Manila Standard - 2017 April 03 - Monday by Manila Standard

FLOIRENDO LOSES LAND DEAL OVER HOUSE FEUD By Christine F. Herrera

VOL. XXXI • NO. 52 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the abrogation of a contract with the Tagum Agricultural Development Co. when he learned that the government could be earning P1 billion a year, instead of P25 million from the banana plantation inside the Davao Penal Colony. Duterte issued the directive after meeting with his two feuding allies, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr., the

owner of Tadeco, who refused to settle their differences, Palace sources said. Alvarez earlier ﬁled a graft complaint with the Ofﬁce of the Ombudsman against Floirendo, charging that Tadeco’s contract with the Bureau of Corrections to have prisoners plant bananas on 5,308 hectares of land inside the Davao Penal Colony for P25 million a year was disadvantageous to the government and was granted without a public bidding. Duterte, the source said, wants the deal Next page

3 Filipinos reign over SE Asian photo tilt By Brenda Jocson

WINNING POSE. The untitled work of Jose M. Brillo wins the first prize in the Southeast Asian Photo Contest sponsored by the Philippine government. With the theme ‘Celebrating Southeast Asian agriculture and fisheries,’ the entries portrayed the vibrant countryside along with SE Asians who plant, fish and harvest food.

THREE Filipinos have been proclaimed winners in the Southeast Asian Photo Contest by the Philippine government-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture. Jose Melencio Brillo won the first prize, Raniel Jose Castañeda bagged the second prize and Herwin Barcelona emerged as the “People’s Choice.” From its launching in October 2016, the Southeast Asia-wide art competition has received 1,263 entries from 284 photo enthusiasts― including 101 professional photographers―from 10 Southeast Asian countries. Anchored on the theme “Celebrating Southeast Asian agriculture and fisheries,” the entries portrayed the vibrant countryside along with the Southeast Asians who plant, fish and harvest food. Next page

Arrest Aquino—Reds Palace bucks demand for ‘war crimes’ trial

Printing ‘job out’ scrapped

By Sandy Araneta

HE communist National Democratic Front has ordered the arrest of former President Benigno Aquino III and his trial before a “people’s court” for the death of two farmers in the bloody dispersal of their protest in Kidapawan City in April 2016.

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan A PALACE ofﬁcial on Sunday recommended that the government dissolve the joint venture between the state-run APO Production Unit and a private printing company for the production of passports, arguing that both parties have acted beyond the powers conferred upon them by law. In a document dated Jan. 23, 2017, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the APO-PU committed grave abuse of discretion and could be held criminally and administratively liable for engaging the services of United Graphic Expression Corp., a privately owned printing ﬁrm to implement the e-passport project of the Department of Foreign Affairs. “APO should refrain from engaging, subcontracting or assigning the printing of passports to private entities, including UGEC,” Panelo wrote in a legal opinion executed on the e-passport controversy. Panelo said if abrogation of the joint venture agreementwould render APO-PU incapable Next page

Militant farmers and other groups, demanding ‘food, land and justice,’ stage a rally in front of the Kidapawan City Highwalk commemorating the anniversary of the violent dispersal of farmers on April 1, 2016. Former President Benigno Aquino III is being blamed for the bloody incident and the communist National Democratic Front wants him to face trial in a people’s court for alleged crimes against humanity. Geonarri Solmerano

Du30 to EU: Be a partner, not accuser By Sandy Araneta THE Palace on Sunday urged the European Parliament to engage with the Philippine government as partners in nation-building, rather than accuse the administration of extrajudicial killings with no basis.

“We would rather that the European Parliament engage us as partners in nation-building, as the visionary EU business community seems to intend themselves,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella in a statement. His statement followed remarks from the European Union’s Am-

bassador to the Philippines, Franz Jessen, said that drug-related killings could imperil the country’s trade with Europe. “The head of the task force on extrajudicial killings of the Commission on Human Rights, Commissioner Gwen Gana, has Next page

The NDF-Southern Mindanao said Aquino committed “war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international human rights law” over the violent dispersal of farmers who were protesting the lack of government aid in the midst of a drought brought about by the El Niño phenomenon on April 1, 2016. Two farmers were killed and many others were injured in the dispersal. The NDF also ordered the arrest of North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista, North Cotabato Representative Nancy Catamco, and other military and police ofﬁcials, and said they would be meted the “appropriate penalties” after trial by a “people’s court.” The Palace on Sunday rejected the NDF declaration.

“We only have one government and one justice system in the Philippines,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella in a statement. “Only the appropriate body can rule on the issue of the violent dispersal of farmers in Kidapawan,” Abella said. Abella also assured the public that the former president will be given security. “Security measures are in place to guarantee the protection of the former president and other personalities mentioned by the announcement of the National Democratic Front,” Abella said. A year after the violent dispersal of farmers, the NDF in Southern Mindanao said former President Aquino has been indicted for crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international human rights law. Next page

BIR owes wage-earners Gina draws refund, says labor group ﬂak over mines fund By Rio N. Araja and Vito Barcelo THE Bureau of Internal Revenue owes 600,000 minimum-wage earners an estimated P9,000 in “blood money” that it collected from them for six months in 2008 despite a law exempting them from paying tax, a labor group said Sunday. Alan Tanjusay, spokesman of the Associated Labor UnionsTrade Union Congress of the Philippines, slammed the BIR for its failure to refund the P9,000 that he said it illegally collected from the 600,000 workers.

“This is a subtle form of injustice done by the BIR to the minimum-wage workers who depend on their daily pay to make both ends meet,” Tanjusay said. “The amount of money the BIR collected is blood money that could have been spent to buy food, pay for tuition and purchase medicine. ‘‘We suggest that the cash refund be coursed through the employers if the employers are still existing. If the company has shut down, we suggest the refund should be disbursed through the BIR regional ofﬁces.” Next page

A CONSUMER group on Sunday challenged Environment Secretary Gina Lopez to make public the guidelines for the multi-million-peso trust fund she is requiring the suspended mining ﬁrms to set up before they are allowed to bring out and export their stockpiles. The group Water for All Refund Movement and United Filipino Consumers and Commuters or WARM-UFCC made the demand even as Surigao del Norte Rep. Roberto Ace Barbers Next page

APOSTOLIC BLESSING. Catholic Bishop Antonio Tobias sprinkles holy water on the pictures of victims of

summary executions during the third Holy Eucharist Mass Action held at Sto. Niño Church in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City on Sunday. Manny Palmero

News

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

2 Pinoys rescued from sunken ship M Arrest...

Floirendo...

From A1

The NDF said it found “compelling evidence that the gross neglect and apathy” of Aquino and the other accused violated the fundamental rights of the civilians, guaranteed in international tenets, covenants and instruments. The group said that the indictment “effectively prescribed the arrest” of Aquino and the others. The NDF Southern Mindanao noted in its statement the “willful shooting that resulted in multiple violent deaths and serious injuries, the incarceration and the maltreatment of civilians were all deliberate acts of aggression against defenseless civilians and vulnerable sections of the civilian population long considered under international humanitarian law as protected persons.” The announcement was made on the ﬁrst anniversary of the violent dispersal of at least 6,000 farmers in Kidapawan City on April 1, 2016. Two persons were killed and over a dozen were hurt as policemen arrested and dispersed the protesting farmers.

to go through a public bidding. Alvarez said Floirendo’s deal was highly onerous as the rental contract only amounted to P5,000 per hectare annually compared to the prevailing market rate of P35,000 per hectare for idle lands and some P100,000 to P200,000 per hectare for developed land. The land has been developed by Floirendo’s family-owned Tadeco. San Miguel Corp., through businessman Ramon Ang, has offered P1 billion to manage the plantation, which translates to a rent of P188,000 per hectare, Alvarez said. Although the Palace had said it would not interfere in the row between Alvarez and Floirendo, Duterte’s biggest campaign contributor, the two were summoned to a meeting with the President in Davao City. “The two gentlemen were summoned by the President for them to settle their differences face-to-face…. No one would budge. Speaker Alvarez demanded that he would only settle the problem with Floirendo if the latter would apologize to him,” one source said. Alvarez demanded that Floirendo apologize for calling him “patay-gutom [dirt-poor]” but Floirendo denied uttering such a word. “You don’t say that to and about your friends,” the source, who was privy to the confrontation quoted Alvarez as telling Floirendo. The source recounted that Floirendo’s girlfriend Cathy Binag had a spat with Alvarez’s girlfriend Jennifer Maliwanag Vicencio in January during the Maskara Festival in Bacolod City when the reserved seats for

Gina... From A1

called for transparency in the role of former Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Leo Jasareno in the Environment department. Barbers said it was inappropriate for Lopez to be relying on Jasareno who had no clear position in the government and who had approved the permits of those firms that Lopez had suspended. WARM-UFCC president Rodolfo Javellana told the Kapihan sa Anabel’s forum that they had written Lopez to inquire about her Jan. 30, 2017 memorandum requiring all suspended mining firms to set up a trust fund of P2 million per hectare of disturbed land before they could allowed to remove their stockpiles. “We would like to be enlightened on the January 30, 2017 Memorandum you issued to all suspended mining firms settling requirements before they can be allowed to remove the stockpiles particularly the condition for the opening of a trust fund account in the amount of P2 million per hectare of disturbed land,” Javellana said in his letter. Environment department documents showed that on Jan. 30, 2017, Lopez ordered all suspended mining firms to each open a trust fund account in the amount of P2 million per every hectare of disturbed land before they could be allowed to remove their stockpiles from the mining areas and given export permits. ‘‘This Office is allowing the removal of said stockpiles on condition that the following requirements are complied with .[that] [t]he mining contractor concerned shall place in a trust fund the amount of Php2 million per hectare of disturbed land, to be used to further mitigate the adverse impacts of the operation to the environment and to the actual communities, Lopez said. Javellana said that while the intention of the trust might be commendable, he found ‘‘very disturbing the reports that Lopez was requiring the setting up of non-governmental organizations to manage the trust fund based on the guidelines set by her Office, including who its members would be, the recipients of the trust fund and the drafting of all company documents. He said Lopez should be transparent on the issue of the trust fund because it should be the public that should benefit from it and not the businesses engaged in the supposed rehabilitation programs. He then cited Environment Undersecretary Philip Camara who used to be the president and chief executive of Biochamp Association, a company engaged in mining rehabilitation. He said Lopez should make public the contracts involved in the setting up of the trust fund in order to avoid any conflict of interest.

Du30... From A1

stated that their initial ﬁndings determined that the extrajudicial killings are not state-sponsored, Abella said. “Non-trade accusations, especially if baseless and undeserved, should therefore not be linked with trade programs,” said Abella. Abella said police are conducting legitimate law enforcement operations that require the observance of operational protocols. Police who breach procedures are answerable to the law, he added. ‘‘We assure our friends and allies that the Philippines will respect its international commitments,” said Abella. “The President’s war against dangerous drug trafﬁckers intends to protect the innocent which illegal drugs would destroy,” he said. “The citizens appreciate the long awaited peace and order under President [Rodrigo] Duterte,” he added. Earlier, Jessen had warned that trade with Europe would be affected if the Philippines continued to ignore warnings on human rights violations, including its bloody war on illegal drugs that has led to thousands of deaths blamed on the police and vigilantes. Jessen said that Europe was not imposing United Nations conventions on the country, but

Printing... From A1

of performing its contractual obligations under a memorandum of agreement with the DFA, the DFA would have sufﬁcient basis to terminate its agreement with APO-PU. Earlier, DFA spokesman Charles Jose said there was nothing irregular with its contract with APO, the group that bagged the multibillion-peso printing contract for electronic passports in 2015. “As far as we’re concerned, there’s nothing irregular with our contract with APO; everything is above board,” he maintained. He added that its contract with APO went through a thorough

the Speaker and his entourage were occupied by Binag and Floirendo’s camp. The girls hurled invectives at each other. The source said the Speaker opted to find other seats even though Vicencio resented being bumped off their reserved seats. During the flight to Manila, the couples again bickered. Floirendo, who was drunk at the time, confronted Alvarez’s girlfriend, Vicencio. “Kilala mo ba yan si Bebot? Patay-gutom yan at pinapakain ko lang yan sa palad ko,” [Do you know Bebot Alvarez]? He’s dirt-poor and I feed him from the palm of my hand,” Floirendo purportedly told Vicencio, who ran to Alvarez to report the insult. “Tonyboy [Floirendo] denied ever saying that but Bebot [Alvarez] stood by the story of his girlfriend,” the source said. “After getting the insults, the Speaker tried to find out how Floirendo became the Banana King not because he wanted to get even with Floirendo but because he found out about a plot to use the President’s allies’ anomalous contracts as a basis for making it appear that Duterte spares his allies from prosecution on corruption,” the source said. The source said that since 2004, Floirendo has been shortchanging the government through his joint venture agreement with the BuCor. In an interview over radio dzBB, Alvarez said Floirendo’s family has been able to enrich itself through the contract, so it should not be too greedy and let the government earn. As an official of the government and as a lawmaker, Floirendo should give the government what it is due, Alvarez added. He said the government has lost some P13 billion in revenues in the many years Tadeco operated under its contract with BuCor.

Alvarez, who suspected Floirendo of plotting to oust him as Speaker, said he decided to file graft charges against the congressman to show that the Duterte administration was not being selective in fighting corruption. As an offshoot of the row, however, Alvarez has come under fire for having a girlfriend while he is still married, and for flaunting his affair. “The recent statement made by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on his extramarital affairs and his insinuation that all other lawyers in the country might be disbarred too for such act is a reckless generalization. It casts unnecessary intrigue on the legal profession, which is irrelevant to the main issue that Speaker Alvarez is in,” said Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus. “As defender of women’s rights, we express grave concern as to how Speaker Alvarez flaunts his extramarital affairs as something ordinary and acceptable. It reeks of machismo unbecoming of a public servant, more so of the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” De Jesus said. She said the power struggle between Alvarez and Floreindo should not be primarily linked to the squabble between their girlfriends. “We call on the public to focus on the deeper underlying political and economic motives that are at play in the issue,” she added. Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr. appealed to Alvarez not to evict the Congressional Spouses Foundation Inc. from the Batasan Complex, and called on his colleagues to also buck the move. “The work of the CSFI complements all legislators and helps out all districts. These partners in life are also legitimate partners in extending the goodwill and service of District representatives to their constituents. Taking them

away from the Batasan Complex will only burden their work for the people,” Baguilat said. Around Valentine’s Day, Alvarez announced he wanted the CSFI—headed by his wife Emelita—out of the Batasan Complex to make room for ofﬁces of deputy speakers and party list congressmen. “We cannot have it here and support it because I will be dispensing public money for a private purpose,” Alvarez had told the House reporters. Baguilat said several personnel at Congress, on the other hand, spoke highly of the CSFI and its good deeds. “The foundation has hosted job fairs, handed out scholarships, promoted local products through trade fairs, donated relief goods and interacted with the congressmen’s constituents to maintain good relations,” Baguilat said. Congressional workers spoke highly of Alvarez’s wife. “She’s kind, good-natured and committed to the work of the CSFI,” one chief of staff commented. “It’s part of Philippine culture for spouses to support each other’s work, so I can’t imagine why the Speaker wants to make coordination between the CSFI and the congressmen difﬁcult. It’s unfortunate that the Speaker thinks that the CSFI is a liability to Congress, when it is in fact doing part of its work,” Baguilat said. “I’m sure kicking out the CSFI will infuriate its members who are faithful to and supportive of their legislator-spouses. While the Speaker has administrative control over the facilities of Congress, I hope he will consult all relevant stakeholders, namely the spouses, and not impose changes like a dictatorhusband,” Baguilat said. With Rio N. Araja

was expecting it to abide by its international commitments. “The Philippines has ratified and therefore ensured effective compliance with core UN international conventions including human rights and good governance,” Jessen said. “So it’s not 27 conventions we are imposing on you. It’s 27 conventions that you already signed up for in the UN system. So it’s not us imposing anything. We are simply saying you did that [ratified UN conventions] and we think you did right and therefore we are very happy to work with GSP+ [Generalized Scheme of Preferences] in the Philippines,” he said. Respect for international commitments remains a requirement in landing a free trade agreement with the European Union as well as continuing the EU’s GSP+. A European mission recently concluded an assessment and follow-up on the Philippines in January and February. A report is expected at the end of the year. “We are monitoring the respect of these [UN] conventions by the Philippines and we will carefully consider what implications the findings might have for our trade engagement with the Filipinos,” he said. Jessen’s statement came on the same day that President Rodrigo Duterte cursed the European Union as a “son of a whore” and “crazy” for believing claims made by rights groups that he had personally ordered the deaths of drug suspects.

He repeated his earlier claim that the European Union also suggested that he build a clinic that would dispense meth, heroin and cocaine—a charge the EU has denied. “I said, ‘Come here and we’ll talk because I want to slap you,” Duterte said he told the European Union. His comments were made Friday at a Women’s Day gathering in Malacañang. Jessen on Friday said he checked with EU member states represented in Manila and “nobody suggested anything like it was stated.” “Whatever we do in this country is by deﬁnition in accordance with domestic law,” he said, adding that it was “simply not correct” to say that a representative of an EU country would have made any suggestion that was against local laws. Jessen said the EU was nevertheless committed to “engage constructively” with Manila across a range of areas, from the health sector and law enforcement to the peace process, environment, disaster risk reduction and development speciﬁcally in Mindanao. GSP+ has resulted in the reduction of tariff on 6,200 Philippine products to zero and helped the Philippines corner 17.5 percent in exports to the European Union worth $900 million in January. Of this total, $225 million were exported under the GSP+ program. Top Philippine exports to the

European Union were agricultural oil products, electrical equipment, processed meat and fish, optical products, and processed vegetables, fruits and nuts. Other GSP+ beneficiaries include Pakistan, Bolivia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Cape Verde, Mongolia, Paraguay and Sri Lanka. The EU had previously stopped preferential treatment for Sri Lankan imports due its failure to address reported human rights violations there. It only qualified in 2015 when the country’s new government carried out major reforms for national reconciliation there. Jessen said that all GSP+ beneficiary countries were working to promote 27 UN conventions and were making steady progress. “We are not expecting miracles here. We just expect a sort of steady progress over time that labor conditions will improve. That conditions for child labor will improve. That human rights conditions will improve. It’s not a question of what happened today, or what happened yesterday,” he said. “But is a question of the right direction in accordance with the international commitments made by these partner-countries,” Jessen said. He said that the European Union has a “tradition of being very frank and open” in discussions. He said the bloc considers the Philippines one of its oldest diplomatic partners. With Macon Ramos-Araneta

review by an inter-agency group under the Department of Finance. But Panelo said the agreement forged between APO and the DFA on Oct. 5, 2015 required APO to use its own facilities, equipment and machinery in printing passports for the DFA. Originally, the printing of passports was handled by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The DFA reportedly vetted APO, a corporation attached to the Presidential Communications Operations Ofﬁce then headed by Secretary Herminio Coloma, as an authorized supplier or service provider for the production and printing of “accountable forms and sensitive high quality/ volume” documents including passports and tax stamps.

It turned out, however, that APO-PU did not have the technical capability or the state-of-the-art equipment to perform its contractual obligations to the DFA, hence, it hired the services of UGEC. Panelo said the outsourcing scheme of APO-PU resulted in a breach of a resolution by the Government Procurement Policy Board, as well as pertinent General Appropriations Act and Republic Act 9184 prescribing the rules on public bidding. “Such subcontracting arrangement or assignment may subject the APO and/or UGEC ofﬁcials responsible for the same to criminal and administrative liabilities,” Panelo stated. He also recommended that the passports should cost only P650

each. The DFA currently charges P950 per, plus P250 for “overtime charges” if the applicant is in a hurry and opts to use the express lane. APO, which is operating under the PCOO, is described in the said agreement as the only recognized government printers that expressed willingness to print the e-passport. The other two RGPs are the National Printing Office and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. “We can outsource the production of passports only to government printing offices, and there are only three such offices: BSP, which didn’t want to continue printing the passports for us; the National Printing Office, which didn’t want the job; and APO production unit,” Jose said.

ONTEVIDEO― Two Filipino sailors were rescued Saturday from a distressed South Korean freighter with 24 crew on board that had apparently sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, the Uruguayan navy said Saturday. Four merchant ships in the area recovered three rafts and rescued the two Filipino crew members, said Gaston Jaunsolo, a spokesman for the navy. The crew of the Stella Daisy, a Very Large Ore Carrier with a capacity of more than 260,000 tons, comprised 16 Filipinos and eight Koreans. The search for the others continued. The ship had issued an emergency call on Friday shortly before noon local time (14H00 GMT), saying it was taking In water, according to the navy. Because the ship was far the Uruguayan coast―some 2,000 nautical miles, or 3,700 kilometers, from Montevideo―the navy organized a search by four merchant ships in the area, Jaunsolo told AFP in Montevideo. He said the first ships to reach the scene had detected a “strong smell of fuel” and spotted debris, “an indication that the damaged ship had sunk,” a statement from the navy said. The ship, which is flagged On the Marshall Islands, had departed from a port in Brazil. Its intended destination was not immediately clear. Brazil is sending an aircraft to help in the search, officials said. AFP

3 Filipinos... From A1

Gil C. Saguigit Jr., Searca director, said the aim of the photo contest was to capture the joy and passion that Southeast Asian farmers and fishermen, processors, traders and consumers share as they harvest, process, sell and partake of the fruit of the land and sea. He said the theme reflects Searca’s commemoration of its 50th founding anniversary as an institution. “[Searca] has helped build capacities of Southeast Asians, generate knowledge through cutting-edge research, deliver research findings through knowledge resources and learning events, all the while adapting to the constantly changing agricultural landscape at the national, regional and global levels,” Saguiguit said. Brillo’s image bested all the other entries in Searca’s 10th photo contest with a fisherman holding up his morning catch as he stands in an outrigger on the tranquil Pulilan River in Bulacan. Castañeda of Manila won the second prize with his photograph of a fisherman casting a net in a river to catch fish for his family. Kyaw Kyaw Winn, from Myanmar, won the third prize for his photo of two women carrying a basket of fish from the sea. Barcelona of Bongabong, Nueva Ecija, won the “People’s Choice” award for his photo of an onion harvest in his town―the “onion capital” of the Philippines. His photo garnered almost 2,000 likes via online voting. Searca’s publications will feature the winning photos and the other shortlisted entries and other materials that promote agricultural development and cooperation in the region. The gallery of winning photos and other finalists may be viewed online at photocontest.searca.org.

BIR... From A1

Tanjusay said that in a decision in February, the Supreme Court said minimum-wage earners must not be taxed because they were exempted from paying tax by Republic Act 9502. He said that law became effective on June 17, 2008, but the BIR issued Revenue Regulation 10-2008 and only exempted minimum wage earners six months later. Tanjusay said the BIR collected an average of P792 a month for six months from each minimum wage earner in 2008. He said the government must refund the money and pay a 12-percent interest on it for nine years.

News

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

EU assures Mindanao of peace funds By Sara Susanne D. Fabuna

HE European Union has earmarked €4.2-million in support of the Philippine Government’s roadmap for peace in Mindanao.

Citing the EU as being the major humanitarian donor for the relief assistance to the civilians displaced by the armed conflict in Zamboanga City and in Maguindanao, ambassador Franz Jessen said the new donation signed in December 2016 will pursue EU’s three objectives. “I expect that the focus will

soon shift away from the peace process to the implementation of the peace agreements. Once this shift takes place the EU is very well positioned to contribute,” Jessen said. “The challenge will be to ensure that all parties continue to see the clear and evident benefits for the Philippines

and Mindanao of moving to a peaceful Mindanao, focused on creating better lives for its people,” the envoy added. The new donation will be good for 14 months or until March 2018, he said. The specific objectives are: 1) the monitoring of the situation to diffuse tensions on the ground is continued and strengthened; 2) Confidence building, for the convergence of all the Moro factions and their transition to civilian entities and for creating a more inclusive political platform bringing together Mindanao’s diverse population; and 3) Contributing to peace building and conflict mitigation through monitoring mecha-

nisms as agreed by the two parties. It also includes funding for the Civilian Protection Component of the International Monitoring Team including an embedded EU Human Rights expert, and for the functioning of the Third Party Monitoring Team led by a former EU ambassador to the Philippines. The €1.9-million of €4-million will go to the NGO Non -Violent Peace Forces to support the Civilian Protection Component of the International Monitoring Team and presence of an EU expert on Human Rights. The EU said it will donate €1-million to NGO Foundation Suisse de Deminage to help

provide confidence building in Mindanao through mine risk education and mine action capacity. It will also grant Konrad Adenaeur Stiftung €400,000 to fund political parties; and €800,000-million to NGO Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue to secure attendance in the International Contact Group and to organize dialogues at grass root. Over the last seven years the EU has become a key actor in support of the Philippine Government-MILF peace process in Mindanao and previous support under Instrument for Stability or Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace. “We’ve been supporting the

Back-taxes deal meant for upgrade of hospitals

‘Palit-Bise’ calls for Leni ouster

By Rio N. Araja MANILA Rep. Manny Lopez on Sunday supported the position of President Rodrigo Duterte to enter into reasonable out-of court settlements with big and small firms with back taxes to be able to start a P1-billion upgrade of public hospitals in Tondo. He agreed with former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, who endorsed the President’s proposal to the Department of Finance to “put to good use for the benefit of the people” the much-needed funds, instead of exhausting legal cases against the tax delinquents. He welcomed the statement of the President that at least a P1-billion fund from his P3-billion offer for an out-ofcourt settlement with tobacco firm Mighty Corp. would be used to upgrade, improve and modernize the facilities of Tondo public hospitals. “It is a very good news for my poor constituents. We support the proposal to provide immediate relief to indigent patients,” he said. Tondo has three public hospitals—the Ospital ng Tondo, Tondo Medical Center and Gat Andres Bonifacio Medical Center. “To instantly raise funds for the basic social services of the poor people is a guaranteed victory,” Lopez said. Estrada earlier said a compromise deal involving taxpayers is allowed under the law. The President said he could use the money to also build hospitals in Basilan and Jolo, Sulu and a huge relocation site for thousands of squatters. “It is the decision of the President [to enter in an outof-court settlement]. He’s the commander-in-chief,” Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said.

peace dialogue and development in Mindanao for a long time, more than 30 years,” Jessen noted. For the past 25 years, the EU has also been a key actor in the region, known for working alongside the Government of the Philippines to promote peace, human security, and development in the most vulnerable, conflict-affected communities. Currently more than €35-million or P1.8 billion are invested in ongoing projects under different EU funding tools to provide support to peace in Mindanao through an approach supporting directly the political settlement and longer term sustainable development.

CHANGE THE VP. Thousands of President Duterte’s supporters raise their clenched ﬁsts as they chant slogans, calling for the impeachment

of Vice President Leni Robredo and giving a new twist to her criticism of the war on illegal drugs during Sunday’s ‘Palit Bise’ rally at the Quirino Grandstand on Rizal Park. Ey Acasio

Lower minimum age for liability bucked THE United Nations had sent a letter to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez Jr., urging both leaders of Congress not to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility as this move would only further expose children to violence in prison facilities and instead lead to further reoffending. In a letter sent last January, Marta Santos-Pais, UN Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on Violence Against Children, urged Speaker Alvarez and Senator Pimentel to focus on improving the implementation of the country’s Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act (JJWA, or Republic Act 9344 of 2006, as amended in 2013). She also cited the JJWA as the basis to advance the implementation of the commitments made in the Asean Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of VAC in 2015. “Research shows that lowering the age of criminal respon-

sibility and punitive criminal justice to youth offences has negative consequences; including risks of being used in criminal activities at increasingly younger ages, compromising completion of education and access to opportunities for vocational skills, and stigmatizing them as criminals and exposing them to further violence, neglect and social exclusion,” Santos-Pais said. The House of Representatives’ Sub-Committee on Judicial Reforms under the Committee on Justice is drafting a bill to lower the MACR from 15 to nine. Child rights NGOs and advocates, along with some members of the House and Senate and the government’s Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council, oppose the move; saying law enforcement should focus on cracking down on syndicates and parents who exploit children to commit crimes. Unicef Philippines Repre-

sentative Lotta Sylwander said: “Why penalize children who are themselves victims and do not have the maturity to discern right from wrong? In any case the percentage of children involved in crime is less than two percent, punishing and incarcerating children is not going to have any impact on crime reduction. This will only condemn and damage the children for life instead of giving them a chance to reform.” “The underlying and structural factors that bring about child abuse, exploitation and violence must be addressed first. We need to invest in the full implementation of the Juvenile Justice Law, which is a much commended law. Then there should be support for parenting programs to deter at-risk children from committing crimes.” The UN envoy cited research in neuroscience that shows “the human brain is not fully developed in its capacity for cognitive functioning

and emotional control until well into the period of young adulthood. When we expose children to toxic stress or violent environments—such as in prisons—this will have irreversible damages to their brain architecture and create high long-term financial costs for families and the government.” This was echoed by Dr. Liane Alampay of the Ateneo de Manila Psychology Department and of the Psychological Association of the Philippines. Dr Alampay noted that here is a difference between children’s knowledge of right and wrong; and in acting in accordance with that knowledge and of what the consequences of their actions would be. “Adolescents below age 15 tend to act on their emotions—including fear, hunger, peer pressure, threats and desperation—which is why they are pressured to commit crimes by adults, like syndicates or even their parents.”

SUPPORTERS of President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday held a rally at Rizal Park demanding the ouster of Vice President Leni Robredo. The rally called “Palit Bise” (Change the VP) was led by several personalities who are vocal critics of Robredo on social media including Mocha Uson, singer Jimmy Bondoc, and lawyer Bruce Rivera. Rivera is part of a group of Robredo’s critics who are preparing impeachment complaint against her. The supporters at the rally, which was held at the Quirino Grandstand, brought posters and streamers that called for Robredo’s impeachment or resignation. Some of the rallyists were carrying slogans “Stop Shaming Duterte.” Others showed support for Duterte’s planned shift to federalism. Organizers said the rally was not funded by politicians. However, they said this was funded with donations from Duterte supporters that exceeded $46,000 or P2.3 million. The rally was held despite Duterte’s pronouncement that efforts for Robredo’s impeachment must stop. Several of Duterte’s supporters—including House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez—are keen on pursuing the impeachment of the vice president. Threats to impeach Robredo came after the release of her controversial video message, played at a side session organized in line with the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs annual meeting. The recorded message was linked to efforts to oust Duterte, with supporters pointing out it was released a day before the filing of an impeachment complaint against him. Robredo, who has repeatedly denied involvement in any ouster plot, is currently in South Africa for a series of conferences organized by the Friedrich Neumann Foundation. Sandy Araneta

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

EDITORIAL

An attack on us all

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s vicious threats against two news organizations last week was an attack on us all. In an expletive-laced speech, Duterte singled out two media organizations, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and ABS-CBN, for being “full of s---” in putting out “slanted” reports against him. The President then threatened to humiliate journalists critical of his administration by revealing details of their person-

Adelle Chua, Editor

al lives, including their children, using publiclyfunded PTV-4. “The media are going too far. They have made it ugly. If that’s the case, I have a government station here, PTV 4. I can attack them every day, and make a story about the lives of their children,” the President said. With all due respect, it

appears that it is the President who has gone too far. In the last 10 months, we have grown accustomed to his abusive language and bluster, but by threatening to use state resources— PTV-4, speciﬁcally—to go after journalists and their families, the President has stepped over the line. In a statement released March 30, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippine told Duterte his rant against the media was “a brazen abuse” of his immense power as chief ex-

ecutive of the land and showed how little appreciation he had for democracy and governance. “It is a mindset of the petty tyrant who mistakenly believes public ofﬁce is an entitlement that allows you to ﬂaunt the laws of the land that both grant you power and ensure the checks that prevent you from abusing that power,” the NUJP added. The NUJP assured Duterte that his curses and threats “cannot and will not prevent” Filipino jour-

nalists from going about fulﬁlling their duty of informing the people of what is happening in the country, regardless of whether or not the President agrees with the reportage. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility weighed in as well, calling the President’s allegations against the media as “verbal abuse—the cheapest form of harassment and intimidation that has brought the highest ofﬁce to a historic low.” “The virulence and vi-

ciousness of his language are an abuse of power, a stain on the freedom of our public forum. The media are doing their institutional duty—to reveal the truth in the public interest. The practice is protected by constitutional rights and held responsible under the law for any proven wrongdoing,” added CMFR. We do not always agree with our colleagues in our approach toward the news, but on this issue we feel compelled to close ranks.

