Manila Standard - 2017 March 11 - Saturday

Next page VOL. XXXI • NO. 29 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017 • www.thestandard.com.ph • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

THUMBS DOWN. Oppositors to the appointment of Environment Secretary-designate Gina Lopez give the red light Friday during a news

conference Friday hosted by the Chamber of Mines at the Milky Way Restaurant in Makati City, raising the visa to France (inset) as among reasons for their opposition. Lino Santos

Duterte wants rape punishable by death

By John Paolo Bencito and Maricel V. Cruz PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday chided Congress for passing a watered down version of the death penalty bill, saying that the crime of rape with homicide should be included in the list of crimes punishable by death.

“It would be a bit lacking,” Duterte said of the bill that was passed by the House of Representatives, which limited punishable crimes to drug-related offenses.

“Rape with homicide. You get raped, then killed… then they kill you. It’s only fitting,” the President said.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier said Duterte was disappointed with the list of punishable crimes under the death penalty bill that was approved, telling Congress to include plunder and rape, particularly of children.

On Friday, Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay, a known ally of former president and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, urged Alvarez not to push through with his threat to strip allies of key positions in the House if they voted against the bill.

Pichay said if the Speaker pushes through with the plan, that would mean “Congress is no lonNext page ger democractic.”

CA to bypass or reject Gina Lacson rules out confirmation as option Finance

By Macon Ramos-Araneta and Anna Leah E. Gonzales

SENATOR Panfilo Lacson said Environment Secretary Regina Lopez is deemed bypassed by the Commission on Appointments because she would not be able to attend its next hearing on March 14 before Congress takes a break next week.

“Since Secretary Lopez will be out of the country on a personal trip and there’s no more plenary… she is deemed bypassed,” Lacson, a member of the CA, said in a text message to reporters Thursday night.

He said President Rodrigo Duterte may reappoint her if she is bypassed, but said she could also be rejected by the CA’s committee on environment and natural resources chaired by Senator Manny Pacquiao, when it holds an executive session on Tuesday

to decide her fate.

The CA en banc will then decide whether to accept or reject the committee’s recommendation.

“Her fate will still be deliberated by the commission proper,” Lacson said, noting that she could be rejected like Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. because she failed to convince CA members with her answers to questions that they raised.

During hearings on her appointment, members of the Next page

Asean, EU in accord to resume trade talks

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan and Othel V. Campos LEADERS from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed on Friday to resume free trade talks, eight years after talks quietly broke off due to human rights violations of Myanmar.

In the annual EU-Asean ministerial consultations, EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said the two regions have agreed to create a framework encompassing the parameters of a future Asean-EU Free Trade Agreement.

“I am glad to see that both sides are now ready to seize the momentum and start preparations towards relaunching these negotiations,” Malmstrom said, who arrived on Thursday to attend the

annual Asean Business Summit, which the country hosts this year as chairman.

A joint statement during the ministerial meeting said all regions agreed to order their senior officials to work out the parameters of the negotiations for a future Asean-EU region-to-region agreement.

The regions also agreed to organize expert meetings in new areas of cooperation such as public procurement, e-commerce, and simplifying trade for small and medium-sized enterprises.

“This is a significant and timely initiative, and it shows that the EU and Asean are committed to take the lead together on regional and global trade,” Malmstrom said.

She also noted the 40th anniversary of “fruitful cooperation” Next page

Park Geun-Hye

By Julito Rada and John Paolo Bencito A TAX-EVASION case will be pursued against the cigarette firm Mighty Corp. for violating the stamp tax law, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Friday.

At the sidelines of a tax forum in Makati City, Dominguez also said the fake tax stamps found in the Mighty products were probably manufactured abroad and Next page

Reds rush to restart peace gab

By John Paolo Bencito

ASEAN UNITY. (from left) Tran Tuan Anh, Vietnam’s Minister of Industry, Ramon Lopez, Philippines Secretary for Trade and Industry and chairman of the Asean Economic ministers meeting, Cecilia Malmstrom, European Union Commissioner for Trade; and Le Luong Minh, Asean secretary general, join hands after a news conference Friday, underlining the links among members of the largely economic alliance. AFP

SoKor leader ousted over graft scandal SEOUL—South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was fired Friday as a court upheld her impeachment over a corruption scandal that has paralyzed the nation at a time of mounting tensions in East Asia.

pursues Mighty tax case

The unanimous decision brought to a climax months of political turmoil that saw millions of people take to the streets in weekly protests, and triggers a new presidential election to be held within

60 days. [Related stories on C4] That will offer South Korea a chance to draw a line under the scandal, which has occupied its attention for months, even as the North has unleashed

new missile launches and threats that have raised international alarm.

Park, the country’s first female president, also becomes its first leader to be removed by impeachment. Next page

THE communist rebels are scrambling to revive the peace negotiations with the government in an attempt to reach the scheduled fourth round of talks this April amid President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to wage war with them for another 50 years.

Amid the attempts to conduct back-channel talks, the National Democratic Front’s Next page

Makati belies Taguig win

By Joel E. Zurbano IT IS premature for the city government of Taguig to celebrate a recent court decision saying it has jurisdiction over the Fort Bonifacio district, a Makati City official said Friday.

Lawyer Michael Arthur Camiña, city legal officer and spokesman of Makati Mayor Abigail Binay, said there was no basis for Taguig officials to claim that the recent decision of the Court of Appeals “effectively hands over the Bonifacio Global City to Taguig.”

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News

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

SoKor...

From A1 She loses her executive immunity from prosecution and is obliged to leave the Blue House–although she did not do so Friday, with a spokesman saying her private residence still needed to be prepared.

Reading the verdict, constitutional court chief justice Lee Jung-Mi said Park’s actions “seriously impaired the spirit of representative democracy and the rule of law.”

“President Park Geun-Hye… has been dismissed,” she said, sending opponents watching live on giant television screens outside the nation’s top court into eruptions of joy.

“We won, we won,” they chanted, cheering and hugging each other, some breaking down.

“I am so pleased that I cannot hold back tears,” said Shin Seo-Young, 43, clasping her friend. “This is a sweet revenge.”

A few hundred meters away, and separated by a huge police presence, a rival protest by the president’s flagwaving supporters were stunned.

“We don’t accept this decision,” said Cho Bong-Am, 60, a kindergarten operator. “We will take to the streets to fight to the end.”

Scuffles broke out as the largely older pro-Park crowd tried to drag away buses and break through the police barricades to reach the court.

Police–more than 20,000 of whom were deployed in the capital–used pepper spray to try to subdue them and two protestors died, one of them apparently killed when a speaker fell on him from a police vehicle.

The court found Park broke the law by allowing her friend Choi Soon-Sil– who is already on trial for abuse of power–to meddle in state affairs, and by breaking rules on public servants’ activities.

“Park’s breaching of the constitution and the laws betrayed the trust of the people,” said judge Lee, describing her actions as “a serious and unacceptable violation of the laws.”

One of Park’s lawyers expressed “strong regrets” over the verdict.

But her own Liberty Korea party apologized, with its interim leader saying it had “failed to protect the dignity and pride of South Korea.”

Kwon Seong-Dong, a lawmaker and a member of the parliamentary indictment committee, said the verdict confirmed the rule of law and that “all people including the president are equal in front of the law.”

Park, the daughter of a late armybacked dictator, secured the highest vote share of any candidate in the democratic era when she was elected in 2012.

But her aloof style and a series of controversies, coupled with mounting economic and social frustrations, saw her ratings plunge and millions take to the streets to demand her removal. AFP

Makati...

From A1 The Court of Appeals did not rule that Taguig is the rightful owner of BGC. The dismissal of Makati’s appeal was based on a technicality and did not overturn its earlier decision upholding Makati as the rightful owner of the disputed territory,Camiña said.

The appellate court’s Sixth Division, in its ruling dated July 30, 2013, upheld Makati’s jurisdiction over the more than 729-hectare portion of Fort Bonifacio.

The court ordered Taguig “to immediately cease and desist from exercising jurisdiction within the disputed area and return the same to Makati” after noting that Taguig failed to present evidence to support its claim.

“The last CA decision expressly granted Makati jurisdiction over BGC based on historical facts and evidence. To nullify that ruling based on a mere technicality is robbing the Makatizens of what is rightfully theirs,” Camiña said.

He said the order of dismissal by the CA was in conflict with the decision of the Supreme Court that merely ordered the previous lawyers of Makati to pay a fine.

“The Supreme Court ruling penalized previous Makati lawyers for forum shopping. It did not order the reversal of the CA’s 2013 ruling in favor of Makati,” Camiña said.

In its 37-page ruling written by Associate Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison, the appellate court dismissed Taguig’s complaint against Makati in 1993 in a Pasig Regional Trial Court for lack of merit and confirmed that the disputed area covering some nine villages were within the territorial jurisdiction of Makati City.

The 2013 CA ruling lifted a preliminary injunction issued by the lower court in July 1994 that had earlier prevented Makati from exercising jurisdiction over the villages Post Proper Northside and Post Proper Southside, which are located in the so-called Inner Fort area of the former military camp.

Aside from the two villages, the disputed area also covers portions of the villages Cembo, South Cembo, East Rembo, West Rembo, Comembo, Pembo and Pitogo.

Then Makati mayor Jun Binay offered a revenue-sharing arrangement with Taguig under a special administrative body that would govern the Bonifacio Global City area out of the city’s desire to help the people of Taguig.

“We want to show that this is not about revenues. We simply want to get back what is rightfully ours,” he said.

China presence in Benham hit

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

T

HE Philippines on Friday filed a note verbale to clarify with the Chinese Embassy the Chinese survey ship that strayed in Benham Rise, which lies within the country’s legitimate continental shelf in the South China Sea.

tions Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf as Philippine waters,” Jose said.

The Benham Rise lies in the eastern part of the Philippines on the Pacific Ocean, where there is no island or country nearby.

In 2012, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf approved the country’s undisputed territorial claim over Benham Rise.

The 13-million-hectare Benham Rise, situated about 250 kilometers east of Dinapigue, Isabela, has untapped resources and is said to be wider than Luzon, Samar and Leyte combined.

As this developed, Oceana, the largest international ocean conservation and advocacy organization, has urged the government to expedite adoption of the management framework in Benham Rise to protect and

In a statement released yesterday afternoon, the Department of Foreign Affairs also expressed concern on Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s revelation that Chinese survey ships have conducted oceanographic research at Recto or Reed Bank in the West Philippine Sea and at Benham Rise in the Pacific.

“The Philippines has sent a note to the Chinese Embassy seeking clarification on this,” the

DFA said.

DFA spokesman Charles Jose, however, clarified that the note verbale is not a protest but a clarification on the reported Chinese activities in Manila’s territorial waters.

“On the presence of Chinese vessel in Benham Rise, the Philippines has expressed concern about the reported presence of a Chinese ship in Benham Rise, which has been recognized by the United Na-

CA...

From A1

Philippines, one of more than 20 who opposed Lopez’s confirmation, said it was confident the CA would reject her appointment.

“We thank the CA and Senator Manny Pacquiao for hearing all the oppositors. Lopez displayed her incapacity to lead the DENR. She relied heavily on her team of consultants,” said the chamber’s chairman, Artemio Disini.

“The chamber is confident that she was not able to convince the CA,” he added.

The chamber’s vice president for legal and policy, Ronald Recidoro, said the mining industry could no longer work with Lopez because she continued to disregard the law.

“We want them [CA] to know that we cannot work with her [Lopez]. We tried very hard and it appears that we really cannot work with her. It appears that if she continues to stay in place, then we believe that the industry is really in peril,” Recidoro said.

Recidoro said that if Lopez continues to stay in her position, there will be no growth for the mining industry.

“For us in the mining industry it is imperative that Secretary Lopez be rejected and replaced with someone who understands natural resources management and can bring our resources out of the ground for the benefit of everybody,” he said.

Recidoro also appealed to President Duterte not to reappoint Lopez if she is bypassed.

“Please do not reappoint her.

Let’s end this suffering.” he said.

Pacquiao’s committee heard

the 23 oppositors during hearings Wednesday and Thursday.

Lopez’s appointment will be considered bypassed if the CA fails to come up with a decision before Congress adjourns on March 18.

Mining companies and other industry stakeholders earlier slammed Lopez after she announced the closure of 23 mining companies and the suspension of five others due to alleged environmental violations.

She also announced that the government will cancel 75 mining contracts of companies who have operations within watersheds.

Lopez on Thursday said no workers had been displaced or lost their jobs with the mine closures, but Mine Workers League president Daniel Calimlim disputed her claim.

“Since the suspension, thousands have in fact lost their jobs, scholars have not been awarded their tuition and allowances. The people are suffering. She promised that the government will provide jobs for displaced workers but so far, these people still have no work,” Calimlim said.

Calimlim said that in Zambales, close to 6,000 mine workers in Sta. Cruz have already been displaced.

“It is not true that only one percent of mining workers will be affected. Many already lost their jobs. The government failed to give alternative livelihood. The secretary is lying and we feel that she betrayed the workers,” Calimlim said. “She is a liar and incompetent.”

Next year, the EU and Asean countries are expected to continue to advance bilateral free trade talks and discuss other topics.

The EU-Asean officials have also agreed to explore the idea of a multilateral court for investment, that can serve as a single global judicial instance for resolving investmentrelated disputes. This initiative was launched jointly by the EU and Canada some months ago.

At the sidelines of the EU-Asean meeting, Malmstrom also met with trade and economic ministers from several Asean countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The EU is the most important investor in Asean and its second trading partner. With bilateral trade in goods worth more than 200 billion euros per year, Asean is the EU’s third trading partner.

Malmstrom on Friday said the EU parliament and EU member states have concerns about extrajudicial killings and the proposed revival of the death penalty that may jeopardize the Philippine accreditation to the EU Generalized System of Preferences+ (GSP+).

“We have an agreement (with the Philippines) we called GSP+ which opens good trade opportunities. But those are subject to certain international conventions,” she said.

The EU-GSP+ allows the Philippines to export 6,274 eligible products duty-free access to the EU market after it was granted beneficiary country status in December 2014.

Malmstrom said the EU is still undecided if it will pull out the trade

program with the Philippines “but we are discussing this with our partners.”

The EU, she added, is very much attentive to the issues in the Philippines as its fourth biggest trading partner.

“We will discuss this and see how these [issues] develop. I know that [the death penalty] is now at the Senate, as well,” she said.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, meanwhile, said that should the EU decide to strip the Philippines of the GSP+ scheme, he will ask it to reconsider its decision.

“If their intention for cooperation is purely on a commercial and trade basis, to me that should not be linked to noncommercial issues like the extrajudicial killings and death penalty.

And I still stand by my position that there [are] and [were] no extrajudicial killings in the Philippines,” he said.

In a joint media statement, the AEM and Malmstrom were pleased with the conduct of various projects on trade facilitation, intellectual property rights, air transportation and statistics and integration monitoring.

Both sides discussed the next steps towards the resumption of the AseanEU Free Trade Agreement negotiations and agreed to develop a framework on the parameters of the FTA. Both also noted the improved outlook of global economic growth which is expected to pick-up to 3.4 percent in 2017, from 3.1 percent in 2016.

EU statistics showed that two-way trade stood at 208 billion euros in 2016. EU remains the biggest source of foreign direct investments into the Asean in 2015 at 23.3 billion euros.

on to the position of deputy speaker?”

Pichay said.

“As I am concerned, principle is more important than position,” he added.

Like Arroyo, Pichay also voted against the passage of House Bill 4727.

He said the bill to reimpose death penalty would run contrary to a constitutional provision prohibiting “inhumane punishment.”

Pichay stressed the Constitution-- being the fundamental law of the land–has reduced the maximum

penalty to life imprisonment instead of death penalty because “the framers of the Constitution had no intention to reimpose the death penalty.”

Alvarez earlier said the revamp in the House will take effect at the soonest possible time after the House approved on third and final reading the death penalty bill last week.

“Policy is policy,” Alvarez earlier said, saying it would be “awkward” for administration lawmakers to be part of the super majority coalition and yet refuse to support Palace measures such as the death penalty bill.

CA chided her for imposing her own standards on mining companies, even though they complied with international standards such as ISO 14001.

Some members of the CA also questioned her order to close or suspend 28 mining companies and to cancel 75 mineral production and sharing agreements without going through due process.

More than 20 groups opposed Lopez’s appointment before the CA, citing her lack of knowledge and competence, her inability to set aside her own biases, and the conflicts of interest where Lopez-owned businesses were concerned.

“If we decide to vote on her confirmation or rejection, that’s just at the committee level,” Lacson said. “If it’s a rejection, but not by as many as 13 votes, we’ll leave her fate to the plenary.”

Earlier this week, Lacson, as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, recommended that Yasay’s appointment be rejected by the plenary, after 15 of its members unanimously voted the Foreign Affairs secretary for lying to the Senate about his American citizenship. “[It’s] just a reminder that when you respond to questions raised by the members of the commission, just bear in mind that you are here to convince us,” Lacson told Lopez during the last hearing.

The Chamber of Mines of the

Asean,...

From A1 between the EU and Asean this year, emphasizing their commitment to advancing a positive global trade agenda that benefits both parties.

“2017 marks the 40th anniversary of fruitful cooperation between the EU and Asean. There is still much to be done to unlock the full potential of the EU-Asean relationship, and the quickly changing international environment now makes us turn our eyes even more towards Asia,” she said.

In 2007, the Asean and EU began negotiating a free trade agreement, but the talks quietly broke off two years and seven rounds later, due to human rights violations in Myanmar.

The differences in level of economic development and openness between the members of the South-East Asian grouping made Europe pursue the talks in separate settings with individual members of Asean in 2009.

The EU has a legal obligation under the Lisbon Treaty to incorporate human rights issues into external trade and investment frameworks, to ensure that the economic benefits do not come at the expense of human rights abroad.

Malmstrom said they already started negotiating with the Philippines just two weeks ago, amid widespread reports of extrajudicial killings in the country.

So far, the EU has concluded, but not yet ratified, bilateral trade agreements with Singapore and Vietnam and is still pursuing negotiations with Indonesia.

Duterte...

From A1 Arroyo, a deputy speaker, is among the 54 lawmakers who voted against the death penalty bill.

Pichay said he admires Arroyo, who is in danger of losing her post, for taking into consideration principles rather than position.

“I think you cannot exchange a principle for the position of deputy speaker. She had been president already. Why would you have to hang

sustainably manage the undersea region.

“We urge the government to expedite the formulation of the management framework for Benham Rise to protect and sustanaibly manage it. Benham Rise is an important marine resource for the Filipinos, and holds tremendous potential for discovering more unique species and outstanding samples of marine resources. We need to prioritize its protection, including the pristine Benham Bank as a no-take zone,” said lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president for Oceana Philippines.

Oceana was part of the expedition team led by government scientists which explored the area in May last year, which revealed a vast and pristine coral reef ecosystem in Benham Bank, the shallowest portion of the area.

Scientists observed one hundred percent coral cover in the surveyed area, with a wide variety of colorful branching and plate corals. The expedition team also documented a vast mesophotic reef ecosystem—coral reefs found at depths of up to 150 meters (492 feet). Scientists believe such deep sea reefs can serve as a potential source and refuge for shallow reef fishes and other marine organisms that could be affected by climate change.

Benham Rise is an undersea region located east of Luzon. It includes an outer section recognized by the United Nations’ Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (Unclos) as the Philippines’ newest territory in 2012, which expanded the region from 11.4 million hectares to 24.4 million hectares, an area about the same size as Luzon.

Arms cache found in ‘Angel’s’ house THE large cache of weapons found in the possession of dismissed Iglesia Ni Cristo member Felix Nathaniel “Angel” Manalo and his companions at the Tandang Sora house they were occupying was enough to arm a small assault team, police said.

An officer of the Quezon City Police Department said he wondered how Manalo could amass such firepower, which included 56 long firearms, 17 short firearms, 27 grenades and close to 18,000 rounds of live ammunition.

“The idea of them storing all these dangerous and deadly weapons illegally in a residential area, and for what use these were intended for, is frightening and gives us cause for concern. That the firearms were used against two of our policemen validly serving a search warrant makes this Angel Manalo and his group extremely dangerous,” the officer noted.

Criminal charges for illegal possession of firearms were filed against Manalo, his wife Jenny, sister Lolita “Lottie” Hemedez, and 24 others at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office after they and members of their group figured in a clash with policemen serv-

ing a search warrant last March 2.

This resulted in the shooting and wounding of two Quezon City police officers.

QC Assistant City Prosecutor Nilo Peñaflor, in a resolution released on Wednesday, March 8, did not recommend any bail for Manalo, expelled younger brother of INC Executive Minister Eduardo Manalo. His sister ManaloHemedez was released pending further investigation. Meanwhile, bail has been set for her son, Jem Hemedez.

Additional charges of frustrated murder were filed against a certain Jonathan Ledesma, who was with Manalo at the time of the incident.

Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, QCPD director, said last week that Manalo and his companions were charged after they failed to show any license proving ownership of the firearms.

“These dangerous firearms are being linked to Angel Manalo, who we understand is not a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo anymore. Based on our initial investigation, the weapons found do not belong to the INC but only to the younger Manalo and his group,” the police source clarified.

Finance...

From A1

“The law allows for a settlement, just like in other crimes,” Duterte said in a speech before Mindanao officials in Davao City.

“There are businessmen who are clamoring to levy higher sanctions because of the interest involved.

That’s why it will be P5 billion but it will depend first on [BIR Commissioner Caesar] Dulay, [Customs Commissioner Nicanor] Faeldon and [Finance Secretary Carlos] Dominguez. If they agree, then it’s okay with me.”

In reply to Duterte’s statement, Mighty Corp. said through its lawyer Sigfrid Fortun: “Anything to help the government achieve its tax and social upliftment activities will be fully supported by Mighty Corp.

Following President Duterte’s comment on ways to address the tax issues besetting the company, it will continue to cooperate with government to bring quick closure to them.

Dominguez said the team that will determine the amount due for the fake stamps will include himself, Dulay and Faeldon.

were being advertised in the website Alibaba.com of Chinese business tycoon Jack Ma. “We are still counting [the number of cigarette packs with fake tax stamps] but the counting is slow because their [Mighty’s] lawyers are obstructing every little thing the BIR wants to do,” Dominguez said.

“So we are in the process of knowing the total amount in the three warehouses [alone].”

Dominguez made his statement even as President Rodrigo Duterte raised his demand to P5 billion in exchange for a possible settlement with Mighty Corp. to condone its alleged use of counterfeit tax stamps.

Should the officials of the Finance department agree with his proposal, a possible compromise could be seen between the government and the country’s oldest cigarette company in exchange for its donations to some hospitals in the country, Duterte said.

Reds...

From A1 chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said that “we have kept our end of the bargain not to reveal the plans or issue any statement that would upset these.

“The objective of the back-channel is to bring about the continuation of the talks in order to hold the scheduled fourth round in April to discuss important matters, including JASIG, CASER and CAPCR,” Agcaoili said in a statement sent to the Manila Standard.

The continuation of the drafting of three substantial agenda―social and economic reforms, constitutional and political reforms and an end of hostilities―were among the issues left hanging after President Duterte decided to terminate the peace talks in February after the unilateral interim ceasefires were terminated by the New People’s Army and the government.

“Both sides agreed to hold secret back-channel talks as early as the first week of February,” Agcaoili said.

“For some reason, these have been delayed till now.”

Duterte said early this week that there had been back-channel efforts between the communist rebels and the government.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana confirmed that NDF consultants Benito and William Tiamzon and Victor Ladlad were leading the back-channeling efforts with Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza, who left the country for Europe Wednesday.

Agcaoili also said that the leadership of the revolutionary movement had approved on Feb. 27 the release of government personnel captured and held as “prisoners of war” by the rebels, and that “discussions have been going on since between third-party peace facilitators and the [government] panel.”

“The POWs should have been released as early as 2 March but arrangements on their safe and orderly release, as well as those of the third-party peace facilitators, local government officials, ICRC representatives and the custodial forces have still to be worked out,” Agcaoili said.

Duterte earlier opened up the possibility of reviving the stalled peace talks, but has laid down three “requests” before any negotiation could proceed: A genuine ceasefire done in sincerity, the release of all soldiers and civilians being held captive by the NPA, and a stop to NPA extortion activities.

However, the revolutionary leadership has yet to confirm from their ground forces if they were behind the deaths of four policemen allegedly ambushed by the NPA. “On the Bansalan incident, we still have to confirm if this was done by the NPA command in the area. There are peace spoilers around,” Agcaoili said.

He said “there is no ceasefire in place at the moment, and that AFP and PNP troops have been going into villages and violating people’s rights in their combat and intelligence operations, including murderous Tokhang operations,” referring to the controversial government war on drugs.

News

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SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

IN BRIEF 106,000 foreigners report to BI for annual obligation MORE than 106,000 foreigners living in the country turned out for the Bureau of Immigration’s 2017 annual report of aliens which expired last week, a record high compared to the previous year.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said at the close of office hours last March 3, a total 106,036 foreigners had appeared at various field offices of the bureau in compliance with their annual reportorial obligation.

The annual report of aliens is implemented yearly by the BI pursuant to the 1950 alien registration act that requires all foreigners registered with the bureau to appear in person at the nearest immigration field office and pay their annual report fees.

This year’s turnout exceeded by more than 11.61 percent the 95,007 aliens who turned out for last year’s annual report.

Morente attributed the high number of registrants to the introduction of an online system in 2015 wherein alien registrants could electronically file their application for annual report via the Internet.

Vito Barcelo

Ombudsman orders 5 NCMF officials dismissed OMBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio-Morales ordered on Friday the dismissal of five former officials of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos for grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service in connection with a P3.8-million pork barrel fund scam.

She vowed there was no letup on their investigation into the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam.

Ordered dismissed were excommissioner Mehol Sadain, ex-director III Galay Makalinggan, ex-acting chief accountant Fedelina Aldanese, ex-acting chief Aurora Aragon-Mabang and cashier Olga Galido.

“In case of separation from the service, the penalty is convertible to a fine equivalent to respondent’s one year salary,” the Ombudsman said.

The former NCMF officials are also facing trial before the Sandiganbayan for violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for the anomalous utilization of the pork barrel fund of ex-Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong.

