA’S art community, collectors and enthusiasts, academe and students trooped to the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) for the opening of Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs.

The traveling show, organized by the Paris and San Francisco-based Kadist Art Foundation, in collaboration with MCAD and Para Site of Hong Kong, features artworks, that include paintings, sculptures, multimedia pieces and field recordings by 38 artists from here and abroad. The

Broken Varaha by contemporary artist Prabhakar Pachpute

Adie Pena and Gen. Lito Tabangcura

From left: Pache Paredes, Joselina Cruz, Chris Green, Fatima Manalili and Mary Ann Pernia

pieces expound on the theme of trans- School of Design and Arts (SDA) Camformation happening throughout the pus, Dominga Street, Malate, Manila. world as a result of changes in various parts of Asia, especially China.

Visit www.mcadmanila.org.ph Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs and its Facebook, Twitter and may be viewed until Dec. 4 at MCAD, Instagram pages for more details.

Hand-building pottery at Sunshine Place

CERAMIC artist and instructor Iori Janelli A. Espiritu will be holding short courses on Basic Hand Building Pottery at the Sunshine Place every Monday from 10 a.m to 12 noon until Oct.17.

On Sept. 26 it will be about Wind Chimes, on Oct. 3 about Oil Burners & Vases, on

Oct. 10 it will be about firing of works and on Oct. 17 the session will focus on glazing and pottery decorations.

For more information contact (02) 856-4144 / 856-4162, (0917) 5155656.

Benilde students win at CCP Gawad Alternatibo

Jean Tagyamon’s Lola Loleng animation which won the grand prize

Animation, Experimental, Documentary and Short Feature.

The grand prize in the Animation category was won by University of the Philippines’ Jean Cheryl Tagyamon’s Lola Loleng, which tackles the idea of memory and forgetting.

DLS-CSB’s Renz Vincent Cruz and Hannah Darly Gayapa won second prize for their feature The Passage of Life, which deals with a mother-daughter conflict.

On the other hand, Kuenzang Dorji’s A Yeti Story, which talks about friendship and forgiving one’s enemies, received third place.

Three Bnildeans entries were likewise given honorable mentions. Chih-Chiang Wei’s Power Up tells the story of an astronaut who lives alone in a cold planet and his search for a star that would power his space ship. Erika Chelsea Oleta’s Sweet Victory follows a young boy’s obsession with a cupcake at a party and the turn of events that occurs. Patricia Camino’s Paper Cut discusses the struggle between ink and colored illustrations among three paper doll artists.

Aside from the main awards, special citations are also given out to the best work from the regions, as well as dedicated efforts on, for, and by children.

Winners received cash prizes and certificates. Many of today’s outstanding filmmakers have participated in the past, and have continuously and constantly won throughout the years.

The Passage of Life by Renz Vincent Cruz and Hannah Darly Gayapa

Kuenzang Dorji’s A Yeti Story talks about friendship and forgiving one’s enemies

STUDENTS of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) took home five of six top awards in the Animation category at the recently concluded 28th Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video (Gawad Alternatibo).

Held alongside this year’s 12th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, the Gawad Alternatibo is considered to be the longest running independent film competition of its kind in the Asian region. Since 1987, it annually cites the best efforts of Filipino filmmakers in four categories, namely

Riel Hilario’s winning Don Papa Art Canister design entitled The Spiritual Landscape of Papa Isio will be available in October

Award-winning design in ‘Don Papa Art Canister Series’

DON Papa Rum, the premium aged rum from the sugar island of Negros Occidental, introduces the new set of award-winning designs in its Don Papa Art Canister Series. Composed of the winners in the 2015 Don Papa Art Competition, the series features the top three artworks being incorporated into the canisters and packaging of Don Papa Rum. First to be made available in October is the design by grand prizewinner Riel Hilario called The Spiritual Landscape of Papa Isio. On its heels are two other award-winning artworks by Barry Cervantes and Anjo Bolarda.

Don Papa and the Babaylan is by first runner up winner Cervantes, who also hails from Negros Occidental. The 3ft x 5ft acrylic on canvas painting is his nostalgic tribute to the stories he heard as a child growing up in the town of Valladolid, about Papa Isio’s revolt against the Spaniards and the myths surrounding Mt. Kanlaon. Papa Isio is Dionisio Magbuelas, the leader of the shamanistic babaylanes (priests, philosophers and healers) who led a revolt in Negros in the 1890s.

