Manila Standard - 2016 November 04 - Friday

US POLL W A T C H

Clinton-Trump race sets world on edge WASHINGTON―Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sprinted from swing state to swing state in a fight for the last few unclaimed votes Wednesday, six days out from an election that has set the world on edge.

Clinton is ahead in most polls, but a last-minute surge by the 70-year-old Trump has delighted US foes, nauseated allies and winded global financial markets.

In less than a week Americans will choose between a popu-

list Republican who shattered political norms and a scandaltormented Democrat vying to be America’s first female president.

The choice has left many US voters cold and made the outcome difficult to predict.

One ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll on Tuesday even gave Trump a narrow lead.

The real estate mogul has been hit by scandal after scandal, accused of sexual assault, Next page

Americans warned of Cebu terror threat

By Vito Barcelo THE US Embassy in Manila has issued an alert to its citizens, warning them to avoid the southern portion of Cebu Island amid reports that terrorist groups plan to kidnap foreigners who frequent Dalguete, Santnder and Sumilon Island.

“US citizens should avoid travel to these areas and are reminded to review personal security plans;

remain aware of their surroundings, including local events; and monitor local news stations for updates,” the travel alert posted on the embassy’s website said.

The embassy also reminded all US citizens of the most recent State Department worldwide caution, which indicates there is an ongoing threat of terrorist actions and violence against American citizens and interests abroad, including the Philippines. Next page

VOL. XXX • NO. 265 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

CHROMATIC COLORS. As the early twilight breeze sweeps Makati City’s eight-lane Ayala Avenue, prismatic lights bring life to the main thoroughfare, with the Christmas song ‘Joy to the world’ written in 1719 by Isaac Watts, accenting the arrival soon of one of the country’s happiest seasons—a graphic glimpse into the tradition nationwide of this largely Catholic nation of 105 million. Lino Santos

From a fugitive to Palace guest Misuari surfaces to talk peace with Rody

By John Paolo Bencito

H

UNTED for years for the bloody Zamboanga City siege of 2013, Moro National Liberation Front chairman Nur Misuari strolled into Malacañan Palace Thursday without fear of arrest and hugged President Rodrigo Duterte.

President Rodrigo Duterte

On Thursday, Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza flew to Jolo, Sulu to give Misuari a copy of a resolution granting his motion to suspend proceedings against him and to stop the enforcement of warrants of arrest issued by a Pasig Court, changing his status from fugitive to a guest at the Palace.

“I came here just to see the Pres-

MNLF founder Nur Misuari

ident ... I came here only in answer to the invitation of the President.

The man whom I respect and trust,” Misuari said.

“I am so happy to be free again, owing to the initiative of our President,” the Moro leader added, as he expressed his gratitude to Duterte.

Duterte meanwhile, said that Misuari “has finally decided to just accept my invitation for him to talk to us.”

“There is the pending warrant which is lifted now upon my orders so that we can talk and I would like to assure Nur, brother Nur, that there was never any intention to deprive you of your liberty,” the President said.

Duterte likewise promised the Moro leader of the necessary changes to achieve peace in Mindanao.

The President said the process would be done in two or three years, and see the establishment of a Bangsamoro Authority in Mindanao under a federal system of government.

US big loser in halted arms deal, says Palace

By John Paolo Bencito THE United States will be on the losing end of a decision to cancel the sale of some 27,000 assault rifles to the Philippine National Police over human rights concerns, the Palace said Thursday.

After Human Rights Watch warned that two US funding programs for the PNP were at risk

because of President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on illegal drugs, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar reiterated that it is not the policy of the administration to condone summary executions by policemen.

He added: “We are the buyers of the rifle, they are the sellers.

We won’t lose anything. It’s the United States alone [that stands to lose],” he said.

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Binay cleared of graft THE Sandiganbayan has rejected the P21.7-million graft case filed against former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay over her alleged overpricing of furniture for the Makati City Hall in 2000.

In a decision dated Oct. 28, the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division cleared Mrs. Binay of any liability along with former general services department head Ernesto Aspillaga, other city officials, and the sup-

pliers for insufficient evidence.

The court said the prosecutors failed to establish the alleged conspiracy among the respondents to rig the bidding in favor of supplier Asia Concept International Inc. They also failed to provide enough evidence to prove that the bidding led to an overpricing of P2.78 million and excessive purchases worth P5.91 million.

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Mindanao Pinoy TV host Best Actor in Tokyo mayor falls By Nickie Wang in drug war A MAYOR in Mindanao was arrested during an anti-illegal drugs operation in South Cotabato early Thursday.

Supt. Romeo Galgo, public information officer for Region 12, identified the local official as Albert Palencia, municipal mayor of Banga, South Cotabato.

Pelencia is the third mayor to be arrested two months after President Rodrigo Duterte revealed a list of 150 local officials who were allegedy involved in the illegal drug trade.

Palencia was not on that list, however.

Last week, Mayor Christopher Cuan of Libungan town in Next page

TV HOST and actor Paolo Ballesteros won the Best Actor award at the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival on Thursday for his performance in the comedy film Die Beautiful.

The film revolves around the story of a transgender woman named Trisha (Ballesteros) whose dying wish is to be

dressed as Lady Gaga for her funeral.

In his acceptance speech, Ballesteros thanked director Jun Robles Lana and producer Perci Intalan for trusting him to play the lead character in the film.

“I would like to thank the festival and the jury for embracing our film,” said Ballesteros who was in drag impersonating Hollywood actress Julia Roberts

when he went onstage to accept the award.

“I thought today was going to be a red-carpet day, and that’s why I wore a dress because I thought I was up for the Best Actress [award].”

Before the awarding ceremony in Tokyo during the red-carpet event, the 33-yearold actor made headlines when he showed up as Angelina Jolie.

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Coast Guard men deploy to keep an eye on Panatag

By John Paolo Bencito and Gabrielle H. Binaday TRANSPORTATION Secretary Arthur Tugade said Thursday the Philippine Coast Guard will resume patrols around Scarborough Shoal, testing the waters twitter.com/ MlaStandard

even as its Chinese counterparts maintained a steady presence there.

Tugade said he ordered the Coast Guard to Scarborough after reports said Filipino fishermen were able to fish without Chinese Next page interference.

facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH

S

DYING WISH. Paolo Ballesteros’

portrayal of a transgender woman, whose dying wish is to be dressed as Katy Perry for her funeral in ‘Die Beautiful,’ wins for him the Best Actor award at the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival where 16 films competed.

The jury was headed by French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, and included Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung, US producer Nicole Rocklin, Italian actor Valerio Mastandrea and Japanese director Hideyuki Hirayama. AFP

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Nur blames Malaysia for Sipadan C

By John Paolo Bencito

HAIRMAN Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front on Thursday accused Malaysia of using Moros for kidnap-for-ransom operations and perpetrating the 2000 Sipadan kidnappings attributed by Philippine authorities to the Abu Sayyaf Group.

“And apart from that, our Malaysia is the one who is insource is saying that since volved in this kidnapping for

Meari slows down, ‘interacts’ with TD TROPICAL storm “Meari,” which was earlier forecast to enter the Philippine area of responsibility, remained stationary about 1,435 kilometers from Luzon as of 5 p.m. on Thursday, the weather bureau said.

Weather forecaster Lorie dela Cruz said “Meari” had slowed down and was not moving due to its “slight” interaction with a tropical depression outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility.

“We are monitoring the movement of ‘Meari’ in the next 24 to 48 hours,” she told the Manila Standard.

“If it continues to stay stationary, it will most probably not enter PAR and instead re-curve northeast and not hit any landmass.”

The weather bureau had earlier said “Meari” could enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Thursday morning. It said it would be renamed “Marce” if it did.

“Meari” was packing maximum sustained winds of 65 kil-

ometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 80 kph as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

The tropical depression causing “Meari” to slow down was 2,215 km east of extreme Northern Luzon and packing maximum sustained winds of 55 kph and gustiness of 70 kph.

“The tropical depression has a slim chance of entering PAR,” Dela Cruz said.

But a low pressure area 185 km east of Sorsogon City is forecast to affect Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

“The LPA is embedded along an inter-tropical convergence zone,” the weather bureau said.

The two weather systems will trigger moderate to occasionally heavy rain and thunderstorms over Bicol, Eastern Visayas and Quezon.

Cloudy skies with light to moderate rain and thunderstorms will persist over Metro Manila, Mimaropa, the rest of Calabarzon and the Visayas and Mindanao. Rio N. Araja

Americans...

while traveling and residing in the Philippines.

The Philippine National Police in Central Visayas advised the public to stay calm despite the US advisory, saying the area was a safe and secure place to live, work and do business.

Police have tightened security around the area, particularly those frequented by foreigners.

The police have also coordinated with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to intensify security measures in hotels, resorts, beaches and tourist destinations. With PNA

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Extremists have targeted sporting events, theaters, markets, mass transportation systems—including airlines, and other public venues where large crowds gather, it said.

“Crowded nightclubs, shopping malls, buses, and popular restaurants have also been targets,” the advisory stated.

The embassy reminded US citizens of the importance of taking preventative measures to ensure their safety and security

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Unverified reports claimed that the US State Department halted the sale of about 27,000 assault rifles to Philippines police after a Democrat Senator, Ben Cardin expressed concerns about the country’s recent human rights record.

In his speech on Wednesday, President Duterte slammed the United States for “blackmailing” him.

Andanar said that the country can simply turn to Russia, China or even Israel for its weapons.

Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said the Philippine government should jump-start a program to locally manufacture arms and military equipment following reports that the US sale would not push through.

“It is a wake-up call for us to stop totally relying on foreign suppliers,” Recto said.

He said this is another kind of pivot we need. “To tap our domestic industries for the equip-

Clinton-Trump...

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not paying taxes and having ties to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the mob.

But renewed FBI scrutiny of Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server as secretary of state has excited Republicans and underlined public doubts about the Democrat’s trustworthiness.

“Investors are jittery,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for the BMO Bank. “Market volatility has spiked.”

Trump’s pledge to scrap the North America Free Trade Agreement and build a wall on

ment needs of our policemen and soldiers.”

“If some of the things can be made locally and the products are of the same price and quality as the ones bought abroad, then let us manufacture them here,” Recto said.

Recto cited the existence of a vibrant local firearms industry which has been exporting its products for many decades now.

“There are many of them, from boat builders to vehicle manufacturers, who can step up to the plate once there are firm orders from the government,” Recto said.

He said the country’s car manufacturing industry can supply military and police vehicles, removing the need to buy them abroad.

Recto said President Duterte’s home province of Cebu can even build coastal patrol ships.

“If we’re buying boats either for coastal, river, environmental or fisheries patrol, then let our local shipyards make them,” he said. With Macon Ramos-Araneta the southern border has made the Mexican peso a barometer for the market’s unease.

The unit has weakened against the dollar by almost four percent in the last week alone.

Meanwhile, stocks from New York to Tokyo swooned, wiping billions off investments and pensions.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei―whose regime survives by painting America as a comic-book foe―crowed that the “catastrophic reality” of the two candidates “goes beyond what even we were saying.”

In Britain, a giant effigy of Trump wielding the head of his rival Clinton was to be burned during traditional bonfire celebrations.

ransom, probably, one day, I will drag their leaders into that International Criminal Court,” said Misuari, whose arrest warrant was suspended by the court to clear the way for his visit to Malacañang as presidential guest.

“I have all the evidence in my hands. My people are every where and besides, they cannot escape because they are hiring my own people,” he added.

In 2000, the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the worst terror attacks in the Philippines, embarked on a kidnapping spree and victimized 21 individuals including 10 Malaysians, nine Europeans, and two Filipinos.

The hostages were brought to Sulu, where they stayed for five months until ransom was paid.

The Sipadan incident placed the Abu Sayyaf in the interna-

tional spotlight.

The Abu Sayyaf is also notorious for beheading hostages who are unable to pay ransom. The Philippine military has dismissed the Abu Sayyaf Group as a kidnap-for-ransom group that is devoid of the idealogies of its founders.

Misuari said the Malaysians also tried to meet him in Saudi Arabia and in another instance in Indonesia through

his nephew.

Misuari said: “Even Sipadan, they hired my cadre officers, because they opt for the millions and then they have the balls to ask one of my nephews here, we want to see the chairman.”

“I said, ‘Stop it, I don’t have the heart to see these people after they make this conspiracy to destroy the honor and integrity of my people,’” he said.

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tected him from the government.

The Pasig Regional Trial Court, in an order dated Oct. 27, a copy of which Dureza got on November 2, granted Misuari’s motion for the suspension of his arrest warrants for a period of six months “unless sooner lifted by the court.”

Judge Maria Rowena Modesto-San Pedro also directed Dureza’s Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the Justice department and Misuari’s lawyers to comply with five conditions for Misuari’s release, among which are seeking travel authorizations in the event that the peace talks are to be held outside the Philippines.

The court also ordered Misuari, OPAPP and DoJ to submit monthly reports on Misuari’s whereabouts and progress of the peace talks and the DoJ must file a motion to lift suspension of proceedings “as soon as it becomes apparent that the peace talks are about to be or already terminated.”

Misuari should also submit himself to the jurisdiction of the court following the termination of peace talks or at any time that the suspension of proceedings is lifted.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the cases filed against the MNLF leader would remain, and that the court proceedings are merely suspended.

Dureza said the government would invite Misuari to be part of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission mandated to work on a pilot federal state in Mindanao.

The President said he is hopeful that a long-lasting peace can finally be achieved in Mindanao, now that the government is in talks with the rebel groups—the New People’s Army, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the MNLF. “So now we have a lull in the three fronts that we really have been fighting ever since. We’re talking with the Communists now, maybe establish a modus vivendi somewhere with the MILF and MNLF and let’s begin

to talk about peace,” he added.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said his department had taken steps to have the proceedings against Misuari suspended.

Because of this, Aguirre said the Pasig City Regional Trial Court handling the cases has granted the plea of government prosecutors to temporarily suspend the hearings to allow the MNLF leader to participate in peace talks.

In granting the Justice department’s plea, the RTC considered the supporting manifestation of presidential adviser on the peace process.

“The suspension of proceedings and the enforcement of the warrants of arrest against accused Nur Misuari shall be for a period of six months from date of this resolution, unless sooner lifted by the Court,” the court order from Judge Ma. Rowena Modesto-San Pedro said.

The Armed Forces said it would abide by the court’s decision. With Rey E. Requejo, Florante S. Solmerin

mined from the viewers’ votes.

“Being selected as a Competition film itself was a big surprise for us,” Lana said in his acceptance speech.

“Thank you very much. Receiving this award convinced me that the film strengthened the bond beyond language and race.”

Die Beautiful was financed by the Hong Kong–Asia Financing Forum and produced by APT Entertainment. It is intended to compete at the 2016 Metro Ma-

nila Film Festival in December.

Meanwhile, Mikhail Red’s Birdshot, a full-length feature about a farmer’s daughter who accidentally kills an endangered Philippine Eagle in a forest reserve, was chosen as this year’s winner of the Best Asian Future Film Award, which is given to young filmmakers who have directed no more than two feature films.

Birdshot stars indie actors Arnold Reyes, Mary Joy Apostol, Ku Aquino and John Arcilla.

coast of Luzon, not far from Subic Bay. China claims historical rights over the shoal even if the traditional fishing ground is well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.

Chinese occupation of the shoal started in April 2012 when Chinese surveillance ships blocked a Philippine Navy vessel that was chasing Chinese poachers.

Earlier this year, a UN tribunal said there was no basis for China’s “nine-dash” claim to most of the South China Sea, handing the Philippines an important legal victory. China has refused to recognize the court’s jurisdiction or its decision, however.

During the President’s visit to China last month, Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to enter into joint coast guard patrols as a mutual area of cooperation.

Philippine officials insisted the shoal, which is facing the South China Sea, is within the country’s exclusive economic

zone as mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an agreement signed by 163 nations, including China.

Also on Thursday, the Finance department said the procurement of over two dozen Japanese ships and high-speed boats—topped by two largescale vessels whose acquisition were sealed during President Duterte’s just-concluded official visit to Tokyo—would significantly shore up the security and border patrol capabilities of the Philippine Coast Guard.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the equipment will be used to go after drug smugglers as well as Abu Sayyaf Group terrorists and pirates who prey on foreign and local mariners and seafarers in the South.

Given the porous shoreline that spans 36,289 kilometers throughout the archipelago, Dominguez said the PCG is in dire need of first-rate boats to better guard Philippine shores and the high seas.

“Wherefore, in light of the foregoing, the Demurrer to Evidence each filed by the accused… are granted. Accordingly, the instant case against all the accused, including accused Salvador Pangilinan and accused Beda Aquino is ordered dismissed,” the Sandiganbayan

said in its decision.

The Office of the Ombudsman had earlier cited “collusion” between Asia Concept and rival bidder Office Gallery International Inc., as they were said to be operated by the same person, Beda Aquino.

The prosecutors also provided as evidence two disbursement vouchers issued in September 1999 and October 2000 to Office Gallery and Asia Concept that both bore Aquino’s signature.

However, the anti-graft court said Aquino was never listed among Office Gallery’s stockholders and officers as the vouchers bearing his signatures would not prove his ownership of both firms due to the length of time between the two transactions.

“There must be other grounds other than the mere signature or approval appearing in a voucher to sustain conspiracy,” the decision said. Maricel V. Cruz

North Cotabato was arrested for illegal possession of several rounds of ammunition.

Police found no evidence of illegal drugs when they searched Palencia’s house, but found a rifle grenade and four rounds of caliber 380 mm bullets.

The death toll in the government’s war on illegal drugs rose again as three drug suspects were killed while another was arrested in two separate police operations in Cavite and Laguna.

The dead suspects were identified as Kenneth Green, 34, tricycle driver and Alvin Buendia, 24, both residents of Barangay Wawa 1, Rosario, Cavite. The two were killed in a shootout with lawmen.

In Laguna, policemen killed Alano dela Pena. Albert Pugado, 29 was nabbed in a drug bust at Sto. Domingo Street in Barangay Mayapa, Calamba City.

So far, 1,790 drug suspects have been killed in police operations since President Duterte came to office.

At least 33,105 have been arrested while 758,377 (55,014 pushers and 703,363 users) surrendered to the authorities.

Also on Thursday, PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa ordered the transfer to Sulu province of five Makati City policemen accused of extorting money from a foreigner.

A police senior inspector and four police non-commissioned officers were implicated in the case.

Dela Rosa said the policemen denied they asked for more than P750,000 from a Singaporean tourist, whom they accused of a drug-related offense.

The case illustrated concerns that corrupt policemen were using the anti-illegal drug campaign to extort suspects.

Francisco Tuyay, PNA

The long and often unedifying 2016 White House race is now being fought in a few corners of a few states.

Trump, Clinton and their most prized surrogates have virtually taken up residence in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina.

The three states offer the best chance for both candidates to cross the winning threshold of 270 out of 538 electoral college votes.

But the two White House hopefuls are also placing some final long-shot bets.

Clinton will travel to Arizona, which Democrats haven’t won since 1996 when her husband Bill claimed the presidency by a landslide.

An Emerson poll on Wednesday had Clinton losing the state by four percentage points. But both of its Republican US Senators have opposed Trump, offering the tantalizing prospect of a shock Clinton win.

Meanwhile, Trump has been campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan, both traditionally Democrat states that the polls show Clinton leading by six points or more.

And the reality TV star will spend most of Wednesday in Florida, which is likely to makeor-break his presidential dreams.

Pollster TargetSmart forecast that Clinton could win Florida― and all but bar Trump any route

to the White House―by a massive eight-point margin, 48 to 40 percent.

The Florida poll, conducted with the College of William and Mary, used only a small sample of voters but targeted those who had already cast ballots under the state’s early voting law.

An average of earlier Florida polls by tracker RealClearPolitics gives Trump a narrow one point lead there, and TargetSmart’s survey suggests many registered Republicans have switched camps.

But the tumultuous race may have a few twists left.

As they jet across the country, both candidates are also winding

up to their final pitch to voters.

Clinton has spent each day of the final stretch targeting specific groups of voters―women, African-Americans, Latinos―the same coalition that carried President Barack Obama to office.

The popular outgoing president has told African-American fans that he would take it as a personal insult if they did not back Clinton.

“The African-American vote right is not as solid as it needs to be,” Obama told radio’s Tom Joyner Morning Show, the first of a series of interviews he was giving Wednesday before heading to North Carolina to press the case. AFP

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Dureza described their first encounter as a meeting of long-lost brothers who haven’t met for years.

“They hugged each other like long-lost brothers,” Dureza said.

“They haven’t talked yet person-to-person. But knowing their past associations, I’m sure they would meet again,” he added.

In 2013, an arrest warrant was issued against Misuari and three others over a 20-day attack in Zamboanga City, which led to the deaths of over 200 people and the displacement of thousands of others.

The arrest warrants were issued after the Justice department filed rebellion charges against Misuari, MNLF commander Habier Malik, and 60 others.

Misuari, who founded the MNLF has been hiding in plain sight in Sulu, openly mingling with local folk, who have remained loyal to him and pro-

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“I was thrilled and excited but deep inside, it was painful because I had to strap everything, make everything sexy and had to wear heels.

But all in all, it was very exciting,” Ballesteros told reporters.

Die Beautiful also bagged the Audience Choice Award, which is presented to the most popular film in the Competition Section deter-

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“They will be there for roving inspection, testing the waters,” Tugade told reporters in a chance interview.

Chinese Coast Guard vessels are still patrolling the disputed shoal in the South China Sea but are not stopping Filipinos from fishing, the Palace said earlier, days after President Rodrigo Duterte’s state visit to China.

In the run-up to the President’s visit, rumors circulated that Beijing would grant fishing concessions to Manila, but the trip ended with no official agreement.

Tugade said they expect no provocations from both sides to avoid any confict.

Scarborough Shoal, which the Philippines calls Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, is a Ushaped chain of reefs and rocks that lies about 120 miles off the

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Reforms sought to ease conduct of business

By Macon Araneta SINCE the Philippines finished 2015 with a dismal record of 99th at the bottom of 190 countries surveyed by the World Bank Group on ease-ofdoing-busines, Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri on Thursday laid down reforms to make the country business-friendly for local and foreign investors.

“Statistically, we are smack at the midpoint, but holistically we’re worse,” said Zubiri. ‘‘He noted that the Philippines fell behind Turkey [ranked 69th] which for the past two years has been embroiled in the Syrian war, South Africa [ranked 74th] which had to deal with drought and political strife and even Indonesia [ranked 91st] which suffers extensive forest fires for many successive years,” Zubiri explained.

Last year, the Philippines accomplished some reforms in doing business. They are as follows: transparency in building regulations which made getting construction permits easier; setting online system for filing and paying health contributions; establishing online corporate income tax payments, and, allowing offline completion of Value-Added-Tax returns by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Zubiri said the major legislation on EODB shall involve local governments and national government agencies. From industry, micro- and small- entrepreneurs.

He formulated his initial broad strokes of EODB reforms, as follows: a) License and permits processes streamlining, for all business types, not just in construction: i. Specific timeframe for approval of application for permit on per agency basis ii. Requirements and fees posted conspicuously in the premises and online in respective website.

OUTSTANDING SOCIAL WORKER. Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Chairman Jose Jorge E. Corpuz (left) and General Manager Alexander F. Balutan (right) commend and congratulate PCSO’s Rubin Z. Magno (center), Manager for Charity Assistance Department, for being chosen as 2016 Outstanding Social Worker of the Philippines in the field of Health and Medical Services, during the charity agency’s 82nd founding anniversary on October 24 held at PCSO’s main office in Mandaluyong City. Magno received the award from the Philippine Association of Social Workers Inc. at their Biennial Convention on October 19 at Royal Hotel in Clark, Pampanga.