According to the Ombudsman, an in-depth investigation uncovered that in May 2012, the Department of Budget and Management issued a special allotment release order covering P3,800,000 in favor of NCMF as the implementing agency using Datumanong’s PDAF. To facilitate the fund utilization, Datumanong requested the P3.8million be coursed through the Maharlikang Lipi Foundation Inc. Rio Araja

TO THE RESCUE. Workers remove the scaffolding to parry off additional danger after a 10-wheeler hit on Friday an LRT post along the busy Marcos Highway in Marikina City, causing a hackly traffic bottleneck. The driver escaped unhurt but his assistant was pinned down to his death, according to police. Manny Palmero

Kin of ASG chief, 3 others slain in military offensive

By Francisco Tuyay

A

COUSIN of Abu Sayyaf chieftain, Isnilon Hapilon, and three of his followers were killed in the ongoing military offensive against the terrorist group in known bandits’ haven in the ridges of Basilan province Wednesday.

In a belated report, Maj. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Commander of the Western Mindanao Command, said Ustadz Mobin Kulin, alias Mulawin, cousin of Hapilon, along with his three members were pinned down in what

the military described as a bloody firefight with pursuing troops in Tapiantana Island at 5 a.m.

The killing of Kulin brings to 23 the number of ASG bandits, including four close relatives of its leaders, killed in separate sav-

age fighting in Sulu and Basilan during the past 12 days security forces have been pursuing enemies of the state after the ASGs beheaded German hostage Jurgen Kantner in Maimbung, Sulu last Feb. 26.

Among the relatives of ASG commanders slain were two kin of Basilan ASG leader Radullan Sahiron, allegedly involved in the slaying of Kantner—killed in Barangay Igasan, Patikul, and Jaber Susukan, brother of subleader Idang Susukan, shot dead in Maimbung, Sulu.

Galvez said Kulin was among the 15-man ASG band who engaged ground forces—army and police personnel—in a 30-minute severe fighting in the outskirts of

Tapiantana Island.

The bodies of the four bandits were recovered by government troops after the dust had settled and were turned over to the Basilan Police Provincial Office.

Also recovered from the battle scene were several high-powered firearms and war materials, including a Barret—a long range sniper rifle, a Rocket Propelled Grenade with three bullets and 12 Grenade launcher rifles.

Galvez said Kulin was an active and hardcore ASG member from Lantawan, Basilan, involved in the 2001 Lamitan siege where the extremist group took over the Jose Torres hospital, taking medical staff and

patients hostages.

Kulin was also involved in the Dos Palmas attack in Honda Bay in Palawan in May 2001, when 20 hostages including Americans Guillermo Sobero and couples Martin and Gracia Burham were seized. Sobero was killed while Martin was slain during a rescue mission.

“All-out offensives are being conducted by the Joint Task Force Basilan with the support and coordination of the local government, police, and civilians in the province against the ASG bandits who are responsible for the conduct of bombings, extortion activities and kidnappings in Basilan,” Galvez said.

Poe: Over 8-m Filipinos are overworked ‘Nothing

By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Grace Poe has warned that more Filipinos may be working their way into an early grave, saying “too much work can kill them” as she cited the latest report that more than eight-million Filipinos are overworked.

In filing Senate Resolution 316, Poe sought a legislative inquiry into the dramatic rise in the number of overworked Filipinos—employed persons who work for more than 48 hours a week—in the past 20 years.

She recommended a comprehensive review of company policies requiring employees to work excessively long hours, an overhaul of labor laws, and passage of legislative measures to ensure the constitutionally guaranteed “just and humane work conditions.”

The Philippine Statistics Authority, based on the report on Decent Work in the Philippines,

indicated that there were some 8.105-million overworked Filipinos in 2015 in primary jobs in a country of 105 million people.

She said this represented an increase of 41.2 percent or an additional 2.363 million from 5.742-million overworked Filipinos recorded in 1995.

Employed persons with excessive hours of work per week in all jobs were around 8.845 million in 2015, higher by 4.5 percent or 378,000 from the 8.467 million in 2005.

“Several studies have shown that excessive work hours could trigger serious health problems and even cause death. Chronic overworking, as various research suggest, can lead to threatening levels of stress,” said Poe. Poe said a comprehensive review of company policies requiring employees to work excessively long hours should be undertaken.

Furthermore, she said plans to overhaul

labor laws and propose legislative measures were necessary to ensure the constitutionally guaranteed “just and humane work conditions.”

“It is very necessary to give importance to work-life balance because the world of our workers does not only revolve around their work. While they need to earn, there’s no place for abuses in their lives,” she said.

In this way, they can focus more on their self, healh and family, she added.

Poe, citing the PSA study, said more than half of the total workers with excessive hours of work were wage earners and salaried workers.

Having more than the usual hours of work may interfere with the balance between personal life and work may increase injury hazard risks, may signal an inadequate pay, and in the long term, pose a threat to workers’ physical and mental capacity to work, Poe said.

Aguirre thanks Senate Blue Ribbon committee

By Rey E. Requejo

SUPPORT SUBMITTED. Catholic Church leaders and relatives of victims of extrajudicial killings

applaud the National Union of People’s Lawyers Friday at a news conference in Quezon City for taking up the cudgels for them and other victims of drug-related killings under the Duterte administration.

Manny Palmero

JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Friday thanked the Senate Blue Ribbon committee for clearing his name in the P50-million extortion scandal involving officials of the Bureau of Immigration.

“I am thankful to Senator Richard Gordon for clearing my name of any involvement in this matter or in any of the issues heard before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee. My integrity is very important to me,” Aguirre said.

“Senator Gordon confirmed what is true all along, I am innocent of any irregularity in this case,” the Justice secretary stressed.

Aguirre assured he would do his best to preserve the trust and confidence of people in him as Justice secretary.

“Moving forward, let me as-

sure President Duterte and the Filipino people, that I will endeavor to keep and to preserve the trust and the confidence reposed in me as your secretary of Justice,” he said.

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee chaired by Gordon ruled that evidence showed the incident was an extortion, not bribery, as earlier reported.

However, Gordon’s panel cleared Aguirre and Chinese casino mogul Jack Lam of liability in the BI corruption scandal.

Aguirre earlier admitted he met both Lam and his middleman, retired police official Wally Sombero Jr., to discuss the request to release Chinese nationals illegally working in the country.

Lam owns an online casino called Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino in Clark, Pampanga which employed around 1,316 Chinese nationals working without permits.

new in Lascañas testimony’

By Macon Araneta FOUR more members of the so-called Davao Death Squad, allegedly formed by President Rodrigo Duterte when he was still mayor of Davao City, will surface fo corroborate the testimonies of Edgard Matobato and Arthur Lascañas, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said Friday.

In their separate testimonies before the Senate public order committee chaired by Senator Panfilo Lacson. Matobato and Lascañas had tagged Duterte as behind the vigilante-killings by the DDS. Lacson said there was nothing new in Lascañas’ testimony and he no longer knew what constituted the truth in Lascañas testimony.

“We adjourned the hearing [because there was nothing new]; what else would he say?”

Lacson said.

Lascañas said Duterte was known in the DDS as “Superman.”

Trillanes said his group was still thoroughly checking the supposed testimonies of the four DDS members to determine their sincerity and the veracity of their would-be statements.

“We also want to know if they are prepared for the dangers they would be facing in coming out in the open,” said Trillanes, adding there were new corroborating statements but they were still vetting and validating.

“Their testimonies will corroborate Lascañas and Matobato’s claims,” he added.

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Opinion

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

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EDITORIAL

Adelle Chua, Editor

A different collar

T

HE Duterte administration’s war on drugs became famous shortly after its launch.

For all the wrong reasons, though. The campaign meant to eradicate the drug menace in the country—an objective with which nobody could disagree—soon degenerated into a notorious police operation that appeared to target the poor, encourage excessive force, disregard due process and pay no heed to the sanctity of life.

Local human rights groups, foreign governments, global media, representatives of international groups and quite belatedly, the church, slammed the campaign.

Since its launch during the second half of 2016, Operation Double Barrel—one of whose components is Project Tokhang —sent more than 7,000 people to their

deaths. Those who perished were suspected drug users, pushers, lords, bystanders, family members and others referred to as “collateral damage.”

Tokhang, which literally means to knock and then to plead, was not even that at all. The plan was for cops to knock on doors of suspected drug users or pushers and invite them to join a rehabilitation program meant to restore them to good sense and reintegrate them into their families and society.

What actually happened, according to most accounts, was that poor communities were raided, and suspected drug users and pushers gunned down for supposedly fighting back and resisting arrest.

Even the jails were not safe, as was shown in case of a Leyte town mayor, a self-confessed drug lord, who was killed inside his cell in November. It took the case of a foreigner, however, a Korean

businessman who was abducted from his home in Pampanga and killed inside the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, to prompt the President to suspend the campaign. Shady activities and excesses committed by the police gave the drive a bad name, he said.

But now it’s back and the police are promising it would be different this time around. It would be the PNP Drug Enforcement Group that would take the lead, after the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group was dissolved in January.

How so?

There would be more personnel. There would be an in-house counter-intelligence unit. There will be satellite offices across the country, with people more knowledgeable in the work and without the baggage of cases on illegal drugs.

PNP-DEG’s Senior Superintendent Graciano Mijares also said they were focusing

on their list of high-value targets for greater impact. HVTs are the other barrel that was supposed to complement Tokhang. They are financiers, manufacturers, distributors, traffickers and protectors.

For a while there was talk that church representatives would be invited to join the operations, perhaps to lend it legitimacy and uprightness. Thankfully the idea has been ignored.

However the police try to portray this second version of the anti-drugs campaign, it would live in the shadow of its predecessor. No amount of reassurance can ease the public’s worries that it might again be used as an excuse for the plain crimes of extortion and murder.

We will have to wait several months to see whether the administration has combated the evil of illegal drugs while steering clear of the greater evil of impunity and abuse of power. For now, the fear remains.

HAIL TO THE CHAIR VICTOR AVECILLA

The LP’s people power phantasm

Subverting women’s rights POWER POINT ELIZABETH ANGSIOCO ANGEL is a month shy of turning eighteen years old. Due to extreme poverty and their family size, (she is the second in a brood of six), she and her mother decided to seek employment as “kasambahay.”

Angel was a business administration sophomore student in a state university. She is pretty, articulate, and indeed, seemed smart.

Angel told her would-be employer that she wanted to work for one year to save money so she could continue her education. They were accepted into the household with the employer feeling sorry for Angel because of her potential. She was told that if she performed well in six months, she would be helped to go back to school.

However, Angel’s work proved severely wanting. Barely a month after, her mother found out she was pregnant. It turned out that Angel had a boyfriend, another student younger than she was, and they were having unprotected sex.

Her mother was grief-stricken and scared because her husband had no idea about the problem. Angel said her pregnancy is unplanned. However, her firm decision was to go live with her boyfriend’s equallypoor family. The boyfriend’s mother said Angel could go to them but even as they had yet to tell the boy’s father. Angel’s mother could not do anything about how the girl wanted to handle the situation.

Certainly, this girl’s life will drastically turn for the worse. There is little chance that she would finish her schooling. She will not be able to find a good job not only because of lack of education but also because she will need to take care of her baby. If she is not careful, she could get pregnant, again and again.

Angel is just one of the hundreds of thousands of Filipino girls who become pregnant yearly.

Early pregnancies are quite common in the country particularly among the poor and those with less education. Our teenage pregnancy rates continue to be on the upswing and among the highest in the world even as the numbers are going down, internationally. Our girls’ lives are put in peril.

The problem of adolescent preg-

nancy is supposed to be significantly addressed with the passage of the reproductive health law almost five years ago. This is one of the law’s big promises. However, given the challenges the law faces, such promise cannot be fulfilled.

The truth is, the RH law could not be fully implemented because of all the legal impediments it faced, and still face because of the Su-

Many RH advocates think that since the law is already there, it can now be fully implemented. preme Court’s seeming inclination to side with anti-RH groups as shown by most of its decisions.

To date, the SC Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against contraceptive implants and the August

2016 decision that even expanded the TRO coverage made the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) decisions appealable to the Court of Appeals which will surely result in a complicated and very long contraceptive registration process.

They prevented the FDA from issuing new contraceptive registrations (if FDA will not accede to its conditions that are significantly detrimental to the carrying out of a modern family planning program) and, openly favored the protection of the life of the unborn over the mother’s life. These are still in effect.

Sadly, it seems that few among the staunch RH supporters among the Filipino people fully understand the catastrophic implications of these SC promulgations.

This is evidenced by the absence of a strong public clamor demanding the lifting of the TRO and reversal of the August 2016 decision.

It appears that many RH advocates think that since the law is already there, it can now be fully implemented. At the heart of the RH law is the implementation of a comprehensive family planning program. This important program cannot be done with the existing SC decisions. In fact, because of

these SC issuances, we might totally lose access to contraceptives, something that has never happened in the country from the time that family planning began more than half a century ago.

The Commission on Population (PopCom) has issued strong warnings about this. In a few years, if the SC does not reverse its decisions, there will be a total stock-out of contraceptives since government and private corporations will not be able to procure supplies without certification from the FDA. As of this year 62 percent of all registrations would have expired. Another 29 percent will expire in 2018 for a total of 91 percent, and by 2020, only 2 percent of present registrations will remain valid.

Even those who can buy contraceptives will not have access to these life-saving drugs.

The PopCom paper entitled, “Modified Philippine Demographic Scenario 2016-2022: The Impact of the Supreme Court TRO on Implanon and Implanon NXT Withdrawal” paints a bleak picture in terms of Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR), or the percentage of married women using Turn to A5

THE 31st anniversary of the socalled Edsa People Power Revolution last Feb. 25 was hardly celebrated by anybody, save for Liberal Party politicians, their relatives, and their intolerant and judgmental supporters.

Fortunately for motorists in Metropolitan Manila, this year’s “celebration” at the Edsa-Ortigas Avenue area fell on a Saturday, so it did not add to the traffic nightmare in the metropolis.

The LP politicians should also consider themselves fortunate because the multi-layer flyover complex located there was able to conceal from public view the mere handful of people who attended. That flyover likewise made it easy for the LP to claim that many people went there to remember the 1986 “people power” revolt.

Truth to tell, the 1986 “people power” revolt has retrogressed to a mere phantasm—a product of the imagination of the LP. What was this “people power” revolt all about anyway? LP politicians, a term broad enough to include the sitting vice president, have given it a cosmetic definition—a time when the Filipino people unseated an authoritarian ruler through a bloodless process. Allies of the Aquino family add that it was an occasion when an ordinary housewife named Corazon Aquino restored democracy in the Philippines.

To repeat, those definitions are merely cosmetic.

For the record, the change in the Philippine political landscape in February 1986 was not brought about solely by Mrs. Aquino, but by political opposition forces which had been fighting the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos long before Mrs. Aquino entered the political picture in August 1983, when she became the widow of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., arguably the staunchest critic of the Marcos regime back then.

Speaking of political opposition forces, special attention is invited to the United Nationalist Democratic Organization headed by former senator Salvador “Doy” Laurel which, by 1981, had become the dominant political opposition party in the Philippines on account of its national network.

After Ninoy Aquino and his Lakas ng Bayan partymates lost in the May 1978 elections for seats in the interim Batasang Pambansa, many voters who were sympathetic to the political opposition lost their faith in the electoral process. It was the Turn to A5

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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

FOR centuries, our people have remained hostage to the belief that marriage is an inviolable social institution. Claiming to be the beacon of morality, the clerics have silently imposed their tight grip on our economy. Church power and influence today is omnipresent that one could hardly distinguish them from the traditional ruling class that has engendered antagonism and hatred from our people.

Many of them have openly sided with the yellow political party that is committed to brokering the country’s interest to the imperialist to bankroll their ambition. As the class that controls the social order, automatically they control and define our moral precepts, and the prohibition of divorce has been utilized to subjugate us to submit to an institution that promotes the inbreeding of feudalistic and immoral values reflective of the grave economic inequality and social injustice.

While we justify the prohibition of divorce on the ecclesiastical supposition that “marriage being the foundation of the family that should be protected by the State,” our hypocrisy has created a much serious problem of inverse immorality in our society. Even if ours is a patriarchal society, that did not prevent some of our socalled “liberated” women from indulging polygamous relationship with men.

To be frank about it, the female senator who is now in jail admitted having a sexual liaison with her driver knowing that the latter is married. She could equally be held liable for concubinage. Most disgusting is the scene that wherever she goes, she is surrounded and accompanied by nuns as if to sanitize her from the stigma of immorality.

Ironically, and despite being the only Christian nation in Asia, we already elected two presidents who have imperfect marriages. It is not for us to judge them because laws to rectify their mistake are not available.

Former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada has several mistresses and does not keep it a secret, while former President Fidel Ramos and his wife were not seen together in public, and rumors had it that their being together is only for show. One broadsheet in 1993 revealed his relations with a notable socialite.

It is high time for us to accord people suffering from imperfect marriages the remedy to dissolve their marriage to give them a fresh start. Payment of alimony and support is to remind the parties the cost-effect of their irresponsibility. Right now, our people see this inverse immorality as more of a vice of the well-to-do, and clerics often keep silent because they are the same sinners who contribute to their coffers or are sponsors to many of their business activities.

Our society has somewhat accepted this immoral practice because the Church does not accord the sinners a way to correct their mistake. Once divorce is allowed, the practice of maintaining a “kabit” will die down because no woman would like to be called or looked upon as kabit or commonlaw wife. Some ultra-conservative members of the clergy do not even allow the body of the deceased faithful to be brought inside the Church to be given the last rite if it came to the clergy’s knowledge that during his lifetime, he was living with a woman not his wife.

The poor do not enjoy the luxury of maintaining a mistress nor could afford the moneymaking Church annulment of

marriage. They separate without fanfare even if caused by the total irresponsibility of one to support the family. The entire family is perpetually mired in poverty because the loafing partner more often has a vice which contribute to financially ruin the family.

The absence of divorce amounts to double jeopardy much that the indissolubility of marriage punishes the battered wife in perpetuity.

Seldom could one find a family that has not experienced any marital problem, or should we say have an immaculate married life.

Surely, the clerics cannot deny that some of them have their own indiscretion or have been accused of child molestation or paedophilia, and violated their vow of celibacy.

Nonetheless, my concern is the continued injustice to women trapped in their status as mistresses. A mistress cannot even demand the formalization of her relations by asking her “benefactor” to divorce his wife so they could legally elevate their status to husband and wife. A mistress only enjoys the material benefits borne out of that anomalous and immoral relation. Once he dies, it is not only the illicit relation that is cut, but also the financial support.

Even if the man has shown more affection to his mistress, there is nothing he can do, for it seems this kind of inverse immorality has been decreed by the Church to become permanent. Many wives tolerate such scandalous relation either because the couple think they come from the so-called alta sociedad or that the wife has no other source of income, except to depend on the support of the unfaithful husband. In the first instance, the couple pretends to value marriage because of the alleged moral precept, while in the second instance, the legal wife sticks to her husband for reasons of economic necessity to hang on.

Likewise, the absence of divorce serves to reenforce the feudal practice of wealth concentration in the hands of the few. The oligarchy hypocritically scorns the idea not because they care much about morality but of the worrying consequence that divorce will result in the division of property and the giving of alimony to the aggrieved party.

Instead of property distribution consequent to the dissolution of marriage, property ownership remains concentrated in the hands of the few even if one spouse is wallowing in immorality. Such is compounded by our continued adherence to the feudalistic Spanish laws on succession that favor the reconsolidation of property to the original owner. Ascendants, by the legal concept of reserva troncal, reacquire the property acquired by the descendant through inheritance who died without an issue. This feudalistic mode of succession applies only to legitimate and valid marriage.

In other words, reserva troncal will no longer apply to societies that allow divorce.

If one would analyze the reason why the Philippines remains in the economic backwater as with many Latin American countries colonized by Spain and lorded over by the Catholic Church, one could immediately notice the concentration of property ownership in the hands of the few. The Church unwittingly condemns the poor because there is nothing they could receive by donation through indulgence.

Subverting...

at 64.1 percent for the period 2016 to 2022 from 55.1 percent as of NDHS 2013. Without implants (because of the TRO), the CPR will be 55.97 percent for this year, and will be a flat 55.1 percent from 2018 to 2022. This means that without implants, the country will not have any improvement in terms of contraceptive use.

In terms of TFR, the study says that when implants are available, the TFR in 2019 to 2022 will be

Our hypocrisy has created a much serious problem of inverse immorality in our society.

From A4

family planning (both modern and traditional methods); Total Fertility Rate (TFR) which refers to the number of children a woman will have during her reproductive years; and total population.

According to this paper, the CPR if implants are available will be flat

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A5

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Transfiguration of our nation

BACKBENCHER ROD P. KAPUNAN

Introducing divorce in the Philippines

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

ON THE second Sunday of Lent, the Gospel narrates that on a mountain, in the presence of just three of Jesus’ disciples—Peter, James and John, Jesus was transfigured. As they awake, Peter and the disciples see Jesus face shining and his clothes dazzle in great light and Elijah and Moses present with Jesus. Upon seeing the spectacular event, Peter tells Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here.

If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

In the Transfiguration, Jesus displays his full glory and splendor; it is a foreshadowing and a preview of the glory of his resurrection. The momentary vision is shown to the disciples to prepare and strengthen them to the upcoming trials to their faith, which the suffering and crucifixion of their Master will bring them. The disciples, being all too human, will see their faith severely tested in the coming passion and death of their master. But thankfully the story does not end there.

The Transfiguration reminds us that being a disciple of Christ is no walk in the park. Walking the way, following a faith itinerary, is littered with trials and temptations constantly casting doubt on our faith in God. Yet, being a disciple is to recognize that while God may be invisible at the moment, his magnificence will eventually come out from the shadows and light our path to salvation.

Lately, I was struck by the testimony of Lascañas and before him Matobato. They narrated how they

EVERYMAN

By Honor Blanco Cabie THE bayanihan spirit, undoubtedly a trademark among Filipinos who inhabit this Land of the Morning, continues to be a beautiful part of the country’s cultural treasure trove.

This is most conspicuous in times of emergency and tragedy, as witness Typhoon Imbudo, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Harurot a powerful typhoon that struck the Philippines in July 2003, the killer typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng which separately pounded the National Capital Region and surrounding provinces and a large part of northern Luzon in 2009, and Yolanda in 2013.

Only last year, on Oct. 19, Typhoon Lawin intensified into a super typhoon and cut an ugly swathe of destruction in Cagayan and Isabela, which reeled under signal number 5, the highest tropical cyclone warning, and the Cordilleras.

In all the cases, separately, Fili-

The LP’s...

From A4

Unido which convinced the voters not to lose confidence in the ballot. The Unido succeeded in this regard when it won one-third of the seats for the Batasang Pambansa in the May 1984 elections.

That electoral victory convinced many voters that all is not lost for the political opposition.

Had it not been for that Unido electoral victory in 1984, voters would have been completely disenchanted with the electoral process, and may have resorted to violence and armed conflict instead. If the electoral process was considered a failure by the electorate, it would have been absurd for President Marcos to call “snap elections” for president and vice president in February 1986. If there was no special election to begin with, there would have been no “people power” revolt in its aftermath.

It will be recalled that Mrs. Aquino ran for president under Laurel’s Unido banner, and she was aware of the nationwide net2.3, down from the 2.8 data in 2015.

Without implants, TFR will be 2.98 for the period 2020 to 2022. Note that studies point to the need to achieve a replacement level fertility of 2.1 to be able to reduce poverty levels to around 14 percent by 2022.

This is achievable with implants as an option provided to women.

As far as total population is concerned, the projections are as follows: with implants, population in

committed murders, killings and other forms of barbarity to serve the wishes of then mayor and now President Duterte. And then they converted and saw the light.

According to Lascañas, he wants to make a clean breast of all the evil deeds he had done. Like Matobato, he is putting himself and his family in grave peril with such testimony. By going against Duterte, his erstwhile benefactor who gives him the money for his dialysis, Lascañas is in effect shortening his life. This defies logic and can only be explained by the notion of personal conversion: Christ penetrating a human soul suffused with darkness; in his unfathomable mercy, our Messiah enlightens, converts, and redeems the blackest of hearts.

This is the saving power of Christ, as manifested in his Transfiguration, Passion and Death, and Resurrection. Conversion is available to even the vilest of sinners; nobody is beyond redemption.

And yes, as Senator Trillanes has so rightly emphasized, conversion does not make the sinner necessarily a saint who will sin no more.

In fact, saints continue to sin until their deaths, although what makes them saints is they consistently seek and experience the mercy of our Lord.

Our nation urgently needs transformation. Look at the lies and the hatred that has been unleashed against Vice President Leni Robredo and her late husband Jesse Robredo by a cowardly group that hides behind a pseudonym.

Even President Duterte, whom the group say they support, has condemned their writing as garbage not worth spending his time on.

Vice President Leni is an extraordinary woman, exemplary in competence, a visionary on social justice and inclusive development, and a woman of unquestionable integrity. She is someone I would want in a foxhole with me during a battle or a crisis. She is completely trustworthy and dependable.

Jesse Robredo’s record is im-

peccable, not perfect for sure because he was a politician who balanced several interests all the time. But he was a leader for all seasons. He will never be forgotten and he will not be killed a second time no matter the lies that are being told about him by evil people.

I say this as someone who did not support VP Robredo’s candidacy as I was active in the Poe-Escudero campaign. While it was tempting to campaign for a mixed ticket, it was important for me as a professional and to be able to act with integrity to be loyal to the tandem I was identified with. Personally, I liked Senator Chiz and though he would make a good vice president as well as president.

I was also uncomfortable with VP Robredo’s vocal opposition to many of Duterte’s decisions. Saying once or twice her dissent on extrajudicial killings, the Marcos burial, and the De Lima persecution was fine but repeating them constantly seemed unprofessional as a Cabinet member. I also wanted her to stay in the administration until nearer the 2022 elections.

In any case, even with these differences, I gladly defend Leni from her critics whose sole agenda is to destroy her political future to benefit her main opponent in the last elections. They are doing wrong not just to Leni or Jesse, or the Robredo children, but to the country. They must be opposed, not by suppressing their voices, but by confronting lies with truth, by not yielding any ground to trolls and other haters.

Take the case also of the opposition against Secretary Gina Lopez in the Commission on Appointments. There are legitimate issues regarding some of her recent decisions, but many of the attacks against Lopez has been personal, vicious, irrational, and unfair.

Fortunately, like Leni, Gina has not lost her composure and has remained committed to her primary mission to protect people and planet.

Personally, I would want a Gina Lopez that were more consensusseeking. I would like her to make better use of the career people in her department; most are competent and not corrupt. The environmental and mining communities can find a common ground. But the way forward is not a rejection of Lopez by the CA, the outcome of which is the escalation of what is already a civil war, so far nonviolent but at the community level can easily become bloody, between miners and environmentalists.

Finally, we just had the death penalty vote in the House of Representatives, one of the most wicked acts a legislature can do. How could our representatives bring us backwards, ignore the fact that its mainly the poor that suffers death penalty, that such penalty has no deterrence value, and that it violates both international law and universal ethical norms?