Mt. Kanlaon is an active volcano towering over the island, and is considered a sacred site by the people of Negros.

“The painting depicts the soul of Papa Isio alongside a babaylan

crowned with the images of struggle and the braveness of a true revolutionary icon that embodies the strong spirit of Negrosanons and the Babaylanes,” says Cervantes. Other images the artist portrayed in his painting include an erupting Mt. Kanlaon and a “bird that portrays death in a sacrificial way, in exchange for our sweet freedom.”

And the second runner up is a 2ft x 4ft ink on paper illustration by artist Anjo Bolarda. Inspired by the original packaging of Don Papa Rum, Bolarda chose to hand-draw the design of his Untitled piece as a nod to the hard work, meticulous craftsmanship, and the necessary time needed to produce excellent rum.

His piece is also an appreciation for the exotic wildlife found in the dense rain forests surrounding Mt. Kanlaon, as well as a message of concern about the environment. “In the illustration you can find, peeking out from behind the stalks of the sugarcane, just some of the animals endangered and endemic to Negros Occidental,” says Bolarda. According to the artist, the animals in the design help localise the brand further, and make the packaging more relevant as it highlights the environmental issues of today.

Don Papa Art Canister Series launches the Riel Hilario Edition in four Don

Don Papa and the Babaylan by Barry Cervantes

Papa Rum markets: the Philippines, France, Germany, and the Netherlands in October. The two remaining Art Canister Editions will simultaneously be available in November in key retail outlets, like Rustan’s, SM, S&R, and Ralph’s Wines and Spirits. By December, all three artworks will be available in the four world markets.

Launched on Nov. 11, 2015, the first Don Papa Art Competition yielded four award-winning artworks: the three above-mentioned, plus Florescence of Endeavor by Renz Bautista, which won the People’s Choice Award.

The second Don Papa Art Competition was launched on Sept. 14 and it would be open to both independent artists as well as artists represented by galleries. The top 10 finalists will be featured in a special Don Papa Exhibit at the 2017 Art Fair Philippines. The grand prize winning artwork will become the next featured design in the Don Papa Art Canister Series for 2017, while its artist will receive an Artist Residency Sojourn in Florence, Italy.

For more inquiries on the second Don Papa Art Competition, visit Don Papa Rum on Facebook or contact Dannie Alvarez at join@bleedingheartrum.com or 0915-6888269.

Untitled by Anjo Bolarda

D3

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 isahred@gmail.com

H

ERE we are in an age of wanting to make it big in any industry, more often going solo.

Sometimes, it’s tough getting your act together and keeping the faith for several years. Not with Plethora, composed of LJ Herrera (vocals), Aldrin Isaguire (keyboardist), Jesser Pello (drums), and Andrew Isaguire (lead guitarist), who are on board for the long haul, together.

Having grown up together and sharing their fondness for music, the boys, based in Cavite, have been officially and collectively known as Plethora in high school. They searched the dictionary for a word that sticks. They found that word that describes their values: Plethora.

“We searched the dictionary and found the word ‘plethora,’ which meant overabundance. It seemed like the right one, so we went with it,” LJ says.

While they name Metallica as one of the biggest influences, and they’re very much into neoclassical metal and rock, they also flourish in reggae and alternative—proving that their years of experience has taught them a valuable lesson in making it big in the music industry: flexibility.

The band has learnt a lot through the mentorship program wherein noteworthy music icons such as Thyro Alfaro, The Juans, MG Mozo, Civ Fontanilla, Punch Liwanag, and Donnalyn Bartolome trained them. They said that they’ve gained knowledge and maturity from learning from professionals and with this, they are now more confident in themselves and in their music.

For 15 years, they have been gracing audiences with their distinct brand of music that is both mature and deep. It’s their goal to inspire people with their

‘Sully’ in IMAX® now

PLETHORA seeks to improve

music scene

Up-andcoming band Plethora plays neoclassical, rock and alternative music. (Left Photo) The band composed of LJ Herrera, Aldrin Isaguire, Jesser Pello and Andrew Isaguire with the judges of Greenwich Ultimate Barkada Search.

music. It hasn’t always been that way, as they have faced several challenges. Like any other successful band, they had to show how industrious and creative they are.