Privacy is the price we pay for our internet lives By Stephen L. Carter

Proxies on government boards? THAT stockholders can vote by proxy, and that in fact most of the time they do, is known by anyone with the slightest introduction to corporation law in the Philippines. But it is as clear from the Corporation Code that directors and trustees do not attend meetings, much less vote by proxies. Jurisprudence has explained why: Directors and trustees are elected because of the trust reposed on them—owing to expertise, authority exercised or office occupied. Instrumentalities of the national government, as defined by the Administrative Code of 1987, are strictly not corporations. The Supreme Court has distinguished them from GOCCs, but has also underscored the fact that they have corporate features and enjoy corporate powers. This is patently true in the case of state universities and colleges governed by the Higher Education Modernization Act. The law expressly grants their governing boards all the corporate powers granted

ordinary corporations in Section 36 of the Corporation Code. The same law identifies the members of the governing board. Two seats are occupied by the committee chairs for education of both chambers of the Legislature. In the case of the chair—who is, ex officio, the Chair of the Commission on Higher Education, there is no debate. The Chair can designate a member of the Commission to be the “working chair” of the governing board. After all, the Chair’s presence is to assure the State—and the public —that policies of the Commission on Higher Education governing higher education are not transgressed by state universities and colleges, and any member of the Commission can very well see to that. The matter is quite different, however, with other members of the governing board—often called the Board of Regents. Reynato Puno, for example, sits as regent of the University of the Philippines, and the reason is

Directors and trustees are elected because of the trust reposed on them.

clear: the wisdom, prudence and insights of such a renowned jurist are precious to UP, and it would be absurd even to suggest that a proxy could sit in his place and vote in his behalf. His attributes are personal to him, and so must his participation in the policymaking that is the chief function of the board. Habitually, the chairs of the committees on education of both chambers of Congress have assigned proxies to sit for them—

and to vote for them at meetings of governing boards of SUCs. And if all parties were candid, it would easily come to light that none of the proxies sits as “instructed,” that is, the proxy votes as he or she thinks fit, without any instruction or antecedent referral to the principal! Obviously, when the law made the chairs of the committees on education members of the governing boards of state universities and colleges, it did so in the expectation that the concerns of SUCs would be appropriately addressed by the legislature— on which they are dependent not only for appropriations but also for oversight. It does happen that the “proxies” are qualified people, but that is really be side the point, because the matter of fulfilling the purpose of the law cannot be left to happenstance! If a SUC is an instrumentality upon which the law bestows corporate features, should its policy-making and operations not be “corpora-

tized” as well? In fact, they are, in the measure that officers of the instrumentality—the university president and subordinate university officials—are ultimately accountable to the board of regents. Why then should such instrumentalities carve out for themselves exceptions to the general corporate principle on the trust reposed on members of the governing boards in their persons? With the avowed policy of state to make higher education more accessible—principally through ordaining a free tuition-fee system—state universities are obviously at the forefront. Private higher education institutions cannot be expected to make this service available. All the more urgent then the need to address this dangling legal issue that has to do with the deliberations that go into the formulation of policy! rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph rannie_aquino@outlook.com

PRESIDENT Donald Trump is poised to sign legislation to overturn Federal Communications Commission rules forbidding internet service providers from selling data they have vacuumed up about the online habits of their customers. Privacy groups are understandably perturbed. But I wonder whether all the brouhaha is just shouting at the horse to come back long after he’s left the barn. Yes, it’s a little disturbing that Verizon and AT&T will be able to start behaving like Google and Facebook. But Google and Facebook are already behaving like Google and Facebook. They recognize what we ourselves refuse to see: That we are no longer entirely human. We may not (yet) be sporting wired implants, but with so much of life spent online, we are increasingly integrated into the digital world. Our smartphones and tablets and computers long ago ceased to be our servants. They are also not our masters. Whether we are at work or at home, in the street or in the car, at school or on vacation, the devices that were once our tools are now our partners and our symbionts. The day has become unimaginable without our ability to connect at leisure. We march through the world shedding digital information with every step we take. Whether we are browsing online or browsing in a store, our symbionts surround us and embrace us ... and steal from us. We like to call the bits we leave behind “our” data, but the truth is that what we shed in our online travels we also abandon —if not as a matter of law, then as a matter of practical fact. Most of the time we do little to protect our leavings. We dribble data in our path and never look back, on the cheery assumption that nobody will ever want to examine what we have tossed aside. For the internet behemoths —Facebook Inc. and Amazon. com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google—the data constitute a treasure-trove. Their business models are built around finding ever more complex methods of mining what we leave behind for information that advertisers will buy to target us, anonymously but effectively. Yes, the algorithms work imperfectly— all of us have stories of being served ads for products we Turn to A5

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

can be accessed at: thestandard.com.ph

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

Philippine Press Institute The National Association of Philippine Newspapers

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

MEMBER

PPI

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

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

Managing Editor Associate Editors News Editor City Editor

Emil P. Jurado

Adelle Chua Honor Blanco Cabie Romel J. Mendez Roberto Cabrera

Chairman Emeritus, Editorial Board

Opinion Editor Night Editor Art Director Chief Photographer

Opinion

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

Uneasy Asian stability A RECENT article by A. Gary Shilling in Bloomberg News analyzed why the unfolding of the so-called “Asian century” is being stalled. Shilling listed five major reasons for the obstacles to Asia’s golden age. Foremost of these roadblocks is the fear of war breaking out in the region. For this scary scenario,, only China is to blame for building man-made islands on the South China Sea and converting them into military installations to advance its sweeping stake to nearly the entire resource-rich waters. This, despite conflicting claims from Vietnam. the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan. The “tiger economies” of Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and even the Philippines should be contributing to the making of an Asian century but the shadow of war looms large in the horizon making foreign investors hedge. Asia is not new to being a theater of war. Aside from the war in the Pacific pitting Japan and the US, there were the Korean war between North and South, the Vietnam war and the IndiaPakistan conflict. The Philippines is passive instead of pushing its legal victory in the arbitral ruling in The Hague court repudiating China’s claim. President Rodrigo Duterte is bellicose

with his words against the United States, the United Nations and the European Union, but not when it comes to China. The man seemed meek in denouncing China’s encroachment in the West Philippine Sea and lately also in Benham Rise. Satellite images provided by Philippine allies showed Chinese ships activity in Benham Rise, an underwater landmass off the northeastern coast of Aurora and Isabela. Instead of confronting or at least seeking an explanation from his friend President Xi Jinping, the Philippine president appeared to accept China’s excuse of “innocent passage” in international waters. International satellite images showed otherwise—that the Chinese ships stayed in Benham Rise for more than a month apparently surveying the seabed which geologists believe to contain, oil, mineral resources and natural gas. China’s stooge, the unhinged North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, is adding to the volatility in the region with his threat to send long-range ballistic missiles into South Korea, Japan and even as far as the US West Coast. US Secretary of State Rex

Tillerson, in a caustic warning to Pyongyang, said “military options are on the table” if North Korea does not stop its missile rattling. Aside from North Korea, the heady mix of nations in Asia with nuclear capability includes, China,India and Pakistan. Where does Russia come into the equation in the event the US decides to carry out a preemptive strike against North Korea? JJ Ebro, former press and information attaché in the Philippine embassy in Washington and now a Virginia resident, wrote to say that Russia won’t join the fray as it does not want to see a rising China with which it has a territorial dispute on Amur. Moscow wants to recover Amur which former Russian Federation president Mikhail Gorbachev signed over to the Chinese. The world’s 10th longest river dividing the Russian Far East and Northeastern China, Amur is rich in fish species. Ebro also pointed out that the year the Philippines-US Mutual Defense Treaty was signed in 1951 and not 1956 which I mistyped in my recent column “Complacency.” He also expressed the view that Duterte

had undermined the MDT when he threatened to scrap the PHLUS war exercises enhancing Philippine defense capability. Despite Duterte’s plan to downgrade the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement and the US-Philippine war games, it is reassuring to have the USS Fitzgerald, a guided missile destroyer docked at Subic naval base in Olongapo. The USS Vinzon aircraft carrier is also conducting a freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea. The US warships form part of the US Seventh Fleet in the Pacific in line with America’s pivot to Asia with the aim of establishing a forward position and remaining a Pacific power. How does China with its only aircraft carrier, the Lioning, stack up against the US armada equipped with armaments for modern warfare? China may have the world’s largest army but ground war has been replaced with the advent of missiles and nuclear warheads. I may sound like a broken record for taking China to task for its transgression on Philippine territorial waters. But someone if not me has to do it. I do not have anything against the Chinese but its leadership in Beijing has to be told that bullying smaller neighbors is unacceptable.

How the EU can avoid fracturing further after Brexit By Mark Gilbert NOW that Britain has formally notified the European Union of its intention to quit the bloc, it’s worth revisiting the path that led to Brexit. In short, the EU’s own role in blowing hot and then cold on the need for reform makes efforts to demonize former Prime Minister David Cameron for naivety, foolishness or hubris unfair. In particular, recognizing that there was merit in one of the UK’s key criticisms of how the EU operates could have averted Brexit. Cameron had spent years preparing the ground for the UK plebiscite on EU membership. In June 2012, he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that he was “not against referendums on Europe.” Speaking to BBC Radio 4 in October of that year, he said securing a “fresh settlement” on Europe would be “the cleanest, neatest and simplest way of doing things.” A week before making his referendum promise, Cameron defended his decision to raise the question of Britain’s EU membership, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.: “This debate is happening anyway. We have a choice as politicians: do we get out there, lead the debate, make a choice that I think will be right for Britain and right for Europe, or hide your head in the sand?” I was in the audience on Jan. 23, 2013, when Cameron delivered the speech at Bloomberg’s London office promising to hold a referendum by late 2017. I commented to a colleague that what we’d just witnessed was either a political masterstroke that would silence the euroskeptics in Cameron’s party once and for all or a dangerous gamble with Britain’s EU future. I was agnostic on which. At the time, though, polls by YouGov found about 40 percent of respondents saying they would vote to stay in the EU compared with 34 percent who’d vote to leave, in line with what they’d shown the previous year. So the risk of losing the vote looked minimal. More important, other EU leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel had led Cameron to believe that they would back him in seeking treaty amendments that would resolve the increasingly fractious relationship between the 19 members of the euro and the rest of the EU. Ivan Rogers, the UK’s former envoy to

Privacy... From A4 hate—but they work. The giant internet service providers— Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. in particular—look enviously upon the ability of other tech companies to monetize our digital trails. The ISPs peer greedily into their vaults, packed with data potentially even more detailed than what Google and Facebook collect, and wonder why the companies whose signals ride their fiber optic networks can exploit this vast collection and the owners of the network cannot. In their version of the story, the ISPs try to dip their toes in the water, and a Washington establishment that sits in awe of Google and Facebook reacts with horror and bans them from the beach. With the FCC rules out of the way, it’s everybody into the sea. This isn’t the end of privacy. Privacy ended already. The FCC rules about to be cast aside, like many other regulatory and legislative barriers, represented mere fingers in the dike. Nowadays a Wal-Mart or Nordstrom’s might use your mobile phone, connected to the store’s Wi-Fi, to follow you around the store, combining browsing habits with buying history to personalize offers that are then sent straight to the phone. In his fascinating

the EU, told lawmakers last month that Britain thought it had “a cast-iron guarantee, as we saw it, which would lead to the sort of two-tier vision” Cameron was seeking. The testimony Rogers gave to the UK Parliament’s European Security Committee on Feb. 1 is very instructive about the EU backdrop to Cameron’s promise of a referendum. Rogers, whose January resignation letter accused the government of “muddled thinking” on Brexit, acknowledges that the EU was unlikely to bend on the issue of immigration, with the UK’s efforts to impose benefit restrictions on incomers likely to be viewed as discriminatory. But on the broader issue of the relationship between the core countries and the rest of the EU, Rogers suggested that Cameron was most of all a victim of changing circumstances outside his control: “At the time, he was talking to Chancellor Merkel and others about the possibility of some specific surgical Eurozone treaty changes in conjunction with UK-related treaty changes. That looked quite an optimistic prospect in 2012/2013. She tried on the euro zone side, I won’t bore you with the details, in various European councils in 2013, but it became increasingly evident that the time was not right in 2015/2016 for a major German or other push in conjunction with anybody for surgical strike euro zone treaty changes. So the appetite in other capitals, and in the key capitals and in the institutions for any sort of permanent institutional treaty change before the end of 2017 disappeared. So that was what the prime minister was faced with after 2015, having nevertheless in his manifesto given a commitment that there would be an in-out referendum.” In a March 2015 interview with the Financial Times, two months before winning a Conservative majority in that year’s election, Cameron summarized his immodest ambitions: “Cameron says he hopes to be remembered as the prime minister who resolves the country’s two existential questions in the first part of the 21st century. ‘One is, does the United Kingdom want to stay together? Yes. Secondly, does the United Kingdom want to stay in a reformed European Union? Yes.’” With Brexit now a reality, and Scotland’s Parliament voting this week to seek a second

referendum on independence, Cameron’s legacy is in tatters. He resigned immediately after the Brexit result. Speaking in Ukraine this week, he defended his decision to hold a vote, saying “I thought it right to hold the referendum because this issue had been poisoning British politics for years.” While his attempt backfired, one of the key issues he tried to get the EU to agree to reform on—what Rogers defined as “not a two-speed Europe where you’re trundling on a slow train to the same destination, but a two-tier Europe where you say we’re happy with a market-based membership living on the outer tier but we don’t want to be a member of a significant chunk of the rest”—is becoming mainstream thinking. Here’s European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker speaking earlier this month: “In order to save the substance, we should try to imagine a system where some member states are making some progress because they are sharing the same ambitions and they want to reach the goals they agreed upon. Others will join later. That’s not my favorite scenario. But having a look at what is happening in the European Union, I can hardly see that all the 27 member states—and later on more than 30 because the Western Balkans will join the EU some day—we have to become used to the idea that we are no longer doing everything together, although I would like us to do everything together.” It’s too late to keep Britain in the EU. But if the bloc wants to safeguard its future, it needs to embrace the multispeed approach Cameron espoused, with an outer coterie of countries enjoying the benefits of frictionless trade while an inner circle of euro members embraces common bond sales, a centralized European treasury and ever-closer union. Otherwise, Britain may simply be the first in a series of EU exiters. Bloomberg

if disturbing book “The Aisles Have Eyes,” Joseph Turow sharply criticizes this practice, but also tells us where it came from: the need to compete with Amazon, which with its reams of data about customers can both target ads and price discriminate minute-by-minute. If the brick-and-mortar stores couldn’t find a way to exploit similar technologies, they would be left in the dust even faster. A National Security Agency data center opened three years ago in Utah is estimated to be able to store several exabytes (a quintillion bytes) of data, and although the organization is no longer allowed to store most data on our telephone calls, privacy advocates believe that considerable information about our internet usage might be preserved there. (I am not saying they’re right.) And don’t forget the hackers, who do a lot more than occasionally raid the database of a retail shop. Now that it is possible to scan every port on the internet (the IPv4 space) in mere minutes, any connected device is likely to be attacked. If the device is poorly protected, it will be hacked. Not might be. Will be. Last year, the Atlantic magazine constructed a virtual wireless toaster to see how much time would pass before an attack was launched. The toaster, which mimicked an actual device connected to the IPv4 space, went live at 1:12 p.m. The first hacking attempt came at 1:53

p.m. By midnight the virtual device had been attacked more than 300 times. And our big privacy worry is that Verizon and AT&T will now be allowed to behave like Google and Facebook? We lost long ago the battle to be able to protect the data we shed in our wake as we move through the world. The FCC rules were a desperate throw, and, in the long run, perhaps not an important one. It’s time we better armed ourselves. We can delete our cookies when we are done browsing, and we can travel mainly to websites using HTTPS rather than HTTP protocols. But experts agree that such measures are only partly helpful. Using “do not track” commands probably doesn’t help at all. Most likely we will see another online civil war, such as the one being fought now between users of ad-blocking software on the one hand, and, on the other, websites that support themselves with advertising income. I expect that we will see more apps like TrackMeNot, which runs in the background in your browser, intermittently sending out random search queries, in an effort to make it harder for anyone who might be tracking you (including your ISP) to assemble accurate personalized information. In the end we should expect little return from our efforts. We will go on shedding data

Mr. Banayo’s column will resume on Wednesday.

open thoughts orlando oxales

Unleashing our potential SAGE advice for policy leaders were presented by Vicente B. Paqueo, PhD and Aniceto C. Orbeta Jr., PhD, Research Fellows, of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) presented their special research “Unlocking the Filipino People’s Potential in the Next Six Years and Beyond” at the last week’s round table discussion series of the Stratbase ADR Institute for International Studies. The presentation cited Professor Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum who has predicted that we are on the brink of a Fourth Industrial Revolution, or FIRe, a combination of digital, physical, and The biological upheavals that will “fundamentally alter government the way we live, work, and must set the relate to one another.” The implications of FIRe stage for a for an emerging economy like the Philippines are paradigm shift multifarious. However, considering its growing in the way population, the stakes people perceive seem to be higher in areas like employment, human technicaldevelopment, and social vocational protection. The predominant eco- jobs. nomic narrative under former President Noynoy Aquino adds another layer of complexity to the picture: Robust economic growth in the country had not led to a substantial reduction in poverty and inequality, as hoped. With FIRe in the horizon, the question thus gains urgency: What can be done to make a dent in the country’s stubborn poverty rates and find a more just distribution of the created wealth? To be fair, investment in education steadily increased during the time of the former president. But pouring money into education does not guarantee automatic and clear-cut results. Resources, scarce as they are, need to be spent more efficiently. This means rethinking populist policies, like proposals to provide free tuition at State Universities and Colleges. Moves like these may assuage popular frustration about rising inequality but eventually perpetuate long-term ills to the sector. While education spending must be pegged at five percent, the government must set the stage for a paradigm shift in the way people perceive technical-vocational jobs. Social protection, already precarious and unsteady hereabouts, is also expected to face further challenges under FIRe. While radical advances in science and technology are expected to create wealth and generate higher incomes, the same innovations are expected to be characterized by more efficient labor-saving technologies. This means workers will frequently move from one job to another, not necessarily requiring the same skill sets. To benefit from these highvalue jobs, workers will thus have to be highly trainable, with an above-average aptitude for new skills. The resulting rapid job destruction and broader labor insecurities may bring about backlash. There is thus a need therefore to modernize existing social protection systems, including the foregrounding of education and training in the new set-up. One way is through replacing job tenure with income security concepts and wage subsidies. There must be a mechanism to effectively assist the poor and near-poor so they may survive difficult transitions and even thrive under FIRe. Concretely, this means rethinking regulations that make employment costly and the labor market less flexible than it needs to be. A more productive alternative is the creation of a chain of value-adding high-quality lifelong learning opportunities that are accessible to all. Government must guarantee that workers have not only basic minimum incomes in-between jobs but also the capacity for lifelong learning through the acquisition of new competencies and job information. The labor market must follow suit by increasing efficiency and flexibility but still safeguarding labor against employer abuse. Economies must thus allow enterprises to deploy and redeploy labor and other resources efficiently and opportunely. Traditional concepts of security of tenure, which underpins the existing labor code, may need to be rethought. As it is, the Philippines appears to be well-equipped to handle this disruption. Average real wage rates had risen after 2010 for the economy as a whole and specifically for farm workers, regular employees, and temps. This organic rise and increased labor utilization rates could mean that the country is entering the phase of sustained take-off toward inclusive economic growth, a path previously charted by successful East Asian economies. But the actual realization of this trajectory still largely depends on how the government can stabilize the political and investment climate in the country. Particularly crucial in this light is avoiding regulations that would make Filipino workers uncompetitive and unattractive to employ. With FIRe entering the equation, the task becomes all the more formidable but also crucial. For policymakers, equipping the country’s workforce in preparation for FIRe should thus occupy the top of their planning agenda. We know the Filipino peoples’ potential; we just need to unlock it. and others will go on scooping it up. We made the big decision when we chose to live in symbiosis with the internet. Remember your high school biology: In a symbiotic relationship, both parties profit. Bloomberg

Atty. Jimeno’s column will resume on April 17.

News

MONDAY,APRIL 3, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Oil prices to increase by P0.25 per liter By Alena Mae S. Flores OIL prices could go up by as much as P0.25 per liter this week, the Department of Energy said over the weekend. DoE-Oil Industry Management Bureau director Melita Obillo said oil prices may hike for all products “between P0.15 to P0.25 per liter.” Oil prices have been going up due to bigger demand against steady supply. At the same time, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have shown discipline in complying on their previous agreement on production cuts, which also pushed up prices. The anticipated price increase on Tuesday is seen to end the month-long price rollback implemented in March. Oil firms have cut the price of diesel by P0.25 per liter and kerosene by P0.15 per liter on March 28. The companies, however, slashed the price of cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas by P5 per kilo or P55 for an 11-kilo tank effective April 1 to reflect the international contract prices of LPG for the month of April. LPG prices are adjusted on a monthly basis while pump prices are adjusted weekly. Prices vary depending on brand, location of the station and market forces.

RESCUE TRAINING. Army reservists rapel down a five-storey building at the Delpan Evacuation Center in Manila on Sunday as part of the military’s disaster response training. Norman Cruz

SC disbars Pasay judge for sexual harassment Villar bats for reduced plastic waste leaks By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Cynthia Villar will spearhead today a legislative inquiry on efforts to reduce plastic waste leakages into the seas. Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, said the probe will look into existing government and private sector measures to arrest the prevalent leakages that pollute the country’s waters. A University of Georgia study entitled “Plastic waste inputs from land into the seas” showed that the Philippines was ranked third, next only to China and Indonesia, among 192 countries surveyed in terms of estimated volume of mismanaged plastic wastes that could potentially enter the seas and oceans. “This report is quite alarming amid the presence of abundant findings that the presence of plastic wastes in the seas adversely affects the marine life and eventually the world’s food chain,” Villar said. The senator noted that in her regular coastal cleanup activities at the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Eco-Tourism Area and the Baseco Compound in Manila Bay, she witnessed firsthand “the overwhelming presence of plastic wastes in the waters and shorelines, mostly made up of packaging materials and sachets of diverse products or brands, ranging from shampoos, conditioners, candies, biscuits, junk food, coffee, milk, and detergent, mostly made, distributed or sold by well-known manufacturing firms operating in the Philippines.” “To my mind, a ‘business as usual’ approach in reducing the plastic waste will barely contribute to efforts in reducing the prevalence of plastic wastes and its leakage into our seas. Bolder and more innovative measures should be undertaken not only by the national government and the local government units, but by all sectors,” Villar said. “More particularly, I believe that the active participation of commercial manufacturers and distributors are crucial in initiatives to substantially reduce the generation of plastic wastes,” she added. In Las Piñas, Villar said, plastic wastes were recycled into school chairs and donated to public schools around the Philippines.

By Rey E. Requejo

HE Supreme Court has ordered the disbarment of a Pasay City judge who was earlier dismissed from service for sexually harassing a fellow magistrate and refusing to take on night court duty.

In a 22-page resolution, the high court not only denied the appeal of Pasay City Metropolitan Trial Court Judge Eliza Yu seeking to recall its dismissal order issued against her in November last year but also imposed a harsher penalty. The SC ordered Yu’s disbarment and removal from the roll of lawyers. The high court cited the violations committed by the judge as basis for her

disbarment, saying her liabilities under the New Code of Judicial Conduct for the Philippine Judiciary also made her liable under the Code of Professional Conduct for Lawyers. For refusing to serve on night court duty, the SC said Yu violated Canon 1 of the Code, which requires lawyers to uphold the Constitution, obey the laws of the land and promote respect for law and legal processes. The tribunal also ruled that Yu, in sending inappropriate messages with sexual undertones to a fellow judge, violated Canon 11, which requires lawyers to maintain respect to the courts and judicial officers. “Yu reportedly sent alarming messages with sexual undertones via Facebook and e-mail to a fellow judge starting in 2009 when she was still a public prosecutor. While the actions happened prior to her appointment to the judiciary, the SC said, adding that the suspect stalked

the victim through the online social media platform Facebook until 2010. It likewise found Yu guilty of gross misconduct, violation of the lawyer’s oath and willful disobedience of a lawful order. “Given her wanton defiance of the Court’s own directives, her open disrespect to her fellow judges, her blatant abuse of the powers appurtenant to her judicial office, and her perchant for threatening the defenseless with legal actions to make them submit to her will, we should also be imposing the penalty of disbarment,” the SC said. “The practice of law is a privilege, and only those adjudged qualified are permitted to do so. The respondent [Yu] has fallen short of this standard thus meriting her expulsion from the profession,” it added. The high court earlier ordered the forfeiture of all Yu’s benefits, except accrued leave credits, and disqualified her from any public office or employment.

Nature series films dynamite fishermen CAN NES,—Documentary filmmakers shooting a new blockbuster nature series in the Philippines said Sunday they chased men they saw fishing with dynamite. A camera crew working on the new four-part show “Big Pacific”—which is to start screening across the globe this summer—filmed as the coastguards they were with gave chase. “The illegal fishermen fled and crashed into the shore,

abandoning their vessel,” the series’ executive producer Kyle Murdoch told AFP. He said his crew was in a lagoon in the Philippines shooting a dugong mother and her calf when they “felt a massive underwater explosion.” “They rushed over to the other side of the cove where some people were dynamite fishing. Luckily we filmed the whole thing. The rack and ruin was incredible. Our team was devastated by what they saw—

but they were able to capture it all on film and show the real problems these animals face and what local heroes are trying to do,” Murdoch added. Footage of the incident has been included in the “making of” episode of the big-budget series, which is being billed as the next landmark nature series in the mold of the BBC’s “Planet Earth” and “Great Barrier Reef.” It will be aired by public broadcasters from the US

to China, Europe and Japan this year. “Unfortunately, the dynamite fishermen got away,” Murdoch said after the series was premiered at the TV industry’s top gathering, MIPTV, at Cannes on the French Riviera. Despite the Philippine government declaring an “all-out war” on rogue fishermen, the practice is still endemic and is estimated to have damaged 70 percent of the archipelago nation’s coral reefs. AFP

Angara: Reduce fare for students By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Juan Edgardo Angara on Sunday urged his fellow lawmakers to hasten the approval of his bill seeking to expand and institutionalize a 20-percent fare discount given to students. “We always say that the youth is the future of the country. Let’s make this come true by investing adequately on our students,” said Angara, vice chairman of the Senate education committee. Under Senate Bill No. 945, the discount will cover land, water, air and rail transportation for students. Angara made the renewed push for the bill’s passage as most students are expected to return to their home provinces, either by land, air or sea travel, starting this month during the summer school break. Once enacted into law, Filipino students will enjoy a 20-percent slash on regular fares not only during school days and summer classes, but also during weekends, Christmas break, Lenten break, semestral break, and summer vacation. “Let’s lessen a bit the hardship of parents in sending their children to school. One way is to help our students by cutting their transportation expenses. A few pesos or centavos saved from the fare discount can be used for other school requirements,” Angara said.

WAITING GAME. Trike drivers wait for prospective passengers outside Binondo Church at Manila’s Chinatown on Sunday. Ey Acasio

Sports

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Arcilla, Tierro seal another title net showdown

Johnson is favored

AUGUSTA—Top-ranked Dustin Johnson enters next week’s 81st Masters confident about his first Augusta National outing as a major champion and a heavy favorite after three consecutive PGA triumphs. The 32-year-old American, who grew up only an hour’s drive from the famed layout, shook off a history of major near-misses to win the US Open last June at Oakmont, changing his Magnolia Lane mindset. “You definitely have a different mentality,” Johnson said. “Now I’m not going into a major trying to win my first one. I’ve got one. So it’s definitely a nice feeling.” Johnson became world number one with a February victory at Riviera and followed that with triumphs at the World Golf Championships Mexico and WGC Match Play events. “I’ve got a lot of confidence now, confidence in my game and in myself,” Johnson said. “I just need to keep working hard, keep trying to get better.” The Masters will be Johnson’s first major atop the rankings, from which he takes motivation while trying to avoid complacency. “It’s still just a ranking. I don’t feel any different,” he said. “Being number one, it kind of drives me to work harder and to get better. I still go in every week preparing the same that I always have.” AFP

RUN UNITED EXCEED WINNERS. Cinderella Lorenzo (left) and Welfred Esporma (center) bagged the top spots in the famale and male categories, respectively, of Run United Exceed, the ﬁrst 21K performance-based run of Active Health. Held at the Bonifacio Global City, Lorenzo and Esporma were awarded by Jose Antonio Mapa, Category Head, ActiveHealth, with special TAG Heuer watches, which copresented the event.

Butler boosts Bulls’ hopes

OS ANGELES—Jimmy Butler scored 33 points to maintain Chicago’s push for the playoffs on Saturday as the Los Angeles Clippers overcame a late wobble to subdue the Lakers.

Butler scored the final nine points for the Bulls in their 106104 win over the Atlanta Hawks at the United Center as Chicago overcame a nine-point deficit to seal the win. The victory saw Chicago improve to 37-39, lifting them into a virtual three-way tie with the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers for the seventh playoff spot on offer from the Eastern Conference. “Nobody picked us to be in the playoffs, nobody picked us to win,” Butler said. “I’m just out there playing basketball. I want to win -- I think

everybody knows that.” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg could not hide his admiration for Butler. “He was phenomenal,” Hoiberg said. “Jimmy did everything again. He just found a way to get to the basket ... obviously, he was a huge part of that win.” Butler was backed by Rajon Rondo, who had 25 points and 11 rebounds, while Denzel Valentine weighed in with 13 and Paul Zipser added 10. Hoiberg meanwhile praised his team’s never-say-die attitude as they prepare to embark on a demanding four-game road trip

which starts Sunday. “It’s an important step when you can fight through adversity and find a way to come back from a big deficit like that,” Hoiberg said. “It’s a couple of times in a row when we’ve fought back. We haven’t put our heads down and we continue to compete -- that’s what it’s all about.” In the Western Conference meanwhile, the fifth ranked Clippers were too strong for their city rivals the Lakers, who are languishing at the foot of the table at 21-55. Blake Griffin scored 36 points

in a 115-104 victory that gave coach Doc Rivers his 800th career win as the Clippers improved to 47-31. Rivers side are now within one game of the Utah Jazz in the race for the fourth seed slot in the Western Conference. But Griffin -- who topped 10,000 career points in the first quarter -- was unhappy with an inconsistent display which saw the Lakers (21-55) reduce a 21-point lead to eight during the closing stages. Griffin later admitted that the Clippers’ failure to kill off opponents was a concern. “It’s still something that needs to be worked out,” said Griffin. “I thought at times we came out to start the game the right way and then we took our foot off the

gas. “I thought we let our offense dictate our defense, had some bad turnovers early in the first quarter and it got them going a little bit. “I thought we came out well in the third quarter, but we just haven’t put the lid on games very well,” added Griffin, calling on his team-mates to sharpen up for the playoffs. “You can’t win games in the playoffs playing inconsistently, so it is concerning,” Griffin said. “How much concern? I’m not really sure. I just know we can’t do this in the playoffs and win games because every team that makes the playoffs is a good team and knows how to play and knows how to finish games. We have to do better.” AFP

ParaTriathlon Asian tilt set on April 29 A CHALLENGE for supremacy among Asia’s best paratriathletes will unfold inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone as the ASTC ParaTriathlon Asian Championships 2017 happens on April 29. The event, organized by the Triathlon Association of the Philippines, under the supervision of technical officials of the ITU and the Asian Triathlon Confederation, has attracted close to 50 paratriathletes from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia and Kygyzstan. The Philippines, will be led by Sixto Ducay and the blind siblings Jerome and Joshua Nelmida. The technical delegate in the race is Koji Koganezawa, while Daniel Ang of Singapore is the referee. The race, supported by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Philippine Sports Commission, Subic Travelers Hotel, ASTC, Asian Centre for Insulation Philippines, and Gatorade, will start at the ACEA Beach Resort for the 750-meter swim, followed by the 18-kilometer biking reaching up to Argonaut Highway and 5 kilometers of running along San Bernardo Road finishing near ACEA. At stake for the Top 3 winners of the paratriathlon categories of PT1, PT2, PT3, PT4 and PT5 are qualifying points to the World ParaTriathlon Championships, specially designed medals and winners’ t-shirts. The awarding ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. at the finish line area and will be graced by Asian Triathlon Confederation president Justin Park and PHILSPADA president Mike Barredo. Inquiries are accepted by the TRAP at landline numbers 710-8259 and 399-6598, mobile numbers 0915-6394233 and 09219954764 and online at www.triathlon.org.ph

The participants of this year’s 19th HEAD Jr. tennis second leg in Davao City.

Abad, Sing secure titles in HEAD jr tennis DANNA Mariella Abad secured two titles, while Andre Kenny Sing won the 12-and-under boys’ singles trophy in the second leg of 19th HEAD Junior Tennis Satellite Circuit over the weekend at the Flores Village Tennis Club in Davao City. Abad won over Winona Cabardo, 6-3, 6-2, in the finals to win the 16-under girls’ singles trophy and she did the same thing against the same foe to capture the 18-under girls’ crown via a 6-2, 6-3 score in the finale. Sing beat Cedric Pamplona, 6-1, 6-2, to top the 12-under boys’ singles class of the tournament organized by HEAD Philippines distributor Dynamic Sports. Davao’s Joji Taketomi bashed John

Rey Litang, 4-1, 4-1, for the 10-under Unisex title. The competition is sponsored by Chris Sports, the nationwide sports retail chain, Toalson strings, UBE Express, the Premium Airport Bus Service, media partners People’s Television, Aksyon Sports, Business Mirror, Philippine Locale, Cook, Health and Fitness, Pilipino Mirror and Philippines Graphic. In other results, John David Velez won over Matt Steve Palasan, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, to bag the 18-and-under boys’ singles’ title, while Klyde Lagarde outplayed Vince EJ Tugada, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, to capture the 16-and-under boys’ singles crown.

Joaquin Karl Palo blasted Cedric Pamplona, 6-1, 6-0, to snare the 14-andunder boys’ singles trophy, while Maria Jaden Orquia whipped Cielo Caorte, 6-3, 6-3, to grab the 12-and-under girls’ singles crown. Minette Bentillo crushed Theresa Nacito, 6-1, 6-1, for the 14-and-under girls’ singles’ title. The doubles’ champions were Cielo Caorte and John Rey Litang (10-andunder unisex); Jolimar Prado and Theresa Nacito (14-and-under girls); Minette Bentillo and Nicole Ann Bautista (18-and-under girls); Rodrick Litang and Euriz Tanucan (14-and-under boys); Vince EJ Tugade and Klyde Lagarde (18-and-under boys).

Que eyes 2nd straight Golf Tour romp at Eastridge ANGELO Que will be the marked player when the men of the Philippine Golf Tour resumes their title hunt in the ICTSI Manila Masters unfolding Wednesday (April 5) at the up-and-down Eastridge Golf Club in Binangonan, Rizal. Que romped off with a nine-stroke win over Japanese Toru Nakajima in the circuit’s kickoff leg at Anvaya last February with

the former three-time Asian Tour winner brimming with confidence heading to the P3 million event despite coming off a long break after the Solaire Philippine Open at The Country Club last month. Though he wound up way behind at joint 21st in the country’s premier championship, Que remains upbeat of his chances this week, eager to build an early streak

and some momentum for the resumption of his Japan PGA Tour campaign next week. Que actually won the Manila Masters crown two years ago, edging Ferdie Aunzo by two but struggled to finish tied for sixth in last year’s edition of the event won by Clyde Mondilla via playoff over Jobim Carlos.

