Manila Standard - 2017 January 03 - Tuesday

VOL. XXX • NO. 325 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

CULTURAL TRANSLATION. Iconic images and maroon shirts of the Black Nazarene and other saints are on display Monday near the Catholic church in Manila’s Quiapo district in anticipation of the annual Traslacion in honor of El Nazareno Negro, a life-sized statue of dark-skinned, cross-bearing Jesus Christ carved in the 16th century in Mexico, whose feast is on Jan. 9. Ey Acasio

8-m devotees eyed at Black Nazarene

By Vito Barcelo SEVEN to eight million devotees are expected to join the procession of the Black Nazaarene on Jan. 9, the country’s biggest, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said on Sunday.

The group called on the Black Nazarene’s devotees to live out the true meaning of what it means to be devoted: prayer, sacrifice, penance and self-giving.

“2017 is the Year of the Parish and every community should emulate Christ’s way, and that is to be true and forgiving,” the CBCP said.

The CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs said sacrifice, penance and self-giving

are some of the things that mark the true follower of the Black Nazarene.

The image, which is considered miraculous by Filipino Catholics is brought out in a procession lasts up to 15 hours and is borne in a carriage pulled traditionally by male devotees.

The Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene is now coordinating with the local government agencies in Manila to ensure an orderly and safe celebration of the Feast of Black Nazarene.

Leading up to the Jan. 9 celebration, a procession of Black Nazarene replicas from the Quiapo Church will take place on Jan. 7 at 2 p.m.

Next page

Gas, diesel prices rise after Opec supply cut

By Alena Mae S. Flores PUMP prices went up by as much as P0.70 per liter this week as the oil industry ended the year on an optimistic note due to the global production cut implemented starting this month.

Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Flying V, PTT Philippines, Unioil Philippines, Seaoil Philippines and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. issued their respective notices of the price increase of P0.70 per liter for gasoline, P0.60 per

liter for diesel and P0.55 per liter for kerosene.

Other oil companies were expected to follow suit, implementing their own respective price hikes, the first for the year.

“Seaoil will adjust its pump prices per liter effective 6:00 a.m.

Jan. 3, as follows: gasoline, increase of P0.70 per liter; diesel, increase of P0.60 per liter and kerosene, increase of P0.55 per liter. This is to reflect movements in the international oil market,” the company said.

Next page

VACC hits out at drug killings Watchdog feels for ‘collateral victims’; solons weigh in

By Rio N. Araja

T

HE Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption on Monday expressed concern over the killings of innocent people in the Duterte administration’s bloody war against drugs.

Dante Jimenez, VACC founding He said the incident was not a result chairman, reacted to the killing of seven of a gang war, but a covert police oppeople, including three teenagers and a eration based on witnesses’ account. pregnant woman, by armed masked men “We went to the area because of our looking for a drug suspect in Bagong Si- concern about those teenagers being lang, Caloocan City on Dec. 27.

Next page

PH forking out P15.5b to host Asean summit

By John Paolo Bencito THE government will be allotting more than P15.5 billion to cover expenses for the country’s hosting of the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit this year.

The Office of the President,

whose budget allocation this year has increased 600 percent from 2016, will use the amount to be directly released to five implementing agencies: Office of the President, P11.07 billion; the Department of Tourism, P749.56 million; the Presidential Communications Op-

Injuries fewer by 40%, says Health THE number of firecracker injuries rose to 521 as of 6 a.m. on Jan. 2 from 350 on Jan. 1, but that was still 40 percent lower than the injuries recorded in 2015, the Department of Health said on Monday.

Department spokesman Eric Tayag said the 521 injuries compared with the 874 cases recorded in 2015.

He made his statement even as the National Capital Region Police Office said 167 cases of fireworks-related injuries were recorded during the celebration of the New Year.

But Metro Manila Police Chief Oscar Albayalde said that number was 86 percent lower compared with the 880 cases recorded a year ago.

His office also reported three cases of indiscriminate firing or people being hit by stray bullets Next page

erations Office, P1.46 billion; the Department of Trade and Industry, P177.68 million; and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, P2 billion.

In a recent budget hearing, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno explained that the increased allocation for the Asean summit is the

reason the OP’s budget swelled for 2017.

The P15.5-billion budget also includes a controversial P2.8billion contract with a company to handle events management, a deal that came under fire for allegedly violating procurement Next page laws.

New UN chief slams Istanbul terror attack UNITED NATIONS—UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Sunday condemned the “despicable” terrorist attack at a nightclub that killed 39 people in Istanbul, Turkey.

According to a statement of the spokesman for the secretary-general, Guterres extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims.

He also expressed his solidarity with the government and people

of Turkey and of those countries whose nationals were affected.

Guterres expressed the hope that the perpetrators of the attack would be identified and brought to justice swiftly.

A gunman stormed into the Reina nightclub early Sunday morning and shot at hundreds of people gathering there for New Year celebrations, leaving at least 39 killed and over 60 others injured.

Next page

Arroyo wants CB chief to lose AMLC powers

By Maricel V. Cruz

HEADS UP. Manila North Tollways Corp. employees monitor the volume of vehicles rolling southward from

the northern countryside following a long Christmas and New Year’s Eve vacation while monitors track the traffic building up along Edsa-Kamuning in the metropolis in the runup to the resumption of regular working days today. Manny Palmero

twitter.com/ MlaStandard

facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH

S

thestandard.com.ph

FORMER President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has filed a bill seeking to amend the Central Bank Act to take away the powers of the central bank governor over the Anti Money Laundering Council.

She filed House Bill 731 that

seeks to amend to Section 128 of the Central Bank Act to prohibit the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from supervising the AMLC, although its governor may serve as a member of the Council.

Arroyo says the central bank must be liberated from the burden of supervising the AMLC, which performs criminal investigations Next page and other functions.

Missed your copy of Manila Standard? Call or text our Circulation Hotline at 0917-8848655 or email: circ@manilastandardtoday.com

A2

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Gas...

From A1

Unioil, meanwhile, said it is also increasing its auto LPG by P2.23 per liter to reflect the higher contract price of liquefied petroleum gas in January.

The latest Energy department monitoring showed that crude oil was trading above $50 per barrel for three weeks in a row, supported by a deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-members to lower output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day from Jan. 1.

The department, however, said that while major Opec producers including Saudi Arabia and Iraq have informed their customers that delivery of supply will be slashed in line with the Opec deal, Libya and Nigeria are exempt because conflict has already curbed their output.

Libya’s National Oil Corp. anticipates to add 270,000 barrels per day to national production over the next three months after announcing the reopening of pipelines leading from two major fields.

On Dec. 27, 2016, the oil companies implemented an increase of P0.50 per liter in gasoline and P0.25 per liter in diesel. There was no movement in the price of kerosene.

The oil firms also raised cooking gas prices by P4.15 per kilo or P45.65 per 11-kilo tank to reflect the higher prices of liquefied petroleum gas in the world market effective Jan. 1.

Injuries...

From A1

during the New Year celebrations.

Three Army soldiers and a Philippine Coast Guard officer reportedly fired their weapons indiscriminately during the New Year celebrations, and were arrested by police operatives in Oriental Mindoro and in Bicol on Monday morning.

Authorities identified the army soldiers as Privates First Class Kevin Fajilagutan, Leonard Magro and John Rey Calansa, all members of the Army’s 514th Engineering Construction Battalion of the 51st Engineering Brigade based in Oriental Mindoro.

The Philippine Coast Guard officer was identified as Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Betito Lumbre.

Tayag said of the 521 cases, 284 were children up to 15 years old and 426 were male.

More than half the total or 297 were recorded in Metro Manila, 177 of the injuries were caused by the Piccolo and 98 were eye injuries.

On Monday, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial reported a 60-percent drop in the number of fireworks-related injuries.

She attributed the drop to the Duterte “fear factor” as people were scared they would be punished for using firecrackers to welcome 2017.

“They have this impression that somehow they will get caught or they will be punished,” Ubial said. Macon Ramos-Araneta, Joel E. Zurbano and Francisco Tuyay

8-m...

From A1

A vigil will be conducted at the Quirino Grandstand on Sunday from 5 p.m. On Monday, Jan. 9, a Mass will be held at the Quirino Grandstand at 12 a.m.

The image of the Black Nazarene will then be brought back to the Quiapo Church on Jan. 10.

News

Digong taps Davao ally for DBP post

D

AVAO CITY—Former Davao City vice mayor Luis Bonguyan has joined the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte as new member of the board of the Development Bank of the Philippines.

Bonguyan, who was Duterte’s vice mayor in early 2000, told reporters during the regular Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City on Monday that DBP’s mandate for this year is to focus its support to the local government units, the electric cooperatives and water districts in the country.

Since he assumed post, Bonguyan said around 350 LGUs have already proposed to avail of the services of DBP especially on its loan facility.

DBP will also extend support to the micro, small and medium enterprises through its medium and long-term loans, he added.

He said that for this year, DBP’s loan portfolio is estimated at P140 to P150 billion while the bank’s over-all asset is around P550 billion.

“Our income decreased last year compared to 2015,” Bonguyan pointed out, saying that in 2015, DBP had an income of P4.7 billion that went down to P3.8 billion in 2016.

He said they attributed the decrease in the banks’ income to the non-selling of its acquired properties.

“We received a letter and memorandum from the Department of Finance last year to set aside the selling of our acquired assets pending reappraisal,” he added.

Bonguyan believed that the bank will be able to increase its income once the re-appraisal by the DoF is completed.

He also called on the LGUs in Davao region to visit the nearest DBP branches and inquire on how they can avail of the bank’s services. PNA

China comforts PH after ‘Nina’ onslaught BEIJING―Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday extended his condolences to President Rodrigo Duterte over the death and destruction caused by Typhoon “Nock-ten” in the Philippines.

Xi said the Chinese government and people were worried about the Filipinos who lost their homes in the disaster, and that China was ready to provide emergency assistance.

“Nock-ten,” which battered the northern part of the Philippines on Christmas Day, left six people dead and 19 others missing and caused $80 million in damage.

In Manila, disaster officials said the damage wreaked by Typhoon “Nock-ten” or “Nina” in Calabarzon, Mimaropa and Region V had so far reached P5.14 billion.

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Executive Director Ricardo Jalad said the damage to agriculture reached P4.12 billion and to infrastructure P1.02 billion.

Typhoon “Nina” displaced 424,223 families or 1,893,404 individuals in 1,698 villages. PNA

VACC...

From A1

would usher in “an unprecedented era of darkness and medieval savagery.”

“If the President had his way, our predominantly Catholic country could go down as the world’s new top executioner, ahead of non-Catholic countries such as China, Iran and Pakistan,” Atienza said.

“It is bad enough we already have a virtual death penalty in place, with the unabated summary executions of alleged suspects sans the benefit of a full and fair trial,” he added.

Senator Richard Gordon, meanwhile, said he hopes that the government will arrest and convict those responsible for vigilante killings or summary executions—including rogue policemen.

“To effectively put an end to the killings with impunity, people must be part of the process of change. People must organize village watch groups to guard against crimes, particularly the influx of drug dealers and pushers, in their respective areas,” said Gordon.

He said the people themselves should be empowered to help transform their respective areas into drug-free neighborhoods where their families may safely reside. With Mari-

involved in drug use, trafficking or pushing. In four places we’d gone to, three of the minors were confirmed not using drugs, according to their relatives and neighbors,” he said.

“We also went to the barangay to investigate, and found out only one of the teenage boys had tried using drugs just once.”

He said five of the fatalities were just in the area of the police operation.

“In our initial assessment, I think there have been many of the people who became what President Rodrigo Duterte called... collateral damage.

And we call them collateral victims. They are the ones who get caught in a crossfire. Some are just a case of mistaken identity,” he said.

He urged the President to create a special task force composed of police officers and prosecutors to look into the deaths of innocent people.

An anti-death penalty lawmaker on Monday voiced concern of President Duterte’s wish to put five to six malefactors to death every day, or more than 2,000 a year, once Congress reinstates capital punishment. Such a move, cel V. Cruz and Macon Ramossaid Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza, Araneta

NORMAL SITUATION. Traffic along the Edsa -Kamuning area in Quezon City starts to build up as provincial vacationers begin their journey back to Metro Manila on Monday, Jan. 2,2017. Manny Palmero

PH...

From A1

The previous administration had created a National Organizing Council that will handle the country’s hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year.

The Asean-NOC is composed of the executive secretary and the secretary of Foreign Affairs (for the Asean Political Security Community) as chairpersons; the secretaries of Trade and Industry (for the Asean Economic Community), Social Welfare and Development (for the Asean Socio-Cultural Community), Interior and

New...

From A1

Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said no Filipino was killed or injured in the nightclub attack.

Jose said Philippine Embassy personnel checked all hospitals where victims were rushed and also called funeral parlor to see if there were any Filipino casualties.

Most of the survivors jumped into the nearby Bosphorus waters to save themselves after the attacker opened fire at random in the Reina nightclub just over an hour into the new year.

There were reports that the attacker shouted in Arabic as he opened fire at Reina.

Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State and launched an incursion into Syria in August to drive the radical Sunni militants from its borders. It also helped broker a fragile ceasefire in Syria with Russia.

Reports said that 15 or 16 of those killed at Reina were foreigners but only 21 bodies had

Arroyo...

From A1

She says AMLC Chairman and central bank Governor Armando Tetangco Jr. was appointed during the Arroyo administration and was re-appointed under the Aquino administration.

“Though Tetangco has unquestionably served the BSP itself with distinction, his supervision over the AMLC has exposed some problems,” Arroyo said in a statement.

“The said agency has been

Local Government, National Defense, and Public Works and Highways as vice chairpersons; and the secretaries of Transportation and Communications, Tourism, Budget and Management, and Presidential Communications Operations Office as members.

Chief Presidential Protocol Ambassador Marciano Paynor shall reprise his role as the chairman of the Asean-Noc Director General, following the success of the Apec hosting that he led as director-general of the APEC National Organizing Committee last 2015.

The commemorative launching of the Philippine chairman-

ship of Asean will be held Jan. 15 in Davao City, with two summits--the 30th Asean Summit will be held April in Mactan, Cebu, and the 31st Asean Summit shall be held November at Clark Freeport in Pampanga.

During the turn over ceremonies at Vientiane, President Rodrigo Duterte announced the Asean 2017 theme will be “Partnering for change, Engaging the world.”

In accepting the Asean chairmanship, the President said, “We will highlight Asean as a model of regionalism and a global player, with the interest of the people at its core.”

so far been identified, while 69 people were in hospital, four of them in critical condition.

Nationals of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon, Libya, Israel and Belgium were among those killed, officials said.

French men in the bloody attack were wounded.

The New Year’s Day attack came five months after a failed military coup, in which more than 240 people were killed, many of them in Istanbul, as rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighter jets in a bid to seize power.

More than 100,000 people, including soldiers and police officers, have been sacked or suspended in a subsequent crackdown ordered by Erdogan, raising concern both about civic rights and the effectiveness of Turkey’s security apparatus.

On Dec. 28, the Nashir Media Foundation, which backs Islamic State, urged sympathizers to carry out attacks in Europe during the holiday period and to “replace their fireworks with explosive belts and devices, and turn their singing

and clapping into weeping and wailing.”

A month ago, a spokesman for Islamic State urged supporters to target “the secular, apostate Turkish government.”

Turkey has seen repeated attacks in recent weeks. On Dec. 10, two bombs claimed

by Kurdish militants exploded outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul, killing 44 people.

A car bomb killed at least 13 soldiers and wounded 56 when it ripped through a bus carrying offduty military personnel in the central city of Kayseri a week later, an attack Erdogan also blamed on Kurdish militants.

The Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot dead as he gave a speech in Ankara on Dec. 19 by an off-duty police officer who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo” and “Allahu Akbar.”

In June, around 45 people were killed and hundreds wounded as three suspected Islamic State militants carried out a gun and bomb attack on Istanbul’s main Ataturk airport.

PNA

acting much on its own with regard to its investigations without bothering to get specific clearances from the BSP governor.”

Arroyo said the AMLC, whose officers were appointed by the previous administration, had demonstrated the potential of being used as a tool of selective justice.

“In the previous administration, grossly inaccurate information on the alleged bank accounts of then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte and other perceived opponents of the officers’ appointing authority were leaked out,” Arroyo said.

“In contrast, information is now being withheld from authorized investigators on the bank accounts of certain persons under investigation who happen to be identified with the previous authority which appointed them, and to whom they seem to owe their allegiance.

“Part of the problem is that although excellent in the management of the country’s monetary system, career technocrats like Tetangco do not have the temperament and training to supervise criminal investigations such as those conducted by the AMLC.”

News

C

EBU is growing and the best time to invest here is now. This is what ArthaLand believes this is why it will start to build its P8 billion Grade A green office project in the Queen City of the South this 2017.

Driven by tourism and IT-BPM industries, Cebu has been one of the major contributors to the country’s gross domestic product. It has a rich pool of talents with a literacy rate of 91.45% owing to the good number of schools, colleges, and universities within the city and province.

Cebu has one of the more advanced infrastructures among the key cities outside of Metro Manila. The Mactan - Cebu International Airport received the second largest share of visitor arrivals at about 20.16% as of August of 2016, serving direct flights to key destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Seoul, Narita, Doha, and Los Angeles among others. The construction of the $364 million Terminal 2 is also underway to accommodate more passengers.

The government and the private sectors are well on the way to improving and building more infrastructure in Cebu to further support growth.

Cebu, being located at the heart of the Philippines, is a strategic location for business growth. Outside of Metro Manila, it is the preferred destination of national and multinational enterprises when expanding to the Visayas and Mindanao markets. The city and province host several economic zones that churn products exported to different parts of the globe.

All these contribute to Cebu’s viability for investment.

MAJOR INVESTMENT For its part, ArthaLand’s Cebu Exchange that is soon to rise along Salinas Drive at the IT Park area is seen to contribute at least Php 7.2B in annual income for a potential of 40,000 ITBPM employees of locators that will choose to hold office in the project. This is apart from the economic multiplier effect of up to three to four jobs created per BPO employee.

Cebu Exchange is registered under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy

A3

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Now is the best time to invest in Cebu

ArthaLand’s Cebu Exchange is set to break ground this 2017. It is the first and only LEED and BERDE registered Grade-A office development in Visayas and Mindanao.

and Environmental Design (LEED) program as well as in the Philippine Green Building Council’s Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE) rating program. It is the first and only development in the Visayas and Mindanao region to be on target to achieve dual green building certification.

Certified green buildings benefit both the landlords as well as the tenants. Cebu Exchange is designed to be resource and operations efficient and to provide healthier working environment to boost productivity and profit. Based on reports by global industry analysts, larger companies prefer to locate in green buildings because of these reasons.

To ensure resource efficiency for the building’s locators, Cebu Exchange will feature green elements such as efficient building envelope,

••• The Cebu IT Park area remains to be a viable location for information technology and business process management industry as shown by the global locators operating in the district.

••• water efficient plumbing system, low-energy airconditioning system, efficient lighting system, use of low-emitting materials, and allocation for Low-Emitting & Fuel Efficient Vehicle (LEFEV) parking. With its strategic location, the project is well connected to the rest of the community, thus requiring less use of motorized vehicles.

IT-BPM HUB The Cebu IT Park area remains to be a viable

location for information technology and business process management industry as shown by the global locators operating in the district. This is proven by the low vacancy rate within the hub.

In a recent publication by the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), the industry is set to grow from 12.6% global market share in 2016 to 15.5% by 2022. It eyes to employ 1.8M Filipinos and earn as much USD 38B by the end of the period.

According to the organization, while North America remains to be the core market, established and recognized brands from Middle East, Europe, Australia, and the Pacific have come to rely on the expertise of the Philippine IT-BPM industry.

ArthaLand sees a greener 2017

ArthaLand recognized by national and international bodies for design, quality, and sustainability WHEN ArthaLand launched its first project in 2010, only a handful knew of this boutique developer. Today, the ArthaLand brand has become synonymous with sustainable developments here in the Philippines and across the South East Asian region.

When the company started to campaign for sustainable living back then, the idea seemed not too common for most Filipinos. It was thought then that to go green, one needed to be a die-hard tree hugger, living a rustic way of life so as not to hurt the planet. Some also thought that going green needed to be very expensive, relying only on solar power, and using rocket-science technology to work.

Some even thought that only by having green garden patches, one is already living sustainably.

ArthaLand debunked these ideas and helped educate the market to accept that green living is a must, and doing so needs careful planning, design, implementation, and management. A green lifestyle can easily be done with the right partner who understands what it really needs to be truly green.

With its projects, ArthaLand has been able to demonstrate that through calibrated measures of green development, we can optimize the benefits of living sustainably.

GREEN PROJECTS ArthaLand’s flagship residential project is Arya Residences in Bonifacio Global City.

This two tower top-tier condominium development is the first and only in the Philippines to be awarded by the United States Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program

with a Gold certification. It is also on target to achieve multiple stars from the Philippine Green Building Council’s Building BERDE (Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence) rating system.

Its premier office project, ArthaLand Century Pacific Tower, is rising along 5th Avenue at the corners of 30th Street and 4th Avenue, also in Bonifacio Global City. Similar to Arya Residences, the premium grade office tower goes through the stringent measures of LEED and BERDE. In fact, the project is already LEED Gold pre-certified. Once completed, it will be the home to the headquarters of multinational companies in the financial, pharmaceutical, FMCG, and IT and Knowledge Process Outsourcing industries.

Further expanding its reach, ArthaLand recently launched Cebu Exchange as its first foray in the rich Visayas and Mindanao markets. Completely imbibing the developer’s corporate DNA, Cebu Exchange is the first and only BPO-designed office tower in Cebu that is on target to achieve dual green building certification from the USGBC LEED and the PHILGBC BERDE programs.

MULTIPLE AWARDS Other than the two green building certifying bodies, ArthaLand and its projects have also been recognized by both national and international bodies composed by well-respected peers and experts. Citations have been given for design, quality, and sustainability.

In 2013, the Philippines Property Awards recognized ArthaLand as the Best Boutique Developer in the country. In the same year, BCI

Asia identified the company to be among the Top 10 Developers in the Philippines.

