Manila Standard - 2016 December 25 - Sunday

MERRY CHRISTMAS

GOVT READIES P860.7-B INFRA BUDGET

By John Paolo Bencito SEVERAL infrastructure projects to improve traffic decongestion, airport facilities, railway facilities, ports and school buildings gets P860.7-billion funding under the approved 2017 national budget.

The allocation, which is equivalent to 5.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product for 2017, is eyed to address the country’s infrastructure deficiencies, the Budget Department said in a statement.

Pending the approval of an emergency powers bill to resolve traffic conges-

tion in major metropolitan areas, some 38.13 percent of the total infrastructure allocation, or P328.2 billion was provided for the construction of road networks, including the P31.5 billion Mindanao Logistics Infrastructure Network to spur development in the south,

the biggest infrastructure project in the pipeline for 2017.

Another P344 million were earmarked for the construction of Integrated Transport Systems Project, P1.0 billion for the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit Project and P1.0 Turn to A2

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VOL. XXX • NO. 316 • 5 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

‘EBOLA VACCINE HIGHLY PROTECTIVE IN TRIAL’

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SERRANO: PH’S NEXT BASKETBALL STAR

RETRIEVAL PROCEDURE. The US Navy released this photograph of an ocean probe similar to the one that was seized by the Chinese navy in the South China Sea. AFP

MICKEY BEATS SANTA. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy and other Disney stars arrived ahead of Santa Claus and was already celebrating Christmas with poor and special children on Saturday as part of the Disney on Ice extravaganza at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City. Lino Santos

FILIPINOS GEAR UP FOR STORMY XMAS

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LOWING down yet gaining strength rapidly on the country’s eastern seaboard, Typhoon ‘‘Nina’’ will pour its fury on Catanduanes on Christmas Day and Metro Manila and its environs by Monday.

The state weather bureau Pagasa said Saturday that Nina (international name Nockten) intensified further but slowed a bit to 15 kph as it headed west northwest, with the

capital squarely in its sights.

The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center said Nock-ten will be packing winds of 222 kph when it hits Catanduanes late on Christmas Day. In an earlier forecast, Pagasa said Nina, with maximum winds of up to 150 kph and gustiness of up to 185 kph, will bring heavy rain and storm-surge flooding as it barrels across Luzon.

On Saturday, the typhoon was

spotted 480 kms east of Virac, Catanduanes, and will make landfall over the province in the afternoon of December 25, Pagasa said.

A high-pressure area was pushing the typhoon along its northward track, making sea travel risky over the eastern seaboard of Central and Southern Luzon and the Visayas and across the shores of Northern Luzon, the weather bureau added.

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‘REFUSAL TO CHANGE INSPIRED BY DEVIL’ POPE Francis lashed at some Vatican officials for “hidden” and “malevolent” resistance, describing the latter as being inspired by “the devil, often dressed in lamb’s clothing.”

Speaking during his annual Christmas message at the Vatican’s Sala Clementina, he called for “purification” by prelates, adding he would not accept mere “plastic surgery to take away wrinkles” of the church.

“Dear brothers, it is not wrinkles that the church should fear, but stains,” he said in a tough address to

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officials of the Curia, or the Vatican’s governing body, whom he accused of blocking his reforms through “hidden resistance, born of fearful or hardened hearts.”

Tackling Vatican office politics, the Pope also criticized the trick of promoting enemies into positions where they were less of a threat as a cancer to the church.”

The speech marked the third time he had used his Christmas address to warn officials that he will not tolerate turf wars, careerism and backstabbing as he tries to thestandard.com.ph

streamline the Vatican’s sluggish bureaucracy.

The pope also urged the Curia to install more lay people, including women, to top jobs in the Curia like he did in appointing Barbara Jutte as the next head of the Vatican Museums, making her the first woman to take charge of the Catholic Church’s artistic treasures.

Jutte, 54, steps up from her current role as deputy director on January 1, taking over from Antonio Paolucci, 77, an art historian and former Italian culture minister.

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RODY WISHES PROGRESS, PEACE FOR PH

By John Paolo Bencito PEACE and order and progress for the nation are on President Rodrigo Duterte’s top wishes for Filipino this Christmas season.

“My beloved countrymen, as we remember the birth of our savior Jesus Christ, let us celebrate with genuine compassion and desire to foster hopes in our hearts. This Yuletide season, I wish for peace and order, progress for our country,” Duterte said in a message through state television RTVM. “Greeting you all a very merry Christmas, my family, my fellow workers in government and let us all look forward for the coming of a new year with great happiness,” he added.

Duterte, 71, had earlier delivered a Christmas message to Filipinos, extending his message of peace even to Abu Sayyaf terrorists, communists and Moros.

“I’d like to greet everybody, the communists, Abu Sayyaf, all of them, in behalf sa taong Pilipino, I greet everybody a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year for all,” he said during a trip to a military headquarters in Zamboanga City to visit wounded soldiers last week.

“I’d like to greet everybody, to the Filipino people, the law-abiding and of course if they find it in their hearts, though this is not really something for the Moro but you know that this kind of events are closest to the hearts of Christians [that] we can have a peaceful Christmas.”

The President also called for a truce during the holidays and extended a dinner invitation to Abu Sayyaf terrorists who will pass by Davao City.

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

LOOK INTO NEWSMAN’S SLAY, COPS ORDERED

By John Paolo Bencito MALACAÑANG on Saturday directed the Philippine National Police to “leave no stone unturned” in solving the recent murder of newspaper publisher Larry Que, who had written a column criticizing officials in Catanduanes province for their alleged negligence over an illegal drug factory.

The death of Que, the publisher and columnist of Catanduanes News Now, was the first of a mediaman under the Duterte administration.

“Immediately after we learned of the killing, we ordered a probe by the PNP. To leave no stone unturned, the PNP through its Task Force Usig is now investigating on the ground. They have sent their initial report and is continuously giving updates,” Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said in a statement.

Police will also check Que’s past political dealings for leads to his death, as he had ran for mayor of Virac town.

A gunman wearing a bonnet and raincoat shot Que in the head then fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.

“Our position is that as a matter of policy, Task Force on Media Security will treat such case as work-related until final determination. We are digging into Mr. Larry S. Que’s background as a politician and a businessman because his paper is just two weeks old,” Medialdea added.

Que’s murder came after he wrote a column hitting local officials following the discovery of a shabu laboratory in Catanduanes. He criticized the local officials’ apparent negligence that allowed the construction on the island-province of a shabu laboratory that authorities claimed was the biggest discovered so far in the country.

GOVT...

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billion for the Road Transport Infrastructure Project. Some P937 million will be allocated to the 48.6-kilometer Metro Manila for the BRT Line 1 covering Monumento up to Diosdado Macapagal Avenue/Roxas Boulevard, with integrated routes between the Ortigas Business District, Bonifacio Global City, and the Makati Business District.

For the improvement of airports, some P5.6 billion is set aside in the national budget for the improvement of the Panglao Airport Development Project (P2.2 billion), Bicol International Airport (P675 million) and Cotabato Airport (P341 million).

Allocation, meanwhil, of railways increased from P12.5 billion last year to P24.9 billion, with some P1.0 billion allotted for the MRT 3 Rehabilitation and Capacity Extension Project, P3.8 billion for the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project, P2.5 billion for the NorthSouth Commuter Rail Project (Phase 1) and P9.4 billion for the North-South Rail Project Phase II which will run from Tutuban-Calamba-BatangasLegazpi-Matnog.

Some P1.59 billion will be allotted for the Maritime Safety and Capability Improvement Project of the Philippine Coast Guard while P1.03 billion will be given to the Philippine Ports and Coast Guard Capacity Development program.

Apart from transport infrastructure, the government will be allotting P124.6 billion for the construction of 37,492 classrooms in 2017 and 10,000 additional classrooms for replacement.

NO FIGHTING PLEASE. A young lad rides on the arm of bronze statue of a Chinese warrior at Barangay Don Galo in Parañaque City. Ey Acasio

CEZA CHIEF TOOK KICKBACKS—RODY M

By John Paolo Bencito

ALACAÑANG has accused Cagayan Economic Zone Authority chairman Jose Mari Ponce of receiving P300 billion in kickbacks from illegal gambling operations in the country.

“Ceza, according to the President, has unremitted earnings amounting to P300 billion annually; it is currently headed by Jose Mari Ponce. a holdover from past administrations, who was appointed in 2004,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.

In a statement late Friday, Abella said President Rodrigo Duterte mentioned that he was still looking for the “proverbial honest man” to head the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, “which he inadvertently referred to as Peza-or Philippine Economic Zone Authority—over which the President has already appointed Ms. Charito Plaza as Director General.”

Abella clarified what Duterte said on Thursday after the President claimed that a certain “head” of the Peza—the state regulator of special economic zones—whom he didn’t name were receiving more than P300 billion in bribes to protect the alleged online gambling operations of Chinese gaming tycoon Jack Lam. “Even about Jack Lam, we know about it, they have this… [expletive] game that’s online, it’s being played here, the gamblers here [in the country] get taxed but the gamblers from abroad, they receive it, but we have no records [of foreign gamblers paying taxes to the Philippines],” the President said in the vernacular.

Reform and has been recognized with several awards, “among which are Citations for Resource Mobilization by the UN-FAO, the Undersecretary’s Award for Excellence from different institutions, and a Citation from the World Bank in line with the implementation of Agrarian Reform Communities Development Projects.”

Ceza is “the first and only Gaming Jurisdiction in Asia and one of the fastest growing economic zones in the Philippines today currently with 102 locators, 46 of which are involved in I-Gaming and Support Services,” and Ponce “is a regular speaker and panelist in interactive gaming conventions and conferences in the region,” the agency website added.

Duterte has recently ordered Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre to investigate the extent of Lam’s gaming operations in the country and benefitting from an “onerous contract” that allowed him to remit only one percent of taxes from his online business operations to the government.

FILIPINOS..

‘REFUSAL..

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In his latest broadside against resistance to change in the Catholic Church’s corridors of power, the 80-year-old pontiff warned that the reform process he launched in 2013 had to lead to more than a cosmetic “facelift” or plastic surgery to remove wrinkles.

In 2014 he listed the top 15 vices of the cardinals and bishops running the tiny city state, accusing them of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and claiming they believed they were “immortal.”

Last year, he said he wanted to avoid dwelling on “the catalogue of curial diseases” and instead listed the virtues needed for good government.

The pope gave his top 12 tips for good office management, including the need for better organisation, explaining that he was trying to give each of the Vatican’s dicasteries, or depart-

“Andrea [Domingo, the chair of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.] said we don’t get anything from (online gaming), so I asked her, ‘How much would we get if we did [tax online gaming operations]” Duterte added. “[Domingo’s] estimate was 300 billion [pesos]. The government isn’t earning that, it’s all going to that Peza head,” the President said.

“A lot of people are recommending someone there—I know, I won’t mention names—that’s why I was never tempted to assign a person there,” the President said.

Ponce could not be reached for comment at presstime. According to the Ceza website, he is a Career Executive Service Professional with more than 20 years of experience in government service, “with expertise in resource mobilization and negotiations for Official Development Assistance, project development and management, agribusiness, integrated area development and rural development.”

Ponce is a former acting secretary of the Department of Agrarian

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ments, a clear area of competence.

More lay people would be hired if they could do a better job than prelates, he said.

“The development of the role of women and lay people in the church and their appointment to leading roles in the dicasteries, with particular attention to multiculturalism, is of great importance,” he said.

Pope Francis has merged Vatican departments and tried to bring transparency to the state’s scandalplagued bank since he was elected in 2013, succeeding Pope Benedict, whose shock resignation was linked to alleged corruption and infighting at the Vatican.

Last year, the Vatican’s former No 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, donated €150,000 to a children’s hospital after allegations surfaced that funds from the institution had been used to redecorate his luxury penthouse.

The Pope also ordered an investigation yesterday into the chivalric Order of Malta, the charity overseen by the church that was established in the 11th century. AFP

Tropical storm Signal No. 1 is already up over Southern Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Albay, Sorsogon and Masbate, including Ticao and Burias islands, and Samar.

The Philippines hasn’t been hit by a storm on Christmas in recent memory, but Nina could be at least as strong as a Category 2 hurricane and bring as much as 10 inches of rain, leading to flooding and mudslides, state forecasters said.

There is a chance for the typhoon to weaken as it interacts with the Bicol region’s landmass, PAGASA said, but authorities were not taking any chances. They urged hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes on Saturday.

“We issued an advisory to local government units this morning to conduct preemptive evacuations,” Rachel Miranda, spokeswoman for the civil defense office in the Bicol region that includes Catanduanes, told AFP. Bicol, an agricultural region of 5.5 million people, is often the first area to be hit by the 20 or so storms and typhoons that pound the archipelago each year.

The most powerful and deadliest was Haiyan—locally known as Typhoon ‘‘Yolanda’’— which left 7,350 people dead or missing and destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013.

Local broadcaster ABS-CBN showed footage Saturday of long lines of trucks, cars and

vehicles stranded at Bicol ports after the coastguard shut down ferry crossings to nearby islands as a precaution.

The action prevented thousands of people from returning to their hometowns for the Christmas weekend, it said.

Cedric Daep, civil defense chief for the Bicol province of Albay, told AFP at least 400,000 people in that region alone needed to be evacuated.

“Our evacuation centers will not be able to accommodate all of them,” he said. Others were being asked to stay with relatives or friends.

“We are requesting vehicle support” from other government agencies to move people to safety, Daep added.

In Legaspi City, Albay’s capital, the Office of Civil Defense in Bicol, said on Friday disaster councils across the region were on “blue alert” and had preemptive measures prepared for Nina’s landing.

Since Wednesday, all provincial disaster management councils were put on high alert for the worsening weather situation, said Bernardo Rafael Alejandro, OCD-Bicol director and concurrent Bicol Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) chairperson.

On Thursday, disaster councils in Bicol were placed on “preparedness mode,” which means all national and local DRRMCs should be ready for activation and deployment, Alejandro said.

PNA with AFP

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GMA FILES BILL ‘TO STRENGTHEN’ VMMC

By Maricel V. Cruz

F

ORMER President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has filed a bill seeking to protect any sale or disposition of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center by further strengthening and modernizing its facilities to serve the medical needs of Filipino veterans, retired soldiers and their dependents.

In filing House Bill 1240, Arroyo, a deputy speaker, proposed to give VMMC its own juridical personality to provide it greater flexibility and autonomy in its operations in order to serve its mission.

“Recognizing the invaluable sacrifices and services of our veterans and military retirees, it is only imperative that a medical facility dedicated to serve their medical needs as well as their dependents must provided stability, viability and ample resources to ensure that they receive quality

medical and health services,” Arroyo said in the bill’s explanatory note.

VMMC is currently under the control and supervision of the Department of National Defense eiving a measly 1 percent of DND’s annual budget.

Unlike other government hospitals such as thePhilippine Heart Center, Lung Center, Kidney Center, Philippine General Hospital and Philippine Children’s Medical Center, VMMC does not have its own charter and has no other source of income to support the free care and

treatment of veterans, retirees and their dependents.

Under Arroyo’s bill, VMMC will have its corporate entity which shall be governed by a Board of Trustees chaired by the DND secretary and vice chaired by the hospital’s medical director.

Other members will be the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Defense and Security; chairperson of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and Welfare; secretary of Health; administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office; chairman of the Philippine Veterans Bank; president of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines; and three appointive members who are distinguished veterans in their professions.

The bill provides the members shall have the power to set rules and regulations that shall govern the administration and operation of the hospital as well as enter into agreements deemed desirable for the purpose of promoting its

purposes and objectives.

Given the intent of Arroyo’s bill, Arroyo said the measure’s eventual enactment will protect any sale or disposition of the assets of VMMC as Section 16 of HB 1240 provides the core zone of the VMMC “shall not be sold, transferred, ceded, conveyed, assigned and encumbered.”

“The preservation of the value of the assets of the hospital shall be of primordial consideration,” she said.

The 55-hectare property was earlier reported to have been the focus of a development plan by the Ayala group eyeing it as a possible location of the North Integrated Transport System terminal.

The DND was also reported to be studying the sale or lease of its golf course.

But Arroyo said all existing assets of the VMMC must be under the control and supervision of the hospital with the issuance of all the corresponding certificates of landholding in its favor.