While I do not judge individual legislators on this single vote, it pains me though to hear the reasoning behind the decisions made by those who voted yes. Their motivations, as exemplified by the explanation of Rep. Geraldine Roman, are mainly political, a calculation that disregards personal conscience, as well as the moral aspects and human costs of their vote.

Our country needs conversion.

The only way this can happen is if we, as individuals, convert.

This Lenten season, let’s ponder on what we need to all do so that transformation of self and nation can happen. The Transfiguration of Christ signals that not all is lost. Like Peter, James, and John, we might be confused now but we will see the light with the Cross and the Resurrection. Every day in Lent, it would serve us all well if we pray, even shout out with passion this beautiful antiphon: “Today if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.”

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The bayanihan spirit pinos from all walks of life held hands and demonstrated a response that allowed the younger generations of Filipinos a glimpse of the kind of heritage that has made the Filipino truly what outsiders have dubbed a cooperative spirit—translated into the Filipino lingo as “bayanihan” or “tagnawa” in most of northern Philippines..

The cooperation among each other, as has been the case in succeeding situations of emergencies and tragedies, continued even as the heavily silted floodwaters started to recede and the weather disturbances had cut an eerie trail of destruction in most parts of the country’s main island of Luzon.

The panoramic picture of such a tragedy jabbed every Filipino and foreign observers in regard to the health situation in the capital’s evacuation centers—with nursing mothers and toddlers fighting the cold and other elements.

At the same time, hills-high heaps of garbage, wet and still

stinking along the major and minor streets of the heavily congested metropolis—where 15 million of the 105 million population of the country live—and the suburban skirts, there lurked the possibility that the overcrowded evacuation centers would become breeding grounds for diseases because of the garbage and inadequate amenities in them.

What aggravated the situation—as were the cases in recent years—had been the fact that the water arteries were unduly filled with garbage and plastic materials disposed of by riverside companies and stubborn residents that clog the riverbanks.

Analysts have said that the metropolis, the industrial and educational center of the country, must have the facilities and amenities of a really modern and highly urbanized megapolis.

And, add analysts, there should be stronger political will among local government units to resettle those living on riverbanks who

feel, wrongly, that they have an ancestral right to the areas.

According to observers, particularly those watching the climate changes that keep pounding the archipelago, this makes the task in the years ahead certainly gigantic and mind-boggling and the need for cooperation and collaboration of both the government and the private sector.

There is no doubt the government, aware of the problem confronting the metropolis and the urban centers, will take the lead in shifting the gear to higher level to address the perennial problem of flooding and damage during similar situations.

But the government is certain that with the bayanihan spirit well and alive among the population, the task ahead, however seemingly gigantic it appears, will be easier than imagined, according to political observers.

work and the political machinery of the party.

If Mrs. Aquino did not have the backing of Laurel’s Unido, she would have forfeited the party’s presidential berth Laurel had so selflessly yielded to her, and she would have ended up running for president on her own accord.

Running on her own would have gotten her clobbered at the polls by the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan juggernaut of the Marcos administration. In such a scenario, there would have been no reason for “people power” to g et instigated.

At the end of the day, the real definition of “people power” is supplied not by the political cosmetologists of the LP but by the events that took place in the six years following that February 1986 political upheaval.

The press freedom supposedly restored in the country by Mrs. Aquino was superficial. During her presidency, the government television station continued to dish out pro-administration propaganda, while two other television stations were sequestered, and left in the hands of Aquino cronies, almost

all of whom made milking cows of these stations. In fine, three of the then five existing television stations in the country were controlled by the Aquino administration.

Mrs. Aquino herself instituted a criminal case for libel against veteran journalists and erstwhile Aquino supporters Maximo Soliven and Luis Beltran. Both journalists had to win their acquittal in the Court of Appeals. No sitting president, not even Marcos, has ever filed a criminal case for libel against a journalist. Mrs. Aquino did.

The “people power” revolt allowed the Aquino family to retain ownership and control over their crown jewel—Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac—despite the mandate by the comprehensive agrarian reform law that large estates shall be subjected to land reform. Other not so fortunate estate owners had to obey the law.

Farmers protesting their sorry plight in a harmless rally at Mendiola near Mrs. Aquino’s Malacañang residence were met with deadly violence, enough to mark the event as the “Mendiola Massacre.”

Aquino’s “people power” revolt prompted her to abolish the Department of Energy, a Marcos creation. Her move eventually caused endless daily power outages nationwide, many of which lasted for as long as twelve hours.

Under Mrs. Aquino, the Philippines became the “brownout capital of the world.”

Gambling is a social evil that destroys the moral fabric of the people. It entices many, the youth in particular, to depend on wagers, instead of industry and hard work.

President Marcos was aware of this evil, and kept casino operations at a minimum, with admission restricted mostly to foreigners.

Under Mrs. Aquino, however, gambling casinos proliferated in the Philippines, and her cronies had great influence in the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., the state agency which supervises the operations of all casinos in the nation.

The foregoing reasons explain why the “people power” revolt invoked by LP politicians and their allies is a mere phantasm which has no appeal.

2018 will be nearly 104.6 million, and 110.14 million in 2022. Without implants, the projections are 105.95M and 113.80M. Clearly, our population will significantly balloon because of the SC TRO. It should be emphasized that this study is only on the withdrawal of implants. We can only imagine the scenario if ALL contraceptives will not be available. The PopCom estimates that as of now, an additional 500,000

unintended pregnancies have already occurred since the SC TRO. Moreover, the economic impact of teen-age pregnancy pegged at 33 billion pesos as well as the health impact since teenage pregnancy is high risk, should be cause for worry.

Angel, because of her early pregnancy is one of those whose lives are in danger. Millions of Filipino women’s lives may actually be more difficult without their intent but be-

cause of the Supreme Court decisions that subvert women’s rights.

We must clamor for the SC to reverse it. One way to easily support this call is by signing this online petition: bit.ly/lifttro one more, RH advocates need to act for the law to truly benefit women and our rights, upheld.

Honor Blanco Cabie is a writer, editor and poet.

bethangsioco@gmail.com @bethangsioco on Twitter Elizabeth Angsioco on Facebook

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SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

News

Rody forms new anti-drugs body

By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte issued on Friday an executive order mandating the creation of an inter-agency body tasked to suppress the drug problem in the country.

Saying that the drug problem “continues to destroy the moral fiber of society,” Duterte issued Executive Order No. 15 tasking 21 agencies to create an InterAgency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) to be led by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

The agency is tasked to ensure the comprehensive implementation of the National Anti-Drug Plan of Action from 2015 to 2020 and “cleanse the bureaucracy of unscrupulous personnel involved in illegal drug activities.”

The ICAD will be composed of four clusters, the Enforcement Cluster to conduct investigations against drug syndicates and other target personalities; the Justice Cluster to ensure the prosecution of all drug cases and ensure the voluntary surrenders and possible warrantless arrests; the Advocacy

IN BRIEF Taguig judge as CA justice TAGUIG City regional trial court Judge Louis P. Acosta has been appointed associate justice of the Court of Appeals replacing Associate Justice Agnes Reyes Carpio who retired last Dec. 2.

In a letter to Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, Malacañang informed her that President Duterte appointed Acosta as CA magistrate last March 2, but the Office of the Chief Justice only received his appointment papers on Friday.

Earlier, the President had appointed Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Samuel R. Martires and CA Associate Justice Noel G. Tijam as SC associate justices. They filled the 14th and 15th slots in the 15-member SC.

Cluster to conduct a nationwide campaign against the drug menace; and the Rehabilitation and Reintegration Cluster to implement the drug rehabilitation programs of the government.

A national Anti-Illegal Drug Task Force shall be created to undertake sustained anti-illegal drug operatioms, under the supervision of the PDEA chief.

Among the 20 agencies included in the ICAD are Dangerous Drugs Board, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Justice, Department of Health, Department of Education, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Agriculture, Department of National Defense, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Philippine Information Agency, Public Attorney’s Office, Office of the Solicitor General, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Immigration, Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

MORE JOBS, PLEASE. Overseas Filipino workers displaced by the employment crisis in the Middle East hold a protest to demand government action on the job losses they’ve experienced because of the economic situation in the Middle East. Norman Cruz

Court hears De Lima case

By Joel E. Zurbano

T

HE Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court started on Friday hearing one of the three cases filed against jailed Senator Leila de Lima, primarily her motions to dismiss one of the three drug-related charges against her.

But Judge Amelia FabrosCorpuz of Branch 205 did not tackle the merits of the state charge that De Lima and seven others that they were involved in narcotics trafficking with inmates of the National Bilibid Prison when De Lima was justice secretary, docketed as

Criminal Case No. 17-166.

Instead, the judge had to address De Lima’s motion to quash the drug case and motion for judicial determination of probable cause.

Corpuz gave De Lima and her co-accused 10 days to reply to the opposition of the Depart-

ment of Justice while state prosecutors were also given 10 days to submit a reply if necessary. The judge scheduled the next hearing on April 21 at 9 a.m.

De Lima and her co-respondents were also given 10 days to comment on the March 3 motion filed by the DOJ asking the court to consolidate all three cases filed against them under one branch. Aside from Criminal Case No. 17-166, the two other cases were docketed as Criminal Case Nos. 17-165 and 17-167.

De Lima’s three criminal cases were raffled off to Corpuz of Branch 206, Judge Juanita Guerrero of Branch 204 and Judge Patria

motion to review her case and to bar Guerrero from hearing her cases.

De Lima also asked the high tribunal to order Guerrero to inhibit herself purportedly because she had prejudged it and gravely abused her discretion in issuing the arrest warrant with “undue haste and inordinate interest.”

The three cases arose from complaints brought by the National Bureau of Investigation and Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption based on testimonies during the House of Representatives’ inquiry into the alleged illegal drug trade in New Bilibid Prison during De Lima’s tenure as secretary of justice.

10,000 jobs up in DoLE portal

Rey E. Requejo

LMP to hold meet March 13 PRESIDENT Rodrigo Roa Duterte will be the guest of honor and keynote speaker for the League of Municipalities of the Philippines annual general assembly to be held on March 13-15, 2017 at the Manila Hotel.

The assembly, which is the biggest annual gathering of the over 1,400 municipal mayors in the country, will have for its theme “Pagkakaisa ng LMP Laban sa Droga, Korapsyon at Kriminalidad,” announced LMP national president Maria Fe V. Brondial of Socorro, Oriental Mindoro.

For this assembly, the first under the current adminsitration, the LMP will be setting up a one-stop action center (one-stop shop) for national government agencies (NGAs) to assist the mayors in their various concerns with the national government. Several Cabinet Secretaries have also confirmed their participation in the assembly as resource speakers and guests.

The League of Municipalities of the Philippines is an organization of all the municipalities of the Philippines, mandated by law, with the primary purpose of ventilating, articulating, and crystallizing issues affecting municipal government administration and securing solutions to these issues.

The LMP, led by its national president Mayor Maria Fe Brondial of Socorro, Oriental Mindoro, Mayor Sandy Javier of Javier, Leyte as its executive vice president; and Mayor Abraham Burahan of Hadji Panglima Tahil, Sulu as its secretary general, is calling on all of its members to attend their General Assembly. They can get in touch with the LMP National Secretariat at tel. no. 913-5737 for more information.

Manalastas-de Leon of Branch 206.

Last week, state prosecutors submitted asked Guerrero of Branch 204 to consolidate the cases handled by Branches 205 and 206 into a single case but De Lima’s lawyers said they would oppose the move because it was Guerrero who issued the arrest warrant against the senator.

Two of the cases were filed by anti-crime group Volunteers against Crime and Corruption and former NBI officials Reynaldo O. Esmeralda and Ruel M. Lasala.

The third was filed by the National Bureau of Investigation.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will hear on March 14 De Lima’s

By Vito Barcelo

ROLL CALL. Anonas Police Station 9 station commander Supt. Robert Sales leads the inspection of personnel on Friday as part of the Philippine National Police’s drive against drugs and criminality. PNA

Jee slay probe ends March 17

By Rey E. Requejo THE Department of Justice will hold its final preliminary investigation of the kidnapping and killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo on March 17, after which the case is deemed submitted for resolution.

During the hearing, the DoJ’s panel composed of Senior Assistant State Prosecutors Juan Pedro Navera and Olivia Torrevillas stressed they will no longer receive additional documents from parties, except for respondent Senior Supt.

Allan Macapagal of the Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group who was given until March 17 to file his counter-affidavit.

Macapagal, who was tagged by SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel in his affidavit submitted to the DoJ, was not present Friday’s hearing due to a reassignment.

“After several manifestations, all the parties agreed to the ruling of the panel that the case is now submitted for resolution except for Supt. Allan Macapagal who will submit his

counter-affidavit on March 17, 2017 at 2:00 p.m.,” Navera said.

Since the Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 58 only gave prosecutors 60 days “to conduct the reinvestigation and to submit the resolution, Navera stressed that it will be “bordering on contempt if we extend beyond the April 19 deadline.”

The three National Bureau of Investigation officials—former NBI deputy director for investigation services Jose “Jojo” Yap; former National Capital Region director Ricardo Diaz and former Task Force against Illegal Drugs head Roel Bolivar—submitted their counter-affidavits on Friday in the charges on the kidnapping for ransom and serious illegal detention with homicide case.

Superintendent Rafael Dumlao, former official of the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, mentioned in his affidavit the involvement of the three NBI officials in the incident.

The other respondents who also filed counter-affidavits were Gream funeral services employees Epephany Gotera, Teodolito

Macato Tarepe, Kevin Enriquez, Robert John Tobias, and Bernardo Maraya Jr. Sta. Isabel, one of the respondents in the case, admitted taking the remains of Jee to Gream for disposal. It is owned by Gerardo Santiago who is also one of the respondents.

Sta. Isabel and fellow co-respondent, SPO4 Roy Villegas, submitted their respective supplemental counter-affidavits to add to their counter-affidavits that they previously filed.

It can be recalled that the DoJ earlier only named three accused in the kidnapping for ransom with homicide case: Sta. Isabel, Villegas and Yalung while other suspects tagged in the case were identified only through aliases “Pulis,” “Ding,” “Jerry,” and “Sir Dumlao.”

The resolution was the basis of the complaint filed against the respondents before the Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 58. But the court granted primary suspect Sta. Isabel’s request for reinvestigation of the kidnap-slay case.

MORE than 10,000 job vacancies are up for grabs, with employment opportunities in the business process outsourcing industry leading the top spot, according to PhilJobNet, the Department of Labor and Employment’s internet-based job and applicant matching portal.

The Bureau of Local Employment, which maintains the centralized database of PhilJobNet, the vacancies are for the positions of call center agent with 2,086; customer service assistant with 776; service crew with 74; staff nurse with 674 vacancies; production machine operator with 602, promo salesperson 595; real estate salesman at 570; manufacturing laborer with 515; sales clerk with 513, and sales associate professional with 505 vacancies.

Other job vacancies are nonformal education teacher with 449, cashier with 379, technical support staff at 377; door-to-door salesperson with 375; janitor 310; telecommunication specialist, 297; beauty consult-

ant, 260; salesman, 247; sugar production machine operator, 240; and mason (general), with 240 vacancies.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III encouraged the public to make full use of the PhilJobNet’s enhanced services as it hastens the jobseekers’ search for jobs and the employer’s search for workforce.

An individual looking for a job and at least 15 years old may register at PhilJobNet, while any establishment or employer duly recognized by Philippine business authorizing agencies and with existing Tax Identification Number may register as employer.

Employers may invite registered job applicants for job interview on a desired date and may print an applicant’s profile.

Jobseekers, on the other hand, are provided an option to apply online and to view top hiring companies. PhilJobNet has also made job matching more flexible by allowing users to modify filters, such as specific job requirements and applicant qualifications.

MMDA set to try out new light trucks rule THE Metro Manila Development Authority will conduct next week a dry-run operation of a new measure regulating light trucks on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue and the entire stretch of Shaw Boulevard, which traverses the cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig.

This after members of the Metro Manila Council, the governing board and the policy-making body of the MMDA, composed of the 17 local chief executives in the metropolis, approved the resolution banning light trucks from plying the two major thoroughfares to improve the traffic situation.

During the recent MMC meeting, the Metro Manila mayors gave the go-signal to MMDA to conduct the test run of the light trucks ban starting March 15 until June 15.

Under the approved MMC resolution, trucks which have a gross capacity weight of 4,500 kgs. and below will not be allowed to pass Edsa and Shaw Boulevard from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The uniform light trucks ban will be enforced from Monday to Saturday except Sundays and holidays, the resolution said.

It added that light trucks carrying perishable goods are exempted but they still need to apply for exemption.

Also exempted from the light trucks ban are government and emergency vehicles such as firetrucks and ambulances.

Under the resolution, violators will be slapped with a P2,000 fine.

MMDA acting chairman Thomas Orbos said there is a necessity to regulate the light trucks on the roads which have also contributed significantly to traffic congestion in the metropolis. Joel E. Zurbano

Sports Ironkids, Superbods usher in Ironman weekend

THE Alaska IronKids Triathlon provides the fitting run-up to the Century Tuna Ironman 70.3 as kids aged 6-to-14 slug it out in their own version of the event— the Alaska IronKids Triathlon Saturday in Subic Bay. To be disputed are the 6-8, 9-10, 11-12 and 13-14 age-group titles with the event featuring regular campaigners and a slew of newcomers raring to showcase their wares in the swim-bike-run event.

The Alaska Ironkids-Subic serves as the kickoff of a threestage circuit, that includes two aquathlon on April 9 at the Manila Polo Club and June 3, also in Subic, and which culminates in the Alaska IronKids Triathlon in Mactan, Cebu in August.

All category winners will be given free entry to the Cebu IronKids with free flights and accommodations, all courtesy of Alaska.

Produced and organized by Sunrise Events, Inc. and sponsored

by Alaska Milk Corp., the Alaska IronKids is the junior version of the Ironman. It is also held to promote a well-balanced lifestyle for kids and at the same time serving as a perfect venue for family bonding.

Also on tap today is the Century Tuna Superbods: The Underpants Run, which is again expected to provide the sizzler of an appetizer to the much-awaited Ironman 70.3 tomorrow (Sunday).

The side-event will feature the country’s Superbods finalists—who will all be running alongside the fancied names of the sport. It will start at 9:30 a.m. at the Subic Yacht Club and pass through a scenic route along the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Inspired by the tradition at Kona, home of the renowned Ironman World Championship, Century Tuna is staging the Superbods Underpants Run for the third straight year. It is also open to all participants of this year’s Ironman 70.3 as part of Century Tuna’s commitment to promote a fun local tradition that also gives back to the community.

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SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Westbrook, Thunder end Spurs’ 9-game win streak L OS ANGELES—Russell Westbrook moved into a tie with Wilt Chamberlain on the regular season triple double list as the Oklahoma City Thunder shut down the San Antonio Spurs with a 102-92 victory on Thursday.

Westbrook recorded his 31st triple double to tie Chamberlain for the second-most triple doubles in a NBA season and he did it against the red-hot Spurs who are one of the top seeds in the Western Conference.

“It is a blessing,” said Westbrook, who tallied 23 points, 13 assists and 13 rebounds. “I try to

play at a high level. Whenever you mention guys like that I don’t take it for granted.”

Westbrook said his priority is winning and not setting records.

“My job is to make sure we come out with a win,” he said.

Victor Oladipo scored 20 points on eight-of-14 shooting from the field in his second

game back since missing six contests with back spasms. Enes Kanter came off the bench to score 14 points and 10 rebounds as the Thunder snapped a fourgame losing streak.

“I thought we did a good job, especially defensively,” Westbrook said. “Making an impact on the ball for 48 minutes, it was good.

“It means that were on the right track. Obviously throughout the season there are times you go through adversity. The strongest teams stick together through adversity. Tonight was one of those nights when we stuck together.”

Thunder coach Billy Donovan

praised Westbrook for leading by example.

“He says he plays every game like it’s the last game of his career,” Donovan said. “I really, really admire that and respect that.

Because tomorrow is not promised. He is just focused on right now. What do I have to do right now to help the team right now in this moment.”

Kawhi Leonard tallied 19 points, Pau Gasol scored 18 points for the Spurs, who saw their ninegame win streak come to a halt.

Leonard held in check The Thunder held Leonard to just two rebounds and two assists.

He sat out the entire fourth quarter after being hit in the mouth. The Spurs will need him on Saturday when they take on the Golden State Warriors.

Elsewhere, Reggie Jackson scored 21 points and the Detroit Pistons overcame LeBron James’ 50th career triple-double with a 106-101 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Andre Drummond finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Tobias Harris had 15 points apiece for the Pistons, who have won three of their last four contests. AFP

Best Center volley, cage clinics set at 4 venues

Rain or Shine coaches and players, led by Chris Tiu and alternate Gov. Edison Oribiana, launched its Barangay Basketball Weekend Camp Activation recently at Barangay Manresa in Quezon City. A brainchild of team owner Raymond Yu, the camp was ROS’ own way of showing its appreciation to its growing number of fans. Also shown are QC Councilor Onyx Crisologo and players Jewel Ponferada and Maverick Ahanmisi.

The team is co-owned by Terry Que.

2017 Phoenix National Slalom starts Sunday in Robinsons Nova

Last year’s overall champion Milo Rivera of Tough Gear Racing is again the driver to beat in the 2017 season of the Phoenix National Slalom Series.

EVERYTHING is all set as RACE Motorsports Club opens the 12-leg Phoenix National Slalom Series 2017 on Sunday in Robinsons Novaliches.

Powered by Phoenix Premium 98 and Phoenix Accelerate fully synthetic oil, the slalom event will have its registration from 8 a.m. onwards.

Open practice runs are set from 8 to 10 a.m., while official practice sessions start at 11 a.m., with each participant given only one official practice run regardless of how many classes or cars entered.

Each participant will receive a gallon of Phoenix Accelerate fully synthetic oil.

Contenders must use the specified Federal Tyres for at least nine or 75% of the series and possess the Automobile Association of the Philippines Clubman license in order to accumulate points for the overall and class champions. Drivers will be charged an

additional fee of P300 per leg for the AAP Clubman License.

The National Slalom Events are affiliated with the AAP and FIA and is the longest-running motorsport discipline in the country.

Expected to participate are the Club Slalom Series champions, headed by Milo, Noel and Estefano Rivera of Tough Gear, Dr. Peewee Mendiola of Team Big Chill, MSM Motorsports and AF Racing Team.

Aside from the National Slalom Series, RACE Motorsports will also hold three Invitational Slalom legs at Robinsons Calasiao, Pangasinan to cater to car enthusiasts from the north.

The Slalom Series is presented by Phoenix Premium 98 and Phoenix Accelerate fully synthetic oil, major sponsors Federal Tyres, Outlast Battery, and Robinsons Novaliches and supported by Starbright Body Kits, Auto Transporter, media partners

Stoplight TV, C! Magazine, Auto Car Magazine, Power Wheels Magazine, Ride and Drive Philippines and Driven2ride.ph.

The schedule for the year is as follows: March 12, Robinsons Novaliches; April 2 Robinsons Starmills; May 7 NFA Compound, Cabanatuan City; June 4 Robinsons Sta. Rosa; June 25 Robinsons Novaliches; July 19 Robinsons Starmills; August 6 Robinsons Antipolo; August 27 Malolos Commercial Center; September 10 NFA Compound, Cabanatuan City; October 1 Robinsons Novaliches; November 12 Robinsons Antipolo/Meycauayan Center; December 3 Robinsons Starmills.

The Slalom Invitationals are set April 23, August 20 and October 1 at Robinsons Calasiao, Pangasinan.

Fordetails,contactBingBangO.Dulce at tel. nos. 928-6951 or 0917-8119337; e-mail racemotorsportsclub@yahoo. com or like the event’s Facebook page.

THE Best Center takes its awardwinning basketball and volleyball clinics to four venues this summer starting April 1.

Tuesday and Friday clinics for basketball are scheduled at the Starmall Alabang for students in the preparatory level (5-8 years old), Level 1 (9-and-up) and Level 2 (9-11 years old).

Levels 1-4 courses will also be offered in the afternoon sessions at the same venue.

The Amoranto Sports Complex in Quezon City will also host the Milo-sponsored clinics for basketball students in Preparatory Level and Levels 1 and 2 in the morning and Levels 3 and 4 in the afternoon sessions.

Volleyball courses are being offered at the Ateneo for Tuesday and Friday sessions starting April 12 for young athletes in Levels 1-3.

The Malate Catholic School will also have volleyball courses starting April 5.

Meanwhile, the BEST Center also announced registration for its volleyball clinics will be on March 18 and 19 in three venues.

To avoid congestion on the first day of the clinics, early registration dates for all venues will be on March 18 at the Ateneo covered courts from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., and at the Malate Catholic Church at 2-5 p.m. on the same date.

On March 19, registration will be held at the Starmall Alabang from 12:30-5 p.m.

Thai...

From A8

fired a 70 and tied Thais Thanuutra Boonraksasat (71) and Punpaka Phuntumabamrung (74) and compatriot Lee Hsin (76) at ninth at 222.

Rodriguez, who had dominated the first three editions of the LPGT backed by ICTSI, BDO, Champion, Custom Clubmakers, Empire Golf and Sports Shop, KZG, Sharp, Summit Mineral Water, Titleist and Event Captain, limped with a 78 and wound up tied with Thai Pimpadsorn Sangkagaro (75) at 223.

Princess Superal made a second 74 for a 225 at joint 19th while Dottie Ardina ended up tied at 33rd after a 74 for a 232.

Team Lakay’s Pacio dukes it out with former world champ AFTER nearly capturing the ONE Strawweight World Championship belt five months ago, the road back to earning another title shot commences for Joshua Pacio as the highly-touted Filipino fighter is set to duke it out with former world titleholder Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke.

Both men are scheduled to face each other on the undercard of ONE: WARRIOR KINGDOM, which takes place at the 12,000-capacity Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand on Saturday, 11 March.

Pacio is expected to have his hands

full as he shares the ONE Championship cage with Dejdamrong, who is a threetime Lumpinee Stadium Muay Thai world champion with over 25 years of competitive experience.

Having a record of 6-1 as a professional mixed martial artist, Dejdamrong is known as a technical striker with quick hands and lightning feet, employing some of the most unique and creative combinations.

Although Pacio has a tall order in front of him, Team Lakay head coach Mark Sangiao is confident that his talented ward will have his hand raised in triumph.

Sangiao, who has played a key role in the success of fighters such as Eduard Folayang, Honorio Banario, Geje Eustaquio and Kevin Belingon, believes that Pacio’s versatility will have a big factor against Dejdamrong.