WWF—Philippines has conferred the company the Environmental Leadership Award every year since 2011 for its staunch advocacy on sustainable education engaging communities, local government units, and elementary school children.

ArthaLand’s corporate social responsibility programs have been recognized in the Asia Responsible Leadership Awards in the Green Leadership Category in 2015 and 2016.

It has earned a citation for its Best Practice in Supply Management: Procurement Strategies for Green Building in 2015.

The Urban Land Institute – Philippine Green Building Council Awards cited ArthaLand as the winner for Business Leadership in Sustainability this year.

Arya Residences has also received numerous awards including Best Residential High Rise in the Asia Pacific Property Awards for 2014-2015. It also won as the Best Residential Development (Philippines) 2012 and the Best Condo Development (Philippines) 2013 in the South East Asia Property Awards among many others.

Most recently, the ArthaLand Century Pacific Tower earned several recognitions from the South East Asia Property Awards 2016. The award-giving body named the SOM New York-designed project as the Best Office Architectural Design (Philippines) winner.

It has also conferred the premium-grade tower with the Best Green Development (Philippines) and Special Recognition in Sustainable Design (South East Asia) awards.

GREEN developer ArthaLand is bullish of the Philippine property sector’s sustained growth this year as market continues to look for high quality, well-designed, green developments. The company earlier released its growth plan, aiming to quintuple its footprint in the next five years with an investment estimate of about P20 billion pesos.

ArthaLand recently listed P2B preferred shares in the Philippine bourse to further strengthen its financial position.

Encouraged by the market reception of its newly launched project, Cebu Exchange, ArthaLand sees dynamic market activities to happen in areas outside of Metro Manila.

Other than Cebu, the company also recently acquired an 8.1 hectare prime property in Laguna.

According to company officers, they see the office sector’s continued growth driven by the demand from the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry. The expansion of home-grown industries is also seen to drive the demand for space.

The demand for sustainably designed residential developments is also seen to increase as property hunters and investors become more aware of its impact on savings, health, and the environment.

For ArthaLand, the sector’s growth is largely dependent on the country’s economy. The Philippines is seen by analysts to continue its growth trajectory given the government’s efforts to speed up infrastructure developments, especially in the provinces.

WORLD - CLASS GREEN ArthaLand is a world-class developer of boutique and sustainable projects. Its flagship residential project is Arya Residences, the country’s first United States Green Building Council LEED Gold certified development in its category.

In the office sector, it is on target to deliver the premium grade ArthaLand Century Pacific Tower, a LEED precertified development. Both projects are also registered under the Philippine Green Building Council’s Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE) certification program.

Arya Residences and the ArthaLand Century Pacific Tower are both located in Bonifacio Global City, currently the country’s prime business and lifestyle district.

Its entry to the fast growing Visayas and Mindanao markets is through its IT-BPM - geared Cebu Exchange which is set to break ground this year. The P8 billion project is seen to accommodate at least 40,000 agents for three shift operating BPO locators.

SOLID FOUNDATION ArthaLand is a listed company led by the Po family of CPG Holdings, Inc. (CPGHI), the group behind the country’s leading canned food company in the Philippines which owns market leader brands such as Century Tuna, 555, and Argentina, among others. The Po family also leads the country’s top pizza chain, Shakey’s. ArthaLand’s other major shareholder is international investment firm, AO Capital.

The company is led by a solid team of real estate experts with over a century’s worth of cumulative experience. It has been working with major national and international firms for its projects, including Crone of Australia, SOM New York, and Architects international.

ArthaLand’s core business philosophy is rooted on sustainability. This dictates that all its projects will adhere by national and globally recognized standards in green building. The company is also recognized by peers for its leadership in design and quality.

A4

Opinion

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL

Downward spiral

N

OW that the Christmas and New Year holidays are behind us, we slide back into the business of government.

One of the first things we watch out for is the congressional move to restore the death penalty, upon the prodding of no less than President Rodrigo Duterte who is keen on casting terror among those involved

in the drug trade.

The President says he is resorting to these drastic measures to contain the drug menace that threatens to turn the country into a narco-state and destroy the next generations. He has also

said, though we do not know if he was being truthful or emphatic, that he would like to see several state executions, in a variety of manners, every day.

This was briefly taken up at the House of Representatives last year, but our lawmakers said they were setting it aside in the spirit of the holidays and would revert to it

in January.

And now it is January.

All the arguments appear to have been exhausted: How statesponsored executions have not been proven to deter crime, how the death penalty runs counter to the idea of restorative justice, and how an imperfect justice system worsens the situation be-

cause innocent men may be put to death while the truly guilty can go scot-free.

There are also arguments based on religion.

We can only repeat these and hope the supposedly enlightened lawmakers find it in their hearts to vote against something fundamentally opposable. This, in-

stead of going along with the wishes of an incumbent administration that singlemindedly pursues an objective no matter the cost or damage.

The thought of death penalty in a country like the Philippines with a system so skewed, imperfect and oppressive can only sow terror among the boldest among us.

EAGLE EYES TONY LA VIÑA

Ring out the false, ring in the true

The year of the people LOWDOWN

JOJO A. ROBLES “YOU take the red pill... and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”—Morpheus in The Matrix Near the middle of the year just past, Filipinos decided they wanted to see how deep a hole they were in as a nation. They were ready, or so they thought, for the unvarnished, unexpurgated, unadulterated truth.

They chose to leave the Matrix-like confines of the Yellow fantasyland, as offered whole and entire by the cardboardcutout designated heir, and the simulacra being presented as pseudo-alternatives to them by the other, similarly Yellowinfected choices. They picked the one candidate who offered a real break from continuing on as before.

They sought answers and action after six years of unceasing propaganda and benign neglect.

They contemplated the abyss and jumped right in with merry abandon.

Their so-called betters were shocked, to say the least. Half a year later, those who think they know what’s best for everyone are still walking around in a zombie-like daze of defeat-indenial.

Three decades after the restoration of freedom and the people actually chose someone they wanted, instead of someone handpicked by the oligarchs and the plutocrats, the neo-colonialists and the Yellow media, the Manila-centric academe and the castrated political class, the hypocritical Church and the Westloving human-rights crowd. Is this what we fought for, they asked, wringing their spa-pampered hands and tearing at their coiffed hair, at Edsa in 1986?

And the Yellow-tinted hissy

fit has been going on for six months now, as the horrified elite tote up the bodies in the war on illegal drugs that they never thought was possible, to stamp out a problem they never even acknowledged as real. They ig-

It’s not been a good year for everyone. It’s just been that for ordinary people. nored all of good that was being done outside of the headlines that they thought would ignite the populace—which, in turn, ignored them, as they cheered

lustily in favor of they change that they knew, in their hearts, was coming and was still to come.

Most of all, they nursed the hurt of being relegated to the sidelines of the national discourse, of being exposed as an irrelevant minority pining for the loss of their glory and preeminence. They wanted us to take the blue (or Yellow) pill, after all, and to continue believing what they’ve always wanted us to believe.

It’s not been a good year for everyone. It’s just been that way for ordinary people, who are still basking in the afterglow of their unprecedented victory over the unelected, vastly outnumbered elite classes.

But that’s just the way it should be. If you give people the right to vote, there’s a chance they might turn their backs on your nonetoo-subtle advice and choose who they really want.

The various elites got clob-

bered by the rest of us in 2016.

No wonder they want their old rule, their formerly exclusive social media and all the other lost trappings of their power back.

It’s been an excellent year for the people, all around. Not all the people, for sure, but enough of them to finally make everyone see the utter and disgusting nakedness that the old emperor made believe was his regal clothing. *** Vice President Leni Robredo arrived yesterday from her mysterious holiday trip to the United States and “went straight,” the usual fawning media reports said, to visit the victims of a huge fire in Quezon City recently. Why Robredo didn’t proceed directly to her home province of Camarines Sur, devastated by unseasonal typhoon Nina right before Christmas, was not made known.

Turn to A5

ANTONIO Gramsci once wrote why he hated celebrating the New Year. He said: “I want every morning to be a new year for me. Every day I want to reckon with myself, and every day I want to renew myself... no day of celebration with its mandatory collective rhythms, to share with all the strangers I don’t care about. Because our grandfathers’ grandfathers, and so on, celebrated, we too should feel the urge to celebrate. That is nauseating.”

Gramsci then praised socialism, explained his desire for it, “Because it will hurl into the trash all of these dates which have no resonance in our spirit and, if it creates others, they will at least be our own, and not the ones we have to accept without reservations from our silly ancestors.”

I have a different view. New Year’s Day is a wonderful time to stop and do what Lord Alfred Tennyson exhorted us to do in his famous poem In Memoriam: “Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,/The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night;/ Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,/Ring, happy bells, across the snow:/The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind/For those that here we see no more;/Ring out the feud of rich and poor,/Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,/And ancient forms of party strife;/Ring in the nobler modes of life,/With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,/The faithless coldness of the times;/Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes/But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,/The civic slander and the spite;/Ring in the love of truth and right,/Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing Turn to A5

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

ONLINE MEMBER

PPI

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

Emil P. Jurado

Adelle Chua Honor Blanco Cabie Romel J. Mendez Roberto Cabrera

Chairman Emeritus, Editorial Board

Opinion Editor Night Editor Art Director Chief Photographer

Opinion TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO

the United States has its own drug problem—a $30-billion heroin industry. Our neighbors Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and even China have their own drug problems.

Meanwhile, we will continue to live in fear as was shown by a recent survey.

*** And then there is concern about a move to oust Duterte within 18 months.

The Liberal Party—the Yellows—continue to deny a plan to oust Duterte and install Leni Robredo. It is a fact that in the United States, some yellows led by a former Yellow senator has been making the rounds of cities, encouraging Filipino Americans to support their cause. *** He agitates them, saying As the New Year begins, President Duterte has made one of the concerns of tirades against the US. Are Filipinos is whether there the Yellows trying to seek would be more summary the support of the Central Inkillings. Recall that Presi- telligence Agency? dent Duterte had sought anThis is the reason I believe other six months to end the there is truth to the claim drug menace. that former US Ambassador He keeps on saying he does Philip Goldberg, whom Dunot want to lose momentum terte called “an interfering on the war and will not stop homosexual,” had some kind until the last of blueprint to pusher is alive. oust Duterte.

Am I correct to The Ameriassume it will can Embassy Killing just get bloodin Manila and ier? the US State the last drug Do we now D e pa r t me nt have a killing dealer will have denied machine where never be this, however. the chief exIt’s a cause ecutive merely enough. for concern, says sorry for nonetheless. all the uninThis is why tended vicCongress tims? He should do more than should dig deeper into the apologize. As top cop of the alleged plot to unseat DuPhilippine National Police, he terte. Santa Banana, don’t should direct the force to stop tell me there will be a return the extra-judicial killings that of the Yellows with Robredo have sown fear and brought as president! We have had international criticism? enough of BS Aquino’s inSenator Panfilo Lacson has competence and vindictiveurged the President to com- ness for six years. Equally pensate these unintended vic- important is that Robredo tims. I don’t believe that would does not have the qualities of be enough. So many have been a leader. widowed and orphaned.

There must be justice. Those *** responsible for the killings Another item for speculashould be held accountable. tion is the future of Senator In law, a person is deemed in- Leila de Lima. She has been nocent until proven otherwise. the target of attempts of the Duterte is a lawyer; of course President and his allies in he must know this.

Congress to “destroy” her.

If it is true that there are nuMany cases have been merous government officials thrown against the former involved in the drug trade and Justice Secretary. Among thousands of drug networks these is the ethics comare operating nationwide, then plaint filed before the Senthe extra six months will not ate by Secretary of Justice be enough.

Vitaliano Aguirre for her Killing that last drug dealer alleged involvement in the will never be enough. The big- illegal drug trade. She supger problem is rehabilitating posedly told her driver/ the estimated 4 million drug lover Ronnie Dayan to hide users. The problem will never and not testify at the House end so long as there is demand of Representatives. for illegal drugs.

I cannot empathize or symTake it from me. I used to pathize with de Lima, but I am work for the DARE Founda- beginning to admire her fortition. Some of the addicts put tude and courage to take eveunder our care just returned to rything thrown against her. As their old habits. Drug addic- to her involvement in the drug tion is a physiological and psy- trade at Bilibid...well, I reserve chological problem that makes my comments until a court of law decides on it. rehabilitation difficult.

In the meantime, what we What I am trying to say is that Duterte can only mini- are all seeing in the case of de mize the drug problem, not Lima seems to be a repeat of end it. Colombia has been try- what BS Aquino did to former ing to end its own drug prob- President Gloria Macapagal lem for 30 years, Mexico for Arroyo and the late Chief Jus10 years, all to no avail. Even tice Renato Corona.

A5

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Martial Law under the 1987 Constitution HAIL TO THE CHAIR VICTOR AVECILLA

Climate of fear BEFORE the New Year celebrations, President Rodrigo Duterte railed and ranted against some bishops and priests critical of the killings done in the name of the war against illegal drugs. He said members of the Catholic Church were hypocrites; even popes, he said, have sired children.

He then went on to say that while he believed in God and Allah, he did not believe in religion, adding that he may just organize the Church of Duterte where a man can have five wives.

Was he joking or resorting to hyperbole? Did Mr. Duterte not realize that he was trivializing the faith of 85 percent of Filipinos?

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

THE last two essays under this column discussed the speculations peddled by Vice President Leni Robredo to the effect that President Rodrigo Duterte wants to declare Martial Law and impose one-man rule in the Philippines. To repeat, that speculation reveals that Robredo does not understand Martial Law, either during the time of President Ferdinand Marcos, or under the 1987 Constitution.

Martial Law under President Marcos was discussed in last week’s essay. This discussion is about Martial Law under the 1987 Constitution.

After Corazon Aquino seized power in February 1986, she abolished the 1973 Constitution and replaced it with what she called the “Freedom Constitution.” This “Freedom Constitution” was a verbatim copy of the 1973 Constitution minus the provisions on the Batasang Pambansa, the legislature then operating.

By virtue of this “Freedom Constitution,” Aquino vested in herself both executive and legislative powers—the same powers President Marcos exercised under the 1973 Constitution. From 1986 to 1987, Aquino ran the country under a “one-woman rule” system. It was a dictatorship, plain and simple.

Did Aquino’s allies, particularly those from the LP, oppose the Aquino dictatorship? No. In fact, historical revisionists in the LP deliberately avoid mentioning that Aquino once ran the country under a dictatorship identical to the one which they attribute to Marcos.

Ring out...

From A4 lust of gold;/Ring out the thousand wars of old,/Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,The larger heart, the kindlier hand;/Ring out the darkness of the land,/Ring in the Christ that is to be.”

In the spirt of Tennyson, I shares my hopes and prayers for 2017, the old I would like to ring out, and the new I would like to ring in: For all leaders of the world, that they may govern wisely and compassionately, in a manner that unites and not divides nations and peoples; For peace in the world, for solutions to terrorism and to the many conflicts all over the world, and particularly for the refugee crisis; For the international community to decisively address the challenge of climate change by making the Paris Agreement, which the Philippines should ratify, work to help us transition to a low-carbon and resilient world; For President Duterte and Vice President Robredo, that they listen beyond their echo chambers and accept legitimate feedback and criticism so they can be better public servant-leaders; For President Duterte to make good, solid Supreme Court appointments, jurists who will be as independent and wise as Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Justices Tony Carpio, Mar-

Instead of calling an election for delegates to a constitutional convention which will draft a new charter for the country, Aquino created the 1986 Constitutional Commission composed of about 44 of her political allies and very close friends, and just 5 commissioners from the political opposition then led by ex-Labor Minister Blas Ople.

Unlike in the 1934 and 1971 Constitutional Conventions which were composed of elected delegates, every member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission was appointed by Aquino. Thus, for the first time in Philippine history, the drafters of the nation’s constitution were not elected by the people.

Did Aquino’s allies oppose this unprecedented, dictatorial move? No, and the LP’s historical revisionists are mum on this.

The 1987 Constitution turned out to be a reactionary charter because its provisions on the power of the president to declare Martial Law were diluted. In fact, its drafters publicly admitted that the charter is designed to prevent a rise of another “dictatorship” akin to that under President Marcos.

Just how diluted those provisions are will be revealed by a comparison of past charters with the present.The 1935 and 1973 charters vested in the President the sole prerogative to declare Martial Law. Congress had no power to interfere, and although the Supreme Court could review the validity of the proclamation of Martial Law, its power of judicial review was limited to whether or not the President acted arbitrarily in proclaiming Martial Law. Under the 1987 Constitution, however, Congress is authorized to revoke the proclamation

of Martial Law, and the Supreme Court may, upon a petition by any citizen, review the “sufficiency of the factual basis of the proclamation of Martial Law.” More specifically, the 1987 charter states that although the President is empowered to put the country or any part of it under Martial Law for a maximum of 60 days, he must submit the corresponding report to Congress within 48 hours from the proclamation of Martial Law. In turn, Congress may either revoke the proclamation, or even extend the period set by the President. There is no deadline for Congress to act on the matter.

Are Congress and the Supreme Court equipped with enough information and expertise to decide if Martial Law is necessary for the country? On account of the lack of proximity Congress and the Supreme Court have in relation to the source of the national emergency, that is very doubtful.

Whose decision will prevail if the Supreme Court disagrees with Congress? That deadlock will surely lead to a constitutional crisis, and the nation does not need a constitutional crisis at a time when its very survival is at stake.

Should Congress disagree with the President and revoke the proclamation of Martial Law, and it turns out that Congress is mistaken, then the of the State is needlessly compromised. Gambling, with the nation’s security at stake, is akin to courting trouble on a large scale.

The other choice is for Congress to adopt the President’s position and allow Martial Law to remain. If the majority of the House of Representatives belongs to the president’s political

party, that is a virtual certainty.

Compared to the number of members in the House, the 24 votes of the Senate will not really matter in this regard. That’s because the Constitution states that both houses of Congress must vote jointly in its deliberations on the president’s proclamation of Martial Law. To all intents and purposes, therefore, the participation of Congress in the Martial Law equation is insignificant in the light of political reality.

Jurisprudence under the 1935 and 1973 charters indicate that the Supreme Court may disallow the proclamation of Martial Law only if the president acted arbitrarily, in resorting to Martial Law. The reason for this standard is anchored not only on the principle of separation of powers underlying the Constitution, but also because the Supreme Court is not equipped with the knowledge and expertise on matters affecting the national security—at least, when compared to the executive department.

Under the 1987 Constitution, the Supreme Court is required to go beyond the “arbitrariness” standard, and look into the “factual” basis for Martial Law. Can the Supreme Court really comply with this standard without the knowledge and expertise required for doing so?

Here’s a clue—the Supreme Court has since time immemorial ruled that it is “not a trier of facts.”

At the end of the day, whether President Duterte likes it or not, and unless the 1987 Constitution is so amended, and for the information of Vice President Robredo, Martial Law under the current charter is not the “one-man rule” Robredo erroneously wants the public to fear.

vic Leonen, Francis Jardeleza and Benjamin Caguioa.

For Senate President Koko Pimentel and House of Representatives Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, for wisdom in making decisions about the death penalty and criminal liability if children by not reimposing both, on constitutional change so that we can find the best path to becoming a federal and bicameral, combined presidential-parliamentary system of government, and in ensuring the passage of the Freedom of Information Act; For all Filipinos who are engaged in partisan politics in some form or another, especially in social media, for humility to accept one can be mistaken, fidelity to the truth, and most of all for kindness and gentleness in how we criticize those we do not like and those we disagree with; For Loida Nicolas Lewis, and global Filipinos like her, that she will not be intimidated by attacks and criticism for speaking out her mind, that they will continue to contribute to the country in the best way that they can as global Filipinos, OFWs and dual citizens, have the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens; For the killing and massacre of the poor to stop and for those responsible for it to be made accountable; For the Commission on Human Rights, led by its Chair Chito Gascon and its splendid group of commissioners, that it will continue to rise up to the challenge of standing up for hu-

man rights in a challenging and hostile atmosphere; For the peace process with the communist and Moro revolutionary movements to be completed with permanent and comprehensive peace agreements, for wisdom particularly for President Duterte, Secretary Jess Dureza, and for all the panel chairs and negotiators on all sides of these negotiations; For Executive Secretary Leo Medialdea and Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco and their excellent teams in Malacañang, that they are not discouraged and distracted by the wild accusations against them being communists, that they continue to do the solid work they are doing for the country and especially for the poor; For the people in charge of our transportation systems, particularly Secretary Art Tugade and LTFRB Chair Martin Delgra, and for Metro Manila MMDA Chair Tim Orbos and, among other MMDA officials, his colleague Julia Nebrija, that all of them with the new powers that will be granted to them

by Congress will finally set us in the right direction so that inclusive mobility becomes a reality for our cities; For my Dean at the University of the Philippines College of Law, Dean Danny Concepcion, who has been elected UP president, that he leads the country’s premier public academic institution to greater heights in the years he will be leading it; For the Ateneo de Manila University, that the comple-

tion of the new building The Arete inaugurates a new era of humanities and the arts, for design and innovative thinking, and for collaboration across disciplines; For the Ateneo School of Government to become even better, with its new leadership, in forming students and as a source of governance solutions; For the Manila Observatory, which I lead if only for an interim period, that we continue to do our science in a world-class manner at the service of people and planet; For the nearly 200 couples I have been Ninong for their wedding, including Paco and Monica whom I forgot to mention in my last column, that their marriages and families be resilient and strong amid life’s challenges, and this I wish too for my own family and those of my siblings, relatives, and friends; For good health for everyone I know, young and old, and especially my mother Inday who is 88 years old this year; And finally, for myself, I ask for a strong body, clear and wise mind, and a grateful and kind heart so I can do the Lord’s mission for people and planet, to promote peace and human rights, to teach, and to proclaim the joy of the Gospel.

Let’s all ring out the false, ring in the new, and ring in the Christ that is to be.

Facebook: deantonylavs Twitter: tonylavs

The year...

From A4 Robredo kept an unusual (for her, anyway) vow of silence while she was away.

She left none of the usual trail of tweets or Facebook posts, releasing only prepared motherhood holiday statements for Christmas and the New Year.

