Manila Standard - 2017 February 20 - Monday

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GINA UNFIT FOR DENR JOB—SOLONS

By Christine F. Herrera LAWMAKERS and mining company executives on Sunday vowed to block the confirmation of Environment Secretary Regina Lopez before the Commission on Appointments, citing her “mental in-

capacity” and what they said was her use of illegal drugs when she was still a minor.

Lopez has come under intense fire since she ordered the closure of 75 mining companies for allegedly violating environmental laws, and is the target of a lobbying ef-

fort to oust her from the Cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Sources in the mining industry said Lopez was a drug dependent at a young age, and was confined twice in St. Luke’s Medical Center in Global City for “traumatic brain injury and stage 4 brain cancer.”

“Lopez was confined first on she was again admitted for ‘un- believe these explain her unilatNov. 4, 2012 under brain surgeon disclosed reasons’ under another eral decisions and why she passes Dr. Nick Cruz for traumatic brain brain surgeon, Dr. Samuel Ang. judgment without observing due injury. She paid hospital bills She paid P70,000 in hospital process,” the source said. amounting to P87,000,” said one XPERIENCE•XCELLENCE•XCITEMENT bills,” the source told the Manila “She knew she is dying and of the sources, who requested ano- Standard. thus is in a hurry to leave a legacy nymity.

“We question her mental capac- even if [it is] at the expense of the “Second, on April 11, 2016, ity to head an agency because we Next page

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XPERIENCE•XCELLENCE•XCITEMENT

VOL. XXXI • NO. 10 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

US reacts to China dare, sends warship

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ASHINGTON—A US aircraft carrier strike group is patrolling in the South China Sea, the US Navy said Saturday, days after Beijing told Washington not to challenge its sovereignty in the waterway.

China asserts ownership of almost all of the resource-rich waters despite rival claims from several Southeast Asian countries. It has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group was engaging in “routine operations in the South China Sea,” the navy said in a statement on its website.

It noted that the ships and aircraft had recently conducted exercises

off Hawaii and Guam to “maintain and improve their readiness and develop cohesion as a strike group.”

“We are looking forward to demonstrating those capabilities while building upon existing strong relationships with our allies, partners and friends in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region,” strike group commander Rear Adm. James Kilby said in the statement.

China’s foreign ministry said ships and aircraft were allowed to

operate in the area according to international law.

But Beijing “firmly opposes any country’s attempt to undermine China’s sovereignty and security in the name of the freedom of navigation and overflight,” spokesman Geng Shuang told journalists Wednesday, responding to reports that the Vinson was headed to the South China Sea. “We also urge the US to refrain from challenging China’s sover-

eignty and security and to respect regional countries’ efforts to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea,” he said.

The Vinson has deployed to the South China Sea 16 times in its 35year history, the US Navy said.

Washington says it does not take sides in the territorial disputes but has several times sent warships and planes to assert freedom of navigation in the Sea, sparking protests from Beijing. AFP

STRIKING DISTANCE. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson transits the Philippine Sea on Feb. 14, 2017. The Carl Vinson Strike Group is on a regularly scheduled western Pacific deployment as part of the US Pacific Fleet-led initiative to extend the command and control functions of US 3rd Fleet, accordingo to a US Navy statement.

ASG-backed alien jihadists regrouping

By Francisco Tuyay DOZENS of foreign jihadists were among the Basilan-based Abu Sayyaf members under Isnilon Hapilon who left their home base in a bid to establish an Islamic State (ISIS) stronghold in southwestern Mindanao, a military source said Sunday.

The terrorists composed of Indonesians, Malaysians, and Middle-Eastern nationals were sighted in the rugged terrain of Lanao del Sur last month, the source added.

The area where Hapilon and his men have sought sanctuary lies within Camp Busra, the main camp of the Moro Islamic Next page

Munti court asked: Prevent De Lima from leaving

By Rey E. Requejo THE Justice department will ask the Muntinlupa City regional trial court to issue a hold departure order against Senator Leila de Lima to prevent her from leaving the country while she is being tried for her alleged involvement in the

illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the state prosecutors handling the De Lima cases will file a motion Monday.

On Friday, the Justice department filed three complaints against De Lima for violating the

Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which penalizes the sale and trading of illegal drugs.

The court is expected to issue a warrant of arrest after the cases are raffled off Monday afternoon.

“If the warrant of arrest is issued, then we will also ask the court to issue a hold departure or-

der,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre said the warrants could be released on Monday if the judge to be assigned to the cases determines that there is probable cause to proceed with the arraignment.

The Justice secretary also insisted that the Muntinlupa RTC has original and exclusive jurisdiction

over the three cases filed, regardless of De Lima’s position.

Aguirre also denied De Lima’s accusation that the cases were politically motivated.

“The cases filed against Senator de Lima are all criminal in nature. Some of these cases involved Next page

AFP task force to join war on drugs—Año

AMLC told to scrutinize Du30 wealth

BAGUIO CITY―Armed Forces Chief Eduardo Año on Saturday said they were mulling over the creation of a battalion-sized task force to help in the ongoing war against illegal drugs.

“We have no figures yet but we are talking about a battalion-sized formation,” Año said at the sidelines of the annual PMA Alumni

THE Anti-Money Laundering Council will have to do what it has to do after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered it to reveal his net worth following the accusations he has P2 billion in illegal bank accounts, Malacañang said on Sunday.

“I don’t know about the accusations, but everything depends on

Homecoming at Fort Del Pilar in Baguio City.

He said the task force would be helping the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in its antidrugs operations and providing intelligence support if needed.

The task force would also be augmented by additional troops if needed, Año said.

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By Sandy Araneta

the AMLC. They have to do what they have to do,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella told the state-run dzRB radio.

He said Duterte’s family started out poor, but eventually it was able to save money and left him an inheritance.

“They really had nothing, they were government employees so there was nothing there,” Abella said.

Except they were able to save, and when the father died he left an inheritance.”

Duterte had said he had ordered the AMLC to produce documents showing his net worth.

“I’ve ordered the AMLC and everybody to give information on what’s my worth in this planet,” Duterte told the members of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1967.

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Leni warned not to delay poll protest THE camp of former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Sunday the legal team of Vice President Leni Robredo were resorting to delaying tactics as they intended to file a motion for reconsideration on the decision of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to continue the hearings on Marcos’ appeal questioning Robredo’s election.

Marcos’ spokesman Vic Rodriguez said the Supreme Court had already ruled against the issue

pointed out by Robredo.

“Despite the Tribunal’s ruling that this issue was already “beyond dispute”, Robredo’s legal team is still looking for ways to delay the proceedings,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

“If Robredo has nothing to hide, why resort to all these delaying tactics? It’s not enough that her camp cheated their way to the vice presidency. Now they want to cheat again by depriving Senator Marcos of his day in

court. We want the truth to come out. That’s all.”

But Rodriguez said they expected Robredo’s camp to appeal the high court ruling.

“We are not surprised by the pronouncement of Leni Robredo’s counsel that they will appeal the recent PET decision which found former Senator Bongbong Marcos’ election protest to be sufficient in form and substance,” he said.

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EDSA PURIFIER. Mural paintings along Edsa are part of a paint company’s Project Edsa (Everyone Deserves Safe Air), a street art movement that has been replicated in various parts of the world. These tree paintings are said to clean the air by breaking down harmful nitrogen oxide emitted by automobiles. Manny Palmero

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News

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

House takes up death bill

By Rio N. Araja

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EP. Fredenil Castro said Sunday at least 220 members of the House of Representatives would vote to pass the death penalty bill He said the the super majority caucus today will sustain its previous agreement to set the second- reading voting on the proposal on March 8 and the third and final reading a week before Congress takes the Holy Week break.

Castro is one of the principal

sponsors of House Bill 4727 or the restoration of capital punishment.

“If the House has 293 members who are against the bill, they could reach 60 plus or 70 plus versus the majority’s 200plus,” Castro told dzBB radio.

He made his statement even

Gina...

managing environment and ecotourism projects,” the complainants said.

They said Lopez attended Assumption College and Newton College of the Sacred Heart in Boston, “apparently without earning any degrees.”

However, they said, she is supposed to have a master’s degree in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management and a doctorate degree in Humanities (Honoris Causa) from the Ateneo de Naga University.

“Lopez spent 20 years as a yoga missionary in Europe, India and Africa, returning to the Philippines only in the late 1990s. Little is known about Lopez before she sat as the managing director of the ABSCBN Foundation. Lopez is most recognized only as an active spearhead of the foundation’s core projects, Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig, Bayan ni Juan and Bantay Kalikasan. Lopez apparently has no experience in leading and managing in an executive capacity in any organization other than the foundation,” the complainants told the CA. The complainants said Lopez’s appointment as DENR secretary brought to fore the key issues of competence and conflict of interest.

“She is clearly inexperienced and incompetent to head and manage a key executive department, especially one as complex as the DENR. More importantly, the Lopez family’s many involvements in the energy sector highlight the glaring conflict of interest: How will she resolve the environmental catastrophes that involve her family’s energy business, such as the 2010 FPIC (First Philippine Industrial Corp.) pipeline leak that effectively ruined the West Tower Condominium?” they said.

On Monday, a mutli-stakeholder team of the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) will hold its first meeting as part of a review of Lopez’s closure orders.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who co-chairs the MICC, said the team is essentially a “technical working group” that will review the op-

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mining industry, the government and the economy.”

Supreme Court documents show that on July 4, 1974, Regina Paz Lopez was voluntarily submitted by her mother, Conchita, to the Court for treatment and rehabilitation for drug dependency.

The younger Lopez was committed to the Dare Foundation Inc., a duly accredited rehabilitation center, on the same date.

But on Sept. 23, 1974, Lopez escaped from the drug rehabilitation center, after the Court ordered expert psychiatrists to examine her to determine whether she was still drug dependent or suffering from a personality disorder.

In the same year, Lopez and her friends in the Ananda Marga sect filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus against her mother and the Dare Foundation, a petition that was thrown out a year later when Lopez reached the age of majority.

Officers of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines—Artemio Disini, Nelia Halcon and Ronald Recidoro—filed an opposition to the confirmation of Lopez before the CA committee on environment and natural resources on Feb. 10, 2017.

In their letter, they said Lopez’s recent actions show an “undeniable bias” against and antagonism towards large-scale mining, “rendering her unfit and incapable of a responsible, fair, just and balanced implementation of the Constitution, the Philippine Mining Act and related laws and regulations, and of upholding personal interest and advocacies over public interest.”

The complainants said Lopez had shortcut legal and administrative processes, disregarded due process and vested rights, and even ignored the sanctity of contracts between the government and its mining contractors.

“Lopez is grossly unfit and does not have the administrative experience and competence to lead the DENR. Lopez has a poor track record in leading and

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Duterte was at a dinner with them at the Baguio Country Club on Feb. 17, the night before the PMA Homecoming. He is an honorary member of the PMA Class of 1967.

Duterte said he wanted to address the accusations of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV that he had as much as P2.4 billion in bank accounts that he failed to declare in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net worth.

Though he called the allegations a “rehash” and “pure garbage,” he insisted that he and the members of his family never obtained money illegally.

“I have not signed any voucher even for myself. I only receive a salary and that’s it. I do not accept my allowances. None for me. I avoided it and it will be so until the end of my term,” Duterte said.

He told the Class of 1967 that he would resign immediately if he or his family was involved in corruption.

He said the allegations against him would not make him back down from his promise to rid the government of corruption.

illegal drugs. They are not politically motivated,” Aguirre said.

Because of this, Aguirre said De Lima should not refer to herself as a “political prisoner” as the charges against her have nothing to do with her political stand.

“Drug cases do not involve one’s political beliefs. [They] involve one’s choice to be involved in illegal drugs,” he said, adding that he inhibited himself from the resolution of the case against the senator.

Apart from De Lima, those named as her co-accused are her former lover and driver Ronnie Dayan and her nephew Jose Adrian Dera, each facing two counts.

Her other co-accused charged with one count each are former Bureau of Corrections director general Franklin Jesus Bucayu; Bucayu’s alleged bagman Wilfredo Elli; Bilibid inmate Jaybee Sebastian; National Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Rafael Ragos; and De Lima’s former aide Joenel Sanchez.

The charges were filed after the Justice department panel of prosecutors issued a resolution dated Feb. 14 to consolidate the criminal

as Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas would have to decide on Monday afternoon whether or not to terminate the plenary debates on the proposal to restore capital punishment.

Rep. Rodel Batocabe of the Party-List Coalition said the meeting would be very crucial to finalize their stand on the list of crimes, such as plunder, to be included in the bill.

Earlier, Rep. Reynaldo Umali said the death penalty bill would be put to a vote on second reading by March 8 and on third reading on March 15.

Rep. Miro Quimbo has allied with the super majority of

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and even in the opposition-led Magnificent 7 of Rep. Edcel Lagman and Rep. Teddy Baguilat would take a conscience vote on the restoration of the death penalty.

Castro said the super majority had already secured an overwhelming support to bring back the death penalty for heinous crimes.

He said the House leadership may not force the voting on the death penalty ahead of the scheduled dates following complaints of delaying tactics by lawmakers opposing the measure’s passage.

He said the House leadership

conducted a survey last week among lawmakers on the death penalty when they were asked to give the first three heinous crimes they would want included in the measure.

He said the final results of the survey were still being evaluated and finalized.

He stood pat on his ground to include plunder on the list of heinous crimes to be punished by the death sentence, which would include rape and plunder.

“Plunder is a serious crime than killing. When one commits plunder, one steals the people’s money in billions of pesos,” Castro said.

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Liberation Front. The area is being used by jihadists for training, the source said.

Meanwhile, Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Año said security forces are applying “intense pressure” on the group of Hapilon to carry out President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to decimate the ASG. Hapilon was critically wounded in an artillery attack while four of his companions, including an Indonesian identified only as Mohisen, were killed during the skirmishes with Army troopers on the outskirts of Butig, Lanao del Sur two weeks ago.

Mohisen brings to three the number of Indonesian jihadists killed in Mindanao in separate clashes with security forces in Lanao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat last year.

Several military operations are also taking place in Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu to neutralize the ASG, the Maute group and other terrorists groups, Año said.

“The ongoing operations in Lanao del Sur, targeting Isnilon Hapilon and the Maute brothers are being done simultaneously not only to put pressure on this group, but to reduce their capacity to fight and their will to fight,” Año said.

So far, the ASG has suffered 10 members killed in fierce fighting with Marines troops on Capual Island, Omar town in Sulu last week.

An estimated 14 battalions of composite troops are currently deployed in Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu in a search and destroy operations against the group of Hapilon and its sub-leaders.

The Armed Forces expects to defeat the ASG in six months, Año said.

“We are at the stage of strategic victory. The momentum is on our side, and they will lose their will to fight and eventually some of them will lie low, [while] some of them [will] surrender,” Ano said.

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ASEAN ON THE SAND. An artist works on a sand sculpture of the Asean 50 Philippines 2017 logo at the shoreline of Boracay Island on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. PNA

erations of the mine sites affected by the DENR order.

“The technical working group, [is] the one going to do the reviews. That was part of the board resolution, so they’re going to implement it on Monday. They will decide what to do,” Dominguez said.

The multi-stakeholder review team will also include representatives from relevant government agencies and institutions.

Invitations were sent to the co-chairpersons of the MICC— Dominguez and Lopez, along with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Director General Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic and Development Authority.

Also invited to the meeting are Secretaries Ramon Lopez of the Department of Trade and Industry, Ismael Sueno of the Interior complaints filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption; the NBI; former NBI deputy directors Reynaldo Esmeralda and Rule Lasala; and Sebastian.

The prosecutors dismissed the complaint against Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III for “insufficiency of evidence.”

Prosecutors also dismissed the complaints against high-profile Bilibid inmates Herbert Colanggo, Engelberto Durano, Vicente Sy, Jojo Baligad and Wu Tuan Yuan, also known as Peter Co, since “they will be utilized as prosecution witnesses.”

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said the Senate would not intervene in the arrest of De Lima, and advised her to raise the issue of jurisdiction before the proper courts.

“The separation of powers will enter here. The other branches should not meddle. There should be respect,” said Pimentel in an interview over radio dzBB. He said, however, that the arresting team should coordinate with the Senate’s security team to make sure that De Lima’s arrest would not create a ruckus.

Asked if the Senate leadership will ask that De Lima be placed under their custody, Pimentel replied that there was “no need.”

and Local Government Benjamin Diokno of Budget and Management, Alfonso Cusi of Energy, Emmanuel Pinol of Agriculture, Rafael Mariano of Agrarian Reform, Vitaliano Aguirre III of Justice, Silvestre Bello III of Labor and Employment, and Judy Taguiwalo of Social Welfare and Development.

Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, Solicitor General Jose Calida, Undersecretary Ferdinand Cui Jr. of the Presidential Management Staff, Chairperson Leonor Oralde-Quintayo of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Executive Director Sandra Paredes of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines are also invited to the meeting.

Earlier, the MICC affirmed the primacy of both “procedural and

substantive” due process in the final resolution of DENR’s series of actions on existing mineral production sharing agreements.

“As discussed during the MICC meeting last week, there is a need to observe due process.

Due process is both substantive and procedural. Substantive due process means that there are valid grounds in law to support the cancellation. Procedural due process means the procedure for cancellation as provided for in the contract or under relevant laws were followed,” said Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin, who heads the department’s Legal Services Group.

MICC Resolution No. 6 said both the DENR and the Council “recognize the requirements of due process in the applicable mining laws, rules and regulations.”

De Lima has asked that she be detained in a “safe and secure” facility to ensure she does not become a victim of extrajudicial killings.

Senator Panfilo Lacson suggested that the PNP Custodial Center inside Camp Crame, where former senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla are detained, is the safest detention facility.

The Liberal Party condemned what it described as “patently illegal filing of criminal cases” against De Lima before the regional trial court. It said the Sandiganbayan and not the RTC, has jurisdiction over the case as the alleged wrongdoings were supposedly committed when she was Justice secretary.

“This filing before the RTC is clearly an attempt to undermine our court processes. It is an underhanded maneuver meant to go after critics, regardless of legal bases or processes. This purely political vendetta has no place in justice system that upholds the rule of law. This is condemnable,” the LP said in a statement.

“We appeal for total impartiality in the dispensation of justice.

Senator De Lima has been prejudged before any of the charges were filed as no less than the President vowed to destroy her in pub-

lic and was sure De Lima would land in jail before any case was filed. Secretary Aguirre, being the alter ego of the President, should inhibit in any and all cases filed against Senator De Lima.

“We assert that the Ombudsman has primary jurisdiction over cases against public officers cognizable by the Sandiganbayan.

Violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act, which is the DoJ’s case against Senator De Lima, falls under “other offenses committed by public officials” listed in the Sandiganbayan Law,” the statement said.

The group Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, said authorities should immediately drop the politically motivated charges against De Lima, who has spoken out against President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, which has left more than 7,000 people dead.

“The prosecution of Senator Leila de Lima is an act of political vindictiveness that debases the rule of law in the Philippines,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“The Duterte administration seems intent on using the courts to punish prominent critics of its murderous ‘war on drugs’,” he added. With Macon Ramos-Araneta and Sandy Araneta

“Task forces were flexible formations that can be reduced or augmented depending on the security requirements,” he said.

He made his statement even as the PDEA outlined the guidelines in the implementation of its village drug-clearing program to curb the proliferation of illegal drugs in the communities.

“Barangays, as the first line of defense, should be tapped as force multipliers of the national anti-drug campaign at the grassroots level,” PDEA Director General Isidro Lapeña said in a statement on Sunday.

Among PDEA’s general guidelines are the mandatory creation of Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils nationwide; the conduct of barangay drug-clearing operations that is divided into three phases; the classification of barangays in determining the priority areas for clearing operations; the duties of local chief executives in the barangay drug-clearing program; and the penalty for non-compliance.

“It is imperative that every barangay must have an anti-drugabuse council. Failure to do so is a direct violation of the law,” Lapeña said. PNA

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“Their actuation on the protest have been consistent: They are afraid of the truth because it would reveal how much they tarnished and debased the true will of the Filipino people in the vice presidential race.”

Last month, the PET affirmed its earlier resolution finding Marcos’ election protest to be sufficient in form and substance.

The Jan. 24 ruling denied the motion filed by Robredo to conduct a preliminary hearing on Marcos’ election protest and eventually dismiss it for lack of jurisdiction.

In his election protest, Marcos urged the PET to nullify the proclamation of Robredo as the duly elected vice president as this was a result of massive electoral fraud committed to ensure her victory.

Robredo won the vice presidency after receiving 14,418,817 votes over Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes. PNA

News

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

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Lam ‘bribery’ takes new twist His committe is investigating the alleged bribery that arose from the arrest of more than HE bribery case involving casino mogul 1,300 Chinese nationals working Jack Lam and officials of the Bureau of in the Fontana Leisure Parks and Immigration is a case of entrapment versus Casino in Clarkfield, Pampanga, owned by Jack Lam. entrapment based on the testimonies of key “More or less, it was clear personalities implicated in the crime, according there’s extortion. Were there two sets of extortion? The two to Senator Richard J. Gordon, chairman of the deputy commissioners extortSenate Blue Ribbon committee. ed?” asked Gordon.

“I think it tightened up a little bit Gordon said that from what had been trying to pass off as more now because of the presence had unfolded in the four hear- entrapment operations. ings conducted by the Blue “I think this is a case of en- of the partner of Jack Lam, namely Ribbon, there were two cases of trapment versus entrapment,” Charlie “Atong” Ang and the two employees of Jack Lam, who testiextortion, which the key players said Gordon.

By Macon Araneta

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fied. what is happening—appearing there’s an extortion. Too good, we got documents to prove that money was taken, that money was given, ” said Gordon.

In the last hearing, retired police general Wenceslao “Wally” A. Sombero Jr., Lam’s alleged middleman in the bribery scandal, testified that former Deputy Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles asked money from him for the alleged release of the arrested Chinese workers.

While the members of the committee were convinced that it was an extortion case on the

Car tax reform gets under way

By Rio N. Araja THE committee on ways of the House of Representatives has begun discussions on bills that would raise excise taxes on private cars as part of the government’s tax reform program.

Panel chairman Rep. Dakila Carlo Cua of Quirino urged the auto industry to conduct a market research on what price or tax level would change the consumer’s decision to buy a car.

The higher excise tax proposals are found in Chapter VI of both House Bill 4774 authored

by Cua and HB 4688 by committee vice chairman Albay Rep. Joey Salceda.

The bills aim to create a tax system that is simpler, fairer and

more efficient, characterized by low rates and a broad base that promotes investment, job creation, and poverty reduction.

Cua said it is necessary to calculate the tipping point in the behavioral change of a consumer to determine at what price or at what tax level would change his or her decision to buy an automobile.

“What price or tax level would have a consumer change mind not to buy a car? Has there been an analysis?” he asked.

The tipping point will be compared with the data presented by the Department of Finance.

“We will see which data are more reasonable, more sound, and we will go back to evaluating.

But again, please use research, facts and data,” Cua said.

PYROTECHNICS TILT. Fireworks from

Germany light up the sky during the second week of the 8th Philippine International Pyromusical Competition held on Saturday at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

Manufacturers from France, Germany, China, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and the Philippines are showcasing their skills in pyrotechnics. Teddy Pelaez

part of Argosino and Robles, Gordon said they still have to get some details to firmly establish that it was also the case in Calima and his group.

Gordon is optimistic that the second extortion incident would be firmly established in the next hearing, which he hopes would also be the last one so he can wrap up the investigation, in aid of legislation.

“What is more important is what we will tackle in the next hearing—whether there was another extortion,” said Gordon.

The Blue Ribbon chairman said he willI include the incident involving

former BI Intelligence chief Charles Calima and BI Commissioner Jaime.

Morente and explain about the money and why no spot report. He said this is intelligence (work).

The senator also expressed optimism that in the next hearing, the committee members would be able to finalize what amendments to existing laws are needed and what new legislation should they come up with.

He also expressed hope that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre would also be able to expound on his reaction to the indirect bribery offer to him.

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Opinion

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

EDITORIAL

It’s about time

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HE right of the people to know how their government operates is enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, which states that citizens must be given access to official records and documents pertaining to official acts, transactions or decisions, as well as government research used as the basis for policy making.

Successive administrations and legislatures, however, have failed to set these guarantees down in a law since the first freedom of information bill was filed in 1987.

The record that follows that early attempt is a 30year record of failures

Adelle Chua, Editor

brought about by political expediency and a lack of will.

During the 11th Congress, the House of Representatives passed a right to information bill on third reading, but without a counterpart bill in the Senate, the legislation with-

ered on the vine. A succession of similar bills all failed to pass muster. In 2010, the Senate passed a version of the FOI bill, but the House failed to even vote on it because of a lack of quorum.

Often, the lack of executive support was the kiss of death.

In 2010, candidate Benigno Aquino III promised to pass an FOI law while he was campaigning to be president, then promptly forgot his vow after he won the election. Mr. Aquino’s facile line to his disillusioned supporters—that they no longer needed an FOI law because his admin-

istration was already transparent—was a bald-faced lie that eventually enabled his Cabinet secretaries to enter into questionable deals in agriculture and transportation, without the inconvenience of close public scrutiny.