“In today’s MMA, versatility is the key to success. Your striking should be as good as your grappling in order to be successful. Joshua is good in all aspects of the game. He has a superb striking background. He also has an efficient ground game. In his upcoming bout, you can expect that Joshua will be the more wellrounded guy inside the cage against a

pure striker like Dejdamrong,” he stated.

Pacio, who possesses an impressive 8-1 standing as a prizefighter, is a Wushu specialist with a solid grappling skill set.

All eight of his career victories have come by finish, including five wins by impressive submission and three wins by knockout.

“There is something special in Joshua.

He’s young, but he is hardworking and willing to give his best. Joshua always pushes himself to the limit. He knows that he has to do the grind in training to be successful in his fights,” Sangiao said of Pacio.

Highly-touted Filipino fighter Joshua Pacio (right), shown here in action during one of his past fights, takes on former world titleholder Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke.

Familiar faces dominate Cebuana Lhuillier tennis in Lanao FAMILIAR faces and perennial leg winners dominated anew at the conclusion of the 7th leg of the Cebuana Lhuillier AgeGroup Tennis Championship Series, the country’s longestrunning grassroots tennis developmental program now on its 11th year of discovering and producing young champions from different provinces.

Held at the Liwanag Tennis

Courts in Maranding Lala in Lanao del Norte, the weekend event attracted 140 entries.

Local bet Andre Cuevas leading the charge together with Sydney Ezra Enriquez from Zamboanga del Norte, Nash Agustines from Oroquieta City and unknown Abel QadzriMatarul, also from Zamboanga del Norte with two titles apiece in the tournament supported by

Dunlop as the official ball.

Cuevas posted an easy 8-2 win over another local player, 14-under champion Brent Sigmond Cortes for the boys’ 16-under crown and partnered with John Stephen Sonsona for the boys’ 18-under doubles’ crown with a hard earned 8-6 victory over Jose Maria Pague and Andrew Oserada.

Pague, from Zamboanga, Sibugay, meanwhile, took the 18-

under singles’ title by defeating local bet John Renest Sonsona 8-2 in the finals.

Multi-titled Enriquez added two more to her collection as she crushed Kristin Margarette Bandolis, 8-0, in the girls’ 14- under finals and followed it with an 8-3 victory over Lanao del Norte’s Voenn Pamaong for the 16-under crown. Agustines emerged champion in the boys’ 12-under with an

8-2 win over Heinz Asian Carbonilla, and partnered with Eurie Tagal to beat Aaron Geronimo and Mark Tanquion, 8-4, in the finals of the boys’ 14-under doubles.

Matarul swept AJ Bering, 4-2, 4-1, for the 10-under unisex title and together with Jhemz Bryle Enopia, also took the 10-under doubles’ crown, besting Bering and Kristin Gwen Bandolis, 8-4, in their championship match.

LOTTO RESULTS 6/45 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 4 DIGITS 00-00-00-00 3 DIGITS 00-00-00 2 EZ2 00-00

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

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SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

Sports

Petron takes on struggling Cocolife in PSL Games Today

(Malolos Sports Complex) 3 p.m. – Cignal vs Sta. Lucia 5 p.m. – Foton vs Generika-Ayala 7 p.m. – Cocolife vs Petron

Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul holds her trophy after completing a come-from-behind win in the ICTSI Champion Tour at Splendido.

Thai rallies to capture ICTSI Champion Tour golf crown T

AGAYTAY—Thai Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul charged back from three shots down at the back with a blazing eaglespiked windup, closing out with a 69 to foil local bet Pauline del Rosario and compatriot Titiya Plucksataporn and capture the ICTSI Champion Tour at Splendido crown by two here yesterday.

Muangkhumsakul eagled No. 10 of Splendido Taal Golf Club and birdied two of the last four holes to sneak from third-to-last flight to the top of the heap at 215 as erstwhile leader Plucksataporn wavered with a 74 and Del Rosario fell short of her own comeback bid with a 68 for 217s.

“I played relatively good. Everything was in place and I’m happy I finally made it,” said Muang-

khumsakul, who led in the first round with a 69 but tumbled down with a horrendous 77 in windy Thursday.

But the 18-year-old shotmaker from Bangkok, a consistent Top 5 finisher but never a winner on the ICTSI Ladies Philippine Golf, struck back hard in the last nine holes, her solid four-under 32 netting her the elusive crown worth $15,000, the replica of the check

she received from STGC general manager Teboy Javier.

Plucksataporn, who held a twostroke lead after 36 holes with a gutsy 71, hung tough despite Muangkhumsakul’s eagle on No. 10 with a birdie on the par-5 hole.

But she fumbled with bogeys on the next, gave up another stroke on No. 14 and dropped off the lead.

Del Rosario, six behind Plucksataporn at the start of the final round after a disastrous 78 in the second day, mounted a fierce rally in an earlier flight with an eagle on No. 2 then came through with birdies on Nos. 14 and 16 to pull within one of Plucksataporn and Muangkhumsakul, raising hopes for a local victory in the event sponsored by Champion after erstwhile contenders Mia Piccio and Cyna Rodriguez faded one after the other.

But while Plucksataporn cracked under pressure, Muangkhumsakul held sway with clutch birdies, including on the par-3 17th from six feet that gave her a twoshot cushion and all but quashed Del Rosario’s crack for a playoff.

“If not for my 78 in the second round, I could’ve vied for the crown,” rued Del Rosario.

Still, the joint runner-up effort augured well for the rookie pro, who shared the combined $12,000 prize with Plucksataporn. She later vowed to do better when the next ICTSI LPGT leg, also part of the Taiwan LPGA and organized

by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc., is held next Wednesday (March 15) at Mt. Malarayat.

The locals actually pinned their hopes on Symetra Tour campaigners Piccio and Rodriguez,

who moved within two off Plucksataporn after 36 holes. But the former bowed out with a bogey and double bogey on Nos. 7 and 9, respectively, and the latter wilted with a bogey-marred backside 41.

Piccio ended up with a second 75 for joint fifth at 220 with Thai Narisara Kerdrit, who shot a 71, behind fourth placer Korean Kang Ji-won, who matched par 72 for the second straight day for a 219.

“I didn’t get the breaks and missed a lot of putts. Maybe this tournament was not meant for me,” said Piccio, who lost by one to Korean Lee Jeong-hwa here last year.

Yuka Saso took the top amateur honors with a 74 as she finished tied for seventh with Taiwanese Yeh Hsin-ning, who hobbled with a 75, while Taiwanese Lin Tzu-chi Continued on A7

NCAA SEASON 92 AWARDING RITES.

University of Perpetual Help, led by President Anthony Moran Tamayo (ninth from right) receives the three-peat plum for the Junior Altas volleyball team during the awarding ceremony held Thursday night at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The Altalettes volleyboys ruled the court of National Collegiate Athletics Association Season 90, 91 and 92 under Caviteno coaches Sandy Rieta and Jason Sapin.

SMBeermen far from done, eye more titles

By Jeric Lopez SAN Miguel Beer made history by being just the second team to win a Perpetual Trophy after taking its third straight Philippine Cup championship in the Philippine Basketball Association.

Still, the Beermen are far from satisfied.

Their thirst for more titles is still here.

Philippine Cup finals Most Valuable Player Chris Ross expressed his and his team’s desire to capture more championships ahead.

With San Miguel’s deep and talented roster intact, this can also serve as a warning to the rest of the league.

“We’re definitely looking to win more championships.

We’re hoping to get another one in the next conference,” said Ross.

Three-time Most Valuable Player and Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference June Mar Fajardo, like Ross, is also hoping the Beermen can keep their momentum

and championship tradition going.

“Last season hindi na kami naka-champion after ng All-Filipino so sana ngayon makakuha pa kami,” said Fajardo.

Meanwhile, several star players are set to miss the early part of the upcoming Commissioner’s Cup due to injuries suffered during the playoffs of the Philippine Cup. TNT KaTropa Jayson Castro is set to miss his team’s first few games as he continues to recover from his hamstring injury, something that kept him out of the Texters’ Game 7 encounter with San Miguel in the Philippine Cup semis.

Castro could be fit again by late March, while the Commissioner’s Cup begins in a week’s time.

Barangay Ginebra versatile forward Joe Devance, who played through pain for most of the playoffs with a plantar fasciitis, is also expected to miss some time as he will finally have surgery on his left foot to fix the injury.

Phoenix Open tees off Saturday THE 9th Phoenix Open Golf Tournament is all set to open with the ceremonial tee-off on Saturday at the Rancho Palos Verdes Golf and Country Club.

Grand Hole-in-1 prizes will be given away such as P1-million in cash, a Mercedes-Benz A180, Tata Motors Xenon 4x4 Premium, an Omega Speedmaster, and P100,000 worth of Phoenix fuel cards.

Lucky players also get a

chance to bring home major raffle prizes such as Macbook Air, iPhone, GoPro Hero 5 camera, LED TVs, home theater appliances, and other latest gadgets.

Tournament winners will all receive Royal Selangor pewter plates and Phoenix fuel cards.

All champions will receive Phoenix signature bags.

Pledges for the 9th Phoenix Open Golf Tournament will go

to the Phoenix Philippines Foundation to support its four main advocacies in Education, Environment, Health, and Outreach programs.

The 9th Phoenix Open Golf Tournament is made possible

by Pioneer Insurance, F.F. Cruz & Co. Inc, Brenton Engineered Products Corporation, Mechatrend Contractors Corporation, Mercedes- Benz, and Tata Motors.

MALOLOS CITY—Mighty Petron clashes with struggling new team Cocolife, eyeing a third straight win to fortify its hold on the lead in the Belo-Philippine Superliga Invitational Conference Saturday at the Malolos Sports Complex here.

Action is set at 7 pm.

Cignal and Sta. Lucia also collide at 3 p.m., before Foton and Generika-Ayala clash at 5 p.m. in this prestigious women’s club tourney backed

by Senoh, Mueller, Mikasa and Asics with TV5 as official broadcast partner.

After falling short in the Grand Prix last year, the Blaze Spikers quickly transformed into solid contenders after a massive revamp with the inclusion of star players Rhea Dimaculangan, Carmela Tunay and Mika Reyes.

The recruitment binge paid a handsome reward as they pulled off an impressive win over the Lady Realtors in the opener before stunning another heavyweight in Cignal late Thursday to grab the solo lead with a 2-0 slate.

Stacked against the stronger, more seasoned HD Spikers, the Blaze Spikers recovered from a sluggish start to stretch the match into a deciding fifth set, to underscore their rediscovered power.

But with the game tied at 12, Aiza Maizo-Pontillas unleashed a razor-sharp kill from the opposite side, followed by blocks by Mika Reyes and Frances Molina on Cignal hotshot Jovelyn Gonzaga, sparking a wild celebration from the Petron gallery.

Reyes, then, scored on a beautiful kill from the middle, giving the Blaze Spikers an emphatic 18-25, 26-24, 14-25, 25-20, 15-12 victory.

Molina and Tunay led the way with 15 and 10 points, respectively, while Reyes chipped in nine markers in their second victory in this season-opening tourney that also has Gold’s Gym as official fitness partner and UCPB Gen as official insurance provider.

“We just stayed together and trusted each other,” said Petron coach Shaq Delos Santos. “But the job is not yet done. This is a very short tournament so we have to win as many games as we can.”

Against the Asset Managers, Petron’s resolve will surely be tested as veterans Michele Gumabao, Denden Lazaro, Wensh Tiu and Iris Patrona are all eager to gain traction following a sorry 1625, 17-25, 13-25 loss to Foton.

In that match, nothing went right for the Asset Managers as the Tornadoes clobbered them in the spiking (40-19), block (5-4) and service (11-3) departments.

“But we can’t still be complacent,” Delos Santos said.

“Just like us, this team also has the power, but is still adjusting.

They are dangerous. We may never know what will happen.”

Aside from former La Salle stars in Gumabao, Tiu and Patrona, with former Ateneo defense specialist in Lazaro, the Asset Managers will also be banking on the core of reigning NCAA champion Arellano University like Rhea Ramirez, Andrea Marzan and Jovielyn Prado.

KL SEA Games facilities almost ready

By Peter Atencio THE facilities and venues of the 29th Southeast Asian Games are almost ready.

A visiting Malaysian sports official said this after he informed the officials of the Philippine Sports Commission about their ongoing preparations for the biennial meet.

“I would say it’s 70 to 80 percent done, the maintenance of the facilities, and the renovation of the stadiums,” said Kumaran Nadaraja, principal assistant secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Malaysia.

He added that the Malaysian government spent around 490 million ringgit or around roughly around P11.3 billion to get facilities and venues in good conditaion for the Games.

Nadaraja met with PSC Chairman William Ramirez yesterday over the staging of the 29th SEA Games Rising Together Baton Run along the streets of Manila.

Olympic medalist Hidilyn Diaz and Paralympic medalist Josephine Medina will lead the runners.

At the end of the 7.7-km run, Ramirez will turn over the ba-

ton to visiting Malaysian Prime Minister for Sports Khairy Jamaluddin, who in turn, will hand it over to the ambassador of Laos.

The Malaysian sports officials said security will be tight as always when the games go on in many venues which are mostly in the Bukit Jalil area.

Among the facilities to be used are the Malaysian International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur Sport City, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Putrajaya Watersports Complex and the National Velodrome and BMX

Track in Nilai.

Olympians Marestella Torres-Sumang and Joy Tabal of Athletics, members of the national team, Paralympics athletes and players from Gilas Pilipinas are among those joining.

The PSC, according to PSC executive Ronnel Abrenica, has been working with its counterparts in Malaysia The event is a government to government initiative to drumbeat support and interest for the SEAG, which will be held in Luala Lumpur this coming August.

Wilcon pegs IPO price at P5-P5.68

B2

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

B1

Exports jumped 22% in January

By Julito G. Rada

P

hilippine exports surged 22.5 percent in January to $5.1 billion year-on-year on strong demand from China, South Korea, the European Union and the United States.

“We are now riding the waves of economic growth in the region. As such, we must continue to push for innovation and infrastructure development to fuel our momentum and drive us to the forefront of the race,” Economic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority

director-general and Ernesto Pernia said.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that export earnings were propelled by growth in most commodities, led by forest (266.2 percent) and agro-based products (33.7 percent), and manufactures (23.1 percent).

As a result, total Philippine

trade grew 14.2 percent in January 2017 to $12.6 billion yearon-year, backed by the surge in export receipts from most of the country’s traditional markets, the Neda said.

Imports rose 9.1 percent on year in January.

Export receipts from nearly all major markets experienced growth, with China increasing 26.3 percent; South Korea, 50.5 percent; Asean peers, 19.3 percent; European Union, 82.5 percent; and United States, 26.5 percent.

Import payments decelerated to $7.4 billion due to the decrease in demand for capital goods (-11 perent), which offset

the gains of consumer goods (22.8 percent), raw materials and intermediate goods (15.2 percent), and mineral fuels and lubricants (42.7 percent). “We must support our fast-growing economy by strengthening our production capability and linkages, particularly in agriculture and manufacturing, to help us meet both internal and external demands,” Pernia said. All Asian economies also posted positive trade figures, with the Philippines registering the third highest year-on-year growth, behind Indonesia (21.1 percent) and Singapore (19.9 percent.

Malaysian trade increased 12 while that of China improved

11.4 percent. “This is a signal that our efforts in forging better relations with our Asian neighbors and the EU are finally paying off,” Pernia said. However, he said global growth and trade risks remained amid US protectionist policies that might hamper global recovery, as countermeasures would be imposed by its trading partners. “Aside from increasing our attractiveness and competitiveness through economic reforms, we need to diversify our market and take advantage of our existing multi-lateral and bilateral trade agreements to expand opportunities for our producers,” Pernia said.

ASEAN-EU METING. Top

trade officials of the Association of Southeast Asian nations meet European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom (sixth from left) to convene the 15th Asean Economic Ministers-EU Trade Commissioner Consultations Friday in Pasay City. The meeting is led by the Department of Trade and Industry, through Secretary Ramon Lopez, who served as chair for the Asean Economic Ministers’ Meeting Retreat and Related Meetings.

Ayala Land to issue P7-b, 10-year bonds AYALA Land Inc. plans to issue P7 billion in 10-year fixed rate bonds to partially finance the company’s P88-billion capital spending plan in 2017.

Ayala Land said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the P7-billion bond offering was the fourth tranche under its P50-billion debt securities program approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2016 Ayala Land tapped China Bank Capital, PNB Capital and SB Capital as underwriters for the bond offering.

Ayala Land plans to use the net proceeds from the bond offering to fund retail, hotel and office projects in Cloverleaf (Balintawak), Intercon (Makati) Ayala Triangle and Vertis Mall (Quezon City).

The property firm still has a balance of P25 billion under its debt securities program.

Jenniffer B. Austria

Factory production up 9.3% in January

MANUFACTURING sustained its growth in January as the volume of production index expanded 9.3 percent, albeit slower than the 35.8-percent increase a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Friday.

The National Economic and Development Authority said the increased production of basic metals, transport equipment, petroleum products and food manufactures drove manufacturing output in January.

“The outlook of industry firms for the first quarter of 2017 remains optimistic as business expansion, higher energy sales, and implementation of construction projects are anticipated,” Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing Value of Production Index for January 2017 increased at a slower rate of 11.6 percent, compared with last year’s 25.9 percent. Julito G. Rada

DMCI, MetroPac sign Calax contract

By Darwin G. Amojelar A UNIT of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and DM Consunji Inc. on Friday signed a P7.2-billion contract to build the Laguna segment of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) project.

“We plan to break ground next month, three months ahead of schedule. By the end of 2020, when we inaugurate the expressway, Calax will be the most modern expressway in the country with state-of-the-art operation and tolling systems and environment-friendly features,” Luigi Bautista, president and chief executive of the MPCALA Holdings, said.

He said the Public Works Department already delivered 16 percent of the entire right of way, enough to start the construction of Calax.

Calax, one of the largest public-private partnership projects, involves the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of a four-lane, 47-kilometer closed-system toll expressway connecting Cavitex and South Luzon Expressway.

The P35.4-billion expressway will start from Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite and end at the SLEx-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.

The project will have eight interchanges and one main toll barrier.

MPCALA also tapped Leighton Holdings of Australia to build the Cavite side of Calax.

Bautista said the company was in talks with several banks to finance the Calax.

“We are raising about P17 billion for the project,” he added.

When the project is completed, travel through the Calax will take only about 45 minutes from Kawit, Cavite to Biñan in Laguna.

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

IN BRIEF

PH call centers eyeing lobbyist to counter Trump OUTSOURCING companies in the Philippines, whose clients are mainly US companies, are worried that Donald Trump’s plan to bring jobs back to America won’t end at just manufacturing but extend into services.

The industry is considering hiring a US-based consultant to monitor the threat of rising American protectionism, Ike Amigo, the head of the Philippine association representing outsourcing companies, said in an interview on Wednesday.

“We are looking at hiring a consultant on the ground pretty soon, as early as March,” he said in his office in Manila. “We keep an eye on developments in the Trump administration. Certainly, it is a concern,” adding the consultant may be a lobbyist or a research group.

Trump is shaking up the global stage as he persuades companies

such as Ford Motor Co. to put up factories and investment in the US to create jobs. While outsourcing companies have largely escaped his notice, his policies could hurt the industry in the Philippines, among the largest foreign-exchange earners, just as the peso is weakening.

“Trump is one of the biggest risks facing outsourcing revenue,” said Michael Wan, an economist at Credit Suisse Group AG in Singapore. “That comes on top of a more protectionist mood globally, not just in the US. The outsourcing sector will have to contend with that challenge.”

Philippine outsourcing revenue surged 160 percent in the past six years to an estimated $23 billion in 2016 and is forecast to rise to $39 billion by 2022. It is projected to provide 1.8 million jobs by then, about 4 percent of

total employment.

To achieve their goal, the industry is moving to offering higher-skilled jobs in areas such as animation, medical, legal and game development, Amigo said. That will add to the Philippines’ natural advantages which include cheaper wages, accentneutral English language skills, affinity with customer service and familiarity with American culture.

Philippine providers also seek to diversify their markets to boost clients from Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, India, UK and Southeast Asia, he said.

The average cost of a full-time business process outsourcing employee in the Philippines is about $19,300 a year, compared with $72,300 in the UK and $91,100 in the US, according to consulting firm Everest Group.

The cost calculation includes salaries and expenses related to benefits, administration, facilities, technology and others.

The risks of a slowdown in outsourcing, weaker remittances and mining production cuts could cause the Philippines’ current account balance to not just narrow, but disappear, Credit Suisse warned in a report this week. That could add pressure on the peso, which is Asia’s worst performing currency this year.

“Trump could try, he could try, but at the end of the day, the stakeholders of all these businesses will look at their bottom line,” Jonathan de Luzuriaga, president of the Philippine Software Industry Association, said in a separate interview. “The Philippines offers tremendous value to them.

That’s why they’re here―by the planeloads.” Bloomberg

’16 foreign investments hit $7.9b, topped target

CEMEX IPO CITED. Cemex Holdings Philippines’ initial public

offering of P25.1 billion, cited as one of the biggest IPOs made in the country in recent years, is recognized as “Best Equity Deal of the Year in Southeast Asia” during the 10th Annual Best Deal & Solution Awards conferred by Alpha Southeast Asia, the first and only institutional investment and transactional banking publication primarily focused on the region. Paul Arcenas (left), Cemex vice president for investor relations, received the award during the ceremony held in Malaysia.

NET inflow of foreign direct investments in 2016 reached $7.9 billion, surpassing the target of $6.7 billion, on investors’ sustained confidence on the Philippine economy, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Friday.

The 2016 figure was also 40.7 percent higher than a year-ago level of $5.72 billion.

FDI net inflow in December amounted to $669 million, more than double the $272 million recorded in the same month in 2015.

“More than half (or US$415 million) of the net inflows during the month were non-resident affiliates’ net placements in debt instruments issued by resident affiliates (or intercompany borrowings),” Bangko Sentral said.

Net equity capital infusion reached $206 million, as equity capital placements of $294 mil-

lion more than offset the $88 million withdrawals. Equity capital placements came mostly from Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, Singapore and Belgium.

These were channeled mainly in arts, entertainment and recreation; financial and insurance; manufacturing; real estate; and professional, scientific and technical activities. Meanwhile, reinvestment of earnings amounted to $47 million during the month.

“FDI inflows remained robust, supported by strong investors’ confidence in the country’s solid macroeconomic fundamentals,” the central bank said.

Net availment of debt instruments rose 68.6 percent to $5.2 billion from $3.1 billion in 2015. Moreover, equity capital investments posted net inflows of $2 billion, 12.1 percent higher than $1.8 billion recorded last year.

Julito G. Rada

PSE COMPOSITE INDEX Closing March 10, 2017

8000 7600 7200 6800 6400 6000

7,146.27 149.18

PESO-DOLLAR RATE

Closing MARCH 10, 2017 45.00 46.50 48.00 49.50

P50.360 CLOSE

51.00

HIGH P50.335 LOW P50.390 AVERAGE P50.349 VOLUME 304.550M

P500.00-P760.00 LPG/11-kg tank P40.15-P49.25 Unleaded Gasoline P28.75-P34.65 Diesel

OPRICES IL TODAY

P28.50-P36.85 Kerosene P20.75-P21.75 Auto LPG Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Friday, March 10, 2017

F OREIGN E XCHANGE R ATE Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

50.3770

Japan

Yen

0.008702

0.4384

UK

Pound

1.216900

61.3038

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128795

6.4883

Switzerland

Franc

0.988924

49.8190

Canada

Dollar

0.740521

37.3052

Singapore

Dollar

0.704573

35.4943

Australia

Dollar

0.750700

37.8180

Bahrain

Dinar

2.652520

133.6260

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266724

13.4368

Brunei

Dollar

0.702099

35.3696

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000075

0.0038

Thailand

Baht

0.028300

1.4257

UAE

Dirham

0.272301

13.7177

Euro

Euro

1.058400

53.3190

Korea

Won

0.000863

0.0435

China

Yuan

0.144781

7.2936

India

Rupee

0.014999

0.7556

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.224266

11.2978

New Zealand

Dollar

0.689500

34.7349

Taiwan

Dollar

0.032175

1.6209 Source: PDS Bridge

B2

Business

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Blue chips lead market plunge T HE stock market slumped Friday in anticipation of a rate increase by the US Federal Reserve Board next week, with blue chips leading the retreat.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index sank 149.18 points, or 2 percent, to 7,146.27 on a value turnover of P8.01 billion. Losers beat gainers, 102 to 72, with 47 issues unchanged.

SM Investments Corp. of retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr. tumbled 9.2 percent to P599, while Emperador Inc., the biggest liquor maker, fell 5.8 percent to P6.35.

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., the second-largest lender, dropped 3.7 percent to P77.05, while PLDT Inc., the biggest

telecommunications company, lost 2.5 percent to P1,535.

Japanese shares, meanwhile, rallied Friday as the dollar surged against the yen ahead of key US jobs data, while Asian energy firms were mixed following another sharp sell-off in oil.

With the Federal Reserve all but certain to hike US interest rates at a much-anticipated meeting next week, the nonfarm payrolls release later in the day will be pored over for clues

on bank policymakers’ plans for the rest of the year.

The anticipation sent the dollar bursting past 115 yen on Thursday for the first time since the end of January and it managed to hold on in early Asian business, providing rich picking for Japanese traders buying the country’s exporters.

Tokyo’s Nikkei ended up 1.5 percent, having broken a fourday losing streak on Thursday.

“Now the market appears convinced that the Fed will raise the rate, while investors are expecting encouraging US payroll figures,” Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, told AFP. “All in all, Tokyo market sentiment is positive.”

Hong Kong rose 0.2 percent in

the afternoon, Sydney added 0.6 percent and Singapore climbed 0.5 percent but Shanghai slipped 0.1 percent.

Seoul put on 0.3 percent as investors were unmoved by news that President Park Geun-Hye’s impeachment had been upheld by a Constitutional Court, making her the country’s first head to be sacked in such a way. The country’s won currency was up slightly.

The dollar also extended gains against the struggling pound, while it managed to temper a rally in the euro which got a shot in the arm after European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi offered an upbeat outlook for the eurozone economy.

The ECB upped its growth

and inflation forecasts for this year while Draghi signalled it no longer sees an urgent need to undertake any extra support measures, meaning there would be no increase in euros being pumped into the system.

“Upgraded inflation forecasts and changed language from the ECB are signs the conversation is changing in Europe,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader.