6,924 grads ready for Bar exams; contingency plan up up the examinees in several designated points in Metro Manila which will bring them to the UST campus in España.

In case of heavy rain in the morning of a Bar examination day, a limited number of Supreme Court buses shall be available to transport Bar Examinees and duty personnel to the University of Santo Tomas (UST) from the following pick-up points: Quezon City Memorial Circle (2 buses), Park and Ride, Lawton, Manila ( 1 bus), Supreme Court Compound, Taft Avenue (2 buses), Coastal Mall Terminal, Parañaque City (2 buses), Greenbelt and Glorietta, Ayala Center, Makati (2 buses) and at the Marikina Sports Complex (1 bus), as part of the contingency plan.

Layusa said SC shuttle buses

By Rey E. Requejo

A

TOTAL of 6,924 law graduates have applied for the 115th Bar exams to be held on four Sundays of the month starting on November 6.

Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., chairman of this year’s Bar exams committee of the high court, said in a circular to law school deans that there may be two items in the exams for enumeration and differentiation.

However, it is not the first time that enumeration items will be included in the Bar exams, which consist mainly of essay and multiple-choice types of question.

The Bar exams, considered to be most grueling licensure exam in the country, will be held in the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

The SC has readied contingency measures if bad weather spoils the conduct of the fourSunday exams.

Deputy Clerk of Court and Bar Confidant Ma. Christina Layusa said among these measures is the deployment of SC buses to pick

will be stationed at these areas as early as 5:00 a.m. and will leave at exactly 5:30 a.m. for UST. She said that in case of flooding inside the UST compound before the Bar examinations start, commuter vans of the SC shall be available to transport bar examinees and duty personnel from the UST gates to their respective examination buildings within UST. ‘’Priority in the use of the commuter vans shall be given to senior citizens, pregnant women and persons with disability,’ Layusa added.

In case, flooding persists after the end of the examinations on any given examination day, Layusa said the SC commuter vans on standby at each examination building in UST shall also be available

to transport back the examinees and duty personnel to the Osmeña and Arellano Drives near Gate 5 on España Boulevard, where the SC shuttle buses are parked.

“The SC shuttle buses shall then be available to transport bar examinees and duty personnel from the UST to the following drop-off areas: north-bound passengers shall be transported up to QC Memorial Circle; south-bound passengers could be dropped-off at Park and Ride in Lawton, Supreme Court premises and Coastal Mall Terminal in Parañaque; for Makati area, drop-off area shall be at the Ayala Center (Glorietta and Greenbelt); and for Marikina area and the Marikina Sports Complex,” she added.

Filipino science stude in the running for top 6 BESTING more than 6000 entries from 146 countries, the Philippines’ Hillary Diane Andales bagged one of the coveted top 30 spots as a semifinalist in the prestigious Breakthrough Junior Challenge, the Department of Science and Technology said on Thursday.

To secure a place in the final 6, the entry needs to garner the most Facebook likes and shares

before 3 p.m., November 10 (Philippine Time). Votes for this entry should be cast this official link: https://www.facebook. com/Break throughPrize/videos/1406243266 067692/.

The DoST said a Grade 11 student of Philippine Science High School—Eastern Visayas Campus, Andales submitted a video entry explaining an advanced Physics concept called

“Feynman’s Path Integrals.”

She related it to simpler concepts and ordinary human life in order to encourage understanding even to the average person.

The DoST said the video has caught the attention of former Harvard University assistant professor and esteemed String Theorist Lubos Motl. In his popular physics blog, he lauds the entry saying: “Andales of the Philip-

Food discount eyed for needy students SENATE education committee vicechairman Senator Sonny Angara is pushing for his proposal that will grant underprivileged students a five-percent discount on food establishments, medicines, textbooks and school supplies, as well as tuition, miscellaneous, and other school fees.

Under Senate Bill 134, Angara favors the granting of discounts on basic and education services to underprivileged students on all levels, including those enrolled in technical vocational institutions.

The former three-term congressman from Aurora, who used to be the chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education, said he filed the bill to ease students’ financial burden and help them cope with the high cost of education and daily school expenses.

The senator also said that the proposed Underprivileged Students’ Discount Act of 2016 seeks to give underprivileged students discounts on educational expenses, such as tuition, miscellaneous, and other school fees, including books and school supplies.

“Considering that we now have a law

giving discounts to senior citizens, it is high time that we consider the plight of our underprivileged students who are our nation’s future,” he said.

SB 134 tasks the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to determine the qualified tertiary or college and post-secondary tech-voc beneficiaries.

Not covered by the bill are underprivileged students who fail to finish the course, have stopped their schooling, and previously convicted of any crime.

The bill provides for tax incentives to establishments that would grant discounts to underprivileged students, while establishments that would refuse to grant discounts would be penalized with one to four-week suspension of their license to operate and would be fined with not less than P20,000 but not more than P50,000.

“If passed into law, this Senate bill will definitely encourage students from financially struggling families to pursue their dreams by finishing their college education or their vocational trainings,” Angara added. Macon Araneta

pines and her musings about the path integral could be my winner.”

“She sees some true scientific beauty behind the physical concept and that she has articulated her ideas and feelings about it herself—while many others are just repeating things that have been aired in popular programs many times,” Motl adds.

The sole winner of the Break-

through Junior Challenge will be flown to the United States to accept the award along with a $250,000 scholarship, a $100,000 science lab for the winner’s school, and a $50,000 award for the winner’s teacher.

As a campus ruined by typhoon ‘‘Haiyan’’ (‘‘Yolanda’’) in 2013, this feat is a manifestation that Andales is not only resilient but also creative, inventive and

innovative, and this possible new lab will surely help produce more scientists in the country,” Dr. Reynaldo Garnace, EVC director said.

The Breakthrough Junior Challenge was launched in order to showcase the scientific knowledge of the world’s young leaders in development, and also to promote science awareness among the general public.

Manila

Standard

TODAY

Newly landscaped and walled police parade ground. Known for its active charitable endeavors, the Wong Chu King Foundation (WCKF) recently turned over the newly landscaped and walled parade grounds during the 42nd anniversary of the Southern Police District (SPD) in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. The two parties, led by external affairs director Gen. Melito Mabilin (ret.) also signed a memorandum for the maintenance of the landscaped grounds. In photo are (L-R) PSSUPT. Ricardo Padilla, PSSUPT. Tomas Colet Apolinario, acting NCRPO regional Police Director Oscar David Albayalde, WCKF external affairs director Gen. Melito M. Mabilin (ret.), WCKF general manager James Vincent C. Navarrete, corporate affairs manager Gen. Rodrigo P. de Gracia (ret.) and WCKF volunteer Gen. Francisco R. Cristobal (ret.) together with other police officials and volunteers

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Opinion

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

EDITORIAL

Volatile markets

G

LOBAL financial markets are on a tailspin, spooked by the uncertainty over next week’s presidential election in the US. Philippine stocks have not been spared by the sentiments of jittery investors. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index has skidded sharply in the past few trading days, while the peso is poised to sink below 50 to a US dollar, due largely to President Duterte’s ambivalent foreign policy statements.

Current political developments here and abroad are causing the market downturn. Tycoon Donald Trump

Adelle Chua, Editor

has cut what had looked like an assailable edge of market-favorite Hillary Clinton in the wake of a Fed-

eral Bureau of Investigation probe into her use of an unauthorized e-mail server. Investors have fled global stock markets in favor of safer havens like the yen and gold. As a result, gold has topped $1,300 an ounce, with more and more investors playing it safe.

The peso and Philippine stocks, meanwhile, are reeling from President Duterte’s incessant cursing and policy flip-flops.

Bloomberg reported that global funds have pulled over $600 million from Philippine stocks after inflows this year peaked in August. Mr. Duterte swore at President Obama and announced a “separation” from the US during an official visit to China.

Analysts and many businessmen have expressed concern that Mr. Duterte’s diatribes could endanger investments in the $23-billion

business outsourcing industry, where American companies are heavily invested. US companies account for over 70 percent of the businessprocess outsourcing industry’s revenue.

BPO revenues, along with remittances of migrant Filipino workers, have supported the peso against the US dollar. This may change if investments in the BPO sector slow down, amid Mr. Duterte’s dare to US

investors to pack up and leave in response to foreign criticisms to the government’s violent anti-drug campaign.

Market investors come and go, depending on their assessment of risks and rewards.

The current Philippine stock market downturn and the weak peso clearly suggest that the economy is heading toward a direction that offers little reward and involves great risk.

Transforming commitment into action on disaster risk reduction

By Dr. Shamshad Akhtar

That was when government aircraft bombed most of the city to flush out a small band of MNLF rebels. To this day, Zamboanga has not completely gotten back on its feet as a result of the government assault on the city considered Western Mindanao’s center of trade, culture and education. *** As for the other large rebel group, the New People’s Army, Aquino decided that they were not worth talking to, either. Like other presidents before him, Aquino was convinced early on that the Communists could never be brought to the negotiating table and merely continued the old policy of battling the NPA all over the country.

In the few months that Duterte has been president, he has gained the trust of the Communists, who are as a rule distrustful of any peace overtures made by the Manila government. The

NOTHING erases development gains as suddenly and severely as natural disasters. Earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones wreak destruction, not only across borders but across generations, reversing the hardwon progress of many years in poverty reduction, delivery of essential services, promotion of small business and economic opportunity. Disaster resilience in Asia and the Pacific is mission critical for the success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The second session of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development in 2015 called for a regional road map to implement the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific. On 3rd November, leaders and decision-makers at the Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted the Asian Regional Plan for Implementation of the Sendai Framework. The adoption of the regional plan will contribute substantially to integrating disaster risk reduction and resilience into plans to achieve the related SDGs in Asia Pacific—the most disaster prone region in the world.

In the last decade, 1,624 disasters took place in Asia-Pacific. Approximately 400,000 people lost their lives, more than 1.4 billion were affected, and more than half a trillion dollars’ worth of economic damage was caused. Last year alone, disasters continued to undermine development gains, with the region accounting for 47 percent of the world’s 344 natural disasters, reporting over 16,000 fatalities, and incurring more than US$ 45.1 billion in economic damages, plus even more in indirect losses.

Foremost, strengthening the resilience of countries to disasters underpins all sustainable development activities, especially those involving critical sectors such as infrastructure. As a result of rapid development across Asia and the Pacific, infrastructure is increasingly being exposed to disasters; the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, for example, caused damage and loss equivalent to approximately one-third of the country’s GDP. The region has accumulated a vast body of knowledge through generations of experi-

Turn to A5

Turn to A5

Making peace LOWDOWN

JOJO A. ROBLES THE aging chairman and founder of the Moro National Liberation Front, Nur Misuari, probably never thought he’d set foot in Malacañan Palace.

Not after six years of being ignored and marginalized by the government in Manila, which even blamed him for razing Zamboanga City three years ago, never mind if government bombs and soldiers did nearly all of the damage.

But there Misuari was, being received by no less than the President himself, who called him “brother” and a partner for peace in troubled Mindanao.

And Misuari wasn’t even the first rebel leader to visit the presidential Palace—his host had earlier welcomed to the Palace nearly all the leaders of

the local Communist movement, who like Misuari were vilified and excluded from the peace processes initiated by the thoroughly divisive Aquino administration.

What, exactly, is going on here? Why is the president that some, both here and abroad, have derided as a foul-mouthed, bloodthirsty warmonger, bringing Muslim and the Communist rebels back into the fold, breaking bread with them and honoring them like long-lost brethren?

Wasn’t Noynoy Aquino a shoo-in for the Nobel Peace Prize, as his propagandists once so loudly proclaimed, despite his divide-and-conquer policy regarding the various rebel groups? And what business does Rodrigo Duterte have showing up Aquino as far as making peace is concerned, when he can’t even be “decent” like his predecessor?

It was only a few years, ago, after all, when the Yellow par-

tisans were gushing about how Aquino was on the verge of convincing the Moro rebels of Mindanao to lay down their arms in exchange for huge chunks of land. Like Aquino himself, the Yellows chose to ignore the in-

group of rebels was worth talking to and that this was enough to make Aquino go down in history as a man of peace.

Misuari and his rebel force were the original Moro rebels, even if they were later eclipsed in size and importance by the breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front. They had both the Tripoli Agreement and the Jakarta Accords to back up their Perhaps legitimacy; even Cory Aquino Filipinos will visited Misuari in Jolo when she sought to make peace with his remember group.

Duterte not for Of course, the Mamasapano massacre of 2015 showed just his potty mouth how different the situation was but as a true man on the ground, compared to the flowery visions of lasting peace of peace. in Mindanao proclaimed by Aquino’s peace negotiators and their counterparts in the MILF. And two years earlier, in 2013, Zamboanga City was nearly convenient fact that the govern- obliterated from the map as a ment in Manila at the time had direct result of Aquino’s refusal basically decided that only one to talk with Misuari’s MNLF.

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Opinion

Going federal I HAVE three unions in mind—the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain—which should make it clear that the “federalism” I am thinking of is not a monolithic phenomenon. In fact, only one of these, the United States, will explicitly identify itself as federal. But all three are prime examples of unions, born of conflict and struggle, that have achieved political cohesion but must continuously calibrate that delicate balance between national and state or regional power. In the United States, this balancing act has taken the form quite often of resolving jurisdictional conflicts between conflicting claims of state and federal competence. In the United Kingdom, Scotland and Wales have, on various occasions, called for greater independence from Westminster. Scots keep their royal regalia—and not as museum pieces only, while the Irish have many times more than just dreamed of a united Ireland, and it is certainly not one over which the Union Jack flutters! The Madrid Government has always had to wrestle with the Basque problem, but for the Basques, they have always been just that—Basques, with a language nowhere near Spanish and with a culture markedly and stubbornly distinct.

One of the achievements of the Spanish occupation was the cultivation of a sense of nationhood on our part. We were referred to by the Peninsular Government as “las Filipinas,” and that meant us all: desde Aparri (with profound apologies to Batanes for this literary oversight) hasta Jolo! And those who opposed the Spaniards either through parliamentary means or in the many revolts, rebellions and uprisings that created our pantheon of heroes (and heroines) did so in behalf of “nosotros Filipinos… we Filipinos,” a people. The sultanates of Mindanao were always a reality to contend with, but that did not stop the Spaniards from claiming that their dominion embraced the whole archipelago, the same archipelago that they believed (and rightly, under the precepts of intratemporal law) they had the right to cede to the United States under the Treaty of Paris.

The plans afoot for a change of our Constitution so that we may be a federal Republic goes against the history of ...and why ours those federations that were formed by pre-existing elites that had to yield some of their is different. autonomy and their powers to form a union. Thus it is that the American Constitution is comparatively brief—because the states of the union were not too willing to give too much to the union. It is also why the Westminster Parliament treads ever so carefully and testily over matters Scottish, Welsh and Irish for fear of igniting the flames of separation and the sundering of the union. And that is why “forality” is as much a matter of recondite constitutional law as it is of statesmanship as well as political savvy in Spain, since keeping the kingdom together has always been a test of nerves. We, for our part, endeavor the federalization of the Republic because a central government does not seem capable of responding promptly, effectively and meaningfully to regional particularities and ethnic sensitivities.

We are, in other words, going the opposite way of the history of other federations.

And we are not yet clear about our aspirations. Do we go the full length of federalization—like each component state or region enacting its own codes (not likely)? Shall we have rather an asymmetrical federal republic (more likely) considering that the need for autonomy in some parts of the country is not as great as in others? And if it is this that we are after, what progress do we make beyond the present regime of autonomous regions?

The last point should give us pause. A few years ago, public school teachers and health workers in the ARMM were asked whether they were happier under the ARMM than they were under the national government. I was aghast that they were unanimous in their clamor: Return us to the national government.

What do we need to do to make our component states or federal regions a more felicitous experience than what the Constitution of 1987 provided?

Preparing then to rewrite our Constitution should not get us completely occupied with the Federalist Papers. They had to do with how much the states had to give up to achieve a union. We should be occupied with quite a different concern: How much power to devolve to the regions or to the component states. And the need for assiduous scholarly study cannot be overstated. We are not reinventing the wheel, but we are not transposing either into a Filipino key some foreign model wholesale. It is this judicious, studied balancing of reliance on models as well as the boldness of innovation that calls for more than the popularity of which the ballot is evidence! rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph rannie_aquino@yahoo.com

Making...

From A4 ceasefires declared unilaterally by the two sides has been holding up for the most part and two rounds of fruitful and encouraging negotiations have been completed in Norway after years of being stalled on the most minor of technicalities.

Meanwhile, it appears that the Moros of Central Mindanao who make up the MILF have decided to trust Duterte when he promised the passage of a Bangsamoro Basic Law that will not only satisfy the rebels but also the provisions of the 1987 Constitution. The only “dissident” organization that Duterte has left out is the Abu Sayyaf—and nobody can talk peace with this violent, money-mad gang of kidnappers, anyway.

I think that years from now, when all the partisan and foreign-funded bickering will have

dissipated and given way to more objective historical evaluation, perhaps Filipinos will remember Duterte not as the bloodthirsty scourge of illegal drug syndicates and the pottymouthed critic of meddling foreigners, as his critics portray him today, but as a true man of peace. And if Duterte succeeds in finally ending decades of armed strife with homegrown revolutionary movements like the MNLF, the MILF and the NPA during his term, he will have done more than any leader in the last 30 years to bring peace to our strife-torn land.

Personally, I’d rather have a president who talks tough and works to bring peace than a supposedly decent one who will think nothing of razing an entire city because he will not negotiate. Acting all decent and civilized is easy, after all, compared to the hard, long process of securing peace in the countryside.

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Fallout

PENSEES FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN AQUINO

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

BACK CHANNEL ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO THE effects of the falling out between the Philippines and the United States are beginning to show.

The Duterte administration may just shrug off the fallout arising from Digong’s incessant verbal attacks on the US but the business sector is concerned with its ripple effect on the economy. The peso has fallen to 48.50 vis-a-vis the dollar in Wednesday’s exchange rate. While it may be good for the local manufacturers export products, it is bad news in that the cost of importing raw materials for making its products has become more expensive.. Forex dealers foresee the peso hitting P50 to a dollar early next year.

Another area which could be dealt a blow is the business process outsourcing industry which employs hundreds of thousands of Filipinos as call center agents. This is seen as a vibrant sector that could surpass BPO global leader India in the coming years. Most of these call centers in the country are US companies. Some of them are

spillover business from India that could no longer be handled by the locals themselves, forcing these companies to relocate to the Philippines.

The departure of the US companies as a result of the uncertainty spawned by Duterte’s ambiguous “separation from the US” statement during his fourday state visit in China, has sent chills in American companies operating in the country. Washington and the American Chamber of Commerce in Manila have tried to assuage this fear but the pall of gloom hangs heavily in the air. We don’t know what economic policy this administration is pursuing but it seems to defy the sound policy that more is better. Duterte’s move to diversify the country’s source of foreign investments is good economics, but why shed long and traditional ones ?

Russia, the other country aside from China that Digong is courting, is having its own economic problems since the fragmentation of the former Soviet Union...It is not the same Soviet empire that used to control satellite states like Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhtan. Moldovia, and Belorussia. These newly formed republics are not willing to return to the Russian orbit that used to

dominate them. These countries now have their own flags and national anthems. Some of the nuclear weapons Russia stored in these satellite states are still with them and they are not about ready to relinquish or return them to mother Russia.

A deal of 26,000 assault rifles worth a billion pesos was stopped from going through by US Senator Ben Cardin who expressed concern the weapons would be used in the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in President Duterte’s brutal takeno-prisoners war on traffickers and users.

Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa said the PNP can source the weapons from another American company while President Duterte claimed the Philippines can purchase weapons from Russia and China and calling the officials in Washington who stalled the sale of the Sig Sauer rifles as “ fools and monkeys.”

At what cost and under what terms will the Philippines be buying weapons from Russia?

Reacting to the latest blast from the Philippine president, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing in Washington that “US-Philippine relation does not rest on the shoulders of just one

man, particularly President Duterte.” Read between the lines and and read what you want into what Kirby said.

There are other areas the US can turn the screw on the Philippines but I won’t talk about them. Let’s just wait and see how the US can play tit-for-tat with Digong depending on the gravity of his verbal attacks. Will Duterte cease and desist or continue on his foul-mouthed outbursts against America in the new year? The President’s planned scrapping of the annual Balikatan war games between US and Filipino troops is an area where the military establishment is not happy about. They are fully aware of the benefits the war exercises add to the AFP’s defense capability particularly in light of China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea and the region.

The US presidential election is coming up in less than a week.

Its outcome, whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump makes it to the White House, will determine the course of Washington’s policy with Manila. Hillary may just be the Iron Lady that Duterte is not expecting. Outgoing President Barck Obama took Digong’s insults in stride but Hillary might be the fury who could unleash the same verbal venom that Duterte dishes out.

Another pension deadlock FILIPINO PENSIONER HORACE TEMPLO A GOOD proportion of our millennials now spend their days before, during and after Undas traveling as local tourists to our natural, heritage, and recreational destinations throughout the country.

Apparently, they’ve been enticed by government promotions to visit our tourist spots by taking advantage of vacation deals, travel specials, and cheap hotel accommodations.

They could have saved their extra money, of course, by paying additional contributions to the Social Security System, and thereby support the pension increase requirements of their elderly parents.

Most of us baby boomers still prefer spending Undas by remembering our departed loved ones with members of our families and clans. For us who now live abroad or have moved to the city, it is also a season for visiting our birthplace and renewing our kinship with relatives and childhood friends even for a few hours at the cemetery.

Unfortunately, this year’s Nov. 2 was not declared a nonworking holiday. Hence, most of us had to rush back home in the afternoon of Undas to resume our life in the city.

These Undas trips had become journeys of chaos and hardship, similar to what they

Transforming...

From A4 ence in using the latest scientific advancements to promote resilient infrastructure. Escap’s newest institution, the Asian and Pacific Centre for Development of Disaster Information Management, will be at the forefront of providing capacity development support in disaster information management in the region, serving as an innovative platform to collectively address common regional challenges.

Second, there are opportunities to bridge gaps in knowledge and capacity for disaster risk reduction between the data, technology and capacity-poor and rich countries, through the use of STI. Despite the immense growth in the access to STI applications in the region there are still a number of countries— particularly countries with special needs—that do not use these applications.

Escap’s Regional Space Applications for Sustainable Development initiative provides an excellent foundation for bridging these gaps. Over the past two decades, Resap has harnessed the latest ad-

are during Holy Week and the Christmas season.

But by and large, traveling was relatively cheaper, more convenient, and safer in this year’s Undas. We didn’t mind, therefore, when President Digong didn’t even try to inspect our airports, seaports and bus terminals.

We appreciated, though, that there was no more “laglag bala” to fear in traveling via the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Still, we wonder: Whose bright idea was it to look for hidden bullets in the luggage of our airline passengers?

My erudite senior citizen friends—who still can replay from memory important chess games of our grandmasters— know of some chess players who still keep bullets as lucky charms or amulets against their opponents. They don’t remember, however, any untoward incident in airplanes or at airport toilets that a smuggled bullet caused.

Like last year, this year’s four-day Undas period has provided my senior citizen friends plenty of opportunity to quiz me on the much-awaited P2,000 SSS pension increase.

After all, both houses of congress have agreed to grant it again.