Their hard work and creativity paid off when they were in the Top 8 Finalists in the Greenwich Ultimate Barkada Search, and eventually won first place. They admit that they did have a hard time using the lyrics given by Greenwich, but their efforts weren’t wasted. Because

of their persistent attitude to rise above standard images, they matched music and lyrics, and thus their mission was clear to Greenwich.

“We joined because we really want to inspire, especially the youth. We want to break the stereotype that musicians are irresponsible and do drugs. We want everyone to know that through music, you can be better, that you, too, can inspire,” LJ says.

With that in mind, they

claimed first place and won prize money and a recording contract with Viva Records.

The challenges are not over for the band, as they face higher mountains ahead.

Thanks to the Greenwich Ultimate Barkada Search, they are able to save more for their craft. “We plan to set it aside the prize money and save up because we also need to improve the materials and instruments we use to make our music,” said LJ.

With higher mountains on the horizon, they look up to the heavens and seek their own inspiration from the “Source of Being.” “Discipline, focus and of course having Jesus Christ in the center of our band was really how we got the winning place”, says LJ. The band from Cavite, a boyhood hobby turned masterful career, is always present at all studio recordings, and continue to work hard for both soulful music and for a better, brighter world.

Tom Hanks returns to the big screen in Clint Eastwood’s biographical drama, Sully, showing exclusively in IMAX Theatres now.

Sully tells the story of US Airways Flight 1549 and its pilot, Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger, on a flight from New York to North Carolina when tragedy strikes only minutes after the aircraft’s takeoff. With a crippled aircraft and no cleared runway nearby, Sully fights immeasurable odds to bring his 155 passengers and crew back to safety.

To deliver the most stunning visuals to its rich story, Director Clint Eastwood filmed 95 percent of Sully with the new ALEXA IMAX® 65mm cameras. The revolutionary 2D camera, combined with IMAX’s digital re-mastering process, produces the highest level of digital image capture and playback resulting in stunning lifelike images with pristine clarity, incredibly fine detail, vivid colors and a higher dynamic range for superior contrast.

Exclusively showing in IMAX® screens, the entire film will expand vertically to deliver 26 percent more of the image than standard theatres, creating a much greater scope and breathtaking image quality for a truly immersive experience.

Catch the untold story behind what has been known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” in stunning clarity. Watch Sully in IMAX® Theatres.

For tickets, head on to the SM Cinema ticket booth near you or log on to www. smcinema.com/imax.

90s Faves in Manila MUSIC Management International (MMI Live) is thrilled to announce a one-night, back-toback throwback performance of America’s most successful R&B girl group, TLC together with the phenomenal trio, SWV on Nov. 6, 8 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Formed in Atlanta in 1991, TLC captured the world’s attention with their sassy attitude, sophisticated R&B feel and socially conscious lyrical style. Originally comprised of Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and rapper Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, the trio is largely considered one of the most important and successful female R&B groups of all time.

In 1994, TLC broke records with their multi platinum album CrazySexyCool that went on to sell over 11 million copies in the U.S. alone and won

a Grammy for Best R&B Album, which included chart-topping hits such as “Creep” and “Waterfalls”.

TLC’s highly anticipated third album, FanMail, was released in 1999 to rave reviews, and like its predecessor, took home the Album of the Year and Best R&B Album. “No Scrubs” won Record of the Year and “Unpretty” won Best Video. The group is slated to release a brand new album in 2017.

Expect TLC’s iconic jams and hits, paying homage to Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, to remind everyone just why TLC have been history’s most influential female hip-hop and R&B act of their generation.

On the other hand, hit maker SWV, acronym for Sisters With Voices -- comprised of three school friends Cheryl “Coko” Gamble, Tamara “Taj” Johnson, and Leanne “Lelee” Lyons—

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Tuesday, September 20, 2016

ACROSS 1 Made like a goose 7 Position 10 Invitation letters 14 Cling 15 Stretchy bandage 16 Vulcan’s forge 17 Ms. Rubinstein 18 Fan’s shout 19 Average guys 20 Kind of creel (2 wds.)

23 Violin holders 26 Lion’s quarters 27 Type of spruce 28 Bahrain VIP 29 Strong soap 30 Insect resin 31 Chaney of cinema 32 CB radio knob 33 Malodorous one 37 Joule fraction 38 Hole puncher 39 Banking convenience 40 That woman 41 Bugs in a garage 43 Urban transport 44 Great Lakes cargo 45 Put out of sight 46 Hirt and Gore

47 Orient 48 Delhi attire 51 Dallas sch.

52 Driving hazard 53 Zinc, e.g.

(2 wds.)