“It was a subtle shift but an important one because even though the ECB president and his governing council keep their guidance... relatively unchanged, their upgraded economic forecasts for the EU show that the worst of the euro crisis looks to be behind the 27-nation bloc.” With AFP

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017

NAME

OPEN

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

FINANCIALS 3.25 38,000 48.7 9,600 97.5 1,030,270 120.4 3,125,880 1.29 15,000 40.1 293,800 16.18 1,800 21 554,700 8 6,900 1.7 74,000 0.68 4,186,000 77.05 1,598,440 0.73 20,000 14.5 100,000 26.25 1,200 58 64,870 240 2,150 113 10 90 20 38.6 58,900 200 480,440 1,790 20 79.2 19,060 1.22 17,000

123,870 467,500 100,898,780.50 376,322,342 19,400 11,794,350 29,154 11,603,395 55,200 124,960 2,852,070 124,734,006 14,600 1,450,000 31,450 3,701,044.50 513,472 1,130 1,800 2,282,165 96,361,136 35,800 1,509,562 20,740

-32,620 190,000 38,924,583.50 -118,427,483 -657,220 68,000 -19,727,551.50 -2,738,696 -446,560 -17,696,452 1,231,563.50 -

43 5.43 0.8 1.4 18.14 0.26 8.43 16.66 165 23.15 59 94.5 2.11 6.09 12.2 12.54 7.7 6.35 5.9 22.15 72.5 12.2 15.84 6.47 1.65 194 7.36 3.89 29.95 26.7 15 293.4 0.26 6.45 3.74 8.57 11.42 2.3 6.89 1.9 73.2 4.9 265 4.95 2.75 13.5 4.33 0.146 1.44 158.1 1.67 1.03

INDUSTRIAL 43 525,200 5.55 1,454,500 0.82 849,000 1.44 278,000 19.22 29,600 0.27 11,420,000 8.6 14,910,300 16.7 3,764,500 165 10 23.5 140,500 60.45 590 94.5 10 2.14 148,000 6.2 284,800 12.22 101,200 12.58 11,330,600 8.05 753,800 6.35 69,720,700 5.9 1,983,000 22.3 943,100 72.6 128,410 12.2 6,500 15.88 159,300 6.57 1,401,800 1.65 477,000 194 597,590 7.6 467,400 4.2 40,000 30 141,800 26.95 87,600 15.2 1,921,200 294.4 174,660 0.265 3,380,000 6.45 88,500 3.74 368,000 8.57 3,223,300 11.44 3,500 2.33 746,000 6.98 3,083,800 1.92 2,751,000 74.5 946,420 4.9 125,000 265 820 5 59,000 3 445,000 13.98 3,768,500 4.33 4,000 0.146 640,000 1.45 206,000 158.1 1,202,480 1.68 1,444,000 1.03 536,000

22,669,770 8,001,987 689,310 395,870 544,452 3,013,150 127,784,181 62,864,610 1,650 3,256,960 34,924.50 945 314,470 1,743,257 1,252,682 142,635,356 6,033,491 445,094,991 11,881,573 21,148,085 9,320,292.50 79,436 2,529,316 9,150,824 788,150 117,399,793 3,556,423 163,390 4,257,845 2,357,705 28,981,808 51,585,230 879,450 575,090 1,381,210 27,862,221 39,990 1,726,700 21,435,816 5,353,090 70,941,800 613,300 219,700 292,320 1,288,510 52,283,958 17,320 93,480 297,630 192,438,584 2,435,140 556,770

-10,288,075 473,642 -395,989 755,972 12,810 26,025 -57,770,982.00 2,382,024 120,752,985 3,776,497.00 7,868,870 5,398,607.50 -1,360,848 6,154,071 83,000 -42,263,406 -1,533,445 5,783,810 -12,880,200 67,600 1,102,350 -9,333,454 260,700 -15,840,839 97,500 8,808,666.50 -272,470 -3,505,162 -39,150 -15,876,693 -467,750 -

0.37 72.9 12.32 1.12 0.365 0.365 810 8.58 12.34 1,181 6.28 74 5.38 1.1 7.84 13.96 6.57 3.4 0.057 1.98 105.1 2.9 599 0.88 1.53 185 270.6 0.29

HOLDING FIRMS 0.37 2,720,000 73.85 1,123,050 12.32 4,614,600 1.12 2,000 0.37 850,000 0.37 110,000 815 443,550 8.58 2,936,600 12.46 6,672,100 1,230 153,315 6.4 963,900 74 842,490 5.59 26,000 1.11 3,501,000 7.84 400 14.24 7,687,400 6.6 20,937,900 3.7 8,000 0.057 135,960,000 1.98 220,000 106.1 90,560 3 3,860,000 599 1,400,790 0.88 7,000 1.53 163,000 185 210 272 5,420 0.29 940,000

1,007,600 82,629,628.50 56,981,954 2,240 317,900 40,650 362,818,135 25,351,098 82,952,584 186,013,270 6,286,890 62,995,496 140,102 3,900,720 3,137 109,253,178 138,548,809 27,930 7,834,710 435,600 9,588,343 11,824,320 846,315,815 6,180 249,830 38,850 1,467,596 272,600

-31,222,747 -25,852,866 2,234,270 5,894,719 -44,623,876 -96,889,880 -3,457,650 -20,085,386.50 7,100.00 -9,113,618 -56,637,282 -49,500 -3,263,971 102,002,995 -194,310 -

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

AG FINANCE 3.29 ASIA UNITED 48.75 BANK PH ISLANDS 98.25 BDO UNIBANK 122.8 BRIGHT KINDLE 1.3 CHINABANK 39.95 COL FINANCIAL 16.2 EAST WEST BANK 20.8 FILIPINO FUND 8 IREMIT 1.7 MEDCO HLDG 0.7 METROBANK 80 NTL REINSURANCE 0.73 PB BANK 14.5 PBCOM 26 PHIL NATL BANK 57.2 PHIL STOCK EXCH 238.2 PHILTRUST 113 PSBANK 90 RCBC 38.75 SECURITY BANK 203 SUN LIFE 1,790 UNION BANK 79.15 VANTAGE 1.22

3.31 48.75 98.45 123.1 1.3 40.3 16.2 21.1 8 1.7 0.71 80.15 0.73 14.5 26.25 58 240 113 90 39.3 203 1,790 79.25 1.22

3.2 47 97.5 119.8 1.29 39.95 16.18 20.65 8 1.67 0.67 77.05 0.73 14.5 26 56.9 238 113 90 38.55 200 1,790 79.15 1.22

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

43.75 5.47 0.82 1.41 19.1 0.27 8.54 16.68 165 23.5 59 94.5 2.11 6.09 12.28 12.54 7.85 6.85 6.1 22.5 72.6 12.88 15.98 6.57 1.67 197.1 7.68 4.01 29.95 26.9 15 293.8 0.26 6.74 3.75 8.7 11.42 2.34 7.06 1.94 76 5.03 265 4.95 2.86 13.74 4.33 0.148 1.45 160.5 1.72 1.05

43.75 5.59 0.83 1.44 19.88 0.27 8.66 16.72 165 23.5 60.45 94.5 2.15 6.2 12.6 12.66 8.15 6.87 6.1 22.7 72.65 12.88 15.98 6.7 1.67 199 7.79 4.21 30.35 26.95 15.22 297.4 0.265 6.74 3.8 8.71 11.44 2.35 7.06 2.03 76 5.03 268 5 3.05 13.98 4.33 0.148 1.45 162.6 1.72 1.05

ABACORE CAPITAL 0.375 ABOITIZ EQUITY 73.1 ALLIANCE GLOBAL 12.4 ANGLO PHIL HLDG 1.12 ATN HLDG A 0.365 ATN HLDG B 0.365 AYALA CORP 821.5 COSCO CAPITAL 8.8 DMCI HLDG 12.38 GT CAPITAL 1,219 HOUSE OF INV 6.28 JG SUMMIT 75.85 KEPPEL HLDG A 5.38 LODESTAR 1.13 LOPEZ HLDG 7.85 LT GROUP 14.52 METRO PAC INV 6.69 MJC INVESTMENTS 3.7 PACIFICA 0.06 PRIME ORION 1.98 SAN MIGUEL CORP 107 SEAFRONT RES 3.15 SM INVESTMENTS 659 SOC RESOURCES 0.9 SOLID GROUP 1.55 SYNERGY GRID 185 TOP FRONTIER 271 UNIOIL HLDG 0.29

0.375 73.85 12.46 1.12 0.375 0.37 821.5 8.8 12.54 1,230 6.68 76 5.59 1.15 7.85 14.52 6.7 3.7 0.06 1.98 107 3.29 659.5 0.9 1.55 185 272 0.29

VOLUME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

0.57 4.79 23.8 1.75 3.28 28.9 1.03 0.91 4.89

0.59 4.79 23.8 1.75 3.3 29.8 1.04 0.93 4.89

0.56 4.75 23.1 1.71 3.28 28.85 1.01 0.89 4.77

0.57 4.75 23.1 1.71 3.28 29 1.02 0.93 4.85

6,087,000 70,000 794,400 86,000 1,014,000 27,610,800 7,659,000 65,000 2,188,000

3,466,990 334,540 18,626,590 150,260 3,326,690 808,967,190 7,815,390 58,160 10,562,820

4,759,500 115,500 328,000 485,680,825 -30,600 -3,969,080

2GO GROUP 7.88 ABS CBN 46.8 ACESITE HOTEL 1.51 APC GROUP 0.53 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.056 BERJAYA 5.67 BLOOMBERRY 8 BOULEVARD HLDG 0.066 CALATA CORP 2.38 CEBU AIR 92.5 CENTRO ESCOLAR 9.8 DFNN INC 8.85 GLOBE TELECOM 1,984 GMA NETWORK 6.16 GOLDEN HAVEN 16.2 GRAND PLAZA 15.12 HARBOR STAR 3.4 IMPERIAL 3.97 INTL CONTAINER 75.55 IP EGAME 0.0092 IPM HLDG 9.05 ISLAND INFO 0.193 ISM COMM 1.36 JACKSTONES 3 LEISURE AND RES 3.84 MACROASIA 3.79 MANILA JOCKEY 2.37 MELCO CROWN 5.51 METRO RETAIL 3.78 NOW CORP 2.85 PACIFIC ONLINE 11.3 PAL HLDG 5.33 PAXYS 3.4 PHIL SEVEN CORP 150 PHILWEB 8.93 PLDT 1,579 PREMIUM LEISURE 1.52 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.41 PUREGOLD 45 ROBINSONS RTL 81.2 SBS PHIL CORP 6.16 SSI GROUP 2.33 STI HLDG 1.15 TRAVELLERS 3.2 WATERFRONT 0.4

7.95 46.8 1.51 0.55 0.059 6.5 8.1 0.069 2.38 92.8 9.8 8.85 1,984 6.18 16.3 15.12 3.4 4.11 75.95 0.0092 9.07 0.193 1.36 3.37 3.84 3.98 2.4 5.7 3.78 3.1 11.3 5.35 3.45 151 9.09 1,579 1.53 0.41 45.25 82.2 6.18 2.38 1.17 3.24 0.4

7.88 46 1.45 0.53 0.056 5.3 7.82 0.066 2.3 89 9.8 8.63 1,887 6.1 16.18 15.12 3.24 3.93 74.9 0.0092 9.03 0.191 1.35 3 3.69 3.79 2.26 5.48 3.75 2.85 11.3 5.33 3.31 149.7 8.9 1,535 1.48 0.4 44.5 81.2 6.16 2.33 1.14 3.18 0.38

SERVICES 7.9 14,100 46.15 12,000 1.45 111,000 0.55 21,000 0.057 137,420,000 5.5 434,500 8 6,735,800 0.067 65,470,000 2.33 5,446,000 90.4 1,028,280 9.8 2,000 8.63 31,000 1,910 42,215 6.1 82,500 16.3 145,400 15.12 100 3.33 4,512,000 3.93 117,000 75.1 672,590 0.0092 5,000,000 9.07 386,500 0.191 2,400,000 1.36 163,000 3.2 852,000 3.71 1,517,000 3.93 4,556,000 2.3 524,000 5.7 4,243,500 3.77 295,000 3.1 10,649,000 11.3 4,800 5.33 28,800 3.4 30,000 151 14,260 9 452,200 1,535 117,115 1.52 14,805,000 0.405 2,120,000 45 27,080,600 81.2 76,530 6.16 37,600 2.36 1,599,000 1.16 5,592,000 3.19 289,000 0.385 170,000

111,641 554,675 163,750 11,250 7,906,780 2,583,147 53,925,975 4,395,590 12,588,790 92,942,682.50 19,600 274,130 81,076,155 506,950 2,364,526 1,512 14,919,830 465,600 50,734,406 46,000 3,504,195 458,700 220,540 2,744,500 5,707,420 17,869,760 1,209,320 23,880,658 1,111,560 31,971,400 54,240 153,583 102,020 2,146,383 4,045,163 181,099,930 22,434,560 863,650 1,218,490,535 6,239,643.50 231,726 3,753,990 6,466,520 922,570 66,500

15,717,640 -68,000 71,630 14,213,692 265,500 -17,824,840 16,800 5,573,201 55,350 -5,570 -1,994,860 -2,261,620 179,083 -226,550 131,180 10,200 45,124.00 -9,025 34,903,760 28,880 -849,703,945 -901,556.50 899,380 1,024,730 3,150 -

ABRA MINING APEX MINING ATLAS MINING BENGUET A CENTURY PEAK COAL ASIA HLDG DIZON MINES FERRONICKEL GEOGRACE LEPANTO A LEPANTO B MANILA MINING A MARCVENTURES NICKEL ASIA NIHAO OMICO CORP ORNTL PENINSULA PHILODRILL PX MINING PXP ENERGY SEMIRARA MINING UNITED PARAGON

0.0035 1.89 5.55 1.8 0.46 0.43 10.16 2.63 0.25 0.19 0.21 0.012 1.93 6.38 2.19 0.47 0.9 0.014 9.25 3.29 148 0.0088

0.0037 1.91 5.55 1.85 0.47 0.435 10.16 2.63 0.26 0.194 0.21 0.012 1.95 6.47 2.27 0.47 0.91 0.015 9.26 3.3 149 0.0089

0.0034 1.88 5.47 1.8 0.46 0.425 9.2 2.6 0.249 0.19 0.202 0.011 1.93 6.35 2.14 0.47 0.87 0.014 9.05 3.18 147.4 0.0088

MINING & OIL 0.0035 2,819,000,000 1.89 1,727,000 5.48 98,200 1.85 26,000 0.47 170,000 0.43 2,850,000 9.49 113,100 2.61 426,000 0.26 1,080,000 0.191 18,310,000 0.206 570,000 0.012 1,200,000 1.95 1,025,000 6.4 4,016,700 2.18 620,000 0.47 30,000 0.88 1,266,000 0.014 58,000,000 9.26 577,900 3.24 1,222,000 147.4 191,390 0.0089 17,000,000

10,036,900 3,271,810 542,112 46,850 78,600 1,227,700 1,072,672 1,111,450 274,850 3,506,640 116,360 14,000 1,993,370 25,729,596 1,342,500 14,100 1,108,810 812,100 5,275,447 3,932,710 28,277,237 150,600

-555,330 -2,743 -10,917,130 541,746 7,772,184 71,200

ABS HLDG PDR AC PREF B1 ALCO PREF B DD PREF GLO PREF P GMA HLDG PDR GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B LR PREF MWIDE PREF PF PREF 2 PNX PREF 3A SMC PREF 2D SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2I

45.65 530 106.1 105.1 538 5.84 1,021 1,031 1.05 106 1,018 106 76.75 78 80 79.7

45.65 530 106.1 106 538 5.88 1,021 1,031 1.05 106 1,018 106 76.75 78 81 80

45.2 530 106.1 105.1 538 5.84 1,020 1,031 1.05 105 1,018 106 76.75 78 80 79.7

PREFERRED 45.2 17,700 530 660 106.1 90 106 1,290 538 2,000 5.87 439,200 1,020 500 1,031 1,000 1.05 3,000 105.2 2,400 1,018 60 106 40 76.75 250 78 13,000 81 7,480 79.75 40,870

802,605 349,800 9,549 135,804 1,076,000 2,577,475 510,170 1,031,000 3,150 252,120 61,080 4,240 19,187.50 1,014,000 605,400 3,259,467.50

-802,605 -2,172,000.00 -

LR WARRANT

2.21

2.21

2.16

WARRANTS 2.16 12,000

26,220

-

ITALPINAS MAKATI FINANCE PHILAB HLDG XURPAS

3.86 3.08 7.26 9.63

3.94 3.08 7.26 9.85

3.86 3.06 6.95 9.51

SME 3.93 3.06 7.1 9.51

74,110 15,320 467,614 59,850,006

4,599,304

120.1

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 119.1 119.1 3,660

436,769

-

NAME PHIL REALTY PRIMEX CORP ROBINSONS LAND ROCKWELL SHANG PROP SM PRIME HLDG STA LUCIA LAND SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND

MS FIRST METRO ETF 120.1

8990 HLDG A BROWN ARANETA PROP ARTHALAND CORP AYALA LAND BELLE CORP CENTURY PROP CITYLAND DEVT CROWN EQUITIES CYBER BAY DOUBLEDRAGON EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO FILINVEST LAND GLOBAL ESTATE IRC PROP MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED PHIL ESTATES

6.65 1 2.47 1.42 35.95 3.82 0.51 1.27 0.159 0.55 53.25 0.7 0.163 1.7 0.98 1.25 3.68 0.171 0.295

6.8 1 2.47 1.53 36.1 3.82 0.52 1.3 0.159 0.55 54 0.7 0.163 1.7 0.99 1.26 3.75 0.174 0.32

6.65 0.98 2.47 1.4 35.5 3.75 0.5 1.27 0.158 0.54 53 0.7 0.152 1.66 0.98 1.22 3.68 0.167 0.295

PROPERTY 6.8 11,700 0.98 1,704,000 2.47 18,000 1.51 29,477,000 35.5 5,354,000 3.75 1,903,000 0.5 3,394,000 1.3 86,000 0.159 4,500,000 0.55 3,002,000 53.4 152,570 0.7 3,000 0.163 570,000 1.66 6,196,000 0.98 2,580,000 1.26 20,000 3.68 8,106,000 0.168 15,420,000 0.3 300,000

78,210 1,680,440 44,460 43,636,320 191,492,200 7,202,090 1,706,160 110,900 713,930 1,647,050 8,121,011.50 2,100 87,940 10,360,540 2,530,400 24,500 29,934,380 2,626,130 91,250

0 98,000 -1,449,710 -21,401,575 -176,280 23,500 -39,000 -58,630 -3,488,180 10,026,220 -

TRADING SUMMARY FINANCIAL

SHARES

14,107,908

INDUSTRIAL

147,276,935

HOLDING FIRMS

196,363,301

PROPERTY

132,889,947

SERVICES

318,013,385

MINING & OIL

2,930,724,737

GRAND TOTAL

3,745,660,704

19,000 5,000 66,500 6,190,200

VALUE 1,804.34 (down) 33.43 1,035,409,590.125 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 10,907.15 (down) 119.52 1,470,603,727.22 HOLDING FIRMS 7,088.22 (down) 206.00 2,045,129,219.36 PROPERTY 3,248.48 (down) 18.31 SERVICES 1,462.74 (down) 21.32 1,317,193,187.65 MINING & OIL 12,347.36 (down) 19.68 1,993,926,218.42 PSEI 7,146.27 (down) 149.18 89,967,913.8346 All Shares Index 4,343.39 (down) 59.42 8,013,074,623.205 Gainers:72; Losers: 102; Unchanged: 47; Total: 221

Wilcon pegs IPO price at P5-P5.68

By Jenniffer B. Austria WILCON Depot Inc. set an indicative price of P5 to P5.68 per share for its planned initial public offering scheduled this month.

Wilcon at this price range is expected to raise between P6.79 billion and P7.92 billion in proceeds from the planned sale of 1.393 billion primary shares.

The company will announce the final price on March 17.

First Metro Investments Corp. and BDO Capital and Investments Corp., the joint underwriters for the planned IPO, said they expected strong demand for the Wilcon IPO from local investors.

“We have no plans to get cornerstone investors because we expect strong demand for this IPO given the positive prospects of the company,” BDO Capital president Eduardo Francisco said.

Wilcon plans to use the proceeds from the maiden offering to finance the construction of 28 new stores scheduled for opening over the next five years.

The company this year will open seven stores in Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban, Silang, General Trias and other areas with high growth potential. Wilcon’s average investment per store is estimated at P250 million.

Wilcon president Lorraine Belo-Cincohan said in a press briefing the company would aim to be a nationwide player over the next five years with a total of 65 stores across the country.

The planned expansion will enable the company to more than double its net selling area to 530,000 square meters from current 250,000 sq. m. Wilcon has 37 stores, mostly in Metro Manila, serving mostly retail buyers.

ATI’s net profit up 7.8% to to P1.91b

By Darwin G. Amojelar ASIAN Terminals Inc. said Friday net income in 2016 rose 7.8 percent to P1.91 billion from P1.77 billion in 2015 on higher cargo volume handled by its international gateway ports in Manila and Batangas.

Without the foreign exchange impact, per accounting rules brought in since 2013, ATI’s net income would have been P2.10 billion, up 12.6 percent from P1.86 billion in 2015, on a like-for-like basis.

ATI’s revenues rose 13.5 percent to P9.24 billion last year from P8.15 billion in 2015, driven by robust international container cargoes in Manila South Harbor and Batangas Container Terminal, supplemented by strong international roll-on/roll-off cargoes in Batangas Port.

Manila South Harbor in 2016 handled 19 percent more international containers compared than in 2015 on its way to breaching the 1.0 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) mark for the first time in three decades.

This was also driven by significant productivity gains which ensured port utilizations were efficiently maintained below an average 65 percent for the year. Revenues from South Harbor international containerized cargoes grew 18.2 percent from 2015.

Batangas Port handled over 200,000 completely-build car units (CBUs) in 2016—its highest car throughput in a single year—representing over 42 percent growth on 2015. This boosted Batangas Port’s 2016 revenues by 16.1 percent compared woth the previous year.

Home / Design

B3

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

FURNISHING, FITTINGS INDUSTRY AIM FOR BIGGER SLICE OF PIE IN 2017

By Othel V. Campos

G

rowing with the construction sector, the furnishings, finishes and outfitters industry is expecting to grow double digit in 2017.

A member of the Philippine Constructors’ Association (PCA), the furnishing and furniture industry is composed of mostly micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs).

Association chairman Jorge Consunji said furnishings and furnitures have been posting growth year-on-year due to bullish prospects and increased activities in infrastructure and construction in the country, “A big part of our role in PCA as a trade organization is to stay in touch with trends – both local and global – so that we can steer our members and the rest of the industry to where business opportunities are,” he said Monday.

“Right now, the market for furnishings and finishing is strong because there’s a lot of demand for new office, residential, and retail development. This is why you see foreign brands like IKEA coming into the country,” he added.

Drawing from sustained confidence in the Philippine property sector as well as the completion of various projects all across the archipelago, the interior and fit-

BED AND BREAKFAST, IN STYLE. PHILFFEX highlights products and solutions that cater to the needs of interior and fit-out contractors. These include the latest Filipino creative trends in furnishings and fixtures for bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchen, and living room; lighting solutions; luxury lifestyle; surfaces and finishes for walls, floors, and ceilings; as well as related technologies and services.

out construction industry is more than optimistic about its prospects for the year.

The local construction industry right now is using both imported and local furnishings and finishes, but the drive to use more of locally produced furnishings is gaining ground with the government campaign to localize more industries.

Consunji said the association’s experience in running trade shows has given their organization a sense of duty to the industry, always ensuring that there is a venue for suppliers.

“We want our local talents and interior finishes to get exposure and to get their own slice

FURNITURE SHOWCASE. Press conference for the ongoing Philippine Finishing and Furnishings Expo (PHILFFEX) at the SMX Convention Center. The trade show showcases the specific needs of furnishing and outfitting industries via Philconstruct, the longest-running construction show in the country.

of this market. This is why we are a staging a furnishing show, to serve as their business platform.,” he said.

The Philippine Constructors Association is responsible for over 70 percent of the annual construction turnover in the country.

LEAK SOLUTIONS. Living in the Philippines, which goes through months of

SUSTAINABILITY ADVOCATE. Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) was listed recently in the Sustainability Yearbook 2017 as one of the

most sustainable companies across the globe. The yearbook was established in 2004 and has since been released annually by RobecoSAM, a specialist in sustainability investing. Each year, RobecoSAM surveys over 3,400 listed companies worldwide that are eligible for inclusion in one of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). The companies are asked about the economic, environmental, and social factors that contributed to their success, which are not covered by conventional financial analyses.

The Sustainability Yearbook helps investors identify companies that are strongly positioned to create long-term shareholder value. Anvaya Cove (shown in photo) underscores the company’s legacy of sustainable development through the seamless integration of the site’s natural landscape into its masterplan.

monsoon every year, means long days of rain. The smartest way to protect your house is to apply sealants to repair cracks and leaks. But most consumers have different standards of quality when it comes to sealants. Since they discover leaks only when they’ve started already, they think the quick drying variant is the most effective. It is not. The sealant that easily dries up and hardens like cement has a tendency to crack because it becomes brittle. Sure Seal’s “iwas crack” comes in handy. It is an all purpose “elastomeric sealant”, which has “iwas crack” technology. This slow-curing sealant is transformed into a tough, rubber-like gasket which offers reasonable motion, contraction and expansion, without cracking, or losing adhesion.

SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED. When Daiichi Properties broke ground for the

DMCI BAGS QUADRUPLE A LICENSE. DMCI Project Developers Inc. recently became the country’s first real-estate

firm to be recognized as a quadruple A contractor. DMCI Homes’ upgraded category was released by Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB), the implementing arm of the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP) under Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The quad A license is currently the highest given to firms that satisfy the institution’s requirements. This also allows the AAAA builder-developer to qualify to be invited to foreign bids. “The AAAA license signifies our building capabilities. We are a company of builders, through and through, and we are proud of it,” said DMCI Homes AVP Jan Venturanza. Shown in photo is the Mirea Residences in Pasig City, one of DMCI’s developments.

Finance Centre in Bonifacio Global City in 2014, it promised an office building that will have modern yet sustainable features. Almost three years later, Daiichi Properties delivered on the promise with the recent topping-off rites for the Finance Centre. The building, located at the corner of 26th and 9th avenues in Bonifacio Global City, will be completed in 2018. At the event were (from left): Engr. Jose Lucio Mendoza, AVP operations, EEI; Engr. Andres Tumbokon III, VP operations, EEI; Engr. Antonio Pascua, senior executive vice president, EEI; Salvador Uy, president, Daiichi Properties;, Charmaine Uy, senior vice president, Daiichi Properties; Arch. Celedonio Jose, director, Aidea; Reynaldo Fuentez Jr., VP for project management group, Daiichi Properties; Engr. Dennis Abcede Jr., vice president, Abcede & Associates; and Engr. Bernard Parajado, project director, Daiichi Properties.