LAST-MINUTE CHASE. Hundreds of buyers line up Saturday to buy the affordable ham in Quiapo, Manila for their Noche Buena celebration just hours away and as a gift for friends and close relations. Lino Santos

P1.34-B AWARDS DISTRIBUTED TO 19,843 WORKERS

By Vito Barcelo MORE than P1.34 billion in monetary awards were distributed to 19,843 workers nationwide under the government’s labor dispute settlement scheme in 2016, the Department of Labor and Employment said.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said as of Nov. 30, 2016, the National Conciliation and Mediation Board settled 5,872 cases through the Labor Dispute Resolution mechanisms that affected more than 19,000 labor workers who later received money to settle their labor row with their employers.

“Alternative dispute resolution is an effective way to provide labor justice in a speedy and impartial approach in resolving labor disputes,” Bello said.

Bello said the settled cases covered 147 notices of strikes/lockouts; 361 in preventive mediation cases; 298 in voluntary arbitration; and 5,054 in Single Entry Approach.

NCMB Executive Director Shirley Pascual reported that among all settled cases, the highest monetary award resulted from the resolution of 298 out of the 550 cases handled through Voluntary Arbitration which amounted to P829.7 million benefitting 302 workers.

A total 147 notice of strikes/lockouts were settled from the 205 cases handled which resulted to P229.9 million monetary awards to 3,236 workers.

Of the 5,615 request for assistance handled through the SeNA, 4,091 were settled resulting to P158 million in monetary awards to 4,566 workers.

HOUSE OKS TAX INCENTIVES AND DEDUCTIONS THE House of Representatives’ committee on ways and means has approved the tax provisions of a bill seeking to give tax incentives, in the form of tax exemptions and tax deductions, to individuals and corporations giving donations, contributions, gifts and grants to Filipino Olympic medalists.

The committee, in a hearing presided by its vice chairman Rep. Joey Salceda (2nd District, Albay), approved the tax provisions contained in House Bill (HB) 4054 authored

by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, and Rep. Jericho Nograles (Party-list, PBA), among others.

The committee on youth and sports development chaired by Rep. Conrado Estrella III (Party-list, Abono) earlier approved HB 4054 and endorsed it to

the committee on ways and means for the approval of the bill’s tax provisions, namely Sections 5, 6 and 7.

HB 4054 provides that any donation, contribution, gift and grant of real or personal property to any Filipino athlete, who has won for the Philippines a bronze, silver or gold medal in the Summer Olympic Games, shall constitute an allowable deduction from the income of the donor for income tax purposes and shall be exempt from donor’s tax in accordance with the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), as amended.

The value of each donor’s donations, contributions, gifts, or grants eligible for the tax exemption and deduction shall only be up to an amount not exceeding P1 million for one taxable year. The value of the donation in excess of P1 million shall be

subject to donor’s tax and shall no longer be allowed as tax deduction.

The approved Section 5 of HB 4054, titled “Coverage”, provides that only donations, contributions, gifts and grants made within one year made from the date the Olympic medal was won shall be made eligible for the tax incentives. The grant of tax exemption and deduction shall not be available for donations, contributions, gifts and grants to medalists in demonstration and exhibition sports events in the Summer Olympic Games.

The approved Section 6, entitled “Government Incentives”, provides that any award, incentive or grant given by the government, its corporations, institutions, instrumentalities and agencies, to Olympic medalists for winning an Olympic medal shall be exempt from taxes. PNA

CLOSURE SCENARIO. Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines officials and Manila International Airport Authority officers call on airline stakeholders Friday for a coordination meeting in anticipation of Typhoon Nina’s expected landfall on Christmas Day, laying down preparations and urging airlines to anticipate a runway closure scenario if the typhoon winds hit 50 knots an hour. Eric Apolonio

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

SOLON: HIGH, INCLUSIVE GROWTH AGENDA ON TRACK

A NEOPHYTE lawmaker on Saturday said the Duterte administration’s high-growth agenda that aims to spread the benefits of a continuously robust economy to all sectors across the country was on course with the President’s signing into law of the P3.35-trillion national “budget for real change” for 2017.

Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte, a vice chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, said that Republic Act 10924, the first General Appropriations Act under the Duterte administration, had “the hallmarks of a budget for real change that would help the government transform the economy into a truly inclusive one that could be felt by Filipinos not only in Imperial Manila, but across the country’s regions.

“The 2017 GAA will serve as the catalyst that would finally spread the benefits of high growth outside Imperial Manila and other urban centers, given the huge allocation to local government units of close to P500 billion in Internal Revenue Allotment for next year and additional funding for local infrastructure under the Local Government Support Fund, which is close to P24.6 billion,” said Villafuerte, convenor of the House bloc of first-term legislators.

Next year’s GAA allocation of P486.9 billion for IRA, which corresponds to the 40 percent share of LGUs in national internal revenue taxes, Villafuerte said, represented a 13.6 percent increase in the previous fiscal year’s IRA share of P428.62 billion.

Villafuerte noted the IRA’s increase was even much higher than the growth of the 2017 GAA of 11.6 percent.

“The significant hike in the budget for LGUs best illustrates the Duterte administration’s commitment to its 10-point socioeconomic agenda of spreading growth and creating quality, decent-paying jobs for our countrymen living outside Metro Manila,” Villafuerte said.

He added: “The 2017 GAA that President Duterte is set on delivering on his electoral mandate to bring about real change by pursuing high—and inclusive —growth and restoring peace and order.”

Villafuerte noted that to further stimulate the economy and create jobs, President Duterte kept true to his promise of investing heavily in infrastructure, with an allocation of P860.6 billion for the construction of school buildings, road networks, flood control systems, seaports, power supply systems, hospitals, markets, and other public infrastructure. Maricel V. Cruz

6,000 MMDA TRAFFIC ENFORCERS GET P40K INSURANCE

By Joel E. Zurbano ABOUT 6,000 field personnel, including the traffic enforcers, of the Metro Manila Development Authority, will be given P40,000 insurance beginning next year in case of accident while in the line of duty.

MMDA acting chairman Thomas Orbos made this announcement after a private citizen donated the accident insurance to help the agency’s personnel assigned in the field such as traffic enforcers, street sweepers, sidewalk clearing operations and those in the Pasig River Ferry System service.

Orbos, however, refused to identify the generous private individual who, he said, wanted to be anonymous.

“Effective Jan. 1 (2017), our field personnel will be having accident insurance. This person knows the risk of our men and the hazard of working in the field, especially those manning the traffic so he voluntarily helped us but he doesn’t want to be publicized,” said Orbos.

Orbos said his agency is now preparing legal papers and other pertinent documents to be signed by MMDA officials and the private individual.

“We will be having a memorandum for this and we are preparing it,” he added.

Orbos said the MMDA has 8,000 employees and 6,000 of them are working in the field all over the National Capital Region.

Aside from the private individual, a private company also donated 100 units of mobile communication radios to be used by their personnel managing traffic in the metropolis.

Each radio, according to Orbos, costs P10,000.

“There are some who also donated rain coats, jackets and helmets. This goes to show that the private sector are helping us because they know that we are illequipped,” the MMDA chief said.

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

Adelle Chua, Editor mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Opinion

EDITORIAL

POP GOES THE WORLD JENNY ORTUOSTE

YOUR UNWANTED BOOK COULD BECOME ANOTHER’S LIFE-LONG INSPIRATION MY PIECE last Sunday was about the charming Icelandic tradition of giving each other books on Christmas Eve and then spending the night reading, and how we would do well to adopt this custom.

In line with this thought is today’s topic—books we began reading but haven’t finished for one reason or another.

I started David Foster Williams’ telephonedirectory-thick Infinite Jest, but my mistake was reading a physical book. I read in bed, so after that 1,079 page tome fell on my face one night, I gave up. It hurt my nose, and the denseness of DFW’s prose and the endless footnotes hurt my brain.

I did better with Murakami’s voluminous IQ84—I learned my lesson and read that as an e-book.

I’ve also begun and halted the Russian writers—Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy— midstream; too depressing, with the snow, cold, guilt, coarse black bread, and cruel winters.

But one man’s junk is another man’s collectible item, so if there are books in your shelf that you don’t intend to read, why not pass them along as part of your holiday booksgiving?

Here are some books that might be ‘tl:dr’ (too long, didn’t read) or unwieldy for some, but could bring inspiration or an epiphany to others: • Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: Rand’s philosophy of objectivism explained in a fictional framework over a great many pages. It’s her longest work, and is what made capitalism, reason, and individualism dirty words. Read to uncover the mindset that brought about the present Western model of society. Pro tip: Try the Cliff ’s Notes version.

• Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love: Gilbert’s a good writer, but this is an entitled, privileged account of how she deals with relationship problems. Travel to Italy and India and wherever to soothe a broken heart? It’s nice to be rich! ‘Kaw na, bes. Pro tip: Don’t give it a critical read, and you’ll find it enjoyable as a travelogue and memoir—and as an illustration of individualism at work.

• Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See: I flipped through a few pages and it didn’t draw me in. It was a bestseller this year, and might be of interest to those who like stories set in wartime. Pro tip: Treat it as an ‘alternative universe’ historical.

• David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas: This is six nested stories, half of it told in a certain order, and the rest told in reverse order. The prose is dense, thick, and full of European cultural and historical references. I lost my way sometime into the third story. Pro tip: Study it for its form and structure. Some readers say it moves faster in the second half.

• Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo: I know a lot of us still don’t know what the heck happened in those two novels even if we spent a year studying each. For some, the heavy Filipino translations used in schools could have been mentally cumbersome. Pro tip: Read the English translations by Leon Ma. Guerrero or Harold Augenbraum (Penguin Classics). The food scenes are rendered so realistically, you’ll get hungry while reading. “Ang biya para sa escabeche!”

• Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time: The eminent physicist’s attempt at bringing the wonders of the universe to the layman’s mind. It’s about, uh, science.

And, er, science pa more. Pro tip: Read it slowly. No need to rush. The universe has been there for billions of years, after all, and will continue to exist whether or not we understand how it works.

• James Joyce’s Ulysses: One of those books you’d like to be able to say you’ve read because of the street cred you’ll get among bibliophiles. But if you don’t want to wade through a storm surge of alliterative made-up words, don’t bother. Pro tip: Skim through a few chapters to get a feel of the Turn to B2

REDEEMING VALUES

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HESE days it is difficult to be inspired by what is happening around us.

At the home front, there remain challenges to governance that we thought would be gone by now. The change that we envisioned seems to be slow in coming. Whatever change is happening—and we certainly did not imagine these drastic ones— seems to challenge our long-held beliefs that human life is sacred and that everybody, rich or poor, is entitled to sufficient process before judgment.

Those who govern and those who are governed are also wracked by a continuing fascination with scandal.

It is one that has prevented us from seeing what the real issues are. It has kept us from following these issues to their logical end, once their entertainment value wanes.

And then, we fall trap to the convenience of binary thinking. One is either a loyal, unquestioning supporter or a virulent critic. There appears to be no middle ground, no room for criticism of the constructive kind, and no opportunity to collaborate on issues we agree on while enjoying the freedom to protest when needed.

Looking out into the world does not bring much comfort, either. Everywhere there is a trail of hatred and violence, one that threatens to be at our doorstep at the slightest provocation. Christmas markets, where ordinary citizens can experience the simple joys of the holidays, are attacked. Killings are carried out with impunity, even in highly public events. In other countries, displacement is the main theme, and the word “normal” does not carry the same reassuring meaning it does for the rest of us.

Elsewhere, governments and global organizations are in a deadlock,

arguing over events and questioning each other’s ascendancy.

Finally, the threat of accelerated global warming looms, bringing with it the specter of more frequent and more erratic weather patterns that threaten to wipe out households and entire communities.

Despite all these, why still wish each other a Merry Christmas?

To be sure, being merry may be a tad too extravagant these days. It might be enough that we acknowledge what we already have and are thankful that we are not in any worse place. For example, whatever we can say about our current events, there is no denying all this is a consequence of a functioning, albeit imperfect, democracy—something we must guard with zeal.

We continue to be happy today because we are hopeful of better times ahead. Filipinos after all are famous for seeing the good, even the hilarious, in the worst situations. This is not a ridiculous penchant to find perverse happiness, per se. It is rather the rare ability to believe better times are ahead and that they are worth waiting it out for.

In the meantime, we go back to the spirit of solidarity that has held this nation together, in varying degrees of success, over the years. Troubled or stable, weak or strong, Filipinos have a common aspiration that stems from the shared experience over decades—nay, centuries.

It is difficult to hope, yes but not impossible. Without a contemplation of the good that may come tomorrow as a result of what we do today, and without the acknowledgment that we are essentially the same despite our variances, there would be no meaning in existing from day to day.

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THE GIFT OF TAKING CONTROL LONG STORY SHORT ADELLE CHUA

YESTERDAY morning, Christmas Eve, I sent a Word attachment in the group chat I share with my kids, ages 22, 21, 16 and 14. It is a template of some sort of planning exercise, a step-by-step guide to charting one’s path in the new year and beyond.

“Good morning, children. [This is something] I hope you will consider as we all look forward to the next year. I hope this

will help you clearly define what you want and what direction you want to take. It’s ok if you find this corny or refuse to even read the file. You will realize its value in about 20 years.”

True enough, I got no overwhelming response to what I sent. I imagine there must have been snickers and shaking of heads.

As I said, however, that is fine with me—

although I still believe we must impart to our children the notion that we should seize control of our lives at the earliest instance.

What I sent is more than the usual list for New Year’s resolutions—which everybody seems keen on doing until he or she slides back to the usual habits. Here, there is no danger of that, because the plan is thorough Turn to B2

We live the life we think we deserve.

Rolando G. Estabillo Publisher can be accessed at: thestandard.com.ph

Benjamin Philip G. Romualdez Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno

Philippine Press Institute The National Association of Philippine Newspapers

Anita F. Grefal Baldwin R. Felipe Edgar M. Valmorida

ManilaStandard

Published Monday to Sunday by Philippine Manila Standard Publishing Inc. at 6/F Universal Re Building, 106 Paseo de Roxas, corner Perea St., Legaspi Village, Makati City. Telephone numbers 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558 (connecting all departments), (Editorial) 832-5554, (Advertising) 832-5550. P.O. Box 2933, Manila Central Post Office, Manila. Website: www.thestandard. com.ph; e-mail: contact@thestandard.com.ph

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Chairman Board Member & Chief Legal Adviser Treasury Manager OIC-Ad Solutions Circulation Manager

Ramonchito L. Tomeldan Chin Wong/Ray S. Eñano Francis Lagniton Joyce Pangco Pañares

Managing Editor Associate Editors News Editor City Editor

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Adelle Chua Honor Blanco Cabie Romel J. Mendez Roberto Cabrera

Chairman Emeritus, Editorial Board

Opinion Editor Night Editor Art Director Chief Photographer

Opinion

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

YOUR...

NEWTON IS WITH THE FORCE, THE FORCE IS WITH NEWTON

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language, then Google the synopsis.

• Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude: Magic realism is hard to wrap your head around. And the latinisms are unfamiliar to most. Reading this book is like diving into a Jello shot swimming pool: it’s dense, thick, and difficult to get through.

Pro tip: A Jello shot might be hard to swallow at first, but then it goes down sweet and makes you tipsy, just like this book makes you intoxicated with its lush, heady, tropical language.

• JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Why read the book when you’ve already watched the movie trilogy? And the archaic, pseudomythical language is hard to follow. Pro tip: Start with The Hobbit—it’s written in an easier-to-follow style, like for young adults.

Then enter LOTR and savor it; it’s another world, another time. Worth it!

• JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy: Released not long after the last Harry Potter book, a lot of readers dissed this one because it was not Harry Potter. It was Rowling’s first attempt to write about the real world. I found its start rather confusing, and put it down when the imagery became littered with cigarette butts, waste paper in dank puddles, and characters mouthing the F word. Not that I have any objection to those, but let’s just say JKR didn’t handle this material as deftly as she did her subsequent Cormoran Strike detective novels. Pro tip: You’re on your own with this one, man.

So for last-minute gifts, look through your shelves for books you’re minded to toss— or, dust them off, give them another skim, and just maybe, you’ll sit with them this Christmas and give them another chance to entertain and inform you.

A very happy Christmas to you and your families, and may the next year be good for us all!

Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer.

Follow her on Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @ jensdecember

By Pecier Decierdo

BY THE reckoning of the calendar used in Britain at the time, Isaac Newton, one of the most influential scientists of all time, was born on Christmas Day of 1642. Using the calendar we use today, Newton was actually born on Jan. 4, 1643. At any rate, now seems as good a time as any to celebrate, along with the holidays, one of the greatest minds in history.

In a letter to his then friend (but later enemy) Robert Hook, Newton wrote, “If I can see further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

We in the modern world see further because we stand on the shoulders of many giants; Newton is certainly one of the biggest of those giants.