A particularly odious wrinkle in the bid to pass an FOI law emerged in 2014, with attempts by some lawmakers to include a “rightto-reply” rider that would require mainstream media groups to “allot airtime or print media space to aggrieved parties or to those claiming to be unjustly placed in a bad light by news stories.”

The move was widely condemned as prior restraint that would subsume the editorial prerogative of the press to decide which stories to print, air or upload—and further diluted the already tepid efforts to give citizens free access to public documents and records.

Now, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez promises to make history by enacting an FOI bill before the year ends.

This is an encouraging development, until we recall that his predecessor, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., made a similar vow during the previous administration, then hardly lifted a finger to make good on his promise.

There is some reason for hope, however. Unlike his predecessor, President Rodrigo Duterte has not forgotten his campaign promise to make FOI a priority, and has already issued an executive order to ensure easier public access to information from executive department agencies.

But an effective FOI law—minus any obnoxious riders—would cover all branches of government, resulting in greater transparency and less corruption. We hope that President Dutere and his legislative allies are up to the challenge, and finally break our 30-year losing streak.

Work ethic

The fallacy of the deterrence argument I WAS in Tuguegarao when Church people and other equally convinced Filipinos joined the Walk for Life that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines initiated. This piece is my walk in solidarity with all who were there. Given the way things presently—and dangerously—are, I foresee that it is going to be a long walk, and every step matters.

People fear death. On that point, there is no debating. And so, does it follow therefrom that when criminal acts are punished with the sentence of death, those contemplating them are thereby deterred? In the first place, good researchers look for good statistics, and we just do not have the statistics to show that where the death penalty is still carried out, crime rates are lower. And that is not enough. It must equally be established that the difference— if any there should be—must be attributable to the death penalty.

But there is a refutation of the deterrent argument that needs no statistics. AIDS is a dreadful

thing, and the end of an AIDS sufferer is far from pretty. Has that deterred the reckless from engaging in unsafe sex? Has the fear of death had any verifiable effect at all on promiscuity? Imbibing prodigious amounts of alcohol almost inevitably results in cirrhosis—once more, a dreadful, ultimately fatal prospect. Has this fact deterred the worshippers of the bottle? If they fall from “bottle fatigue,” it is not too long before they rise once more to pick up where they left off.

The deterrence argument apparently rests on a very Socratic assumption: People do wrong because they do not know better. Criminals indulge in lawlessness because they are not aware of the severity of its consequences.

But Socrates also dozes off, and this is one point that he was certainly too optimistic about. People know many things to be wrong and people are aware of the dreadful con-

More primitive penal theories certainly went by one or the other version of the argument from deterrence.

People know Anyone who commits theft loses his hand. Anyone who many things to commits adultery is stoned to be wrong and death. Anyone who betrays his people is impaled. Most people are aware certainly, people dreaded these punishments. Foucault of the dreadful opens his book “Discipline consequences of and Punish” with a blow-bynarration of the terrible what they do—but blow ordeal that a condemned man had to suffer for attempting that knowledge on the life of nobility. Did the barbarity of quartering alone does not a man, hanging him then deter them from disemboweling him and finally burning him strike fear doing what they and terror in the spectators?

Without a doubt—and in please. that sense, it may have been a deterrent. So if it is deterrence we are after, why do we not return every hideous practice that at some time in sequences of what they do—but that knowledge alone does not mankind’s brutal history might deter them from doing what they have been effective, indeed?

The answer is that we evolve please.

in our understanding of what it is that humanizes us, of what is worthy of us. Visiting barbarity on those we mark out as unfit for life may indeed punish them, but it also dehumanizes us—and that is a price we must never be willing to pay!

Immediately, a point brilliantly made by Alasdair MacIntyre on the revolutionary character of Aristotelian thought comes to mind. MacIntyre insists that we must be asking Aristotelian questions—like “What is it to live a good life.” Otherwise, all our striving for a “better Philippines” and our excitement about “change is coming” would be all so vacuous. One of the reasons we cannot raise Aristotelian questions, MacIntyre maintains, is because we have cut off every reference to natural law—to identifiable standards, to objective criteria, to determinate points of orientation. Obviously, if anyone’s standards are as good as any Turn to A5

A GOOD friend who somehow profited from a little business advice from this writer thanked three column writers with a trip to Hokkaido in Japan.

Not having been there before, he asked me to draw the itinerary, and so I mapped out visits to Hakodate, Niseko and of course, the capital, Sapporo. I have been to Sapporo and neighboring Otaru in the past, but this was my first time to Hokkaido’s ski capital along Mt. Yotei, and Japan’s old shipping center, Hakodate.

The trip was memorable, not only for the magnificent vistas, the feel of powdery-soft snow and the sub-zero temperatures this time of the year, but because it gave me and my travel companions a glimpse into the real Japan, far from the commercial glitz of Tokyo, the shopping madness of Osaka, or even the ancient grandeur that is Kyoto.

What impressed me most throughout this visit to Japan, my umpteenth to this beautiful country, was getting real proof of the admirable work ethic that has made this Asian country a giant in the whole world.

Our tour guide was also our van driver, a lady at that, whose friendly solicitude made up for her halting spoken English.

One of our travel members noted that if we were in the Philippines, we would have a silent male driver and a female tour guide, while in Hokaido, both were rolled into one.

In Otaru, one of Hokaido’s port, we went to a small ramen restaurant because one of us hankered for tantan men. Lo and behold, we had a most delicious ramen in a small nondescript place beside the wharf, owned and managed by a duo of husband and wife in their seventies, still faithfully cooking the same recipe handed down to them by their fathers. Husband prepared the broth painstakingly through the night to steaming perfection by day, and served us a bowl of ramen so good.

Wife fried the frozen gyoza and within our sight, steamed the dumplings appropriately, so that we had crunchy bottoms and soft tops where the vinegar and spiced sesame permeated perfectly.

Just two of them, doing what they did best through all of 40 years since they started their mom-and-pop operation, and doing it with such grace and dedication to craft one rarely sees in these jaded times.

Wonderful!

Turn to A5

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

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Opinion

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

A5

Political pollution THE air is thick with pollution.

No, it’s not the kind of air pollution that’s pervasive in major Chinese cities that Environment Secretary Gina Lopez should be concerned about. We are talking about the political mud-slinging going on between the Duterte administration and the opposition. It started all the way back with the no quarters asked, no quarters given exchange between Senator Leila de Lima and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre who cast the first stone with serious allegations against the senator and former Justice secretary.

Of course, everyone knows Aguirre is acting on instructions of President Rodrigo Duterte who has a score to settle with De Lima.

When she was Justice secretary, she sought to prosecute the former Davao City mayor for extrajudicial killings in his city. De Lima continued her quixotic mission against Duterte and the EJK of some 6,000 suspects in Digong’s “madugong daan” against drugs.

We are not questioning the method of the government’s brutal war on drugs. For sure, those whose families have been affected by the drug scourge welcome the President’s relentless anti-narcotic campaign. There are, however, an equal number of families who are crying out for justice because their loved ones have been summarily executed by government forces under the guise of the war on

drugs. Foremost among these victims was Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo who was kidnapped by policemen, brought to PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, and killed there. This is considered the most heinous of all crimes. Jee was then cremated and his ashes flushed down the toilet to cover the dastardly deed.

De Lima, on the other hand, has been charged with three criminal counts by the Justice department for her role in abetting the proliferation of drugs in the state penitentiary, including extortion of drug lord detainees in Muntinlupa. De Lima, according to Aguirre and the DoJ, used drug money to fund her campaign for the Senate. Her alleged collector of this dirty money, according to the drug lord detainees, was Ronnie Dayan, her driver-bodyguard cum lover.

So much for the Movie and Television and Review and Classification Board trying to keep such filth from being aired on TV. The MTRCB is helpless and cannot censor the news that is aired live on TV prime time during the hearing of the case against De Lima and the flashy lifestyle of VIP prison inmates.

De Lima, not one to be cowed, somehow worked around Aguirre

to pin him down in the Bureau of Immigration scandal. Aside from pointing to Aguirre’s fake hairpiece, De Lima, during the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing chaired by Senator Dick Gordon, tried to link Aguirre to the P150-million bribery / extortion by BI officials against Chinese gambling lord Jack Lam. The Bureau of Immigration is under the supervision of Aguirre’s Justice department.

The plot thickens when Senator Antonio Trillanes of the opposition Liberal Party accused Duterte of amassing P2 billion hidden in bank accounts under the names of his children—Davao City Mayor Sara, Paulo and Baste.

Duterte let loose his arsenal of expletives and calling Trillanes “ignorant and demanding retainers “ for cases being heard in the Senate. Trillanes though is sticking to his story and claims he has the documents on Duterte’s P2billion bank accounts. We don’t know who’s telling the truth but one has to admire Sonny Trillanes for taking on the President.

Duterte lashed back to say Trillanes is on his last term and has no more political future-after his Senate stint. But don’t rule out the ex-navy captain and mutineer who plotted to overthrow former

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Trillanes might just make it his mission in life to make life miserable for Duterte. It could also be his ticket to the presidency in 2022. Who knows?

It may be too early to talk about the presidency but politics is a year-round, no-season activity in this country. To wit, potential presidential candidates are already beginning to feel the heat from the ruling PDP-Laban party of Dutere, Senate President Koko Pimentel and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

The target aside from Trillanes is Vice President Leni Robredo.

Note the flak Leni is getting from certain columnists even if she has been visibly quiet. Someone up there must be insecure. Robredo is being groomed as a possible successor to Duterte before his term is over. Robredo, after all, is the vice president. She succeed the President in the event he’s stricken ill or is removed via impeachment or a coup. With concerns over Duterte’s health, speculations are rife about the prospects of a Robredo presidency. It doesn’t help that Duterte and his mouthpieces have not totally cleared the air regarding concerns and rumors about the President’s health.

Duterte himself has denied that his mysterious absences were because of secret trips to China where he’s supposedly seeking medical help.

The weird watershed angle THE latest in Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez’s anti-mining crusade is the cancellation of some 75 mineral production sharing agreements or MPSAs, citing their location in watershed areas.

Needless to say, crying foul is the mining industry and its many stakeholders, especially those who are bound to be rendered jobless by an act that’s been described by the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines as “irresponsible.”

Philexport president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. has likewise expressed concern about the serious impact to the extensive supply chain of mining that affects not just drilling, construction, hauling and shipping but extends to processing companies, manpower and transportation services.

Amid the flexing of the DENR secretary designate’s media propaganda might, she has presented no viable plan for more than a million bread winners, dependents and other stakeholders in mining communities who cannot just shift overnight to her silverbullet solution of eco-tourism.

But beyond the emotionalism and sloganeering, a quick analysis of the science behind the claim will reveal its utter absurdity.

Watershed areas—or drainage or catchment basins—refer to any expanse of land to which all surface water drains at a lower elevation. It is a broad and, for any kind of de-

newable energy velopment that OPEN plants, such as disturbs the virwind, solar, and gin landscape, THOUGHTS hydro farms, a potentially OrlaNdO are also located prohibitive OxalES in watersheds. definition. To Quarries, for incite, the Mississtance, will also sippi River, the world’s fourth-largest watershed, have to be summarily banned for some 320 million hectares, nearly the same reason (and, by defini40 percent, more than a third, of tion, quarrying is open pit mincontinental United States. Mining ing, which Secretary Lopez has has historically provided the back- repeatedly announced she would bone of industrial development; the not allow). If she succeeds, the whole of North America would not blanket ban entails will reverse have achieved its optimum poten- the countries accelerating contial if the same absurd logic were struction boom into a national crisis. The supply and production followed.

Moreover, there is no such of cement and aggregates, both of thing as a “functional watershed” which come from open-pit minin the Mining Act or the Forestry ing, will be shut down. Even the Code. Inventing this new concept Lopez Group’s First Balfour, one and again without any technical of the largest suppliers of transexplanation became an effective port infrastructure and construcsound bite for her announcement tion projects, extracts mine aggregates in a watershed. of mine closures.

But isn’t Secretary Lopez just For perspective, in the Philippines, the total land area covered enforcing the law? The Mining by mining tenements as of No- Act has indeed specified areas vember 2014 is less than a mil- that are closed to mining applicalion hectares, or less than three tions on environmental grounds. percent of the country’s total land These include old growth or virarea. It is also less than 10 percent gin forests, including bird sancof the nine million hectares with tuaries and marine reserve and “high mineral potential,” which protected parks, and critical wameans the industry has barely tershed with appropriate baranscratched the surface. Thus, to gay or municipal or provincial speak so grandly of the potential ordinances specifying their lodamage of mining in watershed cations and specific boundaries. areas ignores these miniscule The key word there is obviously “critical”, and is not meant to be numbers.

Besides, geothermal and re- applied wholesale to all water-

Work...

From A4 Later, cutting a long land trip from Hakodate back to Sapporo, we stopped by a small yaki-niku restaurant near Lake Pokoroko in Shiraoi, which prides itself with the finest wagyu in Hokkaido.

In a bigger restaurant with more tables, there were just four people working in the eatery: a butcher who prepared the meat, a waitress who likewise prepared the salad and the oshinko (pickled vegetables which always complement a good Japanese meal, my favorites being the ones they prepare in Kyoto), a helper who made sure the charcoal brazier was cleaned and oiled, and another, a young lass who cleaned the tables and everything else—all in the family.

The yaki-niku was simply great, whether one grilled the marbled rib-eye or the leaner rump, so tender, so buttery. The greatest surprise was the price, which was much, much lower than what one would pay in exclusive Tsukiji on Pasay Road, or even the more affordable variants in Makati or BGC. Mom and pop, with kids helping. The quintessential work ethic of the Japanese!

There are many other stories descriptive of a work ethic one rarely sees in our country that I have personally witnessed: in a restaurant at the ground floor of the Limmathof in Zurich, a mom-and-son restau-

rant in Barcelona, a poor farm-hand who triumphed through dint of hard work to become one of Taiwan’s wealthiest men.

The secret is simple—hard work. Dedication to craft or profession. A single-minded pursuit of excellence.

The Otaru tan-tanmen was something that people who tried it once would come hankering for more. The Shiraoi beef that strived for excellence to compete with more well-known wagyu from Kobe. Or the Kaohsiung farmer who painstakingly grafted guapple and native pink guavas into a crunchy fruit with a soft oh-so-sweet center. Or the Furano farmer who harvests the sweetest, juiciest melons even if they cost an arm and a leg.

Back in Taipei after a few days in Hokkaido, I went to another mom-and-pop noodle house, far from the beaten track but recognized even by the great chefs of France for its pursuit of gustatory excellence.

One rues the fact that save for a few places like Lukban in Quezon or Vigan in Ilocos Sur, the other provincial food trips have been bastardized by fast-food joints which have killed the family-type operations which served good native food. Just look at Baguio and Session Road, “killed” by behemoth SM appropriating what used to be genteel Pines Hotel on the hill overlooking the city.

What is the common denominator of these

The fallacy...

From A4 other’s, then there is really no debate, and deliberative rationality simply ceases to have any function. It reduces itself to de gustibus non est disputandum.

One last point: There was a rule of Thomistic

shed areas.

So why was these MPSAs issued in the first place? Under Why was this allowed under fiveyear watch of her most trusted consultant, former Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Leo Jasareno? Why isn’t the former director being made accountable for what Lopez has labelled a mistake of the DENR? Some say that mining contributes less than one percent to the country’s gross domestic product.

The number, while good for headlines, is misleading. As pointed out, only a small area of the Philippines are hosts to mining activities.

What the one percent occlude are the regions—some of the country’s poorest—that benefit greatly from mining. To cite, in Caraga and Mimaropa, contributions from mining exceed 20 percent—a fifth—of the region’s revenues. Averaging these gargantuan inputs with huge swathes of areas with no mining activities is a dastardly spin because it ignores local realities.

If this weird watershed angle tells us anything, is that this war has been waged less on science and more on dangerously misguided dogma. As a purveyor of state policy, Secretary Lopez should know better. Or is there a hidden agenda that her communications experts have so cleverly masked with an environmental spin? Will the Commission on Appointments be pressured by this power play?

success stories now lost in the Philippine landscape?

Hard work. Patience and perseverance.

An obsession for excellence. And a market that demands excellence as well, not ersatz food; not can-do quality. Not mass-produced mediocrity.

The same obsession that made the Formosa Group a world-renowned brand. Visiting their Mailiao complex in central Taiwan together with some businessmen and congressmen last week, one marvels at how patience, hard work, vision and perseverance transformed this company into one of the world’s topnotch producer of petro-chemicals, resins, poly-vinyls and heavy industries, especially when told that the founder had not even finished high school!

Would that we had this kind of work ethic.

Not if we continue with the “bahala na” attitude. Or “pwede na ‘yan.” Or a consumer market that does not appreciate native goodness and would rather embrace foreign crap. And a business elite whose only driving force is to give the market whatever it wants, without guiding them into what it should want. *** This weekend we will commemorate once again the Edsa revolt that once upon a generation made us feel so proud. Thirtyone years, and what have we to show for it?

Time for us to reflect.

ethics—and not only Thomistic ethics but many reasonable ethical theories as well. When in doubt, do not act. When you see movement of leaves while on a hunt, you do not shoot first, and then later check whether it is game you have in fact shot or your own grandfather, your hunting companion!

Now, there is no disputing that the judicial system may be as good as we can put it together in our best

Gina Lopez and mining SECRETARY of Environment, Gina Lopez, has been the subject of attack by mining companies following her order to close down 23 mining operations which reportedly failed in the compliance audit and her cancellation of 75 Mineral Production and Sharing Agreements involving exploration and mining operations in watersheds.

Watersheds are areas of land that drain rain water down to rivers and other bodies of fresh water. Secretary Gina pointed out that once fresh water is poisoned because of the toxic chemicals used in mining such as cyanide, sometimes even mercury, people will have no fresh water to drink, no vegetation from which to derive food and no fish to catch in the oceans.

The major dailies have carried news hitting her on various dimensions including her education and personal life. News stories even said that mining firms are mulling filing graft cases against Gina. Yet, she would not have been in this bind in the first place if her predecessors had not issued MPSAs on areas covering watersheds which the law prohibits. And if she were corrupt, then she would not have ruffled feathers and fully performed her task of regulating the mining industry.

I have known Gina for quite a time now. She is someone passionately working for the protection of the environment because she genuinely cares about people. She often says every person deserves a quality of life that allows him to enjoy a healthy environment, a means of living that will preserve nature’s riches for generations to come, and access to what are vital in life such as clean water, clean air and sufficient food.

The President himself has called her what she truly is—a crusader.

As I know Thus, despite the reality that the government her, she is not is the most ungrateful anti-mining employer, and despite her having to endure per se. long hours of work and stress on the job, she does her work with passion. She can take all the flak because she derives strength from the belief that what she is doing will be for the good of the entire country and the Filipino people for generations to come. Some people working in the companies ordered closed are said to be protesting about losing their jobs. They worry about the now but do not realize that if irresponsible and destructive mining goes unabated, they will be left with a barren, untillable land, no safe water to drink and no food to feed themselves and their families.

It is understandable that the mining companies are up in arms and bent on blocking Gina Lopez’s confirmation by the Commission on Appointments. What is at stake is their business interests and investments. Yet, they too must realize that quality of life far outweighs profits in the grand scheme of things. Gina, as I know her, is not anti-mining per se. She— like all of us—knows that there are minerals essential to living. What she is riling about is the irresponsible operation of mines that destroys life in its wake like the open pit type of mining. As a case study made by the Cordillera People’s Alliance said, open-pit mining is the most destructive as it requires removing whole mountains and excavating deep pits. Generally, open pits need to be very big—sometimes more than 2.5 kilometers in depth. In order to dig these giant holes, huge amounts of earth need to be moved, forests cleared, drainage systems diverted, and large amounts of dust let loose. By the very nature of this method, the top soil and vegetation of the land would necessarily be stripped away.

In Itogon and Mankayan, Mountain Province, for instance, whole mountains and entire villages were removed from the land surface.

Mining requires large volumes of water for milling and waste disposal. Thus, in the Itogon and Mankayan experience, the mining companies privatized the sources of water, forcing the people in the mining-affected areas to buy water for drinking and domestic use from outside sources. The study further states that while toxic tailings were supposed to have been contained in dams, heavy rainfall and typhoons have caused the dams to either collapse or leak, causing toxic tailings to escape, poisoning the soil and water as far as Abra river. What is now left in Itogon and Mankayan is a wide gorge of barren and poisoned land on either side of a polluted river.

The Cordillera People’s Alliance has made many sound recommendations for responsible mining. One, the international community should develop minimum standards for the protection of the environment and human rights that are binding on all countries and companies, with effective monitoring and sanctions. Two, countries that are home to transnational mining companies should enact laws that will require those companies to operate using the same standards wherever they operate in the world. Home countries whose nationals and corporate entities inflict damage in developing countries should impose a penalty on the offending parties. Three, an international system should be created to allow complaints to be filed by affected peoples. Four, since no monetary compensation could replace the destroyed environment and the traditional of affected peoples, destructive large-scale corporate mining should be stopped. Alternatives such as chemicalfree traditional small-scale mining methods need to be promoted and supported, the paper says.

Email: ritalindaj@gmail.com Visit: www.jimenolaw.com.ph

lights—but it certainly is not infallible, and will never be. So, there is always the possibility that we may convict and send to the gallows someone who is innocent. It need not be shown that this has happened—although it has in fact happened in the world’s judicial past. All that is needed is the mere possibility that an innocent man is sentenced to die, and that would be reason enough—for those

who continue to believe in being reasonable—not to return the terrible gamble of the death penalty.

I stand for life. I stand against the return of the death penalty. rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph rannie_aquino@outlook.com

News

A6

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Villar: Save Filipino on death row in UAE

By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Cynthia Villar has urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to step up its efforts to provide legal assistance to overseas Filipino worker Jennifer Dalquez who is on death row in the United Arab Emirates.

DFA records showed Dalquez has been sentenced to death for killing her employer on Dec. 7, 2014.

The OFW’s mother said her daughter was arrested after stabbing her employer who was attempting to rape her.

DFA sources said the UAE’s Court of First Instance will issue a decision on Dalquez’s case on Feb. 27.

The decision would either affirm or overturn the death sentence issued by a lower court. An affirmation of the sentence would lead to the transmittal of the case to UAE’s highest court.

“We cannot and should not allow the execution of yet another innocent OFW,” Villar said, referring to the

recent execution of domestic worker Jatakia Pawa in Kuwait.

Prior to her execution, the 44-year-old Pawa maintained that she was innocent of the crime, saying she had no motive to kill her employer’s daughter and that her fingerprints did not match the DNA found on the murder weapon.

Pawa was executed on Jan. 25, catching the DFA and the Department of Labor and Employment by surprise.

According to the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait, the host government only gave them a notice of 18 hours prior to the execution.

“Let us not repeat the same mistake of being caught by surprise, and failing to provide the family with timely and relevant information as seen in the case of Jatakia Pawa,” the senator said.

“The DFA must leave no stone unturned in providing quality legal assistance to Jennifer Dalquez,” Villar added.

House starts info drive on federalism T

By Rio N. Araja

HE House committee on constitutional amendments will begin on Friday its regional public information campaign on President Rodrigo Duterte’s advocacy to shift the presidential-unitary form of government to a parliamentary-federal system through a Constituent Assembly.

“Our massive information drive will start on Feb. 24 and will be held every Friday from thereon. This is to educate the people nationwide about the workings and benefits of federalism. We will be visiting Davao, Dagupan, Bacolod and Tacloban cities,” said Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado, the panel chairman.

He said his panel has decided to put on the backseat the plenary debates on Charter Change.

Two authors of the Charter Change bills, Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Raneo Abu and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray Villafuerte have expressed their full support to the information drive.

They also lauded the panel for relentlessly pushing for Cha-Cha

amid its tight schedule as it also tackles measures aimed at reviving capital punishment.

“The problems plaguing the country, such as graft and corruption, poverty, insurgency, weak judiciary and others are due to our failure to restudy and revisit the Constitution,” Abu said.

“The proposed federalism would give us the chance to reexamine the provisions of our Constitution for fair distribution of the benefits of economic growth,” he added.

Villafuerte expressed hope that the executive and legislative branches could focus on Cha-Cha and federalism after the deliberations on the restoration of the death penalty.

“With the creation of the 25-member Constitutional

Commission to revisit the 1987 Constitution and come up with proposed amendments for consideration by the Congress convening as Constituent Assembly, the executive and legislative branches could now put the federal switch on the fast lane,” he said.

He said the shift to a federal government is crucial to attracting foreign direct investments and accelerating growth in the countryside “since federalism alone could ensure full autonomy for provinces and cities in charting their growth paths, which, in turn, would foster healthy competition among the local governments in wooing investments from both foreign and local business groups.”

88 people cleared of estafa charges

By Rey Requejo THE Court of Appeals has cleared 88 individuals of estafa and money laundering charges filed by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. for allegedly amassing P97.73 million in deposit insurance claims using falsified documents.

In a 16-page decision, the CA’s Sixteenth Division through Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon granted the petition filed by Manu Gidwani, one of the accused in the case, who sought to nullify a June 3, 2016 resolution issued by then Acting Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas.

