Manila Standard - 2017 May 10 - Wednesday

GLOBAL PRESSURE ON PH OVER DRUG KILLINGS

By John Paolo Bencito and AFP Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany,

UN REVIEW. People listen to a speech delivered by President Rodrigo Duterte (shown on a screen) during the universal periodic review of the Philippines by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday at the UN offices in Geneva. AFP

THE Philippines came under global pressure after 45 out of 47 countries which participated in the Philippines’ universal periodic review before the United Nations Human Rights Council questioned the spate of extrajudicial killings under President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war and his proposal to reinstate death penalty in the country.

Despite denials by the Philippine delegation in Geneva on Monday that there is a new wave of killings under Duterte, the 45 countries expressed concern about the extrajudicial killings, suggested an investigation into them, or recommended that the Philippines refrain from reinstating capital punishment.

These countries included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark,

Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Mozambique, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, and Zambia.

While dozens of countries slammed the Philippines over drugrelated killings, China hailed Duterte for his “relentless efforts” to promote human rights and the anti-drug campaign. Saudi Arabia which chaired the session, abstained.

Canada urged Manila to “end extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, illegal arrests and detention, torture and harassment,” with similar comments made by delegations from Australia, Brazil, France, Germany and Ghana, among many Next page others.

Blasts rock Maguindanao TWO separate explosions rocked Maguindanao province, wounding three policemen as security forces pursued Islamic State-inspired extremists.

The first explosion took place along the national highway in Mamasapano leading to the provincial police office, hitting three policemen.

Police Director Reuben Sindac, chief of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao identified the victims as PO3 Harim Ampatuan, PO3 Ali Malok and PO1 Norudin Olympain, all assigned with the Radjah Buayan Municipal Police Station.

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VOL. XXXI • NO. 85 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Naia on ‘alert status’ Security expert sees Quiapo bombings as IS ‘test runs’

By Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta

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UTHORITIES put the country’s premier airport on full alert after the twin bombings in Quiapo, Manila, which an international security analyst warned could be test runs by the Islamic State for wider attacks during the Ramadan.

Police had earlier played down an IS claim that it was behind the Quiapo bombings, saying they did not have the characteristics of a terrorist attack.

Airport Police Department Gen. Romy Labador said all airport policemen were placed on alert status as additional officers were deployed inside and outside all terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City.

“Security at checkpoints will conduct random rigid inspections on motor vehicles and the public is advised to oblige for their own protection,” Labador said.

However, Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Ed Monreal said the move to place the Naia on full alert was not to alarm the public but to raise awareness of possible incidents that may occur near the airport terminals.

He said the alert status is a proactive measure to ensure safety and security of airport users.

The MIAA official has directed airport baggage screeners to remain vigilant and discerning and to conduct a thorough inspection only when the need calls for it.

“We do not want to cause any alarm,” he said.

He urged the traveling public to check-in earlier to avoid inconvenience.

The Philippine National Police said the twin explosions in Quiapo district in Manila late Saturday that left at least two people dead and six others injured, did not constitute a terror attack and was aimed at a particular imam.

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Northern Police District officials conduct dialogue with the Camanava Muslim Community leaders to discuss peace and order situation while police conduct checkpoint (below) in Manila following the Quiapo bombings last Saturday. Andrew Rabulan and Norman Cruz

LP senators: Napoles acquittal ‘disturbing’

By Macon Ramos-Araneta What worries me more is the

DoJ no power to scrap Tadeco deal Floirendo on Tuesday said he respected the decision of the SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez House leadership to remove him wants the Justice department as vice chairman of the House to declare “illegal” the joint- contingent to the Commission venture agreement between the Bureau of Corrections and the Davao-based Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc., but Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said Tuesday it was not within his powers to issue such a declaration.

He made the statement at a congressional hearing even as the joint House committees on good government and public accountability and justice started Justice Secretary Vitalliano Aguirre its probe into the deal that led to explains to the joint House the severing of the ties between committee hearing that only the Alvarez and Davao del Norte President can cancel the TadecoBuCor deal. Manny Palmero Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr.

By Maricel V. Cruz

on Appointments.

“From the very beginning, my Commission on Appointments position was at the behest of the Lower House leadership,” Floirendo said in a statement.

“If the House leadership deems me as no longer needed in the CA post, so be it.”

Floirendo said his post at the commission was the least of his concerns.

“After all, it is the people of my congressional district that is my utmost priority over anything else,” he said.

Aguirre made his statement even as Tadeco president and chief executive Alex Valoria said not only was the JVA between the company and the Bureau of Next page

AT LEAST two Liberal Party senators on Tuesday considered as a disturbing development the acquittal of Janet Lim-Napoles in the illegaldetention-case filed against her by a whistle-blower.

“We already expected this. By now, the all-too-familiar habit of the Duterte regime to enter into exchange deals with convicted criminals is evident, where the lowliest scums are used to frame up political enemies,” detained Senator Leila de Lima said.

“I know this. I am the first victim of this despicable practice.

possibility of the judiciary succumbing to Malacañang’s pressures.”

Senator Bam Aquino said much the same thing.

“It’s disturbing, it’s demeaning that a convicted person, whom we can say is one of the biggest masterminds of one of the biggest scams that we’ve ever seen, would be acquitted in her first case,” Aquino said.

He said some lawyers had told him that whistle-blower Benhur Luy’s testimony in Napoles’ plunder and graft cases over the pork barrel scam would be weakened. Next page

Mighty hit with P27-b tax evasion Palace defends Cimatu,

By Rey E. Requejo THE Bureau of Internal Revenue on Tuesday asked the Justice Department to prosecute tobacco company Mighty Corp. and its executives for tax evasion involving P26.93 billion in unpaid excise taxes arising from its alleged use of counterfeit stamps on cigarette products.

This would be the second complaint for tax evasion filed by the BIR against Might Corp. executives led by its owner Alexander Wongchuking, who Next page

names blogger as asec

By John Paolo Bencito BLOGGER and sexy starlet Margaux “Mocha” Uson will be handling Malacañang’s social media affairs after President Rodrigo Duterte named her as assistant secretary at the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) on Tuesday.

With her new appointment, Uson relinquishes her position as a member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

Uson, who has a bitter relationship with the press, had earlier tagged journalists as “presstitutes” and called members of the Malacañang Press Corps, who share a space inside the New Executive Building as “paid hacks.”

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar had earlier cited Uson’s influence as a blogger and experience as an artist, when he was asked about her qualifications to be a part of the MTRCB. Next page

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Impeach process vs Du30 starts next week

By Maricel V. Cruz THE House of Representatives on Tuesday referred to the justice committee the impeachment case filed against President Rodrigo Duterte by Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, officials said Tuesday.

House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House committee on justice, said the impeachment process would begin next week.

“By next week, Monday or Tuesday, we will start our hearing to determine [the] sufficiency and form and substance [of the complaint],” Umali said.

The deliberations on the impeachment case has yet to begin, but Umali predicted that the complaint would be dismissed.

“Going by [the] pronouncements in particular of [the] LP, and the Super majority [against the impeachment complaint against the President], I believe this will be dismissed outright,” Umali said.