Senator Cynthia Villar, one of the strong supporters of the increase at the Senate, has even announced that she expected it to be signed into law soon enough to be the chamber’s “early Christmas gift to the 1.9 million SSS pensioners.”

Not to be outdone, Rep. Jesus

Sacdalan, the chairman of the House Committee on Government Enterprises and Privatization, also announced about its impending approval by his committee in its Nov. 15 hearing “with or without the presence of SSS officials.”

We believed President Digong when he promised during the campaign period that he’d approve the P2,000 pension increase bill once it is submitted to him.

We are thus salivating now about its release.

And when Dean Amado Valdez—his newly appointed Social Security Commission chairman—called his first press conference last Oct. 28, we thought that he’d already announce the agency’s unconditional endorsement of the increase to Congress.

He didn’t even bother coordinating with the incumbent SSS president and chief executive officer. After all, Dean Valdez has been very vocal about its release as President Digong’s singular marching order to him.

Like a pension expert, he repeated for the record that— “Implementing the P2,000 increase would require an additional P56 billion in the first year alone to fund the 12 monthly pensions and 13th month pensions of more than two million SSS pensioners.”

But he left us flabbergasted after he proceeded to set as condition for its release the identification by Congress of its source of funding.

He then proceeded to pro-

pose six options on how to implement it without bankrupting SSS by 2025.

The first option—which was what my senior citizen friends only understood of the six options—was an installment plan of four equal annual increases of P500 starting in 2017 until 2020.

We got lost in the complexity of the other five options, and could only note that “in the second option, the increase is implemented yearly based on five age groups and with the first tranche covering the oldest pensioners. The first group will receive the P2,000 increase in 2017, the second in 2018, and so on down the line.”

The rest of the options were convoluted hybrids of these two options.

Even if we pensioners didn’t fully comprehend the six options, we could sense that each of them would make us wait before we could receive the P2,000 pension increase.

In fact, the SSC chairman has made us worry with his concluding remarks that “merely mandating to grant across-theboard pension increase without any mention of how exactly the system will sustain it over the long term may not suffice.”

Seeing that none of his options matched the simplicity of the pending Congressional bills, we are seeing once again another pension deadlock between SSS and Congress.

A wise and caring President Digong could break it, of course, but he has to ask the millennials to increase their contributions.

vances and provided a platform for space agencies and sectoral stakeholders to access space applications for disaster management and sustainable development. Space-faring countries such as China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam have offered related satellite images, information products, and capacity development training to countries of the region.

Taking forward this momentum, Escap will host the AsiaPacific Space Leaders Forum during AMCDRR, to mobilize leaders in space and disaster risk management and facilitate a dialogue on the demand and supply of space information products.

Space leaders from the Resap network will discuss opportunities to develop a new Asia-Pacific Plan of Action for Space Applications 2018—2030, and foster greater discussion on the operational needs of end-users, while capitalizing on emerging applications from the space community.

The discussion and deliberations at the Forum will provide valuable additions to regional efforts in disaster mitigation and for monitoring the implementation of SDG goals in the region.

Last, the nature of disasters in the region is increasingly complex with extensive cross-border implications, given that the area shares the world’s two most seismically-active fault lines, three major ocean basins, and many rivers and river basins. Climatic events including cyclones, floods, and entire drought-affected swaths, all of which can cross national boundaries.

Solutions to mitigating these cross-border impacts are most effective at the regional level. The Escap Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness, for example, is an excellent example of a financing mechanism that has been set up as a regional public good and has ensured the development of an integrated regional early warning system for coastal hazards since 2005. The Escap-supported Escap/WMO Typhoon committee and the WMO/Escap Panel on Tropical Cyclones assists countries with early warning system products and capacity development services highlighting the economic benefits of these shared systems.

The magnitude of disaster impacts in our region challenges

us to develop a long-term vision of the pillars of implementation, towards building disaster resilience, knowing that the investments we make now may come to fruition only years after implementation. Well-coordinated UN support to the region can assure timely and robust implementation of both the Sendai Framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Escap is already coordinating the work in this area among United Nations entities through the Regional Coordination Mechanism and with regional associations through sharing good practices across regions, and by linking regional initiatives to the 2030 Agenda.

These efforts will translate the global commitments on disaster risk reduction into regional actions across Asia and the Pacific and anchor disaster risk reduction at the heart of sustainable development.

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar is a United Nations Undersecretary General and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

News

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Coco farmers hit SC’s reversal of ruling on 25-m SMC shares

By Sandy Araneta and Maricel V. Cruz

T

HE militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the claimants movement Coco Levy Funds Ibalik sa Amin (Claim) on Thursday slammed the reversal of a year 2000 ruling that has become final and executory the Supreme Court’s rejection of the petition to include 25.45-million San Miguel Corp. shares as part of the multibillion peso coco levy assets.

The KMP and Claim issued the statement after the High Court, in a 27-page en banc resolution on Oct. 5, denied the Philippine government’s bid to take back the SMC shares (that have been converted to non-voting Treasury shares) under the control of SMC. KMP secretary-general Antonio Flores said “the Supreme Court in September 2000 rendered a decision directing SMC to return to the government, through the Presidential Commission on

Good Government, 25.45 million shares, together with cash and/or stock dividends that have accrued thereto from March 1986.”

“Instead of compelling SMC to obey and comply with the SC’s September 2000 ruling that has become final and executory, the SC shamelessly reversed its decision ironically citing a clear violation of due process to one of the most powerful conglomerate,” Flores said.

“Under the guise of so-called due process for SMC, the SC bla-

tantly denied small coconut farmers of their just and rightful claim over the funds,” Flores said.

In a related development, Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao urged President Rodrigo Duterte to certify as urgent the proposed Genuine Small Coconut Farmers’ Fund following his pronouncement the multi-billion coconut levy fund needed legislation to be used by the coconut farmers.

Casilao also cautioned Duterte there were legislative proposals for the said fund but were essentially depriving the farmers of their legitimate claim.

“The Duterte presidency should be watchful of the many bills for the coco levy funds, such as the substitute bill last congress, but was only attempting to privatize the fund and treat the farmers, who are the real owners, as mendicants,” Casilao said.

Casilao was referring to the substitute bill for House Bills 1327, 4900, 5208 and 5250, filed during the 16th congress.

The Anakpawis party-list group,

then represented by Rep. Fernando Hicap, authored then House Bill No. 1327, Genuine Small Coconut Farmers’ Fund, pulled out from being a co-author as the substitute bill did not express the sentiments of the farmers.

“Most bills consider even the landlord as coconut farmer, put priority to the industry and treat farmers as ‘accidental benefiaries,’” Casilao said.

Flores insisted the 25.45-million SMC treasury shares formed part of the original Coconut Industry Investment Fund–Oil Mills Group shares belonging to small coconut farmers.

Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., who wrote the decision, said “Indeed, it is unsporting, nay the height of injustice a clear violation of the due process guarantee, to order SMC to comply with any decision rendered in CC 0033-F when it was never given the opportunity to present, explain and prove its claim over the presently contested shares.”

The shares were the subject of a compromise agreement between SMC and UCPB in March 1990

that was disapproved by the Sandiganbayan a few years later.

The Sandiganbayan decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court on Sept. 14, 2000.

On April 17, 2001, SMC’s Motion for Reconsideration was denied by the Supreme Court, and an entry of judgment was issued on June 27, 2001.

If passed into law, Casilao said HB 557 intended to distribute the coconut levy funds, by declaring it as a “genuine small coconut farmers’ fund,” to be administered by a “small coconut farmers’ council” composed of actual farmers.

The fund shall be apportioned to all coconut farmers in the form of financial assistance and social benefits such as pension, medical and hospitalization, maternity, educational assistance and scholarships; and finance socio-economic projects initiated by small coconut farmers such as livelihood programs for their additional incomes, small and medium-scale coconut enterprises and programs for loan facilities for small coconut farmers.

Morales approves charges vs ex-vice governor THE Office of the Ombudsman ordered on Thursday the filing of six counts of violation of code of ethics against a former vice governor of Tawi-Tawi in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao before the Sandiganbayan.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales approved the finding of probable cause to charge Ruby Sahali Tan with six counts of violation of Section 8 of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees or Republic Act 6713.

The indictment of Tan stemmed from her failure to file her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth under oath from 2007 to 2011.

Tan also failed to file her 2008 to 2012 SALNs within the period provided by law.

Morales also directed the provincial human resource management office to comply with the period within which to submit copies of the SALNs of officials and employees as “failure to do so shall be dealt with accordingly.”

Under Section 8 of RA 6713, all public officials shall file under oath, their SALNs and a disclosure of their business interests and financial connections, including those of their spouse and unmarried children under 18 years of age living in their households.

The law also makes it mandatory for the SALNs to be filed on or before April 30 of each year.

The SALN is an annual document that all government workers in the Philippines, whether regular or temporary, must complete and submit attesting under oath to their total assets and liabilities, including businesses and financial interests.

It is a declaration of assets (i.e., land, vehicles, etc) and liabilities (i.e., loans, debts, etc), including business and financial interests, of an official/employee, of his or her spouse, and of his or her unmarried children under 18 years old still living in their parents’ households. Rio N. Araja

NEVER FORGET. Artists and members of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines launched an art exhibit entitled ‘Pintasayawit’ at SM Megamall to mark the November 23 Ampatuan massacre in 2009 that left 57 civilians dead, including 32 media workers. Lino Santos

Nuke plant reopening rejected by solon

By Maricel V. Cruz A MILITANT lawmaker on Thursday backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s stand rejecting the use of nuclear power in the country.

“This is good and one less of a problem that would haunt Filipinos. The government should instead concentrate more on renewable energy rather than dangerous sources of power like the long mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant,” Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said.

Zarate maintained he is apprehensive over the renewed interests to open the mothballed BNPP, saying the “dangers and disadvantages far outweigh the presumptive benefits [the reopening] may bring.”

“Numerous issues ranging from health, environment, economics, nuclear contamination, as well as the unsolved problem of nuclear waste disposal are grave concerns that should be taken into consideration by our energy officials before we should think of opening the BNPP,” Zarate said.

“The issues of health risks and environmental damage from uranium mining, processing and transport, the risk of nuclear meltdown or sabotage, and the problem of radioactive nuclear waste cannot just be set aside or ignored,” said Zarate, chair of the House committee on natural resources.

Citing Dr. Giovanni Tapang, convenor of No To BNPP Revival, he said the International Atomic Energy Agency itself had ruled “the BNPP failed the safety location requirement as it is located near Natib Volcano and is very near a fault line.”

“Experts also said that nuclear reactors themselves are enormously complex machines where many things can and do go wrong, and there have been many serious nuclear accidents in the recent years, like the 2011 Fukushima Disaster in Japan,” Zarate said.

“In fact, these experts also argue that when all the energyintensive stages of the nuclear fuel chain are considered— from uranium mining to nuclear decommissioning—nuclear power is not a low-carbon electricity source. Nor is it cheap,” Zarate said.

OFWs in Korea receive minimum wage increase

By Vito Barcelo SOUTH Korea has increased the minimum wage of all foreign workers, including Filipinos, by as much as 7.3 percent under its Employment Permit System, the Department of Labor and Employment said.

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Korea welcomed the new minimum wage rate, saying the pay hike will take effect Jan. 1, 2017.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the new minimum wage rate for 2017, which is a boon to South Korea-based Filipino workers who will now enjoy a minimum wage rate of P268.73 per hour from P250.46 per hour.

He said more than 24,000 OFWs in both small- and medium-scale manufacturing industries employed under the EPS shall be covered by the new base rate next year.

The South Korean government, through its Labor Standards Policy Department, shall closely monitor the employment conditions, support employment, and supervise the worksites to ensure that the new minimum wage is enforced.

The increase does not, however, cover those working in their family business and living in the same residence, domestic workers and seafarers.

As of December 2015, government records showed that more than 41,000 OFWs work and live in South Korea.

Misamis Or. official suspended for a year

By Rio N. Araja THE Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday ordered a one-year suspension of an official of Misamis Oriental for oppression and neglect of duty.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales directed the suspension of local treasury operations officer IV Marilou Rivera over the anomalous issuance of warrants of garnishment against a Japanese firm in 2014.

The provincial government issued an assessment against chemical firm Pilipinas Kao Inc. (PKI) for unpaid real property taxes amounting to P631.5 million from 2002 to 2013.

Then Philippine Economic Zone Authority manager Procolo Olaivar told the local government that the firm was exempted from paying local taxes, including real property taxes, under the Special Economic Zone Act.

Despite the Peza clarification, Rivera still issued a warrant of levy for P244.7 million against the company in October 2013.

She also issued warrants of garnishment in January 2014 against the firm’s bank accounts to cover the assessed amount of P631.5 million.

“Respondent’s issuance of the warrant of garnishment against PKI’s bank accounts appear to be improper,” Morales said.

HOLIDAY CHEER. A mall worker applies finishing touches to a giant Christmas tree display in Pasay City. Lino Santos

Sports

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Vargas contests disqualification

By Peter Atencio

T

HE provisions that disqualified boxing chief Ricky Vargas is not clearly stated in the constitution and bylaws of the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Lawyer Jake Corporal explained this before the three-man election panel of the Philippine Olympic Committee that met yesterday to discuss the appeal of Vargas, in his bid to run for POC

president in the coming election on Nov. 25.

“What they’re trying to do is hold us to a qualification that’s not in the bylaws,” said Corpo-

ral as he and Vargas appeared for a the panel in a two-hour meeting at the UCC Café inside the Capitol Commons in Pasig City.

Corporal said that this was the first time that Vargas was formally informed that the bare minimum requirement in running for one of the highest positions in the POC is attendance in majority of the general assembly meetings.

“Attendance in the majority of the general assembly meetings, which is not in the bylaws, is now required. So,

that’s the interpretation today.

It could be different tomorrow.

It could be different in the next election, and in the election after,” said Corporal.

He believes that such a requirement should have been amended first into the bylaws by the general assembly before it could have been applied to aspiring candidates.

Vargas said he was glad that his side was heard, and it was unfortunate that he was disqualified first before he was given due process.

“At the end, there was discussion on what active member meant. And what their definition of what active meant, and how their point of view came about.

Due process should have come before disqualification,” said Vargas.

Elizalde said the panel is set to come out with its decision within 24 hours, and once the parties involved have been notified.

Vargas, who is the president of the Amateur Boxing Alliance of the Philippines, be-

lieves that the process by which the Commission on Elections of the POC disqualified him to run for president in its coming election is flawed.

Elizalde, the former International Olympic Committee (IOC) representative to the country, discussed the merit of the appeal before the panel, which is also composed of Bro. Bernie Oca of La Salle and Cong. Conrado Estrella, who is with the House Committee on Youth and Sports Development.

Shakeys VLeague Final 4 features powerhouse cast

BaliPure’s Amy Ahomiro rams in a kill over the blocking hands of Coast Guard defenders Grenlen Malapit (11) and Alarnie Pesebre (15) during their Shakey’s V-League Reinforced Conference duel at the Philsports Arena.

THE Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Rein- a series 20-hit-plus games to emerge the third forced Conference Final Four cast features a leading scorer after the elims. Andrea Kacsits powerhouse cast with no team holding a dis- has been providing solid backup along with tinct advantage over the other, guaranteeing a local aces Myla Pablo, Michelle Gumabao, pair of explosive matches when the semifinal Desiree Dadang, Gyzel Sy and Fil-Am setter round is fired off tomorrow (Saturday) at the Iris Tolenada.

Philsports Arena in Pasig.

Mackie was also the top blocker after Pocari Sweat has the manpower and mo- the elims, edging UAAP’s best Marivic mentum but UST will lean on its guts and Menedes of UST, 16-14, while Melissa Gohing emerged the best digger big fighting heart when they slug it out for the second time from among an elite group Games tomorrow (Spikers’ Turf) of receivers who dig deep to in three days while BaliPure a.m. – Air Force vs IEM and Customs brace for a 12:3010:30 a.m. – Cignal vs Champion Supra pass a spiked or fast-moving highly emotional encounter ball close to the floor.

(V-League) 4 p.m. – BaliPure vs Customs But despite the absence of in their side of the best-of6 p.m. – Pocari vs UST three playoff. a reinforcement, the Tigresses proved they’re a force to The Lady Warriors toppled the Tigresses in four Wednesday night in reckon with in the import-laced tournament their duel for the top seeding at the close of sponsored by Shakey’s, sweeping their first the elims but the former remain wary of their four games to easily make it to the Final Four.

With her vast repertoire of shots, EJ Laure semis rivals, who dropped to No. 4 after finishing tied for second with the Water Defend- remains UST’s main weapon along with Meners and the Transformers. eses, who also thrives on running attacks, “The chemistry is there on and off the court veteran Pam Lastimosa and the diminutive so the team is doing well,” said Pocari coach Cherry Rondina, whose high-flying acts conRommel Abella after steering the Lady War- tinue to stun her rivals and thrill the crowd. riors to six straight wins after dropping their The BaliPure-Customs duel is also tipped opening game assignment to the Air Force Jet to go down-to-the-wire with the Water Defenders raring to prove they can go all the way Spikers last Oct. 5 to clinch the No. 1 spot.

But the Final Four will be an entirely dif- even without their former ace player Alyssa ferent thing and Abella has stressed the need Valdez, who moved over to the Transformers.

But BaliPure skipper Charo Soriano infor his wards to improve on their blocking and reception. sisted their main concern is to toughen up “We also must become aggressive with our on defense, fully aware of Valdez’s enorattacking game,” he added. mous skills along with Customs’ Thai reImport Breanna Mackie has been on attack inforcements Kanjana Kuthaisong and Natmode after that loss to Air Force, pumping in thanicha Jaisaen.

Narvasa, PBA board plan for coming season

By Jeric Lopez EXECUTIVES and officials of the Philippine Basketball Association are currently holding their annual planning session in Seoul, South Korea.

Led by Commissioner Chito Narvasa, the league delegation is currently mapping out their platforms for the upcoming 2016-17 PBA season that will start on Nov. 20 with the sea-

son-opening Philippine Cup. Team executives, led by incoming PBA chairman Mikee Romero, owner of GlobalPort and outgoing chair Robert Non, San Miguel’s governor, are brainstorming with league officials as they all aim on sustaining the momentum of the league which it got from an overwhelming run towards the end of the Governors’ Cup. Several topics are being tack-

led in the four-day session that started last Wednesday and will conclude on Sunday.

Subjects that are being discussed are the tournament formats for the three conferences, marketing strategies, officiating, height limit of imports in the reinforced conferences.

Narvasa aims on making the PBA a “center of excellence” in terms of professional basketball in the region.

“What we can do is to improve the league even better and establish it as the premier basketball and entertaining organization in the region an beyond,” he said during his speech in the recently concluded PBA draft.

Meanwhile, solid big man JR Quinahan agreed to a two-year deal max deal with GlobalPort and he can now look forward to the upcoming season.

Following a stellar and a

steady showing in the past season, Quinahan seeked for the mentioned deal with former team Rain or Shine.

But the Painters didn’t give him that and instead, surprisingly traded him to the Batang Pier for veteran Jay Washington several weeks ago.

Now, Quinahan’s stint with his new team is secured as negotiations finally came at a happy end.

Draft picks Belo, Banal bring hope to Blackwater BLACKWATER is looking forward to a bright future.

Netting Gilas cadet Mac Belo and Raphael Banal in the 2016 PBA Rookie Draft has apparently brought a ray of hope for the Elite, which has struggled in its first two seasons in the league.

Even coach Leo Isaac believes the future looks bright for his team this coming season with the arrival of Belo and Banal. “They can develop into future PBA superstars,” Isaac said of his two rookie picks.

Notwithstading their impressive skills, Belo and Banal can’t turn Blackwater’s fortune around by themselves. They will need a lot of support so everybody will have to step and up if they intend to go up the ladder.

Losing scoring leader Carlo Lastimosa certainly stings, but All-Rookie Team member Art dela Cruz is still around and should be a good fit with Belo and Banal.

Isaac said he also expects his young backcourt of Roi Sumang, Nard Pinto, and Juami Tiongson to raise their game as they play alongside veteran court general Denok Miranda.

JP Erram will not be around for the Philippine Cup due to an ACL injury he sustained late last season, but that’s the least of Isaac’s concern with Belo and Gilas Cadets standout Mac Belo (center) joins Blackwater players and officials Reil Cervantes taking over.

Isaac admits there’s still a lot of room during the presentation of players in the past 2016 PBA Draft. Belo is the for improvement. But he remains posi- consensus top amateur prospect to join the PBA this season. tive just the same. ing regularly in the playoffs and fighting good barometer of how far Blackwater “The team is determined to succeed,” with the contenders.” has improved in the 42nd season of the Isaac said. “We want to be there, competThe 2017 Philippine Cup will be a league.

Chicago celebrates historic World Series victory CHICAGO—After waiting 108 years, Chicago erupted in euphoric celebration following the Cubs’ historic win of the World Series baseball championship.

The streets around the Cubs’ home stadium Wrigley Field were covered with thousands of jubilant fans, as fireworks lit up the sky.

Car horns blared throughout the city, and cheering crowds spilled from bars and viewing parties.

“People have been waiting for this for a long time,” said Stephen Hill, 64, owner of Brendan’s Pub —a sports bar which filled to ca-

pacity with fans glued to the tense game that ended with an 8-7 Cubs win in 10 innings.

The Cubs hadn’t appeared in Major League Baseball’s World Series since 1945 and last won the championship in 1908— when Theodore Roosevelt was president.

Local lore blames the Cubs’ losing streak on the “Curse of the Billy Goat,” allegedly placed on the team by a vexed Billy Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, after being thrown out of a game in 1945 due to a foul-

smelling pet goat.

The wait ever since has been agonizing for generations of Chicagoans, who stayed loyal even as the team lost more than it won.

Even presidential candidate Hillary Clinton—a Chicagoan and a Cubs fan—paused on the campaign trail to root for her home team.

The Democrat watched the final minutes on an iPad following a rally at Arizona State University, her campaign said. After the final out, she and an aide held up a blue and white “W” flag that

signals a Cubs victory.

President Barack Obama, who is also a Chicagoan but a supporter of the city’s rival South side team the White Sox, nevertheless offered his congratulations via Twitter.

“That’s change even this South Sider can believe in. Want to come to the White House before I leave?” Obama wrote.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in a statement released seconds after the victory, said it held great weight for the city and was “more than a game.”

“It is about the families who have passed down a love for the Cubs from mothers and fathers to their sons and daughters, and from grandparents to grandchildren,” Emanuel said.

Fran Zalewski, 51, comes from one such family and was celebrating outside Wrigley Field with her 22-year-old daughter Susie.

Zalewski’s 93-year-old father, who suffers from early dementia and attended his first Cubs game in 1942, was watching from home. AFP

Le Tour road race resumes South Luzon swing in 2017 THE Le Tour de Filipinas, the only International Cycling Union (UCI) road race in the country, returns to Southern Luzon in 2017 with its eighth edition set from February 18 to 21.

The UCI officially announced the Le Tour de Filipinas 2017 schedule during the UCI World Championships and Management Committee meeting in Doha, Qatar, in October.

Race organizer Ube Media Inc. led by its President Donna Lina thanked the UCI and its president, Bryan Cookson, and the national federation for cycling, PhilCycling, headed by President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and Chairman Alberto Lina, for again granting the country the chance to stage the race presented by Air21 for the eighth straight year.

“It is with pride that we are again conducting the Le Tour de Filipinas, proof that the UCI and PhilCycling have continually bestowed their trust and confidence that our organization, Ube Media Inc., conforms to standards for an international road race,” Lina said.

