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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2016
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Cuba says last farewell to Castro H AVANA―Cuba mourned revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Sunday as the communist island prepared to say its last goodbyes to the towering giant of its modern history with mass memorials and a four-day funeral procession. After the stunned commotion surrounding Saturday’s announcement that Castro had died at age 90, Sunday was set to be a day of calm preparations, with no official activities planned. Castro, whose iron-fisted rule defied the United States for half a century, died late Friday after surviving 11 US administrations and hundreds of assassination at-
tempts. The authorities did not give a cause of death. The polarizing leader, a titan of the 20th century who beat the odds to endure well into the 21st, was to be cremated Saturday, the first of nine days of national mourning. A series of memorials will begin Monday, when Cubans are
called to converge on Havana’s iconic Revolution Square. Castro’s ashes will then go on a four-day procession through the country, before being buried in the southeastern city of Santiago on December 4. Santiago, Cuba’s second city, was the scene of Castro’s ill-fated first attempt at revolution in 1953―six years before he succeeded in ousting US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Adored by admirers as a savior of the people, reviled by enemies as a cruel tyrant, Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 until he handed power to his younger brother Raul in 2006 amid a health crisis. Even then, he continued to loom large, penning diatribes against
American “imperialism” in the state press and wielding influence behind the scenes. Castro is so far as divisive in death as in life. The news drew strong―and polarized―reactions across the world. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed him as “the symbol of an era,” and China’s Xi Jinping said “Comrade Castro will live forever.” But in Miami, home to the largest community of exiles who fled Castro’s rule, euphoric crowds erupted into loud celebration. There were sharply different reactions in the US from outgoing President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump.
Japanese wine maker a natural CORNAS, France―Hirotake Ooka does not do anything by half. For nearly two decades the former Japanese chemist has been on a quest to make the very best and most natural French wine possible. But he hasn’t made it easy for himself. His modest vineyards on a hill near Cornas, where the mountains of the Ardeche drop into the Rhone valley, is not so much steep as vertiginous. Which means not only that his grapes must be picked by hand but that he and his pickers are often forced to perform the backbreaking task on their knees, grape by grape. With most parcels of land in this dry corner of south central France passed down from father to son, Ooka had to carve his vineyards out of a wooded hillside, before planting his syrah vines in the granite soil. But it was perhaps destiny that Ooka should land there―his surname means “big hill” and he duly named his estate “Domaine de Grande Colline”. An old French maxim has it that to make good wine, the vines must struggle. And just like them, Ooka has suffered in his almost fundamentalist pursuit of “vin nature”, the most organic wine possible. Yet despite the worst that nature could throw at him―he lost 90 percent of his harvest in 2013 to “black rot” and nearly two-thirds this year to mildew―Ooka has become one of the most respected natural wine makers in France. “My philosophy is to make a wine just with the grapes, without yeast, sugar or sulphites. In the vineyard as well, I like to do the most natural things possible,” he added, letting the grass grow under his vines and encouraging as much biodiversity as possible. Part of his quiet, maniacal dedication to the precision and authenticity means he crushes his red grapes himself with his bare feet, lashed to a harness in case he drowns in the vat. “Crushing them with my feet I learn a lot about their aroma, temperature and the speed of fermentation,” he said. “I wear the harness because it’s dangerous with all the carbon dioxide that escapes―it would only take a little for me to pass out and drown.” Ooka, 42, discovered wine on his first visit to France 20 years ago. “In Tokyo I drank beer, I thought wine was too snobby,” he told AFP. But his road to Damascus came with the opening of a bottle of claret he bought for his father. He returned to France and trained to be a winemaker among the great wineries of Bordeaux. But he soon realized that the wine he wanted to make was not possible amid the monoculture of villages given over totally to wine. AFP
Obama, who embarked on a historic rapprochement with Cuba in 2014, said the US extended a “hand of friendship” to the Cuban people. But Trump called Castro “a bruManila tal dictator.” Standard The future of the historic USTODAY Cuban thaw announced in December 2014 looks uncertain under Trump. He has threatened to reverse course if Cuba does not allow greater human rights. In Havana, bustling streets emptied and parties ground to a halt as Castro’s admirers sank into grief. “What can I say? Fidel Castro was larger than life,” said a tearful Aurora Mendez, 82. She recalled a life in poverty be-
fore Castro’s revolution in 1959. “Fidel was always first in everything, fighting for the downtrodden and the poor,” she said. Fidel Castro came to power against the backdrop of the Cold War as a black-bearded, cigarchomping 32-year-old. Adopting the slogan “socialism or death,” he kept the faith to the end. He endured more than 600 assassination attempts, according to aides, as well as the disastrous US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion attempt in 1961. His outrage over that botched plot contributed to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the Soviet Union agreed to his request to send ballistic missiles to Cuba. AFP
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Republic of the Philippines NATIONAL FOOD AUTHORITY CARAGA REGION Butuan City INVITATION TO BID FOR THE PROCUREMENT OF WAREHOUSE HANDLING SERVICES FOR NFACARAGA REGION FOR CY 2017 The NATIONAL FOOD AUTHORITY Caraga office, through its Corporate Operating Budget for CY 2017, intends to apply the sum of FIVE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED FORTY FOUR THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED EIGHTY SEVEN & 96/100 ONLY (Php 5,744,987.96) being the aggregate APPROVED BUDGET FOR THE CONTRACT (ABC) for payment under the contract of Warehouse Handling Services for NFACaraga Region for CY 2017: CONT. NO.