Caparas’ order reversed and set aside the earlier resolutions by the Department of Justice-Task Force on Financial Fraud which dismissed the criminal charges against Gidwani, his wife Champa, and 86 other persons.

The CA ruled that Caparas committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of or in excess of jurisdiction when he reversed and set aside the earlier resolutions of the DoJ-TFFF as well as a resolution of Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano dismissing PDIC’s petition for review.

NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP.

United States Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim (right) and Hans Sy (left), chairman of the executive committee of SM Prime Holdings Inc., gamely join a coloring activity for children with Down Syndrome during the Happy Walk event on Sunday held at the SMX of the Mall of Asia in Pasay City. The event aims to help children with Down Syndrome to 'level up' in their inclusion in society.

“There is nothing new in the evidence revisited, reviewed and reassessed

by Secretary Caparas from those initially studied and examined by the investigating panel who have the opportunity to sift first hand these evidence,” the appellate court stressed.

“Considering that the fact finding panel of the DoJ found no prima facie case against the petitioner, a fact affirmed by the DoJ secretary through Undersecretary Justiano, great restraint should have been exercised by Secretary Caparas in reversing the findings of the investigating panel and Undersecretary Justiniano,” the CA added.

The appellate court pointed out that what Caparas reexamined were the same pieces of evidence evaluated by the investigating panel during the preliminary investigation.

“There were no new evidence presented in the motion for reconsideration of PDIC that would compel Secretary Caparas to rule otherwise,” the appellate court said.

“In overturning the said findings and recommendations of the DoJ-TFFF, he acted in an arbitrary and despotic manner by reason of passion or personal hostility,” it added.

CAREFREE SUNDAY. Children pedal outside the gates of the Philippine Navy headquarters along Roxas Boulevard of Manila. Ey Acasio

Kids with Down Syndrome ‘level up’ in bid for inclusion UNITED States Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim lauded the efforts in the Philippines and retail and property giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. in pushing for inclusivity of children with Down Syndrome.

Joining the Happy Walk for Down Syndrome held at the SMX at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City Sunday, Kim said he was inspired by the energy of the children in the event as he lauded efforts on children with Down Syndrome.

“This is a wonderful

event. I am really honored to spend some time with these kids. I’m really inspired by these children because there’s so much energy. I would like to commend everyone and SM for organizing these very special event,” Kim said in an interview.

Gamely participating in the activity booths set up by children with Down Syndrome, Kim pledged to take part in next year’s Happy Walk event. “This has been going on for quite a while and I look forward to participating again next

year,” he said.

Elmer Lapena, President of the Down Sydrome Association of the Philippines, said children who have the condition have started to level up in terms of taking the first step in becoming productive members of society.

“This level up is to push society to embrace our children for them to become productive members of society. We have many kids now who are working or going to school and we hope more of them could be accommodated,” he said.

Ejercito bats for nationwide building audit

By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Joseph Victor Ejercito has urged the Department of Public Works and Highways to conduct a nationwide audit on compliance to the National Building Code, in particular ensure that infrastructures are earthquake- and disaster-resistant.

The senator made the call in the aftermath of the Surigao earthquake on Feb. 10 which left at least P1 billion in damage.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has also warned Filipinos to prepare for the impending “Big One”—a possible magnitude 7.2 earthquake expected to be generated by the West Valley Fault.

“I am calling on the DPWH to conduct a facilities check across the country,” Ejercito said.

“We need to know whether our airports, ports, roads, bridges, and other public infrastructures, and even our homes are earthquake resilient and compliant even to the minimum requirements of the National Building Code,” added Ejercito, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Works and Highways.

“We do not want to incite fear, but it could be more catastrophic in densely populated cities such as in Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao, and other big cities,” the senator added.

Ejercito, who has been calling since 2012 for the government to hold a National Summit on Disaster Preparedness, said the Surigao quake should serve as a wake-up call for the government to take action.

Sports

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Philracom gets boost from IFHA consultant

International racing consultant Ciaran Kennelly (third from right) shares his initial impressions on local horseracing during a meeting with the Philracom board.

Morales fortifies hold on lead S TA. ROSA, Laguna--Navy-Standard Insurance’s Jan Paul Morales showed why he’s the country’s best sprinter as he edged Go for Gold’s Ronnel Hualda to rule the Stage 9 criterium yesterday and fortify his grip on the lead in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2017 at the Paseo de Sta. Rosa here.

Morales, 31, brushed off a late attempt by Hualda to steal the lap to claim the former’s fourth stage triumph with the two sprint specialists clocking identical times of an hour, five minutes and 58 seconds.

The win kept Morales, who won in Stages 2 in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, 3 in Subic and 6 in Daet, Camarines Norte, at the helm with an aggregate clocking of 30:00:58, or 2.37 minutes ahead of Navy teammate

Rudy Roque, who is at No. 2 and has 30:03:35.

The Calumpang, Marikinabased rider gained eight seconds due to his recent win that has slowly but surely pushed him closer to winning his second straight Ronda crown and becoming the first ever back-to-back winner of the country’s biggest cycling race.

If it happens, Morales will also join Pangasinan pride Santy Barnachea as the most titled rider in the event with two after the latter won it in the first edition six years ago and in the fifth offering two years back.

And Morales has four stages before securing his place at the pantheon of LBC Ronda Pilipinas greats.

“They say I will win it, but I keep reminding myself that it isn’t over yet and anything can happen,” said Morales in Filipino. “All I can do right now is to take it a stage at a time and ride intelligently.

“And if I can do that, then I can celebrate,” he added.

For Hualda, the Go for Gold skipper, he thinks Morales is almost there.

“I think he has an 80-percent chance of winning this. If this is basketball, its like he’s leading by

40 points,” said Hualda, whose wife Eds coaches the team, referring to Morales.

Morales, who also leads the sprint and King of the Mountain races, will continue to wear the red LBC jersey in today’s 130-km TagaytayBatangas-Tagaytay Stage 10.

Navy skipper Lloyd Lucien Reynante towed the peloton and checked in at third place that helped the Navymen keep the lead in the overall team race with a total time of 121:12:04, ahead of Go for Gold (121:32:17) and Kinetix Lab-Army (121:53:34).

Mighty Sports falls to taller Egyptians Games Tuesday (Al Ahli gym) 5 p.m. – Al Riyade vs Ball Above All 7 p.m. Egypt vs Sagese 9 p.m. – Homenetmen vs Mighty Sports-PH DUBAI—Egypt, taller and heftier, used the free throw area as its escape route, making 16 of 18 tries to frustrate Mighty Sports-Philippines, 84-82, in the 28th Dubai International Basketball Championship Saturday at the Al Ahli gym here.

Backed by Scratch It and Rain or Shine, Mighty Sports got off to a hot start this time, taking 2219 lead after the first 10 minutes of play to the delight of another sizable Filipino crowd.

But Mighty Sports was held scoreless in the first five minutes of the second frame while the Egyptians scattered four triples in a deadly offensive burst to take the initiative and the half, 45-33.

The Egyptians even padded their lead to 18 points, 60-42 late in the third quarter of a rugged encounter.

B u t Mig ht y

Sports refused to give the fight easily as Jeron Teng, Kiefer Ravena and ex-Ginebra import Justine Brownlee led the team’s smoldering attack.

Teng launched the team’s rally with a completed three-point play, Brownlee buried a couple of 3-point shots and Ravena calmly scored two free throws to close in at 84-82.

A ray of hope showed for Mighty Sports when Youseff Aboushousha split his charities with six seconds to go.

Instead of cheers, a cry of anguish was heard as Kiefer R a v e n a’s three rattled in and out at the buzzer.

Overall, the performance of Ravena and Teng, who finished with 10 and 9 points, respect ively, somehow eased the team’s second defeat in as many games.

“They played great today, they defended courageously,” said coach Charles Tiu who confronted 7-foot-5 Hamad Abouelrish after elbowing Beau Belga at midcourt.

Kiefer Ravena shoots against Sale’s Zakaria Elmasbahi in the opener of the Dubai International Basketball Championship.

Jan Paul Morales gained eight seconds with his Stage 9 win that has pushed him closer to winning his second straight Ronda crown and becoming its first ever back-to-back winner.

INTERNATIONAL racing consultant Ciaran Kennelly is in town to help the Philippine Racing Commission in its efforts to raise its standards befitting a new member of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

The Philracom recently achieved a milestone of being formally accepted as a member of the IFHA, whose mission is to promote good regulation and best practices on international matters pertaining to the sport.

Philracom Chairman Andrew Sanchez said Kennelly’s presence and inputs will be a big boost to the local horseracing industry.

“He’s here to help us become worthy of our IFHA membership in terms of handicapping rules and procedure, transfer of technology and the like,” said the Philracom board, which briefed Kennelly on the status of the local horseracing scene at its office in Makati City.

The high-profile IFHA executive is here to review the current structure of the Philracom’s Racing Programme and prepare a draft that will include the possibility of setting up a rating-based handicapping system, the structures that will have to be in place and the maintenance and updating of the ratings and the like.

“In order to achieve these objectives, I would have to review their current structures and racing programme and meet the administrators of racing and personnel involved in the running of racing at their (Philippines’) three races tracks,” said Kennelly.

Kennelly arrived on Tuesday evening and immediately got his feet wet on Wednesday by visiting the Manila Jockey Club in Carmona, Cavite after a briefing with Philracom officials at the Acacia Hotel in Alabang.

In the afternoon, Kennelly presented to racing managers, club handicappers and racing officials his International Handicapping System, before observing the races at the MJCI dedicated in his honor.

After his briefing at the Philracom office on Thursday, he discussed Internal Policies of the Regulatory Function of Handicapping rules and procedures and horse groupings with Moises Cundangan and Ferdinand Diva.

Commissioner Niles said Philracom’s entry into the IFHA membership “will make sure that horseracing in the Philippines is held at the highest level.”

“Race owners are very excited because they know this will open new avenues for them. At the same time, this will ensure that Philippine racing will move towards globalization,” explained Niles, adding the Philippines’ top horses can compete in future races abroad and vice versa.

Alexander, Steffen seek Ironman repeat wins FIVE-TIME world champion Craig Alexander and Caroline Steffen try to make it back-toback as they banner the elite field in the Century Tuna Ironman 70-3 which gets going on March 12 in Subic Bay. Alexander and Steffen both took command in the 21km run stage of the premier triathlon event, which includes the 1.9km swim and 90km bike legs, to dominate their respective sides

last year but the duo braces for a tougher outing this time against a field featuring some of the world’s leading triathletes.

They include Tim Reed, the inaugural CT Ironman champion who is out to atone for his third place finish last year, along with fellow Aussies Tin Van Berkel, Dan Brown, David Mainwaring and Sam Betten, Germans Michael Raelert, Till Schramm and Johannes Moldan, Swiss

Ruedi Wild and Sven Riederer, Eric Watson of Bahrain, Ritchie Nicholls of Great Britain, American Kevin Collington and South African Johan Stofberg.

Firming up the stellar men’s roster in the event event put up by title sponsor Century Tuna and presented by Century Quality Bangus are Kyle Buckingham of South Africa, Dan Wilson, Jake Montgomery, Jason Hall and Guy Crawford of Australia,

and Benjamin Williams and Iain Alexandriris of the US. Steffen will also be hardpressed to keep her women’s tiara with Czech Radka Kahlefeldt, Germany’s Imke Oelerich, and Aussies Dimity Lee Duke, Kate Bevilaqua, Sarah Lester and Imogen Simmonds going all-out to foil her back-to-back title drive in the event organized and produced by Sunrise Events, Inc,

Former champs chase 2nd Solaire PH Open golf title Mardan Mamat took the PH Open crown at Wack Wack in 2012, beating South Korean Mo Joong Kyung by five.

VETERAN Asian Tour campaigners Mardan Mamat and Marcus Both seek to become the first repeat winner in the Solaire Philippine Open in the last decade when the 99th staging of the fabled event is held March 2-5 at The Country Club in Laguna.

No player has ruled the country’s premier championship and Asia’s oldest National Open twice since 1988 winner Frankie Miñoza nailed his second Phl Open crown in 2007. But with their experience and talent needed in tough, challenging courses as the TCC, Singapore’s Mamat and Both of Australia hope to figure prominently right in Day One of the $350,000 event.

Mamat, 49, took the crown at Wack Wack in 2012, beating South Korean Mo Joong Kyung by five while Both, 37, ruled the 2014 edition of the event, also at the Mandaluyong layout, via a two-stroke victory over Siddi-

kur Rahman of Bangladesh.

Although the duo turned in mediocre finishes in the last Phl Open won by Miguel Tabuena in late 2015 at Luisita, Mamat, who tied for 16th, and Both, who wound up joint 37th, are raring to bounce back in the upcoming blue-ribbon event sponsored by Solaire Resort and Casino.

But they are but two of a slew of foreign entries in the field teeming with Asian Tour and Asian Development Tour stars. Along with the country’s leading players, the elite cast guarantees four days of top-notch action on a demanding course hosting the Open for the very first time.

The TCC actually staged an Asian Tour event in 2014 with Canadian Richard Lee pouncing on Tabuena and fellow local ace Angelo Que’s final round meltdown in the wind to win the Solaire Open. But the exclusive par-72 layout

underwent a two-year renovation to conform to PGA standard, making it a lot tougher and a true test of golf.

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

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Robinson’s perfect 50 in final dunk keys victory NEW ORLEANS—Glenn Robinson scored a perfect 50 on his final dunk to capture the NBA All Star Game’s slam dunk title Saturday after leaping over three people for a dynamic two-handed reverse jam.

Indiana Pacers forward Robinson jumped over teammate Paul George, the club’s mascot and a Pacer cheerleader to easily win the contest over Phoenix Suns rookie Derrick Jones.

“I wanted to bring some energy to the competition,” Robinson said. “I wanted to do something no one has ever seen.”

In the final round, Robinson faced off against Jones, who advanced from the four original competitors. The Los Angeles Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan and the Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon were eliminated in the earlier rounds.

The NBA has struggled to get its marquee players in the slam dunk contest and that was underlined by the inclusion this year of the undrafted Jones.

Very few NBA fans know who Jones is as he has played just 24 minutes this season in the league after spending the majority of his rookie campaign with Phoenix’s development league team, the Northern Arizona Suns.

Jones didn’t record his first dunk in the NBA until Wednesday night’s contest against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Robinson’s perfect 50 on the winning dunk gave him a two-dunk total of 94 in the finals. He ran from the right side, grabbed the ball, and leaped over the trio, ducking his head to prevent himself from hitting the rim.

“My head was at the rim,” Robinson said. “I’m an explosive player.

“I got some great help to get this done.

On a couple of dunks my head was at the rim.”

Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon, the NBA’s leading three-point shooter this season, defeated Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving in the overtime round of the All-Star Three-Point Contest, scoring 21 points to Irving’s 18 in the extra period.

Gordon nailed several clutch jumpers, including a final shot in the second round to send the contest into overtime.

“It’s all about getting hot,” Gordon said.

“All of us know, as shooters, anybody can get hot on any given night. Tonight was my night. As shooters, it’s all about being consistent.” AFP

Glenn Robinson III of the Indiana Pacers dunks the ball during the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest during State Farm All-Star Saturday Night as part of the 2017 NBA All-Star Weekend at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. AFP

Whitfield steals Stage 2 from fellow Aussie rider

By Peter Atencio

N

AGA City— Australian rider Jai Crawford soared to a strong start, taking the lead early as cloudy skies with light to moderate rains turned difficult parts of the 177.35 km second stage of the Le Tour de Filipinas from Sorsogon City to Naga City into a wet and strength-sapping ride.

But by the time Crawford got to the 1.35-kilometer coastal mountain passes of Patitinan in Sagñay, Camarines Sur, the rain was over and Kinan Cycling Team’s top rider faded into the background.

Another Australian in Sean Whitfield of Oliver’s Real Food Racing took charge as they headed downhill, snatching Stage 2 honors.

The rain was already over when he towed a 29-man group into the finish line in the last 10 kilometers.

They stepped it and joined Crawford with 3 kilometers left.

The 21-year-old Whitfield emerged ahead of the big main pack in 4 hours, 19 minutes and 21 seconds, together

with Stage 1 winner Daniel Whitehouse and top Filipino rider Mark Galedo.

“So with 10 kms to go, we started riding. We caught them with 3 kilometers to go,” said Whitfield, who followed Team Ukyo riders Nathan Earle and Eiichi Hirai before he finally moved up into the lead.

Crawford was holding a 5 minute, 32 minute lead in the last 30 kilometers when he and Whitfield stepped it up and gave chase on the flat road.

Taking second place honors was Park Sanghong of LX Cycling Team, while Kuwait Cartucho’s Fernando Grijalba ended up third.

7-Eleven’s Edgar Nieto and Filipi-

no teammate Rustom Lim bounced back from Stage 1’s bad start as they managed to stay with the lead group.

“Nakabawi ako ngayon. Nagka-mechanical trouble ako kahapon. Gusto naming dalhin ang team,” said Lim, who had braking issues the other day.

It was Whitfield’s first stage victory in an International Cycling Union race as he displayed incredible stamina with his climbing skills over hills connecting Albay and Camarines Sur. Crawford eventually emerged as the King of the Mountain before his legs gave up on his way out of the pass’ sharp bends as the peloton headed northwest to Naga City before lunch.

Whitehouse gained a cumulative time of 8:15.24 in the individual general classification standings, with Benjamin Hill of Attaque Team Gusto behind by 1:57.

National team members George Oconer and Mervin Corpuz were 2:25 behind in a two-man seventh group.

“Matulin masyado. Hindi kinaya,” said national coach Norberto Oconer as he described how Filipino riders performed over the pace of the race as Whitfield and the lead group increased their speed to 60 kph entering Naga City.w

WHITFIELD

Beermen, Texters put it all on the line in Game 7

By Jeric Lopez WHO is bound to punch a ticket to the finals?

San Miguel Beer and TNT KaTropa put it all on the line as they are set to conclude their best-of-seven semifinal war in a winner-take-all Game 7 in the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup.

Only one can move forward to the finals as the Beermen and the Tropang Texters dispute a finals berth in Game 7 at 7 p.m. today at the Mall of Asia Arena.

After six games, the evenly matched protagonists ended up tied at 3-3, setting up the stage for a do-or-die knockout.

With its back against the

wall and facing elimination, San Miguel was able to stay alive and keep its title defense alive, drubbing TNT KaTropa, 104-88, Saturday night in Game 6 to even the series.

June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot and Chris Ross all stepped it up to ensure San Miguel lives on.

At this stage, San Miguel

coach Leo Austra shared that the defending champions are willing to go the extra mile just to win and be able to get a return trip to the finals.

“Gusto talaga nilang manalo, so buhos na talaga kami lahat,” said Austria.

The Tropang Texters need to find support for consistent guard Jayson Castro and

rookie Roger Pogoy to be able to have a good shot.

In Game 6, Castro and Pogoy, who scored 20 and 12 points, respectively, led the way for TNT but barely got support from their teammates.

Texters’ star Ranidel De Ocampo was limited to only five points.

GM Torre braces for busy schedule

FILIPINO grandmaster Eugene Torre returns to action this April in the 32nd Reykjavic Open Chess Championships 2017.

The 28,000 sqm. Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre will be the site of the 10-round tournament to be held in the capital city of Iceland from April 19 to 27.

Torre said he was invited to the €15,000, nine-day, 10-round Swiss system chessfest last year after he earned a bronze medal-

finish in the 42nd Chess Olympiad 2016 last September in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Torre first joined the event in Reykjavik in 1980.

“The organizers (Icelandic Chess Federation) invited me by virtue of my winning a bronze medal in the last Baku Olympiad,” said Torre, who added that he will also pay respects to his friend, the late former world champion American Robert James ‘Bobby’ Fischer.

Torre is among the 189 entries this time.

He is also set to join the Vietnam Chess Federation’s $45,000 7th HDBank Cup International Open Chess Tournament 2017 at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from March 11 to 18.

The National Chess Federation of the Philippines-organized $5,000 Asian Zonal 3.3 in Tagaytay City, Cavite from Feb. 24 to Mar. 6 is also in his schedule. Peter Atencio

Johnson leads at Riviera, nears no. 1 rank

PAL INTERCLUB TEES OFF. Philippine Airlines President Jaime J. Bautista leads the ceremonial tee-off at the Rancho Palos Verdes Golf and Country Club to formally open the Philippine Airlines 70th Interclub Golf Tournament (Seniors’ Division), with the theme “The Turf of Legends” from Feb. 22 to 25 in Davao City.

PACIFIC PALISADES (AFP)-Dustin Johnson edged closer to golf’s world number one ranking Saturday, firing a five-under par 66 to seize a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the weather-hit Genesis Open.

The US Open champion, who could jump from number three in the world to number one with a long sought victory at Riviera Country Club, had a 36-hole total of 10-under par 132.

He was one shot in front of US compatriots Pat Perez, who closed with back-to-back birdies for a 66, and Cameron Tringale, who had seven birdies in an impressive seven-under 64.

It was a further two strokes back to Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas and Americans Patrick Rodgers and J.T. Poston on 135.

Johnson, whose six top-10 finishes at Riviera include a playoff loss two years

ago, could supplant Jason Day atop the world rankings if he can break through for a first win at the classic course west of Los Angeles.

“I want to put myself in position to win this golf tournament, that’s really all I care about is what it takes to get it done here,” Johnson said. “The rest of the stuff, the points and world golf rankings, yeah, I would like to get there, but I’m not worried about it.”

PH judoka to join tilts in Japan TOURNAMENTS in collegiate competitions in Japan are in store for Fil-Japanese standout Kiyomi Watanabe.

The Philippine Judo Federation has this in mind after Watanabe settled for a bronze medal in the semifinals of the International Judo Federation World Judo Tour Paris Grand Slam in France.

PJF president Dave Carter said her participation in tough collegiate meets in Japan will help prepare her for the 2017 Southeast Asian Games.

Watanabe made history for the Philippines when she won over Lucy Renshall of Great Britain in the Under-63 kilogram division.

Her feat handed the Philippines its first-ever medal in the IJF World Judo Tour.

Watanabe topped Pool D after she prevailed over Daniela Kazanoi of Belarus, Junxia Yang of China and Daria Davydova of Russia to gain a semifinal seat.

The 20-year-old Watanabe, a gold medalist in the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, went to the repechage after bowing to Clarisse Agbegnenou of France in the semifinals.

She then claimed a bronze when she defeated Renshall.

In getting ready for the SEA Games, she is also set to join meets in Austria and Germany in the IJF Grand Prix calendar. Peter Atencio

Roxas delays biomass project

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Business

IN BRIEF $1-b coal plant set to open in November

PAGBILAO Energy Corp. is set to start the commercial operations of the $1-billion 420-megawatt Pagbilao 3 coal-fired power project in Quezon province by November this year.

Energy Department records showed the new power plant would begin testing and commissioning in May, and would help secure the country’s power generation requirements this year.

Pagbilao Energy is a joint venture between TPEC Holdings Corp. and Therma Power Inc., wholly-owned subsidiaries of TeaM Energy Corp. and Aboitiz Power, respectively.

TeaM Energy, the joint venture of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp., currently operates the existing 735-MW Pagbilao coal plant.

“We are pretty much on time and budget and so far construction is on going. Construction is progressing well,” Aboitiz Power Corp. president and chief operating officer Antonio Moraza said earlier.

Pagbilao Energy announced in 2015 the joint venture partners were investing close to $1 billion to put up the coal project. Construction of the project started in the same year. Alena Mae S. Flores

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandardtoday.com extrastory2000@gmail.com MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

B1

PAL, partner to strike deal

By Darwin G. Amojelar

P

HILIPPINE Airlines expects to close a deal with a strategic investor this year, ahead of the original target of 2018, a top executive said over the weekend.

“We are looking at finalizing a deal with a strategic investor, hopefully this year. It takes time for a strategic investor to finalize their decisions.

There’s negotiations, you have to agree on the valuations and you have to agree on the management,” PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista told reporters Friday night.

Bautista did not name the strategic investor because of confidentiality agreement. Unlike a financial investor, a strategic investor infuses capital in the subject company and is more involved

in operation, sharing technology, experience and market to help the investee succeed.

Bautista said PAL was willing to sell “up to a percentage that is allowed by law.” A foreign investor can acquire up to 40-percent equity in the flag carrier.

PAL tapped Morgan Stanley as financial advisor for the transaction.

“If [we] still need funds, we can do re-IPO [initial public offering],” he said. The proceeds of the re-IPO would be used to fund the expansion program he said.

PAL Holdings Inc., the listed parent company of the airline, has a public float of only 10.22 percent. The company has a market capitalization of P127.7 billion.

PAL Holdings listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2007 using a ‘backdoor’ route through Baguio Gold. In the fourth quarter last year, PAL Holdings consolidated its 100-percent control of the airline and conducted a share swap to take

ownership of Zuma Holdings Management Corp. which owns PAL Express.

PAL signed a memorandum of understanding in February last year with Airbus for the acquisition of six A350-900 aircraft with an option for another six for delivery from 2018 to 2019.

The orders were valued at $1.83 billion.

PAL plans to deploy the A350 extra wide-body aircraft, which seat more than 300, on new routes to North America and Europe. The first A350 is scheduled for delivery in 2018.