Newton practically invented (or discovered) the mathematical field we now call calculus. But while most mathematicians at the time, including Gottfried Wilhelm Lebniz who independently discovered calculus, were more focused on using it to solve abstract mathematical puzzles, Newton was quick to find its use to describe the world around us.

Newton used calculus to formulate laws describing the way objects move. We use these laws of motion, which bear Newton’s name,

adellechua@gmail.com

rest or to keep on moving the way it already does is called inertia. For this reason, the First Law is also called the Law of Inertia.

The Second Law of Motion relates the following things: mass, acceleration, and resultant force.

Mass (m) is a measure of how much stuff is in the object. Acceleration (a) is a measure of how fast it is changing its motion. Force (F) is a measure of the push or pull that’s accelerating the object.

Written as an equation, the Second Law is F = ma.

Using this equation, we see that more force leads to more acceleration.

We also find that things with more mass are harder to move around.

In the equation above, (F) is not just a single force. Instead, it is the sum of all the forces acting on the object. If all forces balance each other out, then (F) is zero, which means acceleration is also zero and the object does not change the way it is moving. If there were an imbalance in the force, then (F) is not zero. In turn, (a) will have some value. The object in question will accelerate.

There are forces all around us, but they rarely move us because they usually balance each other out.

Meanwhile, the Third Law tells

us that when A exerts a force on B, then B will exert a force on A that is just a strong, except that it’s going in the opposite direction. The first force is the action, the second is the reaction. The Third Law is also called the Law of Action and Reaction.

Newton combined these three laws with his other great law, a law that describes one particular force.

That force is gravity. By thinking about the moon and falling apples, Newton figured that the force that makes apples fall to the ground is the same force that makes the moon go around the Earth. That’s a crazy suggestion, but Newton tried that out and he got a crazy answer—yes.

In fact, that very force that makes apples fall and anchors you to the ground, holds the Solar System together and dictates the dance of the planets around the Sun. It is the tune to which binary stars dance around each other. It is the music of the spheres. It is universal, holding true even in galaxies far, far away.

So this holiday season and for the next year, be one with the force. Let that force be science.

Pecier Decierdo is resident physicist and astronomer of The Mind Museum.

ISLANDS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

THE...

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and deliberate.

First, one must list the major categories or areas in one’s life. Common headings are family, career, relationships, finances, domestics, health, intellectual growth, etc.

Next, list accomplishments and failures in the current year. This forces a person to look and look hard at the good and bad things that happened this year—and, more than that, the key factors that played a role in the successes and the lessons that may be learned from the failures.

The task includes a visioning exercise— at this time, next year, how does one see oneself? At the end of three? At the end of five? The more specific the visual image, the better. How do I look, what am I wearing, where am I and where am I going? Am I busy, relaxed, optimistic, resigned to my fate? What is the nature of the smile on my face?

The core values come next. These are the non-negotiables that will define what one can and cannot compromise in pursuit of one’s objectives. Next, one is asked to look inward—identify strengths and weaknesses—and outward—opportunities and threats—in relation to the life categories earlier listed.

With all these laid out, one can now proceed to setting objectives for the coming year—and, more importantly, listing specific action points that would help achieve these objectives per category. If possible, the objectives should be measurable, and the action plans time bound. The three- and five-year goals however may be a bit less specific, and for so long as one has a general idea where he or she wants to be, and how the shorter-term objectives are aligned with these one should do just fine.

I have been doing this exercise for at least 12 years and so far it has done me wonders, enabling me to track where, and how much, I have progressed, and where I still need to do some more work.

In fact, during this break, I unearthed printouts of my old plans and I was quite amazed that, for the most part, I am now exactly where I just dreamed I would be. It’s gratifying as it is exciting. Just imagine—in three, five, even ten years, who will I have become? What blissful outcomes and surprises might there be?

One cannot, of course, plan everything.

There are many things outside of our control, and we may not even be able to imagine what they could be right now. For the most part, however, the quality of our life is a summation of the big and small choices we make every day. We are responsible for our actions, and if our life is not as ideal as we would like it to be, we cannot blame anybody else and say we had no choice.

Because we always, always do.

At the same time, planning improves our resilience to life’s blows. We may not be able to say when they would strike, and in what form, but we can always plan our disposition when they do. It does not guarantee we will cope better, but it increases the likelihood that we will come off our crises, not unscathed but stronger and with a clearer purpose.

At the risk of sounding like a prophet, I say this again—any plan is better than no plan. Life is too short. Time is too precious to spend staring into nothing figuring out what to do next. Perhaps the greatest disservice there is to our being human is to allow ourselves to be tossed into any and all directions. We have to claim responsibility and seize control of our destiny.

We live the life that we think we deserve: This is the best shoutout we can make to the Universe.

Merry Christmas, dear readers.

to this very day. The world over, engineers build things from bridges to airplanes all on the confidence that Newton’s laws will hold. We use these same bridges and ride these airplanes on the same confidence.

The infrastructure of the modern built environment is a testament to power of Newton’s laws of motion.

More appropriately, they are a testament to their force.

The First Law establishes that there are preferred viewpoints from which to make observations. These viewpoints are called “inertial frames of reference” or IFRs. Viewed from IFRs, objects that are not moving will stay still until something pushes or pulls them. A vehicle that is speeding up, slowing down, or rounding a curve is not an IFR because things inside the vehicle can look like they are moving even when nothing is pushing or pulling them.

When viewed from IFRs, objects that move also tend to keep on moving in the same way (same speed, same direction). Objects just don’t change course or speed up without being pushed or pulled. Although not an exact IFR, the Earth is a good enough example for the purposes of building almost all bridges and airplanes.

An object’s tendency to stay at

By Dune Lawrence and Wenxin Fan ON A map of the world, the South China Sea appears as a scrap of blue amid the tangle of islands and peninsulas that make up Southeast Asia between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Its 1.4 million-square-mile expanse, so modest next to its aquatic neighbors, is nonetheless economically vital to the countries that border it and to the rest of us: More than $5 trillion in goods are shipped through it every year, and its waters produce roughly 12 percent of the world’s fish catch.

Zoom in, and irregular specks skitter between the Philippines and Vietnam.

These are the Spratly Islands, a series of reefs and shoals that hardly deserved the name “islands” until recently. In the past three years, China, more than 500 miles from the closest of the Spratly reefs, has transformed seven of them into artificial land masses; as it reshaped coral and water into runways, hangars sized for military jets, lighthouses, running tracks, and basketball courts, its claim to sovereignty over the watery domain has hardened into an unsubtle threat of armed force.

Mobile signal towers on the newly cemented islands now beam the message, in Chinese and English, “Welcome to China” to cellphones on any ships passing within reach. But its latest moves, in the long-running dispute with its neighbors over the sea, the fish in it, and the oil beneath it, are anything but welcoming: China appears to have deployed weapons systems on all seven islands, and last week seized a US Navy underwater drone.

In the runup to all this, as most international observers watched the islands bloom in time-lapse on satellite photos, John McManus arrived with a film crew in February 2016, to document a less visible crisis under the water. To McManus, a professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami, the Spratlys aren’t just tiny chips out of a blue background on Google Maps; from dives there in the early 1990s, he remembers seeing schools of hammerhead sharks so dense they eclipsed the light. This time, he swam through miles of deserted dead coral—of the few fish he saw, the largest barely reached 4 inches.

“I’ve never seen a reef where you could swim for a kilometer without seeing a single fish,” he says.

When we met in early November, McManus had just moved offices at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, on Virginia Key next to the Miami “Seaquarium.”

McManus rummaged through a box to find an extension cord before opening a laptop to pull up slides.

The first signs of what was to come appeared in late 2012. Satellite photos of reefs in the Spratlys showed mysterious arcs, like puffs of cartoon smoke, obscuring the darker areas of coral and rock. A colleague forwarded them to McManus, wondering if the

shapes might be signs of muro-ami fishing, where fishermen pound large rocks into a reef, tearing up the coral to scare their prey out of hiding and up into a net above. Another theory, floated first in an article on the Asia Pacific Defense Forum, a military affairs website, explained the arcs as scars left by fishermen harvesting giant clams.

Giant clams are an important species in the rich reef systems of the IndoPacific waters; they anchor seaweed and sponges, shelter young fish, and help accumulate the calcium deposits that grow reefs over time. Underwater, the elegantly undulating shells part to reveal a mantle of flesh in rainbow hues: blue, turquoise, yellow, and orange— mottled and spotted with yet more colors. The largest can reach almost 5 feet across and weigh more than 600 pounds. Long hunted for their meat, they’re also prized in the aquarium market, though they’re protected by international law.

McManus found both theories implausible, particularly the giant clam one; the only method he’d ever heard of for fishing the hefty bivalves involved wrestling them by hand into the boat.

As McManus pondered this mystery, tensions in the South China Sea were flaring, with the Chinese fishermen of Tanmen as the tinder. Tanmen is a pinhead of a place on the coast of Hainan Island, China’s equivalent of Hawaii. Temperatures rarely drop below 60F, and blue skies contrast with the smoggy haze over much of the mainland.

Although China listed giant clams as a protected species, Tanmen fishermen found a loophole, going after the large shells of long dead clams, buried within reefs. By 2012, the shells from giant clams, dead or alive, had become the

most valuable harvest for the vessels sailing from Tanmen into the South China Sea. Boats regularly came home with 200-ton hauls, which could sell for 2,000 yuan ($290) a ton—big money in a place where the annual income for a fisherman was 6,000 yuan.

In April 2012 a Philippine navy ship encountered 12 Chinese boats fishing around Scarborough Shoal, a 58-squaremile ring of barely submerged reefs encompassing a lagoon with just one narrow entrance. Shells from the shoal fetched a premium for their purplish color, some as much as 30,000 yuan apiece. Both countries—and Taiwan— claim Scarborough, which sits more than 140 miles off the coast of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines, and roughly three and a half times that distance from Tanmen. Filipino soldiers boarded the boats and found them loaded with hundreds of clamshells.

Within hours, Chinese government ships arrived to face off with the Filipinos, who eventually withdrew.

China has remained in control of Scarborough ever since. The Chinese fishermen returned to Tanmen to be feted by state media as patriots and photographed grinning in front of heaps of creamy-gray shells.

The Philippines and China are both signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; the Philippines initiated proceedings against China for violations of the law in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in January 2013.

That spring, Tanmen received the ultimate honor: a visit from China’s newly minted president, Xi Jinping.

He shook hands with men wearing traditional basket hats, urging them to build bigger boats to catch more fish in support of China’s sovereignty over the

South China Sea and pledging financial support. He made good on his word: Government funds went to adding new 500-ton boats to the local fishing fleet and subsidized voyages.

Xi made no mention of giant clams, but the local shell industry became the biggest, and most obvious, beneficiary of the government’s largesse: The number of clam-processing factories ballooned to more than 100. There were Buddhas reclining among clouds; the many-armed Guanyin, goddess of mercy; intricate landscapes of mountains and trees; there were even, ironically, clamshells shaped to look like ivory tusks.

China refused to participate in the process in The Hague, leaving the tribunal to piece together possible motivations for its apparent support of the clam harvesting. In public statements and a report in 2015, China claimed the island-building wasn’t damaging to the environment and took place in areas of coral that were already dead. The tribunal came to a more sinister conclusion, based on the evidence, that China was fully aware of and even tolerated and protected the practice, creating the conditions necessary to claim that the construction of Chinese bases itself wasn’t harming the reefs.

The local government of Tanmen held public meetings about the damage from clam fishing as early as July 2013, and more than a year before the ruling it imposed a ban on harvest and sale; the ban put some factories out of business as supply shrank. Locals like Li Xuanru, a shop owner who’s still operating, undercut the tribunal’s theory. “Xi would be furious had we told him the bigger boats were out for giant clams,” he says. Bloomberg

World

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

BRITISH PM URGES POST-BREXIT VOTE UNITY IN 2017 LONDON—British Prime Minister Theresa May urged the country to come together in 2017 after a year of bitter divisions exposed by the Brexit referendum, in her first Christmas message released Saturday.

She said Britain needed to unite and seize the opportunity to forge a new role in the world as it leaves the European Union.

In the June referendum, 52 percent voted for Britain to leave the EU and wrangling over the issue dominated the rest of the year.

May says she wants to begin the formal process of withdrawing from the EU, which can take up to two years, by the end of March.

As families gathered for Christmas, May said “coming together is also important for us as a country.”

“As we leave the European Union we must seize an historic opportunity to forge a bold new role for ourselves in the world and to unite our country as we move forward into the future.”

May said on Tuesday that she was planning to negotiate both Brexit and Britain’s future relationship with the EU by 2019 but a transition period may be required after that.

Britain’s Supreme Court is set to rule in January on whether parliament’s approval is required for May to trigger the exit process. AFP

GERMANY HUNTS BERLIN ATTACKER ACCOMPLICES BERLIN—Germany was hunting for possible accomplices of the suspected Berlin truck attacker on Saturday, a day after he was killed in a shoot-out with Italian police in Milan.

As most of the country was preparing to celebrate Christmas Eve, Germany’s under-pressure authorities said hundreds of investigators would be working on the probe throughout the holiday season.

Tunisian Anis Amri, 24, is believed to have hijacked a truck and used it to mow down holiday revellers at a Berlin Christmas market on Monday, killing 12 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The rejected asylum seeker was the focus of a frantic four-day manhunt after the rampage, but his time on the run was cut short by Italian police.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday thanked Italy and expressed relief that the fugitive no longer posed a threat, but warned that “the danger of terrorism in general endures.”

She pledged a “comprehensive” analysis of how the known jihadist was able to slip through the net in the first place.

“The Amri case raises questions,” she said. “We will now intensively examine to what extent official procedures need to be changed.”

Amri was shot dead after pulling out a pistol and firing at two officers who had stopped him for a routine identity check in the early hours of Friday near Milan’s Sesto San Giovanni railway station. AFP

CHRISTMAS IS FOR ANIMALS, TOO. A picture taken on December 23 shows a Sumatran tiger trying to open a wrapped package filled with food as a Christmas gift at the zoo of La Fleche, western France. AFP

SCANS UNVEIL SECRETS OF OLDEST MUMMIES

S

antiago, Chile— The world’s oldest mummies have just had an unusual check-up.

More than 7,000 years after they were embalmed by the Chinchorro people, an ancient civilization in modern-day Chile and Peru, 15 mummies were taken to a Santiago clinic last week to undergo DNA analysis and computerized tomography scans.

The Chinchorro were a hunting and fishing people who lived from

10,000 to 3,400 BC on the Pacific coast of South America, at the edge of the Atacama desert.

They were among the first people in the world to mummify their dead. Their mummies date back some 7,400 years – at least 2,000 years older than Egypt’s.

Now, researchers are hoping to use modern medical technology to reconstruct what they looked like in life, decode their genes and better understand the mysteries of this ancient civilization.

The 15 Chinchorro mummies, mostly children and unborn babies, were put through a CT scanner at the Los Condes clinic in the Chilean

capital.

“We collected thousands of images with a precision of less than one millimeter,” said chief radiologist Marcelo Galvez.

“The next phase is to try to dissect these bodies virtually, without touching them, which will help us preserve them for another 500,000 years.”

Using high-tech computer processing, researchers are busy reconstructing the mummies’ muscles and facial features.

“We want to see what they physically looked like, to reconstruct them and bring to life someone who died thousands of years ago,”

UN DEMANDS END TO ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS AFTER US ABSTAINS

PINOCHET AGENTS APOLOGIZE FOR CHILE CRIMES SANTIAGO, Chile—Nine former agents of late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime asked forgiveness for their crimes Friday – a first for Chile – but victims’ families rejected the gesture as a ploy.

The apology came in the form of a private religious ceremony at the Punta Peuco prison, where some 100 former regime agents are serving sentences for the kidnappings, killings and torture perpetrated during Pinochet’s rule from 1973 to 1990.

The nine convicts included Raul Iturriaga, a high-ranking official in Pinochet’s political police.

“God is doing something extraordinary in this country. This would not have been possible until recently,” Anglican priest Pablo Alvarez told journalists after the ceremony, which was closed to the press.

But dozens of victims’ family members protested outside the prison, rejecting the ceremony as a hollow bid to obtain a pardon or early release.

“We have the right and the moral duty to be here to prevent this media show,” said Alicia Lira, head of a rights group for victims’ families. AFP

said Galvez.

Researchers are also hoping to learn more about how the Chinchorro mummified their dead.

The Chinchorro, who apparently had a complex understanding of human anatomy, would carefully remove the skin and muscles of the deceased.