Lina said that for 2017, the Le Tour de Filipinas would carry the slogan “8’s Amazing” to emphasize on the race’s strong appeal as part of the UCI Asia Tour calendar.

The four-stage race will practically cover the same route last year when 75 cyclists raced from Antipolo City to Lucena City in Quezon, to Daet in Camarines Norte and to Legaspi City with the majestic Mayon Volcano as backdrop.

This early, three continental teams have already signified their intentions to participate in the race. The early birds included Bridgestone Anchor Cycling Team and Kinan Cycling Team, both registered in Japan, and Nice Cycling, an IndonesianSwiss organization.

LOTTO RESULTS

6/49 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 6/42 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 6 DIGITS 00-00-00-00-00-00 3 DIGITS 00-00-00 2 EZ2 00-00

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

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Sports

Chicago Cubs trip Indians to end century of futility C LEVELAND —Ending America’s longest sports title drought in dramatic fashion, the Chicago Cubs captured their first World Series since 1908 by defeating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in a 10-inning thriller that concluded Thursday morning.

The Cubs took Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final 4-3, ending what had been an iconic 107-year run of failure, frustration and futility.

But the historic victory came only after Chicago squandered a four-run lead and looked ready several times for another

heartbreaking stumble.

“This trumps everything. I am so happy,” Cubs slugger Kris Bryant said. “That’s one of the best games anyone will ever see.”

Ben Zobrist doubled in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and Miguel Montero added a bases-loaded single for an 8-6

Cubs lead after teams endured a 17-minute rain delay following a 6-6 deadlock in regulation play.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Zobrist, who was named the Most Valuable Player. “Most teams would have folded after we lost that lead.

“I can’t believe after 108 years we’re able to hoist the trophy.”

One out from victory, with Cubs fans chanting “We’re number one,” Cleveland’s Brandon Guyer walked and Rajai Davis, who homered to equalize in the eighth, singled to pull the Indians within the final margin.

But Michael Martinez grounded out to third to end

Cleveland’s final threat and a roar erupted from Cubs fans as players began to celebrate.

“We got it done. That’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter how,” Cubs pitcher Jon Lester said. “It’s all surreal. I don’t have the words to describe how I feel right now.”

After more than a century— 39,466 days—and a final game of gut-wrenching tension, the Cubs were once again World Series champions. Thousands stayed after the game to cheer and sing “Let’s Go Cubbies,” even after heavy rains returned to soak them.

Dexter Fowler, Javier Baez

and David Ross blasted solo home runs and Bryant scored twice as the Cubs, long known as lovable losers and even considered cursed, became the first team since 1985 to rally from a 3-1 Series deficit to win the title —the first club since 1979 to do it by taking the last two games on the road.

“This is best feeling in the world,” Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “Lot of people had written us off this series and last series. For us to come back from 3-1 and finish this off in extra innings (was amazing).

We are world champions for the rest of our lives.” AFP

The Chicago Cubs celebrate after defeating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in Game Seven of the 2016 World Series at Progressive Field on November 2, in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years. AFP

Patrimonio battles Iglupas TOP seed Clarice Patrimonio and No. 2 Khim Iglupas posted a pair of lopsided victories to arrange another title duel even as the men’s top seeds rolled into the semifinal round of the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala Pintaflores Festival Open at the Sacata Tennis Club in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental yesterday.

Patrimonio dropped just two games to ease out Chloe Mae Saraza, 6-2, 6-0, in the quarterfinal round then dominated No. 4 Shaira Hope Rivera, 6-0, 6-1, to cruise to the finals of the centerpiece event sponsored by Palawan Pawnshop and presented by Slazenger.

But Iglupas also turned in an impressive win, shutting out Erika Mae Manduriao, 6-0, 6-0, in the Last 8 then blasting third seed Hanna Espinosa, 6-2, 6-1, in the lower half of the 16-player draw featuring the country’s leading players.

This marks the third time that Patrimonio and Iglupas will slug it out for the crown in this year’s PPS-PEPP calendar.

Iglupas swept Patrimonio in the Olivarez Cup finals but the latter struck back in the Tuna Festival Open and hacked out a three-set win.

Patrimonio broke Riviera right from the start then swept the next five games.

Rivera, who beat Rachelle de Guzman, 6-1, 6-0, in the quarters, held serve in the second set but failed to neutralize Patrimonio’s power and superb all around game to yield the next five.

Iglupas also broke Espinosa in the opener then took three of the next four games before the latter broke the former in the sixth game. But Iglupas broke back in the seventh then held serve in the next to clinch the set.

The 18-year-old ace from Iligan then re-stamped her class in the second, winning the next six games after Espinosa held serve.

“The women’s final promises to be another slam-bang affair with both players coming into the championship in peak form while an equally exciting semis is in the works in the men’s side with the top four seeds making it,” said Palawan Pawnshop CEO and president Bobby Castro, who also lauded the all-out support of the host city led by San Carlos City Mayor Gerardo Valmayor Jr., councilor Criston Carmona and the LGUs of San Carlos along with former Rep. Julius Ledesma IV and Vice Gov. Bong Lacson.

No. 1 Johnny Arcilla, meanwhile, lined himself up for a fourth straight Open crown in this year’s PPS-PEPP calendar, beating Marcen Gonzales, 6-1, 6-2, to advance to the semis against No. 4 Leander Lazaro, who demolished Calvin Canlas, 6-1, 6-2.

Second seed Patrick John Tierro had an easier time reaching the Final Four, scoring a 1-0 (ret.) win over John Mari Altiche for a face-off with No. 3 Vicente Anasta, who survived Fritz Verdad, 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.

Roach says Pacquiao will knock out Vargas

By Robbie Pangilinan LAS VEGAS via Glutamax —Will we see Manny score a knockout for the first time in years?

“Well, let’s see,” said a hopeful Freddie Roach during the press conference before the highly anticipated WBO Welterweight Title bout between eight-division World Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao and World Boxing Organization Welterweight Champion Jessie Vargas , on November 5, 2016 at Thomas & Mack Center, Paradise, Las Vegas, Nevada.

At the Wynn Las Vegas Margaux Ballroom, the camps

of Pacquiao and Vargas faced the press, both looking excited and ready for fight night.

“Jessie is a legitimate world champion in the welterweight division. He is 10 years younger and fresher than the battleheavy Filipino icon. Stylistically, Vargas is big and in possession of a solid skill set.

He will box Manny like no other fighter has and is good enough and skilled enough to give the favored former champ a much tougher time than many are anticipating,” said the confident Dewey Cooper, Vargas’ trainer who replaced legendary Mexican champion Erik Morales.

“We might disappoint

the spectators on November 5,” added Cooper, a former cruiserweight who is Vargas’ sixth trainer in his eight-year career.

Former boxing champion Gerry Peñalosa is expecting a knock out in the early rounds, saying, “Manny will knock him down early.”

Roach acknowledges the youth and strength of Vargas, saying that these are definitely pluses for Manny’s opponent.

“His height and reach are also factors that we will need to control. I do not want to give anything away, but Manny’s speed and footwork might be the key weapons in establishing our plan,” said Roach.

Murray continues pursuit

Eight-division World Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao (left) face off against World Boxing Organization Welterweight Champion Jessie Vargas ahead of their championship bout on November 5 at Thomas & Mack Center, Paradise, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Shorthanded Celtics stun Bulls

Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas (4) tries to dribble past Rajon Rondo (9) of the Chicago Bulls on November 2 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. AFP

LOS ANGELES – The shorthanded Boston Celtics avenged last week’s loss to the previously undefeated Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers spoiled the perfect record of the high-flying Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.

The Celtics blew a 16-point fourth quarter lead but managed to hold on for a 107-100 win in an early season rematch, while the Hawks suffered a shock loss to the lowly Lakers 123-116 after dominating in their first three contests of the season.

Not only did the Celtics blow the big lead but they were missing two of their starters Wednesday in Al Horford and Jae Crowder.

“We got a lot of good players that can step in at any time,” Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas said.

“I think that’s our strength, our depth, and we’re just going to keep going.”

Horford is sidelined because of a concussion, and they lost Crowder to a sprained ankle in the second quarter. The Celtics aren’t forgetting that Kelly Olynyk is still out following shoulder surgery.

“That was a good win,” said Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who added that his team’s injuries “are a great opportunity for everybody else.”

The Bulls slumped to their first loss of the season after knotting the score at 100-100 with a late 6-0 scoring surge. But they were shut out in the final two minutes.

One free throw by Amir Johnson and a determined drive by

Thomas gave Boston (3-1) a three-point lead.

After former Celtics guard Rajon Rondo shot an airball for the Bulls, the Celtics used a runner

by Marcus Smart to put the game away.

In Atlanta, it was a memorable homecoming for veteran guard Lou Williams who scored 16 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter as the Lakers pinned the first loss on the Hawks.

“Some of the shots Lou hit, he just bailed us out on,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “Good teams clamp down in the fourth quarter, making it hard. Lou just created on his own.”

Williams wasn’t a factor for the Lakers until the fourth quarter when he missed just one shot.

PARIS, France—Andy Murray labored past a determined Fernando Verdasco to reach the last 16 of the Paris Masters on Wednesday and keep the pressure on world number one Novak Djokovic.

Murray is seeking to end Djokovic’s l22-week reign at the top, but the Briton was pushed to the limit by Verdasco in the French capital before prevailing 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5.

The second seed raced through the opening set but was forced into a decider after Verdasco, who had lost in the first round in five of his past six tournaments, leveled in a tie-break.

The Spaniard then saw two break points pass him by at 5-all in the third set, with Murray breaking the following game to finally end Verdasco’s resistance.

“It wasn’t the best match from my side. I got through it. I will play better tomorrow,” said Murray after sealing his 70th win of the season.

“I didn’t get any time on that court, because matches are from 11:00 in the morning and guys have warmup. So I have hit for like 45 minutes on the court beforehand, and it’s very different to last week, very different conditions.”

Murray, a winner in Beijing, Shanghai and Vienna in his past three events, will continue his assault on Djokovic when he faces Lucas Pouille for a place in the quarter-finals.

Djokovic, the record fourtime champion, marched into the third round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller. AFP

New ramp in Naia 3 opens, to ease traffic B3

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandardtoday.com extrastory2000@gmail.com FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

IN BRIEF

PH CHOCOLATE IN LONDON.

Nickel Asia gets copy of audit report

Risa Chocolate, a Philippine chocolate enterprise, joins the London Chocolate Show at Olympia National Hall in Kensington. The Department of Trade and Industry’s Philippine Trade and Investment Center- London said Risa’s participation in one of the United Kingdom’s biggest chocolate trade shows is a first for so many years for a Philippine SME. Shown are (from left) Lawrence Cinco, Pam Cinco, commercial attaché Kristine Umali, Ambassador Evan Garcia, together with a chocolate buyer and enthusiast and Jocelyn BatoonGarcia.

NICKEL Asia Corp. said Thursday it received a copy of the official findings and recommendations of the audit conducted by the Environment Department on wholly-owned subsidiary Hinatuan Mining Corp.

Nickel Asia said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the audit team cited alleged violations of two conditions in HMC’s environmental compliance certificate. HMC operates a nickel mine in the island of Manicani in Eastern Samar.

The mining audit team earlier said HMC was one of the 20 mines which were recommended for suspension.

Nickel Asia said that based on the report of the audit team, HMC shall “limit clearing of vegetation within planned areas to be mined and conducting revegetation reforestation on idle lands in the site with endemic species to provide carbon sink and restore biodiversity.”

The mining company, however, said that HMC had not conducted clearing of vegetation outside the planned areas to be mined, rehabilitated 55 hectares of mined-out areas and forested 368 hectares outside of mined-out areas that had no forest cover due to the poor soil condition.

“A total of 811,000 seedlings of various species including those endemic to the island was planted,” Nickel Asia said. Anna Leah E. Gonzales

GDP likely grew over 6% rd in 3 quarter, says Pernia

By Gabrielle H. Binaday

T

HE economy likely grew more than 6 percent in the third quarter, representing the first three months in office of the Duterte administration, Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said Thursday.

Pernia said the gross domestic product growth rate in the third quarter probably settled between 6.3 percent and 7.3 percent, in line with the 7-percent expansion in the second quarter.

He said the higher end of the forecast was supported by faster infrastructure spending and

robust domestic consumption brought about by new investments in the country.

Pernia said the growth was dragged down by the weak export performance in the third quarter.

The economy grew 7 percent in the second quarter, bringing the average expansion in the first

semester to 6.9 percent.

Pernia said the impact of Duterte’s tirades against the US would likely have an impact on fourth-quarter GDP growth as there were reports that foreign direct investments from the US went down.

“I don’t think the anti-US statements of the president will already be reflected in the third quarter,” Pernia said.

“I think the FDI from the US has gone down, as there are already reports, although China’s FDI is picking up. China cannot compensate for the loss in US [investments] because China was coming from a low base and the US was at

a much higher base,” he said.

Latest available data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that net inflows of foreign direct investments jumped 95 percent in the first half to $4.2 billion from $2.2 billion a year ago.

Pernia said the business process outsourcing sector was expected to sustain its growth, as foreign companies continued to find their Philippine operations profitable.

Pernia, however, said the likelihood of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election could have an impact on the BPO sector in 2017.

Trump earlier said he wanted

to keep jobs in the US, putting pressure on companies that outsourced operations to countries such as the Philippines.

Data from the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines showed that in 2015, the BPO industry generated 1.2 million direct jobs and $22 billion in revenues.

“The BPOs will not pull out. I don’t think there will be a pullout of BPOs except if Trump wins.

But that will happen next year maybe. It is profitable to private sector businesses [to do business here]. The US government cannot compel the private sector,” Pernia said.

Closing November 3, 2016

8300 7840 7380

By Jenniffer B. Austria

6920 6460 6000

7,160.91 91.49

PESO-DOLLAR RATE

Closing NOVEMBER 3, 2016 43.00 45.40 46.60

P48.405

49.00

CLOSE

HIGH P48.290 LOW P48.375 AVERAGE P48.336 VOLUME 412.900M

P442.00-P662.00 LPG/11-kg tank P36.70-P45.40 Unleaded Gasoline

OPRICES IL TODAY

SBMA’S AWARD. Former Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chairman Roberto Garcia (center) proudly

holds the award the SBMA team received after the agency was declared the Executive Leadership Team of the Year in the recently concluded Asia CEO Awards 2016 Awards. With him (from left) Asia CEO Awards 2016 chairman Richard Mills, Eric Alberto and Oscar Sañez.

Energy lukewarm to a new FIT round

P27.40-P30.97 Diesel P28.50-P36.85 Kerosene

By Alena Mae S. Flores

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Friday, October 28, 2016

F OREIGN E XCHANGE R ATE Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

48.4490

Japan

Yen

0.009681

0.4690

UK

Pound

1.230900

59.6359

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128954

6.2477

Switzerland

Franc

1.027961

49.8037

Canada

Dollar

0.746938

36.1884

Singapore

Dollar

0.722491

35.0040

Australia

Dollar

0.765800

Bahrain

Dinar

2.655126

128.6382

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266667

12.9197

Brunei

Dollar

0.719891

34.8780

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000077

0.0037

Thailand

Baht

0.028617

1.3865

UAE

Dirham

0.272287

13.1920

Euro

Euro

1.109900

53.7735

Korea

Won

0.000874

0.0423

China

Yuan

0.147955

7.1683

India

Rupee

0.014981

0.7258

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.238892

11.5741

New Zealand

Dollar

0.728400

35.2903

Taiwan

Dollar

0.031759

37.1022

1.5387 Source: PDS Bridge

October inflation hit 2.4%—UK bank INFLATION rate in the Philippines likely accelerated to 2.4 percent in October from 2.3 percent in September, according to Standard Chartered Bank.

“We expect inflation to have edged up to 2.4 percent year-on-year from 2.3 percent in September, again on higher food inflation, which was likely 3.1 percent year-on-year,” Standard Chartered economist for Asia Chidu Narayanan said in a report Thursday.

Narayanan said housing and utilities had the second-highest weighting in the consumer price index basket and prices might have risen again in October on a low base effect. Housing inflation, which accounts for almost a quarter of the basket, was 0.9 percent in September, the fastest increase in 23 months.

“We expect transport inflation to have remained low. Inflation excluding food and energy has been below-trend so far, but is increasing. We expect inflation to average 1.7 percent in 2016, versus the year-to-date average of 1.4 percent year-on-year and 1.4 percent in 2015,” Narayanan said.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said inflation in October likely settled between 1.9 percent and 2.7 percent.

Tetangco said the effects of higher domestic oil prices and the transitory uptick in food prices in areas affected by typhoons Karen and Lawin could be partly offset by the slight decline in rice prices and power rates in Meralcoserviced areas. Julito G. Rada

Pilipinas Shell to allot P18b for PH expansion

PSE COMPOSITE INDEX

47.80

B1

THE Energy Department is lukewarm to granting a third round of feed-in tariff rates to renewable energy producers which will further increase the cost of electricity in the country.

“For now, we don’t want too much…Because FIT, it runs up to 20 years and it’s overburdening our consumers. We want to bring down our electricity rates. How can we bring it down if we keep on giving FIT,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi told reporters.

FIT refers to the fixed rates received by renewable energy producers such as solar, wind, biomass and mini-hydro plants.

Cusi said when he stepped into office, he promised to look for ways to bring down the power cost in the country, which remained one of the highest in the world.

The previous National Renewable Energy Board members endorsed a third round of feed-in tariff for an additional 500 megawatts for solar and 500 MW for wind projects.

The National Transmission Corp. is now collecting from consumers a feed-in tariff allowance of P0.1240 per kilowatt-hour.

NEWLY listed Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. is allocating P18.36 billion in capital expenditures over the next five years to build new retail service stations and upgrade the Tabangao Refinery in Batangas City.

Pilipinas Shell said in a final prospectus filed with the stock exchange it would spend P12.8 billion from 2016 to 2020 for the planned turnaround and upgrade of the Tabangao Refinery, the establishment of new supply and distribution sites and the improvement of existing supply and distribution sites.

“Capital expenditures for manufacturing and supply principally relate to the planned turnaround and upgrade in 2017 of the Tabangao Refinery to enable production of bitumen, and revamp in 2018

and 2019 of the Tabangao Refinery’s catalytic cracking reformer to a continuous reformer,” Pilipinas Shell said.

The oil refiner and distributor also budgeted nearly P5 billion over the next five years for the rollout new service stations. The company said from 966 Shell-branded retail service stations as of end-June 2016, it planned to have 1,220 stations by 2020.

“The company expects to fund the planned capital expenditures indicated above using cash generated from operations, existing cash and the proceeds of the offer,” the oil refiner said.

Share price of Pilipinas Shell rose 0.3 percent on its debut Thursday, bucking the market’s downturn, closing at P67.20 per share from its IPO price of P67 apiece.

BSP closely watching US Fed, election

By Julito G. Rada BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas is closely watching the US election and the next move of the Federal Reserve which will influence its own decision on whether it will keep or change the local interest rates on Nov. 10, Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said Thursday.

Tetangco made the statement after the US Fed kept its interest rates unchanged Wednesday, in line with the expectations of the market.

“The Fed action is as expected, especially before the US elections. Analysts are parsing the statement and focusing on the word ‘some.’ Analysts say the Fed may have set the bar low

for a December move.... so if that move does materialize, then it would not come as a surprise to the market,” Tetangco said in a text message.

“That said, there is a lot to watch out for in the next week.

And it’s not likely that markets would make large movements in the meantime. We will continue to monitor developments both external and domestic, and consider these in our own policy assessment at our meeting next week,” Tetangco said.

Despite keeping interest rates unchanged before the US election, the Fed hinted it could raise rates next month as the world’s largest economy sustains momentum and inflation accelerates.

US policymakers were also hopeful that inflation was moving toward their target of 2 percent. “The committee judges that the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has continued to strengthen but decided, for the time being, to wait for some further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives,” the Fed said in a statement following a two-day meeting.

The US will hold the presidential election on Nov. 8, and the uncertainty already weighed on investor sentiments in many markets including the Philippines, where a win by Donald Trump was viewed as inimical to the business process outsourcing sector.

B2

Business

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Stocks decline; Shell rises in market debut S

China Bank’s profit climbs 31% to P4.8b

By Julito G. Rada CHINA Banking Corp., the eighth-largest lender in terms of assets, said consolidated net income in the first nine months jumped 31 percent to P4.84 billion from a year ago, on strong lending and fee-based businesses.

China Bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the nine-month profit translated into a return on equity of 10.47 percent and a return on assets of 1.19 percent.

“We are pleased to note that our core business drivers continue to show robust growth,” China Bank president and chief executive Ricardo Chua said in a statement.

“These positive results indi-

cate that we are on track to meet our business goals for this year, especially with the turnaround of our China Bank Savings subsidiary into a significant contributor to group profitability,” he said.

Total operating income grew 16 percent to P16.46 billion, with net interest income up 9 percent year-on-year to P12.26 billion, driven by the 19-percent growth in loan portfolio.

Fee-based revenues climbed 42 percent to P4.21 billion from last year‘s P2.96 billion, bolstered by trading and securities gains which surged 226 percent to P1.19 billion.

Service charges, fees and commissions rose 13 percent while income from acquired assets went up 123 percent.

tocks fell for a ninth day, dragging down the benchmark index below the 7,200-point level for the first time in six months, as investors turned jittery amid a tightening race for the US presidency.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company bellwether, dipped 91 points, or 1.3 percent, to close at 7,160.91 Thursday. It lost 8 percent in the past nine trading days, but was still up 3 percent since the start of the year.

The heavier index, representing all shares, also tumbled 39 points, or 0.9 percent, to settle at

4,287.77, on a value turnover of P10.1 billion.

All six sectors posted losses, while only four of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by GT Capital Holdings Inc., the investment company of tycoon George Ty, which rose 2.1 percent to P1,340 and Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., the sec-

ond largest lender, which gained 0.3 percent to P77.45. BDO Unibank Inc., the largest lender, went up 0.3 percent to P110.50.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. rose 0.3 percent to P67.20, after an initial public offering that raised P18.45 billion.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks struggled again Thursday, with uncertainty over next week’s presidential election sending investors rushing for the sidelines, pushing safe havens such as the yen and gold higher.