Alejano, a former Marine captain and a fellow former rebel soldier of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, accuses Duterte of betraying the public trust, bribery, multiple murder and crimes against humanity “when he adopted a state policy of inducing policemen, other law enforcement authorities and vigilante groups into the extrajudicial killings of more than 8,000 persons who were merely suspected of being drug offenders.”

He claims that Duterte organized and maintained liquidation squads “under the guise of ‘AntiCrime Task Forces,’ special police units like Davao’s Heinous Crimes Unit and/or vigilante groups like the dreaded Davao Death Squad and/or providing funds to the said groups.”

The same charges were leveled against Duterte for the Davao Death Squads’ activities that allegedly led to the execution in Davao City of more than 1,400 people suspected to be drug pushers and addicts during his terms as mayor, vice mayor and congressman of the city.

Alejano says he cannot allow the people “to just accept that murder is legal in this country.”

DoJ...

From A1 Corrections valid and legal, it had also been highly beneficial to the government and to some 30,000 direct and indirect workers in the banana industry and other related sectors.

Valoria told lawmakers the BuCor-Tadeco JVA was legal and constitutional and disputed the “erroneous allegations made against the company.”

Aguirre said it was only the President who could declare the joint venture canceled as his department could only recommend that the deal be rescinded.

“Actually, in the letter which we received from Speaker Alvarez, they are asking us to declare more or less the contract as illegal. I believe that we could not do it. The DoJ, the secretary of Justice cannot do it,” Aguirre said.

“I believe it is the President who could declare this as illegal and cancel the contract immediately. However, if the President would not tackle this, then we are going to make a recommendation to BuCor that they should institute appropriate action.”

Aguirre said Tadeco employed thousands of workers and its positive impact extended beyond its direct employees because “thousands of families” were benefiting as well from Tadeco’s operations. He also said that Tadeco was paying hundreds of millions of pesos in taxes to the government.

The JVA forged between BuCor and Tadeco primarily aims to help rehabilitate the inmates at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm and prepare them for their eventual reintegration in society by providing them with a decent means of livelihood while serving their sentences. Tadeco has developed a banana plantation inside the DPPF Reservation to realize these goals.

“We respectfully would like to point out to our honorable lawmakers that the JVA is not only about money; the more important aspect to it is its core purpose of the rehabilitation of the inmates which has been a proven success,” Valoria said.

“The benefits to thousands of ex-inmates, their spouses and children, and finally to the communities they eventually settled into are immeasurable.”

News

VP to PET: Drop FM bid preliminary conference jointly on the protest and counter-protest filed by Marcos and Robredo, respectively.

A preliminary conference, pleaded earlier by Marcos, would start the formal proceedings in the election cases.

It will determine, among other things, stipulations or admissions of facts and documents to avoid unnecessary proof, the simplification of the issues, the limitation of the number of witnesses, the most expeditious manner for the retrieval of the ballot boxes containing the ballots, election returns, certificates of canvass, and other election documents involved in the case.

In seeking the dismissal of Robredo counter-protest for nonpayment of the protest fee, Marcos cited election protest cases that were dismissed for the nonpayment of protest fees.

The cases cited were those of Perthe use, disbursement and expenditures of confidential and intelligence funds granted to certain government agencies.

Lacson welcomed the measure, saying there is a need to review the output of military and police intelligence.

Citing the recent twin blasts in Quiapo, Lacson said the more than P5 billion in intelligence funds should be enough to thwart such plots.

In Manila, Mayor Joseph Estrada ordered the city’s social welfare unit to look after the needs of the 20 people who were injured in the Quiapo blasts.

Estrada also ordered Nanet Tanyag, chief of the Manila Department of Social Welfare, to contact the families of the two slain victims and see what assistance the city government could offer them.

la Garcia vs. House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and Rep. Harry Angping, and Bienvenido William Lloren vs. Commission on Elections and Rogelio Pua Jr. “Guided by the foregoing, the dismissal of the counter-protest in this case is therefore warranted given the failure on the part of the protestee/counter-protestant Robredo to pay the required cash deposit within the prescribed time limit of this Honorable Tribunal,” Marcos said in his motion.

But Robredo says it is not mandatory for the PET to dismiss a poll protest for the non-payment of the cash deposit.

“Marcos conveniently omitted to say that the dismissal of a protest or counter protest, as the case may be, due to the nonpayment of cash deposit is discretionary and not mandatory,” she said.

She says Marcos was misplaced in citing rulings the Supreme Court’s rulings in the cases of Perla Garcia and Bienvenido William Lloren in his motion to dismiss her counter-protest due to his failure to pay the required cash deposit.

She says that, in Garcia’s case, the issue was the payment to the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal of the filing fee to be paid simultaneously with the filing of the petition.

She says Lloren’s case does not apply as the issue raised there was the payment of appeal fee.

“For the foregoing reasons, the Motion to Dismiss the CounterProtest should be stricken off the records of this case,” Robredo says in her appeal.

She says Marcos’ motion should be deemed moot and academic had already complied with the PET’s order dated April 25, paying the first

installment of the cash deposit for her counter-protest amounting to P8 million on May 2, 2017.

Sources in the PET shared the argument of Robredo that Marcos’ motion to dismiss, filed on April 19, had become “moot and academic” with the payment by Robredo on May 2 of P8 million of the P15.43 million for her counter-protest covering 31,278 precincts.

The second payment of P7.43 million is to be turned over to the PET, composed of all the 15 justices of the high court, on or before July 14 as stated in the March 21 resolution of the tribunal.

Marcos had paid P36.023 million of the P66.223 million required for his protest involving 132,446 precincts covering 39,221 clustered precincts in 25 provinces and five cities in the country.

The PET had set for June 21 the

Naia...

In the wake of the Quiapo attacks, the Senate has created an oversight committee on intelligence and confidential funds that would look into how the government uses intelligence and confidential funds and the efficiency of government institutions in providing accurate and timely intelligence information.

Senator Gregorio Honasan, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security, filed Senate Resolution No. 361 to create the oversight committee to enable the Senate to oversee the efficiency of government institutions in dealing with threats.

“In light of the recent threats to our country’s national security, including disturbance to peace and order by lawless elements, the importance of gathering intelligence information by concerned

government agencies cannot be overstated,” said Honasan in his resolution.

Senate President Aqulino Pimentel III, who presided over the session, immediately named the members of the committee—four from the majority group and two from the minority, plus the ex officio members.

The committee will be composed of its chairman, Honasan, and its members—Senators Panfilo Lacson, Richard Gordon, Manny Pacquiao, from the majority bloc; and Deputy Minority Leader Paolo Benigno Aquino IV and Senator Francis Pangilinan from the minority group.

The new oversight Committee on Intelligence and Confidential Funds in the 17th Congress willl allow the Senate to continue exercising its oversight functions over

With Sandy Araneta and PNA

“deeply troubling.”

China’s representative, Ma Zhaoxu, however, offered support to the Philippines, declaring drugs “the public enemy of mankind.”

“China highly appreciates the relentless efforts made by the Philippines for the promotion and protection of human rights, and the remarkable achievements it has made,” Ma said.

The Philippines was facing its regular review at the Geneva-based UN human rights council, where each country’s record is scrutinized every four years.

On Monday, the Palace said the Philippine delegation would “demolish” the negative perceptions about the administration’s war on illegal drugs.