Bautista said the airline expected to post a net profit in 2016.

The airline, now wholly-owned by tycoon Lucio Tan after he bought back a 49-percent stake that San Miguel Corp. purchased from him in 2012, posted a net income of P2.55 billion in January to September 2016, lower by 57 percent from a year ago.

Revenues increased 3.5 percent in the ninemonth period to P85.35 billion, with passenger revenues rising 4.7 percent to P71.47 billion.

Dominguez confident on tax bill approval

FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said he is optimistic Congress will approve the proposed Comprehensive Tax Reform Program because it will make the current system simpler, fairer and more efficient.

“If you look at the tax reform package, and see and weigh the benefits and the pain that it might cause, you won’t need to use any political capital because it’s a good package,” Dominguez said in a statement over the weekend.

“So he may not even have to spend a single iota [political capital] on this tax package,” Dominguez said, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte.

The first package of the CTRP, now pending at the House ways and means committee under a bill filed by its chairman, Rep. Dakila Carlo Cua, aims to lower personal income tax rates and the donor and estate taxes.

Cua’s House Bill No. 4774, which is endorsed by the Department of Finance, aims to broaden the tax base by adjusting excise tax rates for automobiles and fuel and plugging leakages in the value-added tax, but retaining current exemptions enjoyed by seniors and persons with disabilities, among other revenue-enhancing measures.

Dominguez said he was hoping the entire CTRP would be passed in six months, “but the reality of the situation is it cannot be done.”

“The last big tax [reform] package took five years to pass, two Congresses. I hope to finish it in one Congress, three years,” he said. Julito G. Rada

PNP relaxes rules on chemicals transport

THE Philippine National Police approved a draft memorandum circular relegating the task of ensuring the safe and secure transport of controlled chemicals over land from the PNP to accredited logistics providers.

The draft memorandum authorizes the shift in ensuring the safe delivery of low-risk controlled chemicals from police escorts to logistics companies. This does not cover high-risk controlled chemicals, which still need to be accompanied by police officers.

The approval came after long discussions between stakeholders and PNP officials that took several months. The stakeholders, comprised of exporters, importers, manufacturers and exportdevelopment government agencies, explained difficulties and delays to the business community of the need for a police escort when transporting toxic substances.

“In the previous regulatory regime, transport of controlled chemicals entailed the physical presence of the police officers who were compensated for their professional services but in the proposed guidelines, the duty and responsibility of transporting these controlled chemicals will be undertaken by accredited logistics providers which in turn will be subject to the regulatory policies and guidelines of the PNP,” said the circular.

The use of logistics providers will “unburden the PNP of depleting its human resources whose services are better [used] for the national government’s campaign against illegal drugs,” it said.

Othel V. Campos

WINTER FOOD SHOW. The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, the export promotion arm of the Department of Trade and Industry, surpasses its sales target during the 42nd Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, USA. WFFS is the West Coast’s largest specialty food and beverage event with an estimate of 20,000 annual visitors and 1,500 exhibitors from the US and 28 other countries. Under FoodPhilippines brand, 20 local companies secured $48.73 million negotiated sales in 463 inquiries from trade buyers. Century Pacific Food Inc. emerged as one of the top dollar earners. Shown are US trade buyers and visitors in one of the Philippine booths.

BSP liberalizes liquidity regulations for major banks

By Julito G. Rada THE Monetary Board, the policymaking body of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, further liberalized the liquidity rules for universal and commercial banks in line with the adoption of the liquidity coverage ratio starting Jan. 1, 2018.

The performance of big banks has been under a monitoring period since the Monetary Board approved the introduction of liquidity coverage ratio in March 2016.

“With the LCR in place, previous

liquidity-related guidelines could be set aside without compromising on the prudential policy intent,” Bangko Sentral said in a statement over the weekend.

Among those set aside in lieu of adopting the LCR were the requirements to have liquid assets vis-à-vis a bank’s holdings of government deposits, the 30-percent liquid asset cover, as well as the same currency cover requirement for the foreign currency deposit unit.

Under the previous guidelines, universal and commercial banks are required to maintain liquid assets equiv-

alent to at least half of government deposits and other liabilities; foreign currency denominated liquid assets equivalent to at least 30 percent of FCDU liabilities; and foreign currency denominated assets equivalent to 70 percent of FCDU liabilities in the same currency as the liability.

“With the forthcoming formal adoption of the LCR by 2018, these guidelines could be lifted. The LCR data is expected to provide regulators and the banks themselves a better gauge of the liquidity standing of covered institutions,” Bangko Sentral said.

The liquidity coverage ratio framework is in line with Bangko Sentral’s initiatives to promote high standards of risk management in the banking system and to foster financial stability. This is a part of the Basel 3 reform package issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

The LCR will complement the minimum capital adequacy rules. While the latter safeguards the industry over solvency risks, the LCR imposes a minimum standard to protect banks against liquidity risks which may happen even if a bank is still solvent.

Sugar tax to hurt consumers

By Othel V. Campos THE Beverage Industry Association of the Philippines expressed opposition to a bill in Congress that plans to impose a 10-percent tax per liter of sugar-sweetened beverages.

The group whose members include softdrink and other beverage producers said House Bill No. 292 would not achieve its targets of curbing obesity and increasing government revenue collection, but instead raise the prices of several consumer goods and hinder economic growth.

The House ways and means committee recently said it wanted to adopt House Bill No. 292 as a part of the tax reform plan.

The group cited research findings showing that compared with consumers in other countries, Filipinos were not over-consuming sugarsweetened beverages. “This is due to the smaller package size and less frequent consumption

by Filipinos,” it said.

It referred to statistics from the World Health Organization in 2015 showing that of 192 countries in the world obesity index, the Philippines ranked only 155th.

“Furthermore, it is not in the higher tier of the Asian countries,” it said.

The association also said that obesity had many causes aside from eating too much sugar.

The proposed tax is also predicted to raise the prices of consumer goods and to ultimately “have the most impact on the poor and poorest segments,” it said.

It said studies showed that instant coffee would see a price increase of 48.41-percent after an excise tax of P10 per liter was imposed, raising the price of a sachet of coffee from P5 to P8.

Powdered concentrate will go up in price by 108.61 percent, or from P9 per sachet to P19, while prices of tea drinks will jump 52.48 percent, from the current P20 to reach P30 per bottle, it said.

The beverage group said that besides hurting the beverage industry, “the proposed tax will result in reduced government revenues, economic contraction and job losses.”

Statistics from the University of Asia and the Pacific Economic Impact Study (2016) and AC Nielsen Data showed the proposed tax would affect the income of sari-sari stores, representing 91 percent of retail stores in the country, as 31 percent of sari-sari store sales were coming from carbonated beverages, the group said.

BRIDGE PROJECT. The Philippine Business for Social Progress and the Regional Board of Investments-

Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao sign a memorandum of understanding to formalize their partnership through Bridge Project called “Brokering Business Investments in the Bangsamoro to Achieve Inclusive Development & Growth.” Shown signing the agreement in Makati City are (seated from left) ARMM-Manila Liaison Office chief Jolly Lais, RBOI-ARMM chairman Ishak Mastura, PBSP executive director Reynaldo Antonio Laguda and Australian Embassy (Manila) political and public affairs counselor Richard Rodgers.

B2

Business

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Stock index likely to test 7,300

By Jenniffer B. Austria

S

TOCKS are expected to keep moving sideways this week, with the benchmark index likely to test the 7,300-point level as more companies release their 2016 financial reports.

BDO Unibank Inc. chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said the renewed rate hike fears in the US following Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s statement in Congress was causing local players to lighten up their position.

“Chartwise, the week’s close at 7,244.79 continues to suggest the market to remain range-bound between the 7,000 to 7,400 levels in the near term. Only a move above the 7,500 level will call the bulls back to play,”

Ravelas said.

AAA Securities trader Justino Calaycay Jr. said the index could break the 7,300 level as more companies release their financial reports.

Calaycay said the market was showing some degree of strength or resilience as the positive performance of financials and property indices could provide opportunities for investors.

“Given the short-term rising value flows on the retreat, the narrow positive breadth and the sustained foreign selling in the last several weeks, investors may need to take a breather and wait for confirmation or invalidation of these patterns before proceeding gung-ho either way,” Calaycay said.

The 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index rose 0.1 percent over last week’s five-day market trading to close at 7,244.79 on Feb. 17 while the broader all-share index inched up 0.2 percent to 4,388.01.

Major sub-indices ended mixed, with financial, holding firms and property posting week-on-week gains, while mining and oil, services and industrial registered week-onweek declines.

Foreign investors were net sellers by P760 million last week, as total foreign selling reached P20.06 billion while foreign buying amounted to P19.3 billion.

Average daily turnover was also flat at P7.1 billion.

Top gainers last week were Melco Crown (Philippines ) Resorts Corp. which jumped 12.3 percent to P5.10, Filinvest Land Inc. which advanced 7.8 percent to P1.80 and Integrated Microelectronics Inc. which went up 5.7 percent to P6.60.

Heavy losers included Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. which dropped 8.7 percent to 9.22, 8990 Holdings Inc. which declined 6.8 percent to P6.66 and PLDT Inc. which fell 4.3 percent to P1,455.

PNOC, foreign firms in talks on gas plant

By Alena Mae S. Flores PHILIPPINE National Oil Co. is in talks with several foreign companies including Osaka Gas Ltd., Samsung Group and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. to build an integrated liquefied natural gas terminal and power plant in Batangas province.

“Because they know that LNG is the fuel of the future, their best bet is to partner with PNOC like what is practiced in other countries particularly Singapore [for] an integrated

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS WEEKLY STOCKS REVIEW STOCKS

FEBRUARY 13-17, 2017 Close Volume

AG Finance Asia United Bank Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Bank of PI China Bank BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. Bright Kindle Resources COL Financial Eastwest Bank Filipino Fund Inc. First Abacus I-Remit Inc. Manulife Fin. Corp.

MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl. Reinsurance Corp.

PB Bank Phil Bank of Comm Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank Philippine trust Co. PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Sun Life Financial Union Bank Vantage Equities

3.26 48.4 116.20 95.00 39.5 4.28 1.32 16.18 19.96 8.88 0.68 1.69 855.00 0.690 79 0.74 14.36 25.50 60.00 91 124 240 41.75 211.2 1800.00 79.10 1.29

Aboitiz Power Corp.

Agrinurture Inc. Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. Alsons Cons.

Asiabest Group Basic Energy Corp.

Bogo Medelin C. Azuc De Tarlac Cemex Holdings Century Food Chemphil Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ Conc. Aggr. ‘B’ Cirtek Holdings (Chips) Concepcion Crown Asia Da Vinci Capital Del Monte DNL Industries Inc. Emperador Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) EEI Euro-Med Lab First Gen Corp.

First Holdings ‘A’ Ginebra San Miguel Inc. Holcim Philippines Inc. Integ. Micro-Electronics Ionics Inc Jollibee Foods Corp.

Liberty Flour LMG Chemicals Mabuhay Vinyl Macay Holdings Manila Water Co. Inc. Maxs Group Megawide Mla. Elect. Co `A’ MG Holdings Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp.

Pepsi-Cola Products Phil.

Petron Corporation Phil H2O Pilipinas Shell Phinma Corporation Phinma Energy Phoenix Petroleum Phils.

Phoenix Semiconductor Pryce Corp. `A’ RFM Corporation Roxas and Co. Roxas Holdings San Miguel ‘Pure Foods `A’ Shakeys Pizza SPC Power Corp.

Swift Foods, Inc. TKC Steel Corp.

Universal Robina Victorias Milling Vitarich Corp.

Vulcan Ind’l.

43 5.23 0.86 1.41 19.08 0.280 100 14.84 9.22 16.6 170 95 100 23 58 2.12 6.21 12 13.020 7.12 5.84 8.04 1.68 22.2 75 12.20 17.04 6.6 1.750 205.00 71.50 6.34 3.85 28.45 30 26.9 16 287.40 0.385 6.98 3.45 9.15 3.59 78.6 11.50 2.39 7.10 1.85 4.8 5.00 2.37 2.99 270.2 12.68 4.52 0.149 1.52 161.1 4.45 1.73 1.16

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

Forum Pacific GT Capital House of Inv. JG Summit Holdings Lopez Holdings Corp.

Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp.

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

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

0.375 73.00 12.82 1.20 6.15 0.360 0.335 781 8.99 13.00 5.9 8.14 0.210 1220 5.95 75.25 7.9 1 14 0.450 6.8 3 0.0600 1.230 1.990 107.00 2.62 671.50 1.48 0.86 270.000 0.3000 0.1920 0.260

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

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

Double Dragon Empire East Land Ever Gotesco Global-Estate Filinvest Land,Inc. Interport `A’ Keppel Properties Megaworld MRC Allied Ind. Phil. Estates Corp.

6.660 6.20 1.02 2.680 1.060 36.250 3.33 5.03 0.520 1.10 1.340 0.172 0.570 55.35 0.710 0.165 1.01 1.80 1.40 4.02 3.73 0.173 0.3400

Value

FINANCIAL 512,040.00 3,679,650.00 1,286,979,405 611,463,289.00 19,955,358.74 529,930.00 608,780.00 9,587,050.00 108,440,636.00 404,784 13,600 457,480.00 1,282,250.00 42,020,100.00 884,975,113.00 3,473,020.00 1,141,956.00 1,375,285.00 76,995,865.50 312,260.00 364,407.00 6,752,394.00 53,046,740 397,359,320.00 2,764,285 11,660,300.00 77,200.00 INDUSTRIAL 8,172,800 353,863,015.00 12,127,000 62,811,291.00 2,141,000 1,858,800.00 3,740,000 5,285,390.00 71,600 1,358,814.00 412,980,000 130,076,700.00 750 76,970.00 97,500 1,437,868.00 106,464,100 1,019,642,274.00 8,924,800 146,229,800 2,080 386,475.00 2,950 272,742.50 990 107,446.50 1,239,100 29,014,350.00 417,790 23,883,208 3,712,000 7,676,690.00 2,303,700 13,970,954.00 354,400 4,201,542.00 38,230,100 490,896,986.00 5,898,600 42,001,661.00 75,815,000 441,168,355.00 2,709,400 22,181,431.00 33,000 55,940.00 8,885,095 32,769,500.00 1,921,050 142,597,031.00 130,000 1,584,604.00 573,800 9,820,270.00 17,303,700 40,331,214.00 4,655,000 7,985,260.00 4,081,480 838,660,686.00 490 34,200.00 48,826,100 305,406,635.00 94,000 361,480.00 5,600 155,820.00 10,580,400 318,842,065.00 949,200 25,743,975.00 24,118,300 373,489,490.00 1,307,640 380,828,766.00 302,650,000 107,632,150.00 2,525,500 14,278,036.00 2,693,000 9,160,070.00 12,802,700 118,765,959.00 5,000 17,950.00 1,985,490 156,700,358.50 44,900 510,390.00 10,491,000 24,963,320.00 5,684,900 40,870,796.00 24,439,000 44,692,270.00 1,405,000 6,753,460.00 273,600 1,372,765.00 17,000 40,520.00 1,825,000 5,824,600.00 66,260 18,132,142.00 8,831,300 111,651,276.00 185,000 778,550.00 17,560,000 2,613,250.00 1,287,000 1,928,870.00 11,022,010 1,772,211,555 20,492,000 96,942,000.00 16,543,000 27,829,980.00 203,000 224,850.00 HOLDING FIRMS 29,200,000 10,967,250.00 7,631,880 558,378,130.50 59,535,400 768,121,804.00 745,000 881,880.00 358,900 2,176,760.00 92,080,000 31,924,300.00 2,390,000 801,150.00 1,358,280 1,076,174,280 10,010,200 89,868,016.00 29,756,100 387,968,724.00 72,700 426,869.00 606,000 4,836,570.00 710,000 143,560.00 808,900 993,028,565.00 11,300 67,950.00 7,675,800 570,856,440.00 2,929,300 23,009,365.00 28,585,000 28,907,800.00 42,940,600 622,491,144.00 6,360,000 3,223,300.00 120,740,600 817,348,445.00 13,000 39,930.00 4,884,840,000 318,553,980.00 8,000 9,840.00 821,000 1,655,670.00 1,819,950 191,876,919.00 60,000 161,940.00 2,257,280 1,508,821,765.00 16,714,000 25,212,350.00 74,000 63,640.00 31,810 8,500,572.00 9,320,000 2,780,450.00 5,150,000 989,700.00 2,740,000 717,300.00 PROPERTY 3,022,300 20,829,962.00 2,000 12,400.00 7,623,000 7,688,900.00 4,077,000 10,702,580.00 415,524,000 513,543,130.00 68,942,700 2,495,645,125.00 11,195,000 37,182,460.00 2,131,900 10,724,161.00 85,053,000 44,856,490.00 310,000 314,080.00 1,147,000 1,477,070.00 102,340,000 17,273,340.00 30,754,000 17,821,780.00 3,795,430 209,696,635.00 927,000 665,730.00 13,090,000 2,079,990.00 21,577,000 22,289,100.00 80,269,000 143,240,440.00 16,161,000 21,573,980.00 21,000 89,020.00 111,848,000 417,462,250.00 360,370,000 63,428,450.00 9,620,000 3,347,600.00 164,000 76,400 11,230,730 6,478,500 737,700 127,000 407,000 595,900 5,465,300 52,500 20,000 278,000 1,490 57,448,000 11,155,240 4,620,000 80,000 54,700 1,277,380 3,460 2,970 28,220 1,242,900 2,904,730 1,530 209,890 60,000

FEBRUARY 6-10, 2017 Close Volume Value 3.27 48.3 114.60 93.00 38.75 4.38 1.29 16.08 19.78 7.40 0.71 1.65 825.00 0.790 77.3 0.76 14.4 25.00 59.20 91 125 239 40.15 213 1760.00 78.80

422,000 74,900 9,929,200 15,634,920 1,573,500 229,000 1,464,000 104,900 1,253,000 31,900 100,000 562,000 940 97,785,000 28,427,930 4,756,000 107,400 25,100 551,160 5,740 3,730 20,100 1,136,100 2,799,780 4,930 235,120

1,397,940.00 3,612,625.00 1,132,721,779 1,444,083,774.50 60,776,665.00 963,660.00 1,862,040.00 1,494,902.00 24,958,793.00 228,627 71,000 943,890.00 776,400.00 78,928,700.00 2,210,106,596.50 3,610,680.00 1,538,352.00 627,500.00 31,489,319.00 512,045.50 470,498.00 4,728,778.00 43,842,335 597,122,258.00 8,639,850 18,559,840.00

43.45 4.98 0.87 1.45 18.9 0.285 109.8 14.90 10.1 16.36 152 95 97.3 23.6 58.5 2.04 6.08 11.98 12.800 7.14 5.82 8.40

7,149,600 6,485,900 7,572,000 4,865,000 65,000 207,933,620 2,180 217,700 73,371,400 17,538,700 10 2,060 70 1,166,700 120,670 1,636,000 1,601,100 149,500 30,485,400 2,964,800 59,452,100 8,298,300

308,908,915.00 33,233,516.00 4,641,690.00 7,035,530.00 1,163,292.00 194,585,580.00 219,193.00 3,242,794.00 779,108,756.00 284,454,062 1,520.00 267,731.00 6,811.50 27,049,410.00 7,099,391 3,296,950.00 9,907,690.00 1,792,884.00 390,334,188.00 20,858,456.00 345,126,244.00 68,699,359.00

22 72.4 12.38 17.08 6.24 1.700 206.00 70.00 3.92 3.47 27.95 30.4 27.1 14.78 290.00 0.270 5.44 3.3 9.50 3.59 78.35 11.58 2.41 7.18 1.51 4.9 4.98 2.03 3.3 274 12.36 4.2 0.146 1.49 163 4.54 1.71 1.15

5,874,900 835,010 23,200 960,800 1,642,700 3,522,000 1,712,330 540 3,620,000 11,000 2,000 5,756,000 1,551,700 8,792,200 1,002,790 73,220,000 45,500 727,000 9,682,000 18,000 3,189,780 31,800 23,103,000 8,665,900 1,246,000 2,468,300 424,700 14,000 4,454,000 47,850 14,098,100 547,000 78,790,000 2,733,000 8,105,410 74,000 20,554,000 1,523,600

130,974,830.00 60,292,017.50 286,200.00 16,414,734.00 10,244,453.00 6,074,790.00 353,433,982.00 37,636.00 14,738,750.00 39,680.00 56,300.00 171,745,425.00 42,133,490.00 129,058,546.00 289,448,218.00 21,284,400.00 245,010.00 2,403,080.00 91,792,060.00 66,250.00 249,463,585.50 363,752.00 56,271,400.00 61,952,086.00 1,900,180.00 12,196,672.00 2,109,956.00 28,420.00 15,589,230.00 12,998,274.00 176,784,884.00 2,290,550.00 12,039,850.00 4,160,440.00 1,317,716,659 334,620.00 36,211,100.00 1,768,580.00

0.390 72.65 12.70 1.13 6.20 0.335 0.350 793 8.91 13.00 5.23 8.14 0.212 1251 5.98 72.00 7.81 1.03 13.78 0.430 6.81 3.01 0.0650 1.110 2.080 103.00 2.25 671.00 1.43 0.89 265.800 0.3050 0.1920 0.275

36,710,000 9,908,580 31,491,500 721,000 10,531,000 44,980,000 1,260,000 921,210 13,187,800 36,469,300 105,500 457,500 35,240,000 1,155,430 60,700 8,963,810 5,005,100 34,590,000 24,285,200 210,000 154,684,000 2,000 7,993,690,000 179,000 2,626,000 2,964,200 6,000 1,417,950 3,644,000 262,000 48,340 21,570,000 79,210,000 26,690,000

14,243,000.00 731,827,302.50 399,077,838.00 848,680.00 66,340,355.00 16,022,050.00 442,250.00 725,593,830 119,334,449.00 474,804,788.00 573,575.00 3,671,739.00 8,097,370.00 1,442,963,035.00 359,599.00 655,897,309.00 39,523,197.00 36,717,330.00 328,753,506.00 92,000.00 1,044,452,877.00 6,020.00 479,577,380.00 201,560.00 5,460,840.00 303,077,414.50 13,500.00 969,683,095.00 5,180,720.00 230,250.00 12,799,942.00 7,044,100.00 18,146,640.00 7,687,850.00

7.150 6.10 1.03 2.630 1.550 36.300 3.33 5.13 0.530 1.01 1.280 0.165 0.580 53.5 0.720 0.150 1.03 1.67 1.19 4.30 3.71 0.160 0.3500

3,685,400 7,700 16,170,000 7,877,000 538,783,000 38,307,300 9,022,000 7,200 419,501,000 603,000 799,000 228,540,000 66,583,000 1,250,510 1,225,000 59,720,000 21,577,000 106,603,000 946,000 85,000 157,757,000 167,450,000 123,240,000

26,357,377.00 47,078.00 18,327,080.00 21,093,910.00 808,276,100.00 1,367,459,985.00 29,887,520.00 36,376.00 237,501,980.00 642,690.00 1,032,130.00 38,519,760.00 39,105,140.00 66,657,096.00 890,780.00 10,140,640.00 22,071,490.00 363,893,380.00 1,097,550.00 365,500.00 601,828,290.00 27,360,240.00 51,940,650.00

STOCKS

FEBRUARY 13-17, 2017 Close Volume

Phil. Realty `A’ Primex Corp.

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

0.690 4.9 25.30 1.69 3.35 29.90 1.05 7 0.930 4.850

2GO Group’ ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Apollo Global Asian Terminals Inc. Berjaya Phils. Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Calata Corp.

Cebu Air Inc. (5J) Centro Esc. Univ.

Discovery World DFNN Inc. Easy Call “Common” FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Golden Haven Grand Plaza Hotel Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. `A’ Imperial Res. `B’ IPeople Inc. `A’ IP E-Game Ventures Inc. IPM Holdings Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones LBC Express Leisure & Resorts Lorenzo Shipping Macroasia Corp.

Manila Jockey Melco Crown Metro Retail NOW Corp.

Pacific Online Sys. Corp.

PAL Holdings Inc. Paxys Inc. Phil. Seven Corp.

Philweb.Com Inc. PLDT Common PremiereHorizon Premium Leisure Puregold Robinsons RTL SBS Phil. Corp.

SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Waterfront Phils.

8.13 47.2 1.45 0.530 0.059 10.6 5.4 7.32 0.0660 93.5 93.5 9.84 2.29 8.71 2.93 980 1790 6.16 16.78 16.00 3.95 75.4 17.34 107 12.02 0.0100 9.06 0.193 1.4200 3.26 14.1 3.92 0.93 3.09 2 5.1 3.90 2.780 11.16 5.22 3.3 143.40 8.79 1455.00 0.430 1.280 44.50 81.45 6.25 2.47 1.150 1.75 3.25 0.415

Abra Mining Apex `A’ Atlas Cons. `A’ Benguet Corp `A’ Benguet Corp `B’ Century Peak Metals Hldgs Coal Asia Dizon Ferronickel Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. Lepanto `A’ Lepanto `B’ Manila Mining `A’ Manila Mining `B’ Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. Nickelasia Nihao Mineral Resources Omico Oriental Peninsula Res. Oriental Pet. `A’ Oriental Pet. `B’ Petroenergy Res. Corp.