I II
III
IV
PROVINCE / WAREHOUSE AGUSAN DEL NORTE GID-I & II Warehouses, Libertad, Butuan City AGUSAN DEL SUR GID-Bayugan, Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur GID-Alegria, San Francisco, Agusan del Sur GID-Trento, Trento, Agusan del Sur SURIGAO DEL NORTE TAN Warehouse, Surigao City GID-Warehouse, Km. 10, Surigao City PDI Warehouse, San Jose, Province of Dinagat Islands (PDI) Dapa Warehouse, Dapa, Surigao del Norte SURIGAO DEL SUR GID-Cantilan, Cantilan, Surigao del Sur GID-Duplex,Tandag City, Surigao del Sur GID-Mangagoy, Bislig City, Surigao del Sur
APPROVED BUDGET FOR THE CONTRACT (ABC) NUMBER OF STOCK (INCLUSIVE OF VAT) MOVEMENTS PER BAG/ TOTAL MOVE 302,525
Php 3.88
251,225
Php 1,173,797.00
Php 1,000.00
Php 974,753.00
Php 1,000.00
75,975
Php 3.88
Php 294,783.00
94,625
Php 3.88
Php 367,145.00
80,625
Php 3.88
Php 312,825.00
175,602
Php 3.88
Php
681,335.76
244,685
Php 3.88
Php
949,377.80
120,895
Php 3.88
Php
469,072.60
120,895
Php 3.88
662,077
Php 2,568,858.76
264,840
BIDDING FEE
Php 1,000.00
Php
469,072.60
Php
1,027,579.20 Php 1,000.00
75,470
Php 3.88
Php
292,823.60
106,475
Php 3.88
Php
413,123.00
82,895
Php 3.88
Php
321,632.60
Bidders should have completed within the immediate last three years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly in Section II. Instructions to Bidders (ITB). Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a nondiscretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”. A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested bidders on November 28, 2016 – December 19, 2016 (working days only) from the address below and upon payment of a non-refundable bidding fee for every lot as specified in this Invitation.
ONSTAGE. Singer/songwriter Carrie Underwood performs during a stop of The Storyteller Tour at T-Mobile Arena on November 26, 2016, in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP
Director charged in S. Korea scandal SEOUL―A prominent Kpop music video director was charged Sunday as part of a corruption scandal rocking South Korea and engulfing President Park Geun-Hye. Cha Eun-Taek, who has worked with “Gangnam Style” star Psy and boy band megastars Big Bang, used his ties to a secret confidante of Park to win lucrative projects from state agencies and private firms, prosecutors say. That confidante-Choi SoonSil―has been labeled Park’s eminence grise, a shadowy figure who is believed to have leveraged her close relationship with the president to extract more than $60 million from top firms, including Samsung. Prosecutors say Park herself
ordered her former economic adviser to help Cha pressure officials and private firms so that he would win contracts. Cha, 46, has been charged with abuse of power, coercion and embezzlement and becomes the latest public figure to be embroiled in the snowballing scandal. Choi, 60, is accused of meddling in a wide range of state affairs including the country’s preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Prosecutors last week formally charged her with abuse of power and coercion, saying Park was a “co-culprit” who had colluded with Choi to strongarm top firms into giving cash to non-profit foundations Choi controlled. Park―now the first South Ko-
rean president to become a criminal suspect while in office―has rejected a series of requests from prosecutors to answer their questions. As a sitting president, Park cannot be charged with a criminal offense except insurrection or treason, but she can be investigated and potentially charged once her term is over. Park is faced with growing public calls to resign and a push by lawmakers to impeach her, with her job approval ratings diving to record lows of four percent. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in recent weeks to call for her ouster, with organizers claiming the latest rally on Saturday in Seoul drew 1.5 million people. AFP
The National Food Authority Caraga Region will hold a Pre-bid Conference on December 5, 2016 at 9:00 A.M., NFA Conference Room, 2nd Floor, Rudy Tiu VIII Bldg., J.C. Aquino Avenue, Butuan City. Only those who have purchased the Bidding Documents shall be allowed to participate in the pre-bid conference and raise or submit written queries or clarifications. Bid must be submitted to the address below on or before December 19, 2016 at 10:00 A.M. All bids must be accompanied by a Bid Security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18. Late bids shall not be accepted. Bid opening shall immediately follow at 10:01 A.M. at same venue in the presence of the Bidder or Bidder’s authorized representative. Schedule of RBAC activities is as follows: ACTIVITY Advertisement/Posting of Invitation to Bid Issuance and Availability of Bidding Documents Pre-Bid Conference Deadline of Submission of Eligibility and Bid Envelopes Opening of Eligibility and Bid Envelopes
TIME TABLE November 28, 2016 November 28, 2016 to December 18, 2016 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M December 19, 2016 8:00 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. (Except Saturday, Sundays & Holidays ) December 05, 2016 9:00 AM December 19, 2016 10:00 A.M. December 19, 2016 10:01 A.M.
The National Food Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders. For further information, please refer to: Mr. Rolando C. Sindo Regional Industry Services Officer BAC Secretariat Head National Food Authority 2nd Floor Rudy Tiu Bldg. VIII J.C. Aquino Avenue, Butuan City Tel Nos. (085) 815 3284 (085) 225 6701 Fax No. (085) 342 7898 (SGD) RUBEN M. MANATAD Acting Assistant Regional Director Chairperson, BAC (MS-NOV. 28, 2016)