With just days to go until the Nov. 8 poll, maverick tycoon Donald Trump has closed what was once

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

FINANCIALS 3.49 7,000 47.5 14,600 97.3 1,940,750 3.75 15,000 110.5 5,038,050 1.35 44,000 38 160,700 16.18 231,800 19.36 1,026,700 1.79 56,000 639 460 0.77 4,275,000 77.45 5,330,990 0.84 41,000 14.32 440,400 22.05 10,000 57.75 21,190 260 730 145 710 100 120 35.55 115,700 204.4 1,773,250 1,466 135 75 112,550 1.35 155,000

23,570 692,520 188,951,020.50 56,250 549,452,985 58,930 6,074,355 3,737,290 20,005,082 100,710 293,740 3,293,010 412,636,550 34,480 6,278,796 220,500 1,219,823.50 188,850 100,060 11,806 4,115,120 361,974,120 198,535 8,440,717.50 210,170

555,140 -104,419,850.50 9,876,988 -13,000 1,687,200 -3,613,774 559,602 236,430 -3,120 -227,949,712.50 -2,485,560 327,522 -82,200 1,817,235 -106,099,526 -169,225 -1,234,312 -

43.5 3.7 0.91 1.39 17.22 0.203 120 11.14 16.22 200 22.75 28 63 95.5 2.01 6.56 12.18 10.84 7.01 7.22 5.6 1.77 22.55 66 12.02 16.64 6.03 1.85 232.2 82 2.03 3.7 29 26.6 14.14 275 3.15 10.16 2.13 5.8 1.46 66.6 3.57 215 4.2 2.2 3.09 4 0.144 1.57 174.5 2.09 1.13

INDUSTRIAL 44.5 2,733,000 3.77 909,000 0.93 358,000 1.39 580,000 18.68 77,700 0.203 60,000 120 680 11.32 7,560,000 16.5 681,000 200 1,700 23.5 423,700 29.6 30,100 63 46,770 98 1,030 2.05 246,000 6.85 486,400 12.38 14,400 11 5,536,800 7.05 397,400 7.25 718,500 5.6 13,216,800 1.77 3,000 22.65 985,700 66 188,540 12.02 5,100 16.7 230,100 6.08 406,200 1.93 691,000 232.2 800,550 88.9 2,970 2.1 152,000 3.7 11,000 30 2,208,700 26.6 332,200 14.22 7,155,800 279 147,040 3.19 1,744,000 10.24 1,452,100 2.14 619,000 5.9 62,900 1.47 44,000 67.2 31,163,370 3.73 158,000 220 18,660 4.41 1,825,000 2.2 2,000 3.14 80,000 4 155,000 0.144 2,080,000 1.62 694,000 175 1,291,840 2.12 2,785,000 1.13 102,000

120,985,045 3,443,510 331,070 811,170 1,447,566 12,180 82,150 85,968,548 11,134,090 398,710 9,911,680 888,990 2,946,547 100,361 498,890 3,294,555 176,990 60,689,882 2,807,194 5,196,722 74,326,874 5,310 22,356,210 12,564,843 61,364 3,837,564 2,464,628 1,325,620 186,786,836 254,003 323,790 40,710 66,106,670 8,904,140 103,342,372 40,918,322 5,531,240 14,891,264 1,329,570 366,600 64,870 2,089,445,342.50 570,250 4,100,700 8,026,110 4,400 248,520 628,280 301,070 1,118,110 226,327,676 5,955,560 115,480

-43,096,135 75,940 1,920 -11,278,538 540,796 -707,700 -8,625 832,230 99,060 10,323,220 -85,605 -604,360 -26,766,008 -5,604,555 -6,831,426.50 12,020 3,817,542 991,646 57,600 -96,282,924 -5,009,125 -3,751,005 -43,524,744 3,280,968 3,338,070 -1,311,064 1,100,560 -95,580 154,321,176.50 -278,500 -2,068,000 -177,290 182,700 168,240 -72,703,985 -21,360 -

0.395 75.8 13.9 1.25 5.92 0.31 831 8.51 12.38 8.17 6.04 0.205 1,346 73.35 5.21 1.08 7.88 14.4 6.94 0.038 1.9 80.45 679.5 1.22 235 0.29 0.2 0.26

0.37 74.1 13.4 1.16 5.8 0.31 826 8.4 11.78 8.04 6 0.198 1,305 71.55 5.21 1.02 7.7 14.16 6.74 0.038 1.9 79.05 661 1.18 232 0.29 0.19 0.255

HOLDING FIRMS 0.38 350,000 74.6 2,684,700 13.82 10,250,700 1.25 173,000 5.8 169,500 0.31 120,000 828 648,640 8.44 4,533,200 12.18 7,197,600 8.15 89,500 6 50,000 0.205 750,000 1,340 177,255 71.55 2,843,770 5.21 200 1.05 9,923,000 7.7 873,400 14.24 3,592,700 6.84 54,814,900 0.038 16,300,000 1.9 959,000 80.3 151,040 664 689,720 1.18 169,000 235 7,210 0.29 550,000 0.2 590,000 0.255 120,000

132,400 200,494,157.50 140,580,438 202,600 996,744 37,200 537,371,850 38,488,483 86,458,910 723,275 301,040 148,790 236,552,950 204,816,501 1,042 10,313,690 6,767,079 51,202,284 374,643,677 619,400 1,822,100 12,089,553.50 458,167,090 200,030 1,692,878 159,500 113,420 30,650

-149,774,866 -106,430,964 -117,280 10,909,820 8,026,029 -22,834,620 0 59,400 5,965,575 -83,302,354 222,020 -1,408,122 -7,911,698 -91,550,666 -380,000 -476,387 -48,017,075 -

7.25 1.08 6.7 2.3 0.3 36.05 3.1 5.16 0.59 1.12 1.07 0.149 0.59 53 0.74 1.78 0.98 1.09 3.94 0.154 0.415 3.25 32.3

7.1 1.04 6.7 2.22 0.29 34.9 3 5.15 0.57 1.12 1.06 0.145 0.56 51 0.73 1.74 0.96 1.05 3.69 0.147 0.415 3.19 32.3

7,544,222 1,996,530 670 848,220 194,500 702,269,285 8,576,310 344,295 1,442,770 4,480 197,750 1,600,890 6,211,860 37,460,741.50 29,940 15,645,850 3,216,550 32,300 328,153,200 4,962,280 37,350 1,879,760 16,150

887,693 -53,000 147,250.00 -257,701,670 -5,118,270 344,295 -31,400 -117,260 -9,495,121.50 8,202,270 15,601,030 1,470 199,840 -

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

AG FINANCE ASIA UNITED BANK PH ISLANDS BDO LEASING BDO UNIBANK BRIGHT KINDLE CHINABANK COL FINANCIAL EAST WEST BANK IREMIT MANULIFE MEDCO HLDG METROBANK NTL REINSURANCE PB BANK PBCOM PHIL NATL BANK PHIL STOCK EXCH PHILTRUST PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK SUN LIFE UNION BANK VANTAGE

3.35 47.5 98.1 3.75 109 1.3 37.7 16.12 19.6 1.8 639 0.79 77.2 0.85 14.24 22.05 57 255 144 95.05 35.6 205.2 1,475 74.75 1.37

3.49 47.5 98.35 3.75 110.8 1.38 38 16.18 19.6 1.8 639 0.8 77.9 0.85 14.4 22.05 58 265 145 100.1 35.65 207 1,475 75.1 1.37

3.33 47.25 97 3.75 106.3 1.3 37.6 16.04 19.22 1.79 635 0.76 77.1 0.84 14.2 22.05 56.5 255 140 95.05 35.5 202 1,465 74.75 1.35

ABOITIZ POWER AGRINURTURE ALLIANCE SELECT ALSONS CONS ASIABEST GROUP BASIC ENERGY BOGO MEDELLIN CEMEX HLDG CENTURY FOOD CHEMPHIL CIRTEK HLDG CNTRL AZUCARERA CONCEPCION CONCRETE A CROWN ASIA DAVINCI CAPITAL DEL MONTE DNL INDUS EEI CORP EMPERADOR ENERGY DEVT EUROMED FIRST GEN FIRST PHIL HLDG GINEBRA HOLCIM INTEGRATED MICR IONICS JOLLIBEE LIBERTY FLOUR LMG CHEMICALS MABUHAY VINYL MANILA WATER MAXS GROUP MEGAWIDE MERALCO PEPSI COLA PETRON PHINMA ENERGY PHX PETROLEUM PHX SEMICNDCTR PILIPINAS SHELL PRYCE CORP PUREFOODS RFM CORP ROXAS AND CO ROXAS HLDG SPC POWER SWIFT FOODS TKC METALS UNIV ROBINA VITARICH VULCAN INDL

44.65 3.71 0.96 1.44 17.22 0.203 121.1 11.2 16.46 250 23.4 29 63.3 99.05 2.02 6.56 12.3 10.9 7.1 7.25 5.71 1.77 22.7 68 12.44 16.68 6.1 1.97 236 82 2.34 3.7 29 27.05 14.96 275 3.15 10.28 2.13 5.8 1.46 67 3.6 223 4.45 2.2 3.12 4.4 0.144 1.65 176 2.16 1.14

44.8 3.89 0.96 1.44 19.24 0.203 121.1 11.5 16.6 250 23.5 31 63.4 99.05 2.05 6.91 12.38 11.08 7.15 7.25 5.71 1.77 22.95 68 12.44 16.7 6.12 2.01 237 89 2.4 3.71 30.75 27.1 14.96 279.8 3.2 10.3 2.15 5.9 1.48 67.2 3.73 223 4.46 2.2 3.15 4.4 0.145 1.66 176.5 2.16 1.14

ABACORE CAPITAL ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANGLO PHIL HLDG ANSCOR ATN HLDG A AYALA CORP COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FJ PRINCE A FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL JG SUMMIT KEPPEL HLDG A LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP METRO PAC INV PACIFICA PRIME ORION SAN MIGUEL CORP SM INVESTMENTS SOLID GROUP TOP FRONTIER UNIOIL HLDG WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

0.385 75.1 13.9 1.24 5.92 0.31 830 8.49 12.1 8.17 6.04 0.199 1,305 73.3 5.21 1.08 7.81 14.18 6.94 0.038 1.9 80.45 671 1.21 233 0.29 0.194 0.26

8990 HLDG A BROWN ANCHOR LAND ARANETA PROP ARTHALAND CORP AYALA LAND BELLE CORP CEBU HLDG CENTURY PROP CITY AND LAND CITYLAND DEVT CROWN EQUITIES CYBER BAY DOUBLEDRAGON EMPIRE EAST FILINVEST LAND GLOBAL ESTATE IRC PROP MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED PHIL REALTY PRIMEX CORP PTFC REDEV CORP

7.16 1.06 6.7 2.26 0.29 35.95 3 5.15 0.57 1.12 1.07 0.149 0.56 52.9 0.74 1.74 0.97 1.09 3.85 0.154 0.415 3.22 32.3

PROPERTY 7.2 1.08 6.7 2.3 0.3 34.9 3.03 5.16 0.57 1.12 1.07 0.145 0.57 53 0.73 1.78 0.96 1.05 3.88 0.152 0.415 3.22 32.3

VOLUME

1,055,700 1,900,000 100 377,000 660,000 19,982,000 2,822,000 66,800 2,513,000 4,000 185,000 10,940,000 10,829,000 716,550 41,000 8,841,000 3,333,000 30,000 86,163,000 33,030,000 90,000 584,000 500

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

ROBINSONS LAND ROCKWELL SHANG PROP SM PRIME HLDG STA LUCIA LAND SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND

29.7 1.55 3.28 26.05 0.99 0.99 5.18

30 1.56 3.28 26.35 1.02 0.99 5.28

29 1.5 3.21 25.2 0.98 0.97 5.14

29.2 1.51 3.27 25.65 1.01 0.97 5.17

3,880,900 2,201,000 14,000 16,131,500 3,036,000 15,000 4,963,000

113,714,950 3,347,600 45,690 413,008,505 3,003,460 14,570 25,751,681

-26,004,830 43,550 -182,560,825 49,000 65,712

2GO GROUP ABS CBN ACESITE HOTEL APC GROUP APOLLO GLOBAL ASIAN TERMINALS BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY BOULEVARD HLDG CALATA CORP CEBU AIR CENTRO ESCOLAR DFNN INC DISCOVERY WORLD GLOBE TELECOM GMA NETWORK GOLDEN HAVEN HARBOR STAR IMPERIAL A INTL CONTAINER IP EGAME IPM HLDG ISLAND INFO ISM COMM JACKSTONES LBC EXPRESS LEISURE AND RES LIBERTY TELECOM MANILA JOCKEY MELCO CROWN METRO RETAIL MLA BRDCASTING NOW CORP PACIFIC ONLINE PAL HLDG PHIL SEVEN CORP PHILWEB PLDT PREMIUM LEISURE PRMIERE HORIZON PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL SBS PHIL CORP SSI GROUP STI HLDG TRAVELLERS WATERFRONT

7.65 47.15 1.3 0.55 0.052 10.54 5.21 5.75 0.084 2.98 104.8 9.8 6.63 2.44 1,725 6.19 13.1 2.09 16.1 74.55 0.0094 9.1 0.198 1.45 3.38 12.52 5.03 1.59 2 4.12 4.62 22.5 2.86 11.4 5.16 153.4 8.6 1,512 1.13 0.395 39.85 74.5 5.55 2.68 0.77 3.3 0.35

7.7 47.15 1.4 0.57 0.053 10.54 5.21 5.9 0.085 2.99 104.9 9.8 6.76 2.44 1,804 6.24 13.52 2.15 16.4 74.8 0.0094 9.16 0.198 1.45 3.6 13.34 5.13 1.71 2 4.19 4.62 25 2.86 11.4 5.2 153.4 8.6 1,514 1.13 0.4 39.85 75.35 5.64 2.73 0.77 3.3 0.35

7.64 46 1.3 0.54 0.051 10.54 5.2 5.75 0.082 2.82 103 9.52 6.61 2.44 1,710 6.11 13 2.06 15.1 73.9 0.0092 9 0.185 1.42 3.38 12.52 4.89 1.5 2 4.09 4.52 22.5 2.6 11.3 5.05 153.4 8.18 1,450 1.1 0.395 39.1 73.5 5.5 2.66 0.75 3.18 0.35

SERVICES 7.65 46.3 1.3 0.56 0.052 10.54 5.2 5.83 0.083 2.85 103.5 9.52 6.73 2.44 1,730 6.23 13.52 2.09 15.8 73.9 0.0092 9.16 0.192 1.45 3.6 13.34 5.12 1.55 2 4.09 4.58 22.7 2.75 11.3 5.2 153.4 8.4 1,450 1.13 0.4 39.25 74.05 5.5 2.69 0.77 3.27 0.35

113,400 20,600 21,000 56,000 71,710,000 2,000 22,500 4,899,100 37,350,000 2,157,000 465,570 26,400 65,200 2,000 47,390 143,600 158,900 923,000 48,800 942,100 40,000,000 545,000 12,620,000 655,000 2,000 700 854,300 266,000 10,000 7,398,000 1,267,000 10,900 3,926,000 17,100 10,600 1,530 1,112,800 232,810 12,883,000 190,000 787,800 1,993,080 146,400 993,000 4,939,000 539,000 30,000

867,355 957,665 28,740 30,680 3,697,430 21,080 117,020 28,520,323 3,107,010 6,193,770 48,509,486 251,978 432,548 4,880 81,934,200 880,357 2,117,454 1,930,240 759,880 69,748,077 373,900 4,981,300 2,410,390 941,560 6,980 9,010 4,255,316 410,960 20,000 30,490,080 5,795,200 269,405 10,561,780 194,100 54,678 234,702 9,271,859 342,426,810 14,472,850 75,200 30,980,740 148,119,425 807,459 2,664,770 3,757,690 1,733,940 10,500

132,300 748,408 17,000 -20,237,002 -57,379,105 2,100 -23,304,937 607,080 1,703,952 -16,193,790 -1,224,570 81,150 3,030 230,100 420,480 -188,977,505 -1,313,980 -13,934,175 -20,465,132.00 -989,140 2,486,610 -16,090 -

ABRA MINING APEX MINING ATLAS MINING ATOK CENTURY PEAK COAL ASIA HLDG DIZON MINES FERRONICKEL GEOGRACE LEPANTO A LEPANTO B MANILA MINING A MANILA MINING B MARCVENTURES NICKEL ASIA NIHAO ORNTL PENINSULA ORNTL PETROL A ORNTL PETROL B PETROENERGY PHILODRILL PX MINING PXP ENERGY SEMIRARA MINING TA PETROLEUM UNITED PARAGON

0.0035 3.03 3.93 10.52 0.57 0.39 8.1 1.23 0.265 0.199 0.2 0.011 0.011 1.65 6.8 2.83 0.96 0.012 0.012 4.1 0.012 8.33 3.75 122 3.04 0.0091

0.0036 3.26 3.93 10.52 0.57 0.4 8.3 1.23 0.275 0.199 0.2 0.011 0.011 1.65 6.97 2.83 0.96 0.012 0.012 4.1 0.012 8.4 3.9 123.5 3.04 0.0091

0.0035 2.99 3.9 10.52 0.57 0.39 8.08 1.15 0.265 0.196 0.198 0.011 0.011 1.6 6.72 2.72 0.91 0.012 0.011 4.07 0.012 8.29 3.57 121.7 3.01 0.009

MINING & OIL 0.0036 20,000,000 3.19 2,123,000 3.93 320,000 10.52 400 0.57 50,000 0.4 410,000 8.12 26,200 1.19 43,066,000 0.275 60,000 0.198 8,780,000 0.198 5,850,000 0.011 108,200,000 0.011 7,000,000 1.62 392,000 6.88 2,711,300 2.82 17,000 0.93 705,000 0.012 1,600,000 0.011 1,800,000 4.07 29,000 0.012 6,300,000 8.4 1,216,900 3.82 5,779,000 122.5 243,750 3.03 101,000 0.0091 18,000,000

70,200 6,625,480 1,250,800 4,208 28,500 163,900 212,172 50,989,920 16,000 1,730,200 1,163,630 1,190,200 77,000 631,140 18,619,290 47,710 654,250 19,200 20,300 118,330 75,600 10,156,875 21,429,890 29,823,355 305,590 163,500

2,237,180 -663,900 -3,900 8,621,850 -952,890 610,780 -593,937.00 -246,460 -20,301,527 -136,500

ABS HLDG PDR DD PREF FGEN PREF F FGEN PREF G GLO PREF P GMA HLDG PDR GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B LR PREF MWIDE PREF PCOR PREF 2A PCOR PREF 2B PF PREF 2 SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2D SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2I

47 104 112.9 112.2 540 5.95 1,005 1,004 1.05 110 1,094 1,160 1,028 80 76.15 77.5 79.05 77.8

47.3 104.1 112.9 119.3 542 6 1,010 1,010 1.05 110 1,094 1,160 1,028 80.1 76.15 77.5 79.5 77.8

46.05 103.8 112.9 112.1 540 5.87 1,005 1,004 1.05 110 1,094 1,160 1,026 80 76.15 77.3 79.05 77.8

PREFERRED 46.1 111,700 104.1 94,600 112.9 8,000 112.4 88,440 542 6,550 5.87 131,800 1,005 1,510 1,010 1,010 1.05 100,000 110 20,000 1,094 12,500 1,160 400 1,026 10,130 80 13,900 76.15 131,300 77.5 82,030 79.5 142,400 77.8 102,530

5,191,315 9,841,086 903,200 10,468,286 3,539,800 779,855 1,521,980 1,019,630 105,000 2,200,000 13,675,000 464,000 10,393,480 1,112,090 9,998,495 6,351,665 11,259,835 7,976,834

-770,880 997,668 -903,200 -779,855 697,500 -

LR WARRANT

2.34

2.35

2.3

WARRANTS 2.35 258,000

596,640

-

ALTERRA CAPITAL ITALPINAS XURPAS

3.1 4.07 10.7

3.1 4.07 10.9

2.86 3.81 10.06

SME 3.07 3.86 10.36

5,318,310 329,720 30,064,786

928,930 59,870 -12,853,244

FIRST METRO ETF

120.1

120.1

118.1

1,462,829

-

TRADING SUMMARY FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL HOLDING FIRMS

SHARES

20,812,807 92,822,214 123,702,043

PROPERTY

215,892,857

SERVICES

211,833,073

MINING & OIL

234,877,588

GRAND TOTAL

904,725,881

1,793,000 84,000 2,895,800

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 118.6 12,330

VALUE 1,729.99 (down) 3.66 1,568,381,906.03 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 11,328.05 (down) 80.76 3,299,045,029.89 HOLDING FIRMS 7,295.07 (down) 77.77 2,466,685,867.63 PROPERTY 3,140.62 (down) 64.44 SERVICES 1,362.90 (down) 28.82 1,727,664,701.892 MINING & OIL 11,289.71 (down) 86.66 900,298,653.449 PSEI 7,160.91 (down) 91.49 145,616,911.8287 All Shares Index 4,287.77 (down) 39.06 10,144,869,274.82 Gainers: 62; Losers: 127; Unchanged: 43; Total: 232

considered an unassailable lead over market-favorite Hillary Clinton, upending early confidence.

The former secretary of state is considered by most investors to be a safer, more stable bet than Trump, who is seen as a loose cannon.

And while she is still tipped to win, analysts said the late run by Trump has fired uncertainty, sparking a sell-off across the world.

“The move to take risk off the table continues,” Chris Weston, chief market strategist in Melbourne at IG Ltd., said in an e-mail to clients.

“We have reached a point where there is a buyers’ strike, where money managers have reduced their risk, increased cash allocations within the portfolio and are happy to ride out this ministorm of uncertainty. This is a perfect breeding ground for short sellers who love the combination of uncertainty and lack of bids.”

In Asian trade, Hong Kong was 0.2 percent down in the afternoon and Singapore gave up 0.3 percent while Sydney closed 0.1 percent lower and Wellington tanked more than one percent.

But Shanghai ended 0.8 percent higher and Seoul put on 0.3 percent. Tokyo was closed for a public holiday.

The rush for safety saw gold prices climb back above $1,300 for the first time since the start of October, while the yen was also stronger.

With Bloomberg, AFP

BDO gets investment rating for senior notes DEBT watcher Fitch Ratings gave an investment-grade score of ‘BBB-’ to the recent $300-million senior notes issued by BDO Unibank Inc. under its $2-billion mediumterm note program.

“The senior notes are rated at the same level as BDO’s ‘BBB-’ long-term foreigncurrency issuer default rating. This is because the notes will constitute direct, unconditional, unsubordinated and unsecured obligations of the bank, and will rank equally with all its other unsecured and unsubordinated obligations,” Fitch said in a statement.

The transaction was three times oversubscribed and was the lowest ever coupon for any US dollar bond for a Philippine issuer. The notes will mature in 2021.

The issue was priced at 2.63 percent with a maturity of five years. The bonds were earlier rated Baa2 (investment grade) by Moody’s Investors Service. Standard Chartered Bank and UBS AG acted as joint lead arrangers for the transaction.

The issuance was a part of BDO’s liability management initiatives to tap longer-term funding sources to support dollar-denominated projects and effectively refinance outstanding bonds worth $300 million maturing in February next year.

Moody’s assigned a provisional investment grade rating of ‘Baa2’ to the $2-billion medium-term note program that was established

by BDO in 2012. The rating also applied to BDO branch in Hong Kong.

BDO said the establishment of a $2-billion euro medium-term note program would enable the bank to manage its liabilities.

BDO, the country’s largest lender controlled by tycoon Henry Sy, posted a 10-percent increase in net income in the first nine months of 2016 to P19.3 billion from a year ago, on strong loans and deposits.Julito G. Rada

Business

B3

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 extrastory2000@gmail.com

New ramp in Naia 3 opens, to ease traffic T

By Darwin G. Amojelar

HE Public Works Department said a new ramp of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway (Naiax) that will connect Naia Terminal 3 at Andrews Avenue to Skyway will open today.

The agency said the opening of Naiax Ramp 1 was expected to relieve traffic congestion at Andrews Avenue and the influence area of Naia Terminal 3.

Built at the corner of Andrews Avenue and Sales Street in Parañaque City, Ramp 1 will now serve as the sole entry point of vehicles from Andrews Avenue going to Skyway.

The opening of Ramp 1 will be temporary until permanent connection to Skyway has been completed.

The existing Skyway On-Ramp at Sales Street near Villamor Air Base will be demolished by concessionaire Vertex Tollways Devt. Inc. through engineering procurement and construction contractor D.M.Consunji, Inc. The new elevated expressway which connects Macapagal Avenue and Pagcor Entertainment City in Pasay City to Naia Terminals 1 and 2 in Parañaque City, or the first section of phase 2 of the Naiax, was opened to the public in September.