But on Tuesday, the Palace backtracked on its promise amid the international flak it received following the Geneva review.

“We are not attempting to change anybody’s minds about these things.

We’re just simply pursuing our own direction regarding the dismantling of the illegal drug apparatus,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a press briefing.

Abella also said that the alleged extrajudicial killings will be investigated.

“Everything is subjected to due process. We will investigate everything that needs to be investigated,” he said.

Abella added that there was no “apples-to-apples comparison” between the number of killings during the past

and present administrations.

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who led the Philippine delegation, blamed critics and the media for supposedly changing the definition of extrajudicial killings, aimed at “deceiving the world” on the war on drugs.

He said the government’s enemies were using “a political tactic” of manipulating figures on extrajudicial killings to undermine the fight against a scourge that has poisoned Filipino society.

Cayetano also said that there was an attempt to include all homicides as drug killings.

“Make no mistake, any death or killing is one too much. However, there is a deliberate attempt to include all homicides as EJKs or killings related to the campaign against criminality and illegal drugs, and that these are state-sponsored, which is simply not true,” he said.

The rising number of deaths at the hands of police was the result of the huge number of operations conducted against illegal drugs, Cayetano said.

He also slammed western media for “inaccurately” reporting on the drug war happening in the Philippines by making use of the “alternative facts” of critics.

In an unprecedented move, Cayetano also showed a video clip of Duterte vowing to put “drug lords... below [the] ground”, an unusual move at the UN council where governments do not typically publicize death threats by

their heads of state.

Human Rights Watch applauded the “growing chorus of international concern at the human cost of President Duterte’s “murderous war on drugs” in a statement from the group’s Geneva director John Fisher.

He said the UN rights body should consider expelling the Philippines, which currently holds one of 47 rotating council seats, “if killings without accountability continue.”

Duterte was elected largely on a law-and-order platform in which he promised to eradicate illegal drugs by killing tens of thousands of people.

Since then, police have reported killing 2,692 people in anti-drug operations.

They say unspecified parties have murdered another 1,847 people in drug-related incidents, while 5,691 other violent deaths are under investigation.

In a major report on the drug war in February, Amnesty International accused police of shooting defenceless people, paying assassins to murder addicts and stealing from those they killed.

Duterte has previously boasted of taking part in killings.

Cayetano earlier urged members of the UNHRC to recognize the relationship between illegal drugs, especially methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, and violent crimes and poverty to understand the Philippine situation. With Sandy Araneta, Macon Ramos-Araneta and Rey E. Requejo

Spokesman Ernesto Abella said.

On Monday, Duterte appointed Cimatu to replace Regina Lopez, whose nomination was rejected by the Commission on Appointments for her arbitrary closure of mining operations during her brief stint as Environment chief.

In one of his first interviews as Environment secretary, Cimatu said that he is willing to allow “responsible mining.”

Abella said Cimatu can still promote social justice as demanded by environmentalists and critics, despite being a former chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

In the same briefing, Abella said that Duterte backpedaled on his earlier comment that “lobby money” worked against Lopez in the CA. “We need to correct that. The Presi-

dent did say last night that when he said ‘lobby’, it’s not necessarily money. He corrected himself. He clarified himself,” Abella said.

“When he said ‘lobby’, people automatically assume that there was an exchange of money. He said basically, lobby is a legal thing that you can actually exercise in order to persuade one’s particular position.”

In a speech last week, Duterte said Lopez’s appointment as Environment secretary was rejected by the CA because “lobby money talks.”

Duterte’s statement did not sit well with some members of the CA, who called it a “sweeping attack” against the constitutional body.

Also on Tuesday, Duterte named former House speaker Jose de Venecia as special envoy for inter-

cultural dialogue.

In a text message to reporters, DFA Spokesperson Robespierre Bolivar said that the new role is “in recognition of his active role in promoting intercultural and inter-faith dialogue for many years.”

De Venecia will perform his functions only from April to September 2017, Bolivar added.

As special envoy, De Venecia is expected to advise the government on issues concerning inter-cultural dialogue and recommend ways to advance Philippine interests in this matter.

De Venecia, a former Pangasinan solon, was House speaker from 1992 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2008. He ran for president in 1998 but lost to then Vice President Joseph Estrada.

Sindac said the three policemen were on board a Mahindra patrol jeep on their way to the police provincial headquarters in Maguindanao Police office to attend a conference.

They were crossing Sitio Paso, Brgy. Manongkaling when an improvised explosive device along their path went off at 10:15 a.m.

The victims sustained shrapnel wounds and were taken to the Maguindanao Provincial Hospital for treatment.

Sindac said police were still investigating to determine who planted the bombs.

At a nearby town in Shariff Aguak, a bomb was detonated after troops encountered members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Brgy. Bagong Upam at 7:35 a.m.

Reports said troops from the 57th Infantry battalion and the 21st Mechanized Company encountered the BIFF fighters while they were on clearing operations in Upam village.

After a brief clash ensued, the bomb went off, but no soldiers were hurt. Francisco Tuyay

staff and retired Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, Might Corp.’s president; retired Judge Oscar Barrientos, company executive vice president; and company treasurer Ernesto Victa as co-respondents of Wongchuking in the second tax evasion case.

The new complaint stemmed from the raid conducted by the BIR and Bureau of Customs last March 24 on the tobacco firm’s warehouses at Barangay Matimbubong, San Ildefonso, Bulacan which resulted in the discovery of 536,000 cigarette packs in 1,072 master cases with fake stamps.

“Internal revenue stamps affixed on the cigarette packs were tested using the Taggant reader, a BIR-registered equipment used to test the authenticity of stamps affixed on cigarette packs.

Based on the 24-day validation activ-

ity conducted from March 27, 2017 to May 5, 2017, 100 percent of the total stamps tested on 536,000 cigarette packs are fake. The master cases containing the said cigarettes with fake stamps were marked and seized,” the complaint stated.

The 536, 000 cigarette packs were part of the 81,591,500 packs contained in 163,183 master cases found in the said warehouses.

The bureau alleged that the stamps were fake since they did not contain the multi-layered security features of a valid internal revenue stamp and were not affixed at the production plant of Mighty Corp. in Bulacan as required by law, which means the seized master cases came from another manufacturing plant.

The BIR further cited the lack of of-

ficial delivery receipts for the San Ildefonso warehouses.

“Such failure to present the official delivery receipts showed that the cigarette packs in the subject warehouses did not come from the manufacturing plant in Barangay Tikay where such stamps should have been affixed to confirm that the proper taxes are paid before articles subject to excise tax are removed from the production plant,’ the complaint pointed out.

The first tax evasion case filed by BIR against Mighty Corp. last March involved the master cases of cigarettes worth P2.3 billion bearing fake tax stamps seized from the firm’s warehouse in San Simon Industrial Park in Pampanga.

The DoJ panel of prosecutors led by

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Sebastian Caponong has already started the preliminary investigation on the first case.

In a hearing on May 4, Wongchuking, Barrientos and Victa appeared before the panel and submitted their respective counter-affidavits denying the allegations of the BIR and seeking dismissal of the charges.

The hearing will continue May 11for the submission of counter-affidavit of Adan.