PERSONAL BESTS.

Alveo president Jennylle S. Tupaz is optimistic about 2017, and sees a recordbreaking scenario with the company’s upcoming launches.

Joel D. Lacsamana, Editor jdlacsamana@gmail.com

B4

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

RECENT OFFERING.

Park Triangle Corporate Plaza to adorn BGC.

ALVEO

BULLISH ON 2017 PROSPECTS CELEBRATES 15TH YEAR WITH MILESTONES, BEST PRACTICES

T

O celebrate its 15th year in the property development business, Ayala Land subsidiary, Alveo, last week announced its new developments in Alabang, Cavite, Bulacan, and Cagayan de Oro, as well as plans to strengthen its presence in major growth centers nationwide.

Jennylle S. Tupaz, Alveo Land president told media in a briefing at its Bonifacio Global City (BGC) headquarters that sales take-up in 2016 reached P38 billion, with nine projects worth P22B offered as fresh inventory, consisting of residential lots and condominium units launched in Pampanga, Makati, Taguig, Laguna, Cavite, and Davao.

“We have been generating personal bests in the first two months of the year. And with all the planned launches, 2017 will be a record-breaking year for the company,” promised Tupaz.

She added that the company is confident about reaching its tar-

gets, especially with strong investor confidence and steady economic growth in the country.

Sticking to compelling formats

MASTERPLAN AWAY. Alveo consistently designs masterplanned communities, such as this one in Nuvali, with living and work spaces tailored to the needs of its market.

NEW EDUCATION BUILDING IN FEU DIIMAN. Far

Eastern University Diliman (FEU Diliman) recently celebrated its 23rd anniversary with a groundbreaking activity for a new Basic Education Department Building, at its Mapayapa Village campus in Quezon City. Led by FEU chairman Aurelio Montinola III, the event was attended by members of the school’s board of trustees, administrators, faculty members, and students. Housed within a 10-hectare area, the new facilities will feature a blend of play and learning for the early grades, and collaborative learning for junior high school. “This added structure to the Diliman campus is a symbol of our renewed commitment to address the demands and challenges of 21st century learning,” said FEU Diliman executive director Albert III Cabasada. FEU Diliman was established in 1994 to commemorate the birth centennial of Reyes, the institution’s first president. The college offers degree courses in Accountancy, Business, and IT, as well as elementary and secondary education.

“We value the strength of being an integral part of mixed- use communities, a position that is hard to match in terms of providing holistic lifestyles,” she said. “We will be launching more compelling formats in the future.”

Alveo has a strong presence in most of Ayala Land’s masterplanned estates, including Circuit Makati, BGC, Nuvali, Vertis North, Arca South and Vermosa.

Its office-for- sale projects have also been quite successful, with recent offerings such as Park Triangle Corporate Plaza and Alveo Park Triangle Tower in BGC, The Stiles Enterprise Plaza in Circuit Makati, and Alveo Financial Tower along Ayala Avenue.

LGUs

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor Roger M. Garcia, Assistant Editor jimbo.gulle@gmail.com mslocalgov@gmail.com SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

C1

Davao City turns 80 today,

shows it’s more than Duterte stronghold

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera

D

AVAO CITY—For the last three decades, this city has been known as the stronghold of the Duterte clan, which has molded Davao into what it is today.

But Davao City is more than just the “baluarte” of President Rodrigo Duterte, as its history will show.

Exactly 80 years ago, on March 11, 1937, a new city in southern Mindanao was born.

Davao City was formally inaugurated at Quezon Park here after Commonwealth Act No. 51, “The Charter of the City of Davao,” was approved on Oct. 16, 1936.

The inauguration was attended by then-Secretary of the Interior, Elpidio Quirino, who would become the country’s sixth president. He presided over the formal proclamation of Davao as a city and administered the oath to its first city mayor, Santiago Artiaga, and the seven members of the first city council.

City historians note that although Davao’s elevation into cityhood was due to the increasing number of foreigners gaining control of its lands, the move to make Davao a city was “more of an indication that Filipinos were

capable of running a government of their own.”

The triumph that Davaoeños felt with their newly earned autonomy was manifested through their elation and participation in events initiated by the local government and the private sector.

On inauguration day, residents came out “in their best attire to witness, join and perform their assigned roles” during a threehour civic parade, news articles on that day noted.

The parade’s route was limited, as Davao only had three major streets then: Uyanguren Street, Claveria Street and Hospital Avenue, which is now J.P. Laurel Avenue, said 89-year-old Librada “Libby” Rufo, one of those who witnessed the parade.

The center of the civic parade was at the oldest street in Davao, San Pedro Street, named after the city’s oldest church along its stretch.

From then till now, the Parada Dabawenyo has been one of the most awaited events of the Foundation Day celebration.

President Rodrigo Duterte

Both private and government groups have joined the parade to showcase various floats that embodied their culture, ideas, or products.

This year’s Parada is different from previous parades, however.

The government said it will parade just eight floats, each underscoring the different cultures and traditions that made a big impact on Davao.

The city is known to be a melting pot of different cultures, since most Davaoeños

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte

are migrants from other parts of the country, especially when the Americans developed largescale plantations around it that required manpower from as far as Luzon. Foreigners have also made the city their springboard into other areas in Mindanao.

To honor the different cultures and races that made the city what it is today, the Araw ng Davao committee created the “Pasundayag,” a show that presents the different cultures of the city’s migrants. Japanese, Chinese and

Santiago Artiaga, Davao’s first city mayor

Indians were among the nationalities that joined the event.

City Tourism Officer Regina Rosa Tecson said it is just right to honor the different nationalities who have influenced Davao, “since through them the city has created a good image in the international community.”

“The Araw ng Davao celebration is about reconnecting with our roots and being proud that we are Dabawenyos,” Tecson said.

This year’s theme is “Stand Tall, United, Resilient,” and is the

brainchild of Mayor Sara Duterte.

In a statement, she said the theme “is to remember the atrocities Davaoeños have survived over the past years,” perhaps referring to the bombing of the Davao Night Market last year that killed 14 people.

But through the years, the mayor noted that Davao City “has created an image that each Davaoeṅo can be proud of, and have showed that the city is more than just a hometown of President Duterte.”

C2

LGUs

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

Manila police get new firearms worth P20m M

By Sandy Araneta

ANILA Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada has again procured P20 million worth of brand new firearms for members of the Manila Police District to “improve the city police’s firepower against armed criminals.”

With the latest shipment of firearms, Estrada said “there will be no more policemen in the city that have no service firearms of their own.”

“With our new order of brand new firearms, all 4,600 uni-

formed personnel of our city police force are now armed and equipped, ready to fulfill their duty of protecting the city and upholding the law,” he said.

Last October, the city government bought for the MPD 400

B)

Republic of the Philippines ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION San Miguel Avenue, Pasig City

EXCLUDING PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S CUSTOMER TYPE UNITS

IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION FOR APPROVAL OF ADJUSTMENT IN RATES PURSUANT TO THE TARIFF GLIDE PATH (TGP) RULES, WITH PRAYER FOR PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY,

Demand Charge

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Notice is hereby given that on 27 May 2014, South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative, Inc. (SOCOTECO II) filed an application dated 20 May 2014 seeking the Commission’s approval of adjustment in rates pursuant to the Tariff Glide Path (TGP) Rules, with prayer for the issuance of a provisional authority.

-

59.7343

59.7343

PhP/kWh

0.4140

-

-

Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Meter/Mo.

5.0000

54.9228

54.9228

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

0.3460

-

-

12. In support of the foregoing computations, the cooperative is submitting herewith the following documents, which are being made integral parts hereof, to wit: Annex No.

A to A-2

Sometime in 2009, SOCOTECO II filed with the Honorable Commission an application for approval of the proposed adjustment in its rates pursuant to the Rules for Setting the Electric Cooperatives’ Wheeling Rates (RSEC-WR); The Honorable Commission approved the application, granting the cooperative the following initial tariffs on its Distribution, Supply and Metering (DSM) Charges, among others, to wit: LOW VOLTAGE COM

IND’L

P/B

H/V Street Lights

IND’L

Demand Charge

P/kW

B

MFSR - Sections B and E (2010-2013)

C

Billing Determinants Template (kWh Sales, No. of Customers, kW Demand) ( 2010-2013)

D

Sample Bills per customer type (2010-2013)

E

Regional CPI (2010-2013)

F

RFSC/Reinvestment Fund Utilization (2011-2013)

G

Consumer Complaints (Complaint Tracking Form) (2011-2013)

H

Audited Financial Statements (2010- 2013)

Annex No.

COM

P/B

I

Proof of furnishing copies of the Application to the Sangguniang Panlungsod of General Santos City and Sangguniang Panlalawigan of South Cotabato and Sarangani

K to K-2

Publication of the Application in a newspaper of general circulation in SOCOTECO II’s franchise area or where it principally operates, with Affidavit of Publication

Supply Charges: PhP/cus/mo

Supply System Charge

PhP/kWh

59.7343 59.7343 59.7343 59.7343 59.7343 59.7343 59.7343 0.4140

Metering Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/meter/mo 5.0000 54.9228 54.9228 54.9228 54.9228 54.9228 54.9228 54.9228

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

5.

0.3460

_

_

On May 2, 2011, the Honorable Commission promulgated the Tariff Glide Path (TGP) Rules pursuant to Article 7 of the RSEC-WR whereby during the regulatory period, the rate of the Electric Cooperatives (ECs) per group shall be adjusted using the following formula, to wit:

The TGP is a rate adjustment mechanism which provides an opportunity for the ECs to adjust their rates once every three (3) years. The rate adjustments may occur at the start of the fourth year of the first Regulatory Period and every three years thereafter.

Under the TGP, the regulatory period is six (6) years for each entry Group. For the Second Entrant Group, the first regulatory period is from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2017. SOCOTECO II belongs to the Second Entrant Group.

Further under the TGP Rules, the concerned EC shall use the following formula in determining the TGP for the first to third years of the Regulatory Period, to wit:

Residential

Low Voltage

Higher Voltage

Distribution Charges: Demand Charge

PhP/kW

Distribution System Charge PhP/kWh

-

-

120.0950

0.2784

0.3797

-

Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Customer/Mo

Supply System Charge

PhP/kWh

-

60.5108

60.5108

0.4194

-

-

Metering Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Meter/Mo.

5.0650

55.6368

55.6368

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

0.3505

-

-

B)

EXCLUDING PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S CUSTOMER TYPE UNITS

Low Residential Voltage

Higher Voltage

Distribution Charges: Demand Charge

PhP/kW

Distribution System Charge PhP/kWh

-

-

118.5538

0.2748

0.3748

-

Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Customer/Mo

-

59.7343

59.7343

Supply System Charge

PhP/kWh

0.4140

-

-

Metering Charges:

TGPA = TGPn+ TGPn+1 TGPn+2 where

Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Meter/Mo.

5.0000

54.9228

54.9228

TGPn = ln – Xn + Sn

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

0.3460

-

-

N= the first year of the Regulatory Period and succeeding Regulatory Periods

Other reliefs, just and equitable in the premises are likewise prayed for.

Except that for the first two years of the First Regulatory Period, “X” will be equal to zero and thereafter shall not be less than zero. The TGP calculated for each of the three years will be summed to determine the possible rate adjustment starting on the Fourth Year of the current Regulatory Period.

9.

WITH PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S” CUSTOMER TYPE

The TGP is intended as a cap and the EC may move up to the cap, if it is a positive adjustment. If the cap is lower than the current average tariff, a reduction may be implemented.

8.

A.

UNITS

The Index “I”, shall be an escalation factor to be used in adjusting the rates to reflect the combined impact of inflation and load factor. There shall be an efficiency factor “X” to account for the operational efficiency of the ECs in setting their rates. There shall be a performance incentive “S” which shall reward or penalize the EC for above or below standard performance, respectively.

7.

PRAYER WHEREFORE, premises considered, it is most respectfully prayed of this Honorable Commission that pending evaluation of the instant application or after due notice and hearing, as the case may be, SOCOTECO II be allowed to implement either of the following two (2) alternative proposed new rates for its Distribution, Supply and Metering (DSM) Charges, starting January 2015 and up to December 2017, to wit:

_

Tariff x (1+ index “I”-Efficiency Factor “X” + Performance Incentive “S”)

6.

Nature of Document Affidavit in support of the prayer for provisional authority

J to J-2 118.5538 118.5538 118.5538

0.2748 0.3748 0.3748 0.3748 0.3748

Retail Customer Charge

Nature of Document Proposed TGP Calculations and supporting documents using prescribed templates: Index “I” Calculation Efficiency Factor “X” Calculation Performance Incentive “S” Calculation

13. Finally, in compliance with the pre-filing requirements for the instant application, applicant is likewise submitting herewith the following documents, which are being made integral parts hereof, to wit:

Distribution Charges: Distribution System PhP/kWh Charge

-

PhP/Customer/Mo

It holds an exclusive franchise issued by the National Electrification Commission (NEC) to operate an electric light and power distribution system in the City of General Santos and two (2) municipalities of the province of South Cotabato, namely: Polomolok and Tupi, and the seven (7) municipalities of the province of Sarangani, namely: Alabel, Malungon, Malapatan, Glan, Maasim, Kiamba, and Maitum;

RES

118.5538

Supply System Charge

Applicant is a non-stock, non-profit electric cooperative duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the Republic of the Philippines, with principal offices at Jose Catolico Sr. Street, Lagao, General Santos City;

RES

0.3748

Retail Customer Charge

SOCOTECO II alleged the following in its Application:

Current Customer Class

0.2748

11. Consequently, applicant respectfully prays that it be allowed to implement either of the above two alternative calculated DSM rates, either provisionally or permanently, starting January 2015 and up to the next regulatory reset;

TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES:

New Customer Class

Higher Voltage

Metering Charges:

Applicant.

4.

Low Voltage

Supply Charges:

x-----------------------------------------------------x

3.

PhP/kW

Distribution System Charge PhP/kWh

SOUTH COTABATO II ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC. (SOCOTECO II),

2.

Residential

Distribution Charges:

ERC CASE NO. 2014-069 RC

1.

zine capacity of 17 rounds in the standard magazine, low weight, and is “easy and quick to be used in high-pressure situations.”

He said Estrada has given the MPD more than 500 brand new firearms since he assumed office in 2013.

Before the second P20-million order of firearms, Coronel said around 200 MPD policemen still had no service weapons. “With the issuance of these new firearms, this 200, we’ll have a 100 percent fill-up. Hopefully, they will be purchased and delivered within the first semester,” he said.

Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistols, 60 M4 carbines (a shorter and lighter variant of the popular M16A2 Armalite assault rifle), eight Sig Sauer sniper rifles, ammunition, and other necessary gear and equipment, also worth P20 million.

MPD director Chief Supt. Joel Coronel said they expect to receive delivery of the new guns this semester, which are mostly Glock 17 pistols and sniper rifles.

Coronel said the Glock 17 is the most widely used law enforcement pistol worldwide, with an above-average maga-

Applying the methodology embodied in the TGP Rules, SOCOTECO II calculated the values of the “I”, “X” and “S” and came up with the following results, to wit: “I”

“X”

“S”

TGP A

TGPA (Excluding “S”)

The Commission has set the Application for determination of compliance with the jurisdictional requirements, expository presentation, Pre-trial Conference, and presentation of evidence on 29 March 2017 (Wednesday) at nine o’clock in the morning (9:00 A.M.) at SOCOTECO II’s principal office in Jose Catolico Sr. Street, Lagao, General Santos City.

All other persons who may want their views known to the Commission with respect to the subject matter of the case may file their Opposition or Comment thereon at any stage of the proceeding before Applicant rests its case, subject to the requirements under Rule 9 of the 2006 Rules of Practice and Procedure. No particular form of Opposition or Comment is required, but the document, letter, or writing should contain the following:

Year 2012

0.00%

0,00%

-0.90%

-0.90%

0.00%

1)

Year 2013

0.00%

0.90%

0.90%

The name and address of such person;

0.00%

0.00%

2)

Year 2014

A concise statement of the Opposition or Comment; and

0.00%

0.00%

1.30%

1.30%

0.00%

3)

The grounds relied upon.

1.30%

0.00%

Net Results

10. Applying the above values resulted in adjustments on SOCOTECO II’s DSM Rates, as follows: A.

WITH PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S” CUSTOMER TYPE UNITS

Residential

Low Voltage

Higher Voltage

Distribution Charges: Demand Charge

PhP/kW

Distribution System Charge PhP/kWh

-

-

120.0950

0.2784

0.3797

-

All such persons who wish to have a copy of the Application may request from Applicant that they be furnished with the same, prior to the date of the initial hearing.

Applicant is hereby directed to furnish all those making such request with copies of the Application and its attachments, subject to the reimbursement of reasonable photocopying costs. Any such person may likewise examine the Application and other pertinent records filed with the Commission during the standard office hours.

WITNESS, the Honorable Chairman JOSE VICENTE B. SALAZAR, and the Honorable Commissioners ALFREDO J. NON, GLORIA VICTORIA C. YAP-TARUC, JOSEFINA PATRICIA A. MAGPALE-ASIRIT, and GERONIMO D. STA. ANA, Energy Regulatory Commission, this 8th day of March 2017 in Pasig City.

Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Customer/Mo

-

60.5108

60.5108

Supply System Charge

PhP/kWh

0.4194

-

-

Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Meter/Mo.

5.0650

55.6368

55.6368

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

0.3505

-

-

Metering Charges:

ATTY. NATHAN J. MARASIGAN Chief of Staff Office of the Chairman and CEO

Standard – March 11 & 18, 2017

‘Revoke franchises of obstructing PUVs’

By Rio N. Araja A QUEZON City councilor on Friday urged the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to revoke the franchise of any public utility vehicle obstructing traffic.

The 36-member City Council passed Resolution No. 6957 of 2016, calling on the LTFRB to revoke the certificate of public convenience or franchise “of a passenger jeepney, bus, taxi and other PUV that uses the public road, street or highway as a parking area, terminal or garage.”

District 2 Councilor Ranulfo Ludovica authored the resolution, citing as necessary the need for the transport bureau to exercise its authority over public conveyances engaged in the obstructing practice, in a bid to improve traffic flow and ensure public safety, especially in Quezon City.

“While public roads, streets and highways are designed for motorists, commuters and pedestrians, it has been observed that many public utility vehicles are using these areas as their parking spaces, terminal or garage, not only during daytime but also during nighttime,” Ludovica said.

He sought the assistance of the LTFRB to put a stop on such practice, saying the agency is primarily tasked to oversee the

issuance and cancellation of the franchises of the public land transportation services provided by these motorized vehicles.

Under the LTFRB rules, only PUVs operating with proper garage spaces are to be issued franchises.

Meanwhile, Quezon City takes the forefront of local government participation in the country’s fight against cancer as the Philippine Cancer Society chose it as its partner for the 2017 Relay for Life Campaign Against Cancer.

Mayor Herbert Bautista, who also sits as PCS chairman, was invited to join this year’s participants for a walk to highlight the formal opening of the 24-hour relay yesterday at the Quezon Memorial Circle.

Relay for Life is a global fund-raising event where participants take turn walking around a track or a designated path to signify that cancer never sleeps.

Mayor Bautista has enjoined the participation of city hall employees as well as barangay officials and workers in the March 10 event, which has as theme: “Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back.”

Quezon City has been hosting the anti-cancer campaign for more than 10 consecutive years in the hope of raising funds to support the various programs of the PCS, which organizers said, would also be beneficial for QC residents.

IN BRIEF Man nabbed with half-kilo of shabu CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—A person was arrested with more than a half-kilo of suspected shabu, with an estimated street value of about P2.3 million, in a buy-bust operation conducted by the Divisoria police here late Wednesday afternoon.

Inspector Jessie Palencia, deputy station commander of the Divisoria police, said the suspect, Sobair Mimbalawag, was caught red-handed with the illegal drug during the operation at his house in Barangay Balulang.

Taken from Mimbalawag were 10 sachets of the alleged methamphetamine hydrochloride, weighing 512.3 grams. The suspect is considered a high-value target and it took the police several months to conduct surveillance on him, said Senior Inspector Maricris Mulat, Divisoria police station chief.

Mulat said they also confiscated bank deposit slips, some indicating amounts of P300,000. Lance Baconguis

IP communities OK Hedcor hydro project LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—The 19-megawatt Bineng Combined Hydropower Plant of Hedcor in La Trinidad has received the approval of its three host barangays in February.

Barangay Bineng, Alno, and Alapang signed separate memoranda of agreement with Hedcor reiterating their trust and support to the company, the power firm said in a statement.

The barangays will receive a share from the hydropower plant’s income, which increases every five years. Hedcor will also shoulder the maintenance works for the existing farm-tomarket road in the area and will open additional roads and footpaths for the benefit of the host communities.

“We are thankful for the communities’ acceptance and trust.

The project is one step ahead in driving change for a better world, which we advocate,” says Chris Faelnar, senior vice president, Hedcor. Dexter A. See

Mom strangling kids shocks family groups TUGUEGARAO CITY—Family planning and responsible parenthood advocates here were shocked by news that a 35-yearold woman strangled three of her four children to death in Burgos, Isabela last week.

“It’s a very sad news, tragic,” says Cagayan Valley Regional Director Angelito S. Obcena of the Commission on Population on Friday.

Asked if the killing has something to do with poverty and population control issues, Obcena said “there are varied factors that should be investigated by a competent professional—in this case, a psychiatrist—to ascertain a conclusion.”

A source familiar with the incident told Manila Standard the woman may have suffered from postpartum psychosis, a known psychiatric emergency among women who just gave birth. Abe Almirol

Probe sought for rape among IPs BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—Provincial officials have asked the Provincial Peace and Order Council to probe the reported increase of rape incidents that do not reach the proper courts in upland communities and intensify multisectoral efforts in the government’s campaign to reduce these cases.

Sta. Fe Mayor Liwayway Caramat said rape incidents in their municipality “are blocked and unserved with proper justice” because of the traditional practice of indigenous peoples to settle these crimes within their communities.

“There are cases of this magnitude in our town that are settled through the cultural practice of our tribes, and therefore it does not provide justice for the victims,” Caramat bared in a PPOC meeting.

Quezon Mayor Dolores Binwag backed Caramat’s claim, saying there were similar cases in her town.

The Philippine National Police recently reported the rise of rape cases, some incestuous, in IP communities in the upland municipalities. Ben Moses Ebreo

Standard

TODAY

Fight to repopulate deserted interiors SARNAGO―Sarnago lost its last resident 37 years ago but Jose Maria Carrascosa and his association are trying hard to revive the village, an uphill battle in one of Spain’s most depopulated regions.

A rural exodus, which began in the 1950s as people moved to find work in factories, has left some parts of Spain with just two people per square kilometer -- the same density as in Siberia.

This is the case in parts of Castile, a vast region in central Spain where Sarnago is located, in the northern Aragon region and the southern provinces of Extremadura.

It makes Spain a “strange country within Europe” since no other similarly sized nation on the continent has such demographic deserts, Spanish writer Sergio del Molino wrote in his travel book “La Espana Vacia” (“Empty Spain”), published last year.

“The depopulation here was brutal,” said Jesus Hernandez, the mayor of San Pedro Manrique, a larger town of around 600 residents near Sarnago.

The emigration from the region was especially fueled by a decision in 1965 while Spain was in the grips of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to plant 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres) of pine trees to feed the paper industry, which pushed out cereal farming.

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

World

Manila

Two years later, Carrascosa’s father moved his family to Tudela, a town further east in the fertile Ebro Valley.

But wind-swept Sarnago, which at one point was home to about 400 people including 30 children, has not been forgotten by its former residents, who have restored 25 of its 40 houses and now have running water and access to electricity.

Carrascosa, who heads an association that seeks to reverse the village’s fortunes, is proud of his three-bedroom home in Sarnago, which he visits regularly for short stays.

Through meetings, a magazine and social media, he encourages other former residents to maintain a link with the village too.

The restoration of homes, though, has still not led to any permanent residents, mainly due to lack of public services in the village, located some 200 kilometers northeast of Madrid.

The nearest public health center is four km away in San Pedro Manrique but offers only basic medical care.

There is a primary school there as well, with 66 children, but no high school.

Jesus Catalan, a 71-year-old pensioner, and his wife live in Sarnago from March to October but leave in winter when temperatures can drop to minus 15 degrees C (5 degrees F). AFP

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

C3

Kidnappings beset war-scarred Kabul K ABUL―The bruises, scabs and chain markings have long faded but Haji Ghulam is still visibly traumatized by his month-long abduction, one of dozens of victims of a violent crime surge that has beset the Afghan capital.

While the relatively rare kidnappings of foreigners instantly grab international headlines, this chilling wave of abductions of ordinary Afghans such as Ghulam remains a hidden scourge that has put the city on edge.

Afghan police, already stretched on multiple insurgent battlefronts, are struggling to rein in the kidnapping rings that target not just the wealthy -- but anyone who appears to have money.

“On a cold spring day last year I was driving home from work with my son and cousin when we were waylaid by two cars with armed men in military uniforms,” Ghulam, a 53-year-old professional money changer, said with a stammer, his lips and face twitching.

“I thought they were policemen, but they beat my son and cousin and dragged me to their vehicle. I was blindfolded, slapped, beaten. They drove for an hour and dropped me in a tiny hole in the ground,” he told AFP at his home in Kabul.

His kidnappers tortured him and sent his recorded screams to his family, demanding a ransom of $2 million, a gargantuan sum in one of the world’s poorest countries. He was fed little more than a piece of bread every day.

A month later, security officials discovered Ghulam in that hole in a small house on the outskirts of Kabul, maimed, emaciated and enchained. His kidnappers are still at large.

Ghulam, who now walks with a limp and uses an armoured vehicle and private guards for his protection, is one of the lucky ones.

In one case, a 14-year-old Afghan boy was abducted and then brutally murdered, his body

dumped in downtown Kabul. In another incident, a city shopkeeper’s ear was sliced off by his kidnapper and sent to his family to press them to pay up.

Recently a Kabul businessman sold off his entire property to pay ransom for his kidnapped son, but he remains in captivity.

Reliable official statistics are hard to obtain, but Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industries says around 80 businessmen were kidnapped around the country last year. Experts believe many other cases went unreported for fear of reprisals from the kidnappers.

Kidnappings and extortion have become a cottage industry, while car thefts are common.

In fact Kabul, is a city so riddled with crime that displaying wealth can be tantamount to a death sentence.