Using wood, plants and clay, they reconstructed the body around the remaining skeleton, then sewed the original skin back on, adding a mouth, eyes and hair. A mask was then placed over the face. The result looks like something in between a statue and a person – eerily lifelike even after thousands of years. AFP

TERROR ALERT. Members of the Indonesian bomb squad conduct a final search at the Jakarta Cathedral on December 24. Indonesian authorities said they plan to deploy some 155,000 personnel to secure the country during Christmas and New Year holidays. AFP

UNITED Nations—The UN Security Council on Friday demanded that Israel halt settlements in Palestinian territory, after the United States refrained from vetoing a resolution condemning its closest Middle East ally.

In a rare and momentous step, the United States instead abstained, enabling the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy.

Applause broke out in the chamber after the text was passed with support from all remaining members of the 15-member council.

The landmark move by the Security Council came despite an effort led by Israel and backed by US President-elect Donald Trump to block the text.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately rejected the UN resolution and slammed the outgoing administration of President Barack Obama for refusing to veto it.

“Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.

“The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes,” it said.

“Israel looks forward to working with Presidentelect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution.”

Trump reacted after the vote by promising change at the world body after he takes office next month.

“As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20th,” he tweeted. AFP

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com Joyce Pangco-Pañares, Issue Editor

World

‘EBOLA VACCINE HIGHLY PROTECTIVE IN TRIAL’ U

nited Nations—The World Health Organization has published the results of a major trial of an experimental Ebola vaccine in Guinea, one of the three West African countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak, showing this vaccine to be highly protective against the deadly virus, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“It is the first vaccine to prevent infection from one of the most lethal known pathogens, and the findings add weight to early trial results published last year,” Dujarric said.

“The vaccine is the first to prevent infection from one of the most lethal known pathogens, and the findings add weight to early trial results published last year,” WHO said in a news release, noting the results of the latest trial published in the medical journal The Lancet.

According to WHO, the vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV was studied in a trial involving 11,841 people in Guinea during 2015.

Among the 5,837 people who received the vaccine, no Ebola cases were recorded 10 days or more after vaccination.

In comparison, there were 23 cases 10 days or more after vaccination among those who did not receive the vaccine.

The Ebola virus was first identified in 1976 and caused sporadic outbreaks in Africa. However, the 2013-2016 outbreak in west Africa that killed more than 11,300 people underlined the urgent need of a vaccine.

Guinea was the only one of the three worst affected countries that had not had a reemergence of the virus after the outbreak was officially declared over in December 2015. PNA/ Xinhua

14 DEAD IN ‘HORRIFIC’ MALAYSIAN BUS CRASH KUALA LUMPUR—An interstate bus in Malaysia carrying passengers from Singapore and Myanmar careered off a highway early Saturday, killing 14 people and injuring 16 others, officials said.

The bus, heading from southern Johor state to the capital Kuala Lumpur, went off the road in the wet before rolling over and ending up in a deep ditch, said Mohammad Yusof Mohammad Gunnos, deputy director of the fire and rescue department.

The incident happened in the early hours in Johor state. Details of those killed were not immediately known, he said, adding that the injured were being treated in the Muar district public hospital.

“This pre-Christmas tragedy is so far the most horrific accident in Johor state for 2016,” he told AFP. Deadly road accidents are common in Malaysia despite efforts to crack down on poor driving, especially during festive seasons when people return to their home towns. AFP

CHINA FINES GM UNIT $29M FOR ‘PRICE-FIXING’ BEIJING—Beijing has fined the Chinese unit of General Motors nearly $29 million for “infringing on the rights of consumers and its competitors” via price-fixing, Shanghai authorities said.

SAIC-GM – a joint venture between the American company and the state-owned SAIC Motor Corporation, China’s biggest automaker by production volume – has been ordered to cough up 201 million yuan ($28.9 million), approximately four percent of its mainland sales last year, Shanghai’s top development and economic reform body said.

“The fine is fair. We just aim to improve market order,” the stateowned China Daily newspaper cited Xu Xinyu, the official in charge of the GM investigation, as saying.

“SAIC-GM will respect the views of the National Development and Reform Commission,” a spokesperson from the company said, according to Chinese website Today’s Economic News. AFP JOY TO THE WORLD. A Palestinian man wears a Santa Claus costume as he walks atop Jerusalem’s Old City walls as Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the holy day. AFP

BABY ORANGUTANS RESCUED IN THAI POLICE STING

SCANDAL. Choi Soon-sil, the jailed confidante of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, arrives for questioning into her suspected role in a political scandal at the office of the independent counsel in Seoul on December 24. Park is accused of colluding Choi to coerce large companies like Samsung into handing over tens of millions of dollars to two dubious foundations which Choi allegedly plundered. AFP

BANGKOK—Thai police rescued two baby orangutans in a sting operation after undercover officers arranged to buy the primates over a mobile phone messaging app from wildlife traffickers for nearly $20,000, officials said.

An anonymous tip alerted police to an online advertisement for the endangered animals, who are less than one year old and the size of infants.

Police then posed as interested buyers and contacted the seller over WhatsApp, according to deputy national park director Adisorn Noochdumrong.

“They agreed to buy the two orangutans for 700,000 baht ($19,400) and transferred a 100,000 baht down payment to a bank account that belongs to a Thai man,” he told AFP. The undercover officers arranged to pick up the baby apes outside a Bangkok supermarket on December 21, where the orange-furred creatures were delivered by a city taxi driver.

The driver was arrested but

cleared after authorities determined he was not part of the smuggling gang, according to wildlife police officer Anothorn Srithongbai.

“As far as the real trafficker goes, that’s still under investigation,” he added.

Orangutans are native to Malaysia and Indonesia but they are often illegally smuggled throughout Southeast Asia, either for private zoos or as pets.

Thailand has long served as a transit hub for contraband wildlife products bound for major markets like Vietnam and China.

Counter-trafficking organisation Freeland, which assisted with the orangutan rescue, said the attempted sale was linked to a “major regional criminal syndicate” involved in the lucrative illegal wildlife trade.

Social media has become an integral tool for such gangs to set up sales, said Matthew Pritchett from Freeland. “This case is one link in a much larger chain,” he added. AFP

PANAMA PRESIDENT FREES DUTCH JOURNALIST

PANAMA CITY—Panama’s president has ordered the release of a Dutch journalist who had been jailed on criminal defamation charges, saying that “freedom of expression is fundamental for democracy.”

Okke Ornstein was freed shortly after President Juan Carlos Varela signed a decree cutting his sentence and those of 310 other detainees, and granting conditional release to 65 others, his lawyer told AFP. Ornstein was arrested on arrival in Panama, where he lives, a month ago. He was serving a 20-month sentence for defamation cases lodged in 2011 and 2012 over articles he had written on his blog.

In a statement, the Panamanian government acknowledged that the journalist’s detention was singled out for concern by rights groups and media watchdogs.

Immigration authorities will decide whether Ornstein can remain in the country. AFP

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor / Roderick dela Cruz, Issue Editor business@thestandard.com.ph

ATENEO MEN BUILD SOLAR SARI-SARI STORE A

GROUP of alumni from Ateneo de Manila University banded together to form a company that aims to deliver electricity from the sun to remote communities in the Philippines.

“Solar Solutions Inc. is a social enterprise. We aim to empower communities through renewable energy and one of our products and services is called Solar Sari Sari Store—an energy station that offers basic services to offgrid communities,” says Rey Guerrero, a co-founder of Solar Solutions Inc. Solar Sari Sari Store enables people in distant communities such as secluded mountain villages and remote islands that are not connected to a power grid to recharge their phones or use bright lighting at night.

The solar station is also most useful on the sites of natural disasters, where electricity is cut off.

Guerrero, 31, is now the fulltime operations manager of Solar Solutions, which is based at ISO Building in the Ateneo de Manila University complex, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.

A graduate of Electronics and Communications Engineering from Ateneo, he had worked for a semiconductor company and a solar panel production company in Laguna before deciding to establish Solar Solutions with other Ateneo alumni, coming from various disciplines such as mathematics, engineering, entrepreneurship, information technology, finance and law.

Guerrero now pursues a doctorate degree in microgrid power system, which refers to an energy system consisting of distributed energy sources and loads capable of operating in parallel with, or independently from, the main power grid.

Aside from Guerrero, other people behind Solar Solutions are Raffy Concepcion, an ECE graduate who is in charge of communications and marketing; Ken Abellanosa, the head engineer; Eric Santillan, the leadership consultant; Reese Macabebe who holds a PhD in Physics; Rey Barcelon who

is in charge of finance and administrative operations; Aison Garcia, the general manager and legal officer; Javy Alpasa, a Jesuit priest and social entrepreneur; Vince Rapisura, a microfinance exper t; and Rick Laping, a community development specialist.

“We are alumni of Ateneo.

We have come from different background. We have decided to go full blast with Solar Solutions,” says Guerrero.

“We are basically a system i n t e g r a t o r. W e g e t t h e components such as solar panels, batteries and the lamps, and we design the system appropriate for the needs of the community and the needs of the individual,” he says.

Solar Solutions is one of the three groups that won the sixmonth fellowship program and P800,000 in financial support from Impact Hub Manila, World Wide Fund for Nature, Peace and Equity Foundation and the Asian Development Bank. Other awardees are HiGi Energy Pte. Ltd. and Cleverheat Thermal Technologies Inc. Solar Solutions presented the concept of Solar Sari Sari Store during the competition. “ What we presented is an energy solution. We designed the system such that it could be easily deployed to off-grid communities. It requires less maintenance, because it is very far to reach. We have to make sure that maintenance is easy and affordable,” says Guerrero.

“We are able to do that by partnering with local organizations and NGOs like WWF. They know the people on the ground and they know how the community works. We become their technical partner,” says Guerrero.

In a television interview, Concepcion who is in charge of Solar Sari Sari Store says it is actually a solar station—a 20-foot container, with solar panels on

DIGONG, TRUMPET ROCK THE NEW YEAR

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INVENTOR Francisco ‘Popoy’ Pagayon named two of his newly designed electronic firecrackers after President Rodrigo Duterte and incoming US President Donald Trump.

Pagayon says while his electronic cannon-type firecrackers make boisterous and loud sounds, they are so safe they can be lit up inside the living room.

“I named them differently.

The small cannon-type model is called Boy, the big one is Digong and the group of four is TrumPet,” says Pagayon.

The Boy e-firecracker was n a m e d a f te r S c i e n ce a n d Technology Secretary Fortunato ‘Boy’ dela Pena, who is an active supporter of Filipino inventors, he says.

SOLAR MAN.

Solar Solutions Inc. co-founder Rey Guerrero

top and windows to showcase the products inside such as solar lanterns. “We also have mobile chargers, water purifiers,” says Concepcion.

“We are trying to make it more sustainable, cheaper to produce and we are trying to streamline all the technologies that go into it,” he says.

Guerrero says the station is like a small store that distributes solar products and solutions such as a drinking water system powered by solar energy, solarpowered cellphone chargers, portable solar lamps and 50watt solar power systems.

“I nstead of them using kerosene and candles, they can avail of our solar lamp that is charged through our station and they can rent it for a minimal fee,” he says, referring to customers of Solar Sari Sari Store.

Guerrero says the cash prize from Impact Hub will help the enterprise expand its portfolio of products and services.

“We are trying to scale up, so that more communities can avail of our solutions. We are getting investors... Aside from communities, we also offer commercial installations,” he says.

Guerrero believes in the potential of solar energy as a major source of power.

“Basically, we are transitioning from the conventional and dirty source of energy and solar is one of the renewable energy that is available,” he says.

“We reached grid parity. It means the cost of renewable or solar energy is the same, or even cheaper than what we are getting right now,” he says.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

ABOITIZ TEAM MEMBERS BRING CHRISTMAS JOY TO CHILDREN ABOITIZ team members have recently shared their time and delivered Christmas cheer and goodies to 500 indigent children from Aboitiz host communities in Cebu and Manila as a part of the Aboitiz Group’s annual Christmas outreach.

Over 200 team members from Aboitiz Equit y Ventures, Aboitiz Foundation, AboitizLand, AboitizPower, Pilmico, SN Aboitiz Power, and Weather Philippines Foundation served as big brothers and sisters to children from SOS Children’s Village and Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu and Barangay Central Signal Village in Taguig City on Dec. 3, 2016.

The children experienced a fun halfday party featuring games, mascot and magic shows, and performances from some Aboitiz team members.

The children also received toys placed in boxes as well as Noche Buena packages for their families.

“Seeing the innocent smiles of

TrumPet e-firecrackers

these kids is a blessing that shapes our perspective towards humility and gratitude. We are reminded that more than the amount of any CSR [corporate social responsibility] project, it is the personal time of our team members set aside for spreading goodwill that is of greater value,” said AEV president and chief executive Erramon Aboitiz.

The Aboitiz Christmas outreach has become an annual tradition for Aboitiz team members to give back and bring simple joy to children during Christmas. Led by the Christmas outreach committee, team members initiate fundraising activities such as trivia night, give-a-gift, bingo, love in a shoebox, among others, to prepare for the actual children’s party.

The Aboitiz Foundation is an organization of compassionate service, one that can be counted on to provide assistance to those in need as part of its thrust to promote health and well-being for a better world.

Digong e-firecracker “They are all safe to use inside houses for the New Year’s Eve celebration. With cannon-type electric firecrackers, celebrants will avoid triggering fires and injuries while producing the same explosive, startling sounds,” he says.

Pagayon, the president and chief executive of Filipino Inventors Society Producers Cooperative, says the innovative product is ideal during the New Year ’s Eve celebration, as President Rodrigo Duterte discourages the use of traditional pyrotechnics which result in people losing their limbs.

A ban on pyrotechnics has been enforced in Davao City since 2002.

Pagayon says e-firecrackers also do not emit toxic smoke and harmful chemicals into the atmosphere.

The cannon-type e-firecrackers provide the same thrill to celebrants, because the users need to light up the trigger before they can produce successive explosive sounds, he says.

He explains that e-firecrackers produce rapid explosive sounds, without causing an actual explosion. This is because e-firecrackers consist of electronics that load electricity to produce strong sounds, similar to the explosions caused by piccolo firecrackers.

The cannon-type e-firecrackers are produced by Oral Educational Distributor and showcased at FISPC Showroom and Business Center at Delta Building along Quezon Ave. corner West Ave. in Quezon City.

“Let’s welcome the New Year without injuries and damages on properties. The cannon-type electric firecrackers also do not cause air pollution and waste.

It is a Filipino innovation for the world celebration of New Year’s Eve,” says Pagayon.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

Business

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 business@thestandard.com.ph

A QUARTER OF ASIAN FIRMS GO DIGITAL NEARLY a quarter of Southeast Asian businesses are digital leaders, a new study by German software giant SAP SE and Oxford Economics shows.

The ‘Leaders 2020’ study shows the figure for Southeast Asia is higher than the global average of 16 percent.

The new class of high-performing companies is reporting stronger profit growth, higher employee engagement and cultures that are more inclusive.

These high-functioning organizations have executives who communicate a company-wide digital strategy, keep management and worker skills up to date, and streamline organizational structure.

Analysis of Southeast Asian firms in the Leaders 2020 study also affirms the business benefits of diversity, showing a correlation between those who are leading in digital transformation and those who have a heightened understanding of the importance of diversity.

Digital Leaders around the world and Southeast Asian respondents are both more likely to recognize diversity ’s positive impac t on culture (66 percent and 62 percent, respectively), but only digital leaders are more likely to see the benefits in financial performance (37 percent vs.

25 percent).

Companies have become more diverse in Southeast Asia than in other regions over the past three years. Three-quarters of Southeast Asian respondents saw diversity improvements in the general workforce of their organization, and 42 percent saw an increase in board and senior leadership, compared with 67 percent.

However, less than 40 percent in Southeast Asia state that their company has effective diversity programs in place, signaling more could be done, especially at the senior executive and corporate board levels.

The Leaders 2020 study also found that only 61 percent of Southeast Asian executives (vs. 55 percent globally) are making data-driven decisions, a key factor that makes a digital leader. It is of little wonder that only 62 percent of Southeast Asian executives (vs. 59 percent globally) feel that employees are equipped with the skills necessary to keep up with digital technology.

“A diverse workforce encourages bold, innovative ideas to flourish and in turn, presents insights which are only made possible through that diversity. It is of little coincidence that these two capabilities—leveraging data for decisions and maintaining a diverse workforce—both occur for high-performing organizations,” said Scott Russell, president and managing director of SAP Southeast Asia.