The less than 2-km stretch is expected to

reduce the travel time from Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 to Macapagal Ave. and vice versa from 15 minutes to less than 5 minutes. It is expected to help ease the traffic and benefit motorists in areas of Parañaque, Cavite and Pasay.

Before the end of the year, the longer arm of the elevated expressway linking Naia terminals 1 and 2 to terminal 3 and vice versa is expected to be opened.

Toll will be P35 for Class 1 vehicles, P69 for class 2 and P104 for class 3.

The P20.45-billion Naia Expressway Project is a four-lane, 12.65-kilometer elevated expressway (including ramps) and 2.22-kilometer at-grade road traversing Sales Avenue, Andrews Avenue, Parañaque River, MIAA Road and Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard.

When all phases are completed, the Naia Expressway Project is expected to provide easy access to and from Naia Terminals 1, 2, 3 and 4 and will interface with the South Luzon Expressway through Sales Interchange, Manila Cavite Toll Expressway and Maca-

Somewhere for any activity that would help you earn a living. If you are born to a rich family and can rely on hefty trust fund income for the rest of your life, then neither of these two factors need concern you. But if you will need to earn a living, then you need better decision-making parameters.

For the youth filling out that college application, much of the information needed to make a good decision about the college major (or even which college to apply to) does not reside in his own head.

This is why guidance offices around the world spend so much time providing students with more information about their aptitudes and style preferences, as well as about the different universities and their programs. Parents and teachers also provide guidance.

This relying on outside sources for additional information and guidance is simply good practice. However, completely eliminating personal preference can also be a dangerous path as many students end up flunking out of courses they have no liking for.

Guidelines The real challenge is that it is tough for people to completely define their desired destination. This is especially so for the young.

They then reason out that since they can’t completely define their desired destination, they can’t possibly set out goals and therefore, can’t make plans or decisions.

The problem with this approach, of course, is that not making a decision is a decision also—it is a decision in favor of the status quo.

As I was researching the Alice quote, I can across a post on philosiblog.com and the author recommended that direction be narrowed by establishing options and identifying limits. For example, decisions concerning a travel destination might be narrowed down by budget constraints.

While this was interesting, what really caught my eye was a comment by a reader named Dan, who pointed out that a fixed destination can create worry or fear and prevent the ability “to make spontaneous decisions based on the present moment.”

Dan argues that without fear and worry, “the options are almost endless.” He argues that “life will take its own form and flow naturally” and therefore “any path is the correct one.”

Now, while endless options, the elimination of worry and fear, and the assurance that any decision is acceptable certainly seems appealing, none of this helps anyone make the right choices.

And, unfortunately, in real life, there is not only such a thing as a suboptimal choice, there are actually choices that are clearly bad.

The reality is that goals help us make good choices. The other reality though is that focusing on the wrong goal can lead us to bad choices. What is really important is to consider all the things that are truly important and to consider those in decision-making. There are really only about five things truly important to most people—family, work that you enjoy and can be good at, friends, personal ethics, and enough money and time to enjoy life. What is truly important to you? That is what should determine the somewhere you wish to reach.

“BUT life isn’t a project!” This was the exclamation from one of my students when I asked them to begin to set longterm life goals. Upon hearing this, another student responded with a recounting of a conversation between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

That, in fact, was one of the central lessons in our reading for class that day, the critical importance of direction over distance.

Paths For our students nearing the end of the MBA program, choices will soon become the most urgent agenda item on their horizon, with the decision of which job to take being only the first of many key decisions. The point we were trying to make that day is that direction matters and goals are one way set direction.

Often misquoted as “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which road you take,” the actual conversation about paths and choices begins with Alice asking a question of the Cheshire Cat and proceeds in this manner: “Could you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where–” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

(Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6) The Cat rightly points out to Alice that simply walking will get her somewhere.

Whether that is a somewhere she will be happy with is, however, not something she can influence unless she has some idea of what kind of place she would like to seek, and then set out towards one of those places.

Choices The facile defense against setting goals would be to simply say that we will accept whatever life brings us. While it is certainly important not to waste time railing against reality, a commitment to future acceptance gives us no guidance over the choices we must make in the present.

In real life, time presses forward without regard to our wishes. Whether the future finds us in a place we celebrate or a place we regret, that is a matter affected by the choices we make.

One of the arguments proposed against setting goals was actually an argument in favor of letting other people set one’s goals.

The argument, in this particular case, was that past experience showed that parents seemed to be able to make better choices for their children than the child himself, even when the child was already a young adult.

This argument is not, however, an argument against goals. Rather, it is an argument against setting goals based on only a single criterion, in a vacuum or without sufficient information.

One of the most obvious illustration of this sort of decision is the decision of what to study in university.

It is, of course, possible to choose a university major purely on the basis of what you enjoy. There are two potential hazards Readers can email Maya at integrations_ to this approach: first, it might be a course you have little aptitude for and second, it manila@yahoo.com. Or visit her site at might be a course that does not prepare you http://integrations.tumblr.com.

pagal Boulevard.

A total of 16 off and on ramps are being constructed along strategic locations at Villamor Airbase, Resorts World, Naia Terminal 3, MIAA Road, Imelda Avenue, Cavitex, Seaside Drive and Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard.

Naia Expressway will significantly reduce the average travel time between Skyway/ SLEx and Naia Terminal 1 from about 24.3 minutes to 8.2 minutes and benefit 80,000 travelers a day.

The Transportation Department earlier said it would start the auction process for the P74.56-billion contract to operate and maintain Naia by January 2017 after President Duterte approved the project.

Duterte, the chairman of the National Economic and Development Authority board, approved nine projects worth P171.14 billion, including the Naia contract on Sept. 14.

Police arrest 2 found selling fake cigarettes PHILIPPINE National Police operatives, in hot pursuit of untaxed and other prohibited products, have arrested once again two fake cigarette traders in Barangay Victoria, San Mateo, Isabela province.

Analiza Bartolome, 38, and Dominador Pascua, 43, both married and residents of Angadanan, Isabela, were nabbed while in the act of selling fake Mighty and Marvels brand cigarettes.

Police authorities acted on the complaint of a Mighty employee who chanced upon the two on board a tricycle without a license plate doing rounds in Purok 3, Barangay Victoria, while in possession of boxes of the contraband items.

The suspects were charged with violating Section 155 (trademark infringement) in relation to Section 170 of Republic Act 8293, or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, which carries a penalty of two to five years imprisonment

and a fine ranging from P50,000 to P200,000.

Industry observers attribute the rampancy of fake cigarettes to the consistently rising prices of the product by virtue of the implementation of the sin tax law almost three years ago.

Fake cigarette products are tempting to retailers as they promise higher margins, while essentially undercutting the government in due taxes.

Bureau of Internal Revenue officials have warned retailers to only deal with official company personnel bearing legitimate identification and company-marked vehicles, or face the consequence of the law.

Over the last two years, a combined effort of the BIR, PNP, Bureau of Customs and National Bureau of Investigation yielded numerous suspects, including two minors, connected to the smuggling, distribution and sale of large quantities of fake cigarette brands.

Yao’s bank increases income to P670m

By Julito G. Rada PHILIPPINE Business Bank, the financial arm of the Yao Group of Companies, posted a 42-percent increase in net income in the first nine months to P670 million year-on-year on the sustained positive performance of its core businesses.

Bank president and chief executive Roland Avante said the treasury business remained a key contributor

to PBB’s profitability and overall performance. “… The strategic repositioning of our asset mix in the third quarter allows the bank to further capitalize on the movements in the global treasury market and expand its lending business to service the financing needs of our clients,” Avante said in a statement Thursday.

“We are confident that we could improve the bank’s core income

through the changes we’ve implemented to streamline our account management units and support functions. We expect to end the year strong,” he said.

Net interest income grew 1 percent to ₱1.81 billion on year. Pre-tax preprovision profit was at ₱831.2 million, while earnings before taxes reached ₱771.2 million, up 25.2 percent. The bank’s interest income from loans increased 2.2 percent to ₱1.96 billion.

RAMON L. TOMELDAN EDITOR

B4

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Motoring

Feel the freedom of the open road “AS LONG as freedoms exist, we will ride; As long as we ride, freedoms will exist.”

– Foster Kinn, Author of Freedom’s Rush When a motorcyclist asks to describe the feeling they get when they ride, they use the word “freedom”. For them, the rush of riding a cruiser motorcycle in open highways awakens the adventurous spirit that yearns for it.

This is what Ride Along Motorcycle Tours Philippines (RAMTP) is all about—it aims to provide every traveler the excitement, exhilaration and freedom that all come from the biker’s life.

If you are stuck every day in the long hours of traffic in EDSA, if you want to escape the stress of your daily grind,

Ride Along Motorcycle Tours Philippines aims to make life more exhilarating for every traveler.

if you want to release the pressures of life, riding and traveling can give you that lease in freedom. Even if you’ve never experienced riding, this is something that you can cross off your bucket list.

This is open to all who want to experience getting to popular destinations near the metro like Tagaytay, Taal, Laiya, Zambales, Pangasinan, Baguio, Baler, Bagasbas and Naga riding in a cruiser motorcycle. Future destinations to open in Coron, Puerto Princesa, and Legazpi City.

First time riders can participate as a passenger behind an experienced biker. Participants are provided with helmets and riding safety gears. A special back-up sweeper vehicle with a trailer is also available on long

rides. All runs are insured – the kind that covers adventure activities and hobbies that are usually excluded in other PA coverages in the market. They get to enjoy the ride safely and comfortably taking in the sites and the scenery.

For those who can drive bikes more than 400cc, they can opt to drive one of their rental bikes so they can get the full experience of the power of the machines.

They are assigned with cruiser motorcycles that they can competently handle and are required to pass the test rides before the actual date of the ride along itinerary. Beginner escorted riders that own 400cc or higher displacement motorcycles can also join a ride along tour using their motorcycles.

Be productive in a traffic jam Text and photo by Dino Ray V. Directo III

M

etro Manila is ranked number five in the list of the World’s worst traffic, and number three in Asia. Since January of this year, commuting time has worsened from an average of 46 minutes in 2015, to two hours daily going to your destination. During a torrential rain that usually leads to flooding, commuting time worsens to a punishing four hours at a standstill.

There was a time when my drive from Antipolo to Pasay City would usually take me an hour and a half.

Due to the LRT-2 extension project that runs from Masinag to Ligaya in Pasig City that started last year, commuters from the East side of Metro Manila endures a two hour travel time everyday from Masinag, Antipolo to Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City. On a bad day, the whole stretch of Marcos Highway becomes a sea of vehicles whose movement grinds to a snails pace 25 minutes to traverse a kilometer of road.

That being said, this writer has learned a thing or two on how to be productive in a traffic jam. Maybe you should try these tips to relieve yourself of the stress and make your drive to and from work a more tolerable one.

Podcasts and audio books Advancements in In-Car-Entertainment (ICE) now allow most of us unlimited internet and multimedia access. The time we spend in traffic might as well be used in entertaining ourselves with audio books or podcasts which cater to our tastebuds. My personal picks are the stand-up comedy shows of Russel Peters and youtube videos of Autocar U.K. testing the latest cars to hit the automotive industry. You can also listen to a Bible audio book to enrich your spiritual being.

Call your parents or relatives Sitting idle in traffic for hours may prove to be a considerably useful time to catch up with your parents or your brothers, sisters and your friend whom you missed during the last reunion. Openly talk with your Mom or Dad because that EDSA or C5 traffic will provide you with hours of talk time, thus strengthening your bonds with family and catching up on your siblings. Just remember to be safe, do this with a hands free system okay.

Make a video and upload it Amuse yourself and your Facebook friends by posting a funny video about the traffic situation.

There are a lot of mobile apps such as Facebook Live, Dubsmash, Viners, and Vimeo which may help you dub a short minute video clip of yourself making some funny commentary. Who knows, you might just be the next internet sensation.

Share a ride What better way is there to make being stuck traffic more fruitful and productive than to have a buddy ride shotgun with you in your car? Time will pass by without you even knowing it as you talk about everything from your slave driver of a boss, down to that hot office mate who looks like a Playboy model. Better yet, ask an office crush and maybe by the time she gets off on her next stop, you two are an item already.

Being creative is key to surviving a traffic jam in Metro Manila.

Take on the rugged terrain

OVERLAND, one of Thailand’s biggest off-road outfitters, makes it their business to protect your SUV from the harsh elements Mother Nature. With its vast experience and knowledge of taking on the rugged terrain, specially engineered and designed Grille guards and brush guards were designed to add protection and rugged looks to the front of your vehicle. Bull bars and light bars add good looks without over-powering the front of your vehicle. Most are made from heavy gauge steel tubing grille guards provides the ultimate custom appearance. Shown here is a Ford Ranger in Overland trim.

Overland designs are engineered by people who are active 4-wheelers who know first-hand the requirements on how to protect your off-road rig. Overland

4x4 bumpers are designed to minimize vehicle damage and keep you moving. The standard Bull Bar replaces the front bumper completely with a robust steel bumper designed specifically for each application. You won’t find a more thoroughly designed and manufactured vehicle protection system than Overland’s line of front, rear and side bumper protection. Engineering a bull bar requires careful consideration of a number of factors to ensure it properly serves its purpose. Factors such as vehicle design, crush rate, air bag deployment, approach angles, accessory fitment, strength, weight and aesthetics are taken into consideration.

Protect and enhance the capacity of your SUV with Overland. It is available in dealers nationwide.

LGUs

Davao mayor to help druggies

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

By Pearl Gajunera DAVAO City—Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has vowed to fully support the desire of drug personalities here to reform and live a life away from illegal drugs, a social menace her father President Rodrigo Duterte promised to eradicate within his six-year term.

Carpio made the statement through her chief of staff and Davao City legal officer Raul Nadela during the 13th anniversary of the Davao City Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Drug Dependents in Bago Oshiro.

“I assure you that the city government will always give priority to intervention programs and initiatives for the rehabilitation of the citizens who are using drugs,” the mayor said.

Carpio also told the 110 residents of the rehabilitation center not to waste their chance of overcoming dependence on drugs through the city’s program.

“Help us to help you,” she told them.

“We earnestly hope that you overcome this problem, live a life away from drugs, and reunite with your families who truly love and care for you.”

She also stressed the importance of family support for drug reformists, short of saying how many were thus listed in the city.

“We need your help so they do not relapse and their stay here would not be wasted,” she said.

“So that in time, they may return to our society not just proactive citizens, but also as individuals that are enthusiastic about life, pursuing their dreams and contributing to nation building and development,” she added.

As the center entered its 14th year, the city also opened its new two-story facility inside the compound which cost P6.6 million.

Perla Redulosa, assistant manager of the rehabilitation center, said the new facility, which sits on a 1.2-hectare compound 17 kms from the city center, will accommodate more reformists.

Officials said patients of the center are mostly shabu and marijuana addicts, although some would get high on elastomeric sealan or contact cement, with only a few there for injected drugs.

The center was established in 1985, three years before Rodrigo Duterte first became mayor and at the time run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

C1

Top brass to man CCTV

By Joel Zurbano

T

OP officials of the Metro Manila Development Authority will go full throttle and personally man the monitors of closed-circuit television cameras on major thoroughfares in the National Capital Region.

This is to ensure, they said, that traffic schemes and other traffic regulations would be enforced effectively.

“In our Metro Base, the top 10 officers of the MMDA, including me, will [each] take turns two hours to stay there every day to [ensure traffic] efficiency,” said MMDA acting chairman Thomas Orbos.

He said the top officials would be valuable in monitoring traffic incidents on the road or traffic vi-

olations committed by motorists.

“Every two hours, there will be two officers a day beginning 6 a.m. up to 8 p.m. but there will be a break [from] 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.”

Orbos said officials came up with the new measure also for the MMDA to respond immediately during emergency situations such as stalled vehicles, traffic accidents, unauthorized road works and other activities on major thoroughfares where a quick management decision is needed.

“Sometimes our [monitoring] personnel didn’t see the urgency to act, and this is to respond immediately [to] certain things they see on camera, immediate decision the regular personnel cannot make and this has to be management decision,” he said.

The 10 officials designated to man the Metro Base Monitoring Center office are Orbos, assistant general manager for operations Julia Nebrija, deputy chairman Frisco San Juan Jr., Traffic Engineering Center chief Noemie Recio, Traffic Discipline Office head Cesar Ona; Chief planning officer Josefina Faulan, chief legal officer Rochelle Ona, council secretariat Crisanto Saruca, Rescue Office head Edward Gonzales and Road Emergency Group head Manny Gonzales.

The MMDA has 45 personnel manning the Metro Base— five persons per shift in charge of monitoring footbridges for vendors, road incidents, traffic video wall operations and 10 persons per shift in charge of monitoring the operations of the no contact policy.

“We’d like it to be more intense, more concentrated especially now that we’re entering the Christmas season. We took it upon ourselves,” said Orbos.

There are to date 250 CCTV cameras in strategic areas in Metro Manila.

Meanwhile, the MMDA caught more than 5,000 motorists since it began in April implementing the no contact policy in arresting traffic violators in the metropolis using the CCTV cameras.

Most of those apprehended

were drivers of public utility jeepneys, and city and provincial buses. They were caught loading and unloading passengers in prohibited zones.

Other violators were caught overspeeding, beating the red light, violating the number coding scheme, swerving, blocking intersections, disregarding traffic signs, making illegal turns, illegal overtaking, entering the yellow lane, defying the closed door policy and bus segregation scheme, among others.

The no contact policy was first implemented during the time of then MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando in 2007.

But the agency discontinued the practice following numerous complaints from motorists who claimed they were penalized without their knowledge.

TRAFFIC MONITORS. With the Yuletide expected to roll in heavy vehicular traffic in Metro Manila’s major thoroughfares, MMDA officials have taken steps to watch through CCTV cameras—250 in strategic areas in the national capital—the traffic logjams and the behavior of drivers and pedestrians for quicker and more efficient action. Manny Palmero

2 suspects dead in drugs buy-bust operation in Cavite Priest

ROSARIO, Cavite—Two persons were confirmed dead in an illegal drugs buy-bust operation following an armed confrontation with members of the local police here assisted by agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

The PDEA is the lead antidrug law enforcement agency, responsible for preventing, investigating and combating any

dangerous drugs, controlled precursors and essential chemicals within the Philippines.

PO2 Rogelio Pico Raquin Jr. identified the slain suspects as Kenneth Green, a tricycle driver, and Alvin Buendia, part-time beauty parlor employee, both of barangay Wawa here.

The operation was in line with project Double Barrel-Project

Tokhang of the Philippine National Police, headed by Director General Ronald Dela Rosa.

This was first implemented in Davao City where President Rodrigo Duterte served as Mayor for several years.

Oplan Tokhang is a Visayan word which means Tok-tok Hangyo, where police knock at the doors of an alleged drug user

or pusher, asking him/her that he/ she will surrender to the police in order that they will be monitored for further assessment.

Police said their men, in coordination with Drug Enforcement Agency authorities, conducted the buy-bust operation on Wednesday in barangay Wawa.

Police said the two suspects, both listed in the Barangay Anti-Drug

Abuse Council list, exchanged fire with law enforcement authorities.

Initial investigation suggested one of the suspects at the time sold and delivered a sachet of suspected shabu to a police poseur-buyer.

The Rosario police station sought the assistance of the Scene of the Crime Operatives from the Cavite PNP Crime lab office. Benjamin Chavez

Yolanda survivors still in high risk zones

By Mel Caspe TACLOBAN City—Only days to the third year anniversary of the deadly typhoon “Yolanda,” members of Uswag Este-Katarungan marched to the Regional Office of the National Housing Authority to demand the permanent shelter promised them by the government.

According to NHA data, as of Sept. 5, some 7,573 families are in the “High-Risk Zones” who are due for relocation from Eastern Samar alone.

However, three years running, residents in the area are still left to reside in transitional shelters and even bunk houses.

This runs counter to the NHA claim the housing projects for “Yolanda” survivors are “almost complete.”

Lita Bagunas and other residents from the towns of Lawaan, Balangiga, Giporlos, Gen. MacArthur, Hernani, Llorente and

Maydolong—tagged as living in the “High-Risk Zones”— held dialogues with their respective local officials in the hope of confirming the status of their relocation.

Bagunas said two factors emerged as the causes of the delay in the construction of their permanent shelters.

These were lack of titled lands available and high cost of land found suitable for housing.

According to the NHA, the lands that should be acquired for housing should be titled in compliance with the Commission on Audit requirement.

This poses a problem as an estimated 60 percent of the lands in Eastern Samar are documented only by tax declaration.

Bagunas said the exorbitant asking price for private lands, said to have caused the delay, could have been solved if only the local government units exercised their power of eminent domain.

PEACE FORUM. The Katungod Sinirangan Bisayas human rights group and the Ecumenical Bishops Forum,

launch a peace forum Thursday at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas Tacloban College to discuss basic issues in Philippine society, the roots of armed conflict and how to attain just and lasting peace. Mel Caspe

marks 25th with 9-day Masses

By Honor Blanco Cabie

ANTIPOLO City—Fr. Gerardo Evarola is marking this week 25 years as a Catholic priest with nine Thanksgiving Masses in parishes he had served in five towns in the capital and in Pampanga.

The 62-year-old Angeles Cityborn Evarola, a chemist at the now defunct Clark Air Base in Pampanga, erstwhile home of the US 13th Air Force, before entering the priesthood, began the nine-day 6 p.m. Masses at the Holy Cross Parish in his birthplace in Sapang Bato, Angeles on Wednesday.

With him was his Baguio Citybased sibling, Sister Agnes, SPC, of the Roman Catholic religious congregation for teaching, nursing, visiting the poor and taking care of orphans, the old and infirm and the mentally ill.

Others included Rosie Marie Katanyag, Amy Vicencio, Willie Imperial and Maria Rosa Cabie of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Brookside, Cainta where Evarola has been the parish priest since October 2009.

At 6 p.m. tonight, he takes his 25th sacerdotal caravan of celebrating Thanksgiving Masses to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of Antipolo, also known as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, which attracts millions of pilgrims annually.

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LGUs

Erap: Manila now debt-free A

By Sandy Araneta

FTER “drowning in a P5-billion debt,” Manila now is debt-free, Mayor Joseph Estrada said on Thursday.

“Today, the city of Manila is debt-free. We have paid our arrears,” he said in his speech during an event of the Philippine Society for Public Administration.

“We are now rebuilding the City of Manila. It is the capital of the Philippines alright, but when I assumed as mayor, I discovered it has no capital,” Estrada added.

The mayor noted that Manila had an unpaid electrical bill amounting to almost P1 billion, of which about P600 million was long overdue.

The city also had an outstanding water bill of more than P57 million, Estrada said.

“When I took over, I was worried everyday that I will come to office when there is no electricity and no water,” he said.

On top of these, the city has not remitted withholding tax collections to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the employees’ contributions to the Government Service Insurance System and to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

“I will not burden you with the other wicked problems we faced...There are still many that remain but we are addressing them one by one,” he added.

Estrada said during his term, the city government took initiatives to launch some seemingly unpopular policies, such as the updating of the fair market values of real properties in Manila which remained unchanged for the past 20 years.

Manila was only one of two local

government units in the National Capital Region that was able to update real property values.

He said they also adjusted local tax rates, as well as fees and charges for licenses and permits while improving tax collections.

“Obviously, without good revenues, we cannot deliver even the most basic services.

It takes much political will and determination to do these,” Estrada said.

Manila’s revaluation of real property taxes more than doubled the local government’s revenues from only P3 billion in 2012 to P6.7 billion in 2015. It is expected to reach P7 billion this year.