Philex `A’ PhilexPetroleum Philodrill Corp. `A’ Semirara Corp.

TA Petroleum United Paragon

0.0033 1.99 5.90 1.9500 2.2600 0.495 0.445 11.00 2.370 0.250 0.184 0.190 0.012 0.0120 1.72 6.97 2.43 0.4600 0.9400 0.0110 0.0120 4.05 9.28 3.23 0.0140 137.00 2.9 0.0092

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ Alco Preferred B DD PREF First Gen F First Gen G FPH Pref C GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B Leisure and Resort MWIDE PREF PCOR-Preferred A PF Pref 2 PNX PREF 3A PNX PREF 3B SMC Preferred B SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred D SMC Preferred E SMC Preferred F SMC Preferred G SMC Preferred H SMC Preferred I Swift Pref WARRANTS & BONDS LR Warrant Alterra Capital Makati Fin. Corp.

Italpinas Philab Holdings Xurpas

8.08 2.95 3.65 7.6 7.64

First Metro ETF

119.2

FEBRUARY 6-10, 2017 Close Volume Value

Value

202,198,000 10,451,000 7,590,300 3,410,000 538,000 55,423,400 65,686,000 100 924,200 17,769,500

48 535 529 107 104 112.8 115 505 530 5.85 1020 1026 1.04 109.4 1070 1020 107.5 2.3 77 82 76.35 76.5 79.75 77.5 78 79 2.3

143,099,090.00 51,307,680.00 190,707,425.00 5,505,970.00 1,769,530.00 1,652,956,445.00 67,677,210.00 700.00 961,690.00 87,273,689.00 SERVICES 1,210,300 9,784,155.00 75,400 3,534,015.00 233,000 339,690.00 2,086,000 1,154,970.00 2,507,020,000 176,812,250.00 9,000 94,830.00 23,400 124,407 39,040,600 289,304,527.00 97,910,000 6,410,080.00 15,966,790 71,111,420.00 2,407,280 226,227,157.00 31,300 303,965.00 229,000 493,620 779,600 6,935,070.00 2,000 5,860.00 1,940 1,887,940.00 267,500 480,821,175 842,000 5,208,344.00 370,200 6,135,430.00 800 12,800 18,445,000 73,895,280.00 17,883,442 1,452,311,844.50 713,400 13,027,597 2,760 328,625 565,100 7,619,186.00 209,000,000 2,055,300.00 2,370,000 21,475,497.00 43,760,000 8,407,350.00 3,475,000 4,704,490.00 6,395,000 23,028,330.00 11,400 162,404.00 5,811,000 22,943,920 2,000 1,860.00 30,133,000 97,121,200.00 47,000 94,010.00 52,523,400 260,766,647.00 10,563,000 41,377,560.00 5,893,000 16,161,080.00 81,200 907,776.00 572,000 3,111,296 3,594,000 8,718,190.00 153,270 21,019,040.00 1,292,000 11,346,460.00 617,910 912,579,005.00 10,140,000 4,295,450.00 75,564,000 101,030,620.00 6,590,800 291,721,465.00 2,689,050 213,617,140.00 864,600 5,430,764.00 28,519,000 70,710,420.00 178,412,000 148,813,660.00 231,000 399,250.00 3,689,000 11,831,350.00 7,070,000 2,998,800.00 MINING & OIL 871,700,000 2,812,700.00 25,742,000 53,827,820.00 9,942,600 60,769,648.00 168,000 310,900.00 3,000 6,270.00 5,228,000 2,549,810.00 6,210,000 2,804,850.00 310,300 3,302,776.00 23,204,000 56,955,330.00 5,330,000 1,338,980.00 39,800,000 7,310,750.00 7,630,000 1,481,140.00 200,100,000 2,232,700.00 43,600,000 523,200.00 6,031,000 10,246,880.00 13,946,400 99,254,023.00 1,269,000 3,034,680.00 80,000 36,850.00 1,447,000 1,403,770.00 70,700,000 784,100.00 21,000,000 252,000.00 94,000 384,140.00 36,908,700 353,216,613.00 8,472,000 28,445,320.00 1,097,000,000 15,385,000.00 6,482,590 880,869,528.00 249,000 714,530.00 44,000,000 400,400.00 PREFERRED 492,100 23,210,905.00 75,490 40,387,195.00 8,450 4,466,320 45,260 4,813,750 64,790 6,772,423.00 50 5,640.00 16,000 1,839,780.00 10,000 5,050,020.00 33,980 18,010,270.00 18,128,900 106,058,443.00 5,040 5,140,800.00 7,995 8,234,470.00 352,000 362,920 24,750 2,707,650.00 12,830 13,746,920.00 10,465 10,753,250.00 69,400 7,409,750.00 3,000 6,300.00 6,600 508,290.00 70,890 5,761,055.00 79,300 6,067,990.00 239,100 18,524,490.00 81,370 6,538,259.00 110,170 8,540,627.00 128,670 10,001,982.50 216,790 17,051,884.00 11,000 23,050.00

2.160

7,023,000

16,502,320.00 SME 8,263,100 68,778,459.00 3,000 8,990.00 818,000 3,039,400.00 401,400 3,107,822.00 19,762,100 150,067,797.00 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 43,610 5,197,505.00

0.730 5.05 24.95 1.6 3.35 30.00 1.03 7 0.910 5.040

454,498,000 11,215,000 6,714,100 3,296,000 201,000 29,261,000 92,928,000 10,500 2,755,000 39,007,100

625,867,110.00 55,036,860.00 168,767,340.00 5,395,670.00 660,830.00 881,584,555.00 97,243,550.00 72,000.00 2,552,890.00 196,813,366.00

7.79 46.1 1.56 0.530 0.059 10.66 5.31 7.05 0.0650 2.38 95.7 9.6 2.3 8.60 2.91 960 1800 6.21 16.60 15.62 3.92 76 15.60 125 12 0.0096 9.06 0.195 1.3500 2.95 14.5 4.05 0.93 2.58 2.04 4.54 3.98 2.750 11 5.33 3.22 144.60 8.99 1520.00 0.425 1.390 44.20 79.25 6.34 2.61 1.090 1.79 3.2 0.445

512,700 75,300 1,378,000 9,042,000 1,324,590,000 47,500 15,000 28,647,000 240,700,000 44,548,000 3,055,980 33,700 432,000 1,609,500 1,000 550 350,200 1,291,400 181,900 900 35,077,000 7,360,770 40,300 170 65,300 89,200,000 2,622,000 93,280,000 2,572,000 194,000 20,500 4,341,500 15,000 495,000 1,000 25,029,000 6,786,000 16,431,000 44,500 42,900 687,000 143,270 816,311,775 715,520 52,530,000 19,799,000 6,933,300 6,758,080 770,400 15,113,000 77,231,000 34,000 3,362,000 98,130,000

3,919,298.00 3,477,665.00 2,116,800.00 4,992,110.00 77,892,970.00 506,596.00 80,965 207,162,096.00 15,695,650.00 176,573,320.00 292,703,249.50 323,957.00 978,310 14,270,375.00 2,910.00 528,000.00 612,493,790 8,052,059.00 3,032,986.00 14,050 131,175,830.00 555,628,155.50 630,974 21,250 792,936.00 878,630.00 23,753,180.00 18,530,640.00 3,524,540.00 576,750.00 297,610.00 22,066,620 14,010.00 1,253,270.00 2,040.00 118,272,250.00 26,317,940.00 44,520,700.00 495,108.00 228,850 2,194,620.00 20,066,899.00 -1,012,721.00 1,074,740,240.00 22,390,250.00 27,756,900.00 309,198,310.00 544,565,676.50 4,862,628.00 40,638,200.00 84,178,700.00 61,260.00 10,763,620.00 50,171,500.00

0.0032 2.32 5.73 1.8200 2.2100 0.5 0.460 11.08 2.630 0.260 0.186 0.200 0.011 0.0120 1.86 7.05 2.56 0.4600 0.9800 0.0120 0.0120 4.07 9.80 3.50 0.0150 135.80 2.88 0.0094

2,376,000,000 22,929,000 5,275,100 147,000 106,000 24,132,000 11,830,000 1,135,100 75,665,000 28,880,000 60,140,000 5,570,000 63,300,000 839,100,000 18,473,000 28,200,600 897,000 270,000 2,945,000 419,300,000 105,200,000 1,048,000 32,303,700 7,323,000 3,543,700,000 3,781,390 409,000 90,000,000

7,630,500.00 58,164,700.00 29,044,257.00 269,750.00 213,350.00 12,837,760.00 5,576,650.00 12,523,998.00 188,973,720.00 2,310,410.00 11,035,270.00 1,078,560.00 726,600.00 9,294,300.00 32,915,830.00 197,688,141.00 2,309,940.00 124,200.00 2,734,110.00 4,935,200.00 1,240,300.00 3,775,890.00 312,275,096.00 25,911,800.00 52,995,800.00 513,052,236.00 1,183,820.00 847,600.00

45.7 535 528 105.6 104.7 112.9 115

1,385,600 1,870 6,100 186,360 236,140 30 174,560

63,971,825.00 1,006,540.00 3,220,700 19,494,912 24,480,541.00 3,387.00 20,072,495.00

530 5.86 1020 1030 1.04 109.4

2,080 10,086,100 9,000 12,180 57,000 1,700

1,102,790.00 59,353,027.00 9,180,000.00 12,568,300.00 59,280 185,980.00

1025 107 116 77 81.1 76.55 78 79.8 77.6 77.75 78.5 2.2

8,700 41,500 10 39,590 220,260 21,000 53,000 470,850 29,700 99,780 222,010 18,000

8,873,170.00 4,419,150.00 1,160.00 3,052,483.50 17,901,009.00 1,607,550.00 4,138,750.00 37,576,315.00 2,310,521.00 7,726,095.00 17,406,500.00 37,640.00

2.080

2,345,000

4,867,320.00

9.06 2.93 3.78

2,042,400 28,000 2,008,000

15,007,536.00 82,140.00 7,807,890.00

7.44

7,974,700

61,606,603.00

118.9

29,480

3,521,653.00

WEEKLY MOST TRADED STOCKS Pacifica `A’ Apollo Global Philodrill Corp. `A’ Abra Mining Arthaland Corp.

Basic Energy Corp.

MRC Allied Ind. MG Holdings IP E-Game Ventures Inc. Phil. Realty `A’

VOLUME 4,884,840,000 2,507,020,000 1,097,000,000 871,700,000 415,524,000 412,980,000 360,370,000 302,650,000 209,000,000 202,198,000

STOCKS Ayala Land `B’ Universal Robina SM Prime Holdings SM Investments Inc. I.C.T.S.I. Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Ayala Corp `A’ Cemex Holdings GT Capital PLDT Common

VALUE 2,495,645,125.00 1,772,211,555.00 1,652,956,445.00 1,508,821,765.00 1,452,311,844.50 1,286,979,405.00 1,076,174,280.00 1,019,642,274.00 993,028,565.00 912,579,005.00

system,” PNOC president Ruben Lista said.

Officials of Osaka Gas, a Japanese energy supplier, recently met with Lista to explore a possible LNG joint venture. Samsung executives also met with Lista to discuss a potential joint venture project, he said.

Executives of China Petroleum or Sinopec, a stateowned petroleum and petrochemical enterprise, also met with Lista for a joint venture in energy projects.

“Also Singapore and two more others [have expressed interest to partner with PNOC for LNG],” Lista said.

Lista said PNOC was keen on developing a 19.4-hectare energy supply base property in Mabini, Batangas and transform it into an integrated LNG facility.

Lista said they could bring the LNG facility into operations within 24 months from groundbreaking.

“We will put up some more LNG storage facility there… because it’s faster and they do not need to develop any other infrastructure,” Lista said. A part of the property or around 4.1 hectares is currently leased to Petron Corp.

Petron is using the PNOC property for its Batangas terminal for an annual lease of P475,000, which Lista said was very low compared to its actual estimated fair market value. Petron’s lease will expire in August 2018.

Alibaba infuses funds into Globe unit

By Darwin G. Amojelar ANT Financial Services Group, a unit of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group, is investing in a unit of Globe Telecom Inc. to upgrade payment services in the Philippines.

Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Capital Venture Holdings under Globe Telecom and Ayala Corp., signed a strategic partnership with Ant Financial Services Group.

Ant Financial, parent company of Alipay, and Ayala Corp. signed definitive documents to enter into an investment via subscription to new shares in Mynt, which operates GCash and Fuse Lending.

GCash is a micropayment service which can be used to buy prepaid load, pay bills, send money, make donations, shop online and purchase goods without the need for cash.

Fuse Lending offers personal and business loans to unbanked and underserved Filipinos through the use of mobile technology, alternative data, and innovative credit scoring methods.

Subject to the closing of the transaction, Ant Financial, will own a substantial minority interest in Mynt while Ayala Corp. will acquire a minority interest.

GCVHI will hold the remaining equity interest.

The fresh capital infusion will help Mynt achieve its vision of becoming a worldclass online and offline payment provider as well as scale up its mobile wallet services and quickly expand its digital financial services.

The deal represents Ant Financial’s first-ever investment in the Philippines and demonstrates the company’s confidence in Mynt and its management team to upgrade digital financial services in the region.

Business PH ups economic freedom ranking

By Julito G. Rada THE Philippines improved 12 notches to 58th spot in the 2017 Index of Economic Freedom from 70th last year.

In the latest annual global survey conducted by US-based think tank Heritage Foundation covering 186 countries and released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas over the weekend, the Philippines’ economic freedom score advanced to 65.6, a 2.5-point increase from its 2016 Index of Economic Freedom score. The score is higher than the world average of 60.9 and the Asia-Pacific region average of 60.4.

The think-tank said the gains were driven by the country’s “notable successes in fiscal policy, government spending and monetary stability.”

Heritage Foundation measures economic freedom based on 12 quantitative and qualitative factors, grouped into four broad categories, or pillars, of economic freedom.

These are rule of law (property rights, government integrity, judicial effectiveness); government size (government spending, tax burden, fiscal health); regulatory efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom); and open markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom).

The IEF reveals a positive relationship between economic freedom and a variety of positive social and economic goals, such as poverty elimination, greater per capita wealth, healthier societies, cleaner environments and democracy.

Heritage Foundation highlighted the country’s solid economic performance amid a challenging global economic environment.

“The Philippines has achieved notable economic expansion, driven by the economy’s strong export performance and inflows of remittances,” it said.

Dubbed as one of the strongest performers in Asia, Philippines GDP accelerated to 6.8 percent in 2016 on the back of higher investment and robust public and private consumption. Personal remittances, meanwhile, reached $29.7 billion in 2016, or a 4.9 percent increase from the year-ago level, and exceeded the Bangko Sentral’ projected growth of 4.0 percent for the year.

B3

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Roxas delays biomass project R

By Jenniffer B. Austria

OXAS Holdings Inc. and Global Business Power Corp. have temporarily shelved their planned 40-megawatt, co-generation power plant in Negros Occidental province due to the proliferation of solar projects in the province.

Roxas Holdings president and chief executive Hubert Tubio said during the annual stockholders’ meeting the company’s joint venture biomass joint venture with Global Business hit a snag after the activation of several solar power projects.

“The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines expects the completion of the power transmission highway in two to three years. Hopefully this will also be just in time for us to make our co-gen project operational,” Tubio said.

The new timetable for the proposed biomass power plant will make the facility operational by 2020, instead of the original schedule of 2018.

Roxas Holdings, the country’s larg-

est integrated sugar business, and Global Business, a leading power producer in the Visayas, in 2014 agreed to build a 40-megawatt cogeneration facility in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental.

The joint venture partners in 2015 commissioned Pöyry Energy Inc., a global Finnish consulting and engineering company, for the front-end engineering design of the planned power plant.

The co-gen plant aims to meet the energy requirements of Roxas Holdings’ sugar mill and sell the excess power to the grid at the same time.

Among the solar power plants operating in Negros island are San Carlos Sun Power Inc.’s 59 MW in San Carlos City,

Helios Solar Energy’s 132.5-MW farm in Cadiz City, Citicor Power’s 25-MW project in Silay City, Negros Island Solar Power’s 48-MW and 32-MW farms in Manapla and La Carlota, respectively, and San Carlos Solar Energy’s 45-MW facility, also in San Carlos City.

Meanwhile, Roxas Holdings expressed concerns over the planned tax on sugar and the increasing use of imported high fructose corn syrup by the beverage industry that could affect the viability of the domestic sugar industry.

Tubio said the increase in tax on sugar and sugar-based products would have some impact on the company’s business as it could affect demand and consumption.

The increase use of HFCS by beverage firms will also displace demand for locally produced cane sugar and threaten the sugar cane industry.

“It should therefore be fairly regulated and treated by our government in the same manger as imported sugar. Directly at stake is the livelihood of more than 700,000 marginal farmers and farm work-

ers, which translated 9will) affect about 3.5 million Filipinos,” Tubio said.

The country’s power generation capacity mix remains driven by coal-fired power plants in 2016, but renewable energy is fast catching up, the Energy Department’s latest report showed.

It said coal’s share in the capacity mix as of December 31, 2016 was at 36.5 percent for a total dependable capacity of 4,970 megawatts.

Coal is followed by renewable energy composed of geothermal, hydro, wind, biomass and solar at 27.1 percent dependable capacity accounting for 3,684 MW. Hydro accounted for the bulk of 17.1 percent of dependable capacity, followed by geothermal at 5.7 percent, wind at 2.2 percent, solar at 1.6 percent and biomass at 0.5 percent.

Natural gas power plants accounted for 24.2 percent of dependable capacity or 3,291 MW while oil-based power plants contributed 12.2 percent of dependable capacity at 1,655 MW. Alena Mae S. Flores

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez highlights the growing investment opportunities in the Philippines, backed by the resurging manufacturing

industry, during a conference hosted by JP Morgan Chase & Co. in Makati. Lopez told the private sector the government aims to strengthen new industries, while maintaining the competitiveness of those with great comparative advantage.

Work-Life Harmony is Possible have enough rest and “NEVER get so busy energy. making a living, that ALEXANDRIA (3) Do outside work you forget to make a NICOLE RAMOS activities life.”

REEN IGHT After office hours, I I often hear my college friends telling each other whenever go to gym and attend dance classes. By we are having a reunion, “Uy, work- means of this, it gets me fit, healthy, and life balance girrlll.” At this point of my recharged. Aside from that, I have made professional life, I am very focused in a lot of friends.

Our company is very supportive in reaching my goals. In this productivitydriven world, responsibility, long over- terms of having a harmonious work-life. time hours, inevitable stress, sleepless We have Zumba classes after work, runnights are a given. We yearn to have that ning club, and every Friday, we have this work-life harmony. Achieving it is not stress buster activity that is very energizing and funny. that easy, but it is POSSIBLE. (4) Take a mini-vacation Just want to share with you some of It doesn’t have to be far and expenthe tips I got from my boss, mom and sive. take a hike, go to the beach, have friends. (These are consolidated) a picnic, etc. I have this “LessThan1K(1) Decide to have a balance.

Weekdays are for work but weekends Challenge” whenever I have extra time, I are for family and church. Make a wise do some mountain climbing in Rizal and decision in choosing your job. It must be go to beaches in Batangas. Sometimes, I challenging but not overwhelming and extend my stay whenever I have work in toxic. Practice time management. I am Visayas and Mindanao and visit the tourvery lucky to have a boss that wants me ist spots there.

The bottomline is having a harmonious to have a work-life balance, that is why she always tells me to be out of the office life is within our hands. Just make sure that you enjoy your work, focus on your by 5:00 p.m.

(2) Be a “smart-worker” not a “hard- goals, and be firm with your priorities. worker” The author is an MBA student at the Rank your workload according to level of priority. Make a to-do-list and plan out Ramon V. del Rosario College of Busiyour day. Don’t do everything if it is not ness. This essay is part of a journal she needed. There’s always another day to kept in fulfillment of the requirements of do it. Unplug after the working hours. the course, Lasallian Business LeaderWorking overtime affects the productivity ship with Corporate Social Responsibilof an employee so it is better to plan it ity and Ethics. Visit her blog at https:// likesupernic.tumblr.com. accordingly.

I have a planner wherein I write all the The views expressed here are the auprojects for the month. I first do what is most important and I don’t let the proj- thor’s and do not necessarily reflect the ects overlap. There are times that I have official position of DLSU, its faculty, and to work overtime but I make sure I will its administrators.

G

L

Uniform cigarette tax favors big firms A LONDON School of Economicstrained economist said a unitary tax system favors producers of expensive brands, a segment dominated by multinational tobacco companies.

“That’s why the European Commission, recognizing the health objectives of cigarette excises, simultaneously imposes two types of taxes on tobacco—a specific tax to set a minimum floor which is high enough to discourage smoking, and an ad valorem tax for progressivity,” Ernesto Gonzales, a post-graduate professor at the University of the Philippines-Manila, said.

Gonzales cautioned lawmakers and pro-health advocates that they might be overlooking the issue of upshifting to premium brands under

a unitary tax regime due to negligible gaps in retail prices.

Under the provisions of Republic Act No. 10351, or the sin tax reformed law, the Philippines is under a unitary tax regime where cigarettes are taxed P30 per pack regardless of classification (non-premium and premium).

Quoting the latest technical manual of the World Health Organization on tobacco tax administration, Gonzales noted ‘an upwards substitutability (upshifting) when the price gap between cheaper and more expensive brands narrows.’

“The price increase, due to higher taxation, may alter consumers’ marginal willingness to pay for product quality” subject to income,” he said.

He added “the hypothesis that the

market share of lower-priced cigarettes falls when specific excises increase, as the relative price between higher- and lower-priced cigarettes is reduced, is supported by empirical evidence.”

“Sobel and Garrett (1997) find that increases in specific taxes reduced the market share of generic (lower-priced) brands in the US significantly.”

Gonzales supported former National Economic and Development Authority chief Romulo Neri, who cited the Seatca Tobacco Tax Index 2015 report showing only Brunei and Singapore out of 10 Southeast Asian countries had a unitary excise tax.

“He did not misuse data provided

by Seatca but merely cited it objectively,” Gonzales said.

DAR HONORED.

Former agriculture secretary William Dar (third from left) poses in front of the marker of a new facility named after him, at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, in Patancheru, India. Joining him are his wife Beatriz (second from left), and Icrisat board chairperson Chandra Madramootoo (left) and director general David Bergvinson (right).

Dar served as Icrisat’s director-general from 2000 to 2014.

Ray S. Eñano, Editor business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

B4

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Business

Kraft unfazed, may raise Unilever offer

A

S the clock ticks toward a takeover deadline, Kraft Heinz Co. faces an uphill battle getting Unilever to negotiate.

Publicly, the company has decried Kraft’s $143-billion buyout offer as lacking merit and said there was no basis for further talks.

Behind the scenes, Unilever executives have fretted over Kraft’s penchant for slashing costs and lack of vision for cultivating brands, according to people familiar with the situation. Kraft also lacks experience managing home and personal-care businesses, which account for about 60 percent of Unilever’s revenue, they said.

While both companies sell food, Unilever has pursued higher-end brands, such as Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Talenti gelato. Kraft, meanwhile, sells Velveeta and Jell-O. “If I was Unilever, I would fight this with hand and fist,” said Erich Joachimsthaler, a branding expert who runs the Vivaldi consulting firm. “It would crush everything we celebrate about Unilever.”

Though Unilever publicly rejected the

$50-a-share bid on Friday, Kraft has said it’s still pursuing a deal. The prospect of both reaching an agreement sent shares of Unilever soaring 13 percent to a record high.

The Anglo-Dutch company, which makes Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Dove soap, is now valued at more than 114 billion pounds ($142 billion).

The rally makes it more likely that Kraft will increase its offer, a person with knowledge of the bidder’s deliberations. Shares of Kraft also jumped on the news, climbing 11 percent to $96.65. That values the food giant at $117.6 billion. An acquisition of Unilever would depend on financing from Kraft’s largest investor, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a separate person familiar with the situation said.

Against that backdrop, Unilever is trying to convince investors that a deal wouldn’t make sense. The company has been speaking to shareholders about why it should remain a stand-alone business, arguing that there aren’t many synergies between the two entities, said people with knowledge of the matter.

The unsolicited approach from Kraft took Unilever by surprise, they said. Executives didn’t expect an offer from Kraft because

they see the companies as too different, according to the people. Unilever has less of a focus on food, and it’s spent recent years acquiring upstart brands that appeal to millennials. That includes Dollar Shave Club and Seventh Generation.

At issue is whether Unilever’s diverse investor base will see Kraft as a strategic fit.

BlackRock Inc. is its largest shareholder, with a roughly 8 percent stake. Under UK takeover rules, Kraft has just under a month to make a firm bid—or else it has to walk away for six months.

Kraft’s overture follows a 17 percent slump in the pound against the dollar since Britain voted to leave the European Union, along with Unilever’s worst annual stock performance since the financial crisis in 2008. The shares fell 2.5 percent over the course of 2016, though European rival Nestle fared only marginally better, losing 2 percent in the same 12 months.