The situation is exacerbated by rampant poverty and rising unemployment.

The kidnapping rings appear to be feeding off growing insecurity as Afghan law enforcement remain stretched by the Taliban, Islamic State jihadists and other militant groups.

The fledgling and under resourced police force is struggling to effectively combat crime, which has contributed to an unprecedented exodus of Afghans towards Europe.

“In addition to the threat of bombings, the city is plagued by kidnappers and extortionists,” Haji Zeerak, a spokesman for money changers in Kabul’s Shahzada market, told AFP. “Because of this business is down and more people are fleeing the country,” he said, adding that nearly 100 money changers were kid-

napped last year.

In another shocking incident, armed men recently stole $1.2 million from a money changer in Kabul after stopping his car. When the money changers took the issue to President Ashraf Ghani, police arrested a criminal gang said to be behind it but the money is yet to be recovered, Zeerak said.

Criminal gangs often sell abductees, especially foreigners, to insurgent groups for a higher price, who transfer them to the badlands across the border in Pakistan, officials say.

But the police force insist a crackdown has begun, citing the 3,000 criminals -- including 16 top kidnappers -- in the past year.

“There has been a substantial increase in crime, but we are making progress in fighting it,” said outgoing Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi.

He added: “We will chase every kidnapper.”

After propping up the Afghan economy for years with billions of dollars, international donors are pushing the government to wean itself off its dependence on foreign aid. But those efforts are thwarted partly by rising crime, which is forcing much needed investors to flee. AFP

NOTICE

: CHANGE OF BUSINESS NAME

From

: IKM BUILDERS AND CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY

From

: IKM BUILDERS AND CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION

Address

: BRGY. SABANG, BATANGAS

SUPPLY IBAAN,

License No.: 30252 AMO

: LEOVIGILDO K. MORPE (MS-MAR. 11, 2017)

Manila Republic of the Philippines GOVERNMENT SERVICE INSURANCE SYSTEM GSIS Building, Financial Center, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City 1308

Standard

TODAY

GSIS ACQUIRED ASSETS FOR DISPOSITION

PREMIERE. Actress Madison Giovanni attends the premiere screening of Cackle’s ‘Snatch’ the series at Arclight Cinemas Culver City in Culver City, California. AFP

Ax attacker arrested after injuring seven DUESSELDORF―German police have arrested an ax-wielding attacker believed to be suffering from mental health issues after he injured seven people at the main train station in Dusseldorf.

According to a witness, the 36-year-old man from the former Yugoslavia jumped out of a train late on Thursday evening and started hacking randomly at people, leaving blood everywhere.

Armed police commandos in balaclavas and bullet-proof vests backed by police helicopters rushed to the station and captured the axeman after he leaped off a bridge to evade arrest.

“Out of the seven injured, three were badly hurt and four were slightly injured,” police said.

A police spokesman told AFP on Friday morning that they had ruled out an Islamic fundamentalist motive for the attack.

Investigators had earlier said the man was in an “exceptional mental state” at the time of the rampage and “it’s because of this state that he carried out this act.”

Germany is on edge after a string of attacks in recent

months—many carried out by people with mental health problems—culminating in a truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State group.

Police have been unable to interview the Duesseldorf attacker as his injuries from jumping off the bridge were too severe, according to local news agency DPA. Authorities originally said several attackers were involved, but after determining the man was the sole person responsible and taking him into custody, the station was reopened shortly before midnight.

“We were on the platform waiting for the train. The train arrived and suddenly someone with an ax came out and started attacking people,” an unnamed witness told Bild.

“There was blood everywhere,” Bild quoted the witness as saying.

Peter Altmaier, a close adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, wrote on Twitter: “Our compassion and our thoughts go out to the injured.”

The city’s mayor Thomas Geisel also reached out to victims. AFP

PROVINCE

District/Subdivision

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna Laguna

ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso ADELINA COMPLEX III, Calaboso JUANA COMPLEX, Halang JUANA COMPLEX, Halang JUANA COMPLEX, Halang JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco JUANA COMPLEX, San Francisco ADELINA COMPLEX II ADELINA COMPLEX II ADELINA COMPLEX II ADELINA COMPLEX II ADELINA COMPLEX II ADELINA COMPLEX II ADELINA COMPLEX II ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente ROSARIO COMPLEX, San Vicente SAMPAGUITA VILLAGE, Sampaguita

City/Municipality Property Location

TCT/CCT No.

Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan Binan San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro San Pedro

B002 L017 Ph 3 Sampaguita St. B002 L029 Ph 3 Sampaguita St. B004 L019 Ph 3 Santan St. B005 L012 Ph 3 B013 L020 Ph 3 B016 L002 Ph 3 B017 L010 Ph 3 B018 L011 Ph 3 B018 L014 Ph 3 B019 L008 Ph 3 B019 L014 Ph 3 B021 L025 Ph 3 B021 L047 Ph 3 B005 L018 Ph 1 B006 L014 Ph 1 Agate St. B010 L026 Ph 1 B003 L010 Ph 6 Samuel St. B003 L012 Ph 6 Samuel St. B003 L014 Ph 6 Mark St. B006 L001 Ph 3A B006 L007 Ph 6 B010 L002 Ph 6 Abraham St. B010 L006 Ph 6 Abraham St. B010 L008 Ph 6 Abraham St. B010 L009 Ph 6 Abraham St. B010 L010 Ph 6 Abraham St. B010 L015 Ph 6 Moses St. B010 L019 Ph 6 Moses St. B010 L021 Ph 6 Moses St. B011 L027 Ph 6 Moses St. B011 L034 Ph 3B B011 L036 Ph 3B B011 L038 Ph 3B B011 L039 Ph 3B B013 L019 Ph 3A B014 L029 Ph 3A B003 L009 Ph 2SHT1 Camella St. B003 L016 Ph 2SHT2 Carnation St. B003 L021 Ph 2SHT1 Goldfield St. B004 L002 Ph 2SHT1 Adelina cor. Goldfield St. B004 L020 Ph 2SHT1 Goldfield St. B005 L010 Ph 2A Jasmine cor. Cattleya St. B010 L014 Ph 2SHT1 Dahlia St. B001 L006 Ph 1 Our Lady of Immaculate Concepcion St. B001 L017 Ph 1A Our Lady of Piat St. B003 L019 Ph 1 Our Lady of Manaoag St. B004 L004 Ph 1 Our Lady of Immaculate Concepcion St. B012 L018 Ph 1 Our Lady of Carmel St. B020/4 L004A Ph 1A (48) Our Lady of Candelaria St. B021 L015 Ph 1 Our Lady Of Pillar St. B022 L007 Ph 1 Our Lady of Candelaria St. B024 L008 Ph 1 Our Lady of Grace St. B026 L048 Ph 1 Our Lady of Marian St. B014 L008 Dahlia St.

Minimum Acceptable Offer / CMV ( ₱ )

Property Classification

Occupancy Status

Bidding Date

Place of Bidding

Lot Area/ Floor Area (sqm)

T-306023 T-299506 T-306001 T-306009 T-306010 T-306013 T-306014 T-306006 T-306002 T-306020 T-306012 T-306007 T-306016 T-125857 T-126005 T-125297 T-206384 T-206387 T-206395 T-189056 T-192909 T-206398 T-213596 T-213597 T-202104 T-202119 T-200029 T-202107 T-206372 T-213619 T-202101 T-198040 T-198060 T-198032 T-201490 T-195411 T-134065 T-131509 T-134031 T-135550 T-135472 T-142625 137341 T-106460 T-115153 T-106404 T-105393 T-107511 T-115219 T-115170 T-112069 T-115106 T-112099 T-41122

88.00 91.00 88.00 80.00 106.00 98.00 80.00 80.00 80.00 88.00 88.00 75.00 120.00 180.00 294.00 180.00 268.00 302.00 240.00 329.00 306.00 169.00 150.00 150.00 150.00 150.00 150.00 150.00 150.00 306.00 160.00 150.00 150.00 150.00 180.00 180.00 159.00 153.00 150.00 188.00 150.00 243.00 151.00 475.00 180.00 208.00 240.00 230.00 224.00 180.00 192.00 192.00 292.00 180.00

511,200.00 438,900.00 415,200.00 362,000.00 539,600.00 569,800.00 378,666.67 378,666.67 378,666.67 486,000.00 411,200.00 450,000.00 605,333.33 1,696,000.00 2,254,000.00 1,307,500.00 1,745,200.00 1,939,000.00 1,585,600.00 2,243,266.67 2,080,200.00 1,188,080.00 995,000.00 1,029,080.00 1,029,080.00 1,072,600.00 1,029,080.00 1,029,080.00 1,082,500.00 1,918,280.00 876,000.00 825,000.00 825,000.00 825,000.00 1,098,000.00 1,098,000.00 1,660,400.00 1,000,800.00 1,428,000.00 1,746,200.00 1,587,500.00 1,588,300.00 1,045,600.00 3,828,500.00 1,611,000.00 1,695,000.00 1,938,000.00 2,155,000.00 2,174,666.67 1,513,000.00 1,571,400.00 1,864,000.00 2,437,000.00 1,416,000.00

House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot House & Lot

Occupied Occupied Occupied Unoccupied Unoccupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Unoccupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Unoccupied Unoccupied Unoccupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied Occupied

02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17 02-May-17

Level 8, Narra Room, GSIS Building, Financial Center, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City

Level 8, Narra Room, GSIS Building, Financial Center, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City

GENERAL GUIDELINES: 1.

Disposal of GSIS Investment Properties – Retail Units (IP-RUs) is through a competitive public bidding process. Acceptance of Purchase Offer shall start on the scheduled bidding date and time.

2.

Dropping of bid envelopes inside the designated bid box will be on the date of auction from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Opening of Bids will immediately follow.

3.

Disposal of GSIS IP-RUs is on “As-Is Where-Is” basis. Interested bidders are enjoined to personally inspect the GSIS IP-RUs for sale. “As-Is Where-Is” is defined as the present physical condition of the retail unit that GSIS is selling and the buyer is buying, “with all attendant faults, if any,” whether or not immediately apparent and without any express or implied warranty. The buyer takes this condition at his or her own risk, without recourse against the GSIS as to their condition. This includes knowledge by the buyer of the presence of occupants in the retail-unit being purchased.

4.

Strictly, “One bidder, One specific property” only, which means that a bidder cannot submit two (2) or more bids for one property. A bidder may submit one bid each to as many properties as he wants to buy, as long as, he posts a bidder’s deposit for each property in an amount provided below. The bidder must present valid government IDs upon registration on the date of public bidding.

5.

Purchase offer may either be in Cash or through External Financing Institution.

6.

A downloadable bid form shall be properly accomplished with the following data: a. b. c. d. e. f.

Name and complete address of the bidder Exact address of property you are interested to bid Transfer Certificate of Title No. Amount of bid (in numbers and in words) 10 % Bidder’s Deposit equivalent to 10% of the total amount of Bid Offer Signature of the bidder/representative

7.

Bid proposal shall be written in words and in figures and shall not be lower than the Minimum Bid Price of the property published in the newspaper or posted in the GSIS website. Should there be a difference in the amount in words and in figures, the amount in words shall prevail.

8.

Bidders’ deposit equivalent to at least 10% of the Bid Offer shall be in the form of MANAGER’S CHECK payable to the Government Service Insurance System

9.

The following shall be inserted in the sealed bid envelope: a. properly accomplished Bid Form (form can be downloaded from www.gsis.gov.ph) b.

Manager’s Check payable to Government Service Insurance System representing deposit equivalent to at least 10% of the Bid Offer c. duly notarized Special Power of Attorney (SPA), if the bidder is an authorized representative d. pre-conditional approval from PBCOM, if applicable

10.

The following information shall be clearly written outside the sealed bid envelope (mailing envelope) (Address of Property you want to bid) Block No. ______ Lot. No. ______ Phase No.____ Name of Subdivision Address of Subdivision TCT NO. _______ Mode: __________ Cash __________ thru External Financing Institution Name of Bidder: Mailing Address:

11.

Interested bidders planning to purchase the GSIS property through External Financing Institution (EFI) shall first secure certification from accredited banks stating that he/she is qualified to avail of a loan from External Financing Institution and insert inside the bid envelope.

12.

The existing tenant or occupant or his duly authorized representative through a valid Special Power of Attorney (SPA) has the right to match the offer of the declared highest bidder, provided: a. he/she is present during the bidding b. participated in actual bidding c. presently occupying the property subject of bidding supported by the following proofs of occupancy: c.1 c.2.

Barangay certificate that he/she is occupying or residing in the subject property Any valid government identification document with his/her address similar to the address of the property he/.she is bidding.

13.

If the occupant will exercise his/her right to match the offer of the declared highest bidder, he/she need not secure another bank pre-qualification corresponding to the matched offer. Instead, he/she shall pay the equity in cash as stated in Notice of Approval of Sale (NOAS). The equity shall be computed as the difference between the Letter of Guarantee from the bank and the offered bid amount.

14.

The declared highest/winning bidder shall submit within the day of the actual bidding, the following documents: a. duly accomplished Personal Profile/Company Profile/Corporate Profile, whichever is applicable (form can be downloaded from www.gsis.gov.ph); b. photocopies of two valid IDs (one should be a government-issued ID); c.

Articles of Incorporation/Partnership, By-Laws and current General Information Sheet, for corporation/partnership, if applicable; d.

Registration Certificate from SEC for corporation/partnership, DTI for sole proprietorship and CDA for cooperatives, or any proof of such registration, if applicable; e. current Mayor’s permit issued by the city or municipality where the principal place of business of the winning bidder is located, if applicable.

15.

A Notice of Approval of Sale (NOAS) shall be issued to the highest/winning bidder on the day of bidding. In case the bid is thru EFI, the equity shall be paid in cash within thirty (30) calendar days from receipt of Letter of Guarantee (LOG) by the GSIS. The equity is the amount corresponding to the difference between the LOG and the Offered Bid Amount.

16.

Upon issuance of the NOAS to the highest/winning bidder, the Bidder’s Deposit of the other non-winning bidder/s shall be returned immediately.

17.

Non-compliance with the terms and conditions stated in the NOAS shall result in the forfeiture of the bidder’s deposit.

18.

In case the highest/winning bidder fails to comply with the requirements within the specified time, the GSIS shall write the second highest bidder to confirm if he/she is still interested to acquire the property. If still interested, GSIS will require him/her to pay the non-refundable deposit equivalent to ten percent (10%) of his/her previously submitted bid amount and will be issued NOAS.

19.

GSIS reserves the right to waive any formality or to reject any or all bids received. The list of properties available for sale may be updated without prior notice.

20.

For inquiries, you may call Real Property Accounts Management Department at telephone nos. 479-3536 or 976-4619.

(MS-MAR. 9/10/11, 2017)

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

World

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

C4

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

Longtime ‘princess’ dethroned in disgrace SEOUL―The corridors of power have been home to South Korea’s Park Geun-Hye as a child, de facto first lady, and president.

She leaves them in disgrace, crippled by a corruption scandal that made her the country’s first head of state to be removed by impeachment.

Now 65, Park grew up in the spotlight at the Blue House, the presidential complex just north of one of Seoul’s royal palaces, enjoying a pampered life as the eldest child of military dictator Park Chung-Hee. Despite rights abuses, her father oversaw the country’s rapid economic development during his 1961-1979 rule, with the first family treated as royalty by some supporters and Park dubbed the young “princess” -- a nickname that endured for decades.

The assassinations of both her parents five years apart in the 1970s only further fanned sympathy for her.

Park’s mother -- widely praised as a dutiful wife and caring mother in the still traditionalist society of the day -- was murdered by a KoreanJapanese believed to have been acting on Pyongyang’s orders.

A student in France at the time, Park returned home to assume the role of first lady until her father was killed by his own security chief in 1979.

She subsequently kept a low profile for nearly two decades, until she made a successful 1998 bid to become a lawmaker as the South reeled from the fallout of the Asian financial crisis.

She became an instant political star among older conservative Koreans who fondly remembered her mother and revered her father for helping pull a war-ravaged nation out of poverty.

Adept at taking advantage of the nostalgia for them and the sympathy for her, she frequently peppered her campaign speeches with the phrase, “After I tragically lost my parents to assassins’ bullets.”

Park rose quickly up the political ladder, earning the nickname “the queen of elections” due to her voters’ unwavering loyalty.

The fact that Park never married and was estranged from her two siblings was part of her appeal, in a country where leaders had often been embroiled in major corruption scandals involving relatives. AFP

LIBERATED. This picture taken on March 9, 2017, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo shows people walking in the formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighborhood. AFP

South Koreans split over Park’s sacking S EOUL―The rival crowds outside South Korea’s constitutional court Friday for the verdict on impeached president Park GeunHye epitomized the opposing passions and generational splits over the country’s sweeping political scandal.

Around 3,000 anti-Park demonstrators, mostly in their 20s to 40s, erupted with joy as the verdict was read out in a live television broadcast.

“We won, we won,” they chanted, waving banners.

“This is a victory of democracy,” 27-year-old student Ahn Yo-Wool told AFP, wiping tears from her cheek.

Another student, Lim Nakyung, added: “The impeachment of the president is truly a day that will go down in history.

My heart is full of emotion and I am very happy.”

Millions of South Koreans, increasingly frustrated over broad

economic and social challenges, have gathered for weekly protests demanding Park’s removal over a wide-ranging corruption scandal.

The South is Asia’s fourthlargest economy but growth is slowing and many complain of a lack of opportunity in a country dominated by large companies with close ties to the political establishment.

But some of Park’s die-hard supporters, mostly older conservatives with fond memories of the rule of her late father, dictator Park Chung-Hee, still stand by her.

Several thousand flag-waving backers gathered a few hundred

metres away from the anti-Park crowds Friday, separated by a huge police presence -- more than 20,000 were deployed.

They were left stunned by the ruling, many of them openmouthed.

“We don’t accept this decision,” said Cho Bong-Am, 60, a kindergarten operator. “We will take to the street to fight to the end.”

Park has maintained a hard-line stance on North Korea and many of her heartland voters blame her removal on machinations by Pyongyang.

“Justice is dead. I think the government must now declare a martial law and wipe out these pro-Pyongyang leftists”, said Ahn Moon-Yung, a 71-year-old shopkeeper.

A few minor scuffles broke out as the largely older pro-Park crowd swarmed towards the police blockade, wielding sticks and chanting “Destroy Consti-

tutional Court!”

Some attempted to pull away police buses blocking their way.

Two died, including one who was hit on the head by a speaker falling from a vehicle roof, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

“Nullify impeachment, dissolve parliament,” they chanted, singing to military marches and waving both South Korean and US flags.

“The United States is our ally and we need their assistance in destroying these pro-Pyongyang leftists,” said Cheon Young-Soo, 71. “There is no reason for the president to be impeached.”

The front-runner in polls for the presidential race, due within 60 days, is leftist Moon Jae-In of the Democratic Party.

If he wins, said Bae Soo-Rok, 58, who wore a military uniform and said he was a retired marine, “We will all rise up and oust him from power within a year.” AFP

Japan, US conducting drills in East China Sea

DINNER DATE. Milos Duncko, Tatyana Zemskova and Katrin Nova attend the Paolo Zampolli Dinner in New York City. AFP

TOKYO―The Japanese and US navies are conducting joint exercises in the East China Sea as tension intensifies in the region following North Korea’s missile tests, local media reported on Friday.

The two sides launched the drill earlier this week that involved Japanese destroyers and a US Navy carrier strike group, the Sankei Shimbun daily and Kyodo News said, quoting unnamed Japanese and US government sources.

The Sankei said the drill was aimed at issuing a warning against nuclear-armed North Korea.

But is added the exercise was also meant to display the joint Japan-US military presence in the East China Sea, where Japan and China are locked in a long-running dispute over uninhabited islets.

In Japan they are known as the Senkakus, while China claims then as the Diaoyus.

Successive US administrations have assured Japan that the islands fall under their security treaty, meaning if they are attacked the US will defend them.

Japan’s defense ministry would not comment on the reports while the US Navy in Japan said it was checking on them.

The reported exercise comes after North Korea launched four ballistic missiles on Monday, with three landing provocatively close to Japan, which the US is obligated to defend under a security treaty.

Pyongyang has claimed the launch was a training exercise for a strike on US bases in Japan and supervised by leader Kim Jong-Un. Seoul and Washington are separately carrying out annual joint military exercises that always infuriate Pyongyang.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is expected to join the South Korea-US drills after finishing the exercise with Japan, the Sankei said.

The two sets of drills come as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to visit South Korea, Japan and China next week for his first trip to the region since he became Trump’s top diplomat. AFP

Second year of the reef’s bleaching SYDNEY―Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is experiencing an unprecedented second straight year of mass coral bleaching, scientists said Friday, warning many species would struggle to fully recover.

The 2,300-kilometer) reef suffered its most severe bleaching on record last year due to warming sea temperatures during March and April.

Bleaching is once again occurring, the government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said after an aerial survey off Australia’s eastern coast on Thursday.

“Regrettably, the temperatures have been high on the Great Barrier Reef this summer as well and unfortunately (we) are here to confirm... a mass coral bleaching event for the second consecutive year,” the Authority’s reef recovery director David Wachenfeld said in a Facebook video.

“And importantly, this is the first time we’ve ever seen the Great Barrier Reef bleached two years in sequence. We’ve seen heat stress build since December.”

The agency said more bleaching was being observed in the central part of the reef, which last year escaped widespread severe bleaching.

The 2016 bleaching was more severe in the northern areas of the bio-diverse site.

The back-to-back occurrence of widespread bleaching also meant there was insufficient time for corals to fully recover, Neal Cantin from the Australian Institute of Marine Science said.

“We are seeing a decrease in the stress tolerance of these corals,” Cantin added in a statement.

“This is the first time the Great Barrier Reef has not had a few years between bleaching events to recover.

“Many coral species appear to be more susceptible to bleaching after more than 12 months of sustained above-average ocean temperatures.”

Bleaching occurs when abnormal environmental conditions, such as warmer sea temperatures, cause corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae, draining them of their color.

Corals can recover if the water temperature drops and the algae are able to recolonize them. AFP

Life

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

TRAVEL AND LEISURE

D1

Journey

through the high seas

Star Cruises make the journey as great as the destination with luxurious amenities and services offered onboard

P

EOPLE nowadays are craving for new experiences. And, the most effective way of getting out of one’s comfort zone to find an adventure is through traveling.

With seat sales and travel tour packages left and right, it isn’t a secret that traveling has gone from being a luxury to a staple, maybe even a necessity, in people’s lives. But even then, more and more people are now looking to discover new ways on how to make traveling itself more fun and exciting.

Oftentimes these vacation trips entail having to wait for hours just to travel for a couple of more hours to get to the destination. Who says that the journey to satisfying one’s wanderlust has to be ordinary, uneventful, maybe even boring?

Try going on a cruise and let yourself experience traveling like never before.

Cruising is making waves as it continually evolves into providing the best experience one can get when traveling, continually trying to find new ways of letting passengers enjoy the ride going to the destination just as much as being

Enjoy world-class entertainment while cruising

Party with your friends, old and new, onboard a luxury ship

at the intended vacation place itself. Experience traveling by starting the fun and adventure the moment you set foot on board. Create experiences even before you get to your destination.

The cruising industry has continually evolved in order to keep up with the ever-changing needs and wants that people might have when it comes to trave-

class entertainment, and get all-around service even before arriving at your destination? Experience all these and other luxurious amenities and services offered onboard. With a wide array of dining options, lounges left and right, you won’t run out of options and things to do.

Another one of the beauties of trave-

ling. Whatever type of adventure you’re after, cruising can definitely provide it for you. With world-class entertainment and state-of-the-art facilities, you’re sure to experience traveling in style and in comfort.

Now, when can you exactly say that you were able to swim, exercise in a gym, play basketball, enjoy world-

ling via cruise ship is that you get to be a part of a community while on board.

Have the opportunity of getting to meet new people, even probably a few famous personalities and celebrities along the way. The environment lets you meet and make friends and new relationships with people who share the same pasTurn to D2

Finding joy in Anilao

Japanese journalist Saori Arita enjoys her diving experience in Anilao. (Inset) Local and foreign divers explore the wonders of the Philippine seas.

Richard Gutierrez wins first in Marine Behavior and third in Fish Portrait categories

OVERWHELMING joy engulfs Victoria Liles as she finds herself amidst an entirely different realm each time she hits 40 to 60 feet deep underwater off the coast of Anilao, in Batangas’ Mabini town.

“When you see fish species you’ve never seen before. I can’t exactly describe the excitement and energy that come with it. It’s a great feeling,” Liles, a 29-year-old Marine biologist from Germany, said.

She and her husband Chris of Portland, Oregon own and manage the Granada Beach Resort in Boljoon, Cebu but were in town for the 4th Anilao Underwater Photography Shootout sponsored by the Department of Tourism (DoT) on Nov. 23-27 last year.

DoT Secretary Wanda Tulfo Teo directed Undersecretary Kat De Castro, head of DOT Public Affairs, Communication and Special Projects, to promote aggressively the Philippines’ scubadiving destinations, as well as advocate environmental conservation.

De Castro said the Liles couple competed with 131 divers from 17 coun-

tries, as well as, local aficionados from all over the archipelago, in the five-day underwater photo contest.

“We want to offer our visitors a Philippine experience beyond the usual fare of sun-and-beach. There’s an entirely distinct world to be discovered in deepsea diving which is very enlightening and challenging,” stressed De Castro, a certified diver herself.

At least 36 entries won awards in various categories, including DoT Photographer of the Year awards for Yoshio Osawa (compact class) and Dennis Corpuz (open class) for their originality and composition in showcasing the bursting underwater life.

Filipino actor Richard Gutierrez, who for 10 years has made diving his escape to find peace and quiet, topped 100 competitors in the marine behavior (open class) category and also placed third in the fish portrait category.

“It’s really great meeting divers from all over the world and Filipino divers from the Visayas and Mindanao. I love exploring nature and seeing the beauty Turn to D2

Habitat’s official carrier

PHILIPPINE Airlines and Habitat for Humanity Philippines (HFHP) forged a partnership, which would enable both parties to create joint initiatives to expand the reach of their corporate social responsibility advocacies, programs, and services.

PAL President Jaime J. Bautista, Habitat Capital Campaign Cabinet Chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala, and HFHP CEO and Managing Director Charlie Ayco signed a Memorandum of Agreement at the airline’s corporate headquarters in Pasay City on Jan. 25.

The flag carrier will make a onetime donation of 500,000 miles for the year that Habitat can use for travel to any PAL destination to implement its

socio-civic endeavors for the underprivileged sector of society.