Arwind’s 3 daughters enjoy Jr. NBA cage camp By Peter Atencio IN colorful getups, three sisters showed up last Saturday afternoon to join the fourth and last regional camp of the Jr. NBA Philippines at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati City. Their father, Philippine Basketball Association cager Arwind Santos of San Miguel Beer and his wife Yvette,

LONG-TIME rivals Johnny Arcilla and PJ Tierro arranged another title showdown with a sweep of their respective rivals even as Clarice and Christine Patrimonio forged a sibling duel for the women’s crown in the PPS-PEPP Brookside Open at the Brookside Hills Tennis Club in Cainta over the weekend. Arcilla, who has bested Tierro in a number of title clashes in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala Open circuit, trampled third seed Leander Lazaro, 6-2, 6-4, while Tierro held off No. 5 Ronard Joven 6-4, 6-4, to get another crack at redemption in the P300,000 event sponsored by PPS-PEPP and hosted by BHTC president Allan del Castillo. The duo were actually disputing the crown worth P50,000 at presstime. Clarice, meanwhile, bucked Rachelle de Guzman’s challenge and hacked out a 7-6(1), 6-3 victory while Christine overwhelmed Chloe Sazara, 6-1, 6-0, to seal an expected clash for the P25,000 prize in the tournament backed by PPSPEPP, Slazenger, Rep. Jack Duavit, Mayor Johnielle Nieto, Victoria Construction, Mitsubishi Mirage, Rublou Mall, 9 One 9 Security Agency, chairman Buboy Sauro, BHTC president Allan del Castillo, Phoenix 5R Solid Waste Enterprises and Sebastian Rice Mill. Arcilla earlier teamed up with Joven to outlast Tierro and Lazaro, 6-4, 7-6(1), and annex the men’s doubles title worth P20,000 while the Patrimonios smothered the De Guzman-Khrizelle Sampaton pair, 6-3, 6-0, to claim the women’s diadem and P15,000. While Arcilla has the edge in their head-to-head clashes, Tierro is raring to pull this one off while Christine is likewise out to upend her sister in their side of the title showdown. Meanwhile, the PPS-PEPP circuit, backed by the new Unified tennis group, led by PPS-PEPP, Cebuana Lhuillier, Wilson Toby’s and B-Meg, resumes with the age-group competitions this week featuring the 10-unisex and the boys’ and girls’ 12-, 14-, 16- and 18-and-under competitions and 10-U, 14-U and 18-U doubles. For details, call PPS-PEPP Regional Age Group Tennis Event organizer and Sports Program Development director Bobby Mangunay at 0915-4046464.

came and watched them go through the drills with the supervision of the coaches of the camp. “Natuwa sila sa laro. Hindi malayo, kasi ang tatay nila mahilig, naglalaro at napapanood nila,” said Santos, while the observing the routines. His daughters Danica, Ella and Audrey gamely went through routines that tested their speed, dribbling, free throws, jumping, endurance and agil-

ity. Santos said he never thought the three would take basketball very seriously together. He had been encouraging them to also take up the game of volleyball because Arwind feels that the physicality of the game of basketball could take its toll on the three. Anyway, the interests of the 15-yearold Danica and the 14-year-old Ella

have already caught the attention of their school, Holy Rosary School in Lubao, Pampanga. The two are being eyed to be part of Region III’s secondary girls’ basketball team in the 2017 Palarong Pambansa. That day, over 875 attended the morning session and more were waiting in line during the afternoon activities, presented by Alaska Milk.

But Que will have a slew of tough rivals to face, including reigning Order of Merit champion Tony Lascuña, Jay Bayron, Elmer Salvador and Zanieboy Gialon from the local side and a host of foreign challengers, headed by Nakajima, Nicolas Paez of the US, Korean-American Micah Shin and resident Dutch campaigner Guido Van der Valk.

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

P0 M+ P0 M

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

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

Sports

Jefferson lifts Aces By Jeric Lopez CORY Jefferson further solidified his status as one of the league’s top imports. The prolific Alaska reinforcement hit the go-ahead basket in the final minute to lift the Aces to a tough 105-102 escape win over Rain or Shine in the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Jefferson exploded with 41 points and 13 rebounds to pace Alaska from start to finish. This fourth straight victory pushed Alaska to a first place tie with Meralco as they both hold similar 4-0 cards. On the other hand, Rain or Shine suffered its second straight loss after a 3-0 start, falling to 3-2 in the middle of the pack. With his team down by a point, 98-99, Jefferson calmly drained the go-ahead triple with 30.1 ticks to give Alaska the lead, 101-99. In the succeeding possession, rookie Mike Tolomia then threw the ball over, giving the Aces the ball back with 23 seconds remaining. Forced to foul, Rain or Shine sent Jvee Casio to the line and he made both freebies, putting Alaska ahead 103-99 with 16 seconds left. Still fighting, Shawn Taggart sank a triple for Rain or Shine, cutting Alaska’s lead to a single point, 103-102, with only 8.6 ticks left. But Casio again sank two free throws with seven seconds left, icing the win for Alaska. The Aces used the middle quarters to create separation over the Elasto Painters en route to listing another win. Carrying their momentum and advantage from the first half, Alaska kept rolling in the third, taking a commanding 67-53 spread halfway the quarter after a triple from Casio from top of the key. Entering the fourth, the Aces settled fr a 70-61 advantage but were still in command. Rain or Shine rallied back in the fourth and even took the lead briefly before Jefferson saved the game for Alaska.

Tigresses near Final 4 berth Games Wednesday: (Filoil Flying V Centre) 8 a.m. – UE vs DLSU (Men) 10 a.m. – UP vs AdU (Men) 2 p.m. – AdU vs UE (Women) 4 p.m. – FEU vs UP (Women) UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas drew the best from middle blocker Ria Meneses to carve out 25-20, 25-21, 25-16 win over University of the Philippines and move on the cusp of making it to the Final Four in the UAAP Season 79 women’s volleyball tournament Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena. The Lady Maroons’ attacking game was stymied by Meneses, who had a seasonhigh tying eight blocks to ﬁnish with 10 points. “Siguro, maganda ang gising ni Ria. Ang importante, nakakabalik na. ‘Yung conﬁdence level, okay na ulit,” said UST coach Kungfu Reyes. “Maganda ang iginalaw ni Ria, kaya nag-materialize blocking all throughout.” The victory, their eighth in 13 matches, allowed the Tigresses to boost their bid in the chase for the two remaining semis berths. UST, eyeing a return Final Four stint after a four-year absence, is ahead by a game over UP, National University and Far Eastern University, now bunched in a threeway tie at 7-6 at fourth spot.

Ryan Bigyan of PH-Ilagan team lets out a scream after winning the 400-meter run of the Philippine National Open Invitational Athletics Championships.

Bigyan gives PH-Ilagan gold in 400-meter run I

LAGAN CITY – Ryan Bigyan of PH TeamCity of Ilagan blazed his way to a golden ﬁnish and a possible return ﬂight to the Southeast Asian Games when he emerged triumphant in the men’s 400-meter run of the 2017 Ayala Philippine National Open Invitational Athletics Championships which came to a close Sunday at the Ilagan City Sports Complex here.

Members of the Kobe Shinwa Women’s University team celebrate their win. Roman Prospero

Shinwa is Cignal co-champ in PH Superliga tourney KOBE Shinwa Women’s University recovered from a third-set meltdown to register a 25-17, 25-19, 21-25, 25-18 victory over Petron and win the title of the 2017 Belo Philippine Superliga Invitational Conference Saturday night at the FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan. On the same note, Cignal emerged as cochampion following an emphatic 25-20, 25-18, 25-22 win over Foton, while Generika-Ayala crushed Cocolife, 25-18, 26-24, 26-24, to settle for the fourth place in this prestigious women’s club tourney bankrolled by Asics, Mikasa, Mueller and Senoh with TV5 as official broadcast partner. Petron, which waxed hot with an unbeaten streak in the classification phase, came up with

a third-place finish after it surrendered a fourset decision to Cignal in the opening match of the final round Thursday. Jovelyn Gonzaga of Cignal defended her Most Valuable Player title, while Frances Molina of Petron and Rachel Anne Daquis of Cignal were the Best Outside Hitters; Chichiro Fujiwara of Kobe Shinwa and Maica Morada of Cignal were the Best Middle Blockers; Mary Grace Berte of Foton was the Best Opposite Spiker; Chie Saet of Cignal was the Best Setter; Jheck Dionela of Cignal was the Best Libero in this seasonopening tourney that also has UCPB Gen as official insurance provider and Gold’s Gym as official fitness partner.

Part of the quartet that suffered a painful setback in the men’s 4x400meter relay event of the previous SEA games in Singapore, Bigyan grabbed a handsome chance of avenging his defeat as he clocked 48.39 seconds to capture the gold medal in the middle distance event of this prestigious tourney presented by the City of Ilagan and sponsored by Ayala Corporation with Milo, Philippine Sports Commission and International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) as co-presentors. Neophyte Michael Del Prado of La Salle was a heartbeat away with 48.47 seconds while another international campaigner in Edgardo Alejan of PH Team-City of Ilagan tallied 48.60 seconds to settle for the bronze medal in this ﬁerce battle that serves as national tryout for those who want to represent the country in the 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur this August. Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa) secretary general Renato Unso said Bigyan’s sterling performance could land him a spot in the vaunted men’s 4x400-meter squad that would be given a marching order of bringing the crown back to Manila. So far, the federation is looking at beeﬁng the squad with FilipinoAmericans Eric Cray and Trenten Beram, the University of Connecticut track star who was part of the squad that destroyed the record in the men’s 4x100-meter relay of this event, which also has Run Rio, UCPB Gen and Foton Pilipinas as minor sponsors, the other day. “If Cray and Beram will run, plus two more young runners like Alejan or Bigyan and two alternate runners, then we have a very good chance of winning the gold medal in the SEA Games,” said Unso, adding that national coaches are now putting their heads together to form the best team possible for the men’s 4x400-meter event in the biennial meet. “We’re going to meet with the coaches to evaluate the performance and assemble the members of the 4x400-meter team plus two alternates. And with the way he performed, Bigyan could be in.” In the previous SEA Games two years ago, the quartet of Bigyan, Alejan, Joan Caido and Archand Christian Bagsit were groomed to defend its title in the men’s 4x400-meter relay.

So regains lead in US Chess Championship WESLEY So went on the offensive to put away GM Alexander Onischuk in 45 moves of an English Opening, Saturday in the fourth round of the 2017 United States Chess Championship. This handed the Filipino grandmaster, who is currently attached to the US Chess Federation, his second win in four games when action ended at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. The 23-year-old So moved back into the solo lead with three points after three co-leaders, Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky and Yaroslav Zhereboukh drew

with their respective rivals. The three are behind So with 2.5 points. Analysts believe So could have played another draw, but he avoided it with an h3 pawn move on the 26th. It was a surprise move that allowed the white-playing So to attack the queenside with his rook and knight. Onischuk quit when So penetrated the backrank and trapped the black king with his rook and bishop. So, who earlier drew with world no. 3 Fabiano Caruana in 49 moves of a Ruy Lopez Opening in Round 3, will be facing Zherebukh in the ﬁfth round.

Nakamura halved his point with GM Gata Kamsky in 30 moves of a Queen’s Pawn Game, while Naroditsky split his point with Ray Robson in 30 moves of a Sicilian Najdorf. On the other hand, Zhereboukh needed only 16 moves to play Samuel Shankland to a draw in their English Opening games. According to chess analyst Cristian Chirila, that game was “just like in his game against Shabalov.” “Wesley decided to take his opponent out of popular theory early on and played the KIA (King’s Indian Attack),” said Chirila. Peter Atencio

Enriquez, Publico rule dancesports

Grade A standard winners are shown here, namely 1st Place German Enriquez and Ma. Danella Renee Publico; 2nd Place Tristan John and Willanne Rose Ducay; 3rd Place Sean Mischa Aranar and Ana Leonila Nualla; 4th Place Mark Jayson Gayon and Mary Joy Renigen; 5th Place Reynald Santos and Melanie Flor Agustin; 6th Place Dominador Ylagan and Elche Isidro. They are joined by Gillian Colcol of Flawless, Heinz Spaker from Germany, Alberto Rodrigues from Portugal and DSCPI President Becky Garcia and Jesse Panelo.

THE pairs of German Enriquez and Ma. Danella Renee Publico and Gerald Jamili and Cherry Clarice Parcon ruled the 2017 DanceSports Council of the Philippines Inc. First Quarter Ranking and Competition recently at the Philsports Multi-Purpose Arena, Pasig City. Enriquez and Publico outsmarted Tristan John and Willanne Rose Ducay to clinch the Grade A standard title, while Jamili and Parcon defeated Michael Angelo Marquez and Stephanie Sabalo to take home the Grade A latin crown.

John Rey Escartin and Angelica Gabriel, meanwhile, secured the grade B standard title by defeating Alfredo Suarez and Marilou Nuñez in the quarterly tournament organized by DSCPI President Becky Garcia. The event was sponsored by Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Flawless, Organique/Acai Berry, Aﬁcionado, Caruso Ristorante Italiano, Studio 116 Dance School, Retro DCG-FM 105.9 and The Greenery Bulacan. In other results, John-John Roman and Dawn Daniel Chris-

tine Pavo won over Filemon Baguio II and Jhistine Glyde Baguio for the Grade B latin title, while John Rey Escartin and Angelica Gabriel beat Jose Michael Angelo Cabarles and Elishama Jepphunee Dunton for Grade C standard trophy. Shardie Abellana and Marjorie Pasaje won over Shaquille Jay Hanz Basan and Cindy Jaz Basan to gain the grade C latin crown. Jose Michael Angelo Cabarles and Elishama Jepphunee Dunton defeated Raul Acosta, Jr. and Juliet Rabino to clinch the Grade D standard crown.

PH netter 7th place in Bangkok tilt THE Philippines’ Under-14 girls’ team settled for seventh place last Saturday in the World Juniors’ Tennis Championship Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying tournament in Bangkok. After Ma. Carmencita Carlos bowed to Sheena Masuda, 1-6, 1-6, she and Alexandra Eala bounced back in the second singles and the doubles. Eala prevailed over Chui Kei Leung, 6-0, 6-1, before she teamed up with Carlos for a 6-4, 6-2, 10-4 stopping of Leung and Masuda. It was the PH squad’s best finish after finishing winless last year. The Philippines was relegated to the consolation round playoff after losing its quarterfinal match against Thailand, 1-2, on Thursday. That was when Carlos bowed to Thamonpan Jonglertrakul, 0-6, 0-6, and Eala won over Punnin Kovapitukted, 6-4, 6-0, while Carlos and Eala fell to Lanlana Tararudee and Kovapitukted, 7-6 (3), 4-6, [7-10]. The loss ended the Filipina netters’ hope of advancing to the finals scheduled on Aug. 7 to 12 in Prostejov, Czech Republic.

Q1 rice output increased B3 5.3% IN BRIEF DoH backs stronger cigarette tax campaign THE Health Department said it supports the Finance Department’s campaign to run after tax evaders in the cigarette industry, saying an additional P1 billion from tax payments could be used to treat over ﬁve million individuals suffering from diabetes and hypertension. Health Secretary Paulynn Ubial said that based on initial calculations, some P1 billion could be used to pay for daily maintenance medicines, laboratory work and medical care for deadly diseases caused by tobacco use. “With an augmentation of a mere P1 billion to the program, the DoH would be able to treat 3,975,421 patients with hypertension, and 1,705,030 with diabetes,” Ubial said. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III welcomed the DoH’s support and assured Ubial that Mighty Corp. would get no special treatment from the DOF or the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs. Julito G. Rada

PH seen to hurdle impact of ‘Brexit’

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

SMC wants Saigon Brewery By Alena Mae S. Flores

AN Miguel Corp., the country’s biggest beer maker, plans to bid for Saigon Alcohol Beer and Beverages Corp., Vietnam’s leading beer producer. “At the moment, we are evaluating the deals and we will deﬁnitely join the public bidding of Vietnamese government for the sale of Saigon Brewery,” San Miguel president and chief operating ofﬁcer Ramon Ang said over the weekend. San Miguel will likely bid alone in the privatization of Sabeco, which currently remains 89.59-percent owned by the Vietnamese government. The Vietnamese government announced in September last year its plan to sell its entire 89.59-percent stake in Sabeco for $1.8 billion and its 82-percent stake in Hanoi Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp. for $404 million. Vietnam started the sale process for Sabeco, which

has around 40-percent market share, in December and announced plan to pursue the privatization this year. Aside from San Miguel, earlier reports listed Kirin Holdings, Asahi Group Holdings, Thai Beverage Plc, Heineken and Anheuser Busch Inbev SA. Among those interested in the sale of Sabeco and Habeco. Sabeco reported net profit of $205 million in 2016, up 33 percent from 2015. Sabeco’s shares are listed in the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. Vietnam may provide an anchor to increase its brewery business as consumption in the country is growing at an annual rate of at least 10 percent, five times that in the Philippines, Ang said. “The businesses we ventured into have matured, such that the company is in a very stable position,” Ang said, citing compounded annual 20-percent growth in recurring profit and a near fourfold increase in assets since 2008 following San Miguel’s diversification from food and drinks into non-allied industries such as toll roads and resources. Excluding one-off items, profit will rise at least 20 percent to about P60 billion ($1.2 billion) this year, he said. Profit at the company that started as a brewer more

than a century ago rose 80 percent to P52.2 billion last year, boosted by higher sales at its oil, beer and food units. An P11.8 billion one-time gain from the sale of its telecommunication assets helped offset a P9 billion foreign exchange loss. San Miguel Corp. also plans to invest $34 billion in an oil reﬁnery, an integrated steel complex and an ocean-tide power plant as the Philippines’ largest company by sales expands amid forecasts for robust economic growth in the country, according to Ang. “Ang is trying to ride on the wave of Philippine economic growth,” said Astro del Castillo, managing director at investment advisory company First Grade Holdings Inc. “Like its previous infrastructure and industrial bets, these won’t make a quick buck, so it will take time for the stock to appreciate. San Miguel is for investors with a long-term view.” San Miguel plans to build an oil reﬁnery complex with a capacity of 250,000 barrels a day and an integrated steel plant, which will entail investments of $15 billion each. An ocean-tide energy project with initial capacity of 1,200 megawatts and costing $3.6 billion is also in the pipeline. With Bloomberg

BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said the Philippine economy will not be significantly affected by the exit of Great Britain from the European Union because of the limited trade transactions between Manila and London. “During this period, there maybe market reactions in terms of volatility. But in our case, the impact is not expected to be significant because we don’t have very large investment and trade transactions with the United Kingdom,” Tetangco told reporters over the weekend. Tetangco said remittances, in general, would not be impacted if Filipinos working in the UK would not be able to send large amount of money to their relatives in the Philippines, adding that skilled Filipino workers remained in high demand elsewhere, not only in Europe but also in other continents. “We will continue to monitor that, but what is affecting the foreign exchange market is what is happening in the monetary policy hikes, particularly in the US and the ECB [European Central Bank],” he said. The US Federal Reserve increased interest rates last month, the third time since the 2008 global financial crisis, citing the improving employment condition and sustained recovery of the world’s largest economy. Remittances continue to be one of the main pillars of the Philippine economic growth. In 2016, money sent home by OFWs grew 5 percent to a record $26.9 billion from $25.607 billion in 2015, driven mainly by the sustained demand for skilled workers abroad and improving global economic condition. Julito G. Rada

GLOBE-PAL PARTNERSHIP.

Globe Telecom and Philippine Airlines join forces to provide more benefits to overseas Filipino workers by offering convenient services. Globe started giving free Globe Traveler SIM cards to all passengers arriving in Manila from other countries. Shown are (from left) Globe senior vice president for international business Nikko Acosta, PAL vice president for marketing Ria Domingo, Globe chief technology and information officer Gil Genio, PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista, Globe chief financial officer Rizza ManiegoEala and PAL vice president for ancillary business unit Kevin Hartigan-Go.

CebuPac rolls out new payment options CEBU Pacific teamed up with American Express, allowing its cardholders to book and buy their flights using AMEx cards. AMEx, owned by global services company American Express, is the largest card issuer in the world based on purchase volume and one of the largest card networks in the world, with over 109-million cards running on its proprietary network, including those issued by 148 partners in 160 markets across the world. In the Philippines, AMEx cards are issued by BDO Unibank. “CEB remains firm to its commitment of allowing more and more travellers to fly. We believe that by continuing to expand the payment options we offer, we empower more travellers to not only choose their flights among the numerous we offer, but also pay for these in the easiest and most convenient way for them,” Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog said. “Our partnership with American Express enables CEB to offer simplified and efficient business-to-business solutions for corporate payments,” Iyog said. Darwin G. Amojelar

Hyundai investing P2b in PH assembly facility By Othel V. Campos SOUTH Korean vehicle distributor Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. is investing P2 billion in its ﬁrst Philippine assembly facility as a part of its goal to join the country’s Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy or Cars program. “This is going to be a step towards the Cars program. This is our ﬁrst assembly operations in the country. We wanted to master the operation and at the same time ensure that we have the best quality and the assurance of the models we assemble―Eon and H350,” Hari presi-

dent and chief executive Ma. Fe PerezAgudo said over the weekend. The Cars program offers P27 billion worth of time-bound and performancebased fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to approved players. The incentives will be used to support fixed capital expenditures in new parts manufacturing capabilities and to encourage large scale production in vehicle manufacturing. Perez-Agudo said while Hari was finalizing the design of the assembly plant in Laguna, it had a temporary leasing agreement with Star Motors Manufacturing to produce Eon and H350 models.

Star Motors currently assembles Nissan Patrol units in its Sta. Rosa plant in Laguna. Eon is is one of Hyundai’s bestselling models while H350 is a light commercial van that was launched in the Philippines in a recently-concluded auto show. Production of Eon started in March 2017, while local assembly of H359 will begin this April. Hyundai targets to produce 10,000 units of Eon and 1,000 units of H350. “This has always been the dream of Hyundai for the Philippines. We have always wished that we would be part of

the total industry development and we would like to support the initiatives of the government particularly the Board of Investments and the Trade Department in its effort to promote the country as a hub for assembly and manufacturing,” Perez-Agudo said. The assembly plant is the second major investment of Hyundai in the Philippines, after the company invested P1 billion in a green logistics center also in Laguna. The company tapped the Motor Vehicle Development Program, an older incentives scheme of the Board of Investments, for the ﬁst two models.

Housing prices continue to rise By Julito G. Rada

USANA MARKS 8TH YEAR. Usana Health Sciences Inc. vice president for the Philippines and Indonesia Aurora Gaston (second from left) provides updates about the company as it relaunches Usanimals dietary supplement for children and teens. Founded in 1992, Usana, a US-based nutritional company that manufactures high-quality supplements, personal care and healthy food products, recently celebrated its 8th year in the Philippines and posted P4 billion in local sales last year. The company targets a 10-percent growth this year. With Gaston are (from left) Usana emerald director Mara Pasco, Usana ﬁeld development manager Lizbeth Jose and Usana 9-star diamond director Josephine dela Fuente.

HOUSING prices continued to rise in the fourth quarter from a year ago, amid a sustained demand for both residential and commercial projects, data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show. The residential real estate price index rose 0.3 percent to 113.9 in the fourth quarter of 2016 from 113.6 in the same period in 2015. Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the slight uptick in the price index showed there was a sustained demand for both residential and commercial properties. “We have a large shortage of housing units supported by a big base of young, employed people especially in the services sector,” Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said in a statement. “As the economy continues to grow, demand for commercial space will be sustained,” Guinigundo said. The slight year-on-year growth in residential real estate prices was slower compared to the 2.2-percent increase registered in the third quarter. The index measures the average change in prices of various types of housing units covering single detached/attached houses, duplex,

condominium and townhouses based on data from housing loans granted by banks. Data showed that while the growth in prices of townhouses accelerated to 6.2 percent from 4.9 percent in third quarter of 2016, those of condominium units slowed down to 1.8 percent from 3.1 percent. Meanwhile, prices of single detached units contracted 1 percent in the fourth quarter (from 2.4 percent rise in the previous quarter). Although a decline was noted in the average price of single detached units, the number of loans granted for this type of housing unit remained on an uptrend, registering a 7.2-percent growth from its year-ago level. Guinigundo said real estate developers became more prudent by doing due diligence of the market as they learned their lesson during the Asian ﬁnancial crisis. “In fact some of them build on a pre-lease basis. There are establishments which are willing to sign contracts for lease even before the actual construction of the building. Most important, this very strong sign of economic growth is not conﬁned in the National Capital Region. One sees this construction boom in such areas as Cagayan de Oro and Iloilo,” Guinigundo said.

Business

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Market expected to trade sideways By Jenniffer B. Austria

LAT trading is expected to persist this week, with the Philippine Stock Exchange index seen hovering between 7,000 and 7,400 levels amid the lack of catalysts here and abroad. Analysts said with the earnings season almost over, investors were looking for new developments that could break the market’s current sideways trend. “Chartwise, the week’s close at 7,311.72 continues to highlight the market to remain range-bound between the 7,000 and 7,400 levels in the near-term. A break below the 7,150 levels suggest further weakness to-

wards the 7,000 levels. Only a break above the 7,400 levels could call the bulls back into play,” BDO Unibank Inc. chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said. Ravelas said the decision of major credit rating firms Fitch Ratings and S&P to affirm the Philippines’ credit score could provide confidence to investors moving forward. Fitch reaffirmed the country’s credit rating while S&P also raised the economic growth forecast to 6.6 percent from 6.4 percent for 2017 and to 6.4 percent from 6.2 percent for 2018. The PSEi ended nearly flat at 7,311.72 on March 31. Except for the property and mining and oil, all other indices advanced, led by services which jumped 3.3 percent, industrial which climbed 0.7 percent and holding firms which advanced 0.6 percent. The bellwether was also up 6.9 percent in

the ﬁrst quarter. Foreign investors were net sellers last week by P6.6 billion, bring total net selling to P18.4 billion in the ﬁrst quarter. Top gainers last week were 2Go Group Inc. which climbed 8.6 percent to P9.50, Bloomberry Resorts Corp. which advanced 8.1 percent to P7.95 and Jollibee Foods Corp. which increased 5 percent to P197.50. Logistics company 2Go reported last week that conglomerate SM Investments Corp. acquired a 34-percent stake in the company, while Jollibee said it would continue to be country’s biggest fast-food chain despite rising cost of raw materials and the government’s new regulations on contractualization. Heavy losers included First Gen Corp. which went down 6.2 percent to P20.95, Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. which declined 6 percent to P7.03 and Ayala Land Inc. which retreated 4.2 percent to P33.05.

Ayala also looking at logistics business By Darwin G. Amojelar AYALA Corp. plans to venture into the logistics business, following the lead of two other conglomerates. “There will be an announcement at the appropriate time,” Ayala Infrastructure Holdings Corp. chief executive Jose Rene Almendras said, adding the venture might be announced by the end of the year. “We have been studying logistics. We have evaluated

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS WEEKLY STOCKS REVIEW STOCKS

MARCH 27-31, 2017 Close Volume

AG Finance Asia United Bank Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Bank of PI China Bank BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. Bright Kindle Resources Citystate Savings COL Financial Eastwest Bank First Abacus I-Remit Inc. Manulife Fin. Corp. MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl. Reinsurance Corp. PB Bank Phil Bank of Comm Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank Philippine trust Co. PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Sun Life Financial Union Bank Vantage Equities

3.33 47.15 117.60 101.20 40.7 3.96 1.24 10 16.2 20.6 0.73 1.62 780.00 0.650 80 0.72 14.7 25.20 55.30 87 118 239.2 38.4 202 1740.00 79.65 1.21

91,000 36,800 13,912,020 5,775,110 1,119,300 16,000 403,000 500 2,165,300 1,791,000 20,000 103,000 980 10,052,000 30,416,150 891,000 60,200 15,700 920,170 6,390 1,390 22,210 1,494,400 3,734,490 835 214,850 10,000

Aboitiz Power Corp. Agrinurture Inc. Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. Alsons Cons. Asiabest Group Basic Energy Corp. Bogo Medelin C. Azuc De Tarlac Cemex Holdings Century Food Chemphil Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ Conc. Aggr. ‘B’ Cirtek Holdings (Chips) Concepcion Crown Asia Da Vinci Capital Del Monte DNL Industries Inc. Emperador Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) EEI Euro-Med Lab First Gen Corp. First Holdings ‘A’ Ginebra San Miguel Inc. Holcim Philippines Inc. Integ. Micro-Electronics Ionics Inc Jollibee Foods Corp. Liberty Flour LMG Chemicals Mabuhay Vinyl Manila Water Co. Inc. Maxs Group Megawide Mla. Elect. Co À’ MG Holdings Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp. Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. Petron Corporation Phil H2O Pilipinas Shell Phinma Corporation Phinma Energy Phoenix Petroleum Phils. Phoenix Semiconductor Pryce Corp. À’ RFM Corporation Roxas and Co. Roxas Holdings San Miguel ‘Pure Foods À’ Shakeys Pizza SPC Power Corp. Swift Foods, Inc. TKC Steel Corp. Universal Robina Victorias Milling Vitarich Corp. Vivant Corp. Vulcan Ind’l.

41.75 5.35 0.82 1.42 19.48 0.243 103.9 15.18 7.03 16.9 193 88.1 95.65 23.7 62.5 1.97 6.09 12.1 12.720 6.04 6.02 8.27 1.7 20.95 71.8 12.90 15.10 7.3 1.520 197.50 70.10 5.18 3.92 30.8 26.3 17.5 274.00 0.240 6.88 3.72 8.90 3.7 72 11.04 2.21 8.40 1.89 4.9 4.80 2 2.76 288 13.6 4.5 0.145 1.38 163.5 4.49 1.5 31.75 1.08

9,658,500 5,253,100 1,225,000 2,064,000 8,300 17,620,000 210 89,500 54,181,000 9,274,200 150 650 20 1,151,700 44,090 5,964,000 404,200 97,600 18,535,100 31,759,300 62,499,000 8,575,400 138,000 11,991,000 415,970 107,900 304,300 11,128,700 1,112,000 6,117,810 600 11,970,300 70,000 8,381,000 1,160,600 23,691,400 860,060 61,580,000 474,100 12,160,000 9,464,000 1,000 5,071,890 155,100 4,483,000 28,597,600 4,882,000 247,000 4,610,000 2,000 154,000 144,690 5,657,200 518,000 1,210,000 1,266,000 4,764,510 29,000 4,397,000 500 315,000

Abacus Cons. À’ Aboitiz Equity Alliance Global Inc. Anglo Holdings A Anscor À’ ATN Holdings A ATN Holdings B Ayala Corp À’ Cosco Capital DMCI Holdings F&J Prince ‘A’ Filinvest Dev. Corp. Forum Pacific GT Capital House of Inv. JG Summit Holdings Keppel Holdings À’ Lopez Holdings Corp. Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. LT Group Mabuhay Holdings À’ Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. MJCI Investments Inc. Pacifica À’ Prime Media Hldg Prime Orion San Miguel Corp À’ Seafront À’ SM Investments Inc. Solid Group Inc. South China Res. Inc. Top Frontier Unioil Res. & Hldgs Wellex Industries Zeus Holdings

0.375 74.45 12.68 1.11 6.10 0.325 0.315 845 8.48 11.40 5.4 7.90 0.189 1145 6.39 81.35 5.22 7.71 1.02 16.02 0.400 6.02 3.4 0.0540 1.100 1.980 104.00 2.68 697.00 1.46 0.86 274.000 0.2950 0.1900 0.260

6,150,000 4,744,500 26,038,700 83,000 137,000 3,760,000 3,050,000 2,088,660 3,073,900 92,078,000 6,000 140,700 100,000 597,735 65,900 8,461,800 300 3,589,700 15,294,000 39,525,600 210,000 284,351,800 54,000 282,010,000 38,000 1,482,000 1,089,820 1,614,000 3,260,550 1,999,000 100,000 40,270 4,210,000 1,000,000 270,000

8990 HLDG Anchor Land Holdings Inc. A. Brown Co., Inc. Araneta Prop À’ Arthaland Corp. Ayala Land `B’ Belle Corp. À’ Cebu Holdings Century Property City & Land Dev. Cityland Dev. À’ Crown Equities Inc. Cyber Bay Corp. Double Dragon Empire East Land Ever Gotesco Global-Estate Filinvest Land,Inc. Interport À’ Keppel Properties Megaworld MRC Allied Ind. Phil. Estates Corp.