The investors behind 3G Capital, the private equity firm that runs Kraft, succeeded last year in orchestrating Anheuser-Busch InBev SA’s purchase of SABMiller Plc for about $123 billion. In that case, they had support from a large SABMiller shareholder, Altria Group Inc.

US shale drilling back after Opec cut SHALE wildcatters pushed ahead on the biggest surge in US oil drilling since 2012 as the explorers take advantage of prices above $50 for more than two months.

Rigs targeting crude in the US rose by 6 to 597 this week, the highest total since October 2015, according to Baker Hughes Inc. data reported Friday. Drillers have added 72 rigs since 2017 began, the best start in five years. The expansion is spreading in Texas and Oklahoma, with the Granite Wash play leading the increase this time around.

Producers are cashing in on a more stable oil market, with prices swinging between $50 and $55 a barrel as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and 11 other nations cut back production to help reduce global supplies. Saudi Arabia told Opec it reduced its oil output by the most in eight years, according to the group’s monthly report released Monday.

“We’re seeing the rise that we anticipated to take place given the Opec cuts,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Andrew Cosgrove said by phone.

“These gains are spreading to other plays, and this is something we’re expecting will continue through the first half given the stability in the price of oil.”

Oil producers have brought 281 rigs back to work since drilling bottomed out in May, the biggest gain since producers added 361 rigs over the nine months through June 2012.

US crude inventories rose to 518.1 million barrels last week, the highest in weekly data going back to 1982, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Drilling Boom Drilling is booming in a few shale plays―led by the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico and the Scoop and Stack formations in Oklahoma―as they offer good returns at a $50 oil price.

Producers including Diamondback Energy Inc. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. remain focused on the Permian, while Marathon Oil Corp. intends to double down on its assets in Oklahoma. Bloomberg

Ambassador Kim with the members of the MBC Board of Trustees —(from left) MBC corporate secretary and SGV Chairman Mr. Cirilo Noel, former MBC Chairman and Phinma President and CEO Ramon del Rosario Jr., Banco de Oro Adviser to the Board Corazon de la Paz Bernardo, former Philippine Ambassador to the US and The Covenant Car Company (Chevrolet) Chairman Jose Cuisia Jr., MBC Chairman and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. Edgar Chua,U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim,MBC co Vice Chairman and Ayala Corp.

Chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, MBC Treasurer and BPI Director Aurelio Montinola, MBC Vice Chairman and Philippines Veterans Bank Chairman and CEO Roberto de Ocampo, Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines Chairman and CEO Guillermo Luchangco

THE NEW US AMBASSADOR TO THE PHILIPPINES YOU would do a double-take if you saw the name and his official designation together. More so, if you would see him in person. And you would probably think that he was the top diplomat of South Korea to the Philippines.

Ambassador Sung Kim

FARM VISIT. French President Francois Hollande (left), flanked by French Biodiversity Agency president Philippe Martin (right), listens to French Agroforestry Association president Alain Canet (center) who shows a tree seedling on February 18, 2017, during a visit in a farm in Auch. AFP

Smartphones revolutionizing medicine

By Jean-Louis Santini BOSTON―Smartphones are revolutionizing the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, thanks to add-ons and apps that make their ubiquitous small screens into medical devices, researchers say.

“If you look at the camera, the flash, the microphone... they all are getting better and better,” said Shwetak Patel, engineering professor at the University of Washington.

“In fact the capabilities on those phones are as great as some of the specialized devices,” he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting this week.

Smartphones can already act as pedometers, count calories and measure heartbeats.

But mobile devices and tablets can also become tools for diagnosing illness.

“You can use the microphone to diagnose asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder),” Patel said.

“With these enabling technologies you can manage chronic diseases outside of the clinic and with a non-invasive clinical tool.”

It is also possible to use the

camera and flash on a mobile phone to diagnose blood disorders, including iron and hemoglobin deficiency.

“You put your finger over the camera flash and it gives you a result that shows the level of hemoglobin in the blood,” Patel said.

An app called HemaApp was shown to perform comparably well as a non-smartphone device for measuring hemoglobin without a needle. Researchers are seeking approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its wider use.

Smartphones can also be used to diagnose osteoporosis, a bone disorder common in the elderly.

But His Excellency Sung Y. Kim, Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of the Philippines, is every bit American as, say, apple pie and, yes, Donald Trump. In fact, a fellow top American official once described him as having a slight resemblance to actor George Clooney.

Ambassador Kim is the first US Ambassador with an Asian heritage. He succeeds Philip Goldberg, who has served well as Ambassador to our country since November 2013. Ambassador Kim presented his credentials to President Duterte last December 2016.

Prior to his assignment to the Philippines, Ambassador Kim was the Special Representative for North Korean Policy at the US State Department. He also served concurrently as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs.

Ambassador Kim’s life story is a page from stories we hear of the quest for the American dream.

Countless of our countrymen have pursued that dream and are now making a mark in various professions and businesses across the Pacific. His father decided to move his family to Los Angeles, as is the case with most Asian immigrants, for a better life. Ambassador Kim was thirteen then. He reportedly became a US citizen when he turned twenty in 1980.

I had the honor and pleasure of getting to know Ambassador Kim a bit more on two occasions: One, at a dinner hosted by Special Envoy to the US Ambassador Joey Antonio and his gracious wife Hilda at their residence. Our Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto “Jun” Yasay was there, as well as Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, businessman Noel Oñate, and Ambassador to

the United Nations Teodoro Locsin Jr and his wife Louie. From the business sector, we had Ayala Group Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, BPI President Bong Consing, Phinma Chair and former Makati Business Club Chair Ramon del Rosario, the venerable Washington Sycip and SGV Chair Vic Noel.

The other occasion was at the Makati Business Club General Membership Meeting where the good Ambassador was the Guest of Honor and Speaker. In his talk , Ambassador Kim in no uncertain terms said that the Philippines is their oldest ally and one of their most special friends and partners.

He further said that our military partnership remains as compelling as it was seventy years ago. “Indeed, there is wide recognition in Washington of the importance of this alliance, and that both sides must give great care and attention to its management.”

That intimate dinner at the Antonios and the MBC GMM showed that Ambassador Kim had a very clear grasp of realpolitik, history, law, and economics; anchored on academic discipline and honed through years of experience handling tough negotiations.

Truly, the toughness and ironclad resilience of this seasoned diplomat has been well-concealed beneath the veneer of his graciousness, his wit, his quick humor and his charm.

I was very pleased to find out that we both finished our Master of Laws (Ll.M.) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. It brought a smile to my good friend, UK Ambassador Asif Ahmad’s face when I whispered that to him in a dinner in former Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro’s residence. But I digress .

Ambassador Kim gave the assurance that the United States will continue to work with its partners in the Philippines to address current concerns while, at the same time, together looking for ways to increase foreign investments, reduce trade barriers, and streamline business regulations. He acknowledged that American companies were some of the biggest employers of Filipinos in this side of the globe.

Truly, the partnership we have with the United States of America remains strong, and having Ambassador Kim at the helm of American relations here ensures that strength.

I wish His Excellency Ambassador Kim much success.

AFP

Just hold a smartphone, turn on the right app in hand and tap on your elbow.

“Your phone’s motion picture sensor picks up the resonances that are generated,” Patel said.

“If there is a reduction in density of the bone, the frequency changes, which is the same as you will have in an osteoporosis bone.”

Such advances can empower patients to better manage their own care, Patel said.

“You can imagine the broader impact of this in developing countries where screening tools like this in the primary care offices are non-existent,” he told reporters. AFP

MBC Chairman Ed Chua

With Special Envoy to the US Ambassador Joey Antonio , BPI Pres Bong Consing, DND Sec Lorenzana, DFA Secretary Jun Yasay , APEC Chair Noel Onate in an intimate dinner hosted for US Amb. Sung Kim in the Antonio residence.

With Brian Breuhaus of US Embassy Manila, MBC corporate secretary and SGV Chairman Cirilo Noel (at the background), MBC Vice Chairman and Philippines Veterans Bank Chairman and CEO Roberto de Ocampo, Banco de Oro Adviser to the Board Corazon de la Paz Bernardo

With Hilda Antonio, US Ambassador Sung Kim, DFA Secretary Jun and Cecille Yasay

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor Roger M. Garcia, Assistant Editor jimbo.gulle@gmail.com mslocalgov@gmail.com MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

C1

LGUs LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

TRIKE BODY. Welders put the finishing touches on the sidecar for a tricycle at Bonie’s Welding Shop, owned by Bonifacio and Luzviminda Fideli, in Sitio San Francisco, Calihan, San Pablo City, Laguna. Roy Tomandao

‘Queen Province’ split looms with House bill I

By Abe Almirol

LAGAN City, Isabela—A popular rumor that this “Queen Province of the North” will be split into two territories to be governed by its prominent political families has been bolstered by a bill filed in the 17th Congress on Dec. 14 last year.

Six members of the House of Representatives, including the four incumbent congressmen of Isabela, have authored House Bill 4962 that would reapportion the province’s current four legislative districts into six divisions.

The bill was co-authored by Rep. Rodolfo T. Albano III (District I), Rep. Ana Cristina S. Go (District II), Rep. Napoleon S. Dy (District III), Rep. Maria Lourdes Aggabao (District IV), and partylist representatives Jose T. Pan-

ganiban of ANAC-IP and Arnel U. Ty of LPGMA. “The historical alliance between the two local political clans, the Dys and the Albanos, needs a breathing space, as siblings and the younger generation are itching to get elected,” a political observer here, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Manila Standard.

“Looking at the bigger picture, the Dys need a province of their own in the same way the Albanos do, and that is forthcoming,” the

observer added.

The lawmakers reasoned in HB 4962 that Article VI, Section 5 of the Constitution allows the creation of a new legislative district for every 250,000 population of a city or area. With Isabela’s population of over 1.59 million, this means the province—the country’s second largest in terms of land area—can have two more congressional representatives.

The Dy-Albano tandem unseated popular Bombo Radyo broadcaster-turned-politician Grace Padaca, Isabela’s governor from 2004 to 2010.

Padaca, a former stalwart of the Liberal Party who ran as an independent in 2016, was beaten by present Isabela Gov. Faustino G. Dy III by more than 300,000 votes.

“The numbers show how powerful the Dy-Albano alliance has become, but now that Padaca is

history, they will need to reapportion the territory rather that fight each other in future elections,” the Standard source added.

In the 2016 elections in Cauayan City, which belongs to the third district, incumbent mayor Bernard Faustino Dy defeated his own uncle, Victor, by almost 10,000 votes.

“The Cauayan City experience has taught rising political aspirants there is a way to defeat the Dys in their own turf,” said Mike Isidro, a native of Cauayan.

Politicians gunning for a House seat under the proposed redistricting scheme started to visit towns and barangays “not in their usual turfs.”

“Barangay elections is in the offing, and they need to plant their allies,” the Manila Standard source said.

The bill has been pending with the Committee on Local Government since Jan. 16.

Puerto Galera faces water, trash crises

By Robert A. Evora PUERTO GALERA, Oriental Mindoro—The Puerto Galera municipal disaster risk reduction management council has endorsed as urgent the immediate transfer of the town’s temporary dumpsite to safeguard the health of residents and tourists coming this summer.

Puerto Galera was declared under a state of calamity due to the destruction wrought by Super Typhoon “Nina” last Dec. 26. Among the eight municipalities of this province’s first district, this resort town was hit hardest.

The village council of Barangay Dulangan has served notice to Mayor Rockey D. Ilagan, through a resolution, it is opposed to the presence of the dumpsite in their locality, saying it will only pose health hazards to its residents and the environment.

The present temporary dumpsite in Sitio Lapantay, Dulangan, is a private property being rented

MakSci ‘wizards’ get YES medals

QC turning Payatas dump into eco-park

By Rio N. Araja QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista is eyeing the possible transformation of the Payatas dump into an eco-park or any suitable land use as part of its post-closure care activity.

He tasked the Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department, headed by Frederika Rentoy, to craft a master plan for the controlled landfill to determine short and long-term development initiatives in the area.

This was after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources ordered Payatas’ immediate closure by the first quarter of 2017.

The city government through Rentoy appealed to Environment Secretary Regina Lopez to recon-

sider her closure order, saying the city’s garbage hauling contract is due to end in September.

The QC government is using the seven-hectare engineered sanitary landfill in Payatas to dispose solid waste generated by the city.

Rentoy asked the DENR for sufficient time to prepare the vital adjustments to ensure minimal impact to QC’s solid waste management system.

Bautista already got the green light from the City Council to forge a joint venture with the private sector to develop the city’s own waste-to-energy plant.

The mayor described it as vital in averting a possible crisis in waste management with the impending closure of the landfill in Payatas.

SITE VISIT. Muntinlupa City Administrator Allan Cachuela inspects the Japanese Cemetery and Jamboree Lake in NBP Reservation, Poblacion during a site visit last Feb. 8. Cachuela led the initial assessment of the heritage sites for their rehabilitation ahead of Muntinlupa’s Centennial Celebration. Members of the Muntinlupa Centennial Commission, which Cachuela chairs, joined him.

2 new vans help Manila kick off Oral Health Month MANILA Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada recently led the city government in observing National Oral Health Month with the launching of two new mobile dental vans worth P6 million, and hosting an array of dental services at city hall.

Estrada led the ribbon-cutting and blessing for the two state-of-the-

art vans donated to the city government by the Department of Health.

“We are thankful to DoH for these two dental vans for it will help further improve our health services to the barangays,” the mayor said.

The Manila Health Department, on Estrada’s orders, has started conducting special dental services for city hall employ-

by the municipal government. The owner has also refused to renew its contract with Puerto Galera.

Engineer Rodrigo D. Manongsong, MDRRMC action officer, said in the resolution signed by its 33 council members that the “immediate relocation of the dumpsite to a more suitable place will resolve the emerging health and environmental problem, which might turn into a calamity if not acted upon.”

Puerto Galera’s government is in the thick of preparations for the summer, which will see the influx of tourists coming from Metro Manila and the rest of the country.

“We want all the basic needs and services delivered properly to our visitors, who are the lifeblood of our economy,” Ilagan told members of the Sangguniang Barangay of San Isidro (White Beach), headed by Chairman Eleno Candava.

White Beach is the most popular destination in Puerto Galera among vacationers during the summer.

ees such as mouth cleaning and tooth extraction, MHD chief Dr. Benjamin Yson said.

The city health officer said such dental services are available for free in the 59 health centers of Manila, including medicines such as antibiotics.

Yson said the fully equipped mobile dental clinics would go around

the city’s communities and schools to offer free dental services.

“This is the first time we have such equipment and the city government is grateful to have these mobile dental vans that can reach communities where the poor are located so that they would not spend for transportation,” Yson said, pointing out that the two

dental health vans were donated to the city government through the intercession of Estrada.

“Our oral healthcare sa Manila is in a very good situation and scope. On the average, probably each health center can give dental services to about 20 patients a day, so that’s times 59 health centers,” Yson said. Sandy Araneta

SIXTEEN students from the Makati Science High School or MakSci have received the prestigious Youth Excellence in Science medal from the Department of Science and Technology in a ceremony held recently at the Philippine Convention Center in Pasay City.

The YES medal is an institutional award the DoST gives to Filipino students for their exemplary achievements in international individual or team competitions in Mathematics and Science in the past year.

The competitions have been duly registered with DoST Science Education Institute.

Makati Mayor Abby Binay congratulated the young math wizards for their achievement, and assured them of the continued support of the city government.

“Their achievements should inspire their fellow students to strive for academic excellence.

It validates the value of supporting public education with investments that enable our young Makatizens to achieve their full potential,” Binay said.

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

LGUs

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 Standard C2 TODAY Manila

TEP: Protection or impediment?

By Mel Caspe (First of a series)

T

ACLOBAN CITY—Every day at 3 a.m., Christian Apostol prepares his small boat and fishing gear for a tough voyage—on the seas to find food and money for his eight siblings.

The 21-year-old breadwinner stopped studying to become a full-time fisherman just like his father, Jaime. He hopes that by fishing, he will earn enough money to go back to college and support his family.

But with the government’s

looming Tide Embankment Project, Apostol feels like this “Great Wall” of Leyte will also block his dreams of becoming a seafarer.

“Gusto kong bumalik ng pag-aaral kung mabibigyan ng pagkakataon. Nangingisda ako para makapag-ipon at matulun-

gan ang aking pamilya [I’d like to go back to school if given the chance. I fish so I can save up for my tuition and help my family],” he shared.

Christian, who is the eldest child, said he earns P100 to P200 a day. There are even days when he earns nothing.

“Dahil sa Tide Embankment project, mawawalan ako ng hanapbuhay at pati na rin pag-asa upang matupad ang aking mga pangarap,” he added.

‘Why the rush?’

The four-meter tall seawall, which will span over 27 kilometers along the coast of Tacloban City and the towns of Palo and

Tanauan, will displace at least 10,000 households and bring environmental hazards, according to Owen Megraso, program director of the Center for Environmental Concerns.

The P7.9-billion project’s budget was already included in the General Appropriations Act by the Duterte administration.

Megraso said the Department of Public Works and Highways is expediting the project despite opposition of Leyte’s coastal residents—who would no longer have a clear path to the beach and the sea with the seawall erected—and environment advocates.

“The project will compromise the natural ecosystem, since man-

groves can help prevent a storm surge like what happened during Typhoon ‘Yolanda,’” he stressed, adding the TEP can also “disregard people’s welfare.”

Storm surge is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tides, as defined by the National Hurricane Center.

Department of Science and Technology data showed that around 7,000 people were killed by the storm surge created by “Yolanda” in 2013 in Eastern Visayas.

One of the reasons government said there were too many casualties was the area’s lack of disaster preparedness. Thus, the administration of then-President

Benigno Aquino III proposed the Tide Embankment Project.

Christopher Durana, provincial chairperson of Baskug Han Katawhan ha mga Komunidad nga No Build Zone or Bakhawan, questioned the expediting of the project.

“Bakit siya minamadali? Hindi kami tumututol dito. Hindi kami anti-progress. Ayaw naming may isang trahedya na mangyari sa amin ulit (Why is it being rushed? We’re not against it.

We’re not anti-progress. We just don’t want another tragedy to happen us,” Durana said during a seminar-workshop organized by the Philippine Press Institute last week. (To be continued)

Republic of the Philippines Department of Health CENTRAL OFFICE BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE INVITATION TO BID PROCUREMENT OF VARIOUS GOODS 1.

The Department of Health (DOH), through the General Appropriations Act CY 2017 intends to apply the sum of Ninety Million Two Hundred Eighty Six Thousand Eight Hundred Eighty Eight Philippine Pesos and Thirty Centavos (PhP90,286,888.30) for the projects listed below. Bids received in excess of each ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening: Name of Contract

ABC (PHP)

Cost of Bidding Documents (Php)

Single Largest Completed Contract

IB No. 2017-156

Procurement of Viral Load Reagents

61,286,888.30

50,000.00

IB No. 2017-152

Procurement of Lauryl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride

15,000,000.00

25,000.00

IB No. 2017-158

Procurement of Hygiene Kits

14,000,000.00

25,000.00

At least Twenty Five Percent (25%) of the ABC within the specified period in the Section III. Bid Data Sheet

IB No.

TOTAL

90,286,888.30

2.

The DOH now invites Bids from eligible Bidders for the procurement of the above-caption projects. Delivery of the Goods as specified in Section VI. Schedule of Requirements. Bidders should have completed, within the specified years from the date of submission and receipt of bids a contracts similar to each of the above-cited procurement projects stated in the Bidding Documents. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

4.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from the COBAC Secretariat, G/F, Bldg. 6, Department of Health, San Lazaro Compound, Sta. Cruz, Manila and inspect the Bidding Documents at 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday.

5.

A complete set of Bidding Documents for each procurement package listed above may be acquired by interested bidders on 20 February 2017 to 14 March 2017 from the address above and upon payment of a nonrefundable fee for the Bidding Documents, pursuant to the latest Guidelines issued by the GPPB Resolution No. 04-2012, dated 24 February 2012, in the amount specified above.

It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the website of the Procuring Entity, provided that Bidders who are interested to participate shall pay the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

Bidding Documents Fee may be refunded in accordance with the aforementioned Guidelines based on the grounds provided for under Section 41 of 2016 Revised IRR of RA 9184.

6.

The DOH will hold a Pre-Bid Conference and the Submission and Opening of Bids at the COBAC Conference Room, G/F, Building 6, Department of Health, San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila, which shall be opened to all interested parties on the schedule given below: IB No.

7.

Activity (Date & Time) Pre-bidding Conference Submission and Opening of Bids

Name of Contract

IB No. 2017-156

Procurement of Viral Load Reagents

IB No. 2017-152

Procurement of Lauryl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride

IB No. 2017-158

Procurement of Hygiene Kits

28 February 2017; 10:00 AM

14 March 2017; 09:00 AM

Bids must Bids must be delivered to the address stated below. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated below: Amount of Bid Security (Not less than the required percentage of the ABC)

Form of Bid Security

Cashier’s/manager’s check issued by a Universal or Commercial Bank.

Bank draft/guarantee or irrevocable letter of credit issued by a Universal or Commercial Bank: Provided, however, that it shall be confirmed or authenticated by a Universal or Commercial Bank, if issued by a foreign bank.

Two percent (2%)

Surety bond callable upon demand issued by a surety or insurance company duly certified by the Insurance Commission as authorized to issue such security.

Bid Securing Declaration

Five percent (5%) No percentage required

Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below.

Late bids shall not be accepted.

8.

The DOH reserves the right to accept or reject any and all bids, declare a failure of bidding, or not award the contract at any time prior to contract award in accordance with Section 41 of RA 9184 and its IRR, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

9.

For further information, please refer to: COBAC-C Secretariat Department of Health San Lazaro Compound Sta. Cruz, Manila Tel. Nos. 651-7800 local 1625 to 1627; 1650 to 52 Facsimile No.: 741-9775; 740-6830

(SGD.) NESTOR F. SANTIAGO, JR, MD, MPHC, MHSA, CESO III Assistant Secretary of Health COBAC - C Chairperson

(MS-FEB. 20, 2017)

Republic of the Philippines Province of Bataan Municipality of Hermosa

Tel.No. (047-633-1531 to 34) Telefax No. (047) 633-1531 to 34 E-mail address:hermosa_bataan@yahoo.com

BIRTHDAY BASH. Bataan Provincial Board Member Benjie Serrano (center) stands with the crowd queueing for services during the medical and dental mission he sponsored as his ‘birthday treat’ to residents of Orani, Bataan last week. Butch Gunio

Heavy equipment to aid Vizcaya repairs BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The provincial government is expected to hasten the repair of roads and bridges here, including irrigation projects to boost agriculture and reduce risks of flooding among the villages, with its recent acquisition of five new pieces of heavy equipment.

Gov. Carlos Padilla and Vice Gov. Lambert Galima Jr. recently led the blessing of a vibratory compactor, a motor grader with

reaper, and three ten-wheeler dump trucks.

“This will help the provincial, municipal and barangay local governments in pursuing their development projects, particularly road and irrigation development and repair in their respective areas,” Padilla said.

“These pieces of equipment will primarily improve our 473-kilometer provincial roads in various municipalities of Nueva Vizcaya,” the governor

added.

With a combined worth of P16 million, the machines were purchased through a P68-million fund previously allocated by the provincial government through its disaster risk reduction management allocations, and regular funds during the administration of former governor Ruth Padilla.

Her husband, Governor Padilla, said Nueva Vizcaya saved P1 million in purchasing the machines, but didn’t explain how.

INVITATION TO APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY AND TO BID (IAEB) The MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF HERMOSA, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), invites contractors to apply for eligibility and, if found eligible, to bid for the following contract: Contract ID Name of Project

: 17CRN003 : Supply of Materials, Labor and Equipment for the Asphalt Overlay of Various Barangay Road Municipal Wide Location : Hermosa, Bataan Brief Description : Asphalting of Road ABC : ₱ 50,000,000.00 Funding Source : Trust Fund Contract Duration : 60 Calendar Days The BAC will conduct this public bidding in accordance with R.A. 9184 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations Part A. To be eligible to bid for this contract, a contractor must meet the following major criteria: (a) prior registration with MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF HERMOSA, (b) Filipino Citizen or 75% Filipino-owned partnership/ corporation with PCAB license applicable to the type and cost of this contract, (c) completion of similar contract costing at least 50% of ABC, and (d) Net Financial Contracting Capacity at least equal to ABC, or credit line commitment/cash deposit certificate for at least 10% of ABC or. The MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF HERMOSA will use non-discretionary pass/fail criteria in the eligibility check, preliminary examination of bids, post qualification, and award.

The significant times and deadlines of procurement activities are shown below: Activities

Schedule

1. Issuance of Bid Documents

February 20 to March 7, 2017 (Regular Office Hours)

2. Pre-Bid conference

February 23, 2017 at 10:00 a.m.

Mayor’s Conference Rm. 2nd floor

Venue 3. Submission and Receipts of Bids 4.

Eligibility Screening/Opening of Bids Venue

March 7, 2017 – 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Mayor’s Conference Rm. 2nd floor

Venue

March 7, 2017 @ 10:00 a.m.

Mayor’s Conference Rm. 2nd floor

The BAC will issue copies of Bid documents at the same address to eligible bidders upon payment of a non-refundable fee of Twenty Five Thousand Pesos (₱ 25,000.00) to the Municipal Treasurer of Hermosa.

The MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF HERMOSA reserves the right to accept or reject any Bid to annul the Bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

Approved by: (SGD.) ATTY. JOSEPH MARIO S. SABADO BAC Chairman (MS-FEB. 20, 2017)

‘Pay RPT tax to fund educational programs’ SANTOL, La Union—The mayor and municipal treasurer of this fifth-class municipality have urged residents to promptly pay their real property taxes so the local government can fund various education programs not covered by the Department of Education.

“There are a lot of delinquent tax payers. But I told them they should settle what is due for the municipal government because what they are paying in the municipality will be given back to them through basic services such as education for their children,” Mayor Magno Wailan said.

Wailan said some problems with lot ownership, particularly in the upland barangays, were a hindrance to residents paying their taxes. But the mayor said he already instructed the municipal assessor’s office to resolve the matter.

“I appeal to the residents and tax payers in our town to pay your obligations. The money to be collected from your payments will be returned to you, especially to your children who need education.

I want education to be priority for them,” Wailan said.

Town treasurer Jonafel Guzmani said proceeds of the real property tax collection will be split evenly between special education and basic services.

Services under special education are the operation and maintenance of public schools, construction and repair of school buildings, facilities and equipment, educational research, purchase of books, sports development, and honoraria for local school board teachers.

Other services funded by RPT taxes are programs for poverty alleviation, health, environment and infrastructure.

Guzmani said they have strengthened their collection through a tax campaign by personally going to the barangays.

“During barangay assemblies, we explained to them the computation of their taxes. There are already residents who updated their tax records but there are still delinquents. We go to upland barangays for our tax campaign with our records and receipt,” she said.

Guzmani said the RPT payment will last until March this year, and those who will comply within the period will get more than a 10-percent discount.

“We are calling on our residents to continue paying their taxes because it is not only for the operation of our municipality but for the education of our children, particularly those funded by the special education tax, which are not provided by DepEd,” she said. Dexter A. See

The equipment “is a big help to the provincial government’s effort to reduce flooding in lowlying barangays during the rainy season, and stem the onset of disasters,” the governor added.

Padilla added the machines will contribute to the generation of savings for the provincial government through the implementation of a contract by administration for funded development projects in the province. Ben Moses Ebreo

IN BRIEF Soldier kills fellow CAFGU after quarrel CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna—A member of the Phillippine Army’s Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit was killed after a fellow Cafgu reservist shot him in Pangil, Laguna on Wednesday.

Laguna Police Provincial Director Sr. Supt. Joel Pernito identified the victim as Gerald Relevante.

Relevante and the other reservist, identified as Eduardo Galay, were watching television at the mess hall at Galalan Patrol Base Cafgu Detachment at Barangay Galalan when they had an argument.

Relevante then got his M14 rifle and confronted Galay, who shot the former three times in the stomach. Relevante was rushed to General Cailles Hospital by fellow soldiers, but was declared dead on arrival.

Galay voluntarily surrendered and is now under investigation. Roy Tomandao

QC calls for SPED bill to be passed QUEZON City has joined the call for the immediate passage of a Senate Bill instituting inclusive education and establishment of special education or SPED centers for children and youth with special needs in all public schools in the country.

Resolution 6954, principally authored by Councilor Roger Juan, cited Quezon City’s move as necessary to provide persons with disabilities and students with special challenges equal access to quality education.

“The city government recognizes the establishment of SPED centers to ultimately attain the integration of special education for children and youth with disabilities in our public educational system,” the resolution said.

Senate Bill 996, filed by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, seeks to provide quality education to Filipino children with special needs, and build upon the existing infrastructure of its national public system by establishing Special Education centers in all public schools nationwide.

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

World IN BRIEF Four more North Koreans being sought KUALA LUMPUR―Malaysian police said Sunday they were seeking four more North Korean suspects in the assassination of Kim Jong-Un’s half-brother, but the four had left the country on the day of the killing.

The suspects were all male and aged between 33 and 57, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim told a press conference.

In addition to the four, three North Koreans were being sought to assist with inquiries, he said.

Police on Saturday arrested a 46-year-old North Korean man called Ri Jong Chol, who was identified at the press conference as an IT worker living in Kuala Lumpur.

Officers had already detained a woman carrying a Vietnamese passport as well as an Indonesian woman and a Malaysian man over the killing.

Kim Jong-Nam died Monday after an unidentified liquid was sprayed in his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, an attack that Seoul says was carried out by female agents on Pyongyang’s orders.

The North has demanded his body be returned but Malaysia has refused the request and said it must remain in the country until identified through a DNA sample from a family member. AFP

Plan to build coal-powered plants shelved BANGKOK―Thailand’s military government on Sunday shelved plans to build a coal-fired power station in a popular beach region, a rare success for demonstrators in a country where the right to protest has been severely curbed.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside government offices in Bangkok since Friday to demonstrate against the junta’s decision to approve an 800-megawatt coal plant on the coast of Krabi, a southern region renowned for its tropical beaches and steep limestone hills.

Three protest leaders were detained on Saturday and held in a barracks prison but released on Sunday in a deal struck with authorities.

In a statement, government spokesman Lieutenant General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the government had ordered a new environmental impact assessment to decide whether the plant should be built, reversing the cabinet’s decision last week to press ahead.

Protesters said they would end their demonstration in response to the announcement.

The gathering was a rare act of defiance of the junta’s ban on public protests. Generals seized power in 2014 and have severely clamped down on dissent.

The military government is largely popular in Thailand’s south.

But some Krabi residents were alarmed at the decision to push ahead with the power station. AFP

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Trump reassures supporters M

ELBOURNE―President Donald Trump turned back the clock Saturday with a bold and aggressive Florida speech straight out of his 2016 campaign playbook, enthralling fans while insisting all is well in the White House despite weeks of turbulence.

France slams cyber attacks on campaign PARIS―Suspected Russian cyberattacks on the French presidential campaign are “unacceptable”, France’s foreign minister said Sunday, adding it was clear that pro-Europe candidate Emmanuel Macron was being targeted.

A spokesman for Macron, who is currently riding high in the polls, has accused Moscow of being behind a flurry of cyberattacks on his campaign website and email servers over the past month.

“It’s enough to see which candidates, Marine Le Pen or Francois Fillon, Russia expresses preference for in the French electoral campaign,” Foreign Minister JeanMarc Ayrault said in an interview with Journal du Dimanche.

“Whereas Emmanuel Macron, who is pro-Europe, is being targeted by cyberattacks,” he added. “This form of interference in French democratic life is unacceptable and I denounce it.”

Le Pen, of the far-right National Front, is anti-immigration and anti-European Union, while Fillon is the conservative Republicans candidate who is pushing for closer ties with Moscow.

“Russia is the first to say that non-interference in domestic affairs is a cardinal rule and I understand that. Well, France won’t accept its choices being dictated to it either,” he added.

France warned Russia Wednesday against meddling in the elections, after a spokesman for Macron—the 39-year-old centrist former economy minister—pointed the finger of blame at Moscow. AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

VISIT. US Vice President Michael Richard Pence and his wife Karen Pence look at exhibits during a visit to the former Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, southwestern Germany, on February 19, 2017. AFP

He also took aim at his favorite foil, the “dishonest” news media that he said had become “part of the corrupt system.”

At the end of a stormy first month in office, the billionaire took the power of the presidency on the road, revisiting the style and substance of the campaign trail.

After stepping down from Air Force One to a deafening cheer, he was drawn into the collective bosom of several thousand of his dearest followers -- mostly white, mostly male middle-class Americans who feel they have been left behind by the country’s shifting economy.

“I’m here because I want to be among my friends and among the people,” he said.

Trump employed a loud and muscular delivery -- one which won over millions of voters on the campaign trail last year -- to assure Americans he is fulfilling promises to shrink government, rebuild the military, restrict immigration, and tear up health care reforms enacted by predecessor Barack Obama.

“This will be change for the ages,” the president said at the event in Melbourne, a sunbleached city on Florida’s Space Coast.

But Trump was completing his first month in office under a cloud in Washington, where lawmakers pledged to further investigate his possible pre-election ties to Russia, his national security advisor was forced to resign in disgrace, and a cabinet nominee withdrew

amid controversy.

“The White House is running so smoothly, so smoothly,” Trump stressed, before going on an extended rant about the US media.

“I also want to speak to you without the filter of the fake news,” Trump said.

“They’ve become a big part of the problem. They are part of the corrupt system,” he said, continuing the open warfare with the media that has marked his young presidency.

Aside from the fact that Trump is now leader of the free world, the event was eerily similar in style to his campaign -- from the layout, to the recorded music, to the president’s largely impromptu delivery.

About the only thing missing was attacks on his 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump acknowledged that he is always in campaign mode.

“Life is a campaign,” he told reporters on Air Force One ahead of the rally. “To make America great again is absolutely a campaign. It’s not easy, especially when we’re also fighting the press.”

During his speech, Trump reiterated his pledge to crack down on terrorism, saying he has “ordered decisive action to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country.”

And he said his administration would submit “in a couple of weeks” a plan to repeal and replace “the disaster known as Obamacare.” AFP

Melania prays, then assails critics in a speech in Florida MELBOURNE―First Lady Melania Trump, usually a demure and soft-spoken presence at her husband’s side, broke with form Saturday, reciting the Lord’s Prayer before issuing a scathing rebuke of his enemies and her critics at a campaign-style stop in Florida.

Preceding her husband on the dais at a rally in the city of Melbourne, the first lady started her remarks with the words “let us pray,” before beginning her recitation of the well-known Christian prayer.

“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven,” Mrs Trump read from the lectern, wrapping up the roughly half-min-

ute-long prayer with an “Amen.”

She then launched into an uncharacteristically strident defense of her husband -- and her own brief tenure as first lady.

“The America we envision is one that works for all Americans and where all Americans can work and succeed,” she said.

“A nation committed to a greater civility and unity between people from all sides of the political divide.

I will always stay true to myself and be truthful to you, no matter what the opposition is saying about me,” said the first lady, wearing a red frock with a fitted waist and flared skirt, her mane of blonde hair blowing slightly in the breeze.

“I will act in the best interests

of all of you. I’m committed to creating and supporting initiatives dear to my heart. Which will have impact on women, and children all around the world,” she said.

“My husband is creating a country of great safety, and prosperity,” the first lady said before introducing President Donald Trump, ceding the podium to cheers and applause.

Melania Trump has been a rare presence with her husband since the inauguration.

To the dismay of some critics, she has decided to continue living at their palatial residence in Trump Tower in New York until their 10-year-old son Barron finishes the school year.

Purists and traditionalists have been disappointed that the first lady has not kept with precedent and immediately joined her husband in the White House residence.

The poised, impeccably dressed Melania -- a former model from Slovenia -- is 24 years younger than her 70-year-old billionaire husband. She is Trump’s third wife.

Her modeling career brought her in the mid-1990s to the United States, where she met the real estate mogul and reality television star she would eventually marry.

President Donald Trump hits the campaign stump for a rally in Melbourne, a city on Florida’s

famed Space Coast, seeking to reconnect with his tribe of largely white, male middle-class voters.

He delivered a speech lasting about 45 minutes in what was billed by the White House as “a campaign rally for America.”

After pressure from US lawmakers, Melania Trump announced this week that the White House will finally reopen to the public in early March, nearly seven weeks after her husband Donald became president.

White House tours are highly popular with visitors to Washington, a perk arranged by members of Congress for their constituents and foreign embassies for their nationals. AFP

Turkey eyes strong alliance with Trump ANKARA―Turning a blind eye to multiple policy differences, Turkey is seeking a tighter alliance with Washington under President Donald Trump but the road to a rapprochement may not be easy.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s relationship with the White House worsened drastically in the final months of the Barack Obama administration, mired in rows on issues from Syria to the extradition of the preacher Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish leader’s arch-foe.

But Turkish officials repeated none of the gloom that some EU leaders expressed after Trump’s election, instead hoping that he would open a new page in relations.

Trump’s administration has a “good opportunity to make bold moves” in his foreign policy after the previous administration’s “disregardful” attitude, Ayse Sozen Usluer, head of international relations at the Turkish presidency, told AFP. She added the new administration would assess anew its relationship with Turkey regarding trade, military, the fight against terror among other issues and “take new steps to improve relations”.

So could a potential romance could now be brewing between

two men who have made macho politics a trademark?

Less than 48 hours after Trump and Erdogan had their first conversation of the new US president’s term, new CIA chief Mike Pompeo came to Ankara last week to meet the Turkish leadership in his first foreign visit.

In a sign of the importance of realpolitik in the relationship, Pompeo had only last year described Turkey as a “totalitarian Islamist dictatorship” in a now deleted tweet.

Meanwhile in a flurry of activity, US joint chiefs of staff Joseph Dunford also visited Turkey on Friday.

But for all the good intentions, analysts believe it is doubtful the two sides will progress much beyond a honeymoon period before traditional disagreements reappear.

Ankara hopes Trump is “the man who can deliver (a rapprochement) to them, so they’re quite obviously withholding any criticism of him even though his rhetoric in multiple cases is completely against everything they stood for,” said Aaron Stein, resident fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Centre for the Middle East.

“I’m not sure that the Trump administration is hearing them yet,” he told AFP. AFP

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONJessica Szohr attends Miles Teller’s 30th birthday celebration at the private residence of Jonas Tahlin, CEO of Absolut Elyx, on February 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. AFP

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

World

N. Koreans are keeping low profile after killing K UALA LUMPUR―Malaysia’s only North Korean restaurant promises a glimpse into life in the reclusive state, but it has been shuttered since news broke of the assassination of leader Kim Jong-Un’s brother, with security guards turning customers away.

Pyongyang Koryo is the most visible symbol of a 1,000-strong North Korean community in Malaysia, made up of a business elite as well as ordinary workers who will likely know little about the Cold War-style killing of Kim Jong-Nam. Waitresses at the restaurant, one of dozens the North has established abroad, wear traditional dress and entertain diners with singing and dancing at the unassuming building in a sleepy residential area of Kuala Lumpur.

But even when the doors are open neighbors say the young women have little contact with the wider world as they are shut-

tled to and from their accommodation.

“I’ve seen the women being taken to and from the compound and they never walk this way or talk to anyone,” said Jack Liew, who runs a car workshop that shares a back alley with the restaurant.

“When I tried to look into their back yard, the door was covered with vinyl sheeting and there’s nothing else to look at,” he told AFP. Other residents also said they had seen the North Korean workers but had never spoken with them, describing the waitresses only as “very pretty”.

At the other end of the spec-

trum are elites who are also keeping a low profile but would be well aware of the assassination, said Alex Hwang, a South Korean who chairs the Malaysian branch of the Seoul-backed National Unification Advisory Council.

Hwang runs an upmarket restaurant in the Malaysian capital that he says is popular with prominent North Korean expatriates, at one time including Jong-Nam who was killed at Kuala Lumpur’s airport in an apparent poisoning attack on Monday.

Their business interests include computer animation firms, manufacturing, and some black market activities, he told AFP. “Most of them have Rolex watches, they drive nice cars, their children go to normal schools and have the latest gadgets.... They are like any other business person,” said Hwang of the roughly 250-strong group.

But they would think twice before sharing news of the assassina-

tion with friends or family when they go home.

Each North Korean family living abroad reports to the local embassy every month for a debrief and when they return, they undergo “re-education” before being allowed to return to the general population, he said.

On Saturday around 40 North Koreans made their way to the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, South Korea’s Chosun TV reported as its journalists quizzed the group over the killing that Seoul’s spy chief said was carried out by agents from the North.

Analysts believe Jong-Nam may have been seen as a rival to his younger sibling, in a dynastic regime that has never loosened its grip on power in three generations.

When asked whether Pyongyang could have been responsible, one North Korean said, “This is dog talk [nonsense]” before walking away and telling the reporter to leave him alone. AFP

ON THE SET. Actors perform during the shooting of ‘O Rico e Lazaro’

(The Rich Man and Lazarus) soap opera at the studios of Record TV in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on February 3, 2017. Nebuchadnezzar II is about to be crowned in a sumptuous Babylonian palace, and production assistants in Havaiana flip-flops are rushing to get a small army of extras into place. Welcome to the set of ‘The Rich Man and Lazarus,’ the latest biblical telenovela from the media empire of one of Brazil’s largest Evangelical mega-churches. AFP

Tourists are slowly returning to Egypt

Assange’s fate hangs in balance in Ecuador

CAIRO―Tourists are slowly returning to Egypt, easing pressure on a key sector battered by years of turmoil and the 2015 bombing of a plane carrying Russian holidaymakers.

“There is an increase in the number of tourists. This situation was much better in January than in previous years,” tourism ministry spokeswoman Omaima al-Husseini said.

Visitors from China, Japan and Ukraine account for a large part of the growth.

China’s top public travel agency, China International Travel Service, reported a 58 percent increase in tourists flying to Egypt compared with 2015.

“There are more bookings between October 2016 and January 2017 than last year,” said Egyptian Federation of Tourism chief Karim Mohsen.

“There is an improvement, especially in cultural tourism in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan,” key historical sites, he said.

The uptick is a sign of hope for a country also reeling from the shock of an economic reform program that has triggered massive inflation.

Once a key foreign currency earner, the tourism sector crashed in 2011 after a popular uprising overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak, ushering in years of sporadic unrest.

Recoveries in the sector since then have been set back by new crises.

In June 2015, a massacre of tourists at a Luxor temple was narrowly averted when assailants armed with assault rifles and explosives bungled the attack and were intercepted by police.

But in October that year, Islamic State group jihadists, who are waging an insurgency in the eastern Sinai Peninsula, struck again. They bombed a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers home from the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

All 224 people on board were killed.

Russia suspended flights to Egypt and Britain cut air links with Sharm el-Sheikh.

Visitor numbers plunged from 9.3 million in 2015 to 5.3 million the following year, Husseini said.

But industry officials have cautiously welcomed what they say is a noticeable improvement since October. AFP

QUITO―Oil-rich Ecuador votes Sunday in general elections that could lead to fugitive Wikileaks founder Julian Assange being evicted from the country’s London embassy.

Socialist presidential candidate Lenin Moreno, who leads in the opinion polls, favors continuing to grant the Australian whistleblower asylum, which was granted to him under outgoing leader Rafael Correa.

But two conservative contenders, Guillermo Lasso and Cynthia Viteri, each told AFP they would end Assange’s asylum if they won the election.

Under Correa, Ecuador grabbed world headlines when it defied the United States by granting Assange refuge as he fights against Swedish rape charges.

The move has also shielded him from arrest over possible extradition to the United States for leaking diplomatic cables that embarrassed Washington.

WikiLeaks has said Assange could travel to the United States to face investigation if his rights were “guaranteed”.

The Ecuadoran elections could see a pillar of the Latin American left swing to the right in a country at an economic and political crossroads.

After a decade of leftist rule, voters must decide whether to follow Argentina, Brazil and Peru in switching to a conservative government.

Over his decade in power, leftist economist Correa, 53, oversaw an economic boom in the country of 16 million. But he is not up for re-election.

The economy shrank by 1.7 percent last year, suffering notably from falling oil prices.

Correa is accused of failing to save any petrodollars for a rainy day, and of hampering businesses with high taxes and duties.

“When Correa came to power he promised to diversify the production model,” Alberto AcostaBurneo, an economist at the Spurrier Group consultancy, told AFP. “But he is leaving behind a country in which it is very difficult to produce things.”

Correa’s ally and would-be successor Moreno, 63, promises to continue the outgoing president’s tax-and-spend social policies.

“The Ecuadoran people have affection (for us) and are determined to continue with this process,” Moreno told AFP on Wednesday at a campaign event. AFP

ALL-STAR EVENT. John Wall, CEO of Klutch Sports Group, Rich Paul and LeBron James attend the RÈmy Martin and Klutch Sports Group All-Star event on February 18, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. AFP

Scottish islands focus on renewable future LERWICK, United Kingdom― Strong winds and stormy seas have helped turn the Shetland Islands in the North Atlantic into a European renewable energy giant, producing more power than it knows what to do with.

The tidal power underwater turbines that were completed last month are only the latest green energy project for an archipelago that has been reliant for decades on the North Sea offshore industry.

Even homeowners are getting in on the act with small wind turbines in their gardens and solar panels on their roofs -- somewhat

optimistically in an area where winter daylight lasts just six hours.

“We’re not 100 percent self sufficient but we’re quite a long way towards it,” Jim Dickson, 69, told AFP at his home in the windswept village of Brae, referring to electricity generation for his own house.

Dickson, who lives near the Sullom Voe oil terminal, can power the building and an electric powered Nissan Leaf car from a turbine in his garden with enough left over to feed into the island’s grid when conditions are favorable.

“What I make from the govern-

ment for producing per kilowatt hour more than pays for what I buy from the grid, so effectively there is no power bill.”

The former harbour master knows about the dangers of fossil fuels.

He was winched aboard the out of control oil tanker MV Braer in 1993 during the worst cyclone on record in the North Atlantic, in an ill-fated attempt to prevent it running aground.

His efforts to attach a tow rope failed and the ship crashed into the rocks at Quendale Bay, spilling 84,700 tonnes of crude oil into

the sea.

The nation was aghast at images of Shetland’s famous seabirds drowning in black ooze.

The oil industry in Shetland began in the 1970s with the development of the North Sea fields.

The Brent field east of the archipelago became an emblem of the industry, with “Brent Crude” becoming a benchmark for oil trading around the world.

Oil giant Shell has announced plans to decommission the field but new discoveries west of Shetland could give a boost to the industry. AFP

Life

Giant crabs flavored with salted eggs is regular diners’ favorite

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com

FOOD

By Nickie Wang

I

F CRABS and shrimps were war generals on a seafood table, Blue Posts Boiling Crabs and Shrimps (BPBCS) is an imposing and intimidating armada.

For foodies who lust for anything crabs and shrimps, the Davao-based restaurant chain is a foodporn cul-desac. Imagine a bag of shrimps cooked while wrestling with garlic, sausages, potatoes and corn cubs or a giant crab whipped and charged with spices before heading to battle. The result is a victorious seafood warfare that turns diners, whose only shield is a plastic bib, into nothing but willing victims. Damn hypertension because crabs and shrimps as the enemy’s ammunition will make you just eat…and eat more.

At BPBCS, diners can choose from a wide roster of seafood placed in a boiling bag mixed with their signature Blue Posts Cajun Special Sauce with adjustable heat factors (regular, mild or spicy hot), all of these are guaranteed fresh, specially picked for their customers from sea to table. Alongside these freshly caught dishes are the local dishes such as Native Chicken, Sinuglaw with Green Apples, and Pomelo Salad.

“This ‘from sea to table’ is our concept. As far as I’m aware, we are the first to use this tagline, which guarantees the freshness of the food we serve,” Anthony Ang, (BPBCS) owner, told Manila Standard during the grand opening of the restaurant’s third branch in Ecoland SM City Davao.

Established in December 2013, Blue Posts Boiling Crabs and Shrimps (BPBCS) wasn’t always the go-to seafood restaurant in Davao. In fact, it wasn’t even supposed to be a restaurant in the first place. Originally envisioned to be a bar by a group of college friends, BPBCS had their revamping when couple and owners Anthony and Jennifer Ang were traveling in the US west coast and found themselves in the famed Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

“When we were there, I got curious when we chanced upon a popular local restaurant. People were queuing nonstop. They open at 3 p.m. but the line already starts as early as 11. So, we tried the food. And then I also noticed that the servers were Asians. This gave me the idea that we can take this concept to the Philippines and give it a local twist,” Anthony Ang said.

They noticed a growing market for casual-dining seafood restaurants, with lines that would snake outside the establishment, hours before opening time. Messy and finger-licking kind of dining was encouraged and it reminded the couple of home and the Filipino concept of kamay-kainan.

Determined to bring the same concept and ambiance home, the Angs

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

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Seafood goodness in a BOILING BAG Native Chicken grilled to perfection

Sinuglaw is a refreshing twist of kinilaw topped with grilled liempo and green apples

NO UTENSILS NEEDED. Davao’s homegrown Blueposts Boiling Crabs and Shrimps is the answer to your guilt-free seafood diet

Pomelo Salad topped with prawns

encouraged a revamp of ideas, thus the BPBCS’s way of messy eating was born. Within the graffiti drawn walls of the restaurant, dining with your hands was highly encouraged to get that full feel of a fun and messy eat adventure. A food-grade wax paper is set before you accompanied by a Blue Posts bib and the messier you got with every bite, the better your dining experience becomes.

“When you eat crabs, in Chinese restaurants or even in seafood places, a lot of people don’t want to use their

high quality in terms of service and product.

I’d like to think that we are more strategic than aggressive,” Ang explained.

BPBCS will give thanks to their loyal customer and will launch the Bucket Listers Loyalty Program. It is a loyalty rewards program that aims to give back to their loyal customers both in Davao and Manila, and to create an avenue to encourage new users to experience fun, messy, and high-quality sea to table seafood dining experience that only BPBCS can offer.

hands. It’s fun to use your hands when eating crabs and shrimps. We’re hyping this concept because you don’t always get the same kind of experience and it’s fun to be messy,” Ang said in animated fashion.