56 Estrada or Satie 57 Delivery truck 58 Eucalyptus munchers 62 Back the wrong horse 63 — take forever!

64 List of typos 65 Basin companion 66 Guitarist — Paul 67 Mississippi explorer (2 wds.)

DOWN 1 Derisive snort 2 Work by Keats 3 Red Wings org.

4 Zoo employee 5 Coastal fliers 6 Real bargain 7 Local booster 8 Globe feature 9 Burrito morsel 10 Be of good cheer 11 Dark ale 12 Sweater style (hyph.)

13 Harem head,

once 21 Shipboard romances 22 Choir selections 23 “People” person 24 Love in a gondola 25 Char 29 Bellowed 30 Name in spreadsheets 32 Gladstone 33 Mush 34 Opted for 35 Cliffside refuge 36 Buy a round

42 More dense, as fog 46 Revises 47 Hitching posts?

48 Stone monument 49 Crossbow bolt 50 Elevate 51 Metamorphosed shale 52 Saw logs 54 Worse than bad 55 Just scraped by 59 — Tzu 60 Legal rep 61 — Paulo

burst onto the scene in the early 90’s. The group scored nine top 10 singles on the Hot R&B/HipHop Songs chart, including chart-toppers “Weak”, “Right Here (Human Nature Remix)”, and “You’re the One”. Recently, the group released a brand new single entitled, “MCE (Man Crush Everyday)”, which appears on their latest album “Still”.

Don’t miss two of the most iconic R&B groups of our generation taking the stage on Nov. 6, Sunday, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum as presented by Music Management International and the Araneta Center.

Tickets to TLC with SWV Live in Manila are on sale via ticketnet.com.ph.

For more information on tickets and reservations, you may follow #MMILive (on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter) or visit ticketnet.com.ph, or call 911-5555.

THE BEST OF THE 90s. R&B’s most successful group TLC and phenomenal trio SWV in one concert at the Smart Araneta Coliseum

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com

D4

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

Showbiz

Gwen Zamora ready for more indie film roles A

FTER earning a nomination in the forthcoming Film Academy of the Philippines awards for Best Actress for her role in Mario Cornejo’s Apocalypse Child, Gwen Zamora is looking forward to working in more independent film projects in the future.

“It excites me to think about playing more characters in other indie films,” the pretty FrancoFilipina said over lunch recently at Victorino’s in Quezon City.

Movies is where Gwenaella Tasha Mae Agnese (now more familiarly known as Gwen Zamora) started in show business. She played a small role in Enteng Kabisote (Entent at si Agimat). She was 18 then and the role gave the teenager the biggest surprise of her life then, a Best Newcomer Supporting Actress nomination at the Metro Manila Film Festival awards night. From there, she appeared in other films, like Boy Pick-up and My Kontrabida Girl.

Movie producers from Indonesia noticed her acting potential she was cast in the film The Witmess that was screened, apart from Indonesia, in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Gwen is also starring in Dave Fabros’ gay romp called Straight to the Heart along with actors Carl Guevarra and Kiko Matos.

Gwen Zamora was born on Aug. 10, 1990. She is the youngest daughter of Italian chef Philippe Agnese and wife Therese. She was born in Australia and moved to the Philippines when she was still a toddler. She attended the French school in Parañaque and College of St. Benilde. She now lives in Parañaque after moving from neighboring Las Piñas.

As a little girl, she attended a variety of dance classes, like ballet, jazz, belly dancing and flamenco. She manifested a preference for performance that at at the age of 13 she started acting in school plays, cementing her interest in the field of entertainment.

ISAH V. RED

At 17, with her Eurasian features, commercial talent agents cast her in a variety of Television commercials like Belo Essentials, Jollibee (Jolly Hotdog), Bingo Cookies. At present she is one of the Lux ladies.

On television, Gwen was introduced to the audience as member of the cast of the gag show Bubble Gang on GMA Network, the longest running gag show on local TV. She also starred in soap operas among which were Grazilda, Machete, Inamorata, Indio, Aso ni San Roque and My Mother’s Secret.