Estrada said the city has spent more than P6 billion in infrastructure projects, including building and rebuilding roads, schools, and modernizing health facilities.

The local government also built 22 schools and have taken steps toward modernizing the city’s seven public markets.

P5-m aid for ‘Lawin’ victims

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera DAVAO CITY—The chief of city’s Central 911 has turned over P5 million in cash assistance from the Davao City local government to survivors of Typhoon “Lawin” in Northern Luzon.

Emmanuel Jaldon distributed the financial assistance to typhoon-hit provinces such as Cagayan Valley, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Apayao, and Kalinga.

“The entire visit was a complete success,” he said. “They were all so grateful for the help of the city, they were happy for the assistance and that it was handed to them personally.”

“The most affected area was Tuguegarao. You can really see the effect of Lawin,” Jaldon added.

Jaldon’s team handed out P1.8 million to Cagayan Valley; P900,000 to Ilocos Norte; P200,000

to La Union; P150,000 to Apayao; P350,000 to Mountain Province; and P1.6 million to Kalinga.

Earlier, the Department of Labor and Employment released an initial P35 million in financial assistance for those who were displaced by the typhoon in Northern Luzon.

Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the P30 million will cover at least 69,000 families of overseas Filipino workers while the remaining P5 million will be for emergency employment assistance for some 1,600 workers displaced by the typhoon in Cagayan Valley.

He said labor officials in Region 2 are now profiling the affected workers.

“Although this is just temporary employment, this will provide our workers and their families immediate relief from the calamity by giving them income, and at the same time en-

list them for the rehabilitation, clearing and cleaning of their affected communities,” Bello said.

“Emergency employment can also be created through the repair and restoration of damaged infrastructure or rehabilitation of basic service facilities, including rural works, such as the clearing of canals and waterways and cleanup of public spaces,” he added.

Displaced workers who will be hired under the emergency employment program will be paid the prevailing minimum wage rate in the region which is P300 per day, or a total of P3,000 per worker for a 10-day period.

Meanwhile, Bello said representatives from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Regions 1, 2, and the Cordillera Administrative Region are validating the actual number of OFW families affected by the typhoon.

A NEW KIND OF HIGH. A ‘doctor and his wheelchair-bound patient’ paraglider participate in the costume category in the National Paragliding Fun Fly competition held in Sarangani.

Bounty up for trader’s killer

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY—Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the Korean community in this city has raised some P300,000 as reward to whoever could provide investigators information that will lead to the arrest of the suspect in the brutal murder of a Korean businessman at Upper Pinget on Saturday.

“We are deeply saddened over

the occurrence of the untoward incident which might taint the good image of the city as a peaceful place to live, study, work and do business,” Domogan said.

“We hope that our police investigators will be able to identify and subsequently arrest the perpetrator of the crime so that we will be able to restore the trust and confidence of our foreign investors to our ability to solve crimes that are committed

Hero’s welcome awaits Verzosa

LIFE GOES ON. A

‘Yolanda’ survivor from Barangay San Jose in Tacloban City shares a smile as he gathers shells along the shores of Cancabato Bay. Mel Caspe

Makati’s food festival puts spotlight on paella and adobo

By Joel E. Zurbano THE city government of Makati will be holding its 2nd food festival featuring Filipino and international cuisines beginning today until Sunday at the Greenbelt 3 Park.

Mayor Abigail Binay said the three-day food festival will open

against them,” he added.

The 51-year-old Korean trader, Jeon Jun Seo, was killed while live-in partner, Chris Joy Perez, was injured after they were fired upon by a still unidentified lone gunman at Upper Pinget.

Initial police investigation showed Seo and Perez were on board their vehicle while travelling along Upper Pinget when the still unidentified gunman fired several rounds.

from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. She said cooking demonstrations led by renowned chefs will also be held at the venue, along with free food tasting.

For today’s opening, celebrity chefs will be featured in “Fiesta de Paellas”—a tribute to the late Don

Anastacio de Alba who popularized paella in the country.

Among the cuisines that will be served during the three-day gastronomic celebration are nürnberger with sanerkrant in a bun and frikadellen with potato salad (Germany); chickpea salad with octopus and codfish,

pasteis de nata and pasteis de queijo (Portugal); paella, lengua with rice and callos with rice (Spain); dak bulgogi, kalbi jim, and dweaji bulgogi (Korea); pad Thai (Thailand); and beef rendang, nasi goreng and soto betawi (Indonesia).

On November 5 at 7 a.m., there

will be an “Adobo Cooking Contest” at Makati City Hall Quadrangle to be conducted by the “Adobo Queen of the Philippines,” Chef Nancy Reyes Lumen.

On the last day of the food festival, Sunday at 5 p.m., cooking demonstrations will be led by Chefs Lumen and Jaja Andal.

BAGUIO CITY—Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the local government will accord 2016 Miss International titlist Kylie Verzosa’s a hero’s welcome once she heads home to the country’s summer capital.

The local chief executive said Verzosa, a native of Baguio whose family runs a gourmet restaurant in the city, has brought honor to the country for bagging the Miss International crown.

“We will personally bring to her attention that we are proud of her achievement and we will openly welcome her and provide her a motorcade for the people of Baguio to witness her beauty,” Domogan said.

Domogan expressed optimism that the local government will be able to comply with the requirements that will be set by Verzosa’s handlers.

He said the city will also be sending her a letter expressing their sincerest congratulations.

For his part, Baguio Country Club general manager Anthony de Leon said local tourism industry stakeholders will also be sponsoring an event to honor Verzosa.

Vice Mayor Edgardo Bilog hailed the Baguio-bred beauty queen for “her beauty, intelligence and hardwork.”

“Her crown is a fitting reward,” he said.

Bilog believes that the young Verzosa “would be a role model to the youth of Baguio City.”

Dexter A. See

World

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

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17killed in train collision in Karachi KARACHI―At least 17 people were killed and dozens more injured after two trains carrying hundreds of passengers collided in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi early Thursday, officials said.

Witnesses described watching in horror as one train sped into the city’s Quaidabad Railway Station and rammed into the second, which was stationary, with the roar of the crash swiftly followed by the screams of people trapped inside.

Officials said rescuers armed with metal-cutting equipment and heavy cranes had managed to pull all the passengers from the twisted wreckage.

“No-one is left inside,” Ijaz Ahmad Khan, a Karachi administrative official, told reporters at the scene.

Many were rushed to Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital, where an AFP reporter described horrifying scenes as the injured lay screaming and crying while medics rushed to help them.

“I am dying, I am dying, AFTER THE COLLISION. Pakistani bysranders watch rescue workers at the site of a collision between two trains in Karachi on November 3, 2016. At least 17 people were killed and dozens please, please, I am dying,” cried more injured after the trains carrying hundreds of passengers collided in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, officials said. AFP Abdul Ghaffar, 55, as doctors tried to move his legs and hands.

He appeared to have multiple injuries, while his children and wife were also wounded and lay on beds nearby.

Other victims appeared too stunned to talk. Many had head and foot injuries, and at least one man had his leg amputated below the knee.

Casualties were still being counted but there could have been a total of up to 1,000 passengers on board the trains when the accident occurred, said Nasir Nazeer, an administrative in Kational People’s Congress Standing have been duly requested to take ture. rachi.

ONG KONG―Two Hong Kong Committee, could issue an “inter- the Legco oath on October 12 this The Legco president, a proSeemi Jamali, a spokeslawmakers who advocate a split from pretation” of Hong Kong’s consti- year and they have declined,” Yu Beijing lawmaker, is a defendant woman at Jinnah Hospital, told China should be banned from taking tution on Monday relating to the told the court. in the case, alongside Baggio and AFP at least 17 people had died. case.

“If you do not believe Hong Yau. Earlier she said the hospital had up their seats, government lawyers argued in But Yu said the Hong Kong Kong is an inalienable part of His lawyer argued Thursday received some 50 wounded. AFP court Thursday, as concerns grow Beijing will government had not received any China then you have no business that he had been “unnecessarily confirmation of that happening. in Legco,” Yu added. and wrongly” brought into the prowade into the escalating row.

He argued that Baggio and Yau Yau and Baggio won seats in ceedings. should not be allowed to take up citywide polls last month, in which “The president’s decision was Widespread fears that China n. their seats in the Legislative Coun- a number of new lawmakers advo- made under his powers and under is tightening its grip on the semi“The issues... should be solved cil―the city’s lawmaking body― cating self-determination or inde- the rules or procedures,” said Jat autonomous city are fueling an in the judicial system,” said law- because they failed to swear alle- pendence swept to victory.

Sew-tong, arguing that bringing independence movement in Hong yer Benjamin Yu. giance to Hong Kong as an “inLegco president Andrew Leung him to court was the wrong move Kong.

The city’s leader Leung Chun- alienable part of China” at an oath- initially agreed to give them a sec- at a politically sensitive time.

As a judicial review seeking ying, who brought the case taking ceremony three weeks ago. ond chance at taking their oath.

The Legco descended into chato disqualify Yau Wai-ching and against the pair, said earlier this Instead, they draped themselves But that decision is being chal- os for the third consecutive week Baggio Leung from the legisla- week he could not rule out the in “Hong Kong is not China” flags lenged in court by city leader Wednesday after Yau and Baggio ture kicked off at Hong Kong’s possibility that Beijing might get and altered the wording of their Leung and the justice secretary tried to force their way into the SEOUL―South Korean prosHigh Court Thursday, the govern- involved. ecutors detained a former presioaths, including derogatory terms Rimsky Yuen, a move which crit- chamber to take their oaths, havment’s counsel insisted authoriLocal media reports say Chi- and expletives. dential aide as an influenceics say shows the executive branch ing been temporarily barred pendties had not asked Beijing to step na’s top legislative body, the Napeddling scandal moves closer “Our case is that Leung and Yau riding roughshod over the legisla- ing the judicial review. AFP to embattled leader Park GeunHye, with the justice minister warning Thursday that Park could face a probe.

Ahn Jong-Beom, who was dismissed on Sunday, is the second person to be taken into emergency detention after Park’s MOSCOW―Russia on Thurs- circuses, on Thursday praised him close friend Choi Soon-Sil was day mourned Oleg Popov, a leg- for his “generosity, multi-faceted held Monday for questioning in endary Soviet-era clown who talent and dedication”. the snowballing scandal. performed until he died of heart The Great Moscow Circus, the Park is scrambling to deflect failure this week at age 86. city’s largest, meanwhile hailed rising public anger over suggesPopov was on tour in the south- Popov’s “invaluable contribution tions that Choi―the daughter ern Russian city of Rostov-on- to the history of Russian and inof a shadowy religious figure― Don when he went into cardiac ternational clowning”. vetted presidential speeches, had arrest at his hotel on Wednesday, Born into a poor family living in access to classified documents, the director of the circus where he the region outside Moscow, Popov and used her influence for perwas performing said. joined a circus school in Moscow sonal enrichment.

“His heart stopped,” the head at the age of 14, spending hours The scandal has shaken the of Rostov-on-Don circus, Dmitry learning juggling, tightrope walkpresidency, exposing Park to Reznichenko, told RIA Novosti ing, trapeze work and acrobatics. public outrage and ridicule and, state news agency.

His gift for making people with just over a year left in of“He didn’t complain of feeling laugh soon earned him payment fice, seen her approval ratings ill, he was just watching television.” in the form of food coupons for plunge into single digits.

Reznichenko added that Pop- performances at Soviet collective Choi has denied the allegaov’s family wanted him to be bur- farms and sports clubs. tions she used her friendship ied in Germany, where he moved At 19, the clown, whose clockwith Park to strong-arm compain 1991 after the collapse of the maker father disappeared during nies like Samsung into donating Soviet Union.

World War II, was hired by the large sums to non-profit foundaRussian culture minister Vladigovernment-run circus organitions that she then used for permir Medinsky offered his condo- zation. His big break came in sonal gain, Yonhap said. lences in a statement saying that 1954,when he stepped in for the Ahn is suspected of helping Popov’s performances “brought joy head clown who had broken his Choi collect the dubious donaand goodness to many generations arm at the circus in the Volga city tions. of our compatriots”. of Saratov. AFP “The president herself under“He managed to stands well the gravity of the create a unique imManila situation”, Justice Minister Kim EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF THE ESTATE Standard OF FELIX B. MORALES WITH WAIVER OF SHARES age of an eccentric Hyun-Woong told parliament TODAY AND TRANSFER OF RIGHTS clown who radiThursday, Yonhap reported.

Notice is hereby given that the Estates of the late ated light just by FELIX B. MORALES, who died on April 30, 1989 at “Depending on where the onPangasinan Medical Center, Inc. has been the subject making an appeargoing investigation leads, I will of an EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF THE ance and turned ESTATE OF FELIX B. MORALES WITH WAIVER OF consider whether it is necessary SHARES AND TRANSFER OF RIGHTS among their every performance and legally possible to investiheirs over a parcel of land covered by TCT No. 34712; the heirs agreed to adjudicate among themselves, that into a festivity,” gate (Park) to find truth,” he said. they release, waive and transfer their rights in favor Medinsky said.

Under South Korea’s constiof their co-heirs, EMER JOHN M. MACAPAGAL and ELTON JOHN M. MACAPAGAL, the parcel of land and The Russian tution, the incumbent president existing improvements covered by TCT No. 34712; as State Circus, the per instrument dated June 28, 2016; known as per Doc. may not be charged with a crimiAT RISK. A Morrocan man harvests dates at a farm on October 27, 2016, near Morocco’s southeastern oasis No. 432;Page No. 88; Book No. III; Series of 2016 under state organization town of Erfoud, north of Er-Rissani in the Sahara Desert. The oasis of Tafilalet near Er-Rissane is at risk of disnal offense except for insurrecthe Notary Public ATTY. CLAUDETTE C. TOLENTINO. that runs many fi xed appearing as the area is drying up due to global warming.

AFP tion or treason. AFP

Rebel lawmakers in court over oath

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South Korean scandal widens

Clowning legend Oleg Popov dies

(MS-NOV. 4,11 & 18, 2016)

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Police officers in Iowa die in ambush

World

FAMILIAR SCENE. This file photo taken on November 13, 2015, shows a traffic jam as the first rains start in Jakarta during the city’s peak rush hour. The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties, the annual round of UN climate talks, will be held in Marrakech from November 7 until November 18, 2016. AFP

Deneuve: Age no barrier to success HANOI―At 73, French film goddess Catherine Deneuve is plenty busy―acting, scooping up awards, dipping a toe in social causes. But one thing she is not fussing over? Aging.

Having worked for more than five decades, the screen siren said she was happy to still be active in Europe, where older actresses face less discrimination than their Hollywood counterparts.

“There’s a very big challenge in the United States when it comes to aging, especially for actors and actresses,” Deneuve told AFP in Hanoi, ahead of the digital re-release of her 1992 film “Indochine” set in Vietnam, a former French colony.

“I’m not saying it’s easy in Europe, but in Europe we accept more readily to make movies with women in leading roles who are 40, 45, 50 years old.

That is still very rarely seen in the United States,” added Deneuve, speaking Wednesday in the famed Metropole Hotel.

She has appeared in more than 100 films, including as a bisexual vampire opposite David Bowie and a high-end prostitute in “Belle de Jour”, and continues to break gender boundaries in an industry notorious for sidelining female actresses beyond a certain age.

“You have to try to age as graciously as possible, to not be obsessed with your own image because there is a lot of pressure to do that and actors can easily fall into the trap of thinking just about this,” she added.

She even had a thought to spare about one woman shattering glass ceilings of her own across the pond: Hillary Clinton.

“I think it’s great that there is already an American president that is black, and today there is a big chance―I hope at least― that it will be a woman who will be the leader of America.”

Deneuve is showing no signs of slowing down after half a century of work. She stars in an upcoming film “Bonne Pomme” with Gerard Depardieu, and was recently awarded the Lumiere Award in France, which she dedicated to French farmers.

The actress is in Hanoi to promote the newly remastered “Indochine” about a French plantation owner, played by her, and her adopted daughter in Frenchruled Vietnam. AFP

CHICAGO―Two police officers in the US state of Iowa were shot and killed in an ambush Wednesday, leading to a manhunt and the quick capture of the suspected gunman, authorities said.

Police apprehended 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene from Urbandale, a suburb of the capital Des Moines, less than two hours after they identified him as a person of interest and warned the public he should be considered armed and dangerous.

“Mr. Greene was taken into custody without incident,” Des Moines Police Sergeant Paul Parizek told a news conference.

Authorities said two officers were ambushed while patrolling in their cars during the early morning hours Wednesday, in separate shootings two miles apart.

“It doesn’t appear that either officer had an opportunity to interact with the suspect,” Parizek said. “They didn’t have a chance to defend themselves.”

Urbandale Police Chief Ross McCarty said evidence at one of the shooting scenes suggested that between 15 to 30 shots were fired from a .223 caliber weapon, and that the gunman had likely walked up to the police cars on foot.

The two officers killed were identified as Anthony Beminio, 39, an 11-year veteran of the Des Moines Police Department, and Justin Martin, 24, who had served one year on the Urbandale police force.

Martin was found dead just after 1:00 am (0600 GMT) next to Urbandale High School, police said. Twenty minutes later, Beminio was discovered gunned down at a nearby intersection. US media said he died after being taken to the hospital.

Greene turned himself in, authorities said, by flagging down an Iowa state parks employee while walking on an unpaved rural road. He was taken to a local hospital complaining of an unspecified ailment unrelated to his capture, and would be interviewed “once he’s well enough to make a statement,” Parizek said.

Authorities declined to comment on a motive for the shootings, saying they were still conducting an investigation. AFP

In N. Korea, bleak choices for women H

ONG KONG―Stay and endure a life of privation and oppression, or escape and risk being sold into sexual slavery: this is the stark choice facing many women in North Korea, bestselling author and activist Hyeonseo Lee warns.

The daughter of a military official, she is not your typical defector―it was curiosity not desperation that pushed her to venture beyond its borders. Almost 20 years on she has become a powerful voice of dissent, laying bare the reality of life under the totalitarian regime in her memoir The Girl with Seven Names.

Now she is campaigning for greater protection for North Koreans who manage to flee―particularly women― warning that many are captured in China and sold into prostitution or end up in forced marriages.

“All but the lucky few will live the rest of their lives in utter misery,” she tells AFP. “They will be repeatedly raped day in and day out by an endless supply of customers who enrich their captors at their expense.”

Horrified by ‘survivor testimony’ she is launching a new NGO, North Star NK, which has agents in the field across Southeast Asia and China helping those trafficked in the sex trade to escape.

Lee says: “They are so humiliated and broken, they don’t want to speak out, so I decided I should try to help.”

The Tumen and Yalu rivers act as a border with China. In some parts the water is navigable, while in winter they are frozen over completely. For many the physical act of crossing is the easiest bit.

There is no asylum once they reach the other side. They are regarded as illegal migrants and face deportation if

caught and then severe punishment in North Korea.

The women are in an incredibly vulnerable position, Lee says. They have little choice but to trust the brokers smuggling them out. But there is no one to turn to if things go wrong.

“North Korean women and girls run a gauntlet of forced marriage, and sexual abuse, in China as a de facto requirement to escape to a third country,” says Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia.

Lee herself narrowly avoided being forced into the sex trade when she crossed into China. She was told she was being trained to work in a hair salon but on arrival she discovered it was a brothel, and managed to run away.

North Korean women are also trafficked as ‘forced brides’, she says, usually sold to men in the countryside. The combination of China’s one-child policy and a historic preference for boys has now led to a shortage of women of marriageable age. Families are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for brides for otherwise ineligible bachelors.

This too can end in abject misery.

“One trafficked woman I know was severely beaten by her husband and his family. To prevent her from escaping, they chained her inside a shed when they weren’t monitoring her,” Lee recalls.

“Some of these trafficked North Korean women commit suicide, while others hold onto a sliver of hope that they will eventually escape. Almost none of them succeed.” AFP

ANNIVERSARY. Actress Denise Bidot attends Latina’s 20th Anniversary celebrating The Hollywood Hot List Honorees at STK on November 2, 2016 ,in Los Angeles, California. AFP

Adults taught to give kids space in Pontevedra PONTEVEDRA―For many parents, the thought of letting their offspring walk to school alone is source of much angst. But the Spanish city of Pontevedra has decided to advocate giving children their space.

Launched in 2010, the “Road to School” program has been taken up by seven establishments in the northwestern city which believe that far from being in danger,

children as young as six actually thrive going to school without adults, developing strong selfconfidence.

Dragging their wheeled schoolbags across a pedestrian crossing, brothers Pablo and Jorge Pazos, 8 and 10, are just one example of an initiative based on research by Italian educational psychologist Francesco Tonucci, who believes in giving kids autonomy.

“We talk about our stuff, our games, nothing important but things that adults don’t really understand,” says Pablo, 8.

“It’s not necessary for adults to be with us all the time,” he adds politely.

“They bother us a little, they talk all the time, ask ‘how is school?’.”

Pablo prefers wandering around his district, buying bread before going home and “sometimes, being a

little silly, like the other day when we hid behind a tree to scare a friend.”

According to city statistics, 25 percent of students aged six to 12 from the seven establishments who encourage the initiative walked to school alone last year.

They are registered as such, and if they don’t arrive at school as usual, staff call their parents.

In some cases, adults stand at the most dangerous road crossings

to help children across, but otherwise, they are on their own.

Tonucci, now 76, has long advocated letting children develop without excessive amounts of adult interference as part of Italy’s National Research Council.

“When I was a kid, we played in the streets, where we would discover the world,” he tells AFP in Pontevedra, an 83,000-strong city in Galicia. AFP

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

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Life DESTINATIONS

Boracay is every beach lover's dream destination, famed for its five-kilometer white sand beach, it's been cited by international travel magazines for its calm, warm waters and gently sloping sand.

By Nickie Wang

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HE island of Boracay is your BGC with sand. Famed for its five-kilometer sensational white sand beach that turns into a party haven when the sun goes down, it is still the most preferred modern tropical getaway for locals and foreign tourists alike.

According to the latest data from the Department of Tourism, a total of 1.24 million tourists (50 percent of which are local revelers) have visited the island year to date. And while there are still many local travelers steering clear of expensive Boracay vacation because of costly airfare, traveling by ship can be an equally exciting option, not to mention a little less expensive.

Traveling by sea not only saves money, it also gives travels a unique experience, which can serve as either a preview or an extension of an island vacation. Think of a party boat because that is exactly what 2Go Travel wanted to introduce to its clients–a seamless travel experience, so to speak.

2GO Travel works with over 1,200 outlets nationwide, catering to various ports in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. With decades of experience in maritime industry, 2GO Travel is one of the largest, premier land/sea-travel providers in the country. It offers a wide selection of hotel accommodations, tours and events packages, with the ease of land/sea travel.

In our recent trip to Boracay, we personally experienced the service that 2GO Travel is famous for. It’s via the roll-on /roll-off (RORO) passenger ship MV St. Ignatius of Loyola, designed to carry at least a thousand passengers.

Upon boarding the vessel at Batangas City Port, we were greeted by 2GO’s amiable staff. They led us to our assigned rooms before giving us a quick tour of the vessel and its amenities.

MV St. Ignatius offers different types of accommodation based on the travel-

An alternative way

2Go to Boracay MV St. Ignatius of Loyola's Fiesta Island, an open-air bar located at the vessel's upper deck

caption

The well-appointed Stateroom equipped with a queen-sized bed and its own toilet and bath

er’s budget. Our group stayed in the cabin rooms, each equipped with toilet and bath. The private air-conditioned room can accommodate four people. There

2Go Travel staff and members of the media at the vessel's hotel-like front office

are three other bunkers available in All bunkers are well maintained. The the passenger vessel: the well-appoint- only difference among them is the level ed and fully furnished Stateroom; the of privacy and exclusivity.