PERSONAL COMMITMENT BOOSTS CEBUANO’S BUSINESS

W

Jet Sales president Francis Yu at his Solane warehouse in Mandaue City, Cebu

hen it comes to making a business successful, dedication to one’s chosen enterprise should be the prevailing attitude. Take it from Solane distributor and owner of Jet Sales, Francis Yu, who said: “Personal commitment, which means giving 100-percent attention to the business, is the most important thing. This is not a sideline business.”

This is the same attitude his parents lived by when they established Jet 50 years ago. Once former bakery owners, Yu’s parents were encouraged by one of their suppliers who became a salesman of Shellane (the former name of Solane) to apply as a Shellane dealer in Cebu. After a long process and a series of interviews, they officially opened Jet on Nov. 17, 1967.

It wasn’t an overnight success. “My parents faced numerous challenges. When they set up the business in 1967, people didn’t have a LPG in their kitchens and they were scared to use them. They had to convince customers that LPG was safe, clean, and convenient to use.

The cost of acquiring a stove unit, a regulator with hose and clamps and the cylinder was another obstacle,” said Yu. Apart from educating people of the benefits of cooking with LPG, finding refills also became a challenge. As the population in their area was growing and commute was becoming easier, people began to move out to the city center. Thus, the demand for more accessible locations to buy LPG was also becoming higher.

However, the challenges they faced only served as motivation for the owners of Jet to be better – they increased their visibility

by opening more retail outlets and gas stations across Cebu. They also offered stove set promos to entice potential LPG users and new households.

Indeed, their personal commitment in running the business paid off. These days, Jet is considered as one of the biggest Solane distributors in Central Visayas.

“Jet is what it is now because Solane has been very supportive of us and our marketing campaigns. In the 50 years being in the industry, new competitors constantly enter the market,” Yu said. “But we have always trusted Solane. Being the pioneer in the LPG industry, our products would be the customer’s first choice. We are confident that we are not shortchanging our customers by giving them the correct weight refills in clean and safe LPG cylinders.”

Yu feels proud about Jet, which is now in its golden year, but knows he cannot rest on his laurels.

“We have to constantly evolve to keep up with the ever-changing times but at the same time maintain the topnotch quality Solane is known for,” he said.

“We still offer LPG-related appliances like gas stoves, regulators, and spare parts. We also offer LPG service installations in homes and commercial establishments like restaurants and laundry. But more importantly, we make sure our products are as clean as possible to make it appealing to the walk-in customers.”

He said Jet still has a long way to go in the industry. But with personal commitment coupled with the five Ps – pay attention to the business, preparation by anticipating industry trends, patience because running a business is not easy money, perseverance because not all days will be good and prayer for divine guidance and expression of gratitude – Jet will continue to be the leading Solane distributor in Central Visayas.

JOLLY UNIVERSITY CHAMPIONS TREASURE WINNING MOMENTS AIMING to set a new standard as a premier campus culinary competition and learning program that introduces enriching career-building opportunities and real-work experiences for aspiring chefs and food entrepreneurs, Jolly University is a youth empowerment advocacy pioneered by Jolly Food Line, one of the leading brands in canned foods and vegetables in the country.

In its fourth consecutive year, JU is calling again on young and talented students from all over the metro and south manila to take on the exciting challenge and cook their way to a better future.

Now open for non-culinary arts students, this year’s edition is more fun, expansive and inspiring as it highlights fresh talents and local flavors with the theme, “It’s More Jolly in the Philippines.”

Jolly University year 3 winner, 19 year-old Jan Ezra Mendoza of La Consolacion-College Manila, showcased his passion, skills, and grit in last year’s competition as he cooked his heart out for an opportunity of a lifetime.

According to him, JU has motivated him to think outside the box and to go for his goals.

“The JU competition pushed my creative abilities. I gave extra effort to do my best, putting into good use all

the experience and what I have learned throughout the competition. I learned that there is more to culinary than just cooking in a hot kitchen; there are many fields in which I can enhance my skills,” said Mendoza, who won JU’s first individual cook-off Category with his “Fish Hardinera with Mango Salsa” dish.

Mendoza, along with other JU winners have received mentorship training under Chef Mitchie Sison and the Jolly brand team.

“One of my most memorable moments in JU was when I took part in the Guinness World record attempt of cooking the largest serving of mushroom. Never in my life have I imagined being part of such historic success. Also unforgettable for me is doing magazine and TV interviews, and of course the food video shoot, as not all college students are given this opportunity,” he said.

Rising above the pressures of the competition, at the cornerstone of the champions’ hard-earned success is their shared love for cooking and food, as well as the desire to forge meaningful, rewarding careers for themselves.

Another winner, Jemuel M. Palmares, together with FEU teammates Kim Mercado and Francis John Candido, won the group challenge-main dish

Jolly University individual cook-off top winner Jan Ezra Mendoza of La Consolacion College Manila (center) category for their entry, “Crispy Jolly Mushroom Laing”.

In the four th year of Jolly University, the culinary contest will feature five categories in line with their theme of being more Jolly in the Philippines: individual category (featuring Luzon Cuisines made easy, healthy and baon ready); team main dish category (Visayas cuisines made easy, healthy and Jolly); team

pasta category (Mindanao cuisines made pastariffic) and team mocktail category (Capture the Jolly vibe of the Philippines in a sip).

The competition is open to all Metro Manila, South and Central Luzon college students from age 16 and up. The grand winners will get to win as much as P50,000 worth of cash and prizes, trophies, and a culinary mentorship program.

Jan Ezra Mendoza had a life-changing experience when he joined Jolly University.

Sports

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 reuelvidal@yahoo.com

Johnny Arcilla holds up his championship trophy after ruling the PPS-PEPP Dagitab Festival Open tournament.

Ariel Sexton (right) misses with a kick as his opponent Eddie Ng steps back to avoid being hit. ONE Championship

WHO WILL FOLAYANG FACE IN TITLE DEFENSE?

By Reuel Vidal

A

FTER Eduard Folayang’s spectacular victory over Shinya Aoki to win the ONE Championship World Lightweight title local sportswriters asked Team Lakay head coach Mark Sangiao who Folayang’s next opponent will be.

Sangiao said he’d love for Folayang to meet Ev Ting as the next challenger because Ting has beaten five Filipino fighters in the ONE Championship cage.

Ting beat Eric Kelly, Honorio Banario, Edward Kelly, Cary Bullos and Rolando Navarette. Sangiao said Folayang beating Ting to avenge those defeats would be an exciting match.

Personally I think Ting is too small, too slow and would be no match for Folayang. I think Folayang can chew up Ting and spit him out inside of one round.

My advice to Ting is to stay as far away from Folayang as he can.

A bout against Ting could still happen though. But who would be a better match for Folayang’s first title defense, most likely at the Mall of Asia Arena in April, 2017?

Luckily, lightweight is a division with some of the most exciting ONE Championship fighters who could give Folayang a run for his championship belt.

Lightweight Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev, 22, is unbeaten in four ONE Championship bouts.

Don’t let the thin pro record fool you. Arslanaliev is an experienced fighter who could be an exciting challenge for Folayang.

Arslanaliev battles Rasul Yakhayaev in the undercard of the

ONE: Quest for Power in Jakarta, Indonesia on January 14, 2017.

Arslanaliev has three KO wins and one submission. A Folayang-Arslanaliev bout would be an exciting match but Arslanaliev will first have to get past Yakhayaev.

Then there’s unbeaten Lowen Tynanes who has strung together nine consecutive victories including a devastating TKO (doctor stoppage) victory over Folayang himself four years ago.

In that bout Tynanes mounted Folayang at the center of the ring.

Folayang left his guard open for a split second allowing Tynanes to smash his left elbow on Folayang’s face. Folayang’s right eyebrow split open and blood poured into his eyes and face prompting the referee to stop the bout.

The biggest concern against Tynanes is that he hasn’t fought in ONE Championship since April, 2016 when he beat Koji Ando.

Tynanes virtually disappeared from the radar after that bout.

But if he can sort out whatever issues he is dealing with, then a title bout against Folayang would be an exciting matchup.

Finally there’s veteran Ariel Sexton who will be coming off a string of three impressive victories in the ONE Championship cage. Sexton is a BJJ black belter who has im-

ONE Championship Lightweight World Champion Eduard Folayang (right) connects with a swinging side kick at Adrian Pang. ONE Championship

Lowen Tynanes (right) unloads a flying knee against opponent Kuat Khamitov. ONE Championship

pressive striking skills as well.

He beat Roger Huerta by TKO last July. He submitted Eddie Ng

by Rear-Naked choke in the second round at ONE: Warrior’s Quest. He submitted Anvar Alizhanov by Reverse Triangle Keylock in the first round of their ONE: Dynasty of Champions in December, 2014.

The impressive victory over the highly regarded Huerta more than justifies pitting Sexton against champion Folayang for the ONE Championship lightweight title.

Those are the fighters that I’d

like to see Folayang battle in his first title defense. And after he wins that first defense then I’d like to see Folayang in a rematch against MMA legend Aoki in Japan. That’s right, in Japan.

Yoshiaki Ito, President of ONE Championship (Japan), is striving to recapture the glory days of MMA in Japan. What better main event for the first ONE Championship promotion there than a return match between Folayang and Aoki?

But that’s the subject for another story.

Ev Ting (standing) hammers Edward Kelly, who is planted on the canvas face first, after knocking him down with a head kick.

AGELESS ARCILLA CONTINUES TO COMPETE AGELESS Johnny Arcilla has won every tennis tournament to be won in local tennis but continues to play because of his love for competition as well as his burning desire to remain a part of the continuing growth of tennis locally.

Just this past week Arcilla, 36, was merciless as he pounced on an ailing PJ Tierro to rule the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala Dagitab Festival Open Tournament in Cebu.

Arcilla exploited Tierro’s handicap (he was reportedly nursing a hurting chest muscle) and took just one hour and 25 minutes to carve a dominant 6-4, 6-4 victory in the annual circuit presented by Slazenger.

Prior to that the veteran Davis Cup campaigner also ruled the Olivarez Cup and the Pintaflores Festival, both against Tierro, and the TunaFest Open, where he disposed of Leander Lazaro.

Arcilla also led the Philippine squad, which bested 19 other teams from Indonesia and Malaysia, to first place in the Johor Invitational Tennis Team Competition 2016 at the Johor Tennis Academy in Taman Perling last October.

The road to the PPS-PEPP finals was almost as decisive for Arcilla. He steamrolled through the eliminations and then swept past Ronard Joven, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals.

Tierro, hobbled by a nagging injury, barely survived the challenge of Elberto Anasta, 6-3, 7-6 (1) in the semifinals.

Tierro had nothing left IN the finals against Arcilla who relied on a variety of shots to overwhelm him.

Palawan Pawnshop president/CEO Bobby Castro said the veteran Arcilla continues to inspire and motivate young tennis players in the country with his determination, hard work and the ability to stay in shape all year round.

The year-long tennis circuit concludes at the Brookside Hills Tennis Club in Cainta, Rizal starting Monday, December 26 when over 200 entries gear up for another spirited battle for top honors in various divisions of the regional age-group tennis circuit.

Mikaela Vicencio and Cenon Gonzales Jr. head the centerpiece 18-andunder cast that features the country’s leading junior players who remain in shape during the holiday season to vie for honors and ranking points in the Group 2 tournament.

Joining Vicencio in the roster are Bettina Bautista, Jhastine Ballado and Lila Salvacion while out to crowd Gonzales in the boys’ side of the five-day tournament sanctioned by Philta and backed by Asiatraders Corp., exclusive distributor of Slazenger, are Kurt Molina, Klyde Lagarde and Wilfred Bentillo.

Vicencio is also entered in the 16-U class as second seed with Miles Vitaliano as the top ranked player and Blanche Lagrisola, Ballado, Gab Zoleta and Patricia Lim also tipped to contend for the crown.

Castro added that the tennis circuit continues to discover new faces and talent from all over the country.

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Sports

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 Riera U. Mallari, Editor / Reuel Vidal, Issue Editor sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

SERRANO: PH’S NEXT BASKETBALL STAR

By Peter Atencio

A

5’11” dynamo from Iloilo is fast emerging not just as the top Most Valuable Player candidate at the end of the first round of the 79th University Athletic Association of the Philippines juniors’ basketball tournament, but also a future star of Philippine basketball.

Improvements in the 16-year-old Florencio Serrano’s game helped the Adamson Baby Falcons complete a firstround sweep of their sevengame assignment.

I n the seven games he played, Serrano averaged 19.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists—outstanding numbers that allowed him to tally 73.42 statistical points.

SJ Belangel of Ateneo is second with 70.57 SPs, followed

by Juan Gomez de Liano of the University of Philippines Integrated School (69.28). In fourth is John Clemente of National University (64.57), followed by Far Eastern University’s Kenji Roman(60.54) and Serrano’s teammate Gerry Abadiano (57.26).

“Mas gumanda at nag-improve ang points ko at mga rebounds after seven games,” said Serrano, a prized find from Iloilo.

In the Baby Falcons’ final game of the first round, Serrano played big with two-year veteran Abadiano in the first period. Their efforts led the Baby Falcons to a 130-47 smothering of University of the East, 130-47, at the Arena in San Juan.

The Baby Falcons, who are fearsome this season with their tall roster, went on to post the season’s biggest winning margin of 83-points--their seventh straight win.

Serrano had a double-double outing of 22 points and 15 rebounds for the Baby Falcons while teammate Jason Celis chipped in 20.

“Hard work paid off. Nu’ng nag-press ang team, maganda ang naging outcome,” said Ad a m s o n c o a c h G o l d w i n Monteverde.

Jason Celis added 18 points for the Baby Falcons, who stayed ahead of the defending champion National University Bullpups.

The Baby Falcons got off to a hot start and took a 38-12 spread in the first period.

Abadiano’s drive, triple and two charities in the last 4:19 helped push Adamson to a 26-4 advantage.

They took a 20-point edge off Flores’ putback with 3:50 left.

But it was Serrano’s allaround game and brilliant offensive incursions that steered Adamson to its biggest win in the season.

“I scored my highest against UE. Nagiging maayos na ang training ko,” added Serrano, who a week later proved that his UAAP showing was no fluke.

With Serrano leading the charge, Adamson became the first UAAP team to win the Philippine Secondary Schools Basketball Championship crown by dethroning Chiang Kai Shek College, 96-85, behind another well-balanced attack at the SGS gym in Quezon City.

The Baby Falcons made a decisive run in the second frame before lowering the boom in the payoff period to dispatch the Blue Dragons and capture the 5th MEC Networks Cup dubbed as “Battle of Champions.”

The leading scorer in the UAAP after the first round, the cat-quick Serrano awed his defenders with a mixture of devastating jumpers to finish with 20 points aside from posting 8 rebounds, four assists and a block in just 25 minutes of action.

For producing another all-

It was Florencio Serrano’s all-around game and brilliant offensive incursions that steered Adamson to its biggest win in the season.

around performance, Serrano was named the Finals’ MVP aside from leading the Mythical Selection that included teammate Abadiano, La Salle Greenhills’ Troy Mallilin, Mapua’s

Rom Junsay and Chiang Kai Shek’s Jonas Tibayan.

If Serrano continues to play this way, he could be headed for the same result in the UAAP.

LEGENDARY TRIALS’ RIDER MACASKILL IMPRESSES VERMOSA CROWD

Danny MacAskill astounded Filipino bike riders and enthusiasts as he brought his renowned Drop and Roll tour to the country for the first time.

HOTSHOT streets’ trial rider Danny MacAskill astounded Filipino bike riders and enthusiasts as he brought his renowned Drop and Roll tour to the country for the first time at Vermosa Active Revolution.

The sports and active lifestyle expo was mounted recently at Ayala Land’s Vermosa estate along Daang Hari Road in Cavite.

Joining the Scottish MTB phenomenon were fellow pro riders Duncan Shaw, Fabio Wibmer, and Ali C., who all gave local riders and speed enthusiasts a truly unforgettable spectacle with their jaw-dropping stunts.

Vermosa Active Revolution put the Vermosa estate on the map as the premier sports and active lifestyle

destination in the south.

This 700-hectare masterplanned, mixed-use development in Cavite offers a modern suburban community where daily life becomes more dynamic for health enthusiasts.

“Vermosa stands as an accessible premier destination for new-age sports, perfect for people who are passionate about healthy and active living,” said Jay Teodoro, Ayala Land Senior Division Manager and Estate Head of Vermosa. “By hosting world-class events such as Vermosa Active Revolution, the estate furthers its thrust of not only providing the best training facilities and services, but of bringing in quality, internationally-renowned talent to

promote active and healthy lifestyles.” #JoinTheActiveRevolution and fuel your passion for a healthy and active lifestyle! For more updates and information on Vermosa’s exciting events, activities, and offerings, visit the official Facebook page, @Vermosaph or www.vermosa.ph.