6.800 6.49 0.96 2.300 1.240 33.050 4 5.14 0.490 1.07 1.250 0.157 0.540 53.65 0.690 0.166 0.96 1.64 1.18 4.05 3.38 0.216 0.3000

2,558,500 2,300 4,263,000 2,661,000 61,135,000 66,166,500 20,666,000 163,400 19,400,000 30,000 348,000 36,770,000 13,504,000 1,376,520 1,008,000 11,790,000 12,616,000 27,219,000 330,000 5,000 130,020,000 576,780,000 5,550,000

Value FINANCIAL 285,190.00 1,791,630.00 1,661,446,007 580,875,563.50 45,961,695.00 63,350.00 483,260.00 5,000.00 35,042,170.00 36,438,467.00 14,600 167,150.00 781,250.00 6,619,440.00 2,331,850,032.50 633,170.00 884,942.00 396,330.00 50,977,743.50 558,688.50 160,315.00 5,330,934.00 57,419,200 752,636,409.00 1,436,475 17,109,577.00 12,100.00 INDUSTRIAL 404,439,425.00 27,882,619.00 983,200.00 2,897,020.00 158,786.00 4,383,470.00 20,727.00 1,364,384.00 398,217,236.00 157,373,440 26,090.00 59,355.00 1,913.00 26,962,115.00 2,774,475 11,885,660.00 2,383,290.00 1,188,924.00 236,100,016.00 191,271,772.00 378,288,078.00 70,011,474.00 234,600.00 263,820,435.00 29,759,349.00 1,338,012.00 4,621,276.00 80,305,385.00 1,679,520.00 1,154,440,477.00 43,420.50 63,866,748.00 269,140.00 258,464,645.00 30,441,380.00 410,558,904.00 236,654,848.00 15,380,460.00 3,142,559.00 45,304,770.00 84,063,620.00 3,700.00 373,102,640.00 1,761,156.00 9,960,030.00 233,812,761.00 9,088,930.00 1,206,750.00 22,157,470.00 4,000.00 428,370.00 41,127,380.00 76,841,054.00 2,281,200.00 173,300.00 1,755,090.00 774,497,740 124,780.00 6,662,580.00 15,775.00 331,560.00 HOLDING FIRMS 2,279,750.00 355,697,754.50 328,329,444.00 91,520.00 826,626.00 1,184,800.00 946,000.00 1,749,674,525 26,622,562.00 1,069,654,244.00 32,400.00 1,117,935.00 18,450.00 698,530,940.00 409,038.00 692,959,466.00 1,566.00 28,245,401.00 15,526,930.00 638,233,822.00 85,950.00 1,724,251,023.00 190,420.00 15,324,920.00 40,860.00 2,920,730.00 112,345,221.00 4,249,650.00 2,251,839,465.00 2,786,090.00 86,000.00 10,999,766.00 1,192,850.00 186,410.00 67,000.00 PROPERTY 17,397,153.00 14,927.00 4,055,250.00 6,024,560.00 79,295,350.00 2,238,102,270.00 81,059,850.00 834,199.00 9,565,300.00 32,100.00 428,890.00 5,828,790.00 7,176,610.00 74,856,097.50 681,600.00 2,000,580.00 12,137,150.00 45,119,770.00 399,260.00 20,250.00 449,777,810.00 129,635,160.00 1,739,700.00

MARCH 20-24, 2017 Close Volume Value 3.3 48.85 120.00 99.65 40.7 4.02 1.18

2,369,000 160,100 10,783,470 5,163,720 742,600 124,000 309,000

7,421,110.00 7,727,150.00 1,328,778,544 516,132,122.00 30,004,180.00 497,590.00 371,850.00

16.02 20

226,700 6,388,300

3,623,918.00 128,223,269.00

1.61 800.00 0.680 77.45 0.72 14.72 25.30 56.10 87.8 115 243 39 201 1715.00 79.65 1.22

160,000 1,240 10,738,000 19,095,400 586,000 68,200 12,900 445,600 2,130 2,180 4,230 437,000 2,761,250 1,455 346,050 2,477,000

259,980.00 999,590.00 7,228,520.00 1,508,998,280.00 422,910.00 1,002,116.00 325,770.00 25,141,803.50 186,088.00 247,353.00 951,681.00 17,110,610 553,295,946.00 2,506,950 27,558,446.50 3,045,410.00

42.1 5.3 0.82 1.35 18.06 0.255 105.9 14.98 7.48 16.82 180 90 95.65 23.45 61 1.95 5.9 12.24 12.700 6.15 6.00 7.85 1.7 22.35 72.45 12.30 15.60 6.88 1.550 188.00 72.80 4.96 3.9 30.75 26.7 15.76 277.80 0.260 6.78 3.73 9.00 3.7 73.55 11.48 2.24 7.70 1.94 4.9 4.94 2 2.79 280 13.74 4.36 0.143 1.45 161

9,215,300 4,660,200 1,501,000 2,217,000 89,800 41,950,000 190 61,700 132,605,300 15,621,100 160 2,500 280 765,800 863,750 7,829,000 3,592,400 70,600 19,870,400 8,616,200 46,428,100 1,998,200 2,000 11,451,000 215,470 93,300 215,500 10,203,200 2,699,000 2,596,950 6,280 11,867,600 293,000 9,917,200 1,952,000 12,516,400 1,682,900 329,640,000 1,309,200 14,568,000 16,743,200 15,000 2,033,860 69,400 5,275,000 12,555,000 3,661,000 368,300 7,898,000 13,000 139,000 138,160 23,389,400 216,000 9,860,000 2,301,000 7,593,350

391,581,885.00 24,797,141.00 1,221,020.00 3,020,250.00 1,720,770.00 10,685,150.00 18,711.00 912,878.00 1,007,225,515.00 264,098,306 29,788.00 225,728.00 26,791.00 17,903,120.00 52,117,738 15,981,810.00 20,627,567.00 858,732.00 253,798,902.00 53,924,604.00 277,361,836.00 15,737,091.00 3,400.00 258,893,585.00 15,693,677.00 1,134,852.00 3,385,170.00 70,934,094.00 4,214,170.00 496,989,365.00 455,625.50 60,175,119.00 1,135,420.00 302,289,420.00 52,225,655.00 202,672,230.00 478,103,780.00 94,970,500.00 9,091,588.00 54,583,210.00 151,754,696.00 56,670.00 150,211,338.00 796,260.00 11,844,260.00 95,151,920.00 7,183,170.00 1,778,644.00 39,045,900.00 26,080.00 392,510.00 38,246,100.00 323,909,434.00 946,560.00 1,418,440.00 3,456,470.00 1,236,074,708

1.5 31.40 1.00

6,760,000 300 1,283,000

10,301,540.00 9,430.00 1,284,420.00

0.375 75.30 13.02 1.11 6.20 0.315 0.335 845 8.7 11.50 5.38 7.93 0.181 1170 6.50 82.00 5.57 7.95 1.03 15.42 0.445 6.03 3.74 0.0540 1.080 2.000 104.00 2.8 666.00 1.39 0.86 274.800 0.2900 0.1890 0.240

5,430,000 6,138,830 40,741,100 247,000 179,200 26,270,000 5,500,000 1,540,550 3,781,400 101,983,500 10,000 10,000 820,000 618,420 264,600 8,528,850 23,700 3,214,500 45,322,000 29,411,800 320,000 394,309,100 39,000 508,380,000 44,000 2,886,000 1,658,910 2,881,000 2,652,340 2,856,000 2,000 32,190 2,720,000 450,000 1,900,000

2,033,200.00 458,861,144.50 525,170,926.00 272,150.00 1,086,909.00 8,641,950.00 1,827,850.00 1,284,099,895 33,208,963.00 1,185,648,468.00 53,800.00 79,688.00 148,950.00 723,757,935.00 1,680,457.00 690,734,920.50 129,446.00 25,506,269.00 49,898,170.00 442,480,450.00 133,100.00 2,430,072,076.00 141,890.00 27,900,900.00 47,560.00 5,665,340.00 171,533,140.00 8,538,350.00 1,748,377,075.00 4,073,210.00 1,720.00 8,798,048.00 781,850.00 84,990.00 475,170.00

6.800 6.00 0.93 2.400 1.300 34.500 3.81 5.13 0.495 1.03 1.190 0.159 0.550 55.2 0.700 0.177 0.97 1.69 1.19 4.03 3.48 0.227 0.3250

711,800 24,800 2,557,000 468,000 53,410,000 40,256,700 31,544,000 5,200 38,184,000 181,000 2,302,000 12,980,000 5,349,000 6,442,890 44,000 54,260,000 12,144,000 26,546,000 727,000 58,000 84,145,000 1,195,730,000 13,510,000

4,836,376.00 151,200.00 2,326,610.00 1,108,200.00 71,994,840.00 1,428,164,235.00 117,371,450.00 26,196.00 19,114,530.00 192,220.00 2,834,280.00 2,061,580.00 2,928,290.00 356,867,938.00 30,800.00 9,592,940.00 11,833,540.00 44,587,560.00 877,890.00 233,780.00 299,339,790.00 261,093,580.00 4,340,850.00

STOCKS

MARCH 27-31, 2017 Close Volume

Phil. Realty `A’ Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry Primex Corp. Robinson’s Land `B’ Rockwell Shang Properties Inc. SM Prime Holdings Sta. Lucia Land Inc. Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. Vista Land & Lifescapes

0.580 27.70 4.79 23.00 1.76 3.39 28.30 0.97 0.860 5.080

2GO Group’ ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Apollo Global Asian Terminals Inc. Berjaya Phils. Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Calata Corp. Cebu Air Inc. (5J) Centro Esc. Univ. Discovery World DFNN Inc. Easy Call “Common” FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Golden Haven Grand Plaza Hotel Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. À’ IPeople Inc. À’ IP E-Game Ventures Inc. IPM Holdings Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones LBC Express Leisure & Resorts Lorenzo Shipping Macroasia Corp. Manila Broadcasting Manila Jockey Melco Crown Metro Retail NOW Corp. Pacific Online Sys. Corp. PAL Holdings Inc. Paxys Inc. Phil. Seven Corp. Philweb.Com Inc. PLDT Common PremiereHorizon Premium Leisure Puregold Robinsons RTL SBS Phil. Corp. SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Waterfront Phils. Wilcon Depot

9.5 46.6 1.46 0.530 0.045 11.9 5.59 7.95 0.0740 2.07 93.9 9.81 2.58 8.45 5.55 1000 2032 6.56 16.50 15.00 3.16 89.9 3.63 12.46 0.0094 9.00 0.179 1.3000 3.67 14.98 4.17 0.95 3.83 16.50 2.5 6.68 3.60 2.900 11.48 5.48 3.06 170.00 7.70 1646.00 0.435 1.570 43.70 77.00 5.99 2.14 1.100 1.75 3.2 0.380 5.330

Abra Mining Apex À’ Atlas Cons. À’ Benguet Corp À’ Benguet Corp `B’ Century Peak Metals Hldgs Coal Asia Dizon Ferronickel Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. Lepanto À’ Lepanto `B’ Manila Mining À’ Manila Mining `B’ Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. Nickelasia Nihao Mineral Resources Omico Oriental Peninsula Res. Oriental Pet. À’ Oriental Pet. `B’ Petroenergy Res. Corp. Philex À’ Philex `B’ PhilexPetroleum Philodrill Corp. À’ Semirara Corp. TA Petroleum United Paragon

0.0032 1.47 5.30 1.8000 1.7900 0.57 0.400 9.30 2.860 0.250 0.181 0.191 0.012 0.0120 1.7 6.08 2.1 0.4550 0.8600 0.0110 0.0120 4.01 8.38 8.50 3.34 0.0140 147.60 2.7 0.0086

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ Alco Preferred B DD PREF First Gen F First Gen G GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. GTCAP PREF A Leisure and Resort MWIDE PREF PCOR-Preferred A PCOR-Preferred B PF Pref 2 PNX PREF 3A SMC Preferred B SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred D SMC Preferred E SMC Preferred F SMC Preferred G SMC Preferred H SMC Preferred I Swift Pref

47 537 528 107.5 105.1 103.6 113.6 525 6.04 1021 1.04 107.7 1075 1149 1019 106 76 80.05 78 78.5 80 78 78 78.5 2.1

LR Warrant

2.180

Makati Fin. Corp. Italpinas Philab Holdings Xurpas

2.93 3.64 6.75 10.04

First Metro ETF

121.3

MARCH 20-24, 2017 Close Volume Value

Value

173,894,000 2,000 3,826,000 9,376,900 1,973,000 324,000 67,282,000 36,717,000 496,000 32,561,100

109,092,470.00 55,425.00 17,219,500.00 217,836,560.00 3,470,860.00 1,093,820.00 1,916,026,930.00 26,178,040.00 434,830.00 161,804,929.00 SERVICES 5,617,600 52,979,333.00 41,900 1,939,150.00 34,000 49,640.00 676,000 352,000.00 416,700,000 19,657,980.00 14,800 177,550.00 30,500 168,346 80,621,300 624,643,019.00 548,850,000 42,968,020.00 14,910,000 31,211,800.00 4,511,100 424,540,801.00 66,700 697,430.00 50,000 125,100 127,200 1,086,382.00 212,400 981,586.00 40 40,000.00 272,865 549,209,825 11,537,300 75,560,338.00 353,700 5,772,446.00 600 9,000 11,993,000 38,272,260.00 13,168,400 1,159,214,988.50 182,000 667,090 126,000 1,559,050.00 10,000,000 92,500.00 1,713,200 15,440,386.00 23,600,000 4,252,780.00 3,062,000 3,967,880.00 808,000 2,917,310.00 56,800 844,790.00 8,471,000 35,330,820 22,000 21,030.00 3,819,000 14,742,120.00 7,200 109,828 4,769,000 12,399,380.00 59,596,200 386,129,347.00 12,904,722 50,181,410.00 8,924,000 26,032,130.00 1,012,700 11,624,836.00 731,400 4,037,621 533,000 1,643,670.00 172,770 30,152,361.00 1,105,900 8,737,605.00 640,180 1,035,999,375.00 14,570,000 6,448,550.00 129,078,000 200,493,560.00 6,915,800 301,814,000.00 2,910,410 222,974,899.50 1,124,600 6,649,967.00 6,754,000 14,487,460.00 8,296,000 9,208,670.00 19,000 31,890.00 5,441,000 17,322,650.00 870,000 344,400.00 201,325,500 1,064,501,830.00 MINING & OIL 145,000,000 465,300.00 52,593,000 83,112,170.00 686,900 3,650,621.00 46,000 82,050.00 110,000 198,400.00 14,443,200 10,274,030.00 1,860,000 750,900.00 4,200 38,562.00 21,759,000 59,606,430.00 760,000 189,250.00 34,270,000 6,212,680.00 2,210,000 422,610.00 115,500,000 1,271,600.00 10,100,000 121,200.00 987,000 1,696,930.00 13,825,300 86,405,606.00 106,000 226,360.00 80,000 36,400.00 100,000 87,440.00 84,000,000 953,400.00 10,300,000 123,600.00 83,000 332,980.00 3,914,600 33,200,247.00 380,800 3,227,399.00 13,002,000 43,490,280.00 840,100,000 11,720,600.00 5,686,860 837,080,175.00 46,000 122,070.00 5,000,000 43,100.00 PREFERRED 826,300 38,452,510.00 20 10,740.00 2,020 1,066,680 6,780 725,560 52,720 5,566,195.00 50,000 5,240,000.00 55,000 6,259,550.00 100 52,500.00 10,007,100 60,544,239.00 4,380 4,471,990.00 837,000 870,480 5,600 603,380.00 240 257,050.00 3,845 4,391,115.00 13,695 13,959,760.00 6,000 636,000.00 870 67,255.00 185,220 14,917,615.00 121,540 5,589,670.00 11,300 889,800.00 119,420 9,553,600.00 72,820 5,650,540.00 141,240 11,019,926.00 239,520 18,934,626.00 35,000 77,030.00 WARRANTS & BONDS 1,921,000 4,462,020.00 SME 27,000 79,130.00 796,000 2,903,330.00 1,675,200 11,302,874.00 18,110,900 182,022,075.00 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 17,100 2,065,934.00

0.680 28.50 4.3 23.30 1.71 3.35 28.00 1 0.890 4.880

224,075,000 500 2,313,000 9,600,500 530,000 1,089,000 64,200,800 25,635,000 953,000 25,042,000

148,496,900.00 14,250.00 10,126,830.00 226,093,795.00 913,420.00 3,668,690.00 1,822,137,630.00 25,445,950.00 824,100.00 118,689,350.00

8.75 46.25 1.46 0.510 0.050 12 5.36 7.34 0.0740 2.15 91.2

923,700 60,700 164,000 1,136,000 482,570,000 9,500 49,200 27,506,900 119,640,000 20,982,000 3,078,720

7,891,438.00 2,812,810.00 239,450.00 596,680.00 24,004,490.00 114,110.00 261,597 207,686,966.00 8,807,570.00 47,477,880.00 284,719,746.50

2.45 8.50 4.98 970 1944 6.12 16.10 15.00 3.28 87.5 3.64 11.92 0.0092 9.01 0.185 1.3200 3.6 14.4 4.14 0.95 3.73 17.98 2.5 6.19 3.72 3.000 11.3 5.38 3.28 164.90 7.82 1570.00 0.445 1.530 43.80 77.50 6.09 2.20 1.110 1.75 3.13 0.400

76,000 694,100 1,382,700 80 238,870 756,300 244,300 2,400 9,178,000 18,085,120 520,000 114,900 105,000,000 1,372,000 15,750,000 1,324,000 2,967,000 10,500 15,424,000 38,000 3,386,000 200 2,092,000 49,457,100 1,814,000 21,850,000 20,700 140,400 389,000 116,330 2,934,600 426,555 18,560,000 50,642,000 14,033,700 9,598,330 303,000 7,905,000 18,236,000 1,000 2,274,000 3,420,000

185,900 5,947,424.00 6,851,869.00 77,600.00 459,066,125 4,613,083.00 3,881,158.00 36,008 31,376,270.00 1,585,908,182.50 1,904,440 1,415,366.00 987,800.00 12,361,010.00 2,930,340.00 1,750,940.00 10,867,980.00 149,210.00 58,615,860 36,270.00 12,608,820.00 3,596 4,974,470.00 298,289,099.00 6,766,740.00 66,462,780.00 233,402.00 751,048 1,222,790.00 19,226,050.00 24,288,448.00 654,720,380.00 8,122,900.00 77,117,360.00 623,637,710.00 753,772,509.50 1,859,409.00 17,491,750.00 20,348,860.00 1,750.00 7,022,250.00 1,380,800.00

0.0032 1.65 5.57 1.7800 1.8300 0.55 0.400 9.36 2.650 0.250 0.182 0.195 0.012 0.0120 1.7 6.26 2.2 0.4500 0.8800 0.0120 0.0110 4.03 8.57

418,000,000 12,522,000 660,000 20,000 25,000 14,263,000 2,600,000 42,200 26,200,000 1,810,000 43,660,000 2,250,000 171,700,000 3,600,000 716,000 9,765,200 139,000 90,000 452,000 183,400,000 8,500,000 75,000 4,842,900

1,356,100.00 20,511,310.00 3,551,237.00 35,460.00 45,800.00 7,558,865.00 1,042,100.00 381,280.00 66,414,370.00 450,380.00 7,791,940.00 442,500.00 1,894,700.00 40,700.00 1,250,240.00 52,506,351.00 296,850.00 40,550.00 390,910.00 1,971,900.00 93,600.00 302,870.00 42,056,638.00

3.11 0.0130 146.10 2.73 0.0087

7,360,000 97,500,000 5,062,490 200,000 13,000,000

22,051,270.00 1,269,500.00 736,673,636.00 544,410.00 116,400.00

46 534 528 107 105.1 107.1 116 525 5.84 1021 1.05 107.7 1075 1149 1019 106 78 80.5 76 79 80 78.75 78.1 79.55 2.1

2,648,300 300 11,900 24,480 130,600 190 162,500 11,200 5,879,500 3,515 76,000 75,520 7,140 1,115 25,370 28,400 230 497,570 234,860 101,810 106,500 337,340 378,950 44,250 15,000

121,823,055.00 160,200.00 6,358,540 2,619,360 13,770,550.00 21,231.00 19,156,500.00 5,903,200.00 34,407,329.00 3,589,025.00 79,100 8,007,079.00 7,629,880.00 1,260,565.00 25,855,360.00 2,992,500.00 17,900.00 40,583,152.00 5,215,115.00 7,991,723.00 8,496,934.00 26,679,436.00 29,617,515.00 3,507,260.50 32,190.00

2.370

3,437,000

7,723,080.00

2.93 3.71 6.74 9.9

5,000 1,298,000 316,800 22,143,700

14,650.00 4,918,320.00 2,147,358.00 220,765,668.00

120.7

13,590

1,642,097.00

WEEKLY MOST TRADED STOCKS Philodrill Corp. À’ MRC Allied Ind. Boulevard Holdings Apollo Global Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. Pacifica À’ Wilcon Depot Phil. Realty À’ Abra Mining Megaworld

VOLUME 840,100,000 576,780,000 548,850,000 416,700,000 284,351,800 282,010,000 201,325,500 173,894,000 145,000,000 130,020,000

STOCKS Metrobank SM Investments Inc. Ayala Land `B’ SM Prime Holdings Ayala Corp `A’ Metro Paciﬁc Inv. Corp. Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. I.C.T.S.I. Jollibee Foods Corp. DMCI Holdings

VALUE 2,331,850,032.50 2,251,839,465.00 2,238,102,270.00 1,916,026,930.00 1,749,674,525.00 1,724,251,023.00 1,661,446,007.00 1,159,214,988.50 1,154,440,477.00 1,069,654,244.00

every component of the logistics market and we have decided that we are going to be in certain spaces,” he said. Almendras said logistics was a “perpetual need” for the economy and the business sector, where there was a growing need to move goods. The government targets to grow the economy between 7 percent and 8 percent in the medium term. The economy grew 6.8 percent last year. “You cannot have a mega city like Metro Manila of 14 million people without good logistics,” Almendras said. Metro Pacific Investments Corp. earlier acquired Basic Logistics and Ace Logistics to provide logistics, shipping, freight forwarding and e-commerce services. SM Investments Corp. also announced last week that it acquired a 35-percent stake in the parent firm of 2Go Group Inc. MPIC committed to invest P5 billion in the logistics business over a five-year period. Ayala earlier entered into e-commerce space with the acquisition of a 43.3-percent interest in BF Jade E-Service Philippines Inc., the owner and operator of online fashion platform Zalora Philippines. Zalora is currently the Philippines’ largest online fashion destination offering over 120,000 products across more than 1,000 brands in accessories, beauty, clothing, shoes and sports.

MPIC wooing airport operators INFRASTRUCTURE conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is in advanced talks with several foreign airport operators to bid for unbundled regional airport projects this year. Metro Pacific vice president for business development Karim Garcia said the group was now talking to several foreign operators, after its French partner Aeroports de Paris Management SA pulled out because of the Transportation Department’s decision to unbundle the airport projects. “We are in advanced talks with several airports operators that are willing to invest in the Philippines,” Garcia said. The group expects to finalize an agreement soon, Garcia said. Metro Pacific asked the Transportation Department to lift the 10-percent equity requirement on a foreign airport operator to participate in a consortium bidding for the projects. Garcia said that while some airline operators were willing to put in a 10-percent equity, others were not. He said the requirement was hindering the process because airline operators were in the business of operating airports and not in owning equity in airports. “So most airport operators around the world’s business model is they operate an airport for a fee under a technical services agreement. Now if you force them to make an equity, it makes the process a lot harder,” Garcia said. “And also because they know they you need them for that requirement, they tend to be less willing to give their partners better pricing on their services,” he said. Jenniffer B. Austria

Business Kuwait company upbeat on Clark THE head of a 177-hectare mixed use estate in the Clark Freeport Zone said his company will invest $5 billion to develop a world-class economic hub in the former US military base. Global Gateway Development Corp. president Michael Russell said over the weekend he saw Clark Freeport as a viable investment destination. “It will be a seven to 10-year build out. We expect a good return on investments and generate 300,000 jobs once the economic hub is fully operational,” Russell said. GGDC, founded by The Port Fund, is a private equity fund managed by the Kuwaiti firm KGL Investment Company, with the Kuwaiti government and other countries as lead investors. GGDC’s anchor project called Global Gateway Clark offers office and retail spaces for leasing to investors, accommodating business process outsourcing companies, modern transportation facilities and healthcare industries. Russell said American investors in Clark were unfazed by US President Donald Trump’s American First policy, and the latter’s pronouncement that he would “cut regulations and taxes to make it more attractive for business to operate in the US. Russell said his company would stay in the Clark Freeport to fulfill its vision for the estate property. Once completed, the Global Gateway Clark be divided into four zones: Aeropark, Business Park, Town Center and Logistic Park. It is an ultra-modern city and at par with Metro Manila’s Bonifacio Global City. The One West and Two West buildings inside the Aeropark are set for completion in July this year, according to Russell. Global Gateway Clark sits at the crossroads of North Luzon Expressway and Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway and just 30 minutes away from the newlyexpanded Subic Bay deep-water port, and is directly adjacent to Clark International Airport.

JENNIFER NAM-ON

GREEN LIGHT OUR Lasallian Business Leadership class’ final lecture provided an in-depth discussion on sustainable development. Sustainable development is the common ground between social, economic and environmental preservation that allows for the ability to meet society’s current needs without compromising the capability of future generations to meet theirs. The discussion also dealt with the carrying capacity of the world we live in considering the number of people that it is able to sustain vis-à-vis the increasing human population and emphasized the unequal distribution of access to resources mainly due to avarice. These latter points would strongly strike me, together with the learning that nature, too, has the right to exist on earth. Inadequacies of the Mining Act Working on the related case about the 1996 Marcopper Mining tragedy in the Philippines would prompt further reflection after noting that the disaster did not warrant amendment to the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. This law remained to be in effect after the tragedy and is the current law enforced on present mines in operation. Relating it to a subsequent analysis on Shell operations in Nigeria where the Nigerian law provided its government controlling interest of 55 percent-60 percent for mineral resources extraction, I was able to confirm that Shell and Chevron’s 45 percent:45 percent interest in the Philippines’ Malampaya phase 2 and 3 project was covered in the 1995 Mining Act. In particular, Section 5 of the act provided for a 10 percent gov-

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Q1 rice output increased 5.3% By Anna Leah E. Gonzales

ICE harvests in the first quarter of 2017 increased by over 5 percent from a year ago, despite the smaller production area, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said over the weekend. Piñol said rice production, based on the Philippine satellite monitoring data which validated on the ground, reached 4.14 million metric tons in January to March, up 5.3 percent from 3.93 million MT harvested in the same period last year. He said the growth in rice output came despite the smaller production area of 997,687 hectares in the first quarter this year from 1.081 million hectares a year earlier. Piñol attributed the growth in rice output to improved productivity in 2017. Philippine Rice Research Institute executive director Sailila Abdula confirmed that for the first time in the his-

tory of rice farming, Filipino farmers posted a 4.15-metric-ton average yield per hectare per harvest this year, breaking the previous average of only 3.9 MT per hectare. “The PRiSM satellite-generated data validated my earlier projection based on ocular appreciation that the country will enjoy a bumper harvest this planting season,” Piñol said. He said the higher rice production was achieved despite the destruction caused by typhoon Niña which affected the Bicol region. Bicol or Region V harvested just 159,611 metric tons from an area of

PIÑOL

44,336 hectares out of the region’s rice area of 101,000 hectares, translating into a low average yield of 3.6 metric tons per hectare. Central Luzon posted the highest average yield per region at 4.84 metric tons per hectare.

“The higher average yield in the Central Luzon area is credited mainly to the increasing number of farmers who are using hybrid rice seeds,” Piñol said. Piñol said in Nueva Ecija where almost half of the farmers were already using hybrid rice seeds, the average yield per hectare reached 6.09 metric tons. “The Department of Agriculture is promoting the nationwide use of hybrid rice seeds which have been proven to produce double the production average of inbred rice seeds,” Piñol said. Piñol said with the improving rice productivity, the Philippines was on track to achieving self sufficiency in the staple by 2020. “The national hybrid rice seeds program, along with the provision of smallscale irrigation systems, mechanization and the availability of easy credit and financing for the farmers, is expected to boost the country’s rice production and achieve rice sufficiency by 2020,” Piñol said.

PSBANK ACCOLADES.

Philippine Savings Bank, the thrift bank unit of the Metrobank Group, wins two Silver Anvil Awards during 52nd Anvil Awards held at the Makati ShangriLa Hotel. Receiving the awards for the bank’s 2015 Annual Report: Engaging Our Customers, and its information security awareness campaign Be Aware! are PSBank senior vice president Emmanuel Tuazon, executive vice president Jose Vicente Alde and VP Dan Duplito.

On Mining Nature ernment share of all royalties and revenues from the development and utilization of mineral resources, petroleum and natural gas included. Considering this, I realized two things—first, that increasing a government’s share in the extraction of its mineral resources does not necessarily warrant proper allocation of public benefits and enforcement of environmental protection, and second, that privatizing for the effective and efficient delivery of essential services by allocating a higher interest to business partners does not guarantee harmless operations either, as was made evident in the Marcopper mining incident. Marcopper Tragedy The tragedy would cause more than two million tons of mine waste to leak into the Boac River in Marinduque Island that resulted to flash floods and isolated villages, burying the river channels under mine tailings. This inundated agricultural fields, contaminated drinking water, and killed fish, shrimp and other food sources, ultimately causing the death of Boac River. Despite these, Marcopper, the mining company, held on to the claim that the tailings were non-toxic even as tests showed highly abnormal zinc levels in some residents and in the bodies of water tested. It brought national and international attention to Marinduque. Experts and scientists poured into the island province to study the disaster, and eventually learned of the problems that had been occurring for years. At present, the discovery of leaks in the dams abandoned by the company raised new concerns on the safety of the island’s residents.

Efforts by the provincial government to recover compensation for damages and claims for restoration also remain in vain as cases filed in the US against the company were rejected for non-jurisdiction citing that it should be filed in the country of incorporation in Canada. Striking a balance The case posed the continuing challenge at striking a balance between addressing today’s needs and leaving enough resources for the future. It also prompted me to revisit my resolve regarding previously working for the extractive industry as I continued to ponder on the environment’s right to coexist and humanity’s responsibility to ensure this salient right. I have worked for the energy industry whose aim is to meet the current and increasing need for energy by investing in exploration efforts around the world to tap and exploit energy sources and satisfy this necessity. I was instrumental to these efforts as I took on the responsibility to correctly account for the resources drawn and the accompanying efforts expended. In line with, and sharing the company’s values of honesty, integrity and respect for people, I ensured that my tasks complied with applicable reporting standards and governmental requirements, and followed stringent internal and external controls. I realize that I contributed to making lives better by helping the business abide by reporting requirements, avoid related penalties, and continue to fulfill energy requirements. I also recall that during this time, I participated in companysponsored volunteering activities that included tree planting, beach

clean-up, school cleaning and painting brigades, house-builds, among others, including visits to villages that were provided livelihood and social programs, and sites that the company previously exploited and currently oversee for restoration. More sustainable future As I write this reflection, I imagine nature silently speak to me through a tree, a flower, and the grass, and ask, ‘was it worth it’? I answer yes, as I did no harm, however, with reservations for the future as I look at the bigger picture. I could only hope that more advanced technology would be invented by the next generation to tap into resources that prove difficult to explore today, or that more efficient tools are created without exploiting mineral resources for energy. I believe that today’s heightened efforts for cleaner fuel and more efficient processes serve as a catalyst for what is to come. I read about robots replacing my job and lots of jobs soon. I welcome this as inevitable, nonetheless, pray that we may not lose our humanity, and nature, as we progress. The author is an MBA student at the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business. This essay is part of a journal she keeps in fulfillment of the requirements of the course, Lasallian Business Leadership with Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics. Visit her blog at https://jennifernam-on.tumblr.com/. The views expressed here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.

Cusi to push for total electrification by 2022 By Alena Mae S. Flores THE Energy Department is pushing for total household electrification by 2022 from 90.65 percent as of December last year. “As a priority concern, we strongly aim for total household electrification by the end of President Duterte’s term (by 2022),” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said in a speech over the weekend before the Rotary Club of Cubao. He said Luzon and Visayas were almost fully energized at 95.5 percent and 94 percent, respectively, but Mindanao’s electrification level was far behind. “In Mindanao, we are doubling our efforts to increase its current 74 percent energization status. We are aggressive in working our way

up to achieve our desired 100 percent mark,” Cusi said. He said the department was facilitating the provision of electricity service to the unenergized areas. “With support from various sectors, we are optimistic that we can make it happen,” Cusi said. He said the government also aimed to reduce power costs. The Philippines has one of highest electricity rates in Asia, affecting its competitiveness in the global market. “The next big question is how much is the cost of electricity? One of my ultimate visions as the steward of the DoE is to provide affordable electricity to our consumers. I want our country to be out from the list of being one of the highest rates in Asia,” Cusi said.

Revilla gets award for Bacoor service GOLDEN Globe Annual Awards for Outstanding Filipino Achievers conferred to individuals who have remarkable achievements worthy of commendation in ceremonies held in Manila Hotel on March 31. Some of this year’s Filipino achievers awardees were Norieva De Vega, legal and public services; Nikolaus Lahusen, Alma Mae Roa, Annielle Santos, Editha Dacuycuy, entrepreneurship; Gov. Imelda Marcos, councilors Enrico Puno and Wilson Gamboa Jr., Mayor Richard Gomez, Mayor Celso Oliver Dator, Mayor Cristina Romualdez and Bacoor, Cavite Rep. Strike Revilla for public service category. Revilla (in photo), who was cited as Letran’s “Grandes Figuras,” or one of the great men of Colegio de San Juan de Letran, said he was honored to get another prestigious award. “Serving Bacooreños and my country is my life. I will continue work hard to deliver the 100 percent of my best everyday for country,” he said. Revilla, who received seals of good local governance for two consecutive years as mayor of Bacoor, Cavite, vowed to provide more services his constituents and the nation.

Business

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

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

Trump hikes pressure on global trade ‘cheats’ By Andrew Beatty

ASHINGTON― President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to root out unfair trade practices around the world and target countries that contribute to America’s substantial trade deﬁcit.

“From now on those who break the rules will face the consequences, and there will be very severe consequences,” Trump said announcing two executive orders in the Oval Office. The first, largely symbolic order, tasked officials to pinpoint “cheaters”―either countries or firms―who are responsible for America’s nearly $50 billion a month trade deficit. Much of that deficit data is already publicly available and well known, but Trump’s initiative doubles down on his tough trade

rhetoric and is being seen as a protectionist warning shot a week before the US leader meets Chinese President Xi Jinping. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to put America’s trading relationship with the world on a more advantageous basis and put “America ﬁrst.” “Thousands of factories have been stolen from our country, but these voiceless Americans now have a voice in the White House,” Trump said. “The well-being of America and the American worker is my North Star,” he said, adding that without the issue of trade he may not be president today. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the order would result in analysts going “country by country, and product by product,” reporting back to Trump within 90 days. Ofﬁcials will look for evidence of “cheating,” inappropriate behavior, trade deals that have not lived up to their promise, lax enforcement, currency misalignment and troublesome World Trade Organization constraints.