Tourist class; and the Supervalue class.

The passenger ship has a restaurant,

café, convenience store where one can also buy food, drinks, bath products, over-the-counter medicines as well as souvenirs from 2GO Travel, a bar called Sea Breeze, which serves as the ship’s main entertainment hub, which allows passengers to watch live bands perform while having a drink at the vessel’s upper deck. All these, plus its comfortable accommodations make the nine-hour trip from Batangas to Caticlan seemed short.

2GO Travel is also very particular with security and safety. Since there’s no chance of overcapacity, the staff can ensure everyone’s welfare while aboard the ship. According to its captain, MV St. Ignatius is equipped with eight emergency lifeboats, a rescue boat and three vessel escorts. Its security details include bomb-sniffing dogs and some police representatives. He also shared that although the ship is sturdy and can withstand any kind of turbulence on the high seas, the RORO will not set sail if Storm Signal number 1 is raised by the national weather agency.

Compared to a road trip or flying, 2GO Travel offers a unique experience where travelers can enjoy the time it takes to get to their destination. There are no delays that will mess up a connecting flight or traffic that will add hours onto a road trip.

It’s good to note that half of the fun of the travel is the ship itself. It may appear humorous but one downside of this alternative way to travel to an island destination is the possibility of becoming seasick. But don’t fret. MV St. Ignatius of Loyola also has an inhouse medical unit ready for any kinds of emergencies.

Discover Shanghai AIRASIA Philippines, the world’s best low-cost air- “The Paris of the East.” line, continues to connect the world as it added another Shanghai is known as China’s commercial and finanwonderful destination on their route map–Shanghai, cial center but is also bursting with cultural experiences.

On one side of the Huangpu River lies ultra-modern Pudong, home to the newly opened Shanghai Disneyland and the colorful Oriental Pear Tower, and on the other side, Puxi with its host of historical spots like the French Concession, glitzy waterside promenade The Bund with its stretch of historical colonial buildings, and Yuyuan Garden, which gives you a glimpse of Ming and Qing dynasty architecture.

After an exciting day in Shanghai, take a break by going to notable places outside the city center. Relax at the Dongping National Forest Park, a man-made forest at Chongming Island. Ride a boat at the “Shanghai’s Venice,” the Zhujiaojiao Water Village at the Chinpu District and have spiritual trip to the Lingyin Temple at the Zhejiang, Hangzhou to complete your dream vacation.

And one definitely won’t go hungry in here. Finding its culinary secrets is an adventure in itself. Don’t leave Shanghai without trying Xiao Long Bao, Jianbing or Egg Pancakes, Scallion Oil Noodles and Bamboo Tofu with Pepper partnered with the Xinjiang Black Beer or Tsingtao Beer.

AirAsia Philippines, continues to surprise and delight travelers with its wide range of flights. From top tourist spots of Asia such as Hong Kong, Seoul and Singapore to the hidden gems like Kota Kinabalu, Siam Reap and Bali. The airline continues to make travel accessible by offering the lowest fares online to Xiao Long Bao is a pocketful of meaty and soup-y goodness over 100 destinations across Asia.

Shanghai is China's commercial and financial center that is also bursting with cultural experiences

Life

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016 isahred@gmail.com

The city that doesn’t sleep MERCURY RISING

BY BOB ZOZOBRADO

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EW YORK City is popularly known as The Big Apple, thanks to 1920s sports writer John J. Fitz Gerald who used the tag in reference to the city’s racetracks as big-time horseracing venues, compared to those in New Orleans.

The moniker caught on when the erstwhile New York Conventions and Visitors Bureau used it in its promotional campaign.

Since then, tourists have been eager to “take a bite of The Big Apple,” in spite of the original tag having nothing to do with the fruit.

But I prefer “king of the hill, top-of-the heap, A-number 1,” that’s why I’d rather go with how Frank Sinatra described the city, in his mega-hit, chartbusting song. Simply because, every time I am in New York, I’m always amazed at how downtown Manhattan continues to burst with activity even in the wee hours. Bars and restaurants are still full, even on weekdays. The probinsyano (Cebuano) that I am can’t help but wonder, “Do these people ever sleep at all?”

Having been to New York City countless of times, I’ve seen what there are for tourists to see, am already familiar with the city’s transport system, and won’t lose my way getting from one place to another on foot. This recent visit, I only had one whole day to spare, so I limited my foray to cover only my favorite places in Manhattan.

As in my past visits, I started my “day tour” along Fifth Avenue with the noontime mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The 40-minute service in its massive interior and beautiful altar, with an even more beautiful Adoration Chapel behind it, always pumps me up with energy to go around the city, and immerse myself in its nightlife until the early morning hours.

After checking out the shops along Fifth Avenue, my next stop was (as always) the Rockefeller Center, just a

AWAKE ALL NIGHT. The West 42nd St. in Manhattan is always dazzling with colorful lights and packed with people until early morning

On this trip, I also took time out to visit The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art), which showcases over two million art pieces, spanning 5,000 years of culture. It has ancient Egyptian treasures and, for those who want a break during the museum tour, it has a Roof Garden that offers spectacular skyline views. The Met is also the venue for many high society events, galas and many other noteworthy celebrations, which New York’s well-heeled residents always look forward to.

Then there’s West 42nd Street, the belly of Manhattan, where the dazzling colorful lights always beckon curious tourists like me for a look-see...only to realize later that the place is a real dollar-magnet! This is where you find the “touristy” shops, cinemas, restaurants, bars, wax museum, etc. It’s hard to walk along this street and not part with your hard earned dollars. The temptation to buy, to see, to do something is so overwhelming, you can’t help but yield to it.

And, yes, pedestrian and vehicular traffic never seem to stop in this area, even until the early morning hours.

Of course, there are many more interesting places to visit in New York, but a day could only allow me a visit to my favorite spots. Well, there’s always next year’s trip, as I make it a point to include the city in my itinerary every time I cross the Pacific because I can never get enough of it. Maybe because, deep down inside me, and as Frank Sinatra puts it, “I wanna wake up in a city that doesn’t sleep!”

For feedback, I’m at bobzozobrado@gmail.com.

Ben & Jerry's ice cream is my alltime favorite dessert

The newly renovated interior of St. Patrick's Cathedral with its gilded altar

Noontime at The Met draws a lot of people to its front steps

block away from St. Patrick’s, for my late lunch. En route to my favorite restaurant, I walked along The Promenade, a pleasant experience every time because its decor changes according to the season. During my recent visit, it was adorned with tropical plants, palm trees and colorful Oriental flowers that made me feel so at home.

I always look forward to my lunch at the Rock Center Café, which has a “rink-side” view of skaters in the Center’s ice skating rink during Winter, and of its open-air Cafe during Summer.

What makes my lunch even more enjoyable is my favorite Ben and Jerry’s

outlet, a few steps away from the Cafe, which always has a delectable array of heavenly frozen delight, er, calories!

From “The Rock,” I walked to Broadway to buy my ticket for any show of my choice. This time, I wanted to watch the much-talked about, Tony Awardee Hamilton, a musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States and, as its first Secretary of the Treasury, formulated the country’s financial system. Thank goodness, tickets to the show were all sold out; it gave me a valid reason not to fork out $450 for the ticket. Instead, I just lazed around

Times Square and rested on the red staircase on top of the Broadway ticket outlet in Fr. Duffy’s Square, while chatting with newfound Filipino friends who were also visiting the city.

YOUR FRIDAY CHUCKLE A man approached the very beautiful woman inside a large supermarket and said, “Excuse me, Ma’am, I’ve been looking around for almost an hour now for my wife and I can’t find her. Can you talk to me for a couple of minutes?” “Why?” asked the woman. “Because every time I talk to a beautiful woman, my wife appears out of nowhere.”

Benilde students join Vatel summer exchange program in France SELECTED students of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DSLCSB), School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management (SHRIM), participated in a comprehensive sixweek summer internship program at the Vatel International Business School Hotel and Tourism Management, in Nîmes, France.

The intensive activity is part of the entire holistic experience that trainees needed to undergo to fulfill their requirements in their various respective courses.

Vatel, a worldwide network of hospitality and management institutions, has an existing partnership with DLSCSB to offer a Double Bachelors and Masters Degree programs.

For 35 years, the France-based establishment prepares protégés for the international hospitality and tourism industry. It has 31 schools around the world with approximately 7,000 students, with more than 29,000 alumni in its roster, who occupy management and leadership positions in hotels and restaurants globally.

Selected Benilde students who participated in Vatel's six-week internship program

Tourism plans at EU-PH summit

DoT Undersecretary Alma Rita Jimenez stressed the need for tourism products and services that will provide unique experiences to foreign visitors

TOURISM was one of the major economic sectors highlighted during the EU-PH Business Summit at Makati Shangri-La Hotel recently. Representing the Department of Tourism (DoT), Undersecretary Alma Rita Jimenez discussed the agency’s vision and plans for the industry.

She stressed the need for tourism products and services to provide unique experience for the visitors. “That is our challenge and our response is three-pronged–structural reforms, innovative product and destination development and creative marketing and promotion,” she added.

The undersecretary also encouraged EU representatives to “help spread the good news to get the EU numbers up.”

At present, total number of visitors from EU accounts for just a little over three percent of the total arrivals, UK not included.

“This means less of your nationals are able to experience the wonderful sights the Philippines has to offer, the health

and wellness services that made it to the 6th place in Asia and 19th place in the 2016 Global Medical Tourism Index and the relaxing and laid back atmosphere of our retirement places,” she added.

To ensure a stable baseline market, the undersecretary mentioned expanding tourism reach in both geographic and service segments. These include revitalizing existing programs like medical and retirement tourism and the MICE segments while developing further products for the four Fs–fun, farm, family and faith tourism. Being resilient would involve putting in place crisis management plans to withstand shocks coming from security issues, climate conditions and manage market vulnerabilities. This requires a country tourism program approach through development of clusters and tourism circuits and the strengthening of regional cooperation.

More importantly, the DoT official stressed that the tourism business should ul-

timately redound to the improvement of the lives of the Filipinos. With direct and indirect employment, community-based projects and level playing field for MSMEs, the benefits of tourism can spread to the countryside.

Jimenez also urged everyone to give the new management of DoT a chance to have a fresh take on the tourism’s marketing campaign.

“The tourism campaign that has been undertaken obviously improved the awareness of what the Philippines can offer by way of tourism destinations.

It is time to take it to the next level by providing flesh and substance that will deliver the promise. It means putting in place structural reforms that will ensure stronger fundamentals to make our tourism program stable, resilient, sustainable, transformative and inclusive. These are the strategic tourism imperatives that the Secretary of Tourism articulates as she defines the aspirations and policy directions for the industry.”

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

PEOPLE …are talking about Imelda Schweighart HE’S a fragile-looking beauty queen who has a foul mouth. That’s how most people describe her now after she made some nasty remarks about the organization that chose her to be the Philippine representative for this year’s Miss Earth pageant. And this incident was just one of the few instances that put her on the front page of the national dailies. It seems this lady doesn’t understand the implications of her actions yet. We just hope she wouldn’t regret them once she gets her sanity back.

Derrick Monasterio The young actor gets a starring role, finally.

Given that there are plenty of underrated actors who don’t get the roles they deserve, Derrick is just fortunate that his mother network has finally noticed his strong potential to be a lead star. The 21-year-old actor will star as a superhero in a once-a-week sitcom. What a great start, right?

S

Pamilya Ordinaryo Dubbed as on one of the most powerful poverty porns that came out recently, the film that debuted in Cinemalaya this year is raking in some awards overseas. After it took the Audience Choice award at the Venice International Film Festival, it walked home with two more awards at the 1st London East Asia Film Fest namely the Jury Special Mention - Direction and the Jury Special Mention - Acting for its female lead.

…are not talking about Iñigo Pascual Otherwise known as Piolo Pascual’s only son, the young Kapamilya is trying to carve his own niche in different areas of showbiz, just like his father. He has tried hosting, dancing and of course acting, but every effort was nothing but short of being a success. The trouble about this teenager is that his father is too successful people just see him as someone who just gets the overflow. Now he wants to establish himself as a recording star. We honestly hope for his album’s success.

Natalie Hart She hates it when she’s being called a starlet. In a recent interview, she said she has all the right to be known as a fullfledged actress after she won an acting recognition overseas.

Natalie must have read a lot of tabloids, which relegates starlet as a person who lacks star power when in fact the word simply means young actress. Doesn’t she want to be called young?

Till I Met You There’s an ongoing petition to change the series’ MTRCB rating to SPG. Reason being, the James Reid and Nadine Lustre primetime soap is slowly having some raunchy twists and some people are not happy about it. The sudden change in the plot is impossible, too. Little did many people know, it is actually intentional to make Till I Met You remain afloat.

CMMA, EDUKCIRCLE honor Kapamilya network, shows

THE Kapamilya network took home 11 CMMA’s including major wins in the fields of TV and radio. Failon Ngayon sa DZMM won Best News Commentary for radio, while its television counterpart on ABSCBN won Best Public Service Program. The Atom Araullo led special on climate change, Warmer, on ANC, the ABSCBN News Channel, also won Best TV Special, while Anthony Taberna’s Tapatan Ni Tunying received a special citation for Best News Magazine.

On the entertainment side, two of the network’s shows shared the Best Drama Series award - Be My Lady and FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano, while Dance Kids was chosen as Best Entertainment Program. The music video for the song “Thank You For The Love,” which featured top Kapamilya love

teams, took home the Best Music Video award, as the Kapamilya station ID for 2015 featuring the same song won Best Station ID. The Filipino Channel’s 2015 Christmas station ID titled “Galing ng Filipino” was also nominated in the same category.

Completing the Kapamilya winners at the CMMAs, which was established in 1978 to stress the role and responsibility of media and its practitioners in influencing society, are My Only Radio (MOR) 101.9, which won Best Branded Radio Ad for their “MOR Graduation Day” and ABS-CBN Davao’s “Mag TV Na,” which got a special citation for Adult Educational/ Cultural Program.

Meanwhile, ABS-CBN also dominated the EduKCircle Awards, winning in 19 of the 29 categories. Vice Ganda, Daniel Padilla, and Coco

"Be My Lady" lead cast, led by Erich Gonzales and Daniel Matsunaga, receiving the award for Best Drama Series

Martin brought home three Fame for Drama. Other Hall of awards each, with Martin even Fame inductees include Anne being inducted into the Hall of Curtis for Advertising, Salamat

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Friday, November 4, 2016

ACROSS 1 Brace 5 Rumormonger 10 Adjusts the length 14 Bronte’s Jane 15 Potato type 16 The fat — — the fire 17 Watch the stars 18 Stumper 19 Earth goddess 20 Scornful laugh 22 Thumbing a ride 24 Wyatt the lawman 27 Gullywasher 28 Iris kin 32 Fable writer 36 Sawmill input 37 Mortgages 39 Grouchy Muppet 40 Puts on credit 42 Rector’s income 44 H.H. Munro 45 Salami 47 Diadem 49 Golfer — Trevino 50 Lab weights 51 Pullets 53 Razor brand 56 Yoko’s son 57 Music maker

(2 wds.)

61 Airheads 65 “Hi- —, Hi-Lo” 66 Sediment 69 Booty 70 Dwarf buffalo 71 Kids’ song refrain 72 Occupation 73 Bored response 74 Loaf around 75 Nasty mood DOWN 1 Wooden pins 2 Clancy hero Jack — 3 Ricelike pasta 4 Squinted at 5 Puppy plaint 6 Shogun’s capital 7 Vintage vehicle 8 His and hers 9 Major artery 10 Royal title 11 Morales of “Bad Boys” 12 Bearing 13 Glitch 21 Plane part 23 Luigi’s farewell 25 Search frantically 26 Braid 28 Hot wine punch

29 Bunk preference 30 Booster rocket 31 Piece of mischief 33 Climb 34 Of durable wood 35 Snoops 38 Persian monarchs 41 From Mogadishu 43 Buffalo’s lake 46 Movie terrier 48 Police sch.

52 Mounds

54 U-Haul rival 55 Craggy abode 57 Potter’s supply 58 Ms. Merrill 59 Reinvest, with “back” 60 Lurch 62 Pork cut 63 Braxton or Tennille 64 Dele’s undoing 67 — Scala of films 68 Boston Red —

Dok’s Bernadette Sembrano and Alvin Elchico for Health Shows, and Carmina VillaroelLegaspi and her family for Advertising.

Also big winners were Kathryn Bernardo and Sarah Geronimo with two awards each. The two were named Most Influential Celebrity Endorsers of the Year, alongside other popular Kapamilya stars like Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin, Enrique Gil, Daniel Padilla, James Reid and Nadine Lustre. Kathryn was also Most Outstanding Female Artist of the Year while Sarah was included in the Most Influential Concert Performers of the Year awardees with Darren Espanto and Daniel Padilla. Reid and Lustre, who are collectively known as JaDine, also won Love Team of the Year.

Receiving acting awards were

Bea Alonzo (Most Influential Actress of the Year), Xian Lim (Drama Actor of the Year) and Kim Chiu (Drama Actress of the Year), who shared her award with fellow Kapamilya actress, Bela Padilla. Cited for their hosting skills were Boy Abunda (Best Talk Show Host), Piolo Pascual (Best male Variety Show Host), Toni Gonzaga (Best Female Variety Show Host), Luis Manzano (Best Game Show Host), and Robi Domingo (Best Talent Show Host).

At ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs, Karen Davila was named Best Female News Anchor, while Ted Failon was the Best Investigative Journalist of the Year at the EdukCircle, which has been awarding individuals who have made significant contributions to the showbiz and media industry since 2011.

Showbiz

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016

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HE first batch of lucky regular housemates officially entered the famous yellow house on Oct. 28 as ABS-CBN’s hit reality show Pinoy Big Brother Lucky Season 7 kicked off its regular edition.

Big Brother welcomed into his house the Incredible Hunk of Nueva Ecija, Tanner Mata; Bibang Bentang-guena of Batangas, Baninay Bautista; Rampa Raketera of Bulacan, Ali Forbes; Longing Son of Taguig, Luis Hontiveros; Lucky Bet na Miss of Tacloban, Thuy Nguyen; Dazzling Daughter of Bulacan, Cora Waddell; and Overseas Filipino Warrior of Tondo, Jerome Alecre.

Watch out for these new faces and personalities as they share their stories and show their authentic selves while facing various tasks and challenges.

Baninay, Ali, and Jerome are certified fighters after having been tested by fate early on in their lives. To

ISAH V. RED

provide for her family, Baninay took on multiple jobs and used her sunny disposition as fuel to keep her going.

The same goes for beauty queen Ali who has been working very hard to earn a living, especially after her family’s business went bankrupt.

Jerome, meanwhile, represents the modern day Filipino heroes—the overseas Filipinos—and left everything he had in the Philippines to work abroad in hopes of giving his family a better life.

Life has not always been easy for head turners Cora and Luis, who continue to fight for their families. Internet sensation Cora went through a tough time in her life after her mom got into an accident in the US that depleted their family’s savings. This prompted them to go back to the Philippines and start anew here.

Meanwhile, Luis, who also went viral and known online as the cute and hunky nephew of a senator, w a n t s

Singer and former beauty queen Ali Forbes

Fil-Am model Tanner Mata

ig

rother’s nothing but a happy and complete family. Growing up, he didn’t feel close to his mother, so he does everything he can to make her feel proud of him.

It’s a different journey for Thuy and Tanner who have found their second home in the Philippines.

Thuy is already a familiar face to many viewers as the Vietnamese housemate in PBB’s celebrity edition in Vietnam. War brought her and her family to the Philippines, where they found a safe haven for all of them.

Tanner, meanwhile, grew up in the US with his mom and step dad, whom he treated as his own father. He never got to meet his biological dad until he was 13. Modeling brought him to Manila and found himself a new family and friends.

Who else will join the first seven lucky regular housemates? Watch out for them as Kuya reveals their identities in It’s Showtime and TV Patrol. *** Photographer/graphic designer Samantha

THE short film Caretaker, directed by advocacy filmmaker Seymour Barros Sanchez and produced by Red Room Media Productions, won second place in the short fiction category of the sixth CAM International Festival for Short Films in Cairo, Egypt.

The film, co-written by Kristine Camille Sulit and Sanchez, is about a newly hired custodian of a vacation house who finds the gruesome conclusion of a fraternity’s initiation rites too much to handle. Rolando Inocencio plays the title role with actors John Paul Duray, Raymond Rinoza, Jomari Angeles, Luis Ruiz, Ryan Sy, Vince Rillon and Ron Nacianceno.

The film festival, organized annually by the Egyptian Arab Society for Culture, Media and Arts, aims to promote cinema as a means of combating ignorance, terrorism and poverty.

Plankton by Russian filmmaker Giovana Olmos edged the Filipino film for the top prize in the short fiction category, while Jasmenco by Syrian director Wathec Salman placed third.

Arab Film TV School director and cinematographer Dr. Mona El Sabban headed the CAM film festival jury comprised of members Dr. Nagwa Mahrous and actress Nada Bassiouny from Egypt, film critic Yusuf Shayeb from Palestine and Dr. Bou Shoaib El Masoudi from Morocco.

Jahzeel Abihail Cruz, third secretary and vice consul of the Embassy of the

‘Caretaker’ wins second in Egypt

A scene from the short film "Caretaker," which tells the story of a newly hired custodian of a vacation house who finds the gruesome conclusion of a fraternity’s initiation rites too much to handle

Godinez-Valenciano gave birth to Nataleia Martine, her first with husband, director/singer Paolo Valenciano on Nov. 2 at 1:21 a.m. in an undisclosed hospital.

Samantha is the daughter of sound expert Jaime and Gina (Tabuena) Godinez.

Nataleia “Leia” Martine who weighed 7.9 lbs. is the first grandchild of the Godinez couple, and Paolo’s parents, singer/ performer Gary V and his wife Angeli (Pangilinan) Valenciano.

“I’m speechless, dumbfounded... blessed... I remember Paolo...the day he was born,” Gary V. said.

“I’ll never look at a mother the same way again. They are the superior species! I can’t believe I’m a dad,” said first-time father Paolo, who was crying the entire time his wife was giving birth.

Present in the hospital while Samantha was in labor, with Paolo by her side, apart from their parents and some relatives, were their respective siblings, Gab and Kiana Valenciano, Alex and Mikel Godinez. Both mother and child are doing very well.

Philippines in Cairo, received the second prize trophy and certificate from CAM film festival director and chairman Alaa Nasr on behalf of the Caretaker team during the awarding ceremonies on Oct. 13.

Caretaker has also been selected as one of the finalists in the Active Vista International Human Rights Film Festival short film competition currently being organized by the DAKILA artist collective.

The film previously won the Golden Philippine Eagle award and Best Actor trophy for Inocencio at the third Singkuwento International Film Festival co-organized by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in February. It was also shown at the 22nd annual Filipino International Cine Festival (FACINE) at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, California and the International Film Festival Manhattan at the Producers Club in New York City.

Sanchez is a lecturer at the Digital Filmmaking department of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts, the Department of Communication of Far Eastern University and the Arts and Education program of the College of the Holy Spirit-Manila.

He also currently serves as adviser of the FEU Film Society. Apart from graduating from Mendoza’s first directing class, he is also a graduate of Ricky Lee’s 14th scriptwriting workshop and a member of Writers Studio. He previously worked as a producer for CNN Philippines, Solar News channel and TV5.