Mighty Corp. has reportedly offered to settle its tax liabilities through a compromise payment agreement, but Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the filing of cases against the tobacco firm would be necessary before the compromise could be arranged.

By Rey E. Requejo

V

ICE President Leni Robredo has asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to dump the motion of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. seeking to dismiss her counter-protest for his nonpayment of the cash deposit earlier required by the PET.

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But Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said the ISIS news agency, Amaq, which claimed that the IS was responsible for the explosions in Quiapo, has never issued false claims.

“Amaq will exaggerate. Amaq will get its numbers and figures wrong. But we have never come to an instance where the ISIS official media has falsely claimed attacks,” he told the ANC news channel.

Gunaranta said the Philippine government must immediately arrest the people responsible for the blasts; improve knowledge on ISIS operations abroad; and work closely with authorities overseas.

Global...

From A1

The United States said it was crucial for the Philippines to “investigate the allegations of the more than 7,000 deaths associated with the counter-narcotics campaign since July 2016, including over 2,600 killings by security forces and 4,000 by unknown assailants.”

“We ask the Philippine government to investigate these crimes, hold accountable those who are responsible, and bring justice to the victims,” the American delegate added.

Ten states recommended that the Philippines invite the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard to look into human rights violations in the country.

The United Kingdom also expressed concern over the number of deaths in the drug war and Duterte’s plan to reinstate the death penalty.

“We remain concerned about the high number of people killed in the campaign against illegal drugs, [and] plans to reinstate the death penalty,” the country’s representative said.

The Holy See asked predominantly Catholic Philippines to “maintain the protection of the right to life from conception to natural death,” adding that reports of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances are

Palace...

From A1

Uson, an avid supporter of the President, is an advocate of using blogs rather than traditional media to inform Filipinos.

The Palace, meanwhile, defended the appointment of former military chief Roy Cimatu as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, saying that President Duterte finds him “extraordinarily gifted” in balancing the concerns of the agency.

“During the Cabinet meeting, he did make this comment... he felt that General Roy Cimatu is extraordinarily gifted for the task of balancing environmental concerns with mining operation concerns,” Presidential

Mighty...

From A1 are now facing preliminary investigation for a P9.56 billion tax evasion case.

This is the biggest tax evasion case filed by the BIR so far in its Run After Tax Evaders program under the administration of President Duterte.

In its latest complaint, the BIR accused Wongchuking and three other company officials of violating the National Internal Revenue Code for unlawful possession of articles subject to excise tax without payment of the tax and for possessing false, counterfeit, restored or altered stamps.

The tax bureau again named former Armed Forces deputy chief-of-

LP...

From A1

“I think that’s the main, one of the big evidences in the plunder case. I hope her plunder case will not weaken due to the acquittal of Napoles,” Aquino said.

“It leaves many of us scratching our heads. We are just scratching our heads now due to this happening. I hope it will not weaken the plunder case against her.”

De Lima appealed to the judges and justices not to allow themselves to be bullied by the President into issuing unjust judgments.

“Like any bully, this one will have his just desserts. And when that time comes, all his collaborators, whether from the legislative, executive or judiciary, will be remembered by their names,” she said.

“Our justices are called Justice for a reason. They are expected to give justice, especially when there is so much injustice around us. They are not prostitutes to be disrobed inside the bedrooms of Malacañang.”

De Lima said the possibility that Napoles in turn would be used against her for her supposed selective prosecution of corrupt legislators was, “I was told, implied today in an interview of Napoles’ lawyer.”

De Lima said that, in Duterte’s desire for the absolute acquiescence of all politicians, it was not remote that the President would use Napoles to blackmail and threaten any remaining opposition in Congress.

“This whole Mafiosi scheme is as shameless as it is destructive of our political system. It is vintage Duterte,” she said.

Blasts...

From A1

News Senate OKs extended validity for passports

By Macon Ramos-Araneta THE Senate has approved on second reading a bill extending the validity of Philippine passports from the current five years to 10 years.

The motion to adopt Senate Bill No. 1365—a consolidated measure authored by nine senators—was adopted late Monday evening.

A counterpart measure was already passed in the House of Representatives in February.

Senator Cynthia Villar said passports of several countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Vietnam and Cambodia, are already valid for 10 years.

Philippine passports, however, are valid for only five years and can no longer be used six months before the expiration date.

“In effect, it’s four and a half years. It’s really cumbersome to travelers so we felt that we should lengthen it,” Villar said.

Villar dispelled apprehensions that extending the validity period of passports would impact on government revenues. Passport applications, she said, increase by 30 percent every year.

“Whatever we will lose in terms of renewal will be compensated by the increase in passport application,” she said.

The government collects around P4 billon a year from passport applications.

Meanwhile, the Senate committee on public services chaired by Senator Grace Poe approved a measure seeking to lengthen the validity of all drivers’ licenses from the current three years to five years.

The proposal was contained in three bills filed separately by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Senators Richard Gordon and Joseph Victor Ejercito.

During the hearing, Land Transportation Office executive director Romeo Vera-Cruz said the agency has already started issuing driver’s licenses that are valid for five years “but without cards.”

Cruz said the release of the new license cards, which will have better security features, “would be in August this year.”

Poe reminded the LTO that it was given P526 million for the new driver’s licenses.

The new driver’s licenses, Poe said, will feature a hologram mark and “hidden” data.

She said traffic violations will be uploaded on the system and the barcodes in the license will reflect the charges immediately.

Abella gets outscooped by ‘excitable’ Agri chief

By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENTIAL Spokesperson Ernesto Abella on Tuesday laughed off getting outscooped twice by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol in announcing two important appointments made by President Rodrigo Duterte.

When pressed by reporters if he could be more “active” in social media and make faster announcements on Palace appointments, Abella said in jest that he should just engage another Cabinet Secretary in a “Facebook war.”

“He tends to get excited, right?” Abella said of Piñol, who is a former journalist.

Piñol on Monday announced the appointments of Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla in his Facebook page.

It was only hours after Piñol’s social media post that Abella was able to confirm both appointments.

Piñol earlier chided the Palace communication team for being “weak” in delivering the key messages of the President.

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Anti-graft court affirms plunder case vs Revilla

By Maricel V. Cruz

T

HE Sandiganbayan has denied the plea of former Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. to dismiss his plunder case in connection with his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.

The anti-graft court’s First Division rejected Revilla’s motion for reconsideration of an earlier resolution in February denying his petition to dismiss his case.

Revilla maintained that the case information failed to guide him of the nature and cause of the allegations against him. The former senator also insisted that the accusations

against him failed to constitute the crime of plunder The court, however, said Revilla’s arguments in his motion were “mere reiteration and rehashed versions” of what were mentioned in his earlier petition.

Revilla, who has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame since June 2014, has been accused of allegedly pocketing P224.5 million in kickbacks from his PDAF. Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division has dismissed the graft

case filed against former Palawan governor Joel Reyes in connection with the fertilizer fund scam.

“The entire proceedings before the Office of the Ombudsman took close to 12 years, thereby further proving to this Court that there was inordinate delay in this case that violated accused Reyes’ right to speedy disposition of cases,” the court said in its resolution.

Reyes, in his motion, said the court committed an “inordinate delay” in conducting the proceedings of the case.