It was as if she was not only unaware of the calamity that struck her hometown. At times, it seemed like the

publicity-hungry VP had not just gone stateside but had fallen off the face of the earth.

Her usual boosters attempted vainly to spin her absence and uncharacteristic silence as the result of her losing her job in the Duterte Cabinet. They could not nearly explain how an official who has reveled in the blanket coverage she’s

been receiving from an adoring mainstream media from the day of her controversial, protested election could not even issue a direct statement about the typhoon.

Robredo, of course, is like Obi-Wan Kenobi to Princess Leia in Star Wars, representing the only hope of the irrelevant Yellow elites of surviving what

promises to be a six-year calamity for them. She cannot suddenly go missing and leave her faithful without a word, thus causing the political equivalent of a panic attack amongst them.

Robredo must also understand that even if she no longer has a real job, her neighbors, relatives and original constituents in Naga City and its envi-

rons look to her as their patroness, as the highest elected Bicolana politician in the land. If they can’t trust her to be around and to immediately come to their aid when disaster strikes when she is basically twiddling her thumbs doing nothing, how will they know that she will be there for them when she has a real job?

A6

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

News AFP seeks truce with communists

By Florante S. Solmerin

NEGLECTED CREWS. Garbage collectors and truck drivers of 316 Metro Inc. stage a strike at their dispatching area on Payatas Road in Quezon City to demand payment of 13th month pay and a raise in wages and benefits. Manny Palmero

IN BRIEF Mel Lopez passes away FORMER Manila mayor Gemiliano “Mel” Lopez Jr. died of a heart attack at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City Sunday night.

He was 81.

The remains of the former Manila mayor, who was chairman of the Philippine National Oil Co. and Pacific Concrete Products Inc. at the time of his death, will be brought to Sto. Niño Church in Manila’s Tondo district, his long-time political bailiwick.

He will be buried at the Heritage Park in Taguig City after necrological rites at the Manila City Hall.

Lopez had been a Manila politician since 1967 when he became a city councilor.

He later represented the city in the Martial Law Batasang Pambansa from 1984 to 1986 and mayor from 1986 to 1992.

In 1993, he was appointed by former President Fidel Ramos as chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission, serving until 1996.

AGREEMENT on a bilateral ceasefire between the government and communist rebels would be a good way to start the new year and to push long and lasting peace in the country, the military said Monday.

“Hopefully, 2017 will start with a good joint declaration,” military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said, noting that both the government and rebel panels are keen on signing a ceasefire despite disagreements on the release of more than 400 political prisoners.

President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier promised to release the prisoners but later demanded that the communist National Democratic Front first agree to a ceasefire before he issues an amnesty for all detained communist rebels.

Padilla said the leadership of the Armed Forces of the Philippines is confident that what was started last year between the government and the NDF will continue to prosper this year.

The positive peace outlook has already resulted in separate but independent ceasefire declarations late last year.

Traffic powers bill stalls

By Maricel V. Cruz

T

HE House of Representatives is still having a hard time passing the proposed emergency powers being sought by the Department of Transportation to address the traffic woes.

Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, chairman of the House committee on transportation, said the House is still working on its draft of the proposal

way behind the draft completed by the Senate panel headed by Senator Grace Poe. Sarmiento said his committee needs up to the end of the month

to come up with a draft bill and debate the measure in February.

Congress will resume session on Jan. 16 after a month-long holiday break.

“Jan. 18 will be the first meeting of the committee to discuss the House version ofTraffic Crisis Act,” Sarmiento said in a radio interview.

Sarmiento said he will coordinate with Poe before Congress resumes session to discuss and reconcile con-

f licting provisions of the measure.

“I will talk to Senator Poe to enable us to have a good discussion during the [bicameral] conference meeting,” Sarmiento said, referring to the version reported by the Senate committee on transportation to the plenary last Dec. 14.

Among the differences in the House and the Senate’s version of the measure is a provision requiring the DOTr to submit a

Lance Baconguis

list of priority projects that are supposed to address the traffic problem within 90 days and yet require huge funding.

Sarmiento said the 2017 budget did not factor in allocations for big ticket projects intended to ease the worsening traffic in the country.

“We will find a way to finance them, perhaps by way of supplemental budget. The Congress and the Senate will settle it,” Sarmiento said.

DND: Don’t fuss over Hague ruling

By John Paolo Bencito

Probe Limbona slay, cops urged CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY —Lanao del Norte Rep. Abdullah Dimaporo urged law enforcement agencies, such as the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the National Bureau of Investigation, to conduct a thorough investigation to locate and identify Pantar town mayor Mohammad Exchan Limbona’s killers.

“We ask President Rodrigo Duterte to give time for the capture of the assassins of Exchan Limbona who has contributed to our pursuit of law and order, peace and unity of our people [in Lanao del Norte],” he said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Lanao del Norte Gov. Imelda Quibranza-Dimaporo said Limbona was a dedicated leader who “never abandoned or left his constituents” during the political crisis in Pantar.

Limbona was gunned down by still unidentified men inside his vehicle on its way to Pantar from this city in Sitio Paitan, Barangay Dalipuga, Iligan City, on Dec. 29.

In a radio interview Monday, Iligan city police chief, Senior Supt. Leony Roy Ga, said it was probable that Limbona’s vehicle was being followed as it made its way to Pantar from this city since the killers knew that the former mayor was driving.

“Based on the Armed Forces’ perspective, we are all supportive of the President’s agenda to have a long lasting peace and justice with the [communists] and we are looking forward to more positive steps this year,” Padilla said.

“The year 2016 was a pioneering year for the resumption of peace talks. It was a good year for the resumption of the peace talks and hopefully year 2017 will start with a good joint [ceasefire] declaration,” he added.

Meanwhile, Col. Edgard Arevalo, chief of the AFP Public Affairs Office, said the military and the Philippine National Police have vowed to dismantle the drug trafficking apparatus of lawless armed groups, like the Maute group in Mindanao.

Arevalo in an interview made special mention of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

“We will relentlessly pursue the BIFF focusing on its organization and support systems that enables them to resist government operations to neutralize them,” Arevalo said.

“We will, together with the PNP, dismantle their machinery for illegal drugs trade and destroy their links with like-minded terrorist groups,” he added.

GARAGE FIRE. Firefighters put out a blaze at a car garage in Don Antonio Heights Subdivsion in Barangay Holy Spirit in Quezon City that destroyed six luxury vehicles. Manny Palmero

Film fest spotlights animal rights

By Joel E. Zurbano THE makers of the independent film “Oro” on Monday agreed to “shade” a controversial scene following a complaint that a dog was slaughtered in the movie.

This developed shortly after the actors and producers of the movie appeared at the office of Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Thomas Orbos to shed light on allegations that the film violated the law on animal cruelty.

The film, a story of a barangay leader defending a small mining community from bandits, is one of the eight movie entries to this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival, organized and supervised by the MMDA. Orbos asked the filmmakers to explain allegations that there was a scene in the movie where a dog was slaughtered in violation of the

Animal Welfare Act, or Republic Act 8485, which prohibits the use of animals killed for the purpose of film production.

The MMDA chief, who is also the overall chairman of the MMFF, made the inquiry based on the complaints of members of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS).

“We agreed that a particular scene in the movie be shaded,” said Alvin Yapan, the film director, following a meeting with Orbos and other MMFF executive committee officials.

He also said the “minor” issue became controversial because of the social media hype.

Irma Adlawan, who is the lead character in the movie and who won in the Best Actress category, also said she was saddened by the issue. She added she is willing to return her trophy if the MMFF executive committee called for it.

But MMFF spokesman Noel Fer-

rer said there is no need for Adlawan to return her trophy, saying the issue is “no relation to her being a good actress in the movie.”

The meeting was also attended

by Film Development Council of the Philippines chairperson Liza Diño-Seguerra and representatives from PAWS. In a letter sent to Orbos dated Dec. 31, PAWS stated that they received numerous reports about a scene depicting cruelty to animal.

PAWS was referring to the scene of a dog “being slaughtered in the film” and insists that “there is no way that the scenes could have been faked.”

The group also requested that the film be pulled out of the cinemas until the investigation is over.

Orbos said when he was notified of the matter he immediately called for a meeting, “We have called the producer of ‘Oro’ as well as invited PAWS to attend.”

DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Monday scored Beijing for trying to undermine the arbitral ruling won by the Philippines that junked China’s nine-dash line claim over the West Philippine Sea. “The Chinese government says it does not recognize the arbitral ruling. Neither do we recognize their so-called historic rights demarcated by their nine-dash line which the arbitral ruling says does not exist and has no historical basis,” Lorenzana told Manila Standard.

“Ours of course, is the stronger claim. We have the arbitral ruling to back our claim. Theirs is just a drawing on the map that has no basis. That is why they don’t want the arbitral ruling discussed and want us to set it aside forever,” the defense chief said.

Although the country wants to treat China as an important ally, Lorenzana said the Philippines will continue to assert its rightful claims in the disputed waters.

“Our entitlement to our EEZ remains. We are not giving up our EEZ. President Rodrigo Duterte’s statements on setting aside [the arbitral ruling] means “not to discuss it yet,” he said.

“Give it to the future generation to resolve. Meantime, allow traditional fishermen, Filipinos, Vietnamese and Chinese to fish unmolested as they have done for more than a millennium,” he added.

In his New Year’s address, President Xi Jinping told its critics that it will never allow anyone to “make a great fuss” about its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights.

Beijing’s increasingly assertive moves to push its territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea, including building artificial islands, has unnerved its neighbors.

“We adhere to peaceful development, and resolutely safeguard our territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Xi said, in comments carried by state media late on Saturday.

“Chinese people will never allow anyone to get away with making a great fuss about it,” he said, without elaborating.

Last year, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the country in the South China Sea dispute.

Manila lodged the case in response to a four-year blockade recently lifted by China’s coastguard at the Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing patch.

China claims most of the South China Sea. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

Sports

A7

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Murray: Novac still my biggest rival Martial D must listen OHA—World number one Andy Murray insisted Sunday that Novak Djokovic will remain his biggest threat in 2017, as the pair prepare for a potential first clash of the season in Doha this week.

Newly-knighted Murray, speaking ahead of the first round of the Qatar Open which begins on Monday, said the Serb would continue to make life tough for him on court this year.

“In terms of the number one ranking, Novak would be (the biggest threat),” Murray told reporters.

“I had a great sort of four, five months at the end of last year and I still only got to number one by one

match basically at the end the year, so I know it will be very tough to stay there.”

Murray also tipped six-times Australian Open champion Djokovic to be the player to beat in Melbourne, when the year’s first Grand Slam begins later this month.

In Qatar, Murray is the number one seed and if matches go to form it will set up a mouth-watering fi-

nal clash with Djokovic, the number two seed and defending Doha champion, on January 7.

Murray’s first round match is against France’s Jeremy Chardy on Tuesday.

Djokovic begins his title defence on Monday against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.

At this stage last year, Djokovic was dominating men’s tennis and there was much talk of him winning all four Grand Slams in 2016.

But despite winning in Australia and the French Open, Djokovic’s season tailed off in the second half of the season, which saw him crash out in the third round at Wimble-

don and losing the US Open final to Stan Wawrinka.

But he denied on Sunday that his game was in “crisis”.

“I don’t see the six months, second six months of 2016 as a failure or anything like that,” he told reporters.

“It’s not in my mindset, I guess, in my philosophy of life to observe things in this way -- that I didn’t succeed, that I failed, that I’ve fallen or something like that.

“I just feel like every experience is a blessing one way or another.”

The 12-times Grand Slam winner and former world number one added that he retained his hunger to win.

“Without a doubt, when I’m on the court there is no other thing than to win that tennis match.”

Despite Murray and Djokovic getting top billing in Doha, they are unlikely to get things all their own way this coming week.

Also playing is one of last year’s semi-finalists, Tomas Berdych, this year’s number three seed.

France’s dangerous Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is the number five seed and he has beaten Murray and Djokovic a total of eight times in his career.

The Qatar Open, now in its 25th year, has not been successfully defended since Murray won back in 2009. AFP

NASCAR star driver Dale weds WASHINGTON—Dale Earnhardt Jnr, a second-generation star driver in America’s most popular auto racing circuit, announced Sunday on Twitter he married long-time girlfriend Amy Reimann on New Year’s Eve. The ceremony took place in front of friends and family as well as some of Earnhardt’s rival racers in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).

The two had dated since 2009 and announced their engagement in June 2015.

“Happily married!!! What an amazing experience. Looking forward to the rest of our lives @ Amy_Reimann. #honeymooners,” Earnhardt tweeted.

Reimann, who changed her last name to Earnhardt on Twitter, acknowledged the nuptials only by tweeting: “I sure wish my husband would wake up! @DaleJr.” The wedding took place in North Carolina at Childress Vineyards, owned by NASCAR race team owner Richard Childress.

Other drivers attending included Danica Patrick, who posted on Instagram that she caught the bouquet, Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex.

Earnhardt, who missed the last 18 races of the 2016 season after a concussion in a crash at Michigan, has been medically cleared to resume NASCAR competition when the 2017 campaign launches at next month’s Daytona 500.

The 42-year-old American is the son of Dale Earnhardt Sr, the NASCAR legend who was killed in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.

The elder Earnhardt won seven career NASCAR season crowns, matching Richard Petty and 2016 champion Jimmie Johnson for the all-time record. AFP

Scotland’s Andy Murray returns the ball to Canada’s Milos Raonic during the third tennis place match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship 2016 in Abu Dhabi. AFP

to me, not agent, says Mourinho

MANCHESTER—-Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has warned Anthony Martial he must listen to him rather than his agent if he wants to be a success at Old Trafford.

Martial was United’s top scorer last season with 17 goals, but his equaliser in Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Middlesbrough was just his second Premier League goal of the season and fifth in all competitions.

And Mourinho believes the French player’s agent Philippe Lamboley is a problem amid reports he is “studying” an option for Martial to move to Sevilla.

“Anthony has to listen to me and not listen to his agent,” said former Chelsea boss Mourinho.

“Martial played, he created, he scored. He fought. He was very positive. I know he is a top talent.

“He is a player with amazing conditions to be a top player.

“He has to listen to me in training every day, every feedback I give to try and improve players.

The Portuguese coach said Martial should follow the example of Armenian Henrikh Mkhitaryan who struggled for game time in the early part of Mourinho’s reign before finding form with three goals in his past four games.

“With the Mkhitaryan process, I was having almost every day his agent calling me and saying ‘Mkhitaryan with you will be a better player’,” said Mourinho.

“With Martial every day I read the newspaper and Martial is going to Sevilla, Martial goes on loan, Martial is not happy.”Martial has to listen to me.” AFP

European broadcaster believes in Olympic gold PARIS—The cost of Olympic television rights may look hairraising but Eurosport is confident it will get back the 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) it laid out to get European rights, according to its chief executive.

Counting down to the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games, the company, owned by US media giant Discovery Communications, can from January 1 use the Olympic rings on screens under its surprise deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

But it faces a key 2017 with

sub-rights accords in France, Italy and Spain to be sealed that could decide how successful its gamble for gold will be.

“I think sports rights potentially are bets,” Eurosport chief executive Peter Hutton told AFP in an interview. But in the case of the European rights, he added, “I think it is a pretty safe bet and on that basis I think a really important move for us.”

Television rights contributed about three quarters of the IOC’s $5.6 billion revenues for 20132016 and the price is continually

going up. Discovery’s June 2015 deal with the IOC, covering 50 countries for the rights from 2018 to 2024, shocked the European broadcasting industry.

“The price they paid was high.

But they have taken a tough line with national broadcasters while building up their own brand,” one national television executive who has negotiated with Eurosport told AFP. “It could still go wrong but it is looking less of a risk and this kind of development is a real challenge to national broadcasters,” added

the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The European rights went for more than twice what China’s state-run CCTV is believed to have paid for national rights over the next four Olympics.

But it is still dwarfed by the more than $12 billion that NBC is paying to show the Olympics to a US audience from 2012 to 2032.

‘Massive challenge’ Eurosport has agreed to let the BBC keep showing the Games in Britain until 2024. National companies from Belarus to Czech

Republic have also signed up. But German state companies ARD/ ZDF said the price was too high.

Now Eurosport will show the Olympics in Germany on its own channels. That will add to the massive project it has taken on to produce Olympic programmes for diverse tastes across Scandinavia and other European nations.

Germany, said Hutton, will be “a massive challenge” and that Eurosport had not expected the collapse of the talks. But it has not dimmed the company’s confidence. AFP

Packers, Lions reach NFL playoffs

Anquan Boldin (80) of the Detroit Lions comes down with the ball for a touchdown with 23 seconds in the game against the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The Packers defeated the Lions, 31-24. AFP

WASHINGTON—Aaron Rodgers threw four touchdown passes and the Green Bay Packers downed Detroit 31-24 Sunday, claiming the NFC North division title with their sixth consecutive victory.

A tension-packed final day of the regular season saw the Packers and Detroit Lions capture the last playoff berths while the Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs won to secure first-round playoff byes.

Rodgers threw for 300 yards and touchdown passes of seven yards to Aaron Ripkowski, three and nine yards to Davante Adams and 10 yards to Geronimo Allen. With 40 season touchdown passes, Rodgers is the first Packer to lead the NFL in that area since Brett Favre in 2003 as Green Bay reached the playoffs for an eighth straight year.

“We never broke,” Rodgers said.

“We could have fractured at some point but we stuck together. Every game we came together with great focus. I’m really proud of these guys.”

The Lions failed to win their first division crown since 1993 but took a wildcard post-season berth thanks to Washington’s earlier 1910 loss to the New York Giants.

Injury-hit Oakland fell 24-6 at Denver and Kansas City took the AFC West crown and the bye with a 37-27 victory in what might have been the final NFL game at San Diego.

In the National Conference, Atlanta downed New Orleans 38-32 to join Dallas with a first-round bye.

Green Bay will host the Giants next Sunday and the Lions visit Seattle on Saturday in playoff openers.

In the American Conference, Kansas City joined New England with a first-round bye while Miami visits the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday and Oakland visits Houston on Saturday.

At Washington, Robbie Gould’s 40-yard field goal with 2:12 remaining gave the Giants a 13-10 lead. The Redskins’ final rugbystyle desperation play saw New

Irish sailor devasted but uninjured after boat mast breaks PARIS—Irish Vendee Globe sailor Enda O’Coineen said Sunday he was devastated but uninjured after the mast of his boat broke south east of New Zealand.

O’Coineen’s Kilcullen Voyager-Team Ireland boat dismasted at 0830 GMT as he was racing 180 nautical miles south east of Dunedin.

“I have to laugh because if I

don’t I will cry,” said the 61-yearold O’Coineen, the first Irishman to compete in the non-stop, solo around the world race.

“I am devastated. Things were going quite well. I was in good shape. Having got this far I felt we could handle anything.

“I am mastless, the deck was holed. It is not a happy situation, but there it is, you roll the dice.”

O’Coineen was sailing in 15th

position with 19 competitors left in the race which set sail from the French Atlantic port of Les Sables d’Olonne on November 6.

The Irishman was positioned 6,600 nautical miles behind French leader Armel Le Cléac’h on board Banque populaire VIII. “A full assessment of his (O’Coineen’s) situation is being made,” organisers said.

Vendee Globe standings on

Sunday at 0800GMT: 1. Armel Le Cléac’h (FRA/ Banque populaire VIII) at 4,734 nautical miles from finish 2. Alex Thomson (GBR/Hugo Boss) at 187.32nm from the leader 3. Jeremie Beyou (FRA/Maître CoQ) 1,017.21 4. Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA/ StMichel-Virbac) 1,712.90 5. Yann Elies (FRA/Queguiner-Leucémie Espoir) 1,862.66

6. Jean Le Cam (FRA/Finistere Mer Vent) 1,876.34 7. Louis Burton (FRA/Bureau Vallee) 3,080.13 8. Nandor Fa (HUN/Spirit of Hungary) 4,215.55 9. Conrad Colman (NZL/ Foresight Natural Energy) 4,392.76 10. Eric Bellion (FRA/CommeUnSeulHomme) 5,670.14 AFP

York’s Trevin Wade return a lateral on the bounce for a last-play Giants touchdown.

“Just like that your season’s over,” said Redskins coach Jay Gruden.

“No question it’s frustrating.”

The Redskins lost four of their last six games to miss out of backto-back playoff trips for the first time since 1992.

Cowboys stars rest in loss Tampa Bay’s longshot playoff bid failed despite the Buccaneers edging Carolina 17-16 after Philadelphia’s 27-13 home win over a Dallas squad that rested many of its starters. The Cowboys, who had sealed a home-field edge and bye, benched rookie rusher Ezekiel Elliott and star quarterback Dak Prescott saw only two possessions.

Atlanta scored touchdowns on its first five possessions then held off the Saints. With a loss, the Falcons would have lost the bye to Seattle, which edged San Francisco 25-23. AFP

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

P0 M+ P0 M

Sports

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

A8

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

Ex-pro Victoria faces new challenge

By Peter Atencio THESE days, former Philippine Basketball Association player and coach Emmanuel “Boybits” Victoria is facing a different career and a different challenge.

This time, Victoria is introducing what is considered as the world’s biggest indoor sports club to people who are looking for a place to live and pursue an active lifestyle at the same time.

The facility, known at the Victoria Sports Tower, is set to be completed within the next three months, aiming to be a one-stop training facility for enthusiasts and athletes alike.

“It’s a challenge. It’s a different challenge from wearing shorts to wearing corporate clothes. But I’m up to challenge,” said the 44-year-old Victoria, who is currently the sales manager of the facility, which incidentally carries his family name.

VST, which is located along EDSA in South Triangle, Quezon City, has a 50-meter Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool, six private gyms and a wellness facility.

It is a project of businessman and developer Jerry Acuzar and his company New San Jose Builders.

The offering comes on the 30th anniversary of their presence in the construction industry.

“This is a sports membership club catering to all kinds of sports disciplines, including shooting, indoor sports and different ballgames, racquet sports and swimming. And there’s also fitness,” said club manager Cesar Villanueva.

The 45-storey twin tower residential condominium has five floors that are currently in development.