“Needless to say the number one source of the deficit is China,” Ross said, before listing more than a dozen other “countries that will potentially be involved.” The others were: Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. However, Ross said the presence of a deficit does not necessarily mean that retaliatory or remedial action would be taken. “It’s a little bit hard to say that someone is an evildoer if they are providing a product we can’t,” he said. In a second executive order Trump asked the government to better recover trade duties on products that are subsidized by foreign governments or dumped on the US market. The order, Trump said, would “ensure that we fully collect all duties imposed on important importers that cheat. They are cheaters.” The proposals being considered by US customs officials could impose more substantial bonding requirements at the border or examine products’ risk more stringently. AFP

‘HELLO 2020 JET.’ Japan’s ANA (All Nippon Airways) new President Yuji Hirako (right) and new employees pose with a model of an ANA

aircraft in special “Hello 2020 Jet” livery for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, after the company’s new employee welcome ceremony at a hangar in Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on April 1, 2017. The aircraft with special livery in honor of the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will ﬂy domestic routes in Japan from January 2018. AFP

Pot business is smoking hot in US, despite Trump By Javier Tovar LOS ANGELES—Walk into Brett Vapnik’s medicinal marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles and the pungent aroma of pot is good and strong. All day long, hundreds of people ﬁle in and out—a sign of the strength of the pot industry, despite big question marks posed by the new administration of President Donald Trump. For now Vapnik, who also has a small pot garden in his store, just sells marijuana for medicinal purposes: from the plant itself, with varying degrees of potency, to beauty products and even chocolate and cookies, all laced with herb. But next year he expects sales to triple, as the most populous US state is slated to legalize sales and consumption of marijuana for recreational purposes. Almost 60 percent of the US population lives in states where the sale and use of marijuana is legal to one extent or another: 29 states and the capital Washington, DC have laws governing its medicinal use. And of these, eight and Washington, DC allow its use for people simply to get high, for fun. But the federal government still classiﬁes marijuana as an illegal drug. “According to them, yes, I’m a drug dealer,” Vapnik told AFP. He said that now that the conservative Trump is in power, there is a lot of uncertainty in the industry, which had a reported $6.9

Co-owner Brett Vapnik prepares an order of marijuana products at the Perennial Holistic Wellness Center which is a medicinal marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, California on March 24, 2017. All day long, hundreds of people ﬁle in and out, a sign of the strength of the pot industry, despite big question marks posed by the new administration of President Donald Trump. AFP

billion in revenue in 2016. White House spokesman Sean Spicer set off alarms recently when he said of federal law on marijuana, “I do believe you will see greater enforcement of it.” But what did he mean, exactly? That there will be raids in states where sales are legalized? It is hard to tell, said Vapnik, 44 and co-owner of a dispensary since 2010. He said he does not think the DEA drug agency will intervene because Congress has barred any federal action in states where marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal –an order that

can be extended to pot for recreational use. So maybe way the to crack down will be taxes, said Vapnik. Now, the tax on revenue at shops like his varies from 40 percent to 70 percent. “Technically, the federal government is our biggest partner in what they consider an illegal drug operation,” said Vapnik. He said he does not see pot being legalized at the federal level with Trump in power. So for the time being, customers keep coming into his shop and leaving with their pot in small white paper bags. His rev-

enue is about $4 million a year. VIP Marijuana During the election campaign Trump said he supported medicinal use of marijuana and respected state laws allowing this. But for advocacy groups the bigger source of worry are people in the Trump administration like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a conservative southerner who opposes legal pot. “While the short term prognosis is uncertain, the long term prognosis has never been better,” said Troy Dayton, head of the marketing research ﬁrm Arcview. It was Arcview that calculated the pot industry was worth $6.9 billion in 2016. By 2021 it sees the industry moving $21 billion a year. “I think by 2021 it is reasonable that Congress will end federal prohibition,” said Dayton. “The sky hasn’t fallen” in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, the states where marijuana use for recreational purposes was ﬁrst legalized, Dayton told AFP. He said polls show that 60 percent of Americans favor pot being legalized. He said it will not be tenable for Republicans or Democrats to keep supporting a ban on something that Dayton said it safer than alcohol. In November of last year, voters approved possession and consumption of marijuana in California. Rules on sales, also approved then, will be issued in 2018 when the process opens for the granting of licenses for sales of recreational pot. AFP

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte welcomes Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yang, who pays a courtesy call on the President, at the Presidential Guest House in Davao City. Present also is Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua.

STRENGTHENING RP-CHINA TIES THROUGH TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT IT IS rather difficult to discuss something about China without touching on the sensitive chords of geopolitics that is prevalent nowadays. But let us, for a moment, veer away from the delicate and complex issues about our relationship with our giant northern neighbor , and talk more about how China can be a good ally in terms of economic development and nation building . It is a known fact that China is our biggest neighbor. It is the second largest economy, the most populated country, a land mass that covers close to 10 million sq.km. It would be the height of naïveté or outright stupidity to deny this . Our foreign policy has always been non-isolationist, and if we can see some kind of opportunity to be had in dealing with China in a more robust fashion ,then so much the better for all of us. Corollary, it also bears stressing that reaching out to China does not mean abandoning or downgrading ties with erstwhile allies like the United States and Japan President Duterte has always held his hand out to China in peace and friendship, he did the same with Japan. I was part of the business delegation in the last state visit to Japan and I witnessed this. Recently, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang was in Davao where he was met by the President and other top government officials. The high-level Chinese official was in the country to further discuss the promotion of free trade partnership through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement which they are spearheading. Once accomplished, this agreement will most likely benefit the country’s exports. Trade Secretary Mon Lopez is in the forefront of this much needed initiative.

During their meetings, Vice Premier Wang said that the Philippines, as this year’s Chairman of the ASEAN, would play a crucial role in the discussions for the RCEP. Our Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said that both ASEAN and China can lead the region’s economic growth that would be inclusive to all members of society. Students of development economics foresaw the rise of regional economies and the inevitable decline of national economies. Thus within the framework of RCEP, which include other countries like Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, the Philippines can greatly benefit from this. Aside from that, the Vice Premier was also here in the country to discuss common interests that would, in his words, “bring more benefits than differences”. Bilateral ties were strengthened, no doubt, through him and President Duterte, particularly in trade and commerce. The governments of each likewise exchanged letters related to two feasibility studies, one for the Davao City Expressway Project, and the other for the PanayGuimaras-Negros Bridges Project. I have always been of the view, that countries, even people, should dwell on their similarities rather than their differences when dealing with each other. It could lead to a good start that will make discussions on the more difficult issues easier to navigate. In any event, it will keep the lines of communication open. In the end, we all benefit.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte meets with Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yang, who pays a courtesy call on the President, at the Presidential Guest House in Davao City. Present also are (from left to right) Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

With STI group chair Eusebio Tanco, Budget Sec. Ben Diokno, Transportation Secretary Art Tugade, PLDT Group chair Manuel V. Pangilinan, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, and Congressman Karlo Nograles

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte welcomes Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yang, who pays a courtesy call on the President, at the Presidential Guest House in Davao City. Also in the photo is Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua.

With Secretary Ben Diokno, Manuel V. Pangilinan, and Secretary Pernia

With Megaworld Chair Andrew Tan and Vice-Premier Wang Yang

‘Popular Duterte can boost PH trade’

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor Roger M. Garcia, Assistant Editor jimbo.gulle@gmail.com mslocalgov@gmail.com MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

By Roy Tomandao DAVE Almarinez, the newly appointed president and CEO of the Philippine International Trading Corp., sees “great opportunities” for the Philippines through President Rodrigo Duterte’s popularity for the country to get noticed in international trade and on a global scale. Speaking after his oathtaking last March 30 in Malacañang, which Duterte himself presided over, Almarinez said what makes the President popular “is his passion in trying to solve the country’s woes when it comes to crimes caused by illegal drugs and corruption and incompetence.” “Observers may think that the method the President employs to fix the country’s problems is imperfect, but no one doubts his passion and his desire to help every Filipino rise out of poverty, and for that the President gets the overwhelming support of the people,” explains Almarinez. Almarinez was a board member of the province of Laguna and an executive of an international direct-selling coffee company before being appointed to the PITC. Almarinez says Duterte’s personal style of no-frills, direct leadership makes the President popular, and that PITC, and other government agencies, can maximize this popularity “to also get the support of the whole world for the betterment of the Philippine nation.” “As for me, I am optimistic for my entire team at PITC, because I can channel the popularity of President Duterte so the Philippines can be put on the spotlight as well on the more important matter of trade and the access to global market and commerce,” adds Almarinez. “We have products we want the world to buy and we want to be more active in reaching out to trading partners, so Filipino merchants and traders, marketers and entrepreneurs, will be looked up to with utmost respect when it comes to international trading,” he said. Almarinez also said the attitudes of foreign observers, particularly international journalists, “who are always on the lookout for dramatic turn of events to develop as news, to increase ratings,” must not discourage the Philippines to continue aggressive trade with different countries, whether it be China or Russia, America or countries in Europe.

LGUs LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

OVER THE TOP. Kalanguya men fight in a game of ‘Hanggol’ or arm wrestling. This native game was one of the highlights of the recent Kalanguya Festival in Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya. Ben Moses Ebreo

SWS: Govt is biggest helper By Sandy Araneta

HE Philippine government provides more help to Filipinos than their relatives, friends, private companies, or the church, according to the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations. The survey, conducted last December, revealed that 46 percent of households were helped by the government, followed by relatives at 41 percent, friends at 16 percent, private persons at eight percent, private companies at five percent, non-government organizations at two percent, and religious organizations at one percent. The noncommissioned survey was conducted from December 3 to

6, 2016, with face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults nationwide—600 in Balance Luzon and 300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. Sampling error margins are at plus-minus three percent for national percentages, plus-minus four percent for Balance Luzon, and plus-minus six percent each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. The December 2016 findings on hunger were reported last

January. The SWS said 47 percent, or an estimated 10.5-million households, received assistance in the last quarter of 2016, most commonly in the form of money, and most commonly from the government. On the other hand, 53 percent or an estimated 12-million households reported not having received any kind of help in the past three months, the SWS survey said. In the past, the proportion of households receiving any form of help ranged from as low as 12 percent in September 2002 to as high as 52 percent in June 2014 and March 2015, the SWS said. The latest figure of 47 percent is three points above the 44 percent recorded in December 2015.

This is higher than the 30-to-40percent range from 2004 to 2011, and within the 44-to-55-percent range from 2012 to 2016, the SWS also said. The SWS said the most common form of assistance was found to be money or “money-gifts” that was given at 51 percent, followed by food at 38 percent, money that was lent or loans at 24 percent, support for schooling or training at eight percent, non-food items at 4 percent, jobs at four percent, and any kind of service at one percent. “Money-gifts were typically the most common form of help, having topped the list in 18 out of the 21 surveys since 2001, followed by money-loans and Food,” the survey said, whereas “Food topped the list only three times: 57 percent

women leaders to be part of his Cabinet, like Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial, Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo and National AntiPoverty Commission Secretary Liza Maza. The President said when he was Davao City mayor, he implemented policies intended to protect women. The Davao City government came up with a Women’s Code that was strictly followed. There was also a law in the city against bigotry and discrimination to protect minorities from unfair treatment and practices, the President said. Participating agencies for Friday’s event provided several services to women like spa and wellness, legal consultation, distribution of medical and dental referral cards, as well as Tesda scholarships. They also had a tour of Malacañang Museum and were given snacks and goodies. Sandy Araneta

Makati realty tax schedule revealed

TRAFFIC CONCERNS. Star Tollway Corp., the operator of the 42-kilometer Star Tollway expressway in

the Batangas, participated in the recent Port Management Advisory Council meeting to discuss pressing traffic problems in the province, especially in cities and towns now experiencing road congestion. Among the solutions presented include the rerouting of trucks and buses to divert them from roads that are being constructed or undergoing repair and improvement. A traffic and passenger management plan was also drawn up to prepare for the influx of motorists during the Holy Week and the summer months. The PMAC meeting was initiated by the International Port of Batangas, headed by PMAC chairman, Leopoldo Biscocho Jr. (bottom photo, second from left) and attended by representatives of the different government agencies, private ports, shipping companies, cargo trucks and bus operators. STC, represented by its business development head, Tony Reyes (top photo, left), is among the private companies that are active in helping the province address its traffic concerns, both vehicles and people.

Driver lauded for honesty, Ilagan for hospitality By Abe Almirol ILAGAN, Isabela—A first-time visitor expressed profound admiration to a tricycle driver who refused to accept the P60 being paid to him, and collected only the prescribed fare from the City Sports Complex to their hotel. On his Facebook account, Edward Obiena thanked driver Efren Casasola of Barangay Camunutan here for his honesty and dedication to his job. Casasola’s tricycle bears body number 1939.

Obiena is the uncle and personal coach of lone Filipino gold medalist Francis Edward Obiena, who competed in the Southeast Asian Youth Games hosted by this city. The Obienas represented the Philippines in the pole vault. “He said the fare from the Sports Complex to DA [Hotel] was P30, so we paid P60 because we were two passengers, but he returned the excess P30 because the fare was for both of us after all. He also took us through a short cut. We salute you, driver

in December 2009, 35 percent in June 2008, and 33 percent in September 2001 when it tied with money-loans,” the SWS said. “For only the fifth time out of the 21 surveys since 2001, the government was the most common source of help received by households in the past three months,” the SWS said. The SWS said most of the time, such help came from relatives. The 46 percent assisted by the government were estimated at 4.8 million, followed by beneficiaries of relatives at about 4.3 million; of friends at about 1.7 million; of private persons at about 856,000; of private companies at about 543,000; of NGOs at about 250,000; and of religious organizations at about 146,000.

IN BRIEF

Du30 vows to ease plight of women PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has promised to assist Filipino women in uplifting their living conditions, particularly the poor and marginalized. In his message during the “Digong’s Day for Women” in Malacañang late Friday, the President said his administration is extending livelihood assistance to Filipino women. The money will be coursed through and managed by the Department of Trade and Industry. “But you have to attend a seminar. You have to attend a seminar then they will… They are the experts. If they want tailoring? They have a tailoring [factory] of the Go Negosyo of Ramon Lopez of the DTI,” Duterte said. At the same time, Duterte said he has increased the budget for agriculture and education to provide more sources of livelihood to the people. To demonstrate that his government is pro-women, the President said he designated

sir,” Obiena posted in the vernacular on his Facebook wall. Reynato G. Unso, secretarygeneral of the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association that organized the event, also praised Ilagueños for their warm hosting of both the 12th SEA Youth Games and the 2017 Ayala Philippine National Open Invitations Athletics Championships. “We feel at home in the City of Ilagan,” Unso told members of the press on Thursday. In the same press conference,

Ricky Laggui, General Services Officer and acting coordinator for the twin events, said Ilagan police recorded only two minor vehicular incidents unrelated to the hosting of the Patafa-run games. “There was no recorded crime since the events started,” he said. Thousands of people proceeded to the City Sports Complex as early as 5 a.m. to watch the athletic events. Tricycle drivers like Casasola were very happy because they made good profits.

City Councilors Jayeveson Diaz and Antonio Montereal Jr., Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Committee on Youth and Sports Development of the City Council of Ilagan respectively, told Manila Standard the growing enthusiasm in sports contributed positively to the government’s war on drugs. “As far as I know, there are 482 cases that we in the city government successfully facilitated in the early stage of implementation of Oplan Tokhang,” Montereal revealed.

FOR the convenience of real property owners in Makati, the City Treasurer’s Office has released the schedule of the Computerized Real Property Tax Payment in the barangays for the second quarter, which will start on April 4, Tuesday. The satellite payment centers in barangay halls, manned by authorized city hall personnel, will be open on scheduled dates from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to accept payments. Taxpayers only need to present their previous receipt, and they will be issued an electronic receipt upon payment. Each transaction usually takes about five minutes. On April 4, the payment centers will be opened in Barangays Bel-Air and Urdaneta, followed by Forbes Park and Dasmariñas on April 5. The schedule for the rest of the week is as follows: April 6, Brgys. Magallanes and San Lorenzo; and April 7, Brgys. Bangkal, Pio del Pilar, San Isidro, Palanan, and San Antonio. On April 10, Monday, the payment centers will be opened in Brgys. La Paz, Singkamas, Carmona, Sta. Cruz, and Tejeros. Scheduled for April 11 are Brgys. Valenzuela, Kasilawan, Olympia, Poblacion, and Guadalupe Viejo. After the Holy Week, the service will resume on April 17 in Brgys. Guadalupe Nuevo, Pinagkaisahan, Pitogo, South Cembo, and Cembo. The last batch is scheduled for April 18, consisting of Brgys. Pembo, Rizal, Comembo, West Rembo, and East Rembo.

CYANMAGENTA MAGENTAYELLOW YELLOWBLACK BLACK CYAN Manila Manila Republic thePhilippines Philippines Republic ofofthe REGIONALTRIAL TRIALCOURT COURT REGIONAL NationalCapital CapitalJudicial JudicialRegion Region National Branch214 214 Branch MandaluyongCity City Mandaluyong