Recipe for success

What once started as a small branch along J.P. Laurel Avenue and between Davao Water District, and SM Lanang Premiere has now continued to grow both inside Davao and out to the Metro. Blue

Posts success continues on with the newly opened branch in SM Mall of Asia.

And the restaurant chain is bringing the Davao taste and flavors to the rest of the Metro by opening three more branches in SM Megamall, O-Square Greenhills Shopping Center, and Seascape Manila.

“Contrary to what people say, we are not that aggressive in terms of opening new branches. Our every move is well thought.

Before we open any branch, we wanted to ensure that we (sic) can provide the same

A breathtaking view from the Golden Arches

Landscape features serve as a relaxing backdrop

McDonald’s opens its Tagaytay-Calamba Road branch

The branch’s unique design, featuring raw concrete, brick and wood, integrates with Tagaytay’s natural beauty

MCDONALD’S Philippines recently marked an important milestone as it opened a one-ofa-kind store in Tagaytay City. Located along Tagaytay-Calamba Road, the new store greets locals and tourists with a unique, inviting structure and interiors.

McDonald’s Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth S. Yang took the lead in opening the new store. Chief Happiness Officer Ronald McDonald and the entire gang were also present to welcome customers.

The store’s first batch of customers enjoyed performances and hourly promos of free McDonald’s food items like the BigMac, Cheeseburger, Burger McDo, Coke McFloat, and Regular Fries. Celebrities Arjo Atayde, JC Santos, Janine Gutierrez, Ruru Madrid, Gabbi Garcia, James Wright, James Teng, and Lucho Ayala also joined in the fun and surprised customers as they served from the front-counter and drive-thru window.

“We envisioned this store to be a modern yet comfortable place where our customers, both young and old, can enjoy. The entire McDonald’s family is beaming with pride and excitement as we finally open its doors,” said Yang.

“With McDonald’s Tagaytay-Calamba Road, we are giving customers a whole new McDonald’s experience as they bask in the beauty that Tagaytay has to offer, with the same great-tasting food and excellent service that McDonald’s Philippines has upheld for the past 35 years.”

With Tagaytay being a famous weekend or day trip destination for families and friends, McDonald’s wanted to match the experience that people are looking for when they go here with a store design that’s fresh and unique. Materials like raw concrete, brick, and wood were used to give the store a strong connection to the natural beauty of Tagaytay. The store’s al fresco areas show a thoughtful integration of

BIGMAC WITH A VIEW. Diners can enjoy their favorite McDonald’s food items in its newest branch that offers a picturesque view of the Taal Lake.

landscape features that serve as a relaxing backdrop for the picturesque view of the Taal lake.

Another element that differentiates this store is the floor dedicated entirely to McCafe—a first in the country—where customers can enjoy a wide array of specialty coffee drinks, cakes and other pastries. With the Taal lake as the view, the place is perfect for relaxing bonding moments made even better with McCafe’s signature Cappuccino,

Americano, Iced Latte, Double Choco Frappe, and the new “Serenade” and “Medley” combos which are Ham & Egg Mayo Croissant and Cappuccino, and Pesto Chicken Ciabatta and McCafe House Blend Iced Tea, respectively.

McDonald’s Tagaytay Calamba Road, located on 3120 Tagaytay Calamba Rd. Brgy. San Jose, Tagaytay City, is open 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. the following day.

Life

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

Newest flavor in Asian fusion

Crispy Pork Belly in Tamarined Glaze combine the Filipino’s love of crunchy pork and tangy flavor

F

OODIES, friends and families can now enjoy a fresh take on Asian fusion cuisine with Sasa Asian Cuisine, located at Estancia Mall, Capitol Commons, thanks to Chef Raymar Reyes and his team of culinary experts. You can enjoy a gastronomical blend of Asia’s best all the way from Japan, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, made even better with a Filipino twist.

Dishes like Crispy Pork Belly in Tamarind Glaze combine the Filipino’s love of crunch and savory pork with the exotic tang of tamarind to create an entirely new flavor experience. The Braised Beef with Cheddar is an interesting spin on the classic Asian dish, combining the familiar and utterly addicting taste of American cheddar with the tender and rich flavor of the beef.

For a lighter fare, Japanese favorites like Tempura also get that Sasa spin as it is cooked with freshly made Mapo Tofu. For seafood lovers, marvel at the unique flavor of their Asahi Prawns dish—prawns soaked in Asahi beer and sautéed in clam sauce.

For less adventurous palates, Sasa’s Asian culinary staples do not disappoint. With choices like Hainanese

Sasa Asian Cuisine’s gives the Asian dish Braised Beef with Cheddar an American twist, courtesy of the cheese

Chicken, Sasa Fried Chicken, Honey Spareribs, Braised Pork Noodles and Stir-Fry Noodles, those keen with the familiar can still feel very much at home at Sasa.

With a vast array of Asian-inspired culinary choices, Sasa’s bold and origi-

nal take on the best of Asia’s flavors definitely stands out. Each dish feels homey and familiar, thanks to its Filipino-inspired roots, but is also a refreshing, new experience on its own, masterfully combining unique and notable Asian-inspired flavors into the mix.

The Menu Group (TMG), established in 2015, is the brains and brawn behind Sasa and three other restaurants, Sangkap, Splice and Sobremesa, all featuring exciting cuisines which cater to a variety of markets. This group of passionate, young restaurateurs has suc-

cessfully opened up their ventures in popular up-and-coming spots in Ortigas and Mandaluyong.

Experience a new take on Asian flavors at Sasa Asian Cuisine, now open on the Lower Ground, South Wing side at Estancia Mall, Capitol Commons, Pasig City.

B ITES

Pancake House’s Roast Chicken

Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga (right) receives the WFP Hunger Hero award

Hunger Hero Award

PANCAKE House heard your cravings loud and clear. That’s why everyone’s go-to for all-time favorite comfort food is back on the menu. Yes – it’s hot and it’s back – to boost your mood every day of the week.

Looking for something hearty but a little different from your usual meal set? Choose the Hot Roast Chicken AlaCarte, the scrumptious open-faced sandwich with slices of that famous tender, roast chicken smothered in rich gravy. A side of your favorite mashed potatoes and corn and carrots, round off this delicious dish for only P250.

If one isn’t enough, then Double Your Love and indulge in or share two servings of the Hot Roast Chicken with refreshing cold glasses of iced tea for just P398. You can savor the return of the Hot Roast Chicken this holiday season.

So whether you choose to dine in or order for delivery, you’ll definitely be happy about the Hot Roast Chicken being back to satisfy your comfort food cravings. Head on over to Pancake House now for good food that will always make you feel good.

Chocolate delights sliced in Red Ribbon

for a ‘Zero Hunger’ world WORLD Food Programme (WFP) gave Mastercard the 2017 Hunger Hero Award for the company’s contributions towards achieving a Zero Hungry world.

World leaders have set out the Sustainable Development Goals, in which the dream of a world with Zero Hunger is included. The World Food Programme supports the Zero Hunger agenda, which pledges to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

Over the past five years, Mastercard and the World Food Programme have worked together on some important programs. The global payment solutions and technologies company provides the power to unlock innovation in food assistance delivery. The partnership has worked to bring new ideas to WFP programs and raise important funds.

One significant instance of the successful partnership of Mastercard and WFP was their response to the refugee crisis in Syria. Mastercard was able to deliver electronic payments for 2.2 million refugees in Jordan and Lebanon by automatically wiring money to prepaid cards, allowing refugees to purchase the local produce they need efficiently.

Along with relief efforts, Mastercard also has a donation platform that integrates charitable giving into everyday life. With their bank and retail partners, the company has helped raise funds to provide over 17 million school meals to vulnerable children around the world.

During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga accepted the Hunger Hero award on behalf of the company. Banga emphasized that core to the DNA of Mastercard is the belief that business can be a force for good in the world.

“Social causes and issues are not just the responsibility of governments, aid agencies, NGOs and charitable organizations; I believe there is a clear role for the private sector to play in addressing some of the issues facing the world,” said the CEO. “At Mastercard we have global technology that can be used in new ways to innovate and include data and insights that can help inform and educate, and a whole organization of talented people who are motivated to come to work every day to help make a difference. We partner with organizations of all sizes around the world. For us it is more about the vision of building an inclusive society where financial, digital and gender inclusion are the norm. Alongside that we want to drive inclusive growth, understanding the challenges faced by different countries or societies, and look at how technology and data can solve them.”

All this is done in Mastercard’s corporate social responsibility programs, where they commit to giving at least 500 million individuals greater access to the financial system by 2020, with more than 250 million underserved people already reached.

Villa Del Conte’s Dark Chocolate goodness TREAT yourself to a luxurious chocolate experience without the guilt with Villa Del Conte’s Bonta Dark Chocolates. These hand crafted artisanal chocolates from Padova, Italy gives you the healthy goodness of dark chocolate in three luscious flavors, Dark Chocolate with White Cream and Cocoa Cookies in silver foil wrapper, Dark Chocolate with Cocoa Cream and White Chips in gold foil wrapper, and Dark Chocolate with Hazelnut Cream and Whole Hazelnuts in red foil wrapper.

The new Bonta Dark Chocolates collection is available at Villa del Conte stores in Greenbelt 5, Century City Mall, Shangri-la Mall, Resorts World, Alabang Town Center, SM Megamall, and Robinsons Magnolia. For bulk orders, please contact 893-2575 or 621-6101.

RED Ribbon’s chocolatiest cakes have always been one of the sure ways to brighten up every celebration. With its exquisite taste and moist texture, it never fails to make any occasion even more special. But, who said that these chocolatey treats are only for these gatherings?

Red Ribbon, one of the most loved Filipino bakeshop chains in the country, makes it possible to make even your most ordinary moments celebratory with its Red Ribbon Choco Cake Slice made of two layers of moist chocolate chiffon with fudgy chocolate filling for that perfect burst of chocolatey goodness. It is exquisitely sliced from Red Ribbon’s chocolatiest cakes making it the yummiest treat for everyone.

“We always want the best for our customers. That is why in every Choco Cake Slice, we make sure that it is not only made with the chocolatiest chiffon but is filled with rich chocolate cream in between each layer. It’s a melt-in-your-mouth chocolate treat that makes your bonding moments or snack time much sweeter,” said Ned Bandojo, head of Marketing of Red Ribbon.

Choco Cake Slice is available in all Red Ribbon stores nationwide for only P24 pesos per slice or P99 pesos for every five-piece bundle pack.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Is Janine Gutierrez dropping her sweet image?

MURDER MYSTERY in a convent R

"Agnes of God" explores the lives of three women and their own dark pasts

EPERTORY Philippines, more popularly known as REP, celebrates its golden year by bringing back on stage the gripping and thought-provoking drama, Agnes of God, as part of its exciting 50th year offerings.

Pinky Amador, Becca Coates, and Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo star in Repertory Philippines' staging of the murder mystery

RADIO GMA’s Pera Sorpresa winner Melody Chomayag received her one million peso grand prize from GMA Network Chairman and CEO Felipe L. Gozon and RGMA President Mike C. Enriquez on Feb. 10.

Chomayag, a 32-year-old plastic bag vendor in Baguio City’s public market and an avid listener of RGMA’s Barangay 92.7 FM – Baguio, is the newest millionaire of the nationwide send-in raffle promo of RGMA, Pera Sorpresa 6.

“Lagi po kaming nakikinig sa RGMA 92.7 dahil masaya po dito at inaabangan po namin ang Pera Sorpresa. Nagpapasalamat po ako sa RGMA at sa Barangay 92.7 dahil nanalo po ako,” said Chomayag. She also said that she plans to use the prize to build a house for their family.

Apart from the grand prize, the promo, which aired on all AM and FM stations of RGMA nationwide, also had five consolation winners of P25,000.00 with one winner

Written by John Pielmeier, Agnes of God was a long running hit on Broadway, which opened in 1982, and adapted into film in 1985. The play explores the lives of three women and their own dark pasts. Their stories are interwoven into the mysterious case of the young nun Agnes who is accused of conceiving and killing her own baby in the convent.

REP first staged it in 1983 with Pinky Amador playing the role of Agnes for which she won Best Actress in the 1983 Aliw Awards.

Pinky returns in this re-staging of the critically acclaimed production, this time as Mother Miriam Ruth, the strong-willed Mother Superior who fiercely protects Agnes and claims her pregnancy was an Immaculate conception.

Opposing Mother Miriam Ruth’s non-scientific explanations is courtappointed psychiatrist Dr. Livingstone, played by Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo.

She comes to examine Agnes’ mental stability and is determined to uncover the truth behind the case, all the while unexpectedly getting in touch with her own past and cause of distrust in religion.

Baguio vendor wins

P1 million grand prize

RGMA Pera Sorpresa winner Meloday Chomayag (right) and husband Richard Chomayag (left) receiving the grand prize from GMA Network Chairman and CEO Felipe L. Gozon (center)

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Monday, February 20, 2017

ACROSS 1 Slog through 5 Three-seater 9 Bellyaches 14 — — foot pole 15 Late spring flower 16 Snow shelter 17 Chemists’ lairs 18 Linen color 19 Sailing vessel 20 Part of TNT 21 Mardi — 22 Longhorns 23 Dulcimer cousins 25 Santa Fe neighbor 26 “Give — — rest” 27 Flight prefix 28 Team cheer 31 Dupes 34 Recklessly fast 36 Extra dry 37 Close or Miller 38 Pre-college 39 Herb teas, e.g.

41 Vine product 42 Billy — Williams 43 Struggle for air 44 Respond to an SOS 45 Dock 46 Damsel’s locks 50 He married

Becca Coates plays the titular role of Agnes, the sweet and innocent nun with a troubled childhood. Her own physical and spiritual turmoil makes her vulnerable to the overwhelming events surrounding her. She fervently denies any knowledge and memory of the night she gave birth to a child in the convent, but she is accused of murder when the baby was found dead in a wastebasket.

This production is an emotional journey and a highly engaging drama that doesn’t back down on highlighting the difference between faith and fact as well as exploring the full range of human emotions.

What really happened that night Agnes supposedly gave birth?

Find out in REP’s Agnes of God directed by Bart Guingona in collaboration with REP-trained and Set Design professor at Fordham University, New York, Joey Mendoza.

The show will run until March 12 at the OnStage Theater in Greenbelt 1, Makati City.

For inquiries, you may call REP at 843.3570, and Ticketworld at 891.999 or log on to www. ticketworld.com.ph.

Bacall 53 Turkey neighbor 54 Winery cask 55 Came up 56 Jokey magic word 57 Poi plant 58 Nuisances 59 James or Kett 60 Mr. Sikorsky 61 Tip off 62 Lure trout 63 Wall Street abbr.

DOWN 1 Ballroom dance 2 Video-game pioneer 3 Red-ink entry 4 USN officer 5 Mountain range 6 Dangerous whales 7 Fragrant trees 8 Tempe coll.

9 Didn’t recognize 10 Stares rudely 11 Lotion additive 12 Koh-i- — diamond 13 Bribes 21 Catches on 22 Foil alternative 24 Krishna devotee 25 Mall frequenters

27 — we all!

28 Bellow 29 Cave sound effect 30 Similar 31 Forked over 32 “Rosamond” composer 33 Any Mrs. 34 Light-headed?

35 Requires 37 Economy-size 40 Most frugal 41 Demeanor 44 PLO biggie

45 Hologram maker 46 Runs slowly 47 Too theatrical 48 Common Market money 49 Nose noise 50 Rum-soaked cake 51 Word of mouth 52 Used up 53 Jot 56 Delt neighbor 57 Metal in pewter

each from North Luzon, South Luzon, Mega Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.

“Natutuwa ako na nanalo si Melody. Sa tingin ko, talagang masipag ang mag-asawang ito at naghahanapbuhay kaya I wish to congratulate them,” said Atty.

Gozon.

Enriquez said that the proofof-purchase promo is open to all Kapuso listeners nationwide and knowing that this year’s winner is from Baguio City proves that Radio GMA reaches everyone even in regional areas.

“Gusto nating ipaalam sa mga tagapakinig na sa taong ito, magkakaron ng Pera Sorpresa 7 na magiging mas malaki pa sa mga nakaraang Pera Sorpresa.

Dahil sa mga katulad nina Melody at Richard, nai-inspire tayo na magpromo pa nang magpromo ng mas malaki para mas marami pang mag-enjoy at matulungan,” Enriquez said.

RGMA Pera Sorpresa sponsors include Petron, Baygon, Capsinesis, Tang, Bear Brand, Chooks-To-Go, Rexona, Wellmade, and Air 21.

AFTER posing sexy for a calendar of an oil refining company, many are asking if that signaled Janine Gutierrez’s departure from her sweet image on screen.

“Actually, it’s not my plan to sport a sexy image this 2017,” she says. “What I want to project is about growing up, maturity. That calendar girl thing was definitely a huge challenge but I’m happy to have done it anyways. It wasn’t easy.

“I’ve worn bikini in some shoots before but those were fashion-related. And the pictorial were held on the beach, which was apt. But for the calendar shoot, the venue was in a studio.

The feeling was different. I was initially nervous.

“Many things were playing in my mind then. First, will the turnout of the shoot be okay with my dad (Ramon Christopher) and my grandmother (Pilita Corrales)? But in fairness to Mamita (Pilita), she was very proud of my calendar shoot. In fact, last Christmas, during our Noche Buena, she was parading it and I’m glad she liked it.”

For Janine, being a calendar girl doesn’t mean she would now go sexy all the way when it comes to pictorials.

“As I’ve said earlier, it’s not part of my career plan. My goal is to be more associated with physical fitness. Eventually, I would love to endorse a health beverage like yogurt. Although in the calendar shoot, I was also pushed to become healthy, and that’s what I really want to achieve. I promise to work hard on it.”

How does she feel that the calendar shoot somehow affected her sweet and conservative image?

“Honestly, for me, it’s just fine. If the people noticed a significant change, then I’m happy!

It would work well with my latest project for GMA, which is Legally Blind, where my role is more mature. So, things have leveled-up according to what I’ve envisioned. I feel more challenged now. It’s pretty cool,” ends Janine. ******** Dingdong Dantes lauds his new crime documentary drama over at GMA titled Case Solved because of its timeliness and relevance.

“I’m really impressed with its concept and potential to help or be of service to the viewers.

That’s why I accepted the offer right away.

Projects like this don’t just land unto your lap.

For one, it offers me the best working term,” he states.

The show’s time slot suits Dong best.

“Oh, yes! Coming from rigid tapings for Alyas Robin Hood’which is to end very soon, Case Solved offers the right balance. Apart from still being able to work, this new schedule will also give me time to take care of my daughter Zia and let Marian (Rivera) work on a fulltime basis once again!”

As agreed upon by the power couple, they would take turns in doing TV projects to ensure that one of them would be left at home to look after their baby.

“That’s right! I think it’s a pretty fair set-up.

We are able to work as parents without having to leave Zia totally.”

According to the Kapuso Prime Time King, his equally popular wife is very excited to get back to work again.

“I think it’s understandable since her last prime time offering was Carmela in 2013. She would have done The Rich Man’s Daughter’in 2015 but had to withdraw because of her delicate pregnancy. Now, my wife is raring back to face the cameras again and it’s my turn to give the spotlight to her, so to speak,” avers Dong.

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

The lead stars of GMA 7's newest afternoon drama, "Legally Blind." From left: Mikael Daez, Janine Gutierrez, and Rodjun Cruz.

JANINE GUTIERREZ plays a blind lawyer in new Kapuso soap

O

N FEB. 20, GMA Network debuts its newest gripping Afternoon Prime ISAH V. RED series, Legally Blind. Its premise sheds light on relatable matters that are true to life particularly women who are victims of rape, the effects drug abuse, pressures and rivalries within a household, but more importantly on unconditional love that binds families together and the indisputable resiliency of Filipinos amidst life’s challenges.

The story revolves around the life of Grace Evangelista (Janine Gutierrez), a beautiful, hardworking, and responsible law student who eventually passes the board exam with flying colors. In a dreadful turn of events, an unscrupulous man rapes her, scarring her forever and causing her to lose her sense of sight.

In spite of everything, she pursues her passion for law and eventually becomes a blind lawyer.

Will her unwavering faith guide her in finding her perpetrator? More importantly, will Grace be served justice she rightfully deserves? This drama series showcases Kapuso leading lady Janine Gutierrez’s skill and versatility as an actress, as she breathes life to the character of Grace Evangelista, her most challenging role to date.

Joining her in the series are Mikael Daez as Edward Villareal, the handsome, rich, and principled man who will help Grace in her search for justice and will eventually fall in love with her.

Lauren Young is Charie Evangelista, the younger sister of Grace who is deeply envious of her. She is forced to quit school after her parents decided to invest their money on Grace’s law school fees.

Marc Abaya is William Villareal, the older brother of Edward. He is a

successful businessman. His wife is with on the way. However, Edward’s circle of friends lead him most of the time to temptation. Rodjun Cruz is Joel Apostol, Grace’s boyfriend at law school whom she spurns after the traumatic incident she got herself into. He will try to win back Grace’s heart. Completing the cast are Chanda Romero as Marissa Evangelista, the loving mother of Grace, Charie, and Nina who is forced to rely on Grace to be the breadwinner of the family when her husband becomes imprisoned.

Therese Malvar as Nina Evangelista, the youngest sibling of Grace,thoughtful and compassionate. She looks up to Grace and keeps her motivated in life.

Lucho Ayala as John Castillo, best friend and confidante of Edward, also his partner in the law firm. Ashley Rivera as Diana Perez, the cheerful lawyer best friend of Grace. Camille Torres as Elizabeth Guevarra, the career-driven ex-girlfriend of Edward.

Legally Blind premieres today after lka-6 Na Utos on GMA Afternoon Prime. *** “Yan ang T’yan!” An expression of confidence and affirmation, setting the bar of what sexy and flat tummy looks like. This is what the country’s leading

brand, Biofitea wants to communicate for its campaign this 2017.

With Marian Rivera as endorser (she has been the product’s pitcher in the last three years), Biofitea believes that her unwavering figure and confidence will impart inspiration to millions of women hoping to have an always beach ready body.

Marian Rivera never failed to surprise her fans and followers when she stepped out and showcased her “Tyan na Flat” and slim body even after childbirth. Last year has been a glorious year for Marian Rivera after signing endorsements to various brands and series of projects such as Yan and Morning, Encantadia and Sunday Pinasaya.

She was also recognized at the first FHM Hall of Fame award. She also proved her alluring charm after being hailed as Country’s Most Beautiful Filipino Celebrity in Gazette Review 2016. She even proved her influence online when she did had a breakthrough of being the country’s most followed celebrity after getting 3.3 million followers on Instagram and 18 million likes on Facebook.

This year, Biofitea wants to imbibe that same confidence as of Marian’s.

Most new mothers have worries on the loss of slim figure and beauty after pregnancy. Biofitea wants to inspire and send a message to all new mothers that like Marian Rivera, they could also achieve a slim, fit figure and confidence even after childbirth.

The same message also goes to young professionals who want to have that “Tyan na Flat.” Biofitea is the leading herbal slimming tea in the country for more than a decade. It is manufactured

by Diamond Laboratories Inc., one of the leading local medium sized health care companies in the Philippines. It is

made from premium S e n n a Herb that has laxative properties which flush out food before its unwanted calories, fats are absorbed by the body.

As a result, it helps reduce weight and promote cleaner and healthier digestion. It is allnatural, thus, no worries of certain side-effects.

Biofitea now is a partner for millions of Filipina in achieving not just a slim body but also a steadfast confidence that will help them achieve their dreams.

This summer, fans of Marian Rivera and Biofitea users can expect to see series of ads and other campaign materials thru various projects across different media.

For more details about Biofitea, visit www. facebook.com/Biofitea or call (02) 932 7555 loc 113.

HUGH JACKMAN

one last time as Wolverine

After nine films over sixteen years, Australian actor Hugh Jackman is giving up his role as Wolverine

ACADEMY Award-nominated, Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning performer Hugh Jackman first brought his electrifying energy to the mutant known as Wolverine way back in 2000 in the film that launched the modern-day comic-book blockbuster, director Bryan Singer’s original X-Men. Since then, the acclaimed Australian actor has slipped into the skin of the world’s most famous mutant a record 10 times on the big screen. But this time, with Logan, Jackman had the chance to craft something truly special, laying to rest his longtime screen alter ego.

Highly regarded filmmaker James Mangold helms the defining chapter in the cinematic saga of one of the greatest comic book heroes ever created.

Jackman stars alongside Patrick Stewart Stephen Merchant, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant and newcomer Dafne Keen.

Logan sees Hugh Jackman reprising his iconic role as The Wolverine for one, final time in a raw, powerfully dramatic standalone story of sacrifice and redemption.

“There was a moment that I came to terms with the fact that this was my last one,” Jackman says.

“I love this character, and he’s been amazing to me.

I’d be lying if I said that I would have been okay if I didn’t feel everything was left on the table. And I mean everything. Every day, every scene was a kind of battle to get the best out of that character, to get the best out of me.”

Concludes Jackman, “There was an element of life and death about it—I know that sounds dramatic, but that’s how it felt.”

Logan finally bows in Philippine cinemas nationwide, from 20th Century Fox to be distributed

by Warner Bros. on March 1.