A4

Opinion

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

EDITORIAL

Adelle Chua, Editor

SC hurting women

T

HE Reproductive Health Law of 2012 was landmark legislation that guaranteed universal access to sex education, maternal care, contraception and fertility control.

The law would have given women control over their own bodies—and the freedom to decide whether to have children and when to have them.

The law would have enabled couples to better plan their families, so that they would not have more children than they could afford. On a national level, the RH Law could have raised per capita income by keeping population growth in check to rates more

appropriate to our limited resources.

Today, almost five years after the law was enacted, that promise remains unfulfilled, largely because the Supreme Court has chosen to stand in its way.

In 2015, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Department of Health from procuring, selling and distributing the contraceptive implant, Implanon, in response to a petition filed by anti-abortion groups that claimed it caused abortions. Specifically, it stopped the Food and Drug Administration from “granting any and all pending applications for reproductive products and supplies, including contraceptive drugs and devices.”

When the Health department

appealed to have the order lifted, the Supreme Court rejected the motion and in August 2016 effectively expanded its effect by putting the renewal of licenses on hold for other contraceptives.

At a forum this month, the director of the DoH Family Health Office, Junice Melgar, said the Court’s TRO was “killing women”—an apparent reference to the country’s high maternal mortality rate of 114 per 100,000 deliveries in 2015.

Last year, Melgar said, the registration of several products had already expired. This year, some 62 percent will expire and in 2018, 90 percent will expire. By 2020, there will be no contraceptives left, she said.

Viewed through the lens of the

country’s high maternal mortality rate, the scarcity of contraceptives poses a real danger to millions of women, who by law should be able to easily and legally avoid unwanted pregnancies.

The question is, why is the Supreme Court standing in their way?

In a speech in January, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said the Court was looking at ways to ensure fair and speedy resolution of legal gridlocks, but did not refer specifically to the two-year-old TRO on contraceptive drugs and devices.

With due respect to the Chief Justice, isn’t two years enough time to decide an issue? How can an indefinite ban that has already lasted two years be considered “temporary?”

VIRTUAL REALITY TONY LOPEZ

Espenilla and central banking

cessor. But instead the opposite happened, thanks to that legion of doom called the Liberal Party.

Duterte hadn’t even warmed his presidential chair when the evil designs of the Yellow cult began to surface, strengthening my new-found conviction that this man must be protected and defended, not because of who he is but what he represents —the votes of, as those knowledgeable now say, a more likely 21-million Filipinos, even if I wasn’t one of them; his power and authority are of, for and by us, the people. Any illegal and unjust attempt to remove him from the presidency, I decided, is subverting the people’s will.

The Yellow scum of society became more brazen in their actions to demonize Duterte and remove him from office. Having failed miserably on their own, they now enlist foreign entities calling themselves experts to help them in their evil designs.

NESTOR “Nesting” Espenilla Jr. is the next or 11th governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas or central bank, succeeding the much-appreciated Amando M. Tetangco Jr. who served two consecutive terms.

To me, Nesting Espenilla at the helm of the Philippine central bank is both good news and bad news.

First the good news. Espenilla, 58 and a father of three, has both competence and experience. He is an economist. He finished business economics at the University of the Philippines, magna cum laude, in 1981, MBA, with honors, also at UP, in 1982, and an MS in policy science from the Graduate Institute of Policy Science (GRIPS) in Tokyo, Japan, in 1988. The central bank is his first-ever and only employer, he having joined the institution after graduation in 1981.

That’s 36 years of experience.

He worked in Economic Research, International Operations, and in the Office of the Governor. He was seconded to the IMF in 1990-1992.

Espenilla is currently the BSP deputy governor for banking supervision, and concurrently, the governor’s representative in the powerful Anti-Money Laundering Council which disclosed the late Chief Justice Renato Corona’s alleged secret bank accounts that led to his impeachment, ouster, and eventually to a fatal heart attack in April 2016. The AMLC or AMLA also refused to disclose Senator Leila de Lima alleged bank deposits linked top drug lords and was used to link then presidential candidate Rodrigo Roa Duterte to hidden wealth or bank accounts which prompted him to denounce the Council, demand the resignation of its top officers, and incur his eternal emnity against its men and women. Duterte’s anger led to the resignation of AMLC’s executive director.

Now for the bad news. As the BSP’s top honcho in charge of bank supervision, Espenilla was perceived by businessmen as very strict, thus hampering the greater flow of bank loans to business and a greater

Turn to A5

Turn to A5

How Duterte won over Melchor LOWDOWN

JOJO A. ROBLES A FACEBOOK friend, Melchor Vergara, posted this following piece yesterday in commemoration of the first anniversary of President Rodrigo Duterte’s amazing win in last year’s national elections. It’s too good not to share here, with only minor editing to conform to this column’s style from me, with Melchor’s permission: One year ago today, I did not vote for Rodrigo Duterte to be the next president. I cast my one vote for the woman I believed should be given one last chance to exercise the office stolen from her in 1992, Miriam Defensor Santiago.

But it wasn’t meant to be. All throughout election day, exit polls conducted by the Yellow, anti-Duterte television net-

works indicated a win by the foul-mouthed mayor of Davao.

And not long after the unofficial counting started that same night, it became clear that he would virtually run away with the victory, garnering an official tally of 16 million-plus votes, despite the use of the same math Mar Roxas employed in counting the “Yolanda” casualties.

My choice for vice president suffered the same fate as my presidential candidate did, being robbed of his victory as the nation slept. But that’s another story.

Unlike in 2010 when every fiber of my being despised the presidential election results, I found this one easy to believe and accept. A former prosecutor and mayor for more than two decades who transformed a once crime-riddled backwater into a progressive, world-class city certainly has a lot more to offer than the hypocritical, non-achiever of a president

he was replacing, whose only qualifications were having the name of a pseudo-hero, and his mother conveniently dying a few months before the campaign season started.

‘I do not regret not voting for Duterte last year. That fact only makes me appreciate him more.’

As the media focused on Duterte’s preparations for his new office, I, like many who did not follow his campaign religiously, got a chance to see and hear

more of him. And the more I heard and saw, the more I liked.

It didn’t take long for me to be won over. Duterte’s anti-drug crusade sealed the deal.

As a parent, knowing that my kids can walk the streets without fear of being victimized by drug-crazed criminals or be sucked into the vice themselves, I believed this was more important than the latest GDP numbers or foreign policy initiatives.

And after six forgettable years, it is an inspiring sight to see a President think and act like he is working for the welfare of all Filipinos, not just his bunch of kaibigan, kaklase, kamag-anak and a host of brainwashed, idiot rah-rah boys and girls.

Never mind that I didn’t like some of his choices for his Cabinet. It’s his prerogative to appoint whoever he wants.

I was sure I would find a policy of his so unacceptable that I would criticize him as much as I did his incompetent prede-

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Family legends

How...

From A4 I said: They must not be allowed to succeed and again dictate the course of our country’s history, like they did in 1986 and 2010. *** I do not regret not voting for Duterte last year. That fact only makes me appreciate him more, seeing how he gives equal attention and concern for his supporters and those he knows did not vote for him.