Vermosa is an estate by Ayala Land, the Philippines’ leading developer of sustainable estates offering a diverse mix of quality residential and commercial developments that support local economic growth.

For more information on Vermosa’s upcoming activities and offerings, visit its official Facebook page, @Vermosaph or log on to www.vermosa.ph

CAVALIERS, WARRIORS RENEW RIVALRY ON XMAS DAY AFTER an epic seven-game finals series last June, the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2015 champion Golden State Warriors will square off 189 days later on Christmas Day at 2:30 p.m. ET on ABC, one of five games televised by ABC and ESPN on Dec. 25.

As the two first-place teams prepare for their first meeting since the Cavaliers’ thrilling 93-89 victory in Game 7 on June 19 at Oracle Arena, here are seven memorable notes from The Finals 2016: • The Cavaliers became the first team in league history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit to win The Finals, earning their first NBA championship and ending a 52-year title drought for major pro sports teams in Cleveland.

• The Cavaliers and Warriors each scored a total of 610 points in Games 1-6 (101.7 per game). The Cavaliers’ fourpoint victory in Game 7 made the final tally 703-699.

• The seven-game series was the most-watched Finals in ABC history as well as the most-watched overall since 1998, averaging 20,215,000 viewers per game. Game 7 averaged 31,018,000 viewers—peaking with 44,807,000 viewers—the third-most-watched NBA game on record.

• LeBron James produced a historic series. He became the first player in any playoff series to lead all players in points (29.7), rebounds (11.3), assists (8.9), steals (2.57) and blocks (2.29). James also joined Kyrie Irving as the first pair of teammates to score at least 40 points each in a Finals game (both had 41 in Game 5), and LeBron followed the Los Angeles Lakers’ Jerry West (1969 vs. Boston Celtics) and the Lakers’ James Worthy (1988 vs. Detroit Pistons) as the third player to register a triple-double in Game 7 of The Finals.

• The Warriors capped their unprecedented season of three-point shooting with several long-range records in The Finals. Golden State established a playoff record for three-pointers made (94) and attempted (252) in any series, while Stephen Curry set a Finals record and matched his own playoff series record with 32 threes made.

• Cleveland’s Tyronn Lue achieved the same thing in The Finals 2016 that Golden State’s Steve Kerr did in 2015: win a championship in his first season as an NBA head coach. Before Lue and Kerr, no first-year NBA head coach had accomplished the feat since Pat Riley with the 1981-82 Lakers.

• Golden State’s Draymond Green turned in one of the greatest performances ever in a Finals Game 7, finishing with 32 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. The only other player to post at least 30 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in Game 7 of The Finals is James Worthy, who had 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists for the Lakers against the Pistons in 1988.

D1

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

Roger Garcia, Issue Editor

LGUs

Local Gov’t Units

mslocalgov@gmail.com

TUBA EYES 50-HECTARE LOT FOR PEZA EXPANSION

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'ANG PAO' AVAILABLE. A vendor spreads out her stock of 'ang pao' at a roadside market on Monday at the height of the Christmas shopping rush. These red envelopes, also called 'lai see' in Cantonese or 'hong bao' in Mandarin, are used to give monetary gifts during Christmas, New Year and special occasions such as weddings, graduations and birthdays. Ey Acasio

ONE MILLIONTH TREE PLANTED AT CAGAYAN WILDLIFE CENTER T

By Brenda Jocson

UGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan—Australian miner OceanaGold planted its one millionth tree in the Philippines in a wildlife rescue and reservation center here in its effort to fight climate change.

Through its local firm OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc., the Aussie mining firm planted a “mayapis” (Shorea palosapis) tree at RBB Nature Park and Wildlife Center, named in memory of dedicated forester Rogelio B. Baggayan, at the Cagayan Valley Regional Center here.

Regional Directors Wilfredo Malvar of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Mario Ancheta of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, and Cesar Siador of the Environmental Management Bureau participated in the ceremony.

OGPI environment manager Jason Magdaong said the tree, which belongs to the Philippine mahogany group and is popular for making furniture, is one of the common dominant tree species found in OceanaGold’s Didipio Mine village in Kasibu town in Nueva Vizcaya.

“The one millionth tree is a milestone in our mining forest program, as we support the National Greening Program of the government,” Magdaong said.

He said this milestone would not have been possible without the support of the firm’s partners and stakeholders, not only in the industry but as environment stewards.

David Way, OGPI general manager, said they started their reforestation efforts since 2013. In the three years as an active partner of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, “we are now at this juncture.”

“Our target is to plant two million trees in a period of 10 years, which is still a lot to be accomplished,” Way said, adding that in just three years the firm exceeded its target by planting their one millionth tree.

“This means that we are ahead of our target and will be able to plant more than our two million target,” he added.

Way said planting a tree is not an easy feat, and it takes determination and dedication to be able to do the tremendous job at OceanaGold, which requires vigilance as responsible miners.

“We may not be able to stop or mitigate climate change overnight but the important thing is we are aware of what we need to do. Our little efforts taken collectively and combined will make a huge impact. Because we care, we care for the environment not only for the generation today but more so for the generations tomorrow,” Way said.

BEMAC, PUERTO PRINCESA TO PILOT ELECTRIC TRICYCLES

TACLOBAN'S TREE. This special Christmas tree, which changes colors per a software program, stands in the middle of a plaza in Tacloban City, a symbol of its recovery from the destruction of Typhoon 'Yolanda' three years ago. Mel Caspe

BEMAC Electric Transportation Philippines Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding with the City Government of Puerto Princesa for a pilot operation of two electric tricycles within the city.

BEMAC is giving the e-Trikes to Puerto Princesa for free and shall operate them until the end of 2016. Puerto Princesa Mayor Lucilo R. Bayron signed the MOU with Yvonne Palomar-Castro, Bemac Electric Transportation Philippines vice president for Sales, Marketing and After Sales.

Puerto Princesa has a history of undertaking projects to promote environmental sustainability and preservation. The United Nations declared the city as a “Biospheric Reserve,” and is acknowledged to be the country’s last ecological frontier.

As early as 2010, Puerto Princesa has been in the vanguard of local government units spearheading the use of electric vehicles, with the deployment of electric jeepneys or e-Jeeps. Six years later, the city

continues its initiatives through this collaborative project with BEMAC. The e-Trike BEMAC model 68VM was designed to meet Japanese standards of quality and reliability, while introducing innovations never seen before in the local EV industry.

BEMAC will also train drivers and operators of e-trikes in Puerto Princesa, and “its assistance in instilling technical expertise with the local government unit will be a strong foundation for any future endeavor of the city with electric vehicles,” the company said in a statement.

“The operation of these e-Trikes will serve as crucial data-gathering for the deployment of [more] e-Trikes in the city, as they will ply strategic routes servicing the commuting public,” BEMAC added.

Both the firm and the city government hope that findings from this data “may be beneficial for the further implementation of more e-Trikes throughout the country.”

TUBA, Benguet—The municipal government has identified a 50-hectare lot in one of the town’s 13 barangays as a potential site for the expansion of the Baguio City-based Philippine Economic Zone Authority that would help boost the growth and development of this town.

Mayor Ignacio Rivera said the actual location of the site “remains confidential” until Peza officials inspect the site and submit their recommendations for the local government’s consideration.

“It will be Peza management that will make the announcement if the proposed expansion site would suit their requirements. The area is between the mountainous and flat terrains of the locality that is why we are confident that it might be considered for the expansion of the economic zone operations,” Rivera stressed.

The local chief executive said options in other areas are available, but the area found to be the most feasible is the 50-hectare lot in one of the barangays.

If the Peza expansion comes into fruition, the locators can provide employment opportunities for Tuba’s qualified residents, give them new sources of livelihood and boost economic development that will improve the status of the municipality, Rivera said.

Based on the initial assessment of experts, the proposed expansion site has an independent source of potable water for locators, and the area is near various national roads to ensure the speedy delivery of products from the economic zone to their intended markets.

Earlier, Benguet Rep. Ronald M. Cosalan said Peza was looking for a 75- to 100-hectare land in the Baguio-La TrinidadItogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay or BLISTT area for its expansion, owing to the enormous growth of locators needing sufficient space for their operations.

Dexter See

SIARGAO HOSTS MS. UNIVERSE 2016 BETS SIARGAO Island recently hosted the first batch of Miss Universe 2016 delegates that visited the country’s surfing capital, as part of the pageant’s promotional tour around the country’s top tourist spots.

The contestants were hosted for lunch by the Triple-A Siargao Bleu Resort and Spa, the Provincial Government of Surigao del Norte headed by Gov. Sol Matugas, the First District Congressional Office under Rep. Bingo Matugas, the Department of Tourism-Region 13, and Siargao government and private stakeholders.

Miss Philippines Maxine Medina led the 12 candidates who visited the famed Cloud 9 surfing spot in Gen. Luna town, site of international tournaments.

She was joined by Miss USA Deshauna Barber, Miss Myanmar Htet Htet Htun, Miss Korea Jenny Kim, Miss China Li Zhenying, Miss Vietnam Ngo Tra My, Miss New Zealand Tania Dawson, Miss Japan Sari Nakazawa, Miss Indonesia Kezia Roslin Cikita Warouw, Miss Thailand Chalita Suansane, Miss Australia Caris Tiivel and Miss Malaysia Kiran Jassal.

LGUs

D2

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

PHILEX, TWO TOWNS AGREE ON PROJECTS TUBA, Benguet—Philex Mining Corp. and its host towns of Tuba and Itogon have pushed for a more inclusive planning and implementation of the various projects on social development and environmental protection, as they vowed to cooperate further on the humanization of responsible mining.

This developed following the recently held founding anniversaries of the respective towns—which have become first-class municipalities mainly due to the economic impact of Philex Mining’s Padcal operations in Benguet—as well as the consultations done earlier by the company with the said local governments.

Mayors Ignacio Rivera and Victorio Palangdan, of Tuba and Itogon, respectively, have both expressed gratitude to Philex Mining for having paid its taxes religiously—a gesture returned by company officials for the continuous support extended by the host municipalities to the miner, which accounts for the bulk of the towns’ annual revenues.

In a speech during Tuba’s 105th Founding Anniversary, held December 11 with songs and dances at the grounds of its Municipal Hall, Ignacio said he “appreciates and is thankful” for the timely payment by Philex Mining of the required taxes, which have helped his administration uplift the lives of his constituents through various livelihood and other social projects.

“I also thank Philex Mining for having fulfilled its tax obligations,” said Palangdan—whose town celebrated its 116th Founding Anniversary, held December 15 in Itogon’s Fianza Memorial Gym—in various occasions organized by Philex Mining. He also said the funds have been used for various projects, including farm-to-market roads and livelihood assistance.

Manuel Agcaoili, SVP at Philex Mining and Padcal resident manager, congratulated Itogon during its founding anniversary celebration enlivened by cultural presentations, saying, “Thank you for your continuous support, and Philex Mining hopes to further our partnership in moving further toward sustainable development.”

In earlier consultations held separately by Philex Mining with Tuba and Itogon, the towns’ respective officials and the company, represented by Agcaoili and Victor Francisco, VP for Environment and Community Relations (ComRel), agreed to strengthen the involvement of the host towns at the municipal level in the implementation of social and environmental projects.

Dexter See

WAR DANCE. The Darangen Dance Troupe of Mindanao State University in Marawi City perform the 'sagayan' war dance to ward off evil spirits during the Lanao del Sur Cultural Night Presentation on December 13 at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex in Cotabato City. Omar Mangorsi

LION'S HEAD ON KENNON B

SET FOR P13-M RENOVATION BY DPWH

AGUIO CITY—The Department of Public Works and Highways Baguio City District Engineering Office will widen the road, protect the soil and put up a view around the famous Lion’s Head along Kennon Road to improve its status as one of the major tourist attractions in the city.

Engineer Ernesto Aguilos, DPWHBCDEO assistant chief of the construction division, said the project costs P13 million, is funded by the national government, and will happen next year once the bidding for its services is completed.

The major component of the project is the road widening work worth P9 million, while the soil protection works will assess the stability of the soil and rock formations in the area prior to installing the view deck for the Lion’s Head

—a creation of the local Lions Club erected in 1972—and the historic zigzag road of Kennon.

The City Council is also deliberating on a proposal by the Baguio City Host Lions Club to return the monument to its original black and yellow colors “for the better appreciation of the public,” Aguilos said.

He also told the Council there was a P3-million private project around the Lion’s Head following questions councilors raised on the stability of its surrounding areas.

Rockslides often occur along Kennon, the shortest route into

BAGUIO COUNCIL SHELVES VOTE ON TRAFFIC PLAN

‘TUPAD’ PROGRAM. The city government of Muntinlupa, through the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or TUPAD, provides employment for 111 drug dependent surrenderees starting December 19 as part of the local Re-integration Program. Mayor Jaime Fresnedi (center) hands out protective equipment to the beneficiaries, who will work for at least 10 days under the Environmental Sanitation Center, receiving P481 per day as salary with insurance. Also shown are Muntinlupa Police Chief Nicolas Salvador and Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Office chief (Ret.) Col. Florocito Ragudo.

PANGASINAN GOVT WORKERS REAFFIRM SERVICE PACT LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—“Tonight we reaffirm our commitment to serve our fellow Pangasinenses.”

Gov. Amado “Pogi” I. Espino III thus set the tone of the Employees’ Night of the provincial government held at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center inside the Capitol Compound here.

The governor reminded the provincial workforce of giving due respect foremost to the citizenry, whom they owe their trustworthy service.

“Like what I’ve asked of you since the first day I spoke to you as your governor, during my first flag-raising ceremony with you, always have respect—respect your work, respect your

the city from the lowlands, which force its closure for several days for clearing operations.

The Lion’s Head is one of the most frequented tourist spots in Baguio because it is on the boundary of the city and Tuba, Benguet.

Earlier, Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said it is best for DPWHBCDEO and the city government to commission experts to assess and evaluate the best projects around the Lion’s Head, instead of councilors wasting precious time debating on the matter.

Dexter A. See

colleagues and, most importantly, respect those whom we serve,” Espino said.

The event was a recognition of every provincial government worker’s effort for the whole year in serving their fellow Pangasinenses, he added.

Lastly, the governor enjoined every employee to carry with them not only their position and own name but the province’s as well.

The annual party coincided with the 42nd wedding anniversary of Fifth District Rep. Amado T. Espino Jr., the former governor and the incumbent’s father, with Madame Priscilla “Mely” I. Espino.

Espino also awarded the winners of the 1st Pagalaw tan Olupan ed Gobyerno Itanduro or POGI Sportsfest individual and team events.

The Benchmark team was hailed as the overall champion, with Warriors as the first runner-up, and Generals at third place.

Spicing up the celebration was the 1st Ms. PoGay Universe pageant among male employees. Romping off with the title and P15,000 cash prize was Michael Gonzales of Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

First runner-up was Joenard Manuel from the General Services Office, who received P10,000 cash prize, and third was Roland Cruz from the Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office, who pocketed P8,000.

Another much-awaited highlight of the Employees’ Night was cash prizes that were raffled off. Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY—The City Council has deferred approval on an experimental odd-even traffic scheme that would help declog the city’s major roads of traffic during weekends.

In a statement on Friday, the council said its Committee on Public Utilities, Traffic and Transport Legislation needs to consult with affected stakeholders while it runs an information campaign to let residents and the public know about the proposed traffic solution that would be run for 60 days.

Under the odd-even traffic scheme, private motor vehicles having license plate numbers ending in 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 will not be allowed in Baguio’s existing number coding zone from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays. Those with license plate numbers ending in 2, 4, 6, 8 and 0 will not be allowed to travel around the number coding zone on Sundays.

The scheme would provide motorists, particularly tourists, stress-free travel around the major tourist destinations located in Baguio’s different barangays.

However, some councilors said the proposal should include public utility vehicles under the scheme and provide a “window period” once the proposal is implemented.

The 60-day experimental period should also be shortened to 30 days, other councilors said, while they consult with the people of Baguio to gain insights on how to improve traffic around the city, the council added.

Traffic in Baguio grinds to a halt, especially on weekends and around its central business district, as tourists drive up to the city to feel the cool Cordillera mountain breeze and see its attractions.

Dexter A. See

Gadgets & Games

D3

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

NOKIA SUES APPLE FOR PATENT VIOLATION

RAGNAROK PROTOCOL. (Left to Right) Jed Ralph Pascua, Alexandra Arcega, John Alson Entuna, Norman Lee, Paul Anton Rae Aguilar and Mario Joshua Ignacio

DOST HOLDS GAME DESIGN OSCARS' NIGHT

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EPARTMENT of Science and Technology’s Information and Communications Technology Office, in collaboration with the Game Developers Association of the Philippines and Animation Council of the Philippines recently hosted the 2nd ICT Creatives Awards Night, considered to be the Oscars in game design in the country.