Standard Standard TODAY

relativesofofChris Chrisattended attendedthe theaffair. affair. attitude attitudeand andbehavior behaviorthat thatwould wouldmake makeher her ororrelatives Andwhen whenpetitioner petitionerasked askedChris Chrisononwhy why believe believethat thatrespondent respondentisissuch sucha acharacter. character. And hadnonoguests guestsininthe theaffair, affair,Chris Chrisjust just 6.4.2. First, xxxxx xxxxx who lived with them hehehad 6.4.2. First, xxxxx xxxxx who lived with them repliedthat thathehedoes doesnot nothave havefriends friendsinin from the time of their marriage up to the time replied from the time of their marriage up to the time Qatar,which whichpopped poppedupupa abubble bubbleonon Thyn’s the parties were separated, was busted in Qatar, Thyn’s the parties were separated, was busted in mind------whatever whateverhappened happenedtotohis hisclaimed claimed Qatar as a xxxxx xxxxx. He was able to mind Qatar as a xxxxx xxxxx. He was able to friendswho whooften ofteninterrupted interruptedthem themonontheir their evade imprisonment because he was just friends evade imprisonment because he was just dates? But ButThyn Thynchose chosetotojust justleave leaveit itatat deported by bribing the arresting officers by dates? deported by bribing the arresting officers by CRISTINAM. M.LEABRES LEABRES CRISTINA that.But Butthen thenfarfarfrom fromher herthoughts, thoughts,this this using xxxxx money. that. using xxxxx money. Petitioner, was only the tip of the iceberg. Petitioner, was only the tip of the iceberg. 6.4.3.The Theincidents incidentsatatthe thetime timethey theywere were 6.4.3. 3.1.Chris Chrishas hasa axxxxx xxxxxwho whoalso alsolives lives just dating when people would just pop up 3.1. just dating when people would just pop up in Doha, Qatar and is the same xxxxx in Doha, Qatar and is the same xxxxx onontheir -versus-versustheirdates datesand andChris Chrisand andthe thevisitor visitor wholived livedwith withpetitioner petitionerand andrespondent respondent would leave her beyond her sights from who would leave her beyond her sights from throughouttheir theirunion unionforforthree three(3)(3)years years 20-30 minutes. And she finds it even more throughout 20-30 minutes. And she finds it even more CIVILCASE CASENO. NO.MC16-11265 MC16-11265 until CIVIL untilhehewas wasforced forcedtotogogohome hometototheir their strange when Chris told petitioner that the strange when Chris told petitioner that the province in Isabela because he was For: DECLARATION OF province in Isabela because he was visitor For: DECLARATION OF visitor always just one his friends asking isis always just one ofof his friends asking ultimatelyconvicted convictedininQatar Qatarforforxxxxx xxxxx for help but when the time came for their ultimately NULLITYOF OFMARRIAGE MARRIAGE NULLITY for help but when the time came for their willbebediscussed discussedlater. later. He Hehas hasa a marriage celebration, not one friend of Chris asaswill marriage celebration, not one friend of Chris andDISSOLUTION DISSOLUTIONOF OF and motherworking workingasasdean deanand anda asister sisterwho who appeared at his wedding. mother appeared at his wedding. COMMUNITYPROPERTY PROPERTY workingasasa areceptionist receptionistininnearby nearby COMMUNITY isisworking 6.4.4. Chris Chriswas wasalways alwayswearing wearingshades shades Jeddah,Saudi SaudiArabia. Arabia. Yet Yetnot notone oneofof 6.4.4. Jeddah, sunglasseseven evenindoors indoorsand andeven evenatat themwas wasinvited invitedbybyChris Chrisnor nordid didthey theygogo ororsunglasses them CHRISTOPHERM. M.RESPICIO, RESPICIO, totothethewedding CHRISTOPHER nighttime. And Andwhenever wheneverhehetook tookit itup, up, weddingout outofoftheir theirown ownaccord accordtoto nighttime. petitionernoticed noticedthat thathis hiswere werered redand and Respondent. petitioner Respondent. witnessit.it. witness oftenstiff. stiff. often x--------------------------------------x 4.4.After x--------------------------------------x Afterless lessthan thanthree three(3)(3)years yearsofoftheir their 6.4.5. Petitioner Petitioneroften oftennotices noticesChris Christoto marriage,petitioner petitionerand andrespondent respondenthave have 6.4.5. marriage, ORDER ORDER occupythe thebathroom bathroommost mostofofthe thetime timeand and beenliving livingseparately separatelyfrom fromone oneanother another occupy been longintervals. intervals. One Onetime timewhen whenhehewas was Thisisisa apetition petitionforfornullity nullityofofmarriage marriage although althoughboth bothare arestill stillcontract contractworkers workersinin forforlong This thetoilet toiletand andforgot forgottotobring bringhis hiscellphone cellphone Doha,Qatar Qatarononthe theaccepted acceptedproposal proposalofof ininthe filedbybyCristina CristinaLeabres Leabres(PETITIONER) (PETITIONER) Doha, filed somebodycalled calledupupsososhe shelooked lookedatatthe the Thynwho whowas wasalready alreadytired, tired,stressed stressedand and somebody against Christopher Respicio Thyn against Christopher Respicio phoneforforit itmight mightbebeChris’ Chris’ bosslooking lookingforfor boss nervouswith withthe thecharacter characterofofChrist Christand and phone (RESPONDENT)onon3030September September2016. 2016. nervous (RESPONDENT) himbut butit itwas wasnot. not.After Afterthe thecall, call,the thesame same thetreatment treatmentshe shehad hadreceived receivedfrom fromhim him him the PETITIONER prays prays that that the the after after asaswill guytexted textedChris Chriswith withthis thismessage message“Asan “Asan PETITIONER guy willbebeshown shownhereunder. hereunder. na?Kita Kitananalang langtayo tayosasaCR CRsasadating dating due notice notice and and hearing, hearing, judgment judgment bebe kakana? due 5. The marriage of Thyn and Cris is null tagpuan”. This made Thyn very curious and This made Thyn very curious and rendered declaring declaring her her marriage marriage with with 5. The marriage of Thyn and Cris is null tagpuan”. rendered andvoid voidababinitio. initio.Chris Chrisisispsychologically psychologically she could not take this off from her mind and RESPONDENTnull nulland andvoid voidababinitio initioonon incapable of performing and complying she could not take this off from her mind RESPONDENT incapable of performing and complying since sincethen thenalthough althoughher herhusband husbandalready already theground groundofofpsychological psychologicalincapacity incapacityofof with the with the the essential essential marital marital obligations. obligations. explained that it was his friend working from explained that it was his friend working from theRESPONDENT RESPONDENTunder underArticle Article3636ofof The the Theroot rootcause causeofofthe thenullity nullityisisthat thatChris Chris Crispy Crème who would meet up with at the Crispy Crème who would meet up with at the theFamily FamilyCode Codeofofthe thePhilippines Philippinesand andforfor has hasnonounderstanding understandingofofmarriage, marriage,the the CR where the caller would give respondent the CR where the caller would give respondent responsibilitiesattached attachedtotoit itand andhis hislack lack some complimentary doughnuts. thedissolution dissolutionofofcommunity communityofofproperty, property, responsibilities the some complimentary doughnuts. appreciationofofhis hisessential essentialmarital marital consequencethereof. thereof.PETITIONER PETITIONER ofofappreciation asasa aconsequence 6.4.6. Oftentimes Oftentimesalso alsowhen whenThyn Thynwould would obligations------totolive livetogether, together,observe observe 6.4.6. furtherprays praysforforsuch suchother otherreliefs reliefsjust justand and obligations further gethome homeand andChris Chriswas wasalready alreadythere, there,she she get mutual love, respect and fidelity, and to mutual love, respect and fidelity, and to equitableunder underthe thecircumstances. circumstances. equitable wouldnotice noticethat thather herhusband’s husband’seyes eyeswere were rendermutual mutualhelp helpand andsupport, support,which which would render wide open and and red and he was dazed To support her claim, PETITIONER To support her claim, PETITIONER cause cause though though predating predating the the marriage marriage wide open and and red and he was dazed butseem seemnot nottotobebehimself. himself. citesofofthe thefollowing followingallegations: allegations:(1)(1)That That became becamemore moremanifest manifestonly onlyduring duringand and but cites afterthe thesolemnization solemnizationofofthe themarriage marriageand and 6.4.7. the PETITIONER PETITIONER isis a a Filipino Filipino citizen citizen after the 6.4.7.Sometimes Sometimesrespondent respondentwould wouldeither either stillsubsists subsiststotothe thepresent presentand andappears appearstoto gogohome andresiding residingatatBlk Blk41, 41,Zone Zone3,3,Lot Lot1,1, still homeearly earlyand andnot notgogototowork workatatallallforfor and incurable. numberofofdays. days. Sometimes, Sometimes,it itwas wasthe the WelfarevilleCompound, Compound,Mandaluyong MandaluyongCity City bebeincurable. a anumber Welfareville otherway wayaround, around,respondent respondentwould wouldeither either whileRESPONDENT RESPONDENTisislikewise likewisea aFilipino Filipino 6.6.Respondent’s Respondent’spsychological psychologicalincapacity incapacity other while homelate lateorornot notatatallallforfora anumber numberofof wasexisting existingprior priorto,to,during duringand andafter after gogohome citizenand anda aresident residentofofGreenheights Greenheights was citizen daysand andhehewould wouldnot notgive givethe thereason reasonwhy w thecelebration celebrationofofthe themarriage marriageand andisis days Subdivision,Alibagu, Alibagu,Ilagan, Ilagan,Isabela; Isabela;(2)(2) the Subdivision, H characterized byby his his selfishness, selfishness, selfself- or the place or person he had been to. He ThatPETITIONER PETITIONERand andRESPONDENT RESPONDENT characterized That w not be womanizing w m w go since he would centeredness, irresponsibility irresponsibility and/or and/or would weremarried marriedonon0404March March2009 2009atatthe the centeredness, were m w m w refusaltotoassume assumeresponsibility, responsibility,violent violent home with the same clothes, underwear and Philippine Embassy Embassy ofof Doha, Doha, Qatar Qatar refusal Philippine w any bath. behavior, narcissism, his antisocial without andsolemnized solemnizedbybyVice ViceConsul ConsulJabbar Jabbar behavior, narcissism, his antisocial and behavior, and and drug drug addiction. addiction. His His This was behavior, w the ultimate m strawwthat made m Adiong(Certificate (CertificateofofMarriage Marriageand and psychological M.M.Adiong incapacity isis grave, grave, petitioner decide to live separately fromm psychological incapacity Report ofof Marriage Marriage asas Annexes Annexes “B” “B” incurable, Report incurable,and andpermanent permanentbecause becauseit itisis respondent since middle m of 2012 because and “B-1” “B-1” ofof the the Petition); Petition); (3)(3) That That a aserious and seriouscase caseofofpersonality personalitydisorder disorder she feared for her and her sibling’s life duringtheir theirmarriage, marriage,PETITIONER PETITIONERand and explicitly explicitly demonstrative demonstrative inin his his said said and honor as they were during w living with w a xxxxx characteristics, which which failed failed toto give give who RESPONDENTacquired acquireda acondominium condominium characteristics, RESPONDENT w got caught but was w able to skirt xxxxx meaningand andsignificance significancetototheir theirmarriage marriage because he xxxxx the arresting officers. unit with with anan area area ofof 18.21 18.21 square square meaning unit maybebediscerned discernedfrom, from,but butnot notlimited, limited, What W more m if her husband was w also a meters,more moreororless lesslocated locatedatatEspaña España asasmay meters, thefollowing followingattitude/behavior attitude/behaviorofofthe the pusher and an addict, aside frommbeing GrandResidences, Residences,España, España,Manila; Manila;(4)(4) totothe Grand respondent: already a non-living, non-caring, violent, Thatinin2012, 2012,PETITIONER PETITIONERdecided decidedtoto respondent: That 6.1. Chris Chrisdoes doesnot nothonor honorhis hispromises promises selfish, irresponsible, disrespectful person. separatefrom fromRESPONDENT; RESPONDENT;and and(5)(5) 6.1. separate petitioner,including includinghis hispromise promisenot nottoto 6.5. Respondent R N m That RESPONDENT RESPONDENT isis psychologically psychologically totopetitioner, is Narcissistic, admires That prohibither herfrom fromsending sendingany anymoney moneytotoher her and loves himself m only and looks at discorn incapacitatedthus, thus,hehefailed failedtotocomply complywith with prohibit incapacitated familywhich whichwas wasbroken brokenononthe thefirst firstnight night toward family w others especially to petitioner. the essential marital oblications. the essential marital oblications. theirwedding; wedding;his hispromise promisethat thatthey they ofoftheir Consequently,Summons Summonstogether togetherwith with would wouldrent renttheir theirown ownapartment apartmentand andnot not 6.5.1. AsA already discussed, respondent is Consequently, m whenever w m he makes justa aroom roomsosothat thatthey theycould couldlive livetogether together only gratifying himself annexeswas wassent senttotoRESPONDENT RESPONDENT just itsitsannexes w the aloneasashusband husbandand andwife wifebut butthat thatnever never sex to petitioner; that he does not want hisgiven givenaddress. address. However, However,it itwas was alone atathis m w marriage to produce a child for that would happened for they continued to live a small happened for they continued to live a small returned UNSERVED with the information returned UNSERVED with the information m m m matters; and that he makes Thyn rentedroom roomtogether togetherwith withThyn’s Thyn’sbrother, brother, complicate thatRESPONDENT RESPONDENT currently working that isiscurrently working asas rented Chris’brother brotherand andtheir theircousin cousinand andwith with pay for his driving,for his part of the cooking, overseascontract contractworker workerininDoha, Doha,Qatar Qatar Chris’ overseas w only a fabric cabinet separating them from laundrying, waiting and housekeeping as if (ReturnofofService ServiceofofSummons Summonsdated dated2525 only a fabric cabinet separating them from only his time m and efforts are important m (Return and therest, rest,and andalthough althoughthey theyfinally finallyobtained obtained the m m November2016). 2016). by money. November onebedroom bedroomapartment apartmentthat thatdid didnot not can be computed a aone changethe thearrangement arrangementforforhehebrought brought 6.5.2. Even E during their factual separation, WHEREFORE,finding findingthe thepetition petitiontoto change WHEREFORE, hisbrother brotherand andhis hiscousin cousinalong alongwith withhim him respondent always w m ask money fromm sufficientininform formand andsubstance substanceand and his bebesufficient whichleft leftThyn Thynwith withnonochoice choicebut buttototake take petitioner eventhough he is gainfully pursuanttotoSupreme SupremeCourt CourtA.M. A.M.No. No.0202- which pursuant alongher hersister sisteralso; also; andChris Chrisreneged renegedonon employed m m and telling her howwmiserable she had 11-10-SCininrel. rel.totoSec. Sec.15, 15,Rule Rule1414ofofthe the along 11-10-SC his promise to build a family by telling Thyn m w m RulesofofCivil CivilProcedure, Procedure,letletSUMMONS SUMMONS his promise to build a family by telling Thyn made his life without mentioning the issues Rules thathehedoesn’t doesn’twant wantever evertotohave havea achild child about himself m that brought out the marriage m that served upon upon RESPONDENT RESPONDENT or children for the reason that that would bebe served H feels immaculate mm or children for the reason that that would break up. He frommany CHRISTOPHER M.M. RESPICIO RESPICIO byby complicate CHRISTOPHER complicatetheir theirsituation. situation. And Anda ahost hostofof sin in the separation and feels he must m be PUBLICATION in a newspaper of PUBLICATION in a newspaper of other otherbroken brokenpromises. promises. m entitled to sort of compensation for this, generalcirculation circulationininthe thePhilippines Philippines w general 6.1.1. Chris’ Chris’never nevertreated treatedThyn Thynwith with financial or otherwise. 6.1.1. accredited byby the the Office Office ofof the the respect but treated her as an underling accredited H blames m petitioner for all the bad respect but treated her as an underling 6.5.3. He ExecutiveJudge JudgeofofRegional Regional TrialCourt, Court, rather Executive Trial rather than than anan equal. equal. And And besides, besides, turns he has suffered. Even E his eventual Mandaluyong City City once once a a week week for for respondent Mandaluyong respondentwas wasselfish selfishand andself-centered. self-centered. dismissal m m m be blamed m it frommhis employment THREE(3)(3)CONSECUTIVE CONSECUTIVEWEEKS WEEKSand and For Forone, one,whenever wheneverhehemakes makeslove lovetotoThyn Thyn on Thyn when THREE w he was w separated frommwork w onlyputs putsdown downher herpanties, panties,insert insert because he got into a fight with copyofofthe thesummons summonsand andthis thisOrder Order heheonly w his boss and a acopy histhing thingwithout withoutany anycaress, caress,kissing kissingoror the many m warnings w m senttotoRESPONDENT RESPONDENTbybyregistered registered his his employer gave himm bebesent feelingand andafter afterhehehas hascome comehehewould would for his absences and tardiness. mailtotohis hislast lastknown knownaddress addressatatthe the feeling mail wipeoffoff his hispenis penisthen thengogototosleep sleepasasif if wipe expenseofofthe thePETITIONER. PETITIONER. expense D 6.5.4. Despite the fact that petitioner and nothinghappened. happened. This Thisbecame becameworst worst nothing w in a quarrel due to respondent are always Finally,RESPONDENT RESPONDENTisisdirected directedtotofile file later Finally, laterononwhen whenChris Chriswould woulduse usea acondom. condom. C Chris’ attitude and despite the fact that they his Answer the Petition within SIXTY (60) This Thisdevastated devastatedThyn Thynand andruined ruinedher herselfselfhis Answer toto the Petition within SIXTY (60) have factually separated, respondent still confidence. DAYS from the last issue of this Notice. confidence. DAYS from the last issue of this Notice. w petitioner thinks that his relationship with 6.1.2. Worst, Worst,later lateron, on,Chris Chriswon’t won’tmake make was w still okay and he would w act as if nothing 6.1.2. SOORDERED. ORDERED. SO loveatatallalltotoThyn. Thyn. Instead Insteadhehegets gets happened because to himmhe was w not the love MandaluyongCity City Mandaluyong his stimulation stimulation and and satisfaction satisfaction with with cause of any harm.m his February2017 2017 0101February pornography. Not Notonce, once,not nottwice twicebut butit it pornography. W C m m again 6.5.5. When Chris found employment musthave havebeen beenthree threeororfour fourtimes timesthat that must w call up due to Thyn’s intercession, he would Thynwould wouldcatch catchhim himmasturbating masturbatingwhile while (Sgd.)IMELDA IMELDAL.L.PORTES-SAULOG PORTES-SAULOG Thyn (Sgd.) w petitioner and would tell her that he does watchinghis hisdownloaded downloadedporn pornmovies moviesonon watching PresidingJudge Judge w and that why w is he not Presiding not like his newwwork Chris’hard harddrives. drives. And Andwhen whenpetitioner petitioner Chris’ w he deserves entitled to this and to that when wouldask askhim himwhat whatisishehedoing, doing,Chris Chris would CopyFurnished: Furnished: Copy w m it being a hardworking and loyal employee. would retort back that his crotch was would retort back that his crotch was Officeofofthe theSolicitor SolicitorGeneral General Office H would w m Thyn feel howwdebase the He make justitching. itching. Petitioner Petitionerwould wouldjust justcry crybut but just Officeofofthe theCity CityProsecutor, Prosecutor, m m she had given himmwhen w in Office newwemployment respondentwould wouldonly onlychide chideher herwith withthe the respondent w m w Mandaluyong City fact it was his best job offer for someone with Mandaluyong City words“Ano “Anoba?” ba?”Iiyak Iiyakiyak iyakkakadyan. dyan.Ang Ang words his qualifications, experience and recently Atty. MarcianoBacalla, Bacalla,Jr.Jr. Atty. Marciano artearte artemo monaman”. naman”. Again Againthis thisleaves leaves arte m separated employee. CristinaLeabres Leabres Cristina Thynconfused confusedand andhurt hurtthe thevery verycore coreofof Thyn ChristopherRespicio Respicio O time, m Thyn suggested to Chris C Christopher 6.5.6. One herfemininity. femininity. her m OCC,RTC, RTC,Mandaluyong MandaluyongCity City that maybe he needs professional help OCC, 6.1.3. On Onthe thevery veryfirst firstnight nightofoftheir their w 6.1.3. H agreed with his attitudes and behavior. He honeymoon, Chris Chris already already demanded demanded honeymoon, Repub c o he Ph pp nes to see a psychiatrist but right after their Republic of the Philippines fromThyn Thynthat thatshe shewould wouldbebepaying payinghalf half from C was w already telling Thyn that session Chris REG ONALTRIAL TR ALCOURT COURT ofofwhatever REGIONAL whateverChris Chrisspent spentforforthe themarriage marriage P w no good, that the doctor the Psychiatrist was because according him it was his mother Na onaCapital Cap aJudicial Jud c aRegion Reg on because according toto him it was his mother National is stupid and the doctor did not find anything whopaid paidforforthat. that. who B anch214 214 w w C D Branch wrong with Chris and the Doctor did not find 6..1.4.Also Also Thynwas wasmade madetotopay paythe therent rent out that Chris C was w merely m 6..1.4. Thyn bull shitting his Manda uyongCity C y Mandaluyong theapartment, apartment,internet, internet,electricity, electricity,and and answers w to the psychiatrist’s questions. ofofthe waterutility utilitywithout withoutChris’ Chris’contributing contributinga a water P w occupied 6.5.7. Petitioner’s logged calls was CR ST NAM. MLEABRES LEABRES CRISTINA singlecentavo. centavo. single E by calls frommrespondent. Everyday her Pe one Petitioner, 6.1.5.For Foranother, another,allallthe thetime timethat thatChris’ Chris’ phone would w register 10 to 30 missed m 6.1.5. calls drove Thyn to and from her office in their m drove Thyn to and from her office in their from respondent. ve sus -versuscar,Chris Chriswould wouldcharge chargeThyn Thynforforthe thefare. fare. car, D m 6.5.8. Despite the fact that the marriage fact,forforevery everygrain grainofofrice riceand andviand viand InInfact, has already been crashed to the rocks, JDRCNO.: NO MC-16-11265 MC 16 11265 JDRC thatThyn Thynwould wouldeat eatinintheir theirhouse, house,Chris Chris that respondent kept on harassing petitioner chargesher herforforthis thisdespite despitethat thatthe thefact fact charges Fo DECLARATION DECLARAT ONOF OF to give himmauthorization for all Thyn’s For: thatit itwas wasThyn Thynwho whopays paysforfortheir theirgrocery grocery that transactions. This also showsw his NULL TYOF OFMARRIAGE MARR AGE NULLITY andmarket. market. and m just unreasonable sense of entitlement andDISSOLUTION D SSOLUT ONOF OF and 6.1.6.Chris Chrisnever neverspent spentforforthe thespouses’ spouses’ because he is still the husband of petitioner. 6.1.6. COMMUN TYPROPERTY PROPERTY expenses and and looks looks atat Thyn Thyn asas his his Chris C w COMMUNITY expenses wants to control all of Thyn’s investmenttotothe thefuture futurebecause becauseThyn Thyn finances.. He H wants w investment every cent to Thyn’s earns almost almost earn earn twice twice than than Chris. Chris. income m be calculated. He H even asked the CHR STOPHERM. MRESPICIO, RESP C O earns CHRISTOPHER Lateron, on,when whenChris Chriswas wasdismissed dismissedfrom from petitioner to give himman agreement m letter Later Responden Respondent. hiswork workasassenior seniorsalesman salesmandue duetotohis his saying that Thyn is giving himmthe right to his violentattitude, attitude,antisocial antisocialbehavior, behavior,and and sign all the documents m of their property on x x violent x--------------------------------------x narcissism, the the discrepancy discrepancy inin salary salary her behalf including the sale of the property. narcissism, SUMMONS SUMMONS almosttrebled trebledwhen whenhehewas wasatathis hislatest latest almost C doesn’t have a friend in Qatar. Q 6.5.9. Chris employment. employment. C R Christopher M.MRespicio In fact, he is treating all of his colleagues 6.1.7. After After passing passing the the Architecture Architecture as a looser for not having an office job. G S 6.1.7. Greenheights Subdivision examination,Chris Chrisatatone onetime timeused usedallall He H never hesitates to criticize anyone and examination, A Alibago, Ilagan, Isabela Thyn’sbooks, books,references referencesand andnotes notesand and treats others poorly. He H often trash talk his Thyn’s GGRRE EE E T I NNGGS:S evensome someofofThyn’s Thyn’sclothes clothestotobebeused used co-workers w m even and his manager and in the end materialstotosecure securethe theTV TVset sethehesent sent this led himminto getting a lot warning w Y are hereby required, within w fifteen asasmaterials letters You thePhilippines Philippinesforforhis hismother motherfrom from culminated m m C had totothe by his terminations. Chris mm (15) days after service of this summons breaking. Petitioner was insulted terribly w breaking. Petitioner was insulted terribly at least three (3) jobs which he lost through w C upon you, to file with this Court and for this because respondent treated her m for this because respondent treated her termination. w to the serve on the petitioner your answer currentclothes clothesasasif ifthey theyare arealready alreadyrags rags w is attached, together current E when w Chris C is arguing with w petition, copy of which 6.5.10. Even andbooks booksand andnotes notesasasjunk junkwithout withoutany any and w the annexes. If you fail to answer w petitioner about her brother or friends, with sentimentalvalue valueatatall. all. sentimental C always w ends the argument m with w saying Chris w the time m fixed, the petitioner may m be within 6.1.8. Chris Chrisevaded evadedseeing seeingorormeeting meeting “Ang A bobo at tanga ng kapatid mo m talaga” 6.1.8. granted reliefs applied for in the petition. withThyn’s Thyn’sfamily familywhenever wheneverheheisisininthe the or “Huwag H w kang magsasama m m ng bakla dito with W NESSmy m hand under the seal of Philippines. WITNESS Philippines. And Andwhenever wheneverhehewas waswith with ha, ang hirap kausap at nakakasuka!”, and C O the Court, this 10th day of October 2016. Thynininthe thePhilippines, Philippines,Chris Chriswould wouldget get “Mga M walang w w mga m kaibigan mo m kaya Thyn kwenta separateaccommodations accommodationsforforhimself himselfonly only hindi ka dapat magtitiwala”. m w separate thatthere therewould wouldbebenonosurprise surprisevisits visits (Sgd.) MILAGROS ILUMINADA EMILIANA P. ABAD sosothat 7. AllA told and in fine, respondent’s from Thyn’s family, from Thyn’s family, Legal Researcher II / Officer-In-Charge w manifested m psychological incapacity was 6.1.9. When When the the spouses spouses brought brought a a by his non-fulfillment m of his promises m 6.1.9. to condominiumininthe thePhilippines, Philippines,it itwas wasonly only petitioner; he does not love petitioner and Republicofofthe thePhilippines Philippines condominium Republic petitionerwho whoapplied appliedforforthe theQatar Qatarbank bank he never cared for her and the only thing REGIONALTRIAL TRIALCOURT COURT petitioner REGIONAL loantotopay paythe thecash cashout outofofthe theunit. unit.The The he cared about for her is her money; m loan he NationalCapital CapitalJudicial JudicialRegion Region unit National unitcosts costsPhp Php1.6M 1.6Mand andshe shealone alonepays paysforfor never treated petitioner with w respect; he thatloan loanwithout withoutany anyreimbursement reimbursementfrom from treated her as an underling; he does not MandaluyongCity City that Mandaluyong respondent. respondent. love her and even refused to have a child Branch Branch w her; he engages Thyn in sex only for with 6.1.10Other Otherlike likeinstances. instances. 6.1.10 self-gratification; he does not recognize 6.2 Chris Chris isis violent violent inin his his behavior behavior that he must 6.2 CRISTINAM. M.LEABRES LEABRES CRISTINA m share in the expenses of their whenever he argues with Thyn or when whenever he argues with Thyn or when relationship; he disregards petitioner’s rights Petitioner, Petitioner, wants Thyntotosuccumb succumbtotohis hisdemands demands and properties; he is violent in his behavior; hehewants Thyn which are often unreasonable.He He also has he has anti-personality disorder; he violates which are often unreasonable. also has -Vs-Vsantisocialpersonality personalitydisorder disorderand andhas hasnono petitioner’s right to locomotion; antisocial m m make CIVILCASE CASENO.: NO.:MC16-11265 MC16-11265 feelings CIVIL feelingsforforothers. others. m threatening remarks against petitioner, her For:Declaration DeclarationofofNullity Nullity For: w suicidal; he is a 6.2.1. Often, Often,Chris Chriswould wouldstand standatop atop friends and co-workers, 6.2.1. therooftop rooftopand andthreaten threatentotojump jumptotothe the drug addict perhaps a pusher too; and he is Marriage&&Dissolution Dissolutionofof the ofofMarriage H m w the marriage between groundand andtell tellThyn Thynthat thatthe thesame sameshall shall narcissistic. Hence, ground CommunityProperty Property Community C should be declared null attributedtotoher herfault. fault.Or, Or,when whendriving, driving, Thyn and Chris bebeattributed Chriswould wouldthreaten threatenthat thathehewould wouldcrash crash and void. CHRISTOPHERM. M.RESPICIO, RESPICIO, Chris CHRISTOPHER thecar carwith withanother anothersosothat thatthey theycan canboth both 8. The property regime the m of the null and Respondent. Respondent. diesimultaneously simultaneouslyand andatatonce. once.And Andwhen when void marriage die m mm is the absolute community x------------------------------------x x------------------------------------x Thynisiswith withher herco-workers, co-workers,hehewould would of property. During Thyn D their union, petitioner PETITION PETITION threatenthem themwith withfatal fatalharm harmif ifthey theydon’t don’t and respondent were threaten w able to purchase stop seeing petitioner. Also, Chris would Petitioner by the undersigned counsel, stop seeing petitioner. Also, Chris would Petitioner by the undersigned counsel, m m property consisting of a condominium unit at detainThyn Thyninintheir theirapartment apartmentbybylocking locking Espana thisHonorable HonorableCourt Courtmost mostrespectfully respectfully detain totothis E G R E M Grand Residences, Espana, Manila herupupsososhe shedoes doesnot notleave leavehome homeatatallall sold by First Golden statesthat: that: her states G A R Achievers Realty and shouldsuch suchbebehis hismood moodatatthe thetime. time. should D m C Development Corporation containing an Petitioner,hereafter hereafterreferred referredtotoasas 1.1. Petitioner, m m or less more 6.2.2. When When the the spouses spouses factually factually area of 18.21 square meters, Thyn,isisofofage, age,Filipino Filipinocitizen, citizen,married married 6.2.2. Thyn, m and covered by separatedsometime sometimeininmiddle middleofof2012 2012asas still titled in seller’s name respondent,and andresident residentofofBlk Blk41, 41, separated totorespondent, m title. will discussed later on, Christ would visit mother Zone3,3,Lot Lot1,1,Welfareville WelfarevilleCompound, Compound, will bebe discussed later on, Christ would visit Zone Thyntwice twiceororeven eventhrice thricea amonth monthatatthe the Attached MandaluyongCity; City;while whilerespondent, respondent,her her Thyn Mandaluyong A A as Annex “C”C is a certified true latehours hoursofofthe theevening eveningororthe thewee weehours hours copy of the tax declaration of said property. estranged husband husband and and here here referred referred late estranged themorning, morning,drunk, drunk,and andwould wouldthrow throw Chris,isisresiding residingatatGreenheights, Greenheights, ofofthe totoasasChris, WHERE ORE premises m WHEREFORE, considered, stonesatatthe thedoor doorand andononthe thewindow windowtoto Subdivision,Alibagu, Alibagu,Ilagan Ilaganwhere wherehehemay may stones Subdivision, m respectfully prayed that after wakeupuppetitioner petitionerand andharassed harassedher hertoto it is most servedwith withsummons. summons. wake bebeserved m w petitioner and between open the door.He He would even kick and box trial, the marriage open the door. would even kick and box Annex “A” is petitioner’s barangay Annex “A” is petitioner’s barangay thedoor dooruntil untilThyn Thynwould wouldfeel feelembarrass embarrass defendant be declared absolutely null and the clearance/certification. clearance/certification. A m 36 of the Family before her her neighbors neighbors and and she she would would void pursuant to Article before Thynand andChris Chriswere weremarried marriedononMarch March negligently 2.2.Thyn negligentlyopen openupupforforrespondent respondentdespite despite code and that the property of the parties w themmas provided 2009atatthe thePhilippine PhilippineEmbassy EmbassyininDoha, Doha, the 4,4,2009 thefact factthat thatshe shewas wasalready alreadyshaking shakinginin be disposed of between Qatar which which was was solemnized solemnized bybyVice Vice fear. Qatar fear. Chris Chriswould wouldshout shoutand andcurse curseand and by the law.w ConsulJabbar JabbarM.M. Adiong. Consul Adiong. evenengage engagethe theneighbors neighborstotoa ashouting shouting P w prays for other reliefs even Petitioner likewise matchwhen whenthey theycall callhis hisattention attentiontotoquiet quiet and remedies m that are just, equitable and AttachedasasAnnex Annex“B” “B”isisa amachine machinecopy copy match Attached down.This Thisactivity activityofofrespondent respondentgoes goesonon humane. m theparties’ parties’marriage marriagecertificate certificateand and down. ofofthe untilnow. now. Annex“B-1” “B-1”isisa amachine machinecopy copyofofthe the until asasAnnex A C for Mandaluyong M C Antipolo City City, Report Marriage issued the Philippine 6.2.3. Report ofof Marriage issued byby the Philippine 6.2.3.When WhenThyn Thynwould wouldfind findthe thecourage courage September S m 16, 2016. EmbassyininDoha, Doha,Qatar. Qatar. Embassy nottotoopen openthe thedoor doorduring duringChris’ Chris’unholy unholy not and violent visits, Chris would call her BACA A & ASSOC A ES and violent visits, Chris would call her BACALLA & ASSOCIATES 2.1. Petitioner Petitionerand andrespondent respondentmet metinin 2.1. andshout shoutatather herororhehewould wouldgogototoher her AWFIRM RM LAW June2008 2008ininDoha, Doha,Qatar Qatarwhere whereboth bothare are and June officedemanding demandingmoney moneyfrom fromher heralways always P For Petitioner contractworkers. workers.That Thatearly earlyChris Chrisalready already office contract telling her that she owes him money to the U S ASilicone S V Building B telling her that she owes him money to the Unit S-1A Valley displayed where both are contract workers. displayed where both are contract workers. amount of Php 120,000.00 and tells her to S m H w M m amount of Php 120,000.00 and tells her to Sumulong Highway, Mayamot Thatearly earlyChris Chrisalready alreadydisplayed displayedhis his That payupupororhehewill willmess messupupher heroffice. office. A C Antipolo City assertiveness, slyness, slyness, and and easygoing easygoing pay assertiveness, ways ---traits that would later spell doom 6.2.4. ways ---traits that would later onon spell doom 6.2.4. Chris’ threatenspetitioner petitionerthat thathehewill will B Chris’ threatens By: theirmarriage. marriage. But Butwhat whatcaught caughtthe the killkillher tototheir herif ifhehefound foundout outthat thatshe shehas hasanother another S MARCIANO MARC ANO BACA AJR.R (Sgd.) S.SBACALLA, attentionofofTyne Tynewas wasCris’ Cris’flowery flowerywords words man. attention man.Sometimes Sometimeshehewould wouldgogototothe theoffice office R No. N 33948 Roll andhis hispersistent persistentstyle styleininnot notletting lettinggogo and and andtell tellThyn’s Thyn’smale maleco-employees co-employeesthat thathehe BPLifetime m Member M m No. N 04237 IBP untilhehegot gother hercellphone cellphonenumber. number. until willkillkillwhoever whoeverisiscourting courtinghis hiswife. wife. Far Far will P RNo. N 4822683 (2016) PTR fromit,it,Thyn Thyneven evenif ifshe shehas hasgiven givenupuponon 2.2 From Fromthen thenon, on,Thyn Thynonly onlysaw sawthe the from 2.2 MC E V MCLE V-0017217, 3.30.16 Chris,remained remainedfaithful faithfultotoher hermarriage marriage good side side ofof Chris Chris and and slowly slowly they they Chris, good N Telephone No. 4779512 vows. becamefriends friendsending endingupupasasvery veryclose close vows. became REPUB COF O THE HEPHILIPPINES PH PP NES) REPUBLIC confidantswith witheach eachofofthem themsharing sharingtheir their 6.2.5. confidants 6.2.5. Chris Chrishad hadalready alreadymade madethree three AN PO O C Y S S ANTIPOLO CITY ) S.S. ownproblems problemswith withone oneanother, another,likes likesand and threats own threats that would committing suicide that hehe would bebe committing suicide peeves.Soon Soonboth bothwere werealways alwaystogether together ininThyn’s peeves. Thyn’soffice officeand andininfront frontofofher hercocoVER CA ON&&CERTIFICATION CER CA ON VERIFICATION evenif iftheir theirschedules scheduleswere wereatatodds oddswith with workers even workerssosothat thatthe theincident incidentwould wouldforever forever O NON-FORUM NON ORUMSHOPPING SHOPP NG OF each other’s, this was hindrance they bebeininthe each other’s, this was nono hindrance forfor they theconscience conscienceofofpetitioner. petitioner. CR S NAM.MLEABRES, EABRES of legal age, alwaysfind findthe thetime. time. I, CRISTINA always 6.2.6.Whenever Wheneverthey theyare areininananagument, agument, 6.2.6. w Filipino, after having been duly sworn 2.3. But Butalthough althoughThyn Thynfound foundsome somered red wherever 2.3. wherever they they are are inin a a convenience convenience in accordance to lawwstate that I ammthe flagsininthe theman, man,she shepreferred preferredtotodispense dispense store, flags store,eatery eateryororother otherpublic publicplace, place,Chris Chris m complainant in the above-entitled case with it as mere personal peculiarities.Even Even will with it as mere personal peculiarities. willmake makeit ita apoint pointtotomake makea ascene sceneand and and all allegations are true and correct to thefact factthat thatChris Chriswas wasalways alwayswearing wearing anybody the anybody who who commits commits the the mistake mistake ofof m knowledge w the best of my and based on shadesororsunglasses sunglasseseven evenindoors indoorsand and looking shades lookingatathim himhehewill willchallenge challengehim himtoto records. evenatatnighttime, nighttime,she shedid didnot notgive givethis this fisticuffs. even fisticuffs.Or, Or,when whenthey theyare areininthe thecar carand and mm muchworry worrybecause becausehehewould wouldexplain explain if ifsomeone any much someoneovertook overtookhis hislane lanehehewill willshout shout I have not heretofore commenced m issues in thisaway awaythat thathis hiseyes eyeswere werered reddue due atatthe this thedriver, driver,show showa adirty dirtyfinger, finger,curse curseand and other action involving the same S m Court, C C of Appeals, A someallergy allergyand andthat thatit itwas wasa agood good dares the Court totosome dares him fight with him.There There was even the Supreme him toto fight with him. was even fashion statement.And And although she notes ananincident fashion statement. although she notes incidentwherein whereinthe thedriver drivergot gotoffended offended or different divisions thereof, or any tribunal thatit itwas wasalways alwaysher herwho whoshoulder shoulderthe the with that withChris’ Chris’ violentbehavior, behavior,hehepulled pulledout outa a or agency except the instant case; and if I violent expensesofoftheir theirmeetings, meetings,she shedid didnot not baseball expenses baseball bat and him with it which ended should hereafter learn singly or jointly, that bat and hithit him with it which ended m action or proceeding has been filed mindthat thatsince sinceshe shewas wasearning earningmore more him a similar mind himinina ahospital. hospital. thanwhat whatrespondent respondentdid didand andbesides besidesshe she or is pending thereof, or any other tribunal than These actions of plaintiff are dangerous washappy happyand andgreatly greatlyamused amusedbeing beingwith with These actions of plaintiff are dangerous or agency, I, singly or jointly undertake to was andthreatens threatensthe thesafety safetyofofpetitioner’s petitioner’s and m Chris. Further, she also noticed that most promptly informmthe aforesaid courts and Chris. Further, she also noticed that most and other people’s lives and property w thetime timewhen whenthey theywere wereonona alunch lunchoror and other people’s lives and property other tribunal or agency thereof within five ofofthe especially since, as discussed hereunder, dinnerdate, date,some someofofhis hisclaimed claimedfriends friends especially since, as discussed hereunder, (5) days therefrom.m dinner Chris’ is a suspected drug addict and that wouldapproach approachhim himand andthey theywould wouldasked asked Chris’ is a suspected drug addict and that I have nothing to say at this point. would displaysthis thisbehavior behaviorwhile whilewearing wearinghis his hehedisplays to be excused and go somewhere beyond to be excused and go somewhere beyond sunglasses to hide his stiff, red, and wide S m 2016 at Antipolo A C City. hersight sightforfor2020toto3030minutes minutesand andononhis his sunglasses to hide his stiff, red, and wide 16 September her open eyes.. returntotopetitioner, petitioner,respondent respondentwould wouldjust just open eyes.. return S CRISTINA CR S NAM.MLEABRES EABRES (Sgd.) 6.3.Chris Chrisdoes doesnot notlove love Thynand andhehedoes does explainaway awaythat thatthe theguy guyhad hadproblems problems 6.3. Thyn explain C m A Complainant/Affiant notcare careatatallallforforher. her.Although Althoughrespondent respondent withhis hiswork, work,ororfamily, family,ororfinances financesand and not with hasnever neveradmitted admittedthat thathehedoes doesnot notlove love SUBSCRIBED SUBSCR BED AND AND SWORN SWORN to before thathehewas wasthe theonly onlyguy guythey theyknow knowtotogive give has that petitionerororthat thathehedoes doesnot notknow knowlove love me m this 16th day of September, S m theright rightadvices. advices. petitioner 2016 in the and how to express it, the actions and A C C m A 2.4However, However,Thyn Thynaccidentally accidentallyfound foundout out and how to express it, the actions and Antipolo City. Complainant/Affiant exhibited 2.4 behaviordiscussed discussedabove aboveshow showthat thathehe to me m her Passport P N EB5124374 EB behavior No. issued that Chris concealed from her that has that Chris concealed from her that hehe has a a never performed this duty to the petitioner. currentlongtime longtimegirlfriend girlfriendand andshe shebecame became never performed this duty to the petitioner. by________ valid until 4-11-17. current First, he never bothered or cared about terriblyhurt. hurt.Thyne Thynefelt felther herheart heartbreak breakinto into First, he never bothered or cared about terribly theirprivacy privacyasashusband husbandand andwife wifebecause because Doc D No. N 398; their pieces.She She quarreled Chris this despite pieces. quarreled Chris forfor this despite they continued living with respondent’s P N thefact factthat thatthis thisisisthe thedefining definingmoment momentofof they continued living with respondent’s Page No. 81; the brother and cousin. B No. N LXXI XX Book Thyn’sfeelings feelingsforforChris Chrisyet yetshe sheheld heldback back brother and cousin. Thyn’s S Series of 2016. 6.3.1. They fought over almost everything. her feelings and decided she would leave 6.3.1. They fought over almost everything. her feelings and decided she would leave ANNEXES ANNEXES Evenononthe thesimple simplesanitation sanitationtototake takea a Chrisrather ratherthan thanbebea arelationship relationshipwrecker. wrecker. Even Chris bath,respondent respondentwould wouldpurposely purposelynot nottake take ButChris Chrisseem seemtotohave havefelt feltthe thesame sameway way bath, But bathforfordays daysand, and,sometimes sometimeswould wouldnot not succeededtotoconvince convince Thyntotomove move a abath asashehesucceeded Thyn changehis hisclothes clothesforfora aweek. week. withtheir theirrelationship relationshippromising promisingthat that change ononwith willmarry marryher herand andbreak breakupupwith withhis his 6.3.2. hehewill 6.3.2.Then, Then,oftentimes oftentimesininallalltheir theirquarrels, quarrels, girlfriend. Thyn Thyndid didnot notthink thinktwice twiceand and whenever girlfriend. wheneverpetitioner petitionerwould wouldask askrespondent respondent acceptedthe theproposal. proposal. accepted whetherhehestill stillloves lovesher herorornot, not,the the ononwhether respondentwould wouldnot notanswer answerand andwould would 2.5.Soon Soonthe thelovebirds lovebirdsprepared preparedforfortheir their respondent 2.5. onlygive give Thyna ablank blankunexpressive unexpressiveface. face. weddingand andtogether togetherthey theydreamed dreamedofof only Thyn wedding having a family, they can’t wait to begin having a family, they can’t wait to begin 6.3.3 6.3.3 After Aftertheir theirmarriage, marriage,Thyn Thynnever never thenext nextphase phaseofoftheir theirlives livesasashusband husband heard the heardChris Chrissay saytotoher her“I “Ilove loveyou” you”and and andwife, wife,and andtogether togetherthey theysecured securedallall whenever and wheneverThyn Thynwould wouldbebethe theone onetotosay sayit it therequirements requirementsforforthe thewedding. wedding. Chris Chris totoChris, the Chris,the thelatter latterwould wouldonly onlyremark remark“Huh “Huh went to Thyn’s father who was then also went to Thyn’s father who was then also um” um” “angcorny cornynaman!” naman!” oror“ang workingininDubai Dubaiand andasked askedforforThyn’s Thyn’s working 6.3.4.The Theonly onlything thingthat thatrespondent respondentcare care hand marriage and respondent promised 6.3.4. hand inin marriage and respondent promised aboutisispetitioner’s petitioner’smoney moneywhich whichenables enables petitioner’sfather fatherthat thatshe shewould wouldkeep keepher her about petitioner’s himtotolive, live,bebeclothed, clothed,fed fedand andcared caredforfor safealways, always,take takegood goodcare careofofher, her,protect protect him safe without spending a single centavo and without spending a single centavo and andlove loveher heralways. always. Respondent Respondentalso also and thiscan canbebeseen seenininthe theother otherdiscussions discussions assuredThyn’s Thyn’sfather fatherthat thathehewill willnever never this assured above. prohibitThyn Thynfrom fromsupporting supportingher herfamily. family. above. prohibit Butsince since Thynknew knewthat thather hermother motherwould would 6.3.5. But Thyn 6.3.5. And And asas already already stated stated above, above, notconsent consenttotothe themarriage marriagespecially speciallywhen when respondent not respondentdoes doesnot notlike liketotohave havea achild childforfor theirrelationship relationshipwas wasalmost almosta awhirlwind whirlwind totohim their himthat thatwould wouldcomplicate complicatethings. things. affair,they theydecided decidedtotohide hidethe theaffair affaira a affair, 6.4.Petitioner Petitionerhas hasreason reasontotobelieve believethat that 6.4. secretfrom fromher herininthe themeantime. meantime. secret Chrisisisananaddict addictand anda apusher. pusher.Although Although Chris Ultimately,petitioner petitionerand andrespondent respondentgot got Chris 3.3. Ultimately, Chrisnever neveradmitted admittedit itnor nordid did Thyncaught caught Thyn married. However, on the very day of their married. However, on the very day of their him himininthe theact actororthat thatthe thelatter latterknows knowshow how union,only onlythe thefriends friendsofof Thynappeared appearedatat a adrug union, Thyn drugaddict addictlooks lookslike likeand andbehave, behave,she she thecelebration celebrationand andreception, reception,nonofriends friends has the hasa alotlotofofcircumstances circumstancesaside asidefrom fromhis his MS M 20, 27 & &Apr. A 3, 2017) (MS-Mar.

TODAY

CYANMAGENTA MAGENTAYELLOW YELLOWBLACK BLACK CYAN

LGUs

MONDAY, APRIL 03, 2017

‘Love’ award puts CV women in spotlight By Ben Moses Ebreo

UGUEGARAO CITY—Ten women who excelled in various fields of profession and vocation were recently honored by the Philippine Information Agency as part of its yearly “Iddu,” an Ybanag term for “loved one.”