It also has a basketball court, multipurpose gyms for fencing and gymnastics.

They will also make facilities available for mixed martial arts and for games in tennis, badminton and squash.

A 100-m track is also under development for triathletes and runners.

Tim Hardaway Jr. (10) of the Atlanta Hawks drives to the basket against the San Antonio Spurs at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The Hawks upset the Spurs, 114-112. AFP

Hardaway lifts Hawks; McCollum fuels Blazers L OS ANGELES—Tim Hardaway and C.J. McCollum both enjoyed career nights Sunday as the Atlanta Hawks surprised the first-place San Antonio Spurs while McCollum carried the Portland Trail Blazers to a come-from-behind victory.

McCollum scored a careerhigh 43 points as the Trail Blazers rallied past Minnesota 95-89 and Hardaway tallied 29 points, matching his all-time best total, to push the Hawks over the Spurs 114-112 in overtime.

McCollum, who reached his previous best of 37 points twice, shot 16-of-25 from the field to set

a career high for field goals.

“Obviously, C.J. had an outstanding game,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said.

Averaging 27.1 points in his last eight contests, this was McCollum’s fourth consecutive game scoring over 20 points in place of Damian Lillard, who injured his ankle on December 23.

McCollum has scored 30 points in seven games this season.

Minnesota guard Kris Dunn came off the bench to play 21 minutes and spent a good portion of it trying to stop McCollum.

“He can shoot the ball,” Dunn said. “The three, the midrange, he can drive it to the basket.

“When somebody can do all of those things, you’ve just got to try and find a couple of things to take away from him. He got it going today so it was kind of hard.”

Canadian Andrew Wiggins led Minnesota with 24 points while the young Timberwolves trio of Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Zach LaVine combined for 48 points after getting 73 together on

Friday against Milwaukee.

Towns finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double in a row and 24th of the season.

Portland quickly rallied from a 12-point half-time deficit with a 14-2 run to tie the game at 51-51 on a McCollum’s jumper. McCollum scored 16 points in the third and the Trail Blazers took a 69-64 lead into the fourth Portland never trailed in the final quarter and led by as many as eight points in the closing 12 minutes.

‘Total breakdown’ LaVine’s three pointer with 54 seconds to go allowed Minnesota to get within four at 91-87 but Mc-

PH Amateur Open at Riviera lures huge field A CRACK field, toughened up by a slew of foreign players, gears up for a spirited battle for top honors, both in the men’s and women’s divisions, as the Philippines Amateur Open Golf Championship kicks off the new golfing season on Thursday at Riviera’s Couples course in Silang, Cavite.

Former champion Rupert Zaragosa and rising stars Dan Cruz, Ira Alido, Aidric Chan, Weiwei Gao, Gab Manotoc, Kristoffer Arevalo, Jed Dy and Carlo Villaroman head the 89-player men’s roster that includes young and veteran campaigners from Malaysia, Taiwan, Ireland, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Guam, United Kingdom, Australia, Thailand and the US. That makes the four-day championship, held under the PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour and sponsored by the MVP Sports Foundation, Smart and Metro Pacific Investment Corp., too close

to call with no player holding a distinct advantage over the rest of the field.

But focus will be on the redhot Yuto Katsuragawa, who powered Manila Southwoods to a runaway triumph in the recent Fil-Am Championship in Baguio and led his partnership with Carl Corpus to the NGAP National Doubles crown at Aguinaldo last week.

Others chasing the crown own by now pro Jobim Carlos at Eagle Ridge last year are Matthew Abalos, Luis Castro, JP De Claro, Jelbert Gamoo, Nik Gatmaytan, Luigi Guerrero, Riggs Illescas, Gabriel Macalaguim, Jolo Magcalayo, Ryan and Ivan Monsalve, Don Petil, Peter Po, Adrian Romero and Raymart Tolentino.

Bannering the Korean challenge Jang Young Cheol and Jeon Jeong Hyun while others tipped to contend in the country’s premier amateur championship organized and conducted by the National Golf

Association of the Philippines and hosted by Riviera Golf and Country Club are Hong Kong’s Lucas Lam, Malaysians Tuck Soon Chan and Abdul Rahman Daeng, Taiwanese Han-Wei Chiu, Marc Newman of UK, Masaki Uljie of Guam, American Jaycue Vales and Japanese Koji Yasuma.

Harmie Constantino, on the other hand, seeks a repeat of her feat last year as the diminutive but talented shotmaker banners the women’s field that included reigning World Junior Girls’ champion Yuka Saso, pro tour winner Hwang Min Jeong of Korea, Malaysian Durriyah Damian Nur, Thailand’s Anannarukaen Pajaree and Korean Yang Ju Young.

Others vying for the championship are Nicole Abelar, Diana Araneta, Sam Bruce, Alex Etter, Weifang Gao, Louise Go, Katie Kim, Missy Legaspi, Jona Magcalayo, Riko Nagai, Bianca Pagdanganan and Kristine Torralba.

Harmie Constantino seeks a repeat of her feat last year as the diminutive but talented shotmaker banners the women’s field.

Kyrgios on fire, but Australia fails at Hopman Cup PERTH—Australian firebrand Nick Kyrgios opened the new year in fine style on Sunday with a powerhouse win over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez at the Hopman Cup in Perth.

But unfortunately for Kyrgios, he and team-mate Daria Gavrilova, the defending champions in the mixed teams tournament, were upset 2-1 by Lopez and Lara Arruabarrena, allowing the Spaniards to clinch the tie.

World number 66 Arruabarrena had earlier levelled the tie after securing an unexpected straight sets win over Gavrilova.

The clash with Lopez was Kyrgios’s first official match since

the 21-year-old was banned from the ATP tour in October after a tanking controversy in Shanghai, although he played in the International Premier Tennis League in December.

Kyrgios, ranked 13 in the world, came out firing against the 35-year-old Lopez, gaining an early break and rifling six aces past the Spaniard in his first three service games.

He served 14 aces in all and Kyrgios only faced one break point on his serve for the entire match, winning 6-3, 6-4 in 65 minutes.

Kyrgios said he was surprised with his sharp form, which he be-

lieved reflected work on both his physical and mental strength—the latter one of the terms of his ban applied by the ATP. “I felt like I was going to be a bit rusty, but I played really well and it was surprising,” he said.

“I haven’t been doing that much on the court and I’ve been trying to get into a good headspace.”

Kyrgios said he had been working hard with former Watford fitness coach Martin Skinner in recent months.

“I’ve never really had a good strength conditioner in my team and that was one area where I

could develop and take my game to the next level,” he said.

Kyrgios didn’t appear restricted by strapping on his lower left leg, and said it was the result of an injury sustained while playing basketball earlier in the week.

After Kyrgios gave the Australians the lead with his win over Lopez, the 25th-ranked Gavrilova was expected to secure the tie by beating Arruabarrena, ranked 66th.

But the Spaniard belied her ranking with an impressive 7-5, 6-1 win.

The Spanish pair then claimed the deciding mixed doubles— played under the Fast Four format

—triumphing 4-0, 4-2.

Earlier, the United States opened their Hopman Cup campaign in style with a 3-0 win over the Czech Republic.

The American pair of Jack Sock and Coco Vandeweghe won both their singles matches to clinch the tie and then made it a clean sweep with a victory in the mixed doubles.

After Vanderweghe beat Lucie Hradecka 6-4, 6-2, Sock then edged past Adam Pavlasek in three sets.

The dead mixed doubles rubber was a relaxed affair and the US came from a set down to win 2-4, 4-2, 4-1. AFP

Collum hit a jumper 20 seconds later and the Blazers finished the game at the charity stripe.

Minnesota coach Tom Thibodeau described the third quarter as “just a total breakdown.”

“The thing that is concerning is the big halftime leads that we don’t protect and we don’t come out with the urgency and the understanding of playing a whole 48 minutes and how important that is and how hard you have to play,” he said.

In Atlanta, Hardaway scored the go-ahead free throw in overtime as the Hawks snapped an 11-game losing streak to San Antonio in front of a crowd of 18,000. AFP

Boxing body in search of new talent THE search is on for boxers who can win medals in international meets in the coming years.

Amateur Boxing Alliance of the Philippines executive director Ed Picson said this as the ABAP focuses its energies on finding younger sets of talented athletes this year.

“There has been promising developments in the countryside.

(ABAP president) Ricky Vargas said we should ramp it up with our development program in 2017,” said Picson.

Picson, in a radio interview, said that the association believes that it had a great year in 2016 after two boxers, Rogen Ladon and Charly Suarez made it to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

To get there, Ladon and Suarez won the silver medals in the flyweight and lightweight events of the Asian-Oceania Olympic qualifying event in Hebei Province in China.

Last May, Carlo Paalam of Cagayan de Oro City and Ranjo Gil Napoles of General Santos City settled for third-place finishes after absorbing setbacks against veteran foes in their respective semifinal bouts in the 2016 ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships at the Astana Ice Palace in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan.

Filipino boxers then took home a gold, silver and a bronze medal in the China Open last July.

Then 16-year-old Criztian Pitt Laurente, dubbed “Little Pacquiao,” competed in Yakutsk, Russia and was cited as Best Junior Boxer in Asia by ASBC president Serik Konakbayev of Kazakhstan. Peter Atencio

Oil makes biggest annual gain B3

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandardtoday.com extrastory2000@gmail.com TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

B1

Investments surge 20% to P441b

By Othel V. Campos

I

NVESTMENT projects approved by the Board of Investments surged 20.4 percent in 2016 to P441.8 billion from P366.7 billion in 2015, boosted by foreign commitments.

Registered projects in 2016 marked the highest in three years, or since 2013 when the figure hit P466 billion. Last year’s 20.4-percent growth also exceeded BoI’s 7-percent growth target for 2016.

Trade Secretary and BoI chairman Ramon Lopez said the growth in investment pledges was driven by continued confidence of investors in

the country’s sustained strong macroeconomic fundamentals, the government’s socio-economic agenda and recent state visits by President Rodrigo Duterte in China, Japan and Singapore.

“With the investment missions that we are doing, investors have gained greater awareness of the Philippines’ strong and growing economy,” Lopez said.

BoI registered 377 investment projects in 2016 which were expected to generate 67,615 new jobs once the projects became fully operational.

Data showed that local investors committed P352.5 billion or 80 percent of the total projects, while foreign nationals pledged P89.3 billion or the balance of 20 percent.

Foreign investment pledges jumped 50 percent last year from P59.5 billion in 2015. BoI said foreign investment level in the second half of 2016 was almost twice that of the first semester,

indicating “the growing foreign investor interest and confidence” in the economy.

Topping the list of foreign country investors last year were Australia with investments worth P30.5 billion. Singapore came in second with investments amounting to P13.6 billion, followed by The Netherlands with P13.1 billion, Japan with P6.8 billion and South Korea with P6.4 billion.

BoI said in terms of geographic distribution, Calabarzon topped the list with P102.1 billion worth of projects. The National Capital Region came in second with investments worth P95.3 billion, followed by Central Luzon with P56.5 billion.

Significant investments also went to the Cordillera Administrative Region with P34.8 billion, up by 40,528 percent from only P85.6 million in 2015.

Major investment projects last year were pow-

er with P209.9 billion; real estate with P65.8 billion; construction, P62.3 billion; manufacturing, P49 billion; and transportation and storage, P23.4 billion.

Investments in construction and manufacturing increased 644.8 percent and 81.3 percent, respectively.

The real estate sector is expected to generate the most number of employment with 32,055, followed by the manufacturing sector which is expected to provide jobs and income to 17,067 Filipinos.

“The continued growth of the manufacturing industry is a clear indication of the results of our manufacturing resurgence program. The revival of the manufacturing sector is key to inclusive economic growth because it will generate muchneeded decent employment and help the country tap regional production networks,” Lopez said.

IN BRIEF

MPIC studying Sangley toll road

SMDC to explore projects in Asean SM Development Corp., the residential arm of integrated property developer SM Prime Holdings Inc., will start exploring investment opportunities in Southeast Asia, a top executive said.

SMDC executive vice president Jose Mari Banzon said in a recent interview the company would start exploring investment opportunities in other Asean markets.

“That is our marching orders to start exploring opportunities outside China and Philippines. It is still very preliminary but we are now starting to look at other Asean markets” Banzon said.

Banzon said the company would look at countries with the same demographics and profile such as the Philippines.

“We need to have a bigger market.

We will use formula, which has been successful. We want to do the same in countries with same demographics and profile like the Philippines. We will offer affordable units with nice amenities,” Banzon said.

Banzon said SMDC would consider joint venture partnerships to support the Asean expansion.

SMDC is currently building its first two residential towers in Chengdu, China. It is also exploring more sites in China where its parent firm SM Prime currently operates seven shopping malls. Jenniffer B. Austria

By Darwin G. Amojelar THE tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is mulling over the construction of an expressway that will connect the Manila Cavite Expressway to the proposed international airport in Sangley Point, Cavite.

Romulo Quimbo Jr., senior vice president for legal and regulatory affairs of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., said the feasibility study for a sixkilometer expressway that would connect Cavitex to Rosario and Sangley Airport was ongoing.

“We are still identifying the alignment… We are not yet ready to submit the proposal to the government,” Quimbo said.

MPTC is also the builder and concessionaire of the Cavite Laguna Expressway.

The planned new expressway would connect to the proposed Philippine Global Gateway project worth P1.3 trillion which aims to decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport and major roads in Metro Manila.

All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corp., a consortium led by tycoon Henry Sy and the Tieng family, plans to build an international airport, seaport, economic zone and real estate components in Sangely Point.

The new airport would be designed to have a capacity of 90 million passengers and would be completed in five years.

MPTC is currently constructing Segment 10 of the NLEx Harbour Link, a 5.6-km elevated expressway costing P10.5 billion and running from Valenzuela City to C3 in Caloocan City. The project is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017.

The Toll Regulatory Board also issued a conditional notice to proceed with the construction of the C5 Link Expressway, a part of the existing Cavitex network and a P10billion project spanning 7.6 kilometers to link C-5 Road in Taugig to R-1 (Coastal) Expressway. Construction is expected to start by the first quarter of 2017 upon approval of the final engineering design.

In April 2016, MPTC signed a joint venture agreement with the city of Cebu and the municipality of Cordova to build the P27.9-billion CebuCordova Bridge Project. The 8.25-km bridge project, set to be completed by 2020, will connect Cebu City to Mactan Island via Cordova.

MNTC is also building an elevated expressway to connect the Northern and Southern toll road systems at a cost of P23 billion.

FIRST FLIGHT TO CLARK. A Philippine Airlines Airbus A321 arrives at Clark International Airport from Incheon, South Korea, on Jan. 2, 2017

at 1:55 a.m. to complete the first new route (Clark-Incheon) of the year and first international flight out of Clark for the flag carrier. PAL lined up more new routes outside Manila in the coming weeks.

PAL adding more flights outside Manila PHILIPPINE Airlines said it will operate more flights outside Manila this year to decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

PAL president Jaime Bautista said the airline would launch international flights out of Kalibo in the first quarter of 2017.

The flag carrier, controlled by tycoon Lucio Tan, launched on Jan. 1 a daily flight from Clark to Incheon, allowing passengers from Central and

Northern Luzon to fly to South Korea without passing through Manila.

Travelers from Incheon, upon arriving at Clark, can visit interesting destinations in Central and Northern Luzon, or connect on PAL’s direct flight to Caticlan, the gateway to Boracay.

From Caticlan, PAL can also take Incheon visitors direct to Cebu, host to a variety of world-class tourist spots and the jump off point to other in-

ternational PAL destinations such as Los Angeles, Singapore, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and also back to Incheon.

The flag carrier said it would also operate the Clark-Davao route soon.

PAL started operating out of Clark International Airport in Pampanga with the Clark-Caticlan service using the Q400 turboprop aircraft on Dec. 16.

PAL earlier posted a comprehensive income of P2.96 billion

in the nine-month period, lower by 54.8 percent than the previous year’s total comprehensive income of P6.55 billion.

Revenues in January to September hit P85.35 billion, up by 3.5 percent from last year’s P82.48 billion.

Expenses in the third quarter rose 14.9 percent to P29.567 billion from P25.73 billion a year earlier, because of the increase in flights operated.

Darwin G. Amojelar

Govt allots P500m for damaged farms

THE government allocated an initial P500 million to rehabilitate agriculture and fishery areas damaged by typhoon Nina, the Agriculture Department said.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said P300 million of the rehabilitation fund would come from the Office of the President and P200 million from the department.

Piñol said P55 million of the fund would be used for the immediate rehabilitation of the abaca industry in Catanduanes.

The amount will also be used for the release of rice seeds and fertilizers for about 5,000 hectares of rice farms and repair of fisheries infrastructure damaged by the typhoon.

The partial submission of Niña’s damage on agriculture and fisheries in the Bicol region alone showed P4 billion worth of damage.

Piñol said typhoon Nina damaged 85 percent of the standing abaca plant in Catanduanes province, which has 33,000 hectares planted to abaca and is considered the biggest single producer of the natural fiber in the world. Anna Leah E. Gonzales

Meralco pursues Tesla partnership

By Alena Mae S. Flores POWER retailer Manila Electric Co. expects to sign a partnership agreement with Tesla Motors Inc. of the United States this year, a top executive said.

“For Tesla, there were some projects we identified…like battery storage. We will push that early [this year],” Meralco senior vice president and head of customer retail services and corporate communications Alfredo Panlilio said.

Meralco and Tesla executives met last year to discuss partnership opportunities in the Philippines. “They’re interested to come in and explore,” Panlilio said earlier, referring to Tesla executives.

Meralco launched its e-vehicle charging station at Meralco compound in Pasig City in 2013.

The company also introduced a Tesla electric car priced at around P9 million to showcase e-vehicles in the country.

Panlilio said aside from being an electric car manufacturer, Tesla is also a battery company and discussions would likely focus on that.

“It’s still very open, but [we want to] explore, maybe a potential business partnership. I would think it’s more of storage, batteries. That’s what they’re pushing hard now,” the Meralco official said.

Panlilio, however, said the success of the country’s e-vehicle program would depend on certain factors.

“It depends on adoption of EV on a mass scale. It’s hard for us to drive it alone, but when adoption is there, we should be ready with charging stations. It’s an ecosystem we want to develop,” he said.

“We’ve been espousing about it―the charging stations. It depends on government policies, how we can massively have more e-jeepneys. There’s a lot to do.

It’s not a matter of if it will happen [but when],” Panlilio said.

GLOBE WORKSHOP.

Globe Business, the information and communication technology arm of Globe Telecom, holds a supply chain interactive workshop for executives from various retail, manufacturing and logistics companies.

Shown is Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines executive director Norman Adrian (left) receiving a token of appreciation form Globe Business sales cluster head Patricia Sadorra for serving as the keynote speaker for the workshop held at Marriott Hotel in Pasay City.

B2

Business

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

SMC sets conditions for P20-b bond sale

By Jenniffer B. Austria CONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp. set the terms for the planned P20-billion fixedrate bond offering in February this year.

Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed the P15-billion bonds with P5-billion oversubscription option would consist of series A bonds due 2022, series B due 2025 and series C due 2027.

San Miguel will have an option to redeem the bonds in the third year from the issue date for series A, fifth and sixth year for series B and eighth and ninth year for series C. Proceeds from the bond offering will be used to partially refinance loans used to redeem US dollar-denominated loans.

The company earlier borrowed a total of P20 billion from lenders BDO Unibank Inc., Bank of Philippine Islands, China Bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and Security Bank, which were used to repay US dollar-denominated loans and partially prepay existing US dollar-denominated loans.

Offer period for the bond sale was tentatively set on Feb. 20 to 24. The bonds will be listed with the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.

San Miguel hired seven joint underwriters for the offering including BDO Capital& Investments Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., ING Bank N.V., RCBC Capital Corp., SB Capital Corp and Standard Chartered Bank The P20 billion planned bond offering forms part of the company’s three-year shelf registration of up to P60 billion.

San Miguel is one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines with diversified businesses ranging from beverages, food and packaging to fuel and oil, energy and infrastructure.

PH traders turn less optimistic

By Othel V. Campos

B

USINESS optimism in the Philippines declined in the fourth quarter, according to a study by Grant Thornton International Business Report.

Tax and advisory firm P&A Grant Thornton, a member of Grant Thornton, said business optimism among developed Asia-Pacific economies fell 8 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2016 to -16 percent while optimism in emerging Asian economies rose 11 points to 53 percent.

The Philippines was an exception among emerging economies as it saw a decline in optimism to 80 percent in the fourth quarter from 84 percent in

the third quarter and 94 percent in the second quarter.

Globally, business optimism stood at 38 percent, up 5 pp from the third quarter and the highest level since the third quarter of 2015.

The quarterly global survey covered 2,600 businesses in 37 economies.

“There is a striking split in the direction of travel between business leaders in emerging and developed Asia Pacific countries. Part of the reason for this could be the likely scrapping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP], out of which developed economies – like those of Australia and New Zealand – stood to gain the most,” said P&A Grant Thornton chairman and chief executive Marivic Españo.

China is looking to implement its own regional economic partnership, which could fill some of that gap.

Españo said the high levels of optimism in emerging economies

reflected what could happen when closer economic ties were in place, with the Asean Economic Community.

The research firm found out that the majority of business leaders were starting 2017 with a positive frame of mind.

“Globally, the increase in optimism reflects a view among the business community that uncertainty over the outcome of major events like the EU referendum and the US presidential election is now behind them. Knowing the results will allow businesses to have a clearer steer on key issues such as taxes, jobs and trade policy,” Españo said.

In Asia Pacific, the proportion of firms expecting profitability to increase over the next 12 months went up to 34 percent, the highest in almost two years. Expectations of profitability in the Philippines increased from 58 percent in the third quarter to 72 percent in the 4th quarter.

Employment expectations remained

healthy at 29 percent, and research and development plans for 2017 are higher than this time last year but down from the 32 percent recorded in third quarter.

Globally, the proportion of firms expecting revenue to increase in 2017 rose 5 pp to net 50 percent―the highest figure in nearly two years. China and the US reported particularly strong swings in revenue expectations in the fourth quarter.