It aims to recognize the efforts of professionals and amateurs in this emerging field.

All the finalist software were showcased in the Game On area during the E-Sports and Gaming Summit organized by GDAP. Industry professionals and the public had an opportunity to try out the games during this event.

Seven schools participated in this year’s Game On Competition, namely Asia Pacific College, CIIT Philippines-College of Arts and Technology, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, De La Salle University, iAcademy, and Jose Rizal University.

The much- coveted Game of the Year was awarded to Vincent Layog, Erickson Melchor, Joshua Soya, and Paul Andrada from DLS-CSB for Tesselate.

Cecile Reine Cabrera, Mark Stephen Cruz, Karlene Gail Valmonte, and Pauline Wen also took top prizes for the Best Educational Game and Best Narrative/Story Category for Face to Phase.

Best Game Play was presented to Paul Anton Rae Aguilar, John Alson Entuna, Alexandra Arcega, Mario Joshua Ignacio, and Jed Ralph Pascua for Ragnarok Protocol, while Best Game

Art was conferred to Daryll Española, Ferdinand Corrales, Kenneth Sta. Barbara, and Roi Adorio for Seizmore Fin. Norman Lee, DLS-CSB School of Management and Information Technology-Game Design & Development Program Chairperson, said the success of Benildeans at the event was proof of the “quality of education we offer and the quality of games that we produce.”

“This fact is telling considering that in some categories, Benilde students competed against each other,” Lee said.

From the same institution, other finalists for Best Game Play were Admor Aloysious Aguilar, Justine Maurice Orprecio, and Bianca Therese Tan for Project Breach, and Game of the Year contenders were Rouinald Macabitas, Genard Ancero, Justine Orprecio, Joshua Matias, and Laurence Chua for After Image.

Dr. Bea Lapa was likewise a nominee in the professional category.

With the feat achieved in the contest, he added there is pressure to accomplish more next year.

LENOVO VIBE A6600: PORTABLE, PRACTICAL, PRICED FOR ALL LENOVO offers Filipino millennials unmatched experience in an affordable, nifty package with the release of Lenovo VIBE A6600, a feature-packed budget smartphone exclusively available through Philippines’ leading mobile carrier Globe Telecom.

Featuring a stylish 5” HD display and Powered by a 64-bit MediaTek® 6735p quad-core 1.0GHz processor, the Lenovo A6600 comes with 4G capability, and VoLTE connectivity.

The phone is a multimedia powerhouse contained in a form factor that is still intuitive enough for Filipino smartphone consumers.

“Lenovo is committed towards innovating great smartphones that address millennials’ productivity and speed requirements. Our latest smartphone, Lenovo VIBE A6600, offers a delicate balance between portability and performance sans the hefty price tag, to empower dynamic Filipino millennials in their day-to-day needs, “said Dino Romano, Philippines Country Manager, Lenovo Mobile Business Group.

Beyond-the-basic functionality

Lenovo VIBE A6600 comes preinstalled with Android 6.0, sans the usual bevy of bloatware. Powered by a 64-bit MediaTek® 6735p quad-core 1.0GHz processor with 1GB of RAM, Lenovo VIBE A6600 offers extraordinary performance, storage, and speed befitting multitaskers who frequently

the smartphone’s Dual SIM support.

Additionally, Lenovo VIBE A6600’s dual VoLTE-enabled SIMs make HD voice calling really easy...

Sweet additions

Lenovo VIBE A6600’s 8MP autofocus rear camera with flash contains automatic face detection, automatic scene detection and zero shutter delay features, for capturing incredible photos.

With the smartphone’s expandable 16GB internal storage capacity, users can maintain easy access to a huge archive of music, movies and games.

Lenovo VIBE A6600 is backed by a 2300 mAh battery, which offers plenty of juice for extended use. Its high capacity interchangeable battery gives users the capability to switch batteries, so users can worry less about their battery running low.

Pricing and Availability

Lenovo Vibe A6600 is a multimedia powerhouse contained in a form factor that is still intuitive enough for Filipino smartphone consumers.

shift between updating social media, reviewing documents, and answering phone calls.

And the smartphone revolutionizes the viewing experience, too. Its brilliant 5-inch HD screen has an 800:1 contrast

ratio that covers the maximum color spectrum, for displaying strikingly clear videos and photos.

Users can connect with what matters most at blazing 4G speeds, and conveniently carry two numbers with

Consumers can get the Lenovo VIBE A6600 exclusively for free at Globe MyLifestyle Plan 599.

The bundle includes unlimited calls and texts to Globe/TM and GoSURF 99, which offers 200MB of mobile internet.

It also comes with exciting freebies: choice of Navigation, Explore, or Fitness Pack for one (1) month; one (1) month Gadget Care subscription; and 1GB Globe Cloud for 24 months. Lenovo VIBE A6600 is available in Matte White and Matte Black colors.

HELSINKI —Nokia announced Wednesday it is suing Apple in German and US courts for patent infringement, claiming the US tech giant was using Nokia technology in“many” products without paying for it.

Finnish Nokia, once the world’s top mobile phone maker, said the two companies had signed a licensing agreement in 2011, and since then “Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple’s products.”

“After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple’s use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights,”Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Nokia’s patent business, said in a statement.

The complaints, filed in three German cities and a district court in Texas, concern 32 patents for innovations related to displays, user interface, software, antennae, chipsets and video coding. Nokia said it was preparing further legal action elsewhere.

Nokia was the world’s leading mobile phone maker from 1998 until 2011 when it bet on Microsoft’s Windows mobile platform, which proved to be a flop. Analysts say the company failedtograspthegrowingimportanceofsmartphone apps compared to hardware.

It sold its unprofitable handset unit in 2014 for some $7.2 billion to Microsoft, which dropped the Nokia name from its Lumia smartphone handsets.

Meanwhile Nokia has concentrated on developing its mobile network equipment business by acquiring its French-American rival Alcatel-Lucent.

Including its 2013 full acquisition of joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia said the three companies united represent more than 115 billion euros of R&D investment, with a massive portfolio of tens of thousands of patents.

The 2011 licensing deal followed years of clashes with Apple, which has also sparred with main rival Samsung over patent claims.

At the time, Apple cut the deal to settle 46 separate complaints Nokia had lodged against it for violation of intellectual property. AFP

BROTHER COMMITTED TO STUDENTS

Students of Inigan Elementary School are the beneficiaries of Brother Philippines' generosity.

FOR the students of Inigan Elementary School in Rodriguez, Rizal, education is worth crossing a river for. Every day, they make the perilous journey across the river to get to their poorly equipped classrooms to fulfill their dreams of a brighter future.

The young girls and boys of Inigan Elementary have been a constant source of inspiration for Brother Philippines.

The business and home tech solutions company has been at the side of the students and the school since 2012, donating school supplies and equipment to help promote meaningful instruction and interaction within the classroom. Fun and engaging lessons on creating a better, greener environment are also provided as part of Brother’s global advocacy.

Last Dec. 8, Brother Philippines once again renewed its support for the Inigan community this December 2016 with a fresh supply of ICT tools and school necessities, as well as a Lakbay Aral trip to the Museo Pambata and Fort Santiago for a day of fun and learning with the company’s employees.

“The whole Brother Philippines team has been looking forward to this special activity for the diligent students and inspiring teachers from Inigan Elementary School,” said Glenn Hocson, Brother Philippines President.

Brother Philippines’ commitment to Inigan Elementary School has resulted in various educational assistance activities, since 2012, and annual educational tours.

To date, Brother has helped hundreds of students by providing school supplies, a good number of teachers with ICT tools that can enable further research and learning, and the school with its very own generator set (the school has no formal energy subscription) and a public-address system that come in handy when staging school programs and activities.

For more information on Brother Philippines corporate social responsibility programs, visit brother.com.ph or call (02)581-9888.

D4

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 Riera U. Mallari, Editor rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

Gadgets & Games

CAN THE NOKIA BRAND RECLAIM ITS THRONE?

HAIER, A REF THAT'S READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS

French Door Ref

The still unnamed devices, especially the flagship one, have piqued the interest of geeks as they compete head to head with Samsung’s premium Galaxy S8 and even the iPhone 7.

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OKIA, once the world’s top mobile phone maker, will make a comeback on the smartphone market in the first half of 2017, the company and its licensee said.

They are set to launch two new Android 7.0 Nougat devices, a mid-ranger and a premium, flagship handset.

The still unnamed devices, especially the flagship one, have piqued the interest of geeks as they compete head to head with Samsung’s premium Galaxy S8 and even the iPhone 7.

(See D3 for additional Nokia news) The phones may feature 5.2-inch and 5.5-inch QHD screens, along with fingerprint scanner, camera

innovations, split-screen modes, enhanced notifications and improved gaming due to the support for the Vulkan API. The phones also hint at 3D touch technology, with elements of touch and hover interaction.

Nokia, which is now a leading telecom equipment maker, has licensed its brand to HMD Global which is to launch its first Nokia smartphone products early next year.

The Finnish company said HMD had received the green light to proceed with production after completing all necessary transactions with its

Taiwanese manufacturing partner, FIH Mobile of FoxConn Technology Group, and with US tech giant Microsoft which had bought the unprofitable phone business from Nokia in 2014.

“HMD can begin operations as the new home of Nokia phones, under an exclusive global brand license for the next ten years,” excluding Japan, Nokia said in a statement.

Microsoft’s venture into phone manufacturing cost it $7.2 billion in 2014, but proved short-lived last May, when it said it would sell its feature phone business to HMD Global and FIH Mobile for $350 million (329.4 million euros).

Microsoft also decided to end its smartphone manufacturing in Finland, letting go of some 1,350

smartphone makers and former Nokia employees.

When Nokia sold its phone business to Microsoft, it agreed not to get back into smartphones until the last quarter of 2016. With the restriction no longer valid next year, HMD can begin making new smartphones under the Nokia brand.

“Nokia branded feature phones remain one of the most popular choices of mobile phone in many markets around the world today and HMD will continue to market them... alongside a new range of smartphones and tablets to be announced later by HMD,” Nokia said.

Nokia is not a shareholder in HMD, but will receive royalty payments for sales of each mobile phone and tablet sold under its brand. With AFP

NOKIA, SMART SHOWCASE LIVE 5G Manuel Pangilinan, PLDT Smart Chairman and CEO

NOKIA and Smart, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PLDT, have achieved 5G speeds of 2.5 Gigabits per second (Gbps) using 100 MHz with latency of just 1 millisecond for the first time in the Philippines over a ‘live’ network.

With its capability to deliver extremely high speeds coupled with low latency, 5G opens up exciting possibilities for Internet of Things applications for Filipinos, particularly in healthcare and smart cities.

Nokia Manila Technology Center and Smart’s innovation team will collaborate to conduct joint 5G research for the development of 5G technology.

The 5G demo was conducted at Nokia Manila Technology Center in Quezon City, one of its global Research and Development powerhouses for 5G technology. Nokia is at the forefront of 5G research and standardization, and its R&D centers across the globe including the Manila facility, are helping to bring the company’s 5G vision closer to reality.

With extremely low latency, 5G will enable a huge number of new use cases, such as remote surgery, real-time responsive robots for automated industrial production, virtual and augmented reality and autonomous driving.

Utilizing content created with the Nokia OZO virtual reality (VR)

Sandeep Girotra, Nokia Head of Asia Pacific and Japan

JoachimHorn, PLDT Smart Chief Technology and Information Advisor

camera, the demo showcased the possibilities enabled through the broadcast of rich, immersive 3D 360 VR content. The demo also leveraged the Nokia AirFrame Data Center platform to support high performance and low latency requirements. Smart has a proven record of investing in the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine applications, and 5G will be critical in realizing their full vision.

“We are excited to work with Nokia in conducting cutting-edge research and development for 5G. This is a key part of our efforts to transform the PLDT and Smart network into the country’s most future-ready data infrastructure delivering a wide range of gigabit digital solutions,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman and CEO of PLDT and Smart.

On the other hand, Joachim Horn, chief technology and information advisor at PLDT and Smart, said: “Smart is committed to enriching the lives of Filipinos by bringing them the best-possible technology. This live demo is part of our initiative to develop 5G capabilities by 2020. We look forward to working with Nokia and taking advantage of its leadership and proven expertise in the 5G space. The demo also underlines our commitment to provide the most relevant services and the best experience to our customers.”

Sandeep Girotra, head of Asia Pacific and Japan at Nokia, said: “Smart has been a longstanding partner of Nokia and we are thrilled to be part of their transformation towards 5G. Acquiring the 5G competencies early will enable Smart to lead the market with new offers for their subscribers and improve the customer experience. Nokia is committed to R&D investment through our Manila Technology Center, which plays an important role in the development of 5G solutions and services.”

NEXT to cooking appliances, refrigerators take center stage during the holidays by keeping fresh ingredients, chilled drinks, and leftovers neatly stored and organized in the kitchen.

A regular-sized fridge, however, might not be enough for the needs of the occasion, especially with new faces possibly adding to the yearly guest list.

“Christmas should be about renewing relationships with the people we love, not about worrying how to keep things in order. To make our loved ones feel welcome when they visit, it’s important that we keep our homes stress-free,” said Jennifer Samson, Haier’s Product Manager for refrigerators.

French Door Ref

What type of fridge will work best for the holidays? Here are a few things to consider.

Size and space

Large-capacity refrigerators can store lots of perishable items for big feasts, such as Noche Buena and New Year’s Eve. Haier offers several two-door models as well as multi-door units designed with space in mind.

The Top Mount Direct Cool series comes with a two-door design in sizes including 6.0, 6.6, 9.0, and 11.5 cubic feet to suit various storage requirements. Likewise, Haier’s Top Mount Inverter models offer the same familiar style but with three different sizes: 8.5, 9.3, and 11.1 cubic feet.

If greater accessibility, visibility, and convenience on top of spacious design are needed, the two-door Bottom Freezer Direct Cool series would be a great option—available in 7.0 and 8.4 cubic feet sizes. Finally, the brand’s French Door unit offers a roomy 14.0 cubic feet of fridge capacity, including a huge 130L storage space for the bottom freezer.

Multiple shelving

To add to their large capacity, Haier’s two-door units are designed with several shelves that can be adjusted to better accommodate food containers. Door shelving is also available for bottled goods, chilled water, and eggs.

As for Haier’s French Door unit, multiple racks inside the main fridge and on the two hinge doors make organization very easy. Fruits and vegetables are also given more storage space with their own separate drawer above the bottom freezer.

Energy efficiency

The fridge sees frequent usage during the holidays, so it’s important that the unit has power saving features to keep the electricity bill from soaring.

Haier’s Direct Cool refrigerators reduce energy consumption through fast cooling performance. Mechanical controls also let users set the temperature at optimal levels for greater cost efficiencies.

For advanced power savings, Haier’s French Door and Inverter refrigerators are built with a FD+ Inverter technology compressor that automatically lowers energy consumption when temperatures are already optimal.

E1

Young Life

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 Isah V. Red, Editor / Bernadette Lunas, Issue Editor isahred@gmail.com.ph

Scan this icon to view the PDF

WHAT MILLENNIALS

WANT FOR CHRISTMAS CAN’T BE WRAPPED

Concoct the perfect holiday cocktail

THE RIGHT WAY TO CAP THIS DAY

By Bernadette Lunas

W

E ALL have a Christmas wish list: it can be something that’s written on a piece of paper or saved on mobile phone or stored in our brain. Due to the gift-giving nature of this season, this is the time when we wish for something that we want to have.

But apparently, for some millennials, the no. 1 thing they want to have this Christmas is not a thing. Perhaps the surveys are right when they said that individuals age 18 to 35 value experiences over material objects.

This is not to say, however, that millennials don’t need and don’t want to receive tangible gifts, because they do. But on top of their wish list are gifts that you can’t put a ribbon on.

Here are 10 member of the Generation Y who shared with Young Life the number one item on their Christmas wish list this year.

“They say that as you grow older, your Christmas list gets shorter. For Christmas, I wish for people to become more kinder and do our part to make this world a better place for everyone.”

—Aimee Lagman, 30 * * * “Now that I am working, I wish to be able to spend longer time with loved ones to do fun things. I barely see them on weekdays due to work and other responsibilities, so I hope to go on vacation with them as often as we can.”