Pur a L cas PIA reg ona d recor sa d he even wh ch s par of he Women’s Mon h ce ebra on as mon h prov des a s mp e recogn on of he effor s of women

n Cagayan Va ey reg on “These are he women n Cagayan he PIA has covered a hese years The agency has been a w ness o some of he r successes and s rugg es n he r ques for coun rys de deve opmen ” she sa d Conduc ed a he Ho e Carme a Even s P ace he ‘Iddu’ awards recogn zed he fo ow ng women Eng neer Nora yn Busa an emp oyee of he Nueva V zcaya Prov nc a Agr cu ure Off ce for her ded ca on and comm men n serv ng farmers and he env ronmen Mar ssa Cor ez an Ae a r be member of S a Ana Cagayan a vo un eer eacher and care aker for neg ec ed ch dren n her commun y Ama a Dacena of So ana

Cagayan coord na or of he Reg ona Counc on D sab y Affa rs who he ped n empower ng persons w h d sab es hrough sourc ng ou var ous suppor Em a Fernandez a foss zed f ower magna e n Qu r no prov nce Es re a Langcay of Tuguegarao C y who exemp f ed her vo un eer sm as Barangay Hea h Worker n her commun y Kr s na Mar a Meman a med c ne s uden of Cagayan S a e Un vers y and an advoca e for vo un eer sm Dr Zsa Zsa May Meneses of Tuguegarao C y who was known as Doc or of he Masses Ja Ch ef Inspec or Ju e Mabborang-M randa of Aparr D s r c Ja who performs her ro e as pub c servan even be-

yond s ee bars car ng for he orphaned ch dren Grace Barbano-Ru z a commun y deve opmen spec a s of he Cagayan Econom c Zone Au hor y n S a Ana Cagayan who he ped n he deve opmen of econom c fe of he Ae a r be and F re Ch ef Inspec or Joanne Va e o of Cauayan C y Isabe a for her n a ve n br ng ng n f ref gh ng equ pmen ra n ng and fac es for her s aff and commun y vo un eers as effec ve par ner on f re prevenon and suppress on Wh e he awardees came from var ous f e ds of endeavor L cas sa d hey have one h ng n common— he deve opmen of hemse ves he r fam es and he r respec ve commun es

‘Parada na Luyag’ set April 5 By Dexter A. See LINGAYEN Pangas nan—Pangas nan’s h s ory fes va s and cu ure w be en vened n s ree dance performances by d fferen par c pa ng con ngen s dur ng he Parada na Luyag one of he h gh gh s of he 437 h Agew Na Pangas nan on Apr 5 Based on he con es mechan cs prepared by he even comm ee headed by Human Resources Managemen and Deve opmen Off ce ch ef Jane e As s and co-cha red by Prov nc a Soc a We fare and Deve opmen Off cer Em o Samson he compe on wh ch s an open ca egory a ows a oca governmen un o have more han one en ry As such wo e emen s and requ remen s are h gh y requ red These are 1) Rou ne sha showcase he cu ure fes va and h s ory of he c y or mun c pa y 2) Dancers shou d wear co orfu cos umes and mus se ec a heme ha hey w n erpre hrough a ve mus c Assemb y me for he parc pan s w be a 1 o’c ock n he af ernoon a he Narc so Ramos Spor s and C v c Cen er ova The parade on he o her hand w s ar a 2 p m The parade rou e w s ar a he NRSCC and w pass hrough he s ree s of A vear and Ar acho s ra gh o L ngayen P aza and Maramba B vd Th s horoughfare w a so serve as four s a ons where each con ngen sha perform he r one-m nu e roune F na y he par c pan s w showcase he r fu performance a he Cap o P aza he exh b on area

P NG N DASMA Senator Panf o P ng Lacson eft graces the aunch ng of Dasmar ñas C ty Mayor E p d o P d Barzaga r s ntens f ed ant corrupt on and ant cr me programs t nc uded the d str but on of e ght brand new Starex vans equ pped w th track ng dev ces 1 500 handhe d two way rad os to po ce and other oca off c a s and the nsta at on of 181 CCTVs n the c ty ha and a ong ma or thoroughfares that are broadcast ve 24/7 over Dasca Cab e 2 Barzaga r ght and h s w fe Dasmar ñas C ty Rep enny Barzaga n background stress that a governance free of corrupt on and a stab e peace and order s tua t on w attract more nvestors and make Dasmar ñas C ty a safer and secure p ace for ts res dents

Quirino gov Cua named RDC chair By Jessica M. Bacud

CABARROGUIS Qu r no -- Pres den Rodr go Roa Duer e has reappo n ed Qu r no Gov Jun e Evange s a Cua as he new Cha rman of he Cagayan Va ey Reg ona Deve opmen Counc NOTICEOF OFCLOSURE CLOSURE NOTICE “I w n This isis toto inform inform the the public public and and all all This a e programs and interested parties parties that that COLLABERA COLLABERA interested pro ec s ha pace SOLUTIONS PRIVATE PRIVATE LIMITED LIMITED with with SOLUTIONS he reg on’s deve COMPANYREG REGNO. NO.FS201113584 FS201113584has has COMPANY opmen par cu ardecided to close its branch located at decided to close its branch located at y n agr cu ure o 301Rufino RufinoPacific PacificBuilding, Building,6784 6784Ayala Ayala 301 promo e Cagayan Avenue cor. V. A. Rufino, Makati City Avenue cor. V. A. Rufino, Makati City Va ey’s ro e as he on July July 30, 30, 2015 2015 pursuant pursuant toto aa Board Board on new ‘Food Baske Resolutionpassed passedininthe themeeting meetingofofthe the Resolution BoardofofDirectors DirectorsofofBrillio BrillioTechnologies Technologies Board PrivateLimited Limitedheld heldon onJuly July6,6,2015. 2015. Private (MS-APR. 3,10 17, 2017) (MS-APR. 3,10 && 17, 2017)

Republicofofthe thePhilippines Philippines Republic REGIONALTRIAL TRIALCCOURT OURT REGIONAL NationalCapital CapitalJudicial JudicialRegion Region National Branch92, 92,Quezon QuezonCity City Branch

the Civil Civil Registrar Registrar General General and and the theAdministrator Administratorofofthe theNational National the Statistics Office Office toto amend amend the the Statistics recordofofpetitioner petitionerwith withregard regardtoto record hercivil civilstatus statusand andreflect reflecttherein therein her thedivorce divorcedecree decreeobtained obtainedbybyher her the RE: PETITION PETITION FOR FOR THE THE ININ RE: alien spouse from Kentucky, USA. ENFORCEMENT OF OF FOREIGN FOREIGN alien spouse from Kentucky, USA. ENFORCEMENT Let the Initial Hearing of this DECREE OF DIVORCE AND ITS Let the Initial Hearing of this DECREE OF DIVORCE AND ITS REGISTRATIONININTHE THEOFFICE OFFICE petition petitionbe beset seton onJune June20, 20,2017 2017 REGISTRATION OFTHE THECIVIL CIVILREGISTRY REGISTRY OF (Tuesday)atat1:30 1:30ininthe theafternoon afternoon (Tuesday) theSession SessionHall HallofofJustice Justiceofof atatthe ROSARYKRISTINE KRISTINEI. I.ANIDO, ANIDO, ROSARY this Court, Court, Ground Ground Floor, Floor, Room Room this Petitioner, Petitioner, 125,Hall HallofofJustice, Justice,Quezon QuezonCity. City. 125, Anyone who has any objection Anyone who has any objection toto -versus- R-QZN-17-01806-CV R-QZN-17-01806-CV -versustheinstant instantpetition petitionmay mayfile fileon onoror the beforethe thescheduled scheduledhearing hearinghis/ his/ CIVIL REGISTRAR REGISTRAR GENERAL GENERAL before CIVIL her opposition opposition with with a a statement statement ANDENRIQUE ENRIQUEMARTIN MARTINGOMEZ GOMEZ her AND thegrounds groundsrelied reliedupon uponfor forthe the POMAR, ofofthe POMAR, Respondents. opposition. opposition. Respondents. x-----------------------------------------x x-----------------------------------------x Letthis thisOrder Orderbe bepublished publishedatat Let ORDER ORDER theexpense expenseofofthe thepetitioner petitioneronce once the This isis a a verified verified Petition Petition for for a aweek This weekfor forthree three(3) (3)consecutive consecutive Judicial Recognition Recognition ofof Foreign Foreign weeks Judicial weeksinina anewspaper newspaperofofgeneral general Divorcefiled filedbybythe thepetitioner petitionerdated dated circulation Divorce circulationininMetro MetroManila. Manila. February 6,6, 2017. 2017. Considering Considering February Let also a copy of this Order and Let also a copy of this Order and thatthe theobject objectofofthe theaction actionisisthe the a copy of the petition be furnished that a copy of the petition be furnished recognitionofofthe theForeign ForeignDivorce Divorce the Office of the Solicitor General, recognition the Office of the Solicitor General, Decree,which whichaccording accordingtotoCorpuz Corpuz National Statistics Office and the Decree, National Statistics Office and the vs.Sto. Sto.Tomas, Tomas,G.R. G.R.No. No.186571, 186571, respondent Local Civil Registrar of vs. respondent Local Civil Registrar of August11, 11,2010 2010and andCo Covs. vs.Civil Civil Quezon City who have fifteen (15) August Quezon City who have fifteen (15) Register ofof Manila, Manila, G.R. G.R. No. No. days from their respective receipts Register days from their respective receipts 138496,February February23, 23,2004, 2004,may may of this Order or from the last day 138496, of this Order or from the last day bemade madeinina aproceedings proceedingsunder under of its publication within which to file be of its publication within which to file Rule108 108ofofthe theRules RulesofofCourt, Court, their respective opposition. Rule their respective opposition. theinstant instantaction actionisistreated treatedbybythe the the SOORDERED. ORDERED. Courtasasa aSpecial SpecialProceedings Proceedings SO Court underRule Rule108. 108. Quezon City, City, Metro Metro Manila, Manila, under Quezon February23, 23,2017. 2017. Thepetitioner petitionerthrough throughcounsel counsel February The prays that that after after due due notice, notice,(Sgd.) prays (Sgd.)ELEUTERIO ELEUTERIOL.L.BATHAN BATHAN publication and and hearing, hearing, issue issue publication PresidingJudge Judge Presiding anOrder Orderdirecting directingthe theOffice Officeofof an (MS-Apr. 3, 10 & 17,2017) 2017) (MS-Apr. 3, 10 & 17,

of he Ph pp nes ’” Cua sa d n accep ng he pos The governor kew se vowed o push for measures ha w boos he agr cu ura producv y and he overa econom c deve opmen of he reg on Cua was sworn n o he RDC off ce on March 17 by Reg ona Tr a Cour Branch 32 Judge Eufren F Changa e Pr or o h s appo n men Cua who s a so he cha rperson of he Reg ona Peace and Order Counc has been pres d ng over o n mee ngs of he RDC and RPOC The RDC s he h ghes p ann ng and po cy-mak ng body

n he reg on I serves as he coun erpar of he Na ona Econom c and Deve opmen Au hor y Board a he sub-naona eve and s he pr mary ns u on ha coord na es and se s he d rec on of a econom c and soc a deve opmen effor s n he reg on Cua was recogn zed by s akeho ders for h s gu dance of he RDC mak ng one of he mos ac ve Counc s n he coun ry n he pas years The new RDC ch ef w serve for hree years wh ch co nc des w h h s regu ar erm as an e ec ve off c a

IN BRIEF Chico River plan nearly complete TABUK CITY Ka nga—The Lower Ka nga D s r c Eng neer ng Off ce has announced a feas b y s udy of he 18-k ome er por on of he Ch co R ver wh ch s be ng eyed as a po en a bus ness and our sm haven s near ng comp e on for he craf ng of a prescr bed mas er deve opmen p an Engr Ireneo S Ga a o Lower Ka nga d s r c eng neer sa d echn ca personne from he Depar men of Pub c Works and H ghways cen ra off ce w be v s ng he c y aga n o va da e he da a and s ud es he r off ce prov ded hem prev ous y pr or o f na z ng he des red mas er p an for a por on of he r ver sys em Th s wou d be “so ha a fu ure pro ec s w be a gned w h he p an o ach eve s purpose of becom ng a fu ure bus ness and our sm deve opmen zone n he fu ure ” Ga a o s ressed Dexter A See

Balanga opens 4th rural health unit BALANGA CITY Ba aan—Th s c y has opened a new Rura Hea h Un o prov de hea h serv ces o res den s of four barangays here C y Mayor Franc s Garc a and C y V ce Mayor V anca Venzon-Gozon ed he r bbon cu ng ceremony of he newes RHU oca ed a V a L na Subd v s on Barangay Tene ero on Thursday The mayor’s w fe Raque Garc a a so o ned he ceremony “Th s rura hea h un w be prov d ng hea h serv ces o our cons uen s n Barangays Tene ero Camacho Bagong S ang and Mun ng Ba angas ” sa d Garc a “We wan access b e hea h serv ces for our peop e ” Butch Gun o CYANMAGENTA MAGENTAYELLOW YELLOWBLACK BLACK CYAN

Standard

TODAY

Power struggle rages over Russia statistics MOSCOW―Reports that Russia’s economy ministry is set to take control of the national statistics agency has sparked fears that the indicators crucial to monitoring the country’s economic woes could become skewed. Data from the Rosstat state statistics agency has been key in measuring the extent of the country’s economic crisis, triggered three years ago by tumbling oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine, and is thus key to forecasts about when recovery is possible. With Russians worried about their shrinking purchasing power and a presidential election due next year, perceptions about the economy and its outlook are touchy topics. Enter into this volatile mix a switch by Rosstat to new calculation methods that are in line with European standards, which has caused rampant confusion inside the agency that has resulted in it publishing reports late and issuing major corrections to its ﬁndings. Widespread issues over the adoption of the new methodology have prompted the government to prepare to make Rosstat―which currently reports to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev―answerable to the economy ministry in a bid to exercise more control over it, Russian media has reported. The prime minister’s current oversight is mostly administrative, while the economy ministry is responsible for producing forecasts for the government based on Rosstat data. Analysts fear that as the presidential polls approach Rosstat could come under pressure to produce statistics that would paint a rosy picture of the economy, much as in the Soviet era when authorities used statistics for propaganda purposes, boasting about exceeding production plans. “This is a pre-election year and if the main socio-economic indicators are bad, this would look like a lack of respect for the promises” President Vladimir Putin made during his 2012 campaign, said Igor Nikolayev, an

analyst at FBK Grant Thornton, an auditing and consulting group. “If growth reaches two percent, then we will say that the sanctions bothered us but all the indicators are now positive,” he added. Some of Rosstat’s new calculations have proved encouraging for authorities. The agency revised upwards its production indicator and calculated that the economy had contracted by only 2.8 percent in 2015 -- instead of the 3.7 percent it had previously estimated. It also said that the economy contracted by only 0.2 percent last year, instead of the 0.6 percent it had previously measured. These changes in Russia’s indicators have transformed the storyline of the country’s economic crisis. With the new ﬁgures, Russia’s government can proudly proclaim that the economy has shown unexpected resistance to the double shock of low oil prices and sanctions thanks to a boost to industry from the weak ruble and dynamic small businesses. Last month a low indicator for industrial production that was published behind schedule by Rosstat sent a jolt through the economy ministry. Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin, who took on the position in November, said Rosstat’s transition to its new methodology had been “very unfortunate” and that he expected its ﬁgures to undergo “major revisions” while his ministry prepares to announce its forecasts. In a 2013 report, the OECD group of leading economies praised Rosstat’s “high level of professionalism” while saying the agency should improve its methodology for calculating gross domestic product (GDP) and its compliance with international standards. Former deputy economy minister Alexei Vedev told TASS news agency that Rosstat’s rocky transition to its new methods was the result of resistance by the agency’s aging staff and the inability to offer attractive wages to young economists. AFP

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP SELECTION COMMITTEE NOTICE OF INVITATION FOR COMPARATIVE PROPOSAL (SWISS CHALLENGE) Public notice is hereby given that the City Government of Parañaque, through its PublicPrivate Partnership Selection Committee, received and accepted the Unsolicited Proposal of QPax Traffic Systems, Inc., the original proponent for the development, management and operation of the NO CONTACT TRAFFIC SAFETY PROGRAM. After completing detailed negotiations, the City is now ready to accept comparative proposals This project is being undertaken by the City under a joint venture arrangement, which is a modality under Ordinance No. 13- 06, Series of 2013, otherwise known as City of Parañaque Integrated PPP Code. Interested bidders must submit their notarized expression of interest to submit comparative proposals on or before April 18, 2017 at the Office of the City Administrator, 4th Floor, City Hall, Parañaque City. The notarized expression of interest with supporting documents must contain the following:

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

The challenger is a Filipino citizen or partnership wholly owned by Filipino citizens or a Filipino corporation at least 60% of its capital owned by Filipino citizens. The challenger is financially and technically capable to undertake the Project and is capable to post the required proposal security bond. The challenger has an existing road rules enforcement contract with a Local Government Unit in The Philippines or abroad. The challenger shall undertake to adhere to all applicable City Ordinances, laws and policies and qualification criteria set by the City. The challenger must be able to comply to the terms and conditions stated in the Terms of Reference (TOR). The challenger shall not in any manner prevent the Award of the Project and the carrying out the project.

Those who filed their notarized expression of interest on or before April 18, 2017 may obtain from the Office of the City Administrator the Terms of Reference upon payment of a non-refundable fee of ₱25,000.00. Only those who filed their NEOI on time and purchased copies of the Terms of Reference shall be allowed to participate in this competitive selection procedure. The following schedule of activities shall be strictly observed: 1.

Publication of Notice of Invitation for Comparative Proposals in two (2) newspapers of general circulation : April 3 & 10, 2017. 2. On the first date of publication of the invitation for comparative proposal, the Private Sector Proponent (PSP) or Original Proponent (OP) shall post the proposal security or bid security equivalent to 2% of the development cost of the project – in cash, manager’s check or bank draft or 5% if surety bond. 3. Posting of Notice of Invitation at the City Government’s website (www. parañaquecity.gov.ph) and in conspicuous places within the City : April 3, 2017. 4. Submission of Notarized Expression of Interest at the Office of the City Administrator : on or before April 18, 2017. 5. Eligibility Check to short list qualified Private Sector Proponent (PSP) : April 19-21, 2017. 6. Sending notice of eligibility or non-eligibility to PSP : April 24, 2017. 7. Release of Terms of Reference - April 24, 2017 to April 28, 2017 upon payment of the amount of ₱25,000.00 in cash, manager’s check or bank draft. 8. Pre-Selection Conference conducted by the PPP-SC at Room 310, 3rd Floor, Legislative Building, Parañaque City Hall : May 3, 2017 at 10:00 A.M. 9. Submission of Comparative Proposals (CP) at the Office of the City Administrator : on or before May 18, 2017. 10. Opening and Evaluation of Comparative Proposals (CP) : May 19, 2017 at Room 310, 3rd Floor, Legislative Building, Parañaque City Hall. 11. Within five (5) days from Opening and Evaluation of Comparative Proposals, the Original Proponent (OP) can exercise the Right to MATCH the superior or more advantageous comparative proposal. 12. Issuance of NOTICE OF AWARD. If no notarized expression of interest or comparative proposal is submitted, the Project shall be awarded to the Original Proponent (OP). Further, pursuant to the above-mentioned Ordinance, the Original Proponent (OP) shall be given the right to match the superior offer or more advantageous offer to the City. Finally, the PPP-SC reserves the right to (1) reject any and all applications for qualification and eligibility found not in conformity with aforesaid Ordinance or with the requirements above-mentioned without incurring any liability to the affected Private-Sector Proponent; (2) waive any minor defect therein; and (3) accept the offer it deems most advantageous to the City Government.

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

TOCKHOLM―After months of uncertainty and controversy, Bob Dylan finally accepted the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature at a jovial, champagne-laced ceremony on Saturday, the Swedish Academy announced. The academy, which awards the coveted prize, ended prolonged speculation as to whether the 75-year-old troubadour would use a concert stopover in Stockholm to accept the gold medal and diploma awarded to him back in October. They were handed to Dylan at a “private ceremony in Stockholm” attended by 12 academy members, Sara Danius, the academy’s permanent secretary, said in a blog post. “Spirits were high. Champagne was had,” Danius conﬁded. “Quite a bit of time was spent looking closely at the gold medal, in particular the beautifully crafted back, an image of a young man sitting under a laurel tree who listens to the Muse,” she added. “Taken from Virgil’s Aeneid, the inscription reads: ‘Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes,’ loosely translated as ‘And they who bettered life on earth by their newly found mastery’.” The ﬁrst songwriter to receive

the prestigious award, Dylan joins a celebrated group of laureates including Thomas Mann, Samuel Beckett, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Doris Lessing. The meeting took place at a secret location ahead of Dylan’s ﬁrst concert in Stockholm, the ﬁrst stop on a long-planned European tour for his latest album of cover songs, “Triplicate”. His second concert is due Sunday. Dylan had not been expected to deliver his traditional Nobel lecture at the meeting―the only requirement to receive the eight million kronor (837,000 euros, $891,000) that comes with the prize. He has until June 10 to provide his lecture, which could be anything from a short speech to a performance, a video broadcast or even a song. Failing that, he risks losing the prize money. “The Academy has reason to believe that a taped version will be sent at a later point,” Danius said on Wednesday. Several Academy members, including Danius, were present

at the concert as Dylan, wearing a white hat, western-style black blazer and cowboy boots, performed “Love Sick” and “Full Moon And Empty Arms,” part of a playlist of standards and self-penned hits. The American rock enigma’s performance was met with a cheering crowd, which gave repeated standing ovations, especially when he played a harmonica. Dylan was tight-lipped between songs and made no mention whatsoever about the Nobel prize. Lars Sjoblom, a 65-year-old sound and light technician, said he had grown up with Dylan’s music but was “greatly surprised” that he had not said anything. “I came here to listen to what he had to say about the Nobel Foundation and to the Swedish people,” Sjoblom told AFP. “I think he could have shown Sweden the respect to say ‘thank you’.” But Dag Hanners, a 65-yearold logistician, said Dylan never speaks with the crowd during performances. “You just have to live with that,” he said with a chuckle. Dylan was honored “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” the Nobel committee said when the award was announced last October.

MONIQUE Q. LAGDAMEO - Presiding Officer SHIRLEY C. ASPILLAGA MARIE ALETHEA SJ. CASAL-UY FERDINAND T. EUSEBIO VIRGILIO V. HILARIO JR. DIVINA A. JACOME LUIS S. JAVIER JR. LEONARDO M. MAGPANTAY ROMEO C. MEDINA MA. ARLENE M. ORTEGA NELSON S. PASIA ENRICO J. PUNO MARY RUTH C. TOLENTINO EVELYN DELFINA E. VILLAMOR MARIA CONCEPCION M. YABUT

PRESENT: Vice Mayor Councilor “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “

LnB President

ARMANDO P. PADILLA

LnB President

ARMANDO P. PADILLA

GRAZIELLE IONY N. DE LARA-BES-Vacation Leave NEMESIO S. YABUT JR.

ABSENT: Councilor “

GRAZIELLE IONY N. DE LARA-BES-Vacation Leave NEMESIO S. YABUT JR.

==============================================================================

CITY RESOLUTION NO. 2017-029 Authors: Hon. M.C.M. Yabut, Hon. M.A.S.J. Casal-Uy, Hon. D.A. Jacome, Hon. G.I.N. de Lara-Bes, Hon. N.S. Yabut, Jr., Hon. M.A.M. Ortega, Hon. N.S. Pasia, Hon. V.V. Hilario, Jr. and Hon. E.D.E. Villamor

CITY RESOLUTION NO. 2017-030 Authors: Hon. M.C.M. Yabut, Hon. M.A.S.J. Casal-Uy, Hon. D.A. Jacome, Hon. G.I.N. de Lara-Bes and Hon. N.S. Yabut Jr.

On motion presented by Hon. D.A. Jacome, which was duly seconded by all Members present, the Sangguniang Panlungsod of the City of Makati approved City Resolution No. 2017-029 on second and final reading.

Co-Authors: Hon. S.C. Aspillaga, Hon. F.T. Eusebio, Hon. L.S. Javier, Jr., Hon. L.M. Magpantay, Hon. R.C. Medina, Hon. E.J. Puno, Hon. M.R.C. Tolentino and Hon. A.P. Padilla A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE HONORABLE MAYOR MAR-LEN ABIGAIL S. BINAY TO NEGOTIATE, ENTER INTO AND SIGN A MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT (MOA), ON BEHALF OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF MAKATI, WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM (DOT), REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY, HON. WANDA CORAZON T. TEO, REGARDING THE RENDITION OF HEALTH CARE ASSISTANCE TO DOT EMPLOYEES ASSIGNED WITHIN MAKATI CITY AREA, SUBJECT TO EXISTING LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. WHEREAS, the Department of Tourism (DOT), in cognizance with Section 31 of Chapter V, Subtitle A, Title I of Book V, of the Executive Order No. 292, which provides that each department or agency must uphold and promote employees’ health and well-being to ensure maximum efficiency and productivity in the workplace, desires to affiliate with OSMAK for the rendition of health care assistance to its employees assigned within Makati City area; WHEREAS, the OSMAK manifest its willingness to fully cooperate with DOT in the pursuit of its noble endeavors by offering its medical services; WHEREAS, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the City Government of Makati and DOT is necessary in order to achieve and guide the parties in carrying out the abovementioned purpose. WHEREAS, the Sangguniang Panlungsod hereby authorizes the Hon. Mayor Mar-Len Abigail S. Binay to negotiate, enter into and sign MOA with DOT pursuant to Sec. 8 (a) (6) of R.A. 7854, otherwise known as the Charter of the City of Makati, to wit: “the City Mayor, as the chief executive of the city government shall represent the City in all its business transactions and sign on its behalf all bonds, contracts, and obligations, and such other documents upon authority of the Sangguniang Panlungsod or pursuant to law or ordinance”; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED BY THE SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD OF MAKATI, METRO MANILA, BY VIRTUE OF THE POWERS VESTED IN IT BY LAW, IN SESSION ASSEMBLED, to authorize the Honorable Mayor Mar-Len Abigail S. Binay to negotiate, enter into and sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), on behalf of the City Government of Makati, with the Department of Tourism (DOT), represented by its Secretary, Hon. Wanda Corazon T. Teo, regarding the rendition of health care assistance to its employees assigned within Makati City area, subject to the existing laws, rules and regulations. Let copy of this Resolution be furnished to Ospital ng Makati (OSMAK), Department of Tourism (DOT), City Law Department and other offices, departments and agencies concerned for their information, guidance and reference. This Resolution is subject to existing laws, rules and regulations and shall take effect upon approval. APPROVED BY THE SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD OF MAKATI, METRO MANILA, in its Special Session held on 31 March 2017. HON. SHIRLEY C. ASPILLAGA

HON. ROMEO C. MEDINA

HON. MARIE ALETHEA S.J. CASAL-UY

HON. MA ARLENE M. ORTEGA

VACATION LEAVE HON. GRAZIELLE IONY N. DE LARA-BES

HON. NELSON S. PASIA

HON. FERDINAND T. EUSEBIO

HON. ENRICO J. PUNO

HON. VIRGILIO V. HILARIO JR.

HON. MARY RUTH C. TOLENTINO

HON. DIVINA A. JACOME

HON. EVELYN DELFINA E. VILLAMOR

HON. LUIS S. JAVIER JR.

HON. MARIA CONCEPCION M. YABUT

HON. LEONARDO M. MAGPANTAY

HON. NEMESIO S. Y YABUT JR.

On motion presented by Hon. M.C.M. Yabut, which was duly seconded by all Members present, the Sangguniang Panlungsod of the City of Makati approved City Resolution No. 2017-030 on second and final reading.

Co-Authors: Hon. S.C. Aspillaga, Hon. F.T. Eusebio, Hon. V.V. Hilario, Jr., Hon. L.S. Javier, Jr., Hon. L.M. Magpantay, Hon. R.C. Medina, Hon. M.A.M. Ortega, Hon. N.S. Pasia, Hon. E.J. Puno, Hon. M.R.C. Tolentino, Hon. E.D.E. Villamor and Hon. A.P. Padilla A RESOLUTION DESIGNATING HON. LUIS S. JAVIER, JR. AS THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD TO THE PPP SELECTION COMMITTEE PURSUANT TO SECTION 14 OF CITY ORDINANCE NO. 2014-051, AS AMENDED, SUBJECT TO ALL LAWS AND EXISTING LEGAL RULES AND REGULATIONS. WWHEREAS, on 15 July 2014, the Sangguniang Panlungsod enacted City Ordinance No. 2014-051, otherwise known as “City of Makati PPP Code”, which seeks to encourage the private sector to engage in infrastructure, development and social service-related projects of the State and Local Government Units (LGUs) through what is popularly known as Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs); WHEREAS, on 18 January 2017, the Sangguniang Panlungsod amended the abovementioned Ordinance through City Ordinance No. 2017-007; WHEREAS, Section 14 of City Ordinance No. 2014-051, as amended, provides for the creation of a Public-Private Partnership-Selection Committee (PPP-SC) for the purpose of selecting a Private Sector Proponent (PSP) for specific PPP projects; WHEREAS, the same provision states that “(O)ne (1) representative from and selected by the Sanggunian designated in appropriate resolution” shall be a member of the PPP-SC; WHEREAS, the Sangguniang Panlungsod finds the Committee on Trade, Commerce and Industry as the committee that is directly related to the aims of PPP-SC and may contribute further to its purpose; WHEREAS, the Sangguniang Panlungsod hereby designates Honorable Luis S. Javier, Jr., Chairperson of Committee of Trade, Commerce and Industry, to be the bonafide representative of the Sangguniang Panlungsod to the PPP-SC and shall hold such position until sooner removed or a new representative shall be designated by the Sangguniang Panlungsod. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED BY THE SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD OF MAKATI, METRO MANILA, BY VIRTUE OF THE POWERS VESTED IN IT BY LAW, IN SESSION ASSEMBLED, to designate Hon. Luis S. Javier, Jr. as the representative of the Sangguniang Panlungsod to the PPP selection committee pursuant to Section 14 of City Ordinance No. 2014-051, as amended, subject to all laws and existing legal rules and regulations. Let a copy of this Resolution be furnished the City Law Department and other offices, departments and agencies concerned for their information, guidance and reference. This Resolution shall take effect immediately upon its approval. APPROVED BY THE SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD OF MAKATI, METRO MANILA, in its Regular Session held on 31 March 2017. HON. SHIRLEY C. ASPILLAGA

HON. ROMEO C. MEDINA

HON. MARIE ALETHEA S.J. CASAL-UY

HON. MA ARLENE M. ORTEGA

VACATION LEAVE HON. GRAZIELLE IONY N. DE LARA-BES

HON. NELSON S. PASIA

HON. FERDINAND T. EUSEBIO

HON. ENRICO J. PUNO

HON. VIRGILIO V. HILARIO JR.

HON. MARY RUTH C. TOLENTINO

HON. DIVINA A. JACOME

HON. EVELYN DELFINA E. VILLAMOR

HON. LUIS S. JAVIER JR.

HON. MARIA CONCEPCION M. YABUT

HON. LEONARDO M. MAGPANTAY

HON. NEMESIO S. Y YABUT JR.

HON. ARMANDO P. PADILLA LnB President

Attested by:

Sgd. FERNANDO C. SORIANO PPP-SC Chairman (MS-APR. 3/10, 2017)

His long list of hits, ranging over decades, began in the early Sixties. He penned hundreds of songs in just a few years―an astonishing ﬂurry that included “Blowin’ In The Wind”, “Hurricane” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” “Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, ‘Are my songs literature?’” Dylan said in a thank-you speech read out by the US ambassador to Sweden during the December Nobel ceremony in Stockholm. He skipped the event due to “preexisting commitments”. Dylan kept silent for weeks after he was announced as the winner and when he was asked at the time why he did not respond to the Academy’s calls, he told Britain’s Daily Telegraph: “Well, I’m right here.” His mysterious reaction even provoked Academy member Per Wastberg to call him “impolite” and “arrogant”. Dylan later apologized for not being able to attend the ceremony and expressed surprise over being chosen for an honor given to literature heavyweights like Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus. “If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon,” he added. AFP

PRESENT: Vice Mayor Councilor “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “

Certified true and correct by:

CONTACT INFORMATION: PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP-SELECTION COMMITTEE (PPP-SC) c/o Atty. Rommel A. Frias PPP-SC Secretary & City Legal Officer

Dylan finally accepts Nobel for Literature S

ABSENT: Councilor “

Republic of the Philippines CITY OF PARAÑAQUE

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

World

Manila

HON. MONIQUE Q. LAGDAMEO Vice Mayor & Presiding Officer

ATTY. DINDO R. CERVANTES Secretary to the Sangguniang Panlungsod

Attested by:

HON. MONIQUE Q. LAGDAMEO Vice Mayor & Presiding Officer (MS-APR. 3, 2017)

(MS-APR. 3, 2017)

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

World

BACKSTAGE. Models wearing wedding dresses talk backstage before the fashion show of Cymbeline Wedding Dresses house on April 1 in Paris. AFP

Australia floods still rising with two dead BEENLEIGH, Australia― Flooded rivers were still rising Saturday in two Australian states with two women dead and four people missing after torrential rains in the wake of a powerful tropical cyclone. Queensland police warned that the Logan River, which runs through Beenleigh south of Brisbane, would only hit peak flood levels during the afternoon while further north the city of Rockhampton was also facing a serious threat. Commissioner Ian Stewart warned there was “still a major risk to the community around Logan and further south caused by that flooding situation.” Rockhampton, with a population of over 80,000 on the Fitzroy River, was expected to suffer flood levels not seen for a century and Stewart urged residents in low-lying areas to leave. “By Wednesday, we will be at peak flooding in Rockhampton,” he said. “It will be a gradual rise, so I encourage people to move now.” Queensland police tweeted “we currently have four people missing... that we have serious concerns about,” including a 77-year-old man. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from a string of towns in Queensland and New South Wales as the floods move south towards Ballina, cutting roads. Others have tried to stick it out to save their properties. The scene was grim along the Logan river. Kaycee Bentley, a 47-year-old mechanic from North Maclean appeared visibly upset as she looked at her house, submerged to the roof. “We got as much out as we could in the short time that we had,” she told AFP. “People have lost everything. I’d only just finished renovating the house, and it is all gone again now.” Nearby a calf was stuck in a tree as a man in a kayak paddled out to see if it was alive. Dozens gathered to watch but by the time two people on jet skis arrived to help the calf only to discover it was dead. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on residents in affected areas to exercise caution. AFP

Battle looms over Trump appointee WASHINGTON―Senate Democrats are mounting a filibuster of US President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, a rare obstruction of high-court appointments. If the gambit proves successful this coming week, Republicans will likely go nuclear. The Senate faces an epic showdown beginning Monday over whether to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch. It is a very public game of political chicken that could shape the makeup of the Supreme Court for years to come, and unravel any remaining pretense of bipartisanship in the upper chamber of Congress. Should the Democrats block Gorsuch, Trump’s Republicans are threatening to respond by altering longstanding Senate rules and bypassing the 60-vote threshold to advance nominees in the 100-member chamber. Such a maneuver is known as the nuclear option. And its results could be hugely consequential, on both sides of the political aisle. “It churns our stomach,” Senator Mike Rounds told reporters when asked about whether fellow Republicans were really prepared to change the rules. “Once they let the genie out, it’s not going back in, unfortunately.” All Senate confirmations―for cabinet posts, to judgeships on a federal bench, to Supreme Court picks―technically require a simple majority vote of 51 senators. That would not be difficult for Republicans today, given that they control 52 seats. Bumping the threshold up to 60 for a Supreme Court pick has only occurred four times in mod-

ern history. Never has a filibuster derailed a Supreme Court nominee. “This would make history in a very bad way,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Friday. Republicans would not be the first to go nuclear. Democrat Harry Reid unlocked the process in 2013 when he was Senate majority leader, changing the rules to lower the magic number from 60 to 51 on all presidential nominees―except Supreme Court justices. Republicans will need eight Democrats to break the filibuster and get Gorsuch onto the bench, which has been one justice short since conservative Antonin Scalia died in February 2016. That will be a tall order, especially given the volcanic anger many Democrats still feel over the treatment of Merrick Garland, then-president Barack Obama’s pick to replace Scalia. While Republicans blast Democrats’ “unprecedented obstructionism” of Gorsuch, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell let Garland languish for eight months without a vote. When Trump won the election, Garland’s nomination was dead. Just two Democrats―Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp, both from states that backed Trump―have announced support for Gorsuch. At least 36 have said they will join the filibuster, according to US media counts. If they reach 41, Gorsuch is blocked. But Republican leadership has signaled its readiness to change the rules if need be, a potentially toxic move. AFP

Mudslides kill 200 people, destroy homes in Colombia M OCOA, Colombia― Rescuers clawed through piles of mud and twisted debris Sunday searching for survivors after violent mudslides destroyed homes in southern Colombia, killing over 200 people and injuring hundreds more.

CREATIONS. A model and a girl present creations by Cymbeline Wedding Dresses house on April 1, 2017, in Paris. AFP

20 people murdered at Pakistan shrine ISLAMABAD―The custodian of a Pakistani religious shrine and two accomplices have been arrested for intoxicating and murdering 20 devotees with batons and knives early Sunday, police said. Four women were among those killed at the Suﬁ shrine to Mohammad Ali in Punjab province, according to police, who said they had arrested three suspects including the custodian. “The 50-year-old shrine custodian Abdul Waheed has confessed that he killed these people because he feared that they had come to kill him,” regional police chief Zulﬁqar Hameed told AFP. “The suspect appears to be paranoid and psychotic, or it could be related to rivalry for the control of shrine,” he said, adding that the investigation was continuing. Local police station chief Shamshir Joya said the victims, whose clothes

were torn and bloodstained, appeared to have been given intoxicants. “We suspect that the victims had been given some intoxicants before they were murdered, but we will wait for a forensics report to confirm this suspicion,” he added. Joya said the shrine was built in the area some two and a half years ago. When its former custodian died, Waheed―a one-time employee of the national election commission―took over. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has called for a police report on the investigation within 24 hours, a senior government official said. Visiting shrines and offering alms for the poor―and cash to the custodians― remains a very popular custom in Pakistan. Many believe this will help get their prayers answered. For centuries Pakistan was a land of Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam

whose wandering holy men helped spread the religion throughout the Indian subcontinent in the 13th century. Sufis believe in saints which they say can intercede for them directly with God. They have no hierarchy or organisation, instead seeking spiritual communion through music and dance at the shrines of the saints. Several million Muslims in Pakistan are still believed to follow Sufism, although it has overtaken in recent decades by more conservative versions of the faith. Hardliners such as the Taliban or the Islamic State group have carried out major attacks on Sufi shrines because they consider them heretical. In February 88 people were killed and hundreds wounded in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh when a suicide bomber blew himself up among devotees at a Sufi shrine. AFP

They were the latest victims of deadly floods and mudslides that have struck the Pacific side of South America over recent months, also killing scores of people in Peru and Ecuador. In the southwestern Colombian town of Mocoa a sudden surge of mud and water swept away homes, bridges, vehicles and trees, leaving piles of wrecked timber buried in thick mud. The mudslides slammed Mocoa late Friday after days of torrential rain in the Amazon basin area town of 40,000. “The latest information we have is that there are 206 people confirmed dead, 202 injured, 220 missing, 17 neighborhoods hit hard,” Colombian Red Cross chief Cesar Uruena told AFP. On Sunday President Juan Manuel Santos is set to return to the town, the capital of Putumayo department, with cabinet ministers to supervise rescue efforts in the heavily forested region. Santos met with rescuers and survivors in Mocoa on Saturday, and declared a public health and safety emergency to speed up rescue and aid operations. “Dear God, I don’t want to even remember that,” said street vendor Marta Ceballos, who survived the mudslide. “To see how some people screamed, and others cried, ran, tried to flee in cars, on motorcycles, and how they were trapped in the mud. It’s all too, too difficult,” she told AFP. Ceballos said that she lost all of her material possessions. “The only things I fortunately did not lose were my husband, my daughters and my nephews,” she said. Putumayo Governor Sorrel Aroca called the event “an unprecedented tragedy” for the area. There are “hundreds of families we have not yet found and whole neighborhoods have disappeared,” he told W Radio. Carlos Ivan Marquez, director of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit, told AFP the mudslides were caused by the rise of the Mocoa River and tributaries. The flooded rivers caused a “big avalanche,” the army said in a statement. Some 130 millimeters (5 inches) of rain fell Friday night, president Santos said. “That means 30 percent of monthly rainfall fell last night, which precipitated a sudden rise of several rivers,” he said. He promised earlier on Twitter to “guarantee assistance to the victims of this tragedy, which has Colombians in mourning.” “Our prayers are with the victims and those affected,” he added. AFP

Life

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com

FOOD

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

Toast’s yakitori skewers, including the must-try wagyu cubes

A toast to good,

playful bites

THE JOYCE OF EATING JOYCE BABE PAÑARES

ITE into a juicy meatball, and, well, savor the taste of classic Thai tom yum. Use your chopsticks to pick up a Japanese dumpling, this time stuffed with the iconic Filipino pork sisig and christened as the “gyozig.” And that cua pao bun asking for your attention holds a filling that is definitely not Chinese – a happy surprise as you chew your way through deep-fried Korean chicken patty in gochujang (red chili paste) sauce.