However, the report also revealed that the picture outside Asia is not entirely positive. Business optimism in Mexico fell to just 8 percent in the fourth quarter – the lowest quarterly figure it has ever recorded.

In Russia, optimism dropped 13 pp to -7 percent. In addition, the proportion of firms in the EU citing exchange rate fluctuations as a constraint on growth increased 8 pp to 21 percent, as elections in France and Germany have the potential to cause market uncertainty.

Housing prices begin to stabilize

By Julito G. Rada

COMPUTER DONATION. Mindanao electric cooperatives in partnership with Aboitiz Power Corp. and Aboitiz Foundation donated 50 brand-new computer sets to public schools in Mindanao. The computers along with printers, desks and chairs were turned over to five public schools in the fourth quarter. Shown are student beneficiaries who are using the brand-new computer units.

Why unitary cigarette tax is strongly opposed THE recent hearings-like proceedings in the House of Representatives regarding the taxation of cigarettes has brought back to the forefront of public discussion the issue of which characteristic should be accorded the highest priority in the crafting of a tax program for a developing country.

The House proceedings conducted by that chamber’s ways and means committee focused on House Bill No. 4144, which sought to keep in place a two-tier cigarette tax system that went into effect with the approval in 2013 of Republic Act No. 10351. Under RA 10351 a pack of cigarettes priced at P11.50 carries a tax of P25 and a pack priced above P11.50 bears a tax of P29.

I described the House proceedings on Bill 4144 as “hearings-like” because the House appears to have handled the bill in whirlwind fashion – other observers have used the word “railroaded” – having been accorded only two ways and means committee hearings (Nov. 28 and Dec. 5) after its October 2016

filing. The apparent intent was to get House plenary approval, reconciliation with the Senate counterpart bill and presidential approval into law before the end of the year. Why Dec. 31, 2016?

Because on Jan. 1, 2017, the shift to a unitary cigarette excise tax called for by RA 10351 would go into effect.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2017, all cigarettes – regardless of price per pack – would pay a uniform P30 excise tax. Why the strong push to maintain a twotier tax system and avert a shift to a military system? The answer underlies the question I posed, at the start of this column, as to which characteristic should be accorded the highest priority in the crafting of a tax program for a developing country.

Should the tax policymakers of a developing country – or of a developed

country, for that matter – accord higher priority to a tax program that is soundly structured and elegantly phrased but is difficult to administer? Or should they aim for a tax program that is less than 100 percent sound but is comparatively easy to administer? The Department of Finance expressed its preference in the position paper on the subject of HB 4414. “[A] unitary tax structure is simpler and easier to administer,” said DOF in the position paper.

How so?

DOF explained the tax-administration problem as follows: “[A] two-tiered tax structure only promotes downshifting [among tobacco consumers] …

Differences in price as a result of different tax rates change the behavior of consumers by downshifting to the low-taxed [and therefore] low-priced brands from high-taxed, high-priced brands … Based on the industry’s pricing strategy, during the first year of reform implementation, [after 2013], the two-tiered tax structure allowed

some tobacco manufacturers to sell at a loss just to maintain or increase their market shares. Further, DOF data show that they imposed higher price increases on their premium brands in order to subsidize their low-priced brands.”

These cigarette-manufacturer marketing policy changes could – and should – have been foreseen by Congress when they were considering the bill that became RA 10351. Whether legislators did or not is now history. What is not history is the current massive push to prevent the shirt to a unitary tax regime for cigarettes.

Perhaps the most potent argument for proceeding with the scheduled shift to a unitary tax is the mighty opposition of Mighty Corp., the largest manufacturer of low-priced cigarette brands. It speaks volumes.

In conclusion, a tax program that is somewhat short on economic logic but is easy to administer is preferable to a program that is perfectly logical but does not bring in the tax revenues.

RESIDENTIAL real estate prices increased 2.2 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2016, slower than the 11.3-percent expansion in the second quarter, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.

Latest data from Bangko Sentral showed that the residential real estate price index rose to 113.4 from 111.0 a year ago.

“The modest increase may be an indication that prices are beginning to stabilize which could signal a better supply and demand balance in this market segment.

But more data are needed to determine a more definitive price trend,” Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said in a statement.

Townhouses posted the highest growth in prices (4.9 percent), followed by condominium units (3.1 percent) and single-detached housing units (2.4 percent).

Residential real property prices rose in areas outside the National Capital Region by 4.9 percent but declined marginally in NCR by 0.2 percent in the third quarter 2016.

“This is due mainly to the faster rate of increase in prices of single detached housing units and townhouses in AONCR compared to those of NCR. Meanwhile, the prices of condominium units increased in both NCR and AONCR,” the report said.

About seven in 10 real estate loans were for the purchase of new housing units (69.2 percent). By type of housing units, about 48 percent of residential property loans were for singledetached units, followed by condominium units (44.3 percent) and townhouses (7.6 percent).

Condominium units were the most common house purchases in NCR while single-detached houses were mostly acquired in areas outside NCR.

BSP defers 5% bank leverage ratio THE Monetary Board, the policy-making body of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, deferred the full adoption of Basel 3 leverage ratio by one year.

Leverage ratio relates to the level of a bank’s Tier 1 capital against total exposures. Bangko Sentral said it deferred the adoption of the 5-percent minimum leverage ratio, following the recent revisions by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervisions.

Under Circular 881 dated June 9, 2015, universal and commercial banks and their subsidiaries were supposed to wind up the monitoring period and begin adhering to the 5-percent minimum leverage ratio by Jan. 1, 2017.

“The Monetary Board decided on the deferment considering

Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s issuance of the consultative document ‘Revisions to the Basel 3 leverage ratio framework’ in April 2016, which the BCBS is set to finalize by end-2016,” Bangko Sentral said in a statement.

The Monetary Board also extended the monitoring period for the leverage ratio until Dec. 31, 2017.

It said the additional year for monitoring would provide banks more time to calibrate their exposures in view of the requirements.

Under Basel 3, the leverage ratio acts as a supplementary measure to the risk-based capital adequacy ratio as it serves as a simple, non-risk-based “backstop” measure, that intends to

restrict the build-up of leverage in the banking system.

A 5-percent minimum leverage ratio effectively means that the maximum exposure that a bank can keep is 20 times its Tier 1 capital.

Basel 3 reforms are integral to the banking reform agenda of Bangko Sentral which is ultimately aimed at promoting financial stability in the country.

The Monetary Board on May 29, 2015 approved the guidelines for the implementation of the Basel 3 leverage ratio in the Philippines. The board also approved the ratio to be 5 percent at a minimum. The new requirement would apply to universal and commercial banks as well as their subsidiary banks and quasibanks. Julito G. Rada

E-VEHICLE PIONEERS. The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines meet for their annual general membership meeting and Christmas party to assess the impact on the domestic electric vehicle industry of the recent decision by the Energy Department to scrap the $500-m e-Trike project. Shown are members of the association led by president Rommel Juan (standing, center).

Business

B3

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Hyundai group eyes higher sales in 2017 SEOUL―South Korea’s largest automakers Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia have forecast sales of 8.25 million vehicles this year amid hopes that new factories will tap into emerging markets.

The projected sales for 2017 mark a slight increase from the previous year’s target of 8.13 million, the Hyundai Motor group chairman Chung Mong-Koo said in a New Year email message to employees on Monday.

Hyundai, which along with Kia forms the world’s fifth-largest auto-making group, has seen profits falling for years amid slowing demand in its key China market and a strong won that hurt its competitiveness overseas.

The group missed its annual sales target for a second year in a row last year when major strikes by South Korean workers hit production.

Hyundai-Kia jointly sold a little over 7 million units from January to November in 2016.

But it hopes to turn things around with a new factory to open in Chongqing, China, and the launch of new vehicles.

“We should strengthen production networks among 35 plants in 10 countries, including the Chongqing plant to open this year,” Chung said.

“We... will also strengthen product lineup in luxury and environmentally-friendly cars and introduce more than 10 new vehicles this year,” he added.

New models―including sports utility vehicles popular in China―will also be produced at newly-opened plants in Changzhou in China and Mexico, according to the group.

The Chongqing plant―Hyundai’s 5th plant in China―is aimed at exploiting the fastgrowing midwestern region in the country, the world’s largest auto market.

The group has struggled to boost its market share in China, which fell to 8.1 per cent in 2016 following growing competition from Japanese rivals and homegrown Chinese brands.

In October Hyundai Motor announced a sharp fall in profits for a third quarter, hit by lengthy industrial action that also took a toll on the national economy. AFP

European stocks up in 1st day of trading

Oil makes biggest annual gain O

EUROPEAN stocks advanced, erasing earlier losses, after Italy’s better-than-expected economic data helped confirm a trend of stronger manufacturing in the euro area.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index was 0.4 percent higher as of 9:40 a.m. in London, while the UK and Swiss markets remained closed for a holiday.

The DAX index in Germany, the region’s biggest economy, jumped 0.8 percent and headed for its best day in almost three weeks.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was up 0.5 percent, after slipping 1.2 percent in 2016, underperforming the S&P 500 index in the US, which gained 9.5 percent from 2015.

Italy’s FTSE MIB was up 1.3 percent Monday. Data showed the country’s manufacturing PMI rose to 53.2 for December versus 52.2 in November, while economists expected 52.3. The FTSE MIB had ended 2016 down 10 percent, hurt by political uncertainties as well as investor concern over the strength of the country’s banking system. German shares were led by gains in lender Commerzbank AG and utility RWE AG. A report showed manufacturing PMI reached 55.6 in December, the highest reading since January 2014. Euro-area manufacturing expanded last month at the fastest rate since April 2011, in a sign that the currency bloc’s recovery was intact heading into 2017.

Euro-area manufacturing, meanwhile, expanded last month at the fastest rate since April 2011, in a sign that the currency bloc’s recovery is intact heading into 2017.

A Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to 54.9 in December, IHS Markit said on Monday. The reading matches the initial estimate on Dec. 15 and was up from 53.7 in November. Higher import costs resulting from a weaker euro, combined with increased global commodity prices, led to the sharpest inflation for average purchasing costs in more than five-and-a-half years.

The European Central Bank has extended its stimulus program until at least the end of the year as it strives to return consumer-price growth to its goal of just under 2 percent. While inflation looks set to accelerate in coming months, officials are concerned that core prices—excluding energy and food—have so far shown no convincing upward trend. Bloomberg

IRATE MEXICANS. Demonstrators protest the rise in fuel prices in Mexico City on January 1, 2017. On January 1, 2017 fuel prices in Mexico went up 20.1 percent for gasoline and 16.5 percent for diesel, the Ministry of Finance announced. AFP

IL made the biggest annual gain since 2009 as Opec and other producing nations plan to start supply cuts next month to reduce swelling global inventories.

Futures rose 52 percent in London this year after closing little changed on Friday. US crude inventories unexpectedly expanded for a second week with a gain of 614,000 barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration reported Thursday. US drillers expanded for a ninth-straight week, boosting active oil rigs to 525, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc. Friday. Shale drillers have added 100 rigs since September, the

biggest three-month gain since the boom times of first-quarter 2014.

Brent, the global benchmark, marked its first annual advance in four years in 2016 as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and 11 other nations push ahead with a plan to cut output.

While they’ve managed to buoy sentiment and lift prices from below $30 a barrel early this year, the rising number of rigs in the US and the possibility of members not sticking to output targets are a risk. US inventories remain at the highest seasonal level in more than three decades.

“What a difference a year makes,” Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said Friday by phone. After doom-and-gloom sentiment closed out 2015, the market is now “probably the most optimistic we are

looking going into a new year in energy in many, many years.”

Brent for March settlement closed 3 cents lower at $56.82 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange on Friday. The February contract expired Thursday after losing 8 cents to $56.14. Total volume traded was about 60 percent below the 100-day average.

West Texas Intermediate for February delivery settled down 5 cents to $53.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 29 cents to $53.77 on Thursday. Prices are up 45 percent this year.

Spurred by rising oil prices, three dozen US oil and gas producers in the Standard & Poor’s energy index finished the year with gains of more than 40 percent.

Some notable names include shale producer Continental Resources Inc., up by

Aging Spanish cars are relics of slump

By Thomas Gualtieri FUMES belching from aging cars are part of the legacy of Spain’s economic slump, as Madrid steps up its efforts to contain traffic pollution.

Madrid city council last week stopped cars with evennumbered license plates from entering the central city zone for a day and also imposed speed and parking restrictions as it acted to tackle to traffic pollution made worse by highpressure weather conditions.

One reason for the build-up of fumes is the increased age of Spain’s car fleet as owners stopped replacing vehicles during the country’s economic slump from 2009 to 2013, said Ricardo Conesa, head of the Automotive Enterprise Program of IE Business School in Madrid.

The real-estate bust that pitched Spain into a five-year economic malaise sapped demand for all kinds of consumer goods including cars, causing annual registrations to plunge 40 percent from 2008 to 2012. The decline in investment in new cars is one reason Madrilenos must now increasingly endure the “ black beret,” as the pall of pollution that forms over the city during clear weather conditions is known.

Economic bonanza “Many people bought a car in 2006 and 2007, during the Spanish economic bonanza,” said Conesa in a phone interview. “And it’s exactly those cars that are turning 10-yearsold now.”

As Spain’s real-estate and credit boom was getting into full swing, car registrations peaked in 2005 at 1.65 million a year before falling to 699,589 in 2012, the year the country sought a 41 billion-euro ($43.3 billion) rescue from Europe for

its banking system.

Spain attempted to offset the impact of car sales declines by offering financial incentives for owners to replace vehicles from 2012 to 2016. The cash-for-clunkers program helped remove 1 million old cars from circulation but couldn’t prevent the overall average age of Spain’s car fleet from increasing.

This year, 60 percent of Spanish cars will be older than

Makers, known as ANFAC. In 2014, vehicles older than 10 years accounted for 35 percent of the car fleet in the UK, 42 percent in France and 50 percent in Italy, according to ANFAC. Ageing fleet The group doesn’t see the average age of the Spanish fleet falling until 2020, according a report published on its website.

At the moment, there are 8 million Spanish cars on the road

making the renewal of fleets of public buses, taxis and commercial vehicles a priority, said Ascarate.

Meanwhile, Spain’s economic recovery continues, boosting car sales, which have been rising since 2012. Car registrations in the first 11 months of 2016 were up 11 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to ANFAC. The problem is that while wealthier Spaniards were able

Headlights from passing traffic illuminate a highway beyond residential apartments in Madrid, Spain, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. Rising borrowing costs, currently more than one-and-a-half times the cost in Germany, the end of mortgage tax breaks, and shrinking disposaÅble incomes are making it increasingly difficult for Spanish families to own their own home. Bloomberg

10 years, according to data from the consultancy MSI. In 2017 alone, the number of cars that are more than a decade old will increase by 1.15 million, it said.

The average age of a Spanish car reached 11.9 years in 2016, compared with 7.8 years a decade earlier, according to estimates from the National Association of Car and Truck

that were built in 2001 or earlier, according to ANFAC. “Cars aging is one of the main reasons for increasing pollution,” said Juan Ascarate, deputy director of Madrid council’s environmental department in a phone interview. “It’s crucial to renew the fleet with low-emissions vehicles and above all hybrid and electric cars.” Madrid is

to replace cars with new models cheaply under the government’s incentive plan, drivers on lower incomes weren’t able to upgrade to newer secondhand models, said Conesa.

“Most of the people who want to replace a very old car would look for a four or fiveyear-old model as they cannot afford to buy a new one,” he said. Bloomberg

124 percent, the most in the company’s history. International explorer Anadarko Petroleum Corp. gained 44 percent, the most in seven years.

The 614,000-barrel increase in US crude inventories last week compared with a 1.5 million-barrel decline forecast by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, while American Petroleum Institute data showed a 4.2 million-barrel expansion.

Crude production dropped for a second week, while stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI and the nation’s biggest oil-storage hub, grew by 172,000 barrels to 66.4 million.

“2016 was a dramatic oil year,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB Markets. “2016 started very bearishly and ended very bullishly.

2017 is likely to be the opposite, but not quite as dramatic.” Bloomberg

Bordeaux wine mart recovers on weak pound THE Bordeaux wine market confirmed its recovery in 2016 after five years of declines that cut prices of the region’s leading wines by more than 40 percent from their 2011 peak, according to a review from the Londonbased Liv-ex exchange.

The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50, which comprises 10 recent vintages of Bordeaux first-growth wines including Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Chateau Latour, climbed about 26 percent for the year, and was heading for its 13th straight monthly gain in December, according to Liv-ex data.

Even with that rebound, fueled by demand stoked by lower prices and the weakness of the British pound in which Liv-ex trades are handled, the index remained some 25 percent below the peak reached in the China-led boom from 2008 to 2011, according to Liv-ex. Its broader Bordeaux 500 Index, computed monthly, showed a year-to-date gain of 22 percent at the end of November while the Liv-ex 100, with wines from other regions including Burgundy, the Rhone, Italy and Champagne, was up 24 percent.

“The fine wine market received a significant post-Brexit boost after the UK voted to leave the EU,” the Livex report said. “A weaker sterling encouraged buying from euro- and dollar-based merchants to purchase wines that included a significant volume of high-value Bordeaux brands.”

Liv-ex said the market share of Bordeaux on the exchange was little changed this year at about 74 percent, with Burgundy taking almost 8 percent, Italy 6 percent and Champagne 5 percent.

“Bordeaux has undoubtedly been the main driver behind the broader market recovery this year, and early feedback suggests 2016 could be another quality vintage,” Liv-ex said.

Next spring’s en primeur marketing campaign “will therefore be an important factor in determining the direction of the Bordeaux market in 2017.” AFP

Business

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

B4

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

China to cut coal capacity by 2020 BEIJING―China has set a target of reducing its annual coal capacity by 800 million tons, according to a government plan reported Saturday by state media.

Despite the target, Beijing expects total coal output to rise to around 3.9 billion tons by 2020, compared to 3.75 billion tons in 2015, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a document issued by the country’s top economic planning body.

The plan aims to “improve coal production safety and efficiency, as well as reducing impact on the environment,” Xinhua said, suggesting that low-capacity mines were likely to be the target of closures.

The reduction in outdated capacity reflects the slowdown in demand in China. By 2020, the world’s second largest economy will burn around 4.1 billion tons compared to 3.96 billion tons last year―a very moderate growth rate.

Overall, China’s energy consumption is now growing at only 3 percent per year, compared to 10 percent a few years ago, after a sharp slowdown in economic growth.

Coal, of which China is the world’s largest consumer, remains an indispensable part of its economy, supplying 60 percent of its electricity.

However, Beijing must also consider the environmental impact of the fossil fuel, in a country where cities are regularly shrouded in a polluted haze that has sparked anger among the population.

The government had already promised to reduce its coal production capacity by an estimated 250 million tons this year and to reduce the share of coal in its energy mix to 62.6 percent by 2016.

The country also intends to modernize its coal-fired power plants by 2020 to reduce emissions of “major pollutants” by 60 percent and is committed to stabilizing its CO2 emissions “around 2030.”

Environmental NGOs are nonetheless cautious, worried in particular about the unbridled construction of new coalfired power plants in China, at the rate of almost two new projects per week in 2015 alone―even though there may ultimately be little need for the extra capacity. AFP

This file photo taken on December 15, 2011 shows banknotes of 5, 10, 20 and 50 Euros in Lille, northern France. The euro, used by nearly 340 million people each day, celebrateD its 15th birthday on January 1, 2017. AFP

Euro at 15 still enjoys support of 19 countries

By Michelle Fitzpatrick

F

RANKFURT―The euro, used by nearly 340 million people each day, celebrated its 15th birthday on Sunday.

Like a teenager in the throes of adolescence, the euro has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years, but still manages to enjoy firm support across the 19-member area―especially among a new generation who have never known any other currency.

Here is a snapshot of some key points and memorable moments in the life of the euro: Birth of a currency The euro was launched on January 1, 1999, initially existing only as a virtual currency used in accounting and financial transactions.

Euro coins and notes were introduced on January 1, 2002.

The inspiration for the euro symbol came from the Greek

letter epsilon, a nod to the country’s history as the cradle of European civilization. The two parallel strokes across the logo signify stability.

Euro coins each have a side bearing a national design. Austria for example opted for Mozart, Ireland for the Celtic harp.

Euro banknotes on the other hand never depict people or real places, only illustrations of fictional architecture.

Growing pains The euro’s arrival wasn’t love at first sight, with many citizens perceiving the switchover as an unwelcome price hike.

In Germany, the currency was nicknamed the “teuro,” a pun on the word “teuer” (expensive) and euro.

But attitudes softened over time, won over by the ease of traveling and doing business across borders without having to worry about foreign exchange fluctuations.

Today, 56 percent of people think having the euro is “a good thing” for their country, according to a European Commission survey of some 17,500 euro area citizens published this month.

Among those aged 15-24, support for the euro stands even higher at 68 percent.

“The average citizen sees the euro as a source of political stability but also a source of low inflation,” says Maria Demertzis, deputy director at the Bruegel think tank, adding that this has been a particularly welcome development in countries that historically saw more volatility.

Goodbye ‘Bin Laden’ note The European Central Bank this year said it plans to stop issuing the 500-euro note, the currency’s largest denomination bill, by late 2018.

Known as the “Bin Laden,” the purple-colored banknote is believed to be favored by criminals for money laundering and even terrorist financing.

But resistance to its abolition runs high in Germany, where people still prefer to pay in cash and fear that getting rid of the 500-euro bill is simply the first step towards scrapping notes and coins altogether.

On the brink The eurozone has suffered two major crises that almost led to the break-up of the monetary union.

The trouble began in Greece when, in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, access to easy credit dried up and the country threatened to default on its massive debt.

Concerns soon spread to other heavily indebted European Union member states such as Portugal and Ireland, culminating in several international bailouts that proved a major test of European solidarity. AFP

Expats in Swiss companies earn big IT PAYS to be an expatriate in Switzerland.

Expats living in the home of UBS Group AG, drug maker Novartis AG and commodity trader Glencore Plc earn an average salary of $188,275 a year. That’s the highest in the world and almost twice the global average, according to data published Monday by HSBC Holdings Plc. Switzerland also tops the bank’s expat career ranking for a second year.