Gwen now feels that she is ready to venture into more independent films, stage performances, and other platforms since she is no longer exclusively a GMA artist. Although she is extremely grateful for the opportunities and experiences the Kapuso network has given her, she feels like she is ready to go where the wind takes her. She also wants to have a taste of how it is to be behind the camera.

Outside of show business, Gwen is passionate about culinary arts. It is something that she got from her dad, Philippe, who is the Executive Pastry Chef of the City of Dreams at the Entertainment City in Parañaque.

Apart from being busy with her showbiz commitments, she recently ventured into the food business by becoming a partner at Elarz Lechon in Taguig City.

Gwen feels that being nominated by the Film Academy of the Philippines is an achievement in itself. Given the prestige of this award giving body, she had mixed emotions about her nomination. She is excited for the opportunities that will come due to her nomination, but at the same time she is anxious and nervous of the outcome during the awards night.

Before breaking into acting, Gwen Zamora worked as a commercial model and was featured in a variety of TVCs. Now, Gwen is more than ready to take on mature roles by expanding her catalogue from mainstream to independent productions.

Smart BroKada goes on a massive nationwide tour on the Smart Bro Bus

Smart Brokada ambassadors (from left) Sam Concepcion, Marco Gumabao and Michael Pangilinan

THREE months ago, Smart Bro embarked on a journey to visit key cities nationwide to promote its hottest offers and introduce the Smart Bro 4G Pocket WiFi in Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Olongapo and Manila.

Taking the voyage to greater heights, Smart Bro launched the Smart BroKada Roadtrip, a nationwide tour featuring today’s most exciting celebrities in one fun and hip barkada. The Smart BroKada includes balladeer Michael Pangilinan, actor and dancer EA Guzman, heartthrob Marco Gumabao and the stunning Bb. Pilipinas-Universe MJ Lastimosa, who all ventured into a trip across the archipelago – from the sand dunes of Laoag to the vintas of Zamboanga – providing thrilling experiences for Smart Bro subscribers nationwide.

Today, the BroKada grows bigger and the roadtrip becomes more fun with the addition of the newest Smart BroKada member – the prodigious actor Sam Concepcion, who will surely bring his youthful vigor and stunning talent into the roadtrip. As the BroKada embraces more members, the roadtrip promises to be more exciting with newer and fresher

things awaiting subscribers nationwide.

As they move on to the next leg of the roadtrip, the Smart BroKada takes the Smart Bro Bus to more areas nationwide.

The Smart Bro Bus is a 12-seater coach powered by Smart Bro connectivity complete with an entertainment and gaming system. Equipped with a full audio and video system, the BroKada can watch and enjoy their favorite movies on the go. For Michael and Marco, the Smart Bro Bus is also complete with the latest Xbox games. The Bro Bus is also complete with acoustic instruments on board perfect for their jamming sessions and listening to their favorite songs on the road.

The Smart BroKada can restfully lounge on the Smart Bro Bus with its custom-made interior and cozy furnishings, perfect to cap off a busy day. On board are also some of the BroKada’s favorite things – from their chosen chips and drinks to their favorite board games, there will surely be no dull moment inside the Smart Bro Bus. “With the Smart BroKada on the new Bro Bus, we are gearing up to cover more destinations in our BroKada Roadtrip across the nation and bring

our unrivaled broadband experience to more Filipinos through our exclusive offers,” says Gary Dujali, vice president and Consumer Broadband Marketing head.

Smart Bro subscribers can hang out with the Smart Brokada on the Smart Bro Bus as the nationwide roadtrip continues to more areas across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The BroKada Roadtrip features new and exciting promos for valued Smart Bro subscribers. Prepaid consumers can now access 4G speeds with the Smart Bro 4G Pocket WiFi for the very accessible price of P888.

Meanwhile, postpaid subscribers may just add P300 on top of their Plan 299 monthly to get an iPad mini 2.

Smart Bro proves to be the undisputed no.1 mobile broadband brand in the Philippines as it reaches greater heights with the Smart BroKada Roadtrip.

To get updates on Smart BroKada Roadtrips and the upcoming destination of the Smart Bro Bus, follow Smart’s accounts on Facebook (www.facebook. com/SmartCommunications), Twitter and Instagram (@LiveSmart) and use the hashtag #SmartBro888 and #BrokadaRoadtrip.