“It took us about a year to prepare but it was worth it. Asian food has come a long way in the gastronomic scene. Before, you’d hear people say, ‘Let’s go to Asia to shop.’ But now, people go to Asia for our food,” he added. For starters, you may order roasted sweet corn soup (P159) topped with Vietnamese sriracha-spiked cream for that extra kick as well as the chicken and pomelo salad (P215) with coconut vinaigrette dressing. Toast’s small plates (a misnomer, really, since the portions are good enough to share for two) include quesong puti croquettas (P299) with tomato laksa dipping sauce for that distinctly Singaporean vibe; banh mini (P245) which has delicious Vietnamese meatloaf topped with pickled vegetables sandwiched between small brioche buns; and Thai basil chicken poppers (P228) which is a little sweet because of the Vietnamese nuoc mam sauce. The restaurant also has a wide range of Japanese yakitori dishes, from chicken meatballs to shrimp to pork belly to ﬁshcakes. But the must-try of them all is the wagyu cubes (P175) – skewered butterysoft beef served with your choice of soy baste or teriyaki sauce. Among its main dishes (which are, again, big enough to share) are the crispy beef tossed in hoisin sauce on top of Korean japchae noodles (P399); Blaksa (P355), the restaurant’s version

Blaksa -- the restaurant’s take on classic laksa soup, this time mixed with squid ink.

By now you get the drift at how Asian delicacies are playfully combined at Toast Asian Kitchen & Tasting Room at the newly opened Ayala mall The 30th along Meralco Ave. in Pasig City. “We do not claim to be authentic because obviously our menu can only be described as a fusion of various Asian dishes. I’d like to think we are serving something familiar yet new – a playful and delicious merger of Asian influences,” said 36-year-old restaurateur Timothy Roxas-Chua, who is part of the same team that set up Relik Tapas Bar & Lounge more than five years ago. Chua and his friends gathered seven chefs, each specializing in a particular Asian cuisine, who worked together in crafting Toast’s menu.

Tom yum meatballs that are at once familiar and playfully different

For feedback, send comments to joyce.panares@gmail.com.

Chicken and pomelo salad with coconut vinaigrette

Poke Bowl and Fish Taco Fridays HOLIDAY Inn & Suites Makati celebrates Lent by adding delicious and fun fish options to the Flavors Restaurant buffet Every Friday until April 14, Flavors Restaurant brings to you Poke Bowl Fridays, the current craze to hit every major city in the US. Create your own scrumptious and healthy poke bowls the Holiday Inn & Suites Makati way. Choose from brown or white Japanese rice, the freshest Tuna and Salmon, and mix them with garden fresh vegetables and fruit. Finish with your choice of sauce – Ponzu, Spicy Sriracha Mayo, Hawaiian Mayo and Korean Chili. If a taco is what you fancy, they’re adding grilled fish to their ever popular and flavorsome

of the classic Singaporean laksa dish, this time mixed with squid ink to enhance the coconut broth; longganisa pasta (P349) featuring fuscilli spirals topped with authentic Vigan longganisa; and Hainanese chicken (P459) cooked sous vide for almost three hours. Toast also prides itself on having tapped renowned Singaporean mixologist Jason Gray to prepare signature cocktails such as Jack Sparrow (Sailor Jerry shaken with jackfruit, apple, lime juice, pandan syrup and egg whites) and Tokyo Fog Cutter (Monkey Shoulder and Amanoto Junkara Junmai shaken with fresh lemon juice, cloudy apple juice, and absinthe ﬂame). “A New York-based restaurateur once said that a cocktail done right can really show that you care for your customers. Our cocktails complement the complex ﬂavor combinations of the dishes,” said Chua. “We also serve beer from a wellcurated selection of both staple local brands and imported specialty craft beers,” he added. Toast, he said, is more than just a restaurant for dining and drinking. “Toast is about giving you an amazing day and an awesome night. We aim to be the go-to destination for good food and good vibes,” Chua said.

Indulge in good food even if it’s holy week with healthy and scrumptious poke bowls taco bar. Build your own Mexican tacos with a choice of beef, chicken or grilled ﬁsh or deconstruct and make a bowl of nachos. Top with jalapenos, beans, cheese and our fresh salsa guests always talk about. Who says being holy can’t be fun?

Poke bows and tacos are available for lunch and dinner on Fridays until April 14. Lunch buffet at P1,500++, dinner buffet at P1,700++. For reservations at Flavors Restaurant call (02) 909-0888 local 7429 or visit www.holidayinn.com/ makati

A paradise for foodies and baking enthusiasts

From left: Jimmy Sy, executive vice president, Filipino-Chinese Bakery Association, Inc.; Bien Enrico Ah, president, Filipino-Chinese Bakery Association, Inc.; Angel Yeast Master Baker Chou Ching Yuan, Taiwan National Treasure for Chinese Pastry; Angel Yeast Overseas Representative, Peter Fung ,2nd vice president, Filipino-Chinese Bakery Association, Inc.; and winners of the competition

AMAZING sales on baking ingredients and equipment, a diverse array of bread, pastries, and cakes to discover, and exciting seminars and competitions made this year’s Bakery Fair a paradise for those who are passionate about baking, make a living out of it, or simply enjoy baked goods. It is, to paraphrase Sir Mixalot, for those who love big (bread) buns and cannot lie. The Bakery Fair is a biennial event organized by the Filipino-Chinese Bakery Association, Inc. (FCBAI). Held for the ninth time this year at the World Trade Center in Pasay City, it has grown to be the biggest bakery and food service trade show in the country. With the event, FCBAI also inspired and challenged local talent to come up with world-

class baked goods, pasalubongs, and other products. There were contests such as the SAF GOLD 2017 BAKERS CUP (organized by Sonlie International, Inc., Lesaffre, and FCBAI, in partnership with Bacolod Negros Occidental Bakers Association, Davao Bakers Club, Inc., and Philippine Baking Institute), Angel Yeast Steam Buns Competition, and the 1st Philippine Pasalubong Challenge allowed professional bakers to showcase their skills while also giving enthusiasts ideas on how to improve their craft. International master chefs and industry groups such as Bakels Philippines, Inc., Mix Plant, Inc., Commodity Quest, Inc., Angel Yeast Global Paciﬁc Distribution Network Corp., Pu-

ratos Philippines, Inc., Atlantic Grains, Inc., Innovatrade Ingredients Corp., and Bakersﬁeld conducted seminars on both the art and business of baking. Last but not the least, over 200 local and foreign suppliers brought in the latest baking equipment and ingredients for exhibition and sale—with attractive discounts exclusive to the event—giving attendees with baking businesses a competitive edge. FCBAI continues to hold workshops and competitions for both aspiring and professional bakers. Interested participants can check out www. facebook.com/BakeryFairPhilippines/ to see the schedule of events.

Life

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

Gastronomic adventure at Singapore World Gourmet Summit A

S the summer sun starts to heat up the vacation season, another exciting event sizzles in Singapore. Now on its 21st edition, the annual World Gourmet Summit (WGS) is bringing ﬁrst-time and return travelers to another mouthwatering gastronomic adventure. Celebrating the theme “United Nations Gastronomic Assembly,” the World Gourmet Summit features exquisite gourmet from internationally renowned master chefs whose menus are featured at Singapore’s award-winning restaurants until April 16. “The World Gourmet Summit reafﬁrms Singapore’s culinary scene as a dynamic gourmet destination. This year, the Summit will put the spotlight on Singapore’s Michelin-starred restaurants through the special participation of more than 10 widely-recognized master chefs,” said Lael Loh, Singapore Tourism Board area director for Philippines. “We are also eagerly looking forward to the launch of the Singapore Michelin Guide 2017, as well as the upcoming Singapore Food Festival which shall

bring more culinary delights for our visitors.” Singapore has made its mark as an international culinary hotspot with a pool of diverse dining establishments and festivities, including an array of affordable, yet superior quality food fare. The launch of the Singapore Michelin Guide in 2016, a first in Southeast Asia, saw the prestigious guide recognizing street food for the very first time. Two hawker stalls, the Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle and the Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle, received global attention when each was awarded with one Michelin Star, a testament to the island city-state’s repertoire of quality, yet affordable hawker fare. As a result, Singapore is now home to the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred meal at under P100. Adding to the list of “firsts,” the Singapore Michelin Guide also gave birth to the world’s first Michelin-starred Peranakan restaurant, Candlenut. Highly acclaimed culinary celebrations also attract foodie visitors across the globe, including the Singapore Food Festival happening in July, where traditional and modern Singaporean dishes are showcased and celebrated. Indeed, the Lion City has all the flavors on its plate, waiting to be enjoyed by locals and guests.

The 21st edition of World Gourmet Summit in Singapore features exquisite dishes by internationally renowned master chefs

With a stellar line-up of events, activities, and the best of ﬁne dining cuisine, Singapore is a gastronomic expedition that serious food lovers should

Taste the flavors of the Philippines

Michelin star chef shares taste of Milan in Manila RENOWNED chef Davide Oldani came to Manila in January to share his world of flavor through the recently opened FOO’D by Davide Oldani at Shangri-La The Fort, BGC. “My Cucina Pop comes from the desire to blend the essential with the wellmade, to create something good that is accessible, to combine tradition with innovation. I am convinced that the greatness of Italian cuisine lies not only in the variety and flavors, but also in its openness to continuous re-interpretation,” shared Oldani, who has also lent his delft touch to designing his own line of utensils and dishes. For Lavazza, the premier Italian coffeemaker, Oldani designed the espoon and ecup, which were true innovative pieces that aimed to enhance the flavor of coffee. In addition, Oldani partnered with Kartell, another renowned Italian design company, to fashion his first line of tables that redefined form and function. But beyond designing, Oldani has also inspired an entire generation, sharing his unique insight and fresh ideas as one of Samsung Club des Chefs and as an ambassador of Mercedes Benz and Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM). Oldani’s influence and reach is indeed wide and deep, having transformed culture and the culinary world. Today, it’s continuing to grow beyond expectation, making its way across the European border and into the Philippine culinary world. Launched in December 2016, FOO’D by Davide Oldani is the new culinary destination by Foodee Global Concepts, the same authority that introduced Food Hall by Todd English, Pound by Todd English, Hook by Todd English, Tim Ho Wan, MESA Filipino Moderne, and Sunnies Café. “The aesthetics of FOO’D by Davide Oldani is minimal, but it’s enveloped by the warmth of Italy. I chose the Philippines to become the home of my first restaurant outside of Milan, because it’s a country with great economic development. I was lucky to have met talented entrepreneurs like Eric and Rodolfo e Nicolò and to bring my vision to life,” he said. “Here at FOO’D by Davide Oldani we combine the highest quality (of ingredients) with an affordable price for the Manila market.”

Saffron Fregola

Chef Davide Oldani From left: Greenbelt general manager Mina Domingo, Ayala Land, Inc. division manager Jinky Aguinaldo, DoT Market Development Group director Verna Buensuceso, Sociedad Espanola de Beneficencia executive director Lally Hidalgo-San Jose, and Sociedad Espanola de Beneficencia president Pablo Garcia Morera led the first tasting of the giant paella

UNTIL the end of April, Flavors of the Philippines 2017 is showcasing the best Filipino food and drinks and more in hundred venues in the country’s 17 regions. A component of the third Madrid Fusion Manila, Flavors of the Philippines is a cultural and food festival which offers something for everyone every day in the different provinces and cities during the month-and-a-half long gastronomic road trip. This festival celebrates the evolution, heritage, and diverse offerings of Filipino cuisine. Activities of enrichment and unlimited fun include learning native cuisines, local food festivals, gourmet fairs, dining with celebrity chefs, specialized menus, roving food trucks, food tastings, bar crawls, cook-off challenges, food bazaars, farmers’ market tours set in captivating destinations with cultural immersion in or interaction with and empowerment of local communities. In a statement to the media, Tourism Secretary Wanda TulfoTeo shared that this year’s Flavors of the Philippines is a longer, grander, and more delicious food journey nationwide which awaits us all. It will go on an all-in-one enriching celebration of Philippine history, arts, culture, tradition, literature and music through the language of food.” “Flavors of the Philippines aims to present our country to all food lovers in the world as a hub for different flavor profiles even those of foreign origins, while establishing our country as center of culinary excellence in Asia. So join us in touring our palates across our more than 7,107 tropical islands and discover why Filipino food is the next big thing on the global travel stage,” Secretary Teo added. “The New York Times and Conde Nest Traveler Magazine published that the Philippines is becoming a major food trend in the world. We believe Madrid Fusion Manila with Flavors of the Philippines has been instrumental in promoting Philippine cuisine to more foodies worldwide,” said Director Verna Buensuceso of Market Development Group – Department of Tourism at the simple kickoff ceremony held at the Greenbelt Gardens in Makati City during the Paella Gigante Festival. Hundreds of venues are participating in Metro Manila and the regions in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. For the complete list of all participating establishment nationwide and exact dates of their respective activities and events, log on to Facebook flavorsofthephilippines, Instagram and Twitter Flavors OfThePHL, or email flavorsofthephilippines@gmail.com.

not dare miss. Mark your calendars For more details on the World Gourand join the World Gourmet Summit, met Summit, visit www.worldgourmetand experience a one-of-a-kind food summit.com and www.yoursingapore. festival. com.

USDA Wagyu Beef Cheek

Faux egg

Afternoon tea, high style IN a calm oasis above the bustling city, savor an afternoon repast of scones, mini sandwiches, and cakes amid panoramic views of the city at Connect Lounge. Located at the 24th ﬂoor sky lobby, Connect Lounge is one of Marco Polo Ortigas Manila’s signature outlets, which continues to innovate its offerings to guests. From coffee to wines, the lounge also has menus for small items that bring a luxury feel every time a guest dines. Wait for the check in or out, or chitchat with old friends over good drinks, Connect Lounge brings the ﬁnest selections of food and beverage. Introducing a new and more sophisticated approach to afternoon drinks and delights, Connect Lounge serves an Afternoon Tea with its wide array of choices ranging from delights for those who have a sweet tooth, to fresh sandwiches with colorful baguettes for

bread lovers. Catch up with friends with these savories over coffee or tea, the perfect drinks to have with good company. An option to upgrade to a smoothie, iced tea, or Möet and Chandon champagne is also available. The three tier stand of afternoon treats is available at the Connect Lounge for just P788 for two, it includes complimentary coffee or tea. Experience a new sanctuary with a more relaxing ambience and good drinks on the 24th ﬂoor of Marco Polo Ortigas Manila. Connect Lounge is open daily from 11 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.. For reservations, call (02) 7207720 or for more information contact (02) 720-7777 or book online via www.marcopolohotels.com or email manila@marcopolohotels. com. Catch up with friends over sweet treats, savory sandwiches, bubbly, and coffee or tea at Connect Lounge

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

‘Wanted Sweetheart’ H

OPELESS romantics in search for their destiny are sure to get a lot of help from the newest dream boy of Barangay LS 97.1’s Wanted Sweetheart – Papa Bol.

Radio hunk Papa Bol, LS 97.1's resident love doctor

The deejay hosted the counterpart program in General Santos City’s Barangay 102.3. Papa Bol or Benjur Evangelista takes his matchmaking and love advice skills up a notch as he now hosts the nationwide program, 9 p.m. Monday to Friday. Evangelista admits he is under pressure to continue what Papa Dan, the original host, started and meet the expectations of the program’s loyal listeners. “You really have to step into his shoes o kaya, kung pwede mo pang higitan, gawin mo talaga. It’s an honor and a big responsibility,” he shares. Papa Bol, who recently returned to his family home in Las Piñas City, was born in Iloilo and resided in GenSan for seven years where he was working as a call center agent when he decided to give radio a shot despite having no broadcasting background. “About five years ago, napadpad ako sa Barangay radio station, nag-apply, tapos everything started from there. It was my first time kaya nakakatakot, nakakakaba. Then ‘yung love sa radio came in nung nagagamay ko na yung trabaho. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Talagang love ko ang radio,” he says. From his years of experience as an on-air matchmaker, one of his most memorable moments includes being thanked by a couple who met each other through his radio program. “Bago ako umuwi ng Manila, may couple na nagpasalamat na ikakasal na sila. It was the first couple na nagpasalamat sa akin,” he adds. While girls (or even some boys) are wondering about Papa Bol’s relationship status, he says he is single by choice after going through a lot in his past relationships. He emphasizes that these experiences help him to give realistic love advice to his listeners. Catch the newest dream boy of Wanted Sweetheart from 9 p.m to 12midnight, Monday to Friday, on Barangay LS 97.1, GMA’s flagship FM radio station.

Sponge Cola’s

new endorsement PHILIPPINES’ ﬁrst and leading wheatgrass brand has recently signed one of the most admired Pinoy rock bands Sponge Cola as its newest endorser. The ﬁrst and only wheatgrass brand that uses leaves to the roots that’s cleansing, alkalizing, and nourishing, it’s also most prized for its abscissic acid, a powerful antioxidant that helps to eliminate free radicals and reduce risk of cancer.

“Easy Pha-max Wheatgrass is the most trusted wheatgrass brand that powerfully preserves its proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and chlorophyll. With Sponge Cola’s well-rounded personality and active lifestyle, Easy Pha-max Wheatgrass health enhancing beneﬁts helps them be at their best while inspiring the wellness-conscious millennial market”, says Wheatgrass CAN International Inc. President Edward Ling.

Standing (L to R) Sponge Cola bassist Gosh Dilay, Wheatgrass CAN International product manager Armi Rose Montano, Sponge Cola drummer Ted Mark Cruz, Phil-US registered dietitian-nutritionist consultant Cheshire Que, Wheatgrass CAN International Inc. licensed nutritionist-dietitian Babyruth Balderama, and Sponge Cola guitarist Erwin Armovit. Seated (L-R) Sponge Cola band manager Saul Ulanday, Sponge Cola vocalist Yael Yuzon, Wheatrass CAN International Inc. President Edward Ling and Sponge Cola PR representative Ernestina Magboo.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Monday, April 3, 2017

ACROSS 1 Police alert 4 Dazed, with “out” 9 Wall climber 12 1939 Lugosi role 13 Nitrogen compound 14 Perfume holder 16 Feng — 17 Sheet of plywood 18 Horrible boss 19 Sci-fi invader 21 Nerve cells 23 Caper 25 Parched feeling 26 Film director Vittorio (2 wds.) 29 Licorice herb 31 Veld scavenger 32 Poet’s black 33 Hearty swallow 37 Zoologists’ mouths 38 Orchestra section 41 Derisive snort 42 Rains on 44 Diminish 45 Patsy of “I Fall to Pieces” 47 Stay in touch 49 Rough-textured 50 Get back 53 Prey grabber

55 Weather front (2 wds.) 57 Flustered 61 Mound 62 Gossip tidbits 64 Sushi fish 65 Half a beef 66 Goose eggs 67 Break 68 U.K. lexicon 69 Grinding material 70 D.C. lobbyist DOWN 1 — Khan 2 Serve tea 3 Dover locale 4 “Viva —!” 5 Saudi neighbor 6 Author Anais — 7 Idyllic spot 8 Striking out 9 Slangy teeth 10 Vim’s companion 11 Knitting materials 12 Distinctive doctrine 15 Just in case 20 Machu Picchu founders 22 Cousins of “um” 24 Kitchen fixture 26 Red Sea vessel

27 Rochester’s Jane 28 Box or bucket — 30 Zilch 32 Q.E.D. part 34 Hum 35 McKellen and Holm 36 Clarified butter 39 Not a queen (2 wds.) 40 Make tracks 43 Overloaded 46 Light protector 48 Estuary 49 Elegant

50 Grandstand yells 51 Nursery song refrain 52 Do roadwork 54 Armadillo’s protection 56 Banana stalk 58 Knowing look 59 Movie lioness 60 Aug. clock setting 63 Sooner than

Megastar swears movie with ex-husband will push through ASKED about her much-anticipated reunion movie with Gabby Concepcion, Megastar Sharon Cuneta said that it would push through. “Well, that’s the latest I heard,” she said. “At this point when we haven’t started the principal photography for (the) said project yet, I just want to keep quiet. I don’t want our avid followers to get disappointed if ever it doesn’t materialize. I’ll just believe it when we’re already halfway through the movie!” It can be remembered that Star Cinema announced the plan for their reunion ﬁlm a few months ago and that delighted their fans. “That’s right! Originally, we were supposed to start shooting this March but as of the latest advice, it became April. I just really hope that we’ll begin shooting soon. I’m also checking on my schedule. For one, I have a concert abroad come June and there’s also my commitment with The Voice, so the cameras ought to grind soon especially if the ﬁlm is intended for a May release!” Mega revealed that among the various movie offers she received, she chose this project with Gabby. “Yes! To be honest, this material is meant for someone else. I mean, supposedly, I’ll be paired with another leading man. But I pitched in the idea instead of why not a movie starring Gabby and me, since our loyal followers are waiting for this grand event for many years now. “It’s good that our producer saw my point. Our love team is very glossy and I just want our fans and even the new crop of movie buffs to experience our magic or chemistry on screen. Our teamingup doesn’t happen very often and this is one rare moment. And I knew there are fall back projects if ever with other male leads like Richard Gomez, Robin Padilla, and Aga Muhlach.” Their avid fans still supportive of them until now are Sharon’s prime consideration why she wants her reunion movie with Gabby to materialize. “It’s really for them. There’s a clamor for it since he came back and resumed his acting career in the Philippines. Before, admittedly, I was the one who’s hesitant. But now, everything’s open already. With my husband (Sen. Kiko Pangilinan), he’s supportive of the project. He just told me that if it’s okay with me, then I have his blessing. “Then, I would also hear that Gabby also likes the thought. You know, both of us owe our millions of followers a lot. They’re instrumental why we’ve reached our present stature in the ‘biz. It’s like a way of giving back to them for all their love and support in spite of the fact that we’ve led separate lives already,” ends Sharon. ******** Dennis Trillo is back on prime time via the much-anticipated grand fantasy-drama-action series Mulawin Vs. Ravena on GMA-7. “Yes! After Juan Happy Love Story, a light comedy, I’m so happy to be one of the main characters in this new Kapuso telefantasya. a continuation of Mulawin in 2004,” he maintains. He’s playing the role of Gabriel in the star-studded show. “If you’d remember, that’s my character in the original series. I’m very fortunate to be considered in this sequel. I’m one of the few stars from the 2004 Mulawin reprising our respective roles in this latest edition. It makes me feel proud for sure!” All cast members have intensive physical training for the program. “ The preparation is meticulous. It’s very physical and taxing but enjoyable at the same time. Of course, we don’t want to disappoint the viewers. Mulawin has a cult following already because of its enormous popularity years ago. We just want to continue where it successfully left off, so to speak.” Having said that, the handsome actor wants to fully concentrate on his character. “The reason why I opted not to accept any acting assignment while the show is still running,” says Dennis.

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

KYLIE

PADILLA

The controversial switcher WEBB’S

S EXPECTED, the media swarmed Kylie Padilla at the Watsons event recently, but surprisingly she was ready and willing to answer all the questions thrown at her by reporters eager to get the latest about her pregnancy. Kylie was introduced as the newest addition to the Watsons family and was welcomed by fellow celebrity endorsers Christian Bautista, Tessa Prieto-Valdes, Iya Villana, Lorna Tolentino, and Edu Manzano. It was her first time to face the media since confirming her pregnancy in the news and many thought she would try to avoid answering questions, specially those related to Aljur Abrenica. Instead she excitedly shared her feelings about becoming a mom, how Aljur has changed and how she wanted to have a baby since she was 17. “Ewan ko, lumabas iyong pagka-gusto kong maging nanay when I was 17 pa lang. Gusto ko kasi kasabay ko iyong bata lumaki,” Kylie told reporters. Kylie was not showing much even though she’s already five months along the way and she’s healthy and enjoys eating cheese, pizza and pasta. “I feel like I’m alive again kasi ang tagal kong nag-diet. Feeling ko buhay na ako ulit,” she said. Kylie said although she’s quite excited and looking forward to finally meeting her baby she also feels nervous about giving birth and of what lies ahead. “Nandoon pa din yung kaba kasi iisipin mo na yung lahat, dahil hindi na lang sarili mo ang iisipin mo, may bata na. I’m scared and I feel na it’s normal for a mom to fear childbirth,” she said. “And I’m already deciding on what type of birth I want.” Kylie adds she has been asking a lot of people for their advice as she wants to enjoy a happy and healthy pregnancy. “Ayoko masyadong magexpect kasi ang dami kong naririnig and ang dami kong nilapitan, iba-iba (ang sinabi nila). Yung moment na lang talaga na inaabangan ko eh yung first kick. Gumagalaw na siya but hindi ko pa nakikita sa tiyan ko yung changes talaga.” Asked what she did when she first found out she was pregnant, Kylie said it was her mother, Liezl Sicangco whom she first informed of the good news.

Kylie said they made sure to inform his father, actor Robin Padilla, about the pregnancy before it gets to the media. “ I told him, ‘Pa, I’m pregnant.’ Ayaw naman namin na maunahan kami. I don’t think that’s respectful na sa iba pa nya malalaman. Sabi niya lang na, ‘Alagaan mo ang apo ko”. As for her ﬁancé Aljur, Kylie proudly shared that she saw positive changes in him since he learned he was going to be a father. “Sobrang cute niya kasi he’s really making an effort. Nakikita ko na yung pagiging father and hindi lang yung lover and for a woman to see that in their partner, nakaka-in love.” As for her newest endorsement, Kylie said she was so happy to be part of the Watsons family. “When I found out that I was considered for Watsons, kinilig ako. That was my ﬁrst reaction. Whenever I go shopping with my siblings, we go to Watsons. Every Sunday, we would have a little pampering session. We treat our hair, do facials. They’re so welcoming and I’m happy to work with them.” Switch and Save Just like its newest endorser, Watsons has been getting a lot of attention for its numerous activation and campaigns, starting the year with the Big White Blowout, and the recent Make Your Summer, Watsons furthers the Switch and Save campaign— which began in 2012. Gathering their six celebrity endorsers (Christian Bautista, Tessa Prieto-Valdes, Iya Villana, Kylie Padilla, Lorna Tolentino, and Edu Manzano), Watsons put them all to the Switch Test. Running the same blind test used in stores, Watsons asked each of the celebs the simple question, “What’s the difference between these two products?” Their verdict- none! Not even our discerning endorsers could tell the difference between Watsons products quality and the leading brands’. There was, however, one big change they all noted. If you switch to Watsons, you can save up to 80 percent. All these

latest charmer

Expectant mother Kylie Padilla is welcomed as one of Watsons celebrity ambassadors

were captured in the fun new Watsons TVC. “The Switch & Save campaign began as a sort of an educational effort to show smart shoppers how to save on their personal care essentials in order to afford more of the things they really wanted. All they had to do was shift from the leading brand to the Watsons brand,” shared Watsons Marketing Director Viki Encarnacion. The simple idea proved to be a smashing success and soon Watsons customers all across the country made the switch, changing out their toothbrushes, tissues, lotions and more for the affordable, high quality Watsons alternative. With such great momentum behind the movement, they decided to expand the campaign to the pharmacy. Launching Watsons Generics in 2014, Watsons was able to bring that same promise of affordable quality to Filipinos everywhere. Improving the state of nation’s healthcare was a

huge win. The success of the campaign is quite evident, and you can find a Watsons label products in every Filipino home or even in offices and restaurants such as tissues or handsoap. “Personal Care items such as hand soap, shampoo, lotions and toiletries continue to be the top sellers, adds Karen Fabres, Watsons Group Marketing manager. Fabres added that this year they are looking to expand into more product categories such as sports drinks, and further introduce more personal care brands like Target Pro. “The good thing about Watsons is that we are all over Asia so we can pick up growing trends and quickly bring it to the Philippines, added Encarnacion. “We know that our customers are early adapters who are eager to know what’s new and try it out so they can be sure that Watsons will always try to be the first to have it in the market.”

FROM the director of the surprise hit 500 Days of Summer, Marc Webb helms his latest endearing story Gifted with Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer with rising young star Grace McKenna. Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is a single man raising his spirited young niece Mary (Mckenna Grace) in a coastal town in Florida. But Mary is a brilliant child prodigy and Frank’s intention that she lead a normal life are thwarted when her command of mathematics comes to the attention of his formidable mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan)—a wealthy Bostonian whose plans for her granddaughter threaten to separate Mary and Frank. As family tensions and disconnections flare, uncle and niece find support in Roberta (Octavia Spencer), their protective landlady and best friend, and Mary’s teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate), a young woman whose concern for her student soon develops into a relationship with her uncle as well. Gifted began its journey to the big screen when producer Karen Lunder, who has produced an assortment of films including Arrival, remembered a conversation with producer Andy Cohen in which she asked, “What do you have that’s great and different? What is the thing you’re most excited about? He sent me Gifted. When I read the script, it had this timeless quality to it. It felt like the kind of movies I grew up watching: it was a throwback of sorts to films of the 70’s and early 80’s that weren’t afraid to make you laugh and cry – that were both escapist and real.” Like Lunder and Cohen, director Webb responded immediately to the writing. “I kept on waiting for

this script to get bad, but it just kept getting better. It was simple, warm and uncynical. The writing felt nourishing to me. Mary and Frank are something like a comedy team with a lot of heart. After spending so many years on bigger movies, I just wanted to hang out with these two.” In his career, Chris Evans has judiciously chosen a balance of blockbuster and smaller, more interior ﬁlms. He picked Gifted for many reasons but says, “It was more the director than the role. You can have a great role and a great script. You can have a lot of pieces in place but if you don’t have a great director, you don’t have much. So for me it was Marc Webb.” Webb is particularly pleased that Gifted is a movie in which all the intellectual powerhouses are women. “It’s a movie where women are really brilliant and it’s not done as a stunt. It’s something that feels weirdly rare, I don’t know why. I love the idea of having girls who are good at math, women who are good at math. I mean, it happens in the world but we just don’t always recognize that in cinema.” Webb also thinks that fathers will respond to the message of the ﬁlm, if his own reaction is any example: “I’m a forty-yearold dude, and I got choked up. All the burly grips hid behind the duvateen (light blocking fabric) because they were crying. I think men are not encouraged to feel, which I think is one of the challenges that Frank has to face, but of course men are emotional creatures too.” Gifted opens on May 3 from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

A scene from Marc Webb's latest charmer, "Gifted"

‘Gintama’ and ‘Kuroko’s Basketball’ bounce back on Hero GET into a time shift as the number one Filipino-dubbed anime cable channel in the Philippines, Hero TV, brings you anime series that will keep you on the edge of your seats. Go back to the year 320 in Heroic Legend of Arsla” where a young Prince named Arslan sets out to prove his valor on the battlefield for the very first time. However, the Capital City gets under siege when one of the trusted officials betrays the King.

With the army in shambles and the Lusitanians out for his head, Arslan is forced to go on the run. He soon sets off on a journey in search of allies to help him take back his home and become the king his father wanted him to be. Meanwhile in Orange, Naho Takamiya receives a strange letter from a 10-year older version of herself. After witnessing several predicted events, she plans to use her acquired

knowledge to her advantage in helping Kakeru Naruse, the transfer student speciﬁcally mentioned in her letter. Aside from these exciting new titles, Hero TV welcomes back popular anime programs with their latest installment this summer. The beloved series returns to conquer courts once more in Kuroko’s Basketball Season 2. Serin Basketball is now ready to enter the Winter Cup where the team will face off against

the remaining generation of miracles. Can our basketball aces make it to the finals? In Gintama: The Final Movie, Gintoki is warped five years into the future and finds out that the Land of Edo is now in chaos and worst, his past self has already died. He then ventures the lands in disguise to regroup with his friends and carry out the biggest and may be the final job of Yorozuya. Gintama: The Final Movie airs on

HERO Theatrixx on Sundays at 9 p.m., while other Hero TV favorites air Mondays to Fridays – Orange at 6:30 p.m., Kuroko’s Basketball Season 2 at 7:30 p.m. and Heroic Legend of Arslan at 9:30 p.m.. Other anime series to return this season are Initial D First Stage, Tiger and Bunny: The Beginning, Ixion Saga, Leviathan, and Majestic Prince. Hero TV is on SKYcable Channel 44.