“Expats ranked Switzerland highly for both financial and personal well-being criteria,” said Dean Blackburn, head of HSBC Expat. “The combination of high salaries and excellent work culture has placed Switzerland at the top of the careers league table.”

It isn’t just big paychecks that make Switzerland, which also hosts the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, the best all-round destination for a career abroad.

Of those surveyed by HSBC, 69 percent said their work-life balance had improved in Switzerland and 61 percent said the work culture was better than their home country.

Germany and Sweden ranked second and third overall, despite salaries that were at or below the global average, according to HSBC. European countries took six of the top 10 spots.

“Expats in Sweden and Germany enjoy benefits outside the financial side of work,” said Blackburn. “Germany offers the best job security for expats. Sweden, as well as topping the tables for work culture, is praised by 79 percent of expats for its excellent work-life balance.”

Money, of course, can’t buy happiness. Previous data released by HSBC showed that while Switzerland ranks first in financial well-being for those working abroad, it ranks close to last in cultivating relationships and social life. The cost of living in Switzerland is also notoriously high, with Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung last month reporting that the price of food is 70 percent higher than the European average, while healthcare expenses are more than double.

The best employment packages―including health benefits, accommodation allowances and trips home―are found in Middle East countries such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, according to HSBC, which surveyed 26,871 expats in more than 100 countries. Bloomberg

Japan’s embattled students learn to live under debt burden

By Yoshiaki Nohara KENGO Kyogoku borrows about 122,000 yen ($1,035) per month in addition to a scholarship and a part-time job, because his mother can’t afford to pay his college fees at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo.

“The amount is huge,” said Kyogoku, a sophomore of communications and computer engineering. “I get depressed when I think about it. I wonder if I would have to pay it all back forever. But I have no choice.”

Kyogoku is becoming the norm rather than the exception in Japan, where more than half of college students now need financial aid. Loans were rare in the past as most students came from affluent middle-class families who could afford the fees. Today’s parents inherited the legacy of Japan’s long economic ice-age, with fewer family-wage jobs and lower savings, fueling a sense of generational inequality.

While Japan is nowhere near the level of the US―students there owe some $1.3 trillion in total, compared with about $76 billion in Japan―the rise of college loans is a triple blow for the country. It puts a bigger financial strain on the shrinking younger generation who already have to shoulder a bigger share of the tax and welfare burden. It dissuades poorer students, who worry that they won’t get the jobs needed to be able to repay the loan. And it increases the strain on a deeply indebted government to boost scholarships to make education affordable.

“In Japan, I feel more pain and more despair among young people,” said Matthew Goodman, a senior adviser for Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“You have fewer and fewer young people. You need to make the ones who are there more confident, optimistic and productive.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set aside 7 billion yen in the budget Thursday to launch government scholarships in the year starting in April 2017 in an effort to make higher education affordable.

“Family economic conditions shouldn’t dictate children’s future,” Abe said in parliament in October. “If everyone supports a child with scholarships and the child works hard to become a tax payer in the future, that’s an investment for the future indeed.”

Demographic divide But, as with most administrations in Japan, the lion’s share of social spending still goes to the older generation who have the votes and influence to unseat politicians. People 75 and over outnumber children aged 14 and younger, and the trend is forecast to accelerate. By 2035, the older group will make up 20 percent of the population while only 10 percent will be under 15, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

Japan’s education system was a pillar of its post-war economic ascent, providing the country’s industries with skilled workers who helped companies like Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. develop world-beating technology

A portrait of Waseda University student, Daiki Yamakawa. Daiki from Ehime prefecture receives non-refundable scholarship. Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg

and production systems. Between 1960 and 1980 the proportion of 18-year-olds going on to college jumped to 37 percent from 10 percent, according to the education ministry.

Today, roughly 80 percent pursue some form of higher education and a college degree no longer guarantees full-time employment with one of the big job-for-life corporations that were the backbone

of the economy.

On top of his loan and a 400,000 yen scholarship from the university, Kyogoku works at a karaoke shop to cover his expenses and try to save for graduate school.

“I’m pessimistic about the Japanese economy,” said Kyogoku, 20, who lives with his single-parent mother. “When you look at demographics, it’s pretty hopeless.”

Raising the knowledge level is

vital to Japan as the government aims to use more robots and automation both in manufacturing and services to overcome the labor shortage and spur growth.

Innovations like artificial intelligence “can replace even complex labor on top of manual labor, which means people need higher skills to keep up,” said Masayuki Kobayashi, professor of higher education at the University of Tokyo who led a government panel of experts on student loans. “Education still has plenty room to improve and can contribute to economic growth.”

Student loans With family support dwindling, more students are turning to the Japan Student Services Organization, the government-backed lender that charges interest from zero to 3 percent depending on academic credentials and prevailing bank rates. The number of college students borrowing from Jasso rose by 51 percent to about 976,000 in the decade through March 2016.

Include loans and scholarships from other entities and more than half of college students now rely on outside assistance, according to the organization.

Rising indebtedness is having its effect, said Yoshiharu Iwashige, a Tokyo-based lawyer. Some students drop out by working too much to cut their debt, and many others who can’t meet payments come to him to file for bankruptcy, Iwashige said.

“This has become a middle-class problem,” Iwashige said. “Many give up marriage and having children, which are now for the privi-

leged. Student loans get in the way.”

Abe’s efforts are unlikely to be enough to stem the tide of borrowing as the government itself is deeply in debt.

“It’s impossible to turn everything into scholarships,” Jasso president Katsuhiro Endo, 71, said. Policymakers hesitate to cut spending for senior citizens given their political clout, he said.

Jasso’s total outstanding loans more than doubled to almost 9 trillion yen in the decade through March 2016. Some 165,000 people, or 4.2 percent of the borrowers whose payments are due, were behind for more than three months as of March 2016.

Japanese universities must help students or risk losing some of the best talent to colleges abroad, according to Taiji Saito, dean of student affairs at Waseda, the alma mater of seven former prime ministers. The university provided 2.1 billion yen in scholarships in the year ended in March 2016, while its students had borrowed 9.3 billion yen in Jasso loans as of the end of the year.

Hiroki Yamakawa, 18, from Aichi prefecture in central Japan, might not have made it to the university without a 400,000 yen annual scholarship. His mother runs a kimono shop after his father died.

He says the problem won’t go away until the government can get people to start spending more and investing in the younger generation. “People in their 70s and 80s hoard up money and don’t spend because they want to save for the future,” Yamakawa said.

Bloomberg

Cordillera exports down 2 months

LGUs

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

By Dexter A. See BAGUIO CITY—The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority disclosed the region’s free on board export goods for July 2016 dropped by 4.6 percent to $120,948,251, the second month in a row that it declined.

The region’s FOB value was $126,759,844 during June, which was lower by 11.5 percent from the $136,702,091 value it posted in May 2016.

The PSA-CAR said Cordillera produced 346,376 kilos of export goods for July 2016, a decrease of 27 percent from June 2016’s 474,640 kilos.

Among the export commodities, the PSA-CAR stated machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical equipment, parts, sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles continued to top commodity exports with a share of 80.5 percent and export sales amounting to $97,420,696 in total export receipts and the same goods shared 82.1 percent in the regional exports last June 2016 which is equivalent to $104,121,982.

On the other hand, vehicles, aircraft, vessels and associated transport equipment with $22,138,613 free on board export goods value came next comprising 18.3 percent in export sales for July 2016 and 16.9 percent during the previous month.

Further, raw hides and skins, leather, fur skins and articles; saddler and harness; travel goods, hand bags and similar containers; articles of animal gut ranked third contributing 0.5 percent in export sales equivalent to $565,891 for July 2016 compared to a 0.2 percent share in export sales equivalent to $240,836 for the previous month.

The PSA-CAR noted textiles and textile articles were in the top four exported commodity group in the region making up 0.4 percent in exports sales for July 2016 which was valued at $485,834, as compared to the previous month’s 0.2 percent or a share of $206,154 export value.

However, the report added the base metals and articles of base metals had the least share in export sales amounting to only $24,113 export value in July 2016, and $2,262 in June 2016.

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor Roger M. Garcia, Assistant Editor jimbo.gulle@gmail.com mslocalgov@gmail.com

Body cams for Manila enforcers

By Sandy Araneta

S

TARTING 2017, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada will require every traffic enforcer of the Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau to wear body cameras while on duty to eliminate or cut down corruption among the enforcers.

Estrada said the use of body cameras will help reduce misconduct among MTPB enforcers such as extortion and other “under-the-table” settlements that usually take place while they are apprehending traffic violators.

“We’ve been thinking of ways to cut down corruption and misbehavior among MTPB enforcers, and we believe the use of body cams is an effective way,” Estrada said.

Many law enforcement units in other countries, he pointed

out, use body and dashboard cameras in their service vehicles to record their operations and encounters with motorists and criminal elements.

Usually worn on the front of a shirt, a body-worn camera is a video recording system that is typically utilized by law enforcement personnel to record their interactions with the public or gather video evidence at crime scenes, and has been known to increase both officer and citizen accountability.

On Nov. 28, Estrada terminated the job contracts of 690 members of the MTPB after being swamped with complaints from

the motorists concerning their alleged extortion activities.

To fill up the vacated slots, the Manila Police District is retraining the first batch of 92 new enforcers whom Estrada said will be more disciplined, competent, and incorruptible.

MTPB chief Dennis Alcoreza said he fully supports Estrada’s idea of equipping traffic personnel with body cameras.

By video recording enforcer-motorist encounters, he explained they can get objective evidence of what happened during the actual apprehension instead of self-serving hearsays.

what significant developments could drive Filipino optimism for 2017, as noted in a recent survey report? Noted economist Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, a member of the Duterte economic team, lists a dozen economic developments and events this year, on which the man on the street can brightly look forward to, as growth drivers.

Salceda’s list is topped by the Philippine chairmanship and successful hosting of the As-

sociation of Southeast Asian Nations’ summit which he said “drive the Filipinos’ optimistic outlook for 2017.” The Philippines accepted last September 2016 the Asean chairmanship, which has adopted the theme “Partnering for change, engaging the world,” a reference to President Duterte’s campaign slogan, “Change is coming.”

The Philippines’ Asean chairmanship coincides with the 50th anniversary of the founding of

the 10-member regional bloc.

“During the Philippines’ chairmanship, we will highlight Asean as a model of regionalism and a global player, with the interest of the people at its core,” Duterte stressed. “We will pursue initiatives and enhance cooperation with global partners to ensure that Asean citizens live in peace, stability, security and growth, all the while retaining Asean’s centrality, unity and solidarity, that we will maintain for all times,”

he added.

Second in Salceda’s list is the completion and launch of 20172022 Philippine Development Plan earlier this year. The PDP will translate AmBisyon Natin 2040 and the administration’s 0+10-point Socio-economic Agenda into strategies, policies, programs, and activities that emphasize “Malasakit at Pagbabago tungo sa Patuloy na Pagunlad” (Concern and change towards continuous growth).

Baguio misses target in automated permits BAGUIO CITY—The management information system division of the city budget office targets the automation of the building permit application process and the public assistance and complaints desk next year.

City budget officer Leticia Clemente said these are the latest phases in the computerization program of the city government after the completion of the Real Property Tax Assessment and Computation System, the electronic Business Permit and Licensing System, payroll, leave administration, biometrics or time-keeper systems, and the Legislative Tracking and Information System.

It also includes the city website upgrading and the general services office information system which automated all office processes and streamline the procurement, inventory and asset management functions of the city general services office.

The building permit process au-

“We have to balance it out, for all we know the apprehended motorist is just making up stories to pin down the hapless enforcer and get away with his violation. We’ll get to see the entire situation,” Alcoreza pointed out, adding that body cams will also protect traffic enforcers against unscrupulous motorists.

A body camera usually costs around P8,500 to P12,000 per unit, he added.

“Our target is one body cam per enforcer, plus a communication radio. We initially plan to procure 100 body cams by April,” Alcoreza said.

BAN BE DAMNED. Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan for a nationwide ban on firecrackers and pyrotechnics, the town of Bocaue, the fireworks capital of the Philippines, launched on Jan. 1 its very own pyromusical exhibition called ‘Pailaw Pasasalamat 2017’ by the 12-kilometer Bocaue River in Bulacan. Members of the nationwide Philippine Pyrotechnics Manufacturers and Dealers Inc. teamed up with Bocaue Mayor Jonjon Villanueva to start a tradition and give back to the Bocaueños the fruit of their fireworks industry. Ey Acasio

Albay solon lists 12 top events driving PH optimism FILIPINOS have witnessed how the latter half of 2016 ended on a positive note, both on sociopolitical and economic aspects.

The Philippines registered its most significant gains in 2016 under President Rodrigo Duterte, as the fastest growing economy in Asia—a 7.1 percent third quarter growth, its most robust in three years, which even surpassed China’s 6.7 percent and Vietnam’s 6.4 percent.

Looking forward this time,

C1

tomation will be a component of the City Building and Architecture Office Information System while the online PACD will be used as an entry level support for the Citizen Relation Management, according to MIT officer-in-charge Mario Diaz.

The CBAOIS aims to improve the CBAO office operations and targets the reduction of the processing time and transportation expenses of the applicants, according to Diaz.

He said it will provide a venue and channel via the Internet for online submission of building application and attachments of digital copy as reference for review and evaluation. This in return will provide immediate information on the results of the initial online review and evaluation conducted by CBAO. Any recommendations before the actual submission of architectural designs and plans will be known to the applicants via the system. Dexter A. See

IN BRIEF MPD cop nabbed for New Year firing A MANILA Police District policeman was detained by the police after he was caught firing his service firearm indiscriminately during the New Year’s celebration in Tondo.

National Capital Region Police Office chief Superintendent Oscar Albayalde said PO1 Daniel Castillo, 29, assigned to MPD Station 1 indiscriminately fired his gun during the New Year revelry.

Albayalde said Castillo has been placed under police custody. Police investigation showed that Castillo fired his gun indiscriminately after he got drunk during merrymaking, hours before the clock ticked to 2017.

But Albayalde said Castillo’s case is “isolated” as most of the NCR police followed the strict order to refrain from firing their service firearms indiscriminately. Sandy Araneta

Fireworks burn up 5 Sta. Ana houses

HELPING HILONGOS. President Rodrigo Duterte hands a check and some medicine to one of the survivors of the bombing in Hilongos, Leyte last Sunday. Duterte promised to catch the perpetrators while delivering one of his shortest speeches to date—in under three minutes. Mel Caspe

FIVE houses burned down after fireworks went off inside one of them during the New Year’s revelry in Callejon Dos, Sta. Ana, Manila.

According to the investigation of the Bureau of Fire Protection in Manila, the fire started around midnight of Jan. 1 inside the house of Rolina Cervantes and caused about P2 million in damages.

The five old houses were made mostly of wood, and the fire spread quickly. According to barangay officials, only one person lit fireworks that day in the said area. Sandy Araneta

C2

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

LGUs

Cordillera consumer price index rises

By Dexter A. See

B

AGUIO CITY—The consumer price index in the Cordillera region has generally increased, reflecting the rise in the average prices of goods and services in all its provinces, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported.

The consumer price index is the general measure of the change in the average retail prices of a market basket or collection of goods and services commonly purchased by the average Filipi-

no household.

In November 2016, the consumer price index in the Cordillera was at 144.4 which is higher by 3.5 index points as compared to the 140.9 consumer price in-

dex in the region in the same month the previous year.

The PSA-CAR added among the provinces in the region, Mountain Province posted the highest consumer price index for November 2016 at 153.9, followed by Ifugao at 150.5 and Benguet at 145.4. On the other hand, Apayao had the lowest consumer price index at 132.2.

In terms of index points change, Kalinga had the highest increase by 8.1 while Apayao and Benguet had the lowest increase by 1.4 and 2.1, respectively.

The PSA-CAR explained among the commodity groups,

alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest consumer price index at 205.9 and Apayao incurred the highest among the Cordillera provinces at 220.2, followed by Kalinga and Abra at 219.3 and 216.5 index points, respectively.

The report claimed education came next at 161.8 index points with Mountain Province incurring the highest index for November 2016 at 233.9 points.

Further, food and non-alcoholic beverages were at 161.1 index points with Benguet experiencing the highest increase at 167.3 followed by Mountain Province at

164.7 index points, respectively.

The PSA-CAR disclosed communication had the lowest consumer price index among the commodity groups in the region with 83.2 index points, with Abra incurring the highest index at 111.4 index points while Apayao had the lowest at 77.9 index points.

The PSA-CAR noted Apayao consistently had the lowest consumer price index for all items with 132.2 and by index point change, alcoholic beverages and tobacco recorded the highest increase, growing up by 15.3 points.

The PSA-CAR also recorded increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages at 6.6 points, clothing, and footwear at 3.9 points, restaurant, miscellaneous goods and services at 2.3 points, among others.

According to the report, the rest of the commodity groups recorded a minimal annual increase in their respective index points.

Meanwhile, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels decreased by 0.3 points and for November 2016, prices of goods and services in the region increased by 2.5 percent.

Fire guts pharma building in CdO

By Lance Baconguis CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY— A flame engulfed the building of a pharmaceutical company and destroyed about P3 million in products and properties in Zone 4, Barangay Cugman here on New Year’s Day morning, the Bureau of Fire Protection-10 said Sunday.

The BFP-10 said the warehouse of Philusa Corp. was gutted by fire at around 12:48 a.m. The fire swiftly consumed the combustibles inside the warehouse including pharmaceutical products and other household liquids in plastic containers, the agency said.

Firefighters from various units place the fire under control at 1:57 a.m. By 4:41 a.m., it was declared “fire out.”

Security guard Janito Patrocinio injured his left thigh when he tried to respond to the fire.

“His leg probably got stuck on something when he tried to put out the fire,” said Engineer Noli dela Rita, BFP-10 spokesperson.

He said witnesses will be invited to the Investigation and Intelligence Section of the Cagayan de Oro Fire District to help investigators shed light on the incident.

Dela Rita said the Philusa fire was the only incident reported in the entire Northern Mindanao as New Year was celebrated.

SIMPLE JOYS. No matter how simple their meal may seem, this family appears to be enjoying every second of it with the ambiance of their great picnic spot at Rizal Park on Monday, declared a special holiday to give Filipinos more time with their loved ones after the New Year celebrations. PNA/Avito C. Dalan

55 fiberglass boats for Lubao fishermen Camp 7 SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga —The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources distributed 55 Fiberglass Reinforce Plastic (FRP) fishing boats to the fishermen of 12 coastal barangays of Lubao to boost their catch and improve their means of livelihood.

The 22-footer fishing boats complete with water fittings and 6.5 horse power engines and life vests were received by 2nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

from Agriculture Undersecretary for Fisheries and National Director of BFAR Eduardo Gongona.

This was witnessed by Regional Director Wilfredo Crus and Lubao Mayor Mylyn P. Cayabyab at Barangay Sta. Catalina, Lubao during a simple ceremony here.

Rep. Arroyo, the former President, said the fishing boats were distributed among the 12 coastal barangays namely Bankal Pugad (eight); Sta.Teresa (eight);

Bankal Sinubli (seven); San Jose Gumi, (eight); Sta.Catalina (six); San Rafael (four); Balantacan (four); Calangain (four); and two each to Ramedios, Sta.Monica and Sta Lucia, all in Lubao.

Gongona said the distribution of boats is a national policy of the government as part of its sustainable food production program. He urged the fishermen to take care of them because their means of livelihood will depend on them.

On the part of Congresswoman Arroyo, she filed a bill that seek to further protect, support and help fishermen in the country.

“I believe that the needs of the fishermen and farmers are two different things that will need further legislation,” Arroyo said.

This does not mean that the farmers will receive less help, but their needs are presently addressed by existing legislation, Arroyo added. Romeo Dizon

BALANGA ANNIVERSARY. Members of Balanga City’s Sangguniang Panlungsod led

by Vice Mayor Vianca VenzonGozon (fifth from left) pose for the 16th anniversary of Balanga’s cityhood last Dec. 30.

Butch Gunio

Relief of devoted Baguio traffic aide slammed BAGUIO CITY—The city’s Traffic and Transport Management Committee strongly condemned the untimely relief of a devoted personnel of the Baguio City Police Office-Traffic Management Branch and his subsequent reassignment to Apayao for doing his job as a traffic enforcer of the city.

The committee said the relief of SPO3 Alberto C. Tadeo does not reflect the genuineness of wise decision-making among ranking regional police officers based in Camp Dangwa.

In a resolution unanimously approved by the TTMC chaired by

Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, the city’s traffic management body expressed its disappointment over the relief and reassignment of SPO3 Tadeo to Apayao when he was just discharging his function as a traffic enforcer when he reminded the driver of a ranking regional police officer that he violated the city’s existing number coding scheme.

The resolution questioned the decision of regional police officers in transferring SPO Tadeo to Apayao when he only performed his job in reminding motorists of their violations and that he even did not apprehend the driver of a certain Senior

Superintendent Greg Lim when he was found to have violated the city’s number coding scheme.

SPO3 Tadeo is a feared traffic enforcer because even the driver of his taxi who commits traffic violations has been repeatedly apprehended by the veteran traffic enforcers.

Mayor Domogan clarified that Tadeo did not personally seek his help on the matter but concerned citizens who are aware of SPO3 Tadeo’s sincerity and dedication to the service called his attention on the issue, thus, he personally took the matter to the TTMC to make a collegial action on the matter and to re-

mind public officials that being a government official is not an excuse for anyone to be excused from glaring violations of traffic rules and regulations.

The local chief executive underscored Baguio City needs the services of SPO3 Tadeo, who is a responsible and devoted traffic enforcer, because he is one of the most effective traffic enforcers that have served the city through the years and that he will not be effective in the place where he will be reassigned in fairness to him as a true public servant.

He explained traffic enforcers in the city are now demoralized

because they can easily be reassigned to a remote place and render them ineffective simply because they had been doing their job in apprehending influential traffic violators.