—Mark Ferrer, 23 * * * “I want the war in Aleppo to end. It pains me to think that we’re partying and having fun here while they are not certain whether they will get to see another day there. I also wish that people won’t just share news but instead take action to help.”

—Arnel Vasquez, 33 * * * “I think as you grow older, you care more about non-material things that you can keep and not easily vanish. So I want to finally get that elusive CPA (Certified Public Accountant) title.”

—Karen Manuel, 25 * * *

“To learn a foreign language, not because I’m planning to move to another country, but because I want to broaden my boundaries, so to speak.”

—Camille Tiangco, 28 * * * “I wish to have the influence and resources to contribute to the community (support and financial means), because anybody can now make a difference and make the community a better place. It’s not enough anymore to have the things you want for yourself because every time you go out of your house, you see a lot of things that need change.

People will only listen to someone who has an influence, and to do so, one needs to have the proper support and financial help to make it happen.”

—Joey Silvestre, 29 * * *

We hope these wishes and yours will come true. From us here at Manila Standard Young Life, Merry Christmas!

AS THE sun sets this Christmas day, it is perfect to gather loved ones and while the moment away exchanging stories over a cup of hot beverage. The night of Dec. 25 is the time when we wind down from all the merry making and celebrations and just enjoy the company of those dearest to us.

Here in the Philippines, the traditional Christmas drink is the rich and creamy tsokolate made from cacao. But mixologist Kathryn Eckstein makes it more special as she gives a twist to this popular beverage—tsokolate with, you guessed it, rum.

If US and Canada have Eggnog, Chile has Cola de Moro, and Mexico has Ponche Navideño, the Philippines now has a rum-laced Christmas drink in the form of Peppermint Papa.

Peppermint Papa combines tablea and Negros Occidental’s Don Papa Rum to create a drink that triggers a lot of pleasant childhood memories.

“Peppermint Papa was inspired by my lola who used to make us hot chocolate for Christmas using traditional tableas,” shares Eckstein. “Adding the peppermint flavor was my idea since it adds a wonderful touch of ‘festiveness’ to the drink.”

Don Papa Rum’s sweet taste goes very well with tsokolate.

End this day on a sweet note with this nightcap that’s best shared over good food and intimate moments.

Want to make Peppermint Papa for tonight? Here’s how:

“[On top of my Christmas wish list is to go on a] vacation, because I’ve been around too many toxic people these past weeks, it’ll be good to relax and unwind for a while.”

—AC Brizuela, 25 * * * “I want my husband, who’s deployed in Mindanao, to come home so our family will be complete this Christmas.”

—Anna Leah Estrada-Gonzales, 25 * * * “I want a hotel or beach resort staycation and more quality time, like movie marathon, with loved ones.”

—Joanne Javier, 30 * * * “Because I’ve been busy in 2016 and was not able to travel, [on top of my Christmas wish list is] Indochina travel.”

—Archer Urbano, 25 * * *

Learn how to make Peppermint Papa

You need to have: 45ml Don Papa Rum 20ml Kahlua 7ml Crème de Menthe 1 Unsweetened choco tablea (add ¾ cup hot water) Whipped cream Optional: Choco bits or Strawberry Syrup Turn to E2

WISH LIST LIST. Forget about Christmas wrappers,

because the number one thing on top of millennials’s wish lists are gifts that you can’t put a ribbon on.

If Americans have Eggnog, Filipinos now have a Christmas drink featuring rum and tablea

E2

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 isahred@gmail.com

Young Life

4 HOLIDAY SEASON EXPENSES THAT YOU SHOULD PAY WITH CREDIT CARD CHRISTMAS is the season of sharing and giving, and with that, it is also the season of spending.

It’s the special time of the year when family and friends get together—no matter the distance—to partake of good food, give gifts and party the night or day away.

Unless you intended to do a “nospend Christmas” this year, you most likely took out some money to pay for things. While paying with cold cash is practical, there are certain expenses that are more convenient to settle with credit card.

Some millennials may be reluctant to do this, considering that many of them hold no bank accounts or credit cards and prefer alternative financial products, according to a 2015 survey by cloud-based customer intelligence platform Vision Critical.

But GoBear, Asia’s first unbiased metasearch engine that compares loans, credit cards and insurance policies, argues that you can make life easier by using a convenient payment option when you buy and pay for things you need this season.

“Spare your cash for aguinaldos and use a credit card for major financial transactions so you don’t have to queue at the ATM or stress over packed crowds just to get cash,” GoBear said in a statement.

Here are four holiday scenarios where it’s better to go cashless, according to GoBear.

10 MOST SEARCHED

PERSONALITIES

ON GOOGLE PHILIPPINES T HE most powerful man in the country and the most beautiful woman in the world—the universe rather—are the most searched people on Google Philippines in 2016.

In essence, credit cards offer convenience, accessibility and rewarding experience.

If you want to find out the types of credit cards and look for the one that suits your needs but don’t have the time to go to several banks, visit www.gobear.com.phcredit-card to get started.

THE RIGHT...

Google processes trillions of search requests every year, and, according to data released by Google Trends, in the Philippines, users searched President Rodrigo Duterte and Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach the most, in male and female categories, respectively.

Duterte assumed office this year after his victory at the 2016 Presidential Election in May, wherein he raked in more than 16 million votes.

His feisty remarks, most of which concerning illegal drugs, and infamous statements, often met with criticisms both here and abroad, made him (and continuously make him) a popular personality and topic here in the Philippines.

Wurtzbach’s controversial win at the Miss Universe pageant, where host Steve Harvey mistakenly announced Miss Colombia as the winner, was a glorious event that closed year 2015 for the Philippines. She is well loved, especially among Filipinos who now have a third Miss Universe, thanks to her.

Pinoys’ love for Korean TV series reflected on the second most searched male personality—Song Joong Ki, the South Korean actor who played the lead role in the pan-Asia hit 2016 drama Descendants of the Sun. The show is said to be the one that established him as a top Hallyu star.

Rounding up the list of five most searched male personalities on Google Philippines are United States President-elect Donald Trump, whose victory stunned the world; South Korean actor Gong Yoo, the lead character in the hit movie Train to Busan; and English actor and Taylor Swift’s latest ex-boyfriend Tom Hiddleston.

Meanwhile, the other half of phenomenal love team AlDub and “Dubsmash Queen” Maine Mendoza took the second spot in Google Philippines’s most searched female personalities in 2016. A mainstay in variety show Eat Bulaga!, Mendoza has since appeared in several television programs and movies.

Taking the third, fourth and fifth spots in this category are Australian actress and Suicide Squad cast member Margot Robbie, Filipino actress and vocalist Arci Muñoz, and American actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld, respectively.

From E1

You need to do this: With the use of a measuring cup, combine the following ingredients in a pitcher: 1 ½ cup of Don Papa Rum, 1 cup Kahlua, ¼ cup Crème de Menthe, 5 unsweetened Choco Tablea (add 6 cups of hot water), and top with whipped cream when ready to serve.

MOST SEARCHED. Google Trends revealed the most searched personalities on Google Philippines in 2016. The 5 most searched male personalities were Rodrigo Duterte, Song Joong Ki, Donald Trump, Gong Yoo and Tom Hiddleston. The 5 most searched female personalities were Pia Wurtzbach, Maine Mendoza, Margot Robbie, Arci Munoz and Hailee Steinfeld.

Showbiz

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

E3

CELEBRITIES SPREAD

CHRISTMAS WISHES AND HOLIDAY CHEERS

T

HE holiday spirit in the country is very strong this year with people feeling more optimistic than they were in the previous years. It is Christmas time, of course! And just like everyone else, stars in the local tinsel town are in festive mood.

Here, we are listing down a few celebrities who have made some wishes this season. Will Father Christmas grant their wishes? Well, it depends if they have been naughty or nice.

Sanya Lopez When she bagged the role of Danaya in the top-rating primetime series, Encantadia, people started to notice how good she is a television talent.

She was discovered by the late Master Showman German Moreno back in 2012, after which, she appeared in several bit roles in multiple GMA 7 afternoon soaps. Now, Sanya could only wish for more projects as she’s able to prove that she can deliver and take on big roles just like any other rising young actors around.

Gabbi Garcia The Kapuso star has been getting acting breaks of late.

After appearing in GMA 7’s primetime drama, My Destiny in 2014, she landed on sweet roles in Let the Love Begin and Instadad. Her biggest break though is her being cast in the reboot of Encantadia playing Alena, the guardian of water. The fantasy series is extended due to public’s warm reception.

“I can no longer ask for more, I am more thankful for the opportunities I received this year. 2016 has been a great year for me. Of course, I wish to be more visible on TV and to have more projects like Encantadia.”

Karylle For 11 years, the singer-TV host has been giving back to Child Haus, a non-government organization that shelters cancer patients while undergoing medical treatment in Manila.

Now, the celebrity philanthropist took it to another level by playing Mother Santa. She has just unveiled a musical project called Akay, which advocates Child Haus’ mission to allow cancer patients have a happy, healthy, and productive life. Now she only wishes that everyone fulfill the children’s Christmas wishes this year by donating via Pledge (myPledge.site).

Catriona Gray She only had one wish this Christmas. She wanted to bring home the crown at the prestigious Miss World pageant. She had a fleeting moment when she made it to the top 5 and gave, according to pageant aficionados, the best answer during the Q and A portion. She went home without a crown but she definitely won the heart of many who believe in her genuine desire to win the coveted title and make a difference by “holding that torch high enough to make everyone see and feel its light.”

Piolo Pascual While everyone is into parties, Papa P is spending his Christmas and Misa de Gallo with his son, Iñigo Pascual. The seasoned actor wants to keep the celebration local and spiritual that’s why he didn’t book any holiday vacation just like what most big stars do.

Being selfless and humble, the hunk daddy wishes good tidings not for himself but for Filipino families. He wants them to be safe this holiday season and advises everyone to have a deeper and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Sunday, December 25, 2016

ACROSS 1 — shui 5 Zodiac fishes 11 Routine 17 Ready money 21 “Instead of” word 22 Turkey’s capital 23 It multiplies by dividing 24 Potpourri 25 Fast-shrinking sea 26 African amulet (var.)

27 Hot dog seller 28 Change decor 29 Out of whack 31 Pork purchases 33 Got even 35 Bubbly drinks 36 Walleyed fishes 37 Euro casualty 38 Old crone 41 Male parent 42 Portuguese ladies 43 Stylish 44 Kind of recall 48 Gets the lead out 50 Full of pep 51 Painter — Vermeer 52 Home of the Illini 53 Hindu’s true self 54 Autumn pears 55 Doctorow novel 57 I’ve been —!

58 Dappled 59 Recoil 60 Amber wine 61 “Kon- —” 62 Electric swimmer 63 Paper toys 64 Jalapeno kin 65 Caesar’s tongue 66 Wildcatters’ bad guesses (2 wds.)

68 Is, to Fritz 69 Give — — go 70 Nudging 71 Mare’s morsels 72 Genetic strand 73 — — glance 74 Like many a train 75 Chefs’ wear 78 Proposal 79 Wallet stuffer 80 Circular rooms 84 Nerds 85 Gadgets 87 Lox locales 88 So far 89 Octopus octet 90 Provided protection 91 Picasso’s name 92 Consort of Zeus 93 Pedro’s uncle 94 Gridder or cager 95 Less 96 White’s co-host 97 Hold your —!

99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 109 110 112 115 116 120 121 123 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133

PM units Cake-pan type Wile E. — Cope with change — — few rounds Chubby Plaintive cry Daffodil digs Turn out to be (2 wds.)

Huffs and puffs Weight allowances Lash darkener Peru’s — Picchu Afraid of being shot? (hyph.)

That’s — — know!

Emulate Amelia Red Cross supply “Wool” on clay sheep Polite bark Felt pen Imposing entrance On an even — A gemstone Evaluate Calls from the Alps Business encl.

DOWN 1 Harsh criticism 2 Gael republic 3 Close by 4 Abysses 5 Places for gongs 6 Progress 7 Starry vistas 8 Leery 9 Bungle 10 Cruise departures 11 Dark blues 12 Shaman’s findings 13 Howard and Reagan 14 Avg. size 15 On deck 16 Insect stage 17 Tobacco pipe 18 Without — — to stand on 19 Fries or slaw 20 Parka feature 30 Waterproof wool 32 Thumbs-up 34 — nous 36 Explorer — de Leon 37 An Italian cheese 38 Piled high 39 More Bohemian 40 With pluck 42 Brake parts 43 Purplish red 45 Gauguin’s island 46 Darth’s real name 47 Stevedore’s work 49 Heavy-hearted 50 Sectors

51 52 54 55 56 59 60 61 63 64 65 67 68 70 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 85

Rare green stone Actress — Thurman Chomps down Moonbeam Spleen Becomes limp Floor pad Already in use Zen riddles 1860s initials Water lily Tackle box items Charges Backyard part Jet set destination Ques. response Lounges around Christie of whodunits Twenty minutes of hockey Shark hitchhiker Hotel staffer U.K. lexicon Refute Salon offering (2 wds.)

Tend the aquarium Made a claim Homer Simpson epithet

86 87 90 91 92 94 95 96 98 100 101 103 104 105 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 122 124

Decent grade Fashion plate Qt. parts Metallic sounds Loft contents Insurance giant Pond dweller Farmer, often Be exact Wild country Quick breakfasts Tropical fruits Indiana five A man or a mouse Bard’s forte Slalom obstacles Kind of bud Burlap bags Bryn —, Penn.

Baseball family Neatnik opposite Brand Ask for ID Queen’s field Scurries along Type of lock CPA employer London lav

Alden Richards The down-to-earth Pambansang Bae only wishes to celebrate his Christmas with his loved ones back in their hometown in Laguna.

It’s a known fact that since the astronomic rise of AlDub, the bedimpled showbiz golden boy barely had time for himself and his family. Alden welcomes the holiday season with gratitude for yet another successful year for him.

Just recently, his Wish I May album has been certified Diamond, he hosted Asian TV Awards along with the region’s TV heavyweights, and now, he and Maine Mendoza are finally staring in a television series that they can call their own.

THE TWO...

From E4

In one of his interviews, Ronnie even quipped how the young man, who is pleasuring himself in the sex tape, used his left hand when in fact the Hashtags member is right-handed.

Admittedly though, the scandal video did more good to his showbiz career than harm.

“A lot of people talked about it.

People started asking who Ronnie Alonte is. Then I began appearing on TV regularly and everything just worked (sic) in my favor,” says Ronnie during a pocket presscon for his latest movie.

The young actor is definitely on a roll. Right on the heels of his sold-out birthday concert at Kia Theater over the weekend, cinemagoers is going to see him in two Metro Manila Film Festival entries starting today. Ronnie is part of the lead cast of Seklusyon, a horror thriller, and Vince & Kath & James, a coming-of-age romantic film based on an online series of the same name.

In Seklusyon, a movie set in 1940s after World War II, Ronnie plays one of the four deacons (along with Dominic Roque, John Vic de Guzman, and J.R. Versales) sent to a seclusion house to keep them away from worldly desires. A week before they are ordained, Ronnie and the other three candidates for the priesthood spend time in an old retreat house, to examine their conscience and the purity of their religious intentions.

This Erik Matti masterpiece fearlessly delves into the difference and conflict between religion and spirituality, and raises questions about the sincerity of those that claim to preach the word of God. It debuted at Macau’s International Film Festival and received generally favorable reviews.

Meanwhile, in Vince & Kath & James, Ronnie plays James, Vince’s (Joshua Gracia) best friend and Kath’s (Julia Barretto) former suitor. It is based on an online series, which went viral early this year. The premise revolves around two love-struck teens, whose love blossoms after exchanging a series text messages.

Early this week, there were rumors that the Star Cinema teen flick has been pulled out as entry following the decision of MMFF committee to offer 30 percent discounts on movie tickets to senior citizens, students, and persons with disabilities.

Star Cinema on Tuesday denied the rumors and reassured the public that the production outfit is committed to provide the best in entertainment to the Filipino family this Christmas season.

In this respect, people will see two kinds of Ronnie Alonte on the big screen starting today: first in a thriller as a deacon; and then in a teen flick as a third party.

E4

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016 Isah V. Red, Editor

Showbiz

Nickie Wang, Issue Editor isahred@gmail.com

By Nickie Wang

I

T JUST took one lewd video scandal for 20-year-old Ronnie Alonte to get noticed, but the young actor has made it clear a few times that it’s definitely not him. In fact, he pointed out glaring differences between him and the person featured Turn to E3 on the video that’s been circulating online.

Rising Kapamilya star Ronnie Alonte is definitely on a roll. He stars in two MMFF entries, which start screening today.