Bautista said, “Your national carrier’s service orientation goes beyond carrying people point to point. PAL serves those in need and contributes to social development. These include: sending aid to calamity victims to flying indigent patients for treatment and sending exceptional but financially challenged individuals to represent the country in international competitions.

This new partnership provides PAL a new avenue to be of service to others.

We look forward to a long-lasting partnership with Habitat for Humanity.”

“Habitat provides simple, decent and

Habitat Capital Campaign Cabinet chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala and PAL president and COO Jaime J. Bautista seal the partnership of both parties with a handshake during the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement

affordable shelter to beneficiaries who the context of building or transforming sion in areas where shelter is needed belong to the bottom 30 percent of the communities. Our partnership with most,” Ayco said.

Philippine income distribution within PAL will enable us to fulfill our mis-

Life

D2

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

Japan’s Saga Prefecture…

MERCURY RISING

BY BOB ZOZOBRADO

A

PREFECTURE is an administrative region in Japan, under a directly elected governor, much like a province here in the Philippines, although the former has more governing functions than the latter. It was in 1868 when Japan’s central government created prefectures, of which there are 47, to replace the provinces.

Saga Prefecture is the smallest prefecture on Kyushu island, at the southwestern tip of Japan. Its location, which is near the rest of Asia, has made it a convenient conduit for the continent’s culture and trade to seep into the area.

It is largely rural, as 68 percent of its total area is occupied by agricultural and forested land, which contributes a big chunk to the prefecture’s economic standing. Saga Prefecture is Japan’s largest producer of mochigome (sticky rice) and mandarin oranges. Its abundant produce also includes onions and strawberries.

There are, however, other significant contributors to its economy. Tourism draws in curious visitors to the Yoshinogari Historical Park which has preserved an original village of an Iron Age-era Japanese tribe, their houses, tools, jewelry, pottery and many other items related to that period of Japan’s history. The prefecture is also known for its attractive ceramics, which have found loyal importers from all over the world.

But, of late, our local wine and food connoisseurs have been abuzz with two important products of Saga Prefecture--Saga Sake and Saga Beef. Since the area is one of the biggest rice-producing districts in Japan, thanks to its vast plains, it is not surprising that Sake, which is made from fermented rice, would be one of its prime products. It also helps that

My Xanadu

Tourists in Saga Prefecture make it a point to visit the Yoshinogari Historical Park

Master Chef Akio Shimoyama

Arita ceramics produced in Saga Prefecture

the area has abundant high-quality underground water from mountain ranges to the north and south of it, making its rice fields yield superior quality grains.

Unlike the Sake from other parts of Japan which tastes crispy and dry, Saga Sake is known to have a rich and strong flavor, the reason for its being a consistent winner in the International Wine Challenge in the United Kingdom and the National Sake Appraisal held yearly in Hawaii.

But what actually got me curious about Saga Prefecture is its brand of Wagyu Beef, the Saga-gyu. Wagyu Beef is my favorite when I decide to splurge on dinner for my family or close friends. What makes the beef expensive is its being a

result of superior breeding technique that starts with a nine-month-old calf, raised in a stress-free fertile farm, and fed only with rice straw blended with grain-based feed. The prefecture’s mild, 16-degreeCentigrade climate and its clean water make it ideal for breeding cattle that yield such high-quality meat.

Saga-gyu, is from cattle that have been fattened under these conditions, provided with a suitable grazing area at all times, and processed for distribution and export when they are about two-and-a-half years old. By then, they would already have “marbled” meat, which means, meat with intramuscular fat. This “marbling” creates a naturally enhanced flavor, ten-

derness and juiciness, guaranteeing its exquisite taste and elevating its quality to nothing less than superb.

This is why I am very excited to learn that starting May this year, New World Manila Bay will offer this glorious dinner centerpiece at its restaurants. The Market Café will banner Saga-gyu in the Japanese buffet section, with an enticing array of appetizers, and a build-your-own teppanyaki with stir fry vegetables.

For those who prefer privacy, sophistication and a deeper appreciation of the meat, there is the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, The Fireplace, where one can book a Saga Sake and Saga Beef dinner, whipped up by guest Master Chef Akio Shimoyama.

During the hotel’s Saga Beef Launch, I had the opportunity to chat with an officer from Saga Prefecture, Fujita Yuki, who spoke very good English. I asked him if the Saga cattle are also made to drink beer

ideal venue for fun runs, like the 7-Eleven Run 2017

CLEMENCY---The thing you make lagay to your pancit to make it maasim !

Attesting to this was Adelle Cortado from marathon group U Can Yan (UCY). “We liked the routes at Filinvest City compared to other venues because they’re more comfortable and they’re surrounded by trees that’s why you won’t get sick of the scenery,” she shared.

For couple Adrian Madrelejos and Noreen Sumile, they considered their first run together in Filinvest City as a unique way to date. “Our first marathon together was enjoyable because the weather was cool in Filinvest City, which made our run easier,” they shared.

With the success of 7-Eleven Run 2017, Filinvest Alabang, Inc. Executive Vice President Catherine Ilagan said, “We are thankful that 7-Eleven chose Filinvest City to be the venue of their annual run, and with the newly developed Filinvest City Event Grounds, we look forward to staging more events of this sort in the future.”

WORLD’S SAFEST BAG

Anti-theft gear by Pacsafe makes for hassle-free adventures EVERY grand adventure is best done with a hassle-free travel buddy in tow, and Australian travel gear brand Pacsafe aims to achieve just that: jetting off without fear of losing your stuff.

Pacsafe is a line of long-haul travel bags and carry-on gear containers for daring world wanderers who want to keep their belongings in check. Technology plays a big part in the creation of Pacsafe bags, with each item engineered with advanced anti-theft mechanisms that may just very well make each Pacsafe product the world’s safest bag.

Founded in 1998 by a pair of avid Australian travelers, Pacsafe was born out of a real travel threat: that their gear might be stolen by thieves taking advantage of unknowing tourists.

With a little entrepreneurial thinking and scientific scheming, they came up with an anti-theft backpack protector,

Finding...

From D1

of the marine life here in Anilao, just two hours away from Manila. I can’t wait till my children go diving with me,” said Gutierrez.

“It’s really surreal. I’ve had 6,000 dives in many areas around the world and I’m still finding animals I’ve never seen be-

made from flexible stainless steel mesh that forms an impenetrable barricade against thieves. This key material is now patented under Pacsafe as the eXomesh anti-theft technology, incorporated on almost all Pacsafe gear.

Pacsafe has gone a long way from being a simple-yet-smart backpack protector. Now, Pacsafe has developed and patented several security mechanisms that go beyond eXomesh. Its product range has expanded dramatically as well, with wheeled luggage, backpacks, sling bags, gadget containers, portable safes, wallets and more on offer. Each item is engineered with a bevy of safety mechanisms unparalleled in any other line of travel bags: slashguards that resist sharp punctures, RFID-blocking technology that protects passports and credit cards against identity theft, anchor straps and cables to hook bags on any unmoving fore. We couldn’t be more thrilled,” said veteran scuba-diver Chris Liles.

He noted the proximity of Mabini town to Isla Verde Passage, known as the Ground Zero for the diversity of marine subjects.

“The diversity of the animals found underwater at Verde Island is absolutely fantastic,” Chris said of the area declared in 1999 as marine reserve by the Philippine Tourism Authority (now

fixture, and a variety of security locks and zippers to keep your bag unopened by anyone other than yourself.

Innovative, smart, and simply practical—Pacsafe gear is the answer to this constant traveler worry, and the wide selection of products Pacsafe has created over the years has made the brand perfect not just for the hardcore traveler, but even for the individual who wants to secure his valuables on the daily city commute. Pacsafe bags aren’t only safe, they’re functional too—wide spaces and multiple compartments ensure organized and compact travel. Literally, everything you need is in one package—and you don’t need to fear losing them.

Pacsafe bags are engineered with various anti-theft mechanisims, such as this VentureSafe in mont green back pack.

Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority).

In 2006, an international team of marine conservationists declared the Philippines the Center of Marine Biodiversity in the world, and the Verde Island Passage as the “Center of the Center of Marine Shorefish Biodiversity.”

“I was quite surprised to see the differences with Cebu, which is a very pretty island but it’s not as jungle-

For feedback, I’m at bobzozobrado@gmail.com

YOUR SATURDAY CHUCKLE

A RUN WITH NATURE FILINVEST City in Alabang, the garden central business district of South Manila, served as the perfect venue for the recent 7-Eleven Run 2017 with the city’s greeneries as backdrop providing over 20,000 participants, ranging from fitness enthusiasts to families and friends, an enjoyable race.

“We promised a bigger and more exciting run, and we are very happy that it turned out to be a success, thanks to Filinvest City and Skyway. Filinvest City provided the best venue for our runners,” said 7-Eleven general merchandise division head Jose Ang, Jr. With a backdrop of tree-canopied roads, expansive walkways, and an innovative new “green spine,” a foliage walkway that spans across the northern and southern ends of the township, the run proved to be refreshing for Filinvest City’s tree-canopied roads and expansive walkways made for an the participants.

and listen to classical music, which is what I heard about some farmers breeding cattle for Wagyu Beef. He told me that Saga farmers do not do that at all, as such practice has never really proven any direct link to the quality of the meat. He says that if there are farmers doing that, they just do it “to attract and excite tourists.”

Now you know why I’m on a selfimposed diet these days. I want to lose weight and prepare myself for Saga Beef dinners this May. After all, I learned from my young students that, when faced with something exciting and appealing, sometimes it’s best to remind ourselves of “YOLO” (You Only Live Once). So, if Hollywood’s Michael Beck and Olivia Newton-John had their Xanadu, I’m going to have my Saga-gyu!

themed as it is out here. Though we have some great diving sites in southern Cebu, we don’t have the critters that you find in Anilao,” Chris went on to say.

Saori Arita, magazine editor for the Marine Art Center of Tokyo, Japan, said her first diving experience in Anilao has been fulfilling.

“You feel liberated. You feel peace and calm when all you hear is your breathing and the bubbles, and when the water is

Journey...

From D1

sion in traveling as you do. Share your favorite wanderlust experiences with them as you create another one definitely worth putting in the books. So even if you’ve gone on multiple cruises, the interactions you get to have onboard makes it all the more memorable and unique for each and every trip.

Have an adventure from Taiwan and see Japan like no other. Visit the pristine beaches and islands on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, Japan with SuperStar Aquarius. You can also sail from Singapore to the beautiful islands of Malacca, Pulau Redang, Langkawi, and Penang and get to see Malaysia with SuperStar Gemini.

From Penang, you can sail to the scenic ports of Krabbi and Phuket in Thailand aboard the SuperStar Libra. Discover China’s Pearl River Delta as you sail to Vietnam’s Halong Bay and culture-rich Danang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Nha Trang with Superstar Virgo or go on and sail and cruise along the South China Sea for a one-night getaway from Hong Kong aboard Star Pisces. The possibilities of breathtaking adventures are limitless with Star Cruises.

Let Star Cruises take you to your destination and start the adventure as soon as you get onboard. When traveling with Star Cruises, you get to experience traveling around Asia like no other. Enjoy world-class amenities and satiate your hunger with the mouth-watering dishes from all types of cuisines prepared by internationally trained chefs.

Don’t miss out your chance to go on an adventure for up to 50 percent off.

Climb aboard on SuperStar Gemini for as low as $290 USD and on Superstar Aquarius for as low as $397 USD. Contact your local travel agency to book your tickets now. For inquiries, you can reach Star Cruises at (02) 836-6830 to 32 or email salesmanila@ starcruises.com warm,” said the youthful diving journalist.

Odd Kristensen, who represented the Underwater Macro Photographers Group, agreed that the Anilao diving sites are truly special.

The Australian retiree expressed optimism that more divers would come to find themselves enthralled by the Philippine deep, although there should be tight measures for conservation to protect this country’s underwater treasures.

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

2 days of children’s

CLASSIC FILMS

T

HE Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) successfully staged the muchanticipated 3rd MTRCB – Parañaque City Children’s Film Classics, a two-day event at SM City BF Parañaque, SM City Bicutan and SM City Sucat. The simultaneous screenings last month was intended to celebrate childhood by recognizing the voices and the rights of the “youth.”

Now on its third year, this joint project of MTRCB and the City of Parañaque was made possible through the support of the Cultural Section of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, MagnaVision Inc., Studio World., and Columbia Pictures Philippines that graciously shared their materials.

Close to 2,000 students, along with thier teachers, and representatives from Parañaque government, actively participated in the event.

Parañaque City Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Magdalena M. Lim officially launched the event. MTRCB Chairperson Maria Rachel Arenas and Congressman Eric Olivarez shared with the students their heartfelt messages of resilience, hope and their shared commitment in promoting the culture of and rights of the youth.

Two-critically acclaimed films were showcased during the event – Kubo and theTwo Strings , a story of a little boy named “Kubo” and his journey to save his life and his family.

The following day, the participants enjoyed the Chinese film, Thei-go King and His Son, about a father and his son’s relationship and passion in playing the popular Chinese board game Weiqi (Go).

What separated this year’s event from its predecessors was the inculcation of the presentation on Revised TV and Film Classification Ratings shared by the MTRCB Board Members, mirroring the format on the effective Matalinong Panonood developmental campaigns. For the Board, the showcase of films would be of more value and appreciation if viewed through the eyes of responsible, discerning patrons.

BIG WINNER

New MTRCB Chair Rachel Arenas delivers the keynote address during Parañaque City Children’s Film Classics event

Aprt from Vhong’s comedy movie, the family can also watch Maria Leonora Teresa, A Moment in Time, My Amnesia Girl, and the Hollywood films The Cold Light of Day and The Dinosaur Project. Catch up episodes of PBB and Myx will also be completing the Super KBO lineup.

To watch Super KBO on ABS-CBN TVplus, text SUPERKBO99 MAR4 <BOX ID> to 2131 using an ABS-CBNmobile SIM. To stream online via abscbnmobile.com/kbo, text SUPERKBO MAR4 to 2131 using ABSCBNmobile.

Super KBO is ABS-CBN’s commitment to enrich the lives of the digital Filipino with entertainment they can easily access priced at P99. Experience one of the best Filipino films of 2016 with the entire family this weekend. For more information, visit tvplus.abs-cbn.com and abscbnmobile.com.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Saturday, March 11, 2017

48 Hearty enjoyment 49 Cereal grain 50 King’s house 53 Grabbed 58 Eurasian range 59 Wolfpack member (hyph.)

61 “The Mammoth Hunters” heroine 62 Stick together 63 Show to be true 64 Electronic junk mail 65 Fountain treat 66 Jaded 67 Answering machine sound DOWN 1 Lithe 2 Baylor University site 3 Gen. — Halftrack 4 Feast 5 Turbulent water 6 Prepare for print 7 Port near Kilauea 8 Sushi fish 9 Soup morsel 10 Tenderfoot 11 Stork cousin 12 Fit one inside the other

13 Potato buds 21 Till 23 L-o-n-g time 25 Mundane task 26 Fully developed 27 Hindu lute 28 Put on a play 30 Bored responses 31 Fencing swords 32 Tractor pioneer 34 Switch a freight car 35 Old crone 38 Zoom-in shots (hyph.)

42 Kind of cheese 43 One rejected by a community 45 Showy flower 46 Dry, as wine 47 Like a castle 50 Jowly canines 51 A Guthrie 52 Extol 53 Grime 54 Basilica area 55 Injection 56 Lots of spirit 57 Slangy lady 60 Two-piece part

TEEN housemate Maymay Entrata is the Lucky Big Winner of Pinoy Big Brother Lucky Season 7 and made PBB history as the first big winner in the longest season of the hit ABS-CBN reality show, beating co-housemates from celebrity, teen, and adult editions.

The “Ms. Wacky-Go-Lucky of CDO” garnered a total of 42.71 percent of the votes cast and was formally welcomed by her family, friends, and fans from the outside world in the jam-packed Big Night held on March 5 at the Alonte Sports Arena.

In an emotional speech, Maymay thanked all her fans for helping her achieve her dream. The newest PBB big winner also encouraged everyone to continue dreaming.

“Don’t be afraid to dream. Don’t ever forget where you came from and the people who helped you in your journey. If your dreams are already within reach and you stumble along the way, you just have to get back up on your feet and rise from it.

Remember why you started and why you made it that far to reaching your dream,” she said.

“Don’t be afraid to be true to yourself and to others because it is the key to your dreams and success in life,” she added.

As the Lucky Big Winner, Maymay won P1 million, a house and lot from Camella, and an Asian tour package for two from

Von Dutch.

Fellow Big 4 housemates Kisses Delavin, on the other, finished as the second Lucky Big Placer with 31.27 percent of the votes and took home P500,000; Yong Muhajil as 3rd Big Placer with 21. 52 percent of votes and won P300,000; and Edward Barber as the fourth Lucky Big Placer with 4.49 percent of the votes and got P200,000.

Before the worldwide Twitter trending Big Night last Sunday, the 5th, 6th, and 7th Lucky Big Placer awards were given on the night of March 4 to Tanner Mata, 2-in-1 “Hashtags” housemates Mccoy De Leon and Nikko Natividad, and Cora Waddell respectively. Each of them received P 100, 000.

The Pinoy Big Brother Lucky Season 7”Big Night had PBB alumni that include Big Winners Kim Chiu, Jimboy Martin, Daniel Matsunaga, and Miho Nishida, ex housemates from past editions Tommy Esguerra, Joshua Garcia, Loisa Andalio, Zeus Collins, Ylona Garcia, Bailey May, Dawn Chang, Yass Pressman and other former PBB Lucky Season 7 housemates.

In the past 11 years, Pinoy Big Brother has remained one of the most watched programs in the country, a consistent top trending topic in social media, and the most viewed reality show online via iWant TV.

Bianca Umali is Youth Ambassador for Education

on ABS-CBN TVplus’ Super KBO

ACROSS 1 Q-tip 5 Change the length of a dress 10 Number of Muses 14 Sand mandala builder 15 “Toodle-oo!”

16 Yield to 17 Desktop picture 18 Dosage units 19 Clamp 20 Kind of net 22 Stickups 24 Kiel conjunction 25 Gator kin 26 Social graces 29 Sweet 33 “Same here!”

34 Chase away 36 It has long arms 37 Ms. Hagen of films 38 Trinket on a bracelet 39 Like Willie Winkie 40 Trail behind 41 Winter Olympics event 42 Lost cause 44 Sedition 47 Chocolate dessert

PBB's latest season winner Maymay Entrana during the show's finale

‘PBB Lucky Season 7’

‘MANG KEPWENG RETURNS’

A B S - C B N TVplus users are set for a fun-filled movie marathon with Vhong Navarro’s comedy-fantasy film, Mang Kepweng Returns on ABS-CBN’s Super Kapamilya Box Office (KBO).

Fresh from its January theatrical release, Mang Kepweng Returns airs on ABS-CBN TVplus (digital TV) and ABS-CBNmobile (online streaming) for families to have more options to watch the first Filipino film of 2017.

The film is a remake of the 1979 film of the same title. The remake centers on Kiefer (Vhong), an average man living a simple life who suddenly experiences paranormal activities. When he learns that he is the son of Mang Kepweng, a famous and funny albularyo, Kiefer becomes determined to find out more about his father, which leads him to discover his destiny as an heir to the iconic bandana that has healing powers.

BIG WINNER.

Kapuso teen star Bianca Umali

INTERNATIONAL child-focused organization World Vision proudly announced Kapuso teen princess Bianca Umali as its newest youth ambassador for education.

During a contract signing ceremony in February, Umali shared how grateful she was to be part of the World Vision family, and how in her own way she is able to share her blessings to the children, especially the most in need.

A bookworm, she was extremely happy that she was chosen to be the newest Education Ambassador of the said organization. The Mulawin vs. Ravena star said, “Education is where everything starts. I want to encourage the children to read, na manumbalik sa pagbabasa. Gusto ko maranasan nila ‘yong childhood na creative through reading.”

“We’re really amazed with the values that Bianca represents. It’s something na kailangan ng kabataang Pinoy ngayon. If people would know what kind of childhood she had and the discipline she has in life, it’s something that we would want to inculcate to the children’s lives,” shared World Vision Resource Development director, Jun Godornes.

Bianca was in Cebu on March 7 where she celebrated her birthday with the Children of Cotcot Day Care Center in Liloan Cebu, one of World Vision’s area programs.

Bianca is in GMA Network’s comedy musical program Full House Tonight, which airs every Saturday after Magpakailanman.

CREAM OF THE CROP.

After a long series of elimination,Tawag ng Tanghalan grand finalists battle it out to become the ultimate winner

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

WHO WILL BE THE

Karylle

Anne Curtis

Vice Ganda

Chloë Grace Moretz IN COACH NEW YORK CAMPAIGN

American model and actress Chloë Grace Moretz

LOUNGING with classic American vintage cars amid a field of wildflowers in Liberty State Park, Chloë Grace Moretz appears in the new Coach New York Spring 2017 campaign with the city skyline behind her. Shot by longtime Coach collaborator Steven Meisel and styled

by Karl Templer, Moretz embodies the brand’s love of Americana style.

With her hair blowing in the wind, Moretz personifies American cool, the spirit of independence and a distinctly New York attitude.

Draping a leather jacket over her soft prairie floral dress, she mixes romantic Southwestern fringing with the toughness of biker leather.

This season’s Swagger and Edie bags come in muted shades of pink

‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ champion?

while the Drifter appears in a chalk white. Inspired by the eclectic craft of Santa Fe, bags are embellished with custom-made rivets and studs, a rich mix of semiprecious stones and genuine snakeskin details—a nod to the American West. Sheer printed dresses are accessorized with stacked printed silk scarves and heavy off-duty creepers made for exploring the city by foot.

Coach Creative Director Stuart Vevers says, “Chloë has a sense of optimism that is the perfect juxtaposition to the New York City backdrop, Coach’s home city. Chloë’s ease and effortlessness of style feels relevant and very Coach.”

In the Philippines, COACH is located at Rustan’s Shangri-La.Follow @ssilifeph on Instagram for more information.

A

FTER battling it out in the last five days, only one of the 10 Tawag ng Tanghalan finalists will be declared champion in the grand finals today on It’s Showtime telecast live from Resorts World Manila.

ISAH V. RED

The 10 finalists include Pagadian’s Maricel Callo, who swooned male audiences.

More viewers also preferred watching It’s Showtime in sings in restaurants and hotels with her husband, Laguna’s Mary Gidget Dela Llana, who is dedicating her success 2016, according to data from Kantar Media. It recorded an to her mom who raised her alone, Marielle Montellano, a average national TV rating of 17.9 percent for the whole voice actress from Cebu, Pauline Agupitan, a student from year, compared to Eat Bulaga’s 13.2 percent.

The madlang people can also look forward to more worldBatangas, band vocalist Eumee Capile of Bulacan, farmer Noven Bellaza of Negros, Sam Mangubat, a YouTube class performances, this time, from kids, as “Tawag ng sensation from Batangas, Carlmalone Montecido of Tanghalan Kids” debuts on Monday. *** Bacolod, a blind singer, Froilan Canlas, a music teacher Songbird doubts Inday’s claim she has a new boyfriend as from Bato, Camarines Sur, and Rachel Gabreza, a saleslady she has never seen the guy. For the host of Sarap Diva, to from Makati.

The “Tawag ng Tanghalan” championship also became see is to believe.

But, for Inday, she is after “inner beauty.” an opportunity for the show’s hosts –Vice Ganda, Anne Even the guests of Regine Velasquez-Alcasid – Janine Curtis, Amy Perez, Karylle, Ryan Bang, and musician Jugs – to thank the members of the press and the audience for Gutierrez and Mikael Daez – lead stars of the Afternoon continuously supporting the show during a press conference Prime soap Legally Blind want to know the real score.

This will be another fun morning as the Songbird and her on Tuesday at the Kapamilya’s Dolphy Theater.

The finalists were also presented to the members of the guests talk about life and love. Watch out for Daez’s lunch. media. Their inspiring stories and impressive vocals the He cooked Laksa.

Songbirad will have a game – “Salatin, Amuyin at audience watched as they tried to dodge the infamous “gong” and impress the hurados – OPM legends Rey Valera, Yeng Tikman!”

Sarap Diva airs today on the Kapuso network after Constantino, Karla Estrada, Karylle, Billy Crawford, Nyoy Volante, K Brosas, Bobot Mortiz, Mitoy Yonting, Maynila. *** Rico J. Puno, Louie Ocampo, Kyla, Erik Santos, Jaya, How to achieve that Korean fair skin, V-shaped jaw line and Ogie Alcasid.

The top five grand finalists battle it out for supremacy and big eyes is what host and beauty master Ricky Reyes today at Resorts World Manila for the P2 million, house and will show the audience today in The World of Gandang Ricky Reyes at 9 a.m. on GMA News TV. lot, musical package, and recording contract.

Also, Reyes will discuss how women with severely Who will give the most impressive set of performances? damaged hair from Hair Relax can have Cryo Hair Whose life will be changed forever?

Therapy, guaranteed to reconstruct and revitalize Meanwhile, It’s Showtime also kept viewers hooked the hair. on the guessing game in “TrabaHula,” where He has also good news for high school hardworking madlang workers shared experiences girls with kinky hair like Pamela and Julia. and challenges they face on the job. Viewers also An ultimate hair transformation awaits learned lessons on love and some hugot lines these girls in Gandang Ricky Reyes in “Dancing in Tandem: Nagmahal. Nasaktan.

Salons through Magic Re-Gold, now Nagsayaw.” offered at less 50 percent off the regular Women 35 years and older were also given price. the chance to own the stage and show their The reputable tech-voc school dancing skills in “KemboTitas.” “Sinong in the country, the Ricky Reyes Nanay Mo?” meanwhile, did not just Learning Institute (RRLI) offers show Filipino kids’ intelligence but also courses for individuals who want to the nurturing and supportive relationship uplift their lives and become between mothers and their children. productive. RRLI prepares Aspiring models brought students for employment entertainment to a whole new with professional training level in It’s Showtime’s “Next for basic and advanced Tough Model” as they impressed courses in cosmetology viewers with their creativity and and hotel and restaurant fierce poses. services.

The show became bigger as it introduced Amy Perez, Following the Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla, grand launch of and Joey Marquez as its “Type ng Bayan’ in newest additions to the family, Mandaluyong, Pasig bringing even more good vibes and Paranaque, and fun.

Pasay City free blood Also bringing entertainment typing to i residents and kilig are the boys of follows.

Hashtags with their good The World of looks and killer dance moves.

Gandang Ricky The beautiful and talented Reyes airs Saturdays, girls of GirlTrends, meanwhile, 9 to 10 a.m. on GMA showcased their dancing skills that News TV. TV host and beauty guru Ricky Reyes