Mayor Domogan claimed drivers of influential people should be role models in strictly complying with traffic rules and regulations and for them to tell their superiors about the true account of what happened to them in case they had been apprehended for such violations so that devoted policemen will not be sacrificed just to suit their own personal interests. Dexter A. See

folk want batching plant out BAGUIO CITY—Residents of Barangay Camp 7 are pinning their hopes on the local government in evicting the batching plant in their midst, which they have long been complaining about as a nuisance and a hazard to the environment and the health of people in the said area.

The concerned residents claimed the relocation of the batching plant to a place outside the city has been a long-standing commitment of the owner to city officials led by Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan after the passage of Ordinance No. 43, series of 2007 that prohibits the operation of cement batching plants within the jurisdiction of the city.

While the local court upheld the unconstitutionality of the ordinance but is now on appeal by the city before the Court of Appeals, the concerned residents demand that the owner keep his word given to local officials that he will relocate his plant outside the city and not to use legal issues to ensure his continuous operation in the area against the will of the affected individuals.

In fact, the concerned residents are disappointed that local officials had been too lenient by tolerating the operation of the batching plant without the relevant business permit as only a business permit as a general contractor was issued to the owner which is not the permit for the operation of a batching plant.

The affected residents appealed to the city’s leadership to immediately evict the batching plant to give them peace of mind and stop the nuisance and pollution from this environmentally critical facility.

According to them, the management committed to city officials that it will voluntarily relocate the batching plant outside the city, thus, there is no need for it to resort to legal means just to delay the relocation because it was a gentleman’s agreement. Dexter A. See

World IN BRIEF Netanyahu questioned over gifts JERUSALEM―Israeli police are to question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday over whether he illegally accepted gifts from wealthy supporters, media reports said, in a probe shaking the country’s political scene.

The long-running inquiry has looked into whether Israeli and foreign businessmen have offered gifts worth tens of thousands of dollars, among other issues, according to the reports.

Attorney general Avichai Mandelblit has reportedly approved upgrading the inquiry to a criminal probe, though he has yet to confirm this.

Police and Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on Monday.

Public radio said Netanyahu has agreed to be questioned at his residence.

In a Facebook post at the weekend, Netanyahu rejected all allegations against him and said his political opponents and some news outlets wanted to bring down his government.

In July, Mandelblit said he had ordered a preliminary examination into an unspecified affair involving Netanyahu.

No details were given on the nature of the preliminary examination and Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

He has acknowledged receiving money from French tycoon Arnaud Mimran, who was sentenced to eight years in prison over a scam amounting to 283 million euros involving the trade of carbon emissions permits and the taxes on them.

Netanyahu’s office said he had received $40,000 in contributions from Mimran in 2001, when he was not in office, as part of a fund for public activities, including appearances abroad to promote Israel. AFP

Woman bitten by a snake in Australian zoo SYDNEY―A young woman was bitten by a wild green snake at an Australian zoo, paramedics said Monday, a year after a keeper was attacked by a tiger at the same popular tourist attraction.

The woman, in her mid-20s, was treated by paramedics at Australia Zoo, which was founded by the family of the late “Crocodile Hunter” star Steve Irwin, and taken to hospital where she was in a stable condition, a spokesman for Queensland Ambulance Service said.

“This afternoon a guest accidentally stood on a wild snake in our Wetlands area,” Australia Zoo, on Queensland state’s Sunshine Coast, said in a Facebook post.

“The snake was identified as a green tree snake, which are a common occurrence in the Wetlands, as it is the perfect environment for their favorite food, frogs.”

The zoo added that the reptile was not venomous and it was the first time a guest had been bitten by a snake there.

“Happy to report guest and snake are both just fine,” Irwin’s wife Terri added on Twitter.

The Green Tree Snake is found in coastal and sub-coastal regions in northern and eastern Australia.

It is arboreal and grows to about 6.5 feet). AFP

C3

Boat captain held after fire J

AKARTA―Indonesian police said Monday they have detained the captain of a tourist boat that burst into flames en route to a holiday island and left 23 people dead, amid reports he was the first to jump ship.

Nine killed in apartment collapse MOSCOW―At least nine people were killed after part of an apartment building collapsed in central Kazakhstan, the country’s authorities said Monday.

“Nine dead people were pulled from the rubble” of the building in the village of Shakhan following the collapse late Sunday, the emergencies committee of the interior ministry in the central Asian nation said in a statement.

It said the victims include three men, three women and three children. A 32-year-old man had been pulled alive from the rubble.

The ministry said it had dispatched 70 emergency workers to take part in the rescue operation.

The remaining residents of the building have been evacuated.

A government committee has been set up to probe the incident, the ministry said.

Building collapses are not uncommon throughout the former Soviet Union, either due to faulty construction or worn-out infrastructure. AFP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

AMNESTY FOR THE REBELS. FARC guerrilla fighter Cristina holds her rifle at the Front 34 Alberto Martinez encampment after the New Year’s celebration in Vegaez municipality, Antioquia department, Colombia, on January 1, 2017. Colombia’s Congress on Wednesday passed a law granting an amnesty to the Marxist FARC rebels as part of the country’s peace deal, a development the government hailed as ‘historic.’ AFP

War traumas leave deep mental scars BOGOTA―Colombian rebels may be preparing to lay down their guns, but the nation faces a deeper challenge to heal itself: treating mental illnesses stemming from the trauma of a halfcentury war.

The 260,000 people killed and 60,000 missing in the civil conaflict are quantified in official statistics -- but uncounted millions still suffer the psychological scars.

Maria -- a pseudonym which the woman agreed to use for this story -- was a small girl when fighting between the government and leftist FARC rebels struck the village near her family’s farm.

Now 49, she speaks in a scarcely audible voice about the horrors she lived through and the fear that stalks her to this day.

“I still live in a state of anxiety,” she told AFP in her gloomy apartment, in a back courtyard on the outskirts of Bogota.

Her father narrowly survived an attack by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who targeted him because he refused to join their ranks.

“I was six years old. I was always afraid,” said Maria.

“We had to spend every night in the village because the guerrillas used to venture up to the farm to kill people.”

Colombia’s government last month pushed through Congress a peace accord meant to end the 52-year conflict -- a controversial move since it made concessions to FARC members blamed for atrocities.

The rebels promised to disarm and compensate victims. But the deal contains few details on how to treat those traumatized by the war.

The 300-page text includes a few lines calling for “emotional recovery measures” to help “relieve victims’ suffering.”

Under the accord, the government commits to “improving psychological social care,” with-

out indicating how much it might spend on it.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that unresolved traumas can spawn fresh violence.

“The victims bear the scars of violence also in their minds,” it warned in a report in October.

After a childhood of fear, Maria ran away from an abusive husband. She was penniless and had an ill son to care for.

She ended up working for the Colombian Self-Defense Units (AUC), right-wing paramilitaries armed by wealthy landowners to fight the leftist guerrillas.

“I made their meals and washed their clothes,” she said, scraping a fingernail nervously on the table.

“I never asked where they were from or what they were doing.”

Even though she says she never used a weapon, Maria ended up being listed as a member of the AUC when the government ordered their disbandment in 2006.

Though she now lives four hours away from her home region by road, she still fears the paramilitaries’ left-wing foes might one day catch up with her.

“There were a lot of rumors that all the people who had worked with them were going to be killed,” she said.

“That makes me afraid.”

The war started in 1964 when the FARC launched an uprising to fight for peasant land rights.

It drew in various groups who carved up the country between government- and rebel-held zones and fought each other to the death, massacring and kidnapping.

“Drawing a line between who is the victim and who is the aggressor is very complex,” said Joshua Mitrotti, head of the Colombian Reintegration Agency.

The agency helps settle former fighters back into civilian life, working alongside the public health sector to provide them with psychological counseling. AFP

The Zahro Express became engulfed by fire on Sunday shortly after it set off from Jakarta carrying about 250 local holidaymakers to celebrate the New Year on nearby Tidung island.

Panicked passengers fought over life jackets and jumped into the sea as the huge blaze tore through the ferry after starting in the engine room, with authorities blaming an electrical fault for the accident.

Most were rescued but 23 were killed and 50 suffered injuries, with 19 still in hospital on Monday, according to the disaster agency.

Police said the captain, named in local reports as Muhammad Nali, had been detained Sunday and was being questioned over suspected negligence in relation to the fire, which reduced the boat to a blackened wreck.

Several local media outlets reported the captain had jumped ship first, abandoning the tourists as the fire erupted, and was found floating in the sea before being rescued.

Tonny Budiono, a senior official at the transport ministry, vowed to punish the captain if the allegations turned out to be true.

“If the captain jumped first then he is not a real captain -the captain should be the last,” he was quoted as saying in local media.

“If it is true we will revoke his license, he will not be allowed to sail any more.”

Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono confirmed that “we are still investigating the case and questioning the cap-

tain”, but did not give further details.

The boat’s manifest said it was only carrying about 100 passengers, less than half the true number, although the transport ministry has said it does not believe the vessel was overloaded.

The ministry has said a shortcircuit in the engine room may have caused the fire. Budiono said the boat was built in 2013 and was seaworthy and the weather was good.

Vessels from several government agencies and divers continued to scour the waters Monday as a precaution.

Officials said they believed that all passengers were now accounted for but they were having difficulties identifying some of the bodies because they were badly burned.

Tidung is part of the Thousand Islands, an archipelago that is a popular weekend getaway for residents of the teeming and overcrowded capital of more than 10 million inhabitants.

It was just the latest fatal maritime accident in the vast Indonesian archipelago, which relies heavily on boats to ferry people round its 17,000 islands but has a patchy safety record.

In September a tourist boat on the resort island of Bali exploded, killing two foreigners and injuring about 20 others.

At least 54 people died in November when an overcrowded speedboat carrying three crew and 98 passengers -- mostly Indonesian migrant workers -- struck a reef and sank on its way from Malaysia to Batam. AFP

New Yorkers love new train stops NEW YORK―Sure, they can be brusque at times. But New Yorkers’ hearts nearly melted Sunday when they got a load of the biggest subway line expansion in 50 years.

“It’s beautiful, it’s clean, it’s bright. And so far, nobody has seen any rats on the tracks!” quipped Jay Lerman, a skin doctor.

“When they talked about it in the 50s they talked about $500 million. Now, it’s 60 years on and $4 billion later. But it’s here!” said the neighborhood resident, referring to the $4.4 billion pricetag.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo were there for the opening late Saturday of three new stations that extend the Second Avenue subway train from 63rd to 96th Streets up to the posh Upper East Side.

At midday Sunday, the smartphone-wielding general public rushed in to get a look.

And it was a sight to behold, in a city with an older system known for its share of darkness and rodents in the track beds.

“We have been talking about the opening of the stations the way we were talking about the coming of the Messiah -- whichever comes first!” laughed retired attorney Ken Klein.

“It has been a difficult 2016 for New Yorkers and it’s a nice start to 2017,” he said referring to the election of President-elect Donald Trump, a New Yorker.

For Tyler Robbins, “it looks like Paris!”

“They did a beautiful job,” raved the young father who was bringing his 10-month-old on the train for the first time. He said he

previously had avoided the subway due to not enough elevators and filth.

Angel Aviles, a comic book artist, was also impressed, after construction jolted his apartment for ages.

“Now the rumble will be from the trains. And it’s more comforting than a dynamite sound!” he said.

“It’s nice to see that New York is starting to catch up” with European cities, Aviles added.

The walls of the stations have mosaics including some designed by artists Chuck Close and Brazil’s Vik Muniz.

The extension is just a big start: the line is set to be extended up to Harlem for another $6 billion.

New York authorities hope it will speed commute times and reduce overcrowding. AFP

EXTENSION. Commuters enter the 96th St. Q train station (with art by Sarah Sze) on the newly opened Second Avenue subway line on January 01, 2017, in New York City. AFP

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

C4

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

Army chief vows no more coups

World

GENERAL STORE RESTORED. This picture taken on November 30, 2016, shows the general store of the Bibliotheque nationale de France after its restoration. AFP

Monks revive beer tradition SAINT-WANDRILLE-RANCON, France―Behind the centuries-old stone walls of a Benedictine monastery in northern France, monks are busy bringing a long-lost tradition back to life.

Between prayer, Gregorian chants and spiritual reflection, they work on producing France’s only truly monastic beer.

“For me it’s a major event, one of the most important since I began my career in 1973,” said French beer expert Herve Marziou, who advised the monks as they resurrected the venerable trade at the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille.

Nestled in the green heart of Normandy between Le Havre and Rouen, the monastery began selling a precursor of the beer in August before launching its definitive brew in early December.

Now the beer -- sold to help restore the monastery cloisters -- is flowing steadily and receiving high marks in the craft beer market.

“The feedback is good,” said Marziou, 69.

Some 25,000 half-liter (pint) bottles at 4.50 euros each have already been sold at the abbey’s shop, at other monasteries, online or through specialty stores.

“This is the only beer currently produced in France by monks in their own monastery,” the abbey proudly says on its website.

The Saint-Wandrille monastery, founded in 649 and ravaged successively by Viking incursions, the wars of religion and the French Revolution, has been largely destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries.

Monastic brewing in France enjoyed a heyday during the Middle Ages, but nearly disappeared after the revolution when many religious orders were dissolved.

Some monks and nuns returned to private life, many eventually marrying, but others fled the country, taking their beer recipes with them.

Monastic beers flourish among neighboring countries, especially Belgium. But in recent memory France’s only abbey beer brewed onsite by monks was that of the Sept-Fons abbey in central France, which stopped production in 1935.

Benedictine monks are bound

by Saint Benedict’s sixth-century “Rule for Monasteries” that says: “To truly be a monk one must work with his hands.” AFP

BANGKOK—They may have successfully seized power twelve times in the last eight decades but Thailand’s army chief has said military coups are officially a thing of the past.

The comments caused much merriment on social media given the military’s long track record of toppling elected governments -- the latest a 2014 putsch that brought the current junta to power.

The military have promised to hold elections once a new constitution is in place, although the date for polls keeps slipping.

In an interview with Thai media outlets published on Monday, General Chalermchai Sitthisat was asked whether the military would intervene if civilian politicians disliked by the army brass were voted back in.

“I can confirm that there won’t be a coup. What would be a reason for having to have the coup?

There won’t be a coup. We have already learned from what happened [in the past],” he said.

The remarks were soon seized upon in Thai social media, one of the few sites where dissent still flourishes given the junta’s ban on political gatherings and protests.

“If the army says something like that it means they will do the opposite for sure,” joked Eakapong Leesinla on Facebook.

“Why ask such a question,” added Pim Pongchandr on Facebook. “We all know what he was going to answer, who would say yes?”

Chalermchai, a former head of Thailand’s special forces, was appointed by coup leader and current Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha in September.

In 2014, then army chief Prayut famously declared there would be no coup days before his military toppled the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra.

His predecessors removed her brother Thaksin in 2006 and have a raft of previous successful putsches to their name including three takeovers each in both the 1950s and 1970s.

Prayut says he was forced to seize power to curb political corruption and bring much-needed stability to the country after a decade of political turmoil between Shinawatra supporters and their opponents. AFP

Turkey hunts club attacker I STANBUL―Turkey was on Monday hunting the gunman who opened fire inside a glamorous Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s night killing 39 people, as investigators reportedly probed his possible ties to the Islamic State group.

With the majority of those killed in Sunday’s attack foreigners, families were due to reclaim the bodies of over two dozen nonTurkish nationals killed in the gun attack.

The attack, which unleashed scenes of carnage and panic among party-goers at one of Istanbul’s swankiest venues, took place just 75 minutes into 2017 after a bloody year in which hundreds were killed in violence blamed on both jihadists and Kurdish militants.

Arriving by taxi at the plush Reina nightclub on the shores of the Bosphorus, the gunman produced a weapon, reportedly a Kalashnikov, and shot dead a policeman and civilian at the entrance.

According to the Hurriyet daily, the gunman then fired four magazines containing a total of 120 bullets around the club, as terrified guests flung themselves into the freezing waters of the Bosphorus in panic.

But after changing clothes, the gunman left the nightclub and has managed to evade the security forces.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Sunday that intense efforts were under way to find the gunman, and expressed hope that the suspect would be captured soon.

Late on Sunday, police rushed to the city’s Kurucesme district after a tip-off but the operation did not produce any arrest.

“The danger continues,” wrote columnist Abdulkadir Selvi in Hurriyet.

“So long as this terrorist is not

seized we do not know when and where a massacre could take place.”

Hurriyet said the authorities believe the attacker could be linked to IS jihadists and may be from the Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan.

Investigators also consider it possible that the attacker is linked to the same cell that in June carried out a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport blamed on IS that left 47 dead, it added.

Turkey also received intelligence from the United States on December 30 warning of the risk of attacks by IS in Istanbul and Ankara on New Year’s night.

However the intelligence did not specify where such an attack could take place, the article added.

So far, officials have not said who they believe is responsible for the latest carnage.

The attack comes as Turkish troops press a four-month incursion in Syria to oust IS jihadists and Kurdish militants from the border area.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the nightclub bloodbath sought to sow “chaos”, was on Monday due to chair a meeting of the Turkish cabinet at his presidential palace in Ankara.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim meanwhile denied earlier reports the attacker had worn a Santa Claus costume.

Soylu said the gunman had arrived with a gun concealed under an overcoat but subsequently exited the venue wearing a different garment. AFP

DOWNTOWN L.A. IN THE MORNING. A morning view of downtown Los Angeles with the 101 freeway in the foreground, on January 1, 2017, from the Hollywood Bowl Overlook in Hollywood, California. AFP

Myanmar to probe police abuse of Rohingya YANGON―Myanmar’s government on Monday pledged to investigate a video apparently showing police beating and kicking Rohingya civilians, a rare admission that authorities may have carried out abuses against the Muslim minority.

Tens of thousands of people from the persecuted ethnic group -- loathed by many of Myanmar’s Buddhist majority -- have fled a military operation in Rakhine state

launched after attacks on police posts.

Bangladesh says some 50,000 Rohingya have fled across its border over the past two months.

Many have brought harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of Myanmar’s security forces.

Their stories have raised global alarm and galvanised protests against Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has

been accused of not doing enough to help the Rohingya.

Her government has said troops are hunting militants behind deadly raids on police border posts, denying claims of atrocities and launching a dogged information campaign against reports of abuse.

However, on Monday authorities pledged to take action “against police who allegedly beat villagers during area clearance operations on 5 November in

Kotankauk village” in a statement carried in state media.

Dozens of videos have emerged apparently showing security forces abusing Rohingya, but this is the first time the government has said it will take action over them.

The footage shows police hitting a young boy around the head as he walks to where dozens of villagers are lined up in rows seated on the ground, hands behind their heads.

Three officers in uniform then

start attacking one of the sitting men, beating him with a stick and kicking him repeatedly in the face.

The video is filmed ‘selfie-style’ by an officer, named as constable Zaw Myo Htike by state media, which said he recorded it during “clearance operations” in Kotankauk village.

A Rohingya activist contacted

by AFP said the footage had been verified by a refugee from the nearby camp, Shilkhali. AFP

Life

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

CULTURE & MEDIA

D1

MEDIA

Ricky Lee’s new book A

FTER five years, award-winning screenwriter and author Ricky Lee comes out with his latest book Kung Alam N’yo Lang: Mga Kuwentong Pambata Para sa mga Hindi na Bata, a collection of four stories told from the point of view of four children.

The 250-page book, which targets both children and adults, tackles topics as diverse as the search for God (Ang Nawawalang Diyos), a kid who sees letters come to life in his room (Ang Sayaw ng mga Letra), bullying in a town that has forgotten a dark secret from its past (Si Inggo at ang Santo Kuwatro), and the concept of death (Nang Mapagod si Kamatayan).

It also includes illustrations by four different artists, Kenikenken (Ken Bautista), Diigii Daguna, Jether Amar and Ivan Reverente.

Lee, who grew up reading comics, said children may read his new book in order to prepare them for the real world.

Although Kung Alam N’yo Lang is considered a children’s book, it also appeals to adults who have forgotten how it is to be young. It is published by the Philippine Writers Studio Foundation, Inc. or Writers Studio.

Aside from being a book author, Lee is also a scriptwriter and playwright.

He has written more than 160 scripts for Filipino films since 1973. Many of these have won awards here and

abroad. Among them are Himala, Karnal, Moral, Brutal, Salome and other films directed by acclaimed Filipino filmmakers, including the late National Artists for Film Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal. His script for Salome has also been translated into English and published by the University of Wisconsin for its film studies.

Lee has also written Trip to Quiapo, a scriptwriting manual; Si Tatang at mga Himala ng Ating Panahon, a collection of short stories; Pitik-Bulag Sa Buwan Ng Pebrero, a playbook; the novels Para Kay B (O Kung Paano Dinevastate ng Pag-ibig ang 4 out of 5 sa Atin) and Si Amapola sa 65 na Kabanata; and screenplay books Brutal/Salome, Moral, Bukas May Pangarap and Jose Rizal.

Kung Alam N’yo Lang is available at Writers Studio at 0956-1321248 or 09329047852 or send a message through writers.studio12@gmail.com or Kung Alam N’yo Lang’s Facebook page www. facebook.com/kungalamnyolang. It will be available in bookstores this year

Award-winning screenwriter and author Ricky Lee’s new book, Kung Alam N’yo Lang features a collection of four stories meant to appeal to both children and adults.

The concept of death told from the point of view of children is tackled in ‘Nang Mapagod si Kamatayan’

Anne Curtis

Vice Ganda

Lourd de Veyra

Matet De Leon

World’s best photos at IPA exhibit

A 20x24 photo by Alexandre Meneghini

By Corinna Kern, 20x24

By Isabelle Zezima, 20x24

By Kei Nomiyama, 20x24

SELECTED award-winning works from the 2016 International Photography Awards (IPA) will be presented at The IPA Best of Show 2016: The International Photography Awards at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) from Jan. 16 to Feb. 25 at the SDA Amphitheater.

The IPA is one of the most prestigious photography citations in the world chosen by a panel of experts. The Lucie, as the trophy is often called, is given in recognition of the best photos of the year.