He is the president of all, and he works for all of us, at a pace and manner many men half his age would find punishing. The Yellow horde can deny it ‘til hell freezes over, but since he took office, many positive changes have been seen and felt by the people, first among them is the way basic services are delivered.

Just look at how the government, through the DSWD, ably coped with the numerous calamities, natural and manmade, that have occurred since July last year, without relying on foreign aid like Leni Ro-

bredo wants us to. And we once again have a president who is respected among his peers especially in this part of the world.

His opinion on issues even being sought out by world leaders, as evidenced by recent events.

It’s no wonder that even with big media helping the Yellows in destabilizing his government, Duterte enjoys very high trust and satisfaction ratings across all sectors of society.

Change has come, and for more changes to occur, Duterte must be able to complete the mandate given to him. For our country’s sake, we need to support and defend the presidency, not because we are fans of Rodrigo Duterte, but because he symbolizes that we are a sovereign nation with a functioning democracy.

He is the president, our president. We owe it to the future generations of Filipinos that there is another peaceful transfer of power on June 30, 2022.

And who knows, maybe we’ll see Bongbong Marcos raise his right hand to take the presidential oath at noon of that same day.

A5

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

French polls, EJKs, etc.

TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO

I WOKE up yesterday feeling She died at the age of 103. nostalgic. I remembered what *** my father, the late Emiliano President Rodrigo Duterte Cortez Jurado Sr., told me that could not have named a betthe first Jurado came from To- ter successor to BSP Governor ledo, Spain.

Amado Tetangco than TetangLegend has it that when Juan co’s deputy, Nestor Espenilla Jr. Salcedo was named governor- I have written a few times about general, he made Vigan, Ilocos how I thought he was the most Sur the capital of the Philip- qualified among those in the pines. Magsingal was made its running. support.

A skillful watchdog and econI can believe that. Vigan was omist, Espenilla is competent, and still is the nearest to Xia- having reinforced the banking men, China, the biggest Chinese system such that our banks are trading port at that time. Most now ranked the most resilient in of the biggest families in Vigan the region. have Chinese origins, like the Finance Secretary Carlos Syquias. The late President Apo Dominguez said this appointPidiong Quirino, the son of a ment was the most important of jail warden, was in fact married all. I agree. to a Syquia. The Singsons were Now we can rest easy. We also thought to be of Chinese know that the policies and reorigin—they were known to be forms initiated by Tetangco will the sons of Sing. continue.

I also know that there was Congratulations to Governor a watch tower on the coast of Espenilla. May the force be Magsingal, where Spanish sol- with you. diers looked out for Chinese I am also happy about the pirates. appointment of former Armed My late father told me that Forces of the Philippines chief the first Jurado Roy Cimatu was a guardia as secretary civil, stationed of the Dein the sub-port partment of of Magsingal.

Environment Meet the His first name and Natural Jurados. was Canuto.

Resou rces.

Later on, CaThe appointnuto brought ment was along a brother welcomed named Abdon, with “guardwho also settled in the town. ed optimism” by the mining After many generations of in- industry. termarriages with Spanish mesI do not know Cimatu persontizas and Filipino indios, my ally, even though I know he did father was born. He was the son well at the AFP and as special of a farmer, a “nagtatalon,” as envoy looking after overseas they were called. workers in the Middle East durHe had Quintin, Emiliano, ing the Arroyo administration.

Anita, Mariano and PolicarI don’t know how he will balpio, whose descendants we still ance the contrary demands of communicate with when we go protecting the environment and to Ilocos. managing natural resources.

My father was a product of Still, I say congratulations.

Spanish public schools. He *** spoke Spanish. He eloped with I don’t know what the Mamy mother, Margarita Pacis. nila City Police and Philippine He had to, since the Pacis fam- National Police chief Ronald ily, whose house was beside the dela Rosa are out to prove. ISIS town hall, considered them- has already claimed that it was selves higher in status than the behind the recent bombings in farmers. In any case, through Quiapo. hard work and patience, my faIt’s a fact that even national ther became a teacher. Soon he security and intelligence ofbecame a district supervisor as- ficials have acknowledged the signed to Abra, then a sub-prov- presence of foreign terrorists ince of Ilocos Sur. here.

I was born on Sept. 15, 1927 So why are Dela Rosa and in the town of Dolores in Abra. company insisting that perHere’s the interesting part of sonal feuds are the reason for the family legend. My father the blasts? Do they just want to had an uncle, a Spanish mes- appear as though they are doing tizo with two pretty daughters. their jobs?

These girls had many rich and To discount the possibility landed suitors from outside of of terror attacks will just make Ilocandia. Maria got married the people less alert. Or are they to the hacendero Marque from trying to cover up something?

Tayabas, and Marciana mar*** ried the hacendero Urdabe of My belated congratulations to my nephew, Rudolf Philip Pangasinan.

Among my affluent relatives Jurado, for his appointment as were the late Manuel Marquez, government corporate counsel. a well-known banker, and Anita Philip is the son of my late eldUrdabe Lorenzana, the name est brother, Court of Appeals behind the brand of patis and Justice Desiderio Jurado, who bagoong exported to Thailand. in fact has five lawyer children.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO THE recent French presidential polls showed France is not ready for a woman head of state. Emmanuel Macron defeated farright rival Marine Le Pen. The perennial presidential candidate took it all in stride and danced the night away at a popular Paris nightclub. Marine showed that while she cannot swing enough French voters her way, she can sway and shake in a sexy number on the dance floor.

Vive le France!

I can’t understand the Duterte administration’s strong reaction to United Nations human rights rapporteur Agnes Callamard’s visit to Manila to look into the alleged extrajudicial killings.

So what if Callamard didn’t coordinate with Malacañang officials? She was invited by the government’s Human Rights Commission and that would make her visit official, no matter what the Palace says.

Why not just let her do her thing and afterwards dismiss it as preconceived and biased?

Besides, she would only be given the government side had

she coordinated with Duterte officials. Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is already doing that at the UN Council on Human Rights where he heads a Philippine delegation. Cayetano, obviously, is looking for a job as foreign secretary. That he, and CHR chair Etta Rosales head the Philippine delegation is a giveaway that the CHR itself is against the extrajudicial killings in the government’s war on illegal drugs.

The one-year ban on defeated candidates’ appointment to a Cabinet post ends on May 30.

Cayetano ran and lost as vice presidential candidate of Duterte.

Ranting and raving Others have written about her, including this columnist. But former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez who was rejected by the Commission on Appointments is still ranting and raving on her family-owned ABS-CBN television network. She should be told to move on and make a graceful exit.

We are quite sure even ABSCBN anchor Karen Davila was uncomfortable interviewing Gina and hearing the same accusations about the mining companies lobby money in the CA decision rejecting her as DENR secretary.

Of course the mining compa-

nies have to protect their interest. All is fair in love and war.

Since the mining firms have no love lost for Lopez, we can only expect them to spend money against her.

No free bath Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada warned city resident not to take a bath in public fountains . He reminded them of jail and fines if they do. So why not provide city residents sweltering in the intense summer heat with public toilets cum bathrooms? Manila has enough money from collected taxes which must be why Erap wants to seek a third term The city’s coffers are brimming with funds from proceeds of the sale of public markets. We heard that even the historic and landmark Rizal Memorial Coliseum/Stadium complex is up for sale to make way for a condominium tower cum shopping mall.

Where does that put the country’s sports development program? Right now, our aspiring athletes use the Rizal stadium complex as training site and living quarters.

We have yet to hear the moribund Philippine Olympic Committee under Peping Cojuangco oppose the planned sale of the Rizal stadium. No wonder the country has yet to win a gold

medal in the Olympiads. The nearest we came to were silver medals won by Anthony Villanueva and Mansueto Velasco in boxing and Hidilyn Diaz in women’s weightlifting The Rizal sports complex will soon be demolished but the only thing permanent it seems is the presidency of Peping Cojuangco as POC president. Is he president for life without any serious challenger? All the other sports associations heads tried to run against Cojuangco but failed.

No end to ‘endo’ President Duterte asked the country’s workers to give it a few more years before they can completely dismantle “endo,” the onerous practice of contractualization.

A few more years could mean at the end of Duterte’s six-year term. So much for campaign promises in the last presidential elections.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello, for a while, looked like the workers’ last hope to end “endo.”

In the end, after negotiations with employers, Bebot Bello realized whom he was working for.

Alas, like the true politician that he is, he knows that political campaign funds come from companies and employers.

Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

Short shrift SO I SEE LITO BANAYO SABI nang tama na, Gina.

Now ugly truths about her fitness to be a member of the Cabinet are coming out of the woodwork. I won’t mention these any longer; Senator Ping, in a moment of pique, already said some.

That is why there are executive sessions. Members of the Commission on Appointments do not want to embarrass nominees by bringing out rather unpleasant things about one’s past in open hearings.

Considering further how the media conglomerate her family controls had been unabashedly promoting her confirmation and damning all who oppose her, deliberating and voting in secret was just proper.

For far too long, some media organizations have believed they could dictate the agenda of the nation. They did not contemplate having a Digong as president of the land.

After having been rejected last week, Madam Regina went on a media offensive in the vain hope that she could yet “rule from the grave,” pressuring the

Espenilla...

From A4

growth of the economy. Also, as the successor, the new governor is expected to continue the Tetangco’s policies and programs. True, Say Tetangco was cited among the world’s best central governors at least eight times. He even became the Management Man of the Year by the Management Association of the Philippines. (Five central bank governors became Management Men of the Year, whether they did badly or not.)

I find Tetangco rather conservative as the head of the country’s central monetary authority. Like his predecessors, the governor was fixated on just three things—controlling the inflation rate, stabilizing the peso-dollar rate, and managing money supply.

That narrow focus meant less money that could have gone to boost economic development.

Instead of growing by just 5 to 6 percent as it had done in the past 18 years, the economy could have easily expanded by 8 to 9 percent per year had more money been made available to the system.

President to appoint himself as DENR secretary, with her as undersecretary. She just couldn’t bear to leave her post with grace and class. Neither I suppose the 55 consultants she brought with her, and the gaggle of blindersendowed crusaders for the environment who like her would brook no opposition to the “A, basta” syndrome.

So on Monday night, when she was commiserating with the “crusaders” who chained themselves in front of the DENR building, she found to her utter dismay that she had been given short shrift by the President.

Roy Cimatu, former AFP Chief of Staff and currently special envoy to the Middle East, was named to her post.

Ruling from the political grave was thus thrashed. For all we know, Cimatu was being groomed for another important post, as the President intimated before the OFW community in his Middle Eastern trip, but with the denouement at the CA and the engineered post-mortem paeans to Madam Regina, the political noise had to be immediately quelled.

Short shrift, indeed. *** The other lesson that wannabes for government posts may have gleaned from the President’s actions of late is that he

disdains pressure from propaganda ploys or media plays.

Look at the appointment of Nesting Espenilla to the Bangko Sentral governorship. The guy remained as humble and unassuming as he had always been.

No public pronouncements about qualifications, nor endorsements by political parties, no media blitz.

The guy didn’t even salivate for the job. A deeply religious person from the island of San Jacinto in Masbate, he just continued what he has been doing very well as the BSP’s chief banking regulator.

It helped of course that both outgoing BSP Gov. Tetangco and DoF Secretary Sonny Dominguez wanted someone from the BSP’s career officials, whether the equally qualified Diwa Gunigundo or Nesting, to occupy what the DoF Secretary described as the most important appointment by the President. *** While nobody seriously gave a young upstart with no established political party a chance to become Presidente de la France months before, Emmanuel Macron has become, at 39, the duly elected leader of this great nation.

And with the flair of a true Frenchman, Macron chose to celebrate his election victory at

the Place de la Louvre, with the iconic glass pyramid as backdrop.

The choice of Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 as some kind of triumphal anthem was inspired as it was an obvious signal that France would continue to be a major mover of the European Union.

But Macron faces a daunting task. He has to confront the problems plaguing his country with the same daring and determination that Charles de Gaulle did when faced with political crises. Macron’s challenge is more economic than political, but he has to move with the same audacity and daring that De Gaulle employed to inspire his people.

Remember what Danton exclaimed: “L’audace, encore l’audace, toujours de l’audace!”

(We must dare, dare again, always dare!”).

For if the young Macron fails to reverse the gears of an ailing economy, and give renewed hope to the millennials who rallied around his nouvelle politique, the always skeptical French would taunt their political fate and quote Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr, “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” (the more things change, the more they remain the same).

Did you know that as much as P3 trillion of excess deposits of private banks are parked with the Bangko Sentral? Did you know that as much as 30 percent or P5 trillion of the country’s GDP or value of economic output of P15 trillion is in the form of savings? Did you know that under normal banking rules, you can leverage your equity—or deposits or savings—by as much as eight times (what bankers call the gearing ratio) to pump-prime the economy?

Every peso of deposit could be lent eight times. One peso can generate eight pesos of output.

What has been the effect of that conservatism? The economy grew but it made the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Growth did not trickle down to the poor. That is why in the last 30 years, poverty, instead of being reduced, has remained stagnant at 25 percent of the population. The government later claimed poverty incidence is now only 21 percent.

If our central bank is that good and it is among the oldest central banks in Asia, how can you explain the fact that in Asean, with the possible exception of Indonesia, the Philip-

pines has the highest inflation rate, the highest interest rates, the highest unemployment, the highest poverty incidence, and the lowest foreign investment inflow?

Did you know that a third of the country’s 1,500 towns do not have a bank branch? Did you know that more than 50 million Filipinos do not have a bank account?

How else can one measure the effectiveness of central banking except on how its programs and policies have benefited the greater mass of our people? A central bank exists for the majority of the people. Not for the few who are very rich.

You cannot blame Tetangco and his cohorts for their ultra conservatism. In 1993, the central bank changed is policy focus. It is merely to watch the inflation rate, the peso-dollar rate, and the volume of money supply.

This makes the CB governor nothing more than a glamorized watchman, making day out of night, and night out of day. And it was called hard work.

When the original Philippines central bank was born in June 1948, it had three primary functions—maintain monetary stability, preserve the

international value of the peso, and promote a rising level of production, employment, and real income.

Plainly, the central bank is supposed to boost economic production or GDP, boost employment, and boost wages, net of inflation. That is what is called development banking. I remember the late Central Bank Governor Gregorio Licaros. In 1972, there was a big flood in Central Luzon because Lingayen Gulf and Manila Bay had a date in Luzon’s vast central plains. Luzon was devastated.

What did Licaros do? He unleashed P200 million to revive Central Luzon.

Maybe, there is a connection.

With the old central bank, the Philippines became the secondrichest country in Asia. Today, with our BSP, the Philippines is being whip-lashed in the economic race by newly emerging tiger countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and even lately, Cambodia—countries which were not even independent states when our central bank was founded in 1948. biznewsasia@gmail.com

News

A6

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

‘Balikatan’ begins in Luzon, Visayas

By Vito Barcelo FILIPINO and American soldiers conducted live firing and counterIED (improvised explosive devices) training during the first day of Balikatan 33-2017 in Luzon and Visayas regions, the US Embassy said Tuesday.

US Ambassador Sung Kim, Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ariel Y. Abadilla, and representatives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the US military officially opened Balikatan 33 on Monday at Camp Aguinaldo.

The AFP and US forces “partnered to improve their counterterrorism capabilities to build safer communities and work towards the eradication of global terror networks,” the embassy statement said.

During Balikatan, US and Philippine forces conduct operational and counterterrorism training exercises in diverse areas of expertise, including live fire advanced marksmanship, counter-IEDs, maritime interdiction, and amphibious raids.

“Balikatan 33-2017 incorporates high value training events designed to

IN BRIEF Ombudsman hits pork barrel players OMBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio-Morales has ordered anew the Department of Science and Technology to dismiss three Technology Resource Center officials for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service for their involvement in the pork barrel fund scam of a former Davao del Sur lawmaker in 2008.

Those ordered dismissed were Belina Concepcion, Marivic Jover and Consuelo Lilian Espiritu. They were also meted the accessory penalties of cancellation of civil service eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification from holding public service.

The charges arose from the Ombudsman’s findings that then-Davao del Sur representative Douglas Cagas, now the provincial governor, received P16 million as part of his Priority Development Assistance Fund allocation.

The anti-graft watchdog said Cagas illegally channeled the PDF to the Countrywide Agri and Rural Economic and Development Foundation Inc. and the Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc. Cagas’ son, ex-Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas IV, also misappropriated P6 million of his pork barrel allocation in 2008 through the Farmerbusiness Development Corp., the Ombudsman said.

The father and son used the TRC as the conduit of their scheme, and allegedly received kickbacks amounting to P5.5 million and P9.3 million, respectively, through former Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Zenaida Ducut.

In another pork barrel case, the Office of the Ombudsman also announced the 90-day preventive suspension of former Budget undersecretary for operations Mario Relampagos for his involvement in the scam.

The Sandiganbayan also placed former Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives Rep. Edgar Valdez under a three-month suspension.

Likewise ordered suspended were Department of Budget officials Rosario Nuñez, Lalaine Paule and Marilou Bare; ZNAC Rubber Estate Corp. officials Salvador Salacup and Eduardo Nolasco; National Agri-Business Corp. officials Romulo Relevo and Maria Ninez Guañizo, and National Livelihood Development Corp. officials Gondelina Amata, Gregoria Buenaventura, Chita Jalandoni, Sofia Cruz and Ofelia Ordoñez.

Valdez, Relampagos and the other coaccused stand trial for violation RA 3019, after the Ombudsman’s investigation showed Valdez siphoned over P50 million in kickbacks when he channeled his 2007 to 2009 PDAF to non-government organizations linked to “PDAF scam queen” Janet Lim-Napoles. Rio N. Araja

American pedophile nabbed in Batangas AN AMERICAN pedophile wanted

by US authorities for engaging in child pornography in Texas was nabbed

by Philippine immigration agents in Batangas province.

The suspect, identified as Christopher Wayne Walker, was arrested at his home in Barangay Darasa, Tanauan City, Batangas by operatives of the Bureau of Immigration’s Fugitive Search Unit.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the US Embassy in Manila sought the help of the BI for the arrest of Walker, who fled the US to escape prosecution.

Walker faces outstanding arrest warrants issued by courts in Burnet County and Bend County in Texas, where he was charged with jumping bail and promoting child pornography, respectively.

“The BI board of commissioners already issued a summary deportation order against Walker last April 23 for posing a risk to public safety,” Morente said.

The deportation order, he said, was also issued because of Walker’s status as an undocumented alien, which stemmed from the cancellation of his passport by the US government.

Vito Barcelo

enhance the capabilities of both AFP and US armed forces,” Kim said.

The training also focuses on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and counterterrorism operations to improve response effectiveness and speed in the event of natural disasters and other crises that endanger public health and safety, the ambassador said.

“No nation can face today’s challenges alone,” said Kim. “Whether a natural disaster ravages part of the world or a man-made crisis shocks a community, our two militaries can deliver much stronger responses together.”

In this year’s Balikatan, the Philippines and the United States will continue to collaborate with regional partner nations, and the AFP has invited military forces from several other nations to be part of the International Observers Program, including South Korea, East Timor, Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

The 33rd iteration of Balikatan, scheduled from May 8 to 19, will take place at multiple locations in Luzon and the Visayas, according to the US Embassy.

AFTER THE FIRE. Residents of Tondo, Manila scavenge for materials they could recycle and sell amid smoke and debris. A fire Tuesday killed a teenage boy and burned 30 houses. AFP

Solon asks Du30 to rethink stand on lower criminal age

By Maricel V. Cruz

A

N OPPOSITION lawmaker on Tuesday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to reconsider its position to reduce further the minimum age of criminal responsibility or MACR from 15 years old to nine years old.

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat said government's insistence on pushing through Congress a law that will lower the age of criminal liability “goes against the will of the people.”

He cited the latest survey of Pulse Asia showing that 55 percent of the people want to keep the MACR at 15.

Instead, Baguilat said the Duterte administration must be able to fully implement the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, which provides a complete range of in-

terventions from prevention to rehabilitation such as the establishment of youth centers where children in conflict with the law are given the help they need to get back on the right track.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier filed House Bill 2 that seeks to lower the MACR. Baguilat said lowering the minimum age requirement to nine would increase the number of children in conflict with the law, particularly out-of-school youth and those who practically live in the streets.

Rights advocates belonging to the Child Rights Network also cited a study conducted by the Ateneo de Manila University that said up to 25 percent of those killed by purported members of the Davao Death Squad from 1999 to 2002 were children accused of petty crimes and violations of city ordinances.

"President Duterte has been enamored by an anti-crime war along with his anti-drug campaign that has killed mostly the urban poor under dubious circumstances, with some policemen publicly resigning in Catanduanes and other provinces and cities, since they could not stomach obeying orders from their superiors to add more numbers to the 8,000 victims of extrajudicial killings," Baguilat said.

He noted the President has remained firm in his commitment

to reduce the MACR “from 15 to nine or even less,” opening the “floodgates of ridicule” from human rights advocates who insist even infants may eventually be cited for violating the law “for demanding to be fed and for crying in areas where blowing horns is banned.”

"Lowering MACR is an easy way out for the Duterte government, since CICLs [children in conflict with the law] would be treated as adults with full discernment, unaware that economic circumstances will continue to force