It will feature 45 pieces in the following categories: Advertising, Architecture, Book, SelfPublished, Editorial, Event, Fine Art, Nature, People and Sports, and even includes the productions from recipients of the International Photographer of the Year, Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year, Moving Image Photographer of the Year, and Discovery of the Year, The images are curated by Scott Thode, independent curator and editor and director of Visura.co, a networking platform which presents visual artists to the world.

The display is part of a partnership between United States-based IPA and DLS-CSB. Also showcased in the event are the works of Benilde’s AB Photography students, who participated in a hands-on workshop with renowned international photographer Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri at an Aeta community in Floridablanca, Pampanga.

The exhibit is curated by Center for Campus Art Director Gerry Torres, with the cooperation and contribution of AB Photography Program Chairman Francis Tady, IPA Philippines Representative Ruston Banal, and IPA and Lucie Awards President Hossein Farmani.

The SDA Amphitheater is on the 12th floor of the School of Design and Arts Campus, 905 Pablo Ocampo St. (Vito Cruz), Malate, Manila.

For inquiries, call (02) 230-5100.

DLS-CSB Interior Design students with daycare teachers and pupils

Interior design students renovate Manila daycare centers

ABaKaDa: Himig + Titik, a photo exhibit of educational spaces around the metro held recently at SM Aura, showcased the vision of the pioneer batch of Interior Design (ID) graduates of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB).

The show featured images of daycare centers in Manila that were renovated following their own design aesthetic while incorporating nostalgic concepts derived from traditional nursery rhymes.

The program presented the development of these institutions, from the ground up, which distinctively portrayed a singular entity in all the daycare centers. The exhibit led to the journey

of transformation, unveiling secrets through a display of photographs, and video presentations. As a highlight, physical miniature models of each daycare center, finished and in its current appearance were likewise displayed.

With the assistance of DLS-CSB’s Center for Social Action, an organization which actively institutes changes within society, several barangays in the college’s neighborhood were tapped for the endeavor.

With this undertaking, the ID students familiarized the viewing public with the college’s vision to provide inclusive avenues for education, as well as an appreciation of interior design as a discipline distinct from architecture.

Life

D2

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

DIGITAL MEDIA

Laptops for casual gamers I

F YOU are a gamer, you are probably aware of the never-ending debate between “hardcore” and “casual” gamers, with the former blaming the decline in the quality of games (even the big franchise titles) to please and attract more “casuals.”

First lets try to distinguish the difference between “hardcore” and “casual”—“try” being the operative word since there are as many types of gamer as there are games.

“Hardcore” gamer play games a lot. A lot more, perhaps, than they probably do anything else. Game software is their choice of entertainment medium, and rather than get excited with the latest TV season of The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones they are waiting for its game versions instead. When they are not playing, hardcore ones are reading magazines about games, surfing the web for news about games, and Datablitz is their favorite shopping outlet. Gaming is their life, and they dedicate most of their time to playing their favorite titles.

On the other hand, casual gamers, they say, are those that are not too “dedicated.” They may play games a lot of time but they also have other hobbies like watching TV, reading books and a lot of other things. In short, gaming is just one of their hobbies.

However, “dedication” can be a complex thing, if one plays only Pokemon Go and nothing else, does it make them a hardcore gamer for trying to collect all the Pokemon or just a casual since they are only playing a single game? If you only play video games on a mobile phone or tablet, are you a casual gamer? But what if you play these games for countless hours, every day?

But whatever the argument or distinction, one cannot deny that casual gamers are here to stay and their numbers are steadily growing.

And while casual gamers may eventually evolve into hardcore ones, gamers who use to play all the time may also eventually play less because of work or some other “call of duty.”

Recognizing this growth, Dell Philippines recently launched its first line of laptops that are dedicated to casual gamers. The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series is the most powerful Inspiron laptop made and has the specs to play most current gaming titles.

The Inspiron 15 7000 series laptop comes with serious specs for your gaming needs, but doesn’t look like an alien spaceship.

The new Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming laptop is packed with powerful Intel

Dell Brand Manager for Desktops and Monitors Alvin Habaña

Dell Country Manager Chris Papa

GAME ON. American computer company Dell launches Dell Inspiron 15 7000, which comes with specs suitable for hardcore gaming.

Quad Core processor and latest NVIDIA GeForce graphics for immersive gaming experience, plus a pro-grade cooling system with dual fans keeps everything cool and running at full power while playing There are currently two variants to choose from — one with a Full HD display and one with UHD panel plus beefier specs.

“Before, gamers used a couple of computers: a laptop for work and a desktop for play. This new series confirms our commitment towards growing and engaging our customers who require a powerful laptop for productivity and so-

cial media purposes but also allows them to play most of the latest games on one device,” says Dell Country Manager Chris Papa.

Papa adds the new series is also perfect for students studying game development, “Game development industry in the Philippines continues to grow and the growing number of colleges and universities in the country offering formal game development courses means we’ll see a large number of developers and game enthusiasts in the near future.”

“Game developers and enthusiasts expect outstanding outcome of creative works and performance that demonstrate true professional quality and at the same time bringing rich entertainment experience to life. This new Inspiron gaming laptop is the essential device for them,” he adds.

To keep things running smoothly, the extra-capacity heat exchangers are connected by oversized piping to dual cooling fans with high-efficiency blade pitch. These are engineered specifically to handle Intel’s latest 6th Gen H-series quadcore mobile CPUs, NVIDIA’s latest GeForce GTX 960M (15) discrete graphic with 4 GB of blazing fast GDDR5 memory and up to 1 TB conventional or dual-drive M.2 128 GB and 1 TB HDD configurations. That kind of

muscle easily handles the latest gaming titles or industrial-grade video editing.

Its 6-cell 74WHr battery can power your favorite games or uninterrupted creative works up to 13.5 hours.

Finally, the front onboard subwoofer and high performance speakers with Waves MaxxAudio Pro deliver a richer and more immersive audio experience.

The new Inspiron series will have two versions available in the Philippines. The entry-level model has a 6th Generation Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 960M GPU with 4GB of DDR5 VRAM, and a 5400RPM 1TB HDD and Full HD display. The high-end version sports a UHD 4K display, powered by a 6th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA 960M GPU with 4GB of DDR5 VRAM, 256GB SSD drive paired with a 1TB 5400RPM HDD. The Inspiron 15 Gaming (7566) in now available with starting price of P49,990.

For more information, visit www.dell.com/premiumsupport.

Whealth treats orphans to another ballet performance WHEALTH, Inc. continues its annual tradition of treating orphans and underprivileged children to an exclusive matinee show of Ballet Philippines’ Christmas performance at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This year, the children were treated to a spectacle quite different from the Disney and story book inspired performances of previous years.

Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko featured the music of VST & Co. with the ABS-CBN

Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Salonga.

In attendance were 1,775 kids from various orphanages and foundations.

The event was bannered by Whealth’s innovative all-natural health supplement brands—Megafiber fiber supplement, CranUTI Cranberry Supplement, BrainMaster herbal supplement for senior moments and Goutritis herbal supplement for gout. All brands are FDA- approved and available at

Whealth Inc. president Albert MG Garcia (in red shirt) shares a light moment with some of the children

Mercury Drug outlets.

This is the 10th year that Whealth has booked the whole CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo for a matinee show of Ballet Philippines to allow the children an opportunity to enjoy a cultural experience. This unique annual Christmas gift for the kids is one way by which Whealth shares its blessings.

Jollibee snacks courtesy of Whealth and chippy snacks from donor Gilbert Jose were also provided after the show.

Ballet Philippines’s performance featuring the music of VST&Co. delighted the 1,775 kids from various orphanages and foundations

Whealth Inc. has been sponsoring a matinee show of the Ballet Philippines Christmas performance for underprivileged kids for the past 10 years

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

BRILLANTE MENDOZA now on TV5

T

V5 is bringing another first to Philippine free television. After its unmatched sports coverage of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) season, fearless news reporting segments and its unique, Tagalized versions of popular American US television series, it will now give the Filipino audience the brilliance of a world-class director right in their homes.

On Dec. 19 last year, TV5 proudly announced its collaboration with acclaimed director Brillante Ma. Mendoza for its newest offering, Brillante Mendoza Presents.

The show will feature madefor-television movies created exclusively for TV5 by the director.

The name Brillante Mendoza is synonymous with excellent films that reflect the unfiltered realities of society. Viewers can expect the same quality of storytelling and craftsmanship in Brillante Mendoza Presents.

For TV5, this is a testament to its commitment to provide viewers with shows that raise the level of free TV entertainment.

Mendoza has been making the rounds of international film festivals since his first movie , Masahista, in

2005. He is the only Filipino to have won Best Director in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival for his feature film, Kinatay, a story of a young man who suddenly finds himself in a criminal syndicate. Most recently, his film about a small-time drug dealer in dire need of bail money, Ma’ Rosa, earned a Best Actress award for Jaclyn Jose at Cannes Film Festival.

Mendoza’s success in the international arena has given so much pride for the Philippines.

With Brillante Mendoza Presents, TV5 is giving the director another space to feature his work and reach out to Filipinos from all walks of life. The stories will be authentic and unique, definitely a far cry from the usual TV dramas.

It will air once a month starting PARTNERSHIP. Multi-awarded director Brillante Ma. Mendoza with TV5 CEO Chot Reyes this month.

Workshop on Audio Description and Closed Captioning

Expert Joel Snyder, PhD as main resource speaker at the MTRCB workshop

THE Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and prime mover Deaf Blind Support Philippines, Inc. (DBSP), in cooperation with the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), Philippine Blind Union (PBU), CALL Foundation of the Blind, American Audio Associates, LLC and Audio Description Project, ACB recently ushered in a three -day workshop in Audio Description (AD) and Closed Captioning (CC) for Media and the Arts. With expert Joel Snyder, PhD as resource person, the workshop aimed to intensify public awareness on the protection and promotion of human rights. It was also meant to empower the differently abled Filipino citizens who are visually impaired and hard of hearing to have equal access in media and arts through the power of AD and CC services.

MTRCB Chairperson Atty. Eugenio “Toto” Villareal along with DBSP President Edgardo “Bong” Garcia, led the introductory remarks at the Liezl S. Martinez Hall, MTRCB office in Quezon City.

According to Villareal, the workshop was but a confirmation of MTRCB’s continued cooperation that has already been going on between the two agencies.

He shared the timely introduction of AD and CC and how it was brought to the Philippines.

“We have started our initiative on promoting AD and CC through the project ‘Movies for the Blind and the Deaf’ with the full support of MTRCB, SM Cares and CALL Foundation of the Blind. However, the movie screenings held and will be shown in the coming months are presented in English language only, simply because we don’t have Filipino or Tagalog films with AD and CC [services]. So one of the objectives of this workshop, is to create a pool of potential [Filipino] audio transcribers and closed-captioners who can now work with movie and television producers in coming up with local Filipino products with AD and CC,” he said.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Tuesday, January 3, 2017

ACROSS 1 Clover leaves 6 Dock 11 Luxury resort 14 Wide-awake 15 Monopoly buy 16 MacGraw of films 17 Smaller than mini 18 All worked up (3 wds.)

20 — choy 21 Belmont Stakes 23 Chief followers 24 Get-up-and-go 26 Brownish songbirds 28 Tool with a belt 30 Hula-dance fetes 31 Importuned 32 Send, as money 33 Pinch hitter 36 Plasma particles 37 Fleece, in a way 38 Remove the rind 39 Barge pusher 40 Duos 41 Insurance giant 42 Resources 43 Canvas buyer 44 Tall cactus 47 Put in a snit 48 Megastars 49 Online auction

50 DDE 53 As a knight would 56 Spiked the punch 58 Lay low 59 Simon and Diamond 60 Veld grazer 61 Almost grads 62 Brings under control 63 Like pretzels DOWN 1 Coleridge friend 2 Melange 3 Exercising the forefinger 4 Blow it 5 Unleashed fury 6 Voter’s dilemma 7 Sharpen up 8 — — snail’s pace 9 Family mem.

10 Bluntly (2 wds.)

11 Sir, in Delhi 12 Annapolis frosh 13 Buenos — 19 — bien, monsieur!

22 Aries mo.

25 Poet’s tributes 26 Catamounts 27 Tiny margin

28 Kind of curl 29 Matty or Felipe 30 Wanton looks 32 Zoo heavyweight 33 Caustic 34 Coffee servers 35 Worn to a frazzle 37 German industrial region 38 Hitter — Rose 40 Lowly laborer 41 Sporty socks 42 Reflect upon

43 Wheel buy (2 wds.)

44 Weary sounds 45 Oil-well capper Red — 46 Fall colors 47 Yawning gulf 49 “Vogue” rival 51 Superman, incognito 52 Vortex 54 PBS funder 55 Youngest Cratchit 57 Tenn. neighbor

In November, ABS-CBN still ruled nationwide MORE viewers nationwide still preferred ABS-CBN’s programs as it recorded a national average audience share of 44 percent, or nine-points higher than GMA’s 35 percent, based on Kantar Media data covering both urban and rural homes across the country.

ABS-CBN also drew more viewers in the primetime block (6 p.m.-12mn) in November last year, scoring 46 percent, a 10-point lead compared to GMA’s 36 percent. The primetime block is the most important part of the day when most Filipinos watch TV and advertisers put a larger chunk of their investment in to reach more consumers effectively.

Aside from primetime, ABS-CBN also led the other time blocks of the day including the morning block (6 a.m.-12nn) with 40 percent versus GMA’s 35 percent; the noontime block (12 nn-3 p.m.) with 44 percent versus GMA’s 34 percent; and afternoon block (3 p.m.-6 p.m.) with 44 percent versus GMA’s 34 percent.

Eight out of the 10 most watched programs in the country were also on ABS-CBN, with FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano still leading the list with a national TV rating of 35.4 percent,

then followed by TV Patrol with a national TV rating of 32.2 percent while rival program 24 Oras, failed to hit the top 10 with just 23.3percent.

Also joining the list are Wansapanataym (28.7 percent), Pinoy Boyband Superstar (27.3 percent), Home Sweetie Home (26.6 percent), Goin’ Bulilit (25.9 percent), Magpahanggang Wakas (24.5 percent), and TV Patrol Weekend (24.3 percent).

Morning series Langit Lupa, which premiered in November, also instantly touched the hearts of viewers, scoring 17.7 percent and beat Trops that only got 9.8 percent.

Meanwhile, more Filipinos are able to watch ABS-CBN shows with its partnership with PLDT, Inc., which enables PLDT and Smart subscribers to access iWant TV’s rich library of TV shows, specials, and other exclusive content.

In other areas, ABS-CBN also beat GMA. The Kapamilya network won the ratings game in Total Balance Luzon with 47 percent versus GMA’s 36 percent; in Total Visayas with 53 percent versus GMA’s 28 percent; and in Total Mindanao with 53 percent versus GMA’s 30 percent.

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2017

ISAH V. RED

A

BS-CBN opens the year 2017 with the premiere of the muchawaited family drama, A Love to Last, on Primetime Bida.

Top billed by box office actress Bea Alonzo and sought after leading man Ian Veneracion, it is a timely story about family and how love isn’t always what it seems to be.

Andeng Agoncillo (Bea Alonzo), a breadwinner and a successful events organizer, has always believed in love. For her, love is being with the man she loves and having a happy family with him.

Unfortunately, her ideal fairy tale-like love story didn’t have a happy ending after she catches her fiancé cheating days before their wedding. But despite this, Andeng remains hopeful that love would still come her way.

Anton Noble IV (Ian Veneracion), meanwhile, thinks he has found love. After many years of marriage, his wife Grace (Iza Calzado) decides to leave him and demands for an annulment. He’s then left with their three children and becomes a single parent, on top of his job as president and CEO of his company.

Fate then brings Andeng and Anton together at the most unexpected time and place.

Never has Andeng imagined she will find love in an older man--a much older man. As she takes this risk, she also finds herself caught in the middle of Anton’s complicated life--dealing with his ex-wife and seeking acceptance from his kids.

How far will Andeng go to fight for the family she wished for and to fight for her place in Anton’s life?

Joining the cast are Enchong Dee, Julia Barretto, Ronnie Alonte, JK Labajo, and Hannah Vito. It is under the direction of Jerry Lopez Sineneng and Richard Arellano with creative head Henry Quitain under the business unit headed by Lourdes De Guzman. Star Creatives is led by COO Malou Santos. *** Miss Universe is one of the most highly-anticipated events in over 190 countries. With over 90 gorgeous women competing for the crown, is a battle not only of beauty, but also of wit

Bea Alonzo returns to the small screen and teams up with Ian Veneracion in the family drama directed by Jerry Lopez Sineneng

KAPAMILYA’S OPENING SALVO

‘A Love To Last’

“A Love To Last” main cast members Julia Barretto, Ian Veneracion, Hannah Vito, Iza Calzado, JK Labajo, and Enchong Dee (right photo)

and confidence. The pageant is even more thrilling for Filipino fans as it will be hosted by the Philippines for the first time in more than two decades—with the reigning Miss Universe also being a Filipina.

On Jan. 30, all eyes will be on Miss Universe Philippines Maxine Medina as she attempts a back-to-back win for the country, while reigning Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach prepares to pass on the crown to her successor.

As the official broadcast partner of Miss Universe, Solar Entertainment Corporation gives Filipino viewers access to watch the coronation day live on etc. etc will also air a special series of The Journey to the Crown—A Celebration of Beauty: Finale episode featuring Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach on Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m., as well as a five-hour twopart special, 10 Sunrises in the Philippines, featuring all the Miss Universe 2016 candidates on Jan. 21 and 28 at 10 p.m. as they tour the Philippines, and All About U on Feb. 4 and 5 at 8 p.m..

“As the official broadcast partner of Miss Universe, Solar Entertainment shall bring unrivaled media coverage to every Filipino, happening on multiple networks and digital platforms from day one right through the coronation,” said Wilson Tieng, president and CEO of Solar Entertainment Corporation.

Solar has partnered with TV networks TV5, GMA 7 and ABS-CBN to bring this historic event to Filipinos all over the world and to give Filipinos the complete Miss Universe experience.

“Bringing Miss Universe to the Philippines is one of the top events that we have ever invested in. It was an opportunity that we did not want to miss,” said Tieng. “For Miss Universe, we have jampacked activities that will be happening at the same time, and we’re excited to share it with the viewers. My team and I are looking forward to, above everything, the coming together of all industry partners and business affiliates geared towards providing the utmost support in making this muchanticipated event happen.”

The Miss Universe 2016 coronation will air LIVE via satellite on Jan. 30, 8 a.m,. with primetime replay at 8 p.m.on etc.

Don’t miss out and join the conversation at #MsUonETC. The live telecast of the coronation also airs on TV5, GMA 7 and ABS-CBN. The Miss Universe swimsuit and long gown competitions will be telecast on TV5 on Jan. 27 and 29, respectively. A weekend replay of the Miss Universe coronation will be aired on GMA 7 and ABSCBN on Feb. 5.

For more updates, log on www.solarentertainmentcorp. com/channel/whats_new/etc/ and check out etc on www. facebook.com/etctv, on Twitter and Instagram via @etc_ channel.

RiteMED’s ‘Pagpupugay’ Advocacy Campaign wins top honors RITEMED’S advocacy video Pagpupugay, which pays tribute to carers of the sick and directed by internationally-acclaimed and award-winning director Brillante Mendoza, won top honors at the 10th Araw Values Award 2016.

It won Gold for Branded Communications under the value of Love of Country and Respect for National Customs and Traditions. Among the Gold awardees, it won the Platinum Award, for the same category and value. It is the highest award and given only to campaigns that exceeded the criteria of the Gold award category and truly exemplify Filipino values.

Pagpupugay was created for RiteMED by advertising group Estima Inc. The Araw Values Awards is organized by the Advertising Foundation of the Philippines to uphold traditional and positive Filipino values in the industry and promote responsible advertising. It gives recognition

to responsible brands that help promote Filipino values.

It is anchored on the Ad Foundation’s cornerstone values: love of God and respect for all religious beliefs; commitment to truth, honesty and integrity; love of country and respect for national customs and traditions; reverence for family unit or marriage or responsible parenthood; respect and care for human life, dignity and the rights of all; respect for law and authority and the promotion of self- discipline and concern for and preservation of the environment.

It poignantly captures the struggles faced by a spouse, a sibling, a parent, son, daughter, a family member or a professional caregiver when they care for a sick loved one or patient. It depicts the Filipino value of caring for a family member, especially one afflicted with sickness.

It is no wonder that the twominute film immediately struck a chord with Filipinos when it was

released. It has been trending and has been viewed more than 3.2 million times on social media platforms. An abbreviated version is also being shown on television and cinemas.

According to Mendoza, the material or story behind Pagpupugay is close to his heart.

“It’s special because this is about the unsung heroes in our society.

We normally forget about the difficulties they go through.

Through the film, we give them the tribute they deserve,” said the Cannes Best Director awardee.

The 10th Araw Values Awards received a record-breaking 424 entries, the highest number of entries submitted since it was established. These entries were judged based on the following criteria: Value Message, 50 percent; Creativity, 40 percent; and Implementation and Execution, 10 percent. There were 27 Gold awardees and only four Platinum awardees.

“It is really a big honor for us to be recognized by Araw Awards

From left: 10th Araw Values Awards’ Joselito G. Yabut, and Ma. Belen M. Fernando; RiteMed’s Vincent Patrick L. Guerrero; Estima’s Gema Gochuico De Luna, Steven Joseph D.Cruz, and Abigail D. Nepomuceno; RiteMed’s Jenny S. Gonzaga, and Mary Grace C. La Rosa; Estima’s Erwin Trivino; and 10th Araw Values Awards’ Ruperto S. Nicdao, Jr.

from among hundreds of entries.

On top of the distinction, we are glad that our message touched the hearts of Filipinos. We give back the honor to the main characters of Pagpupugay, the caregivers or carers who embody the best of Filipino values,” said RiteMED

general manager Vincent Guerrero.

The core message of Pagpupugay is in line with RiteMED’s “Tamang Alaga” campaign because it highlights that healing is not only about hospitals and medicines. It is also about the love and dedication of

people caring for the afflicted— their family, relatives, friends or professional caregivers. RiteMed is the number one branded generic line of medicines in the country and advocates for access to and high quality of essential medicines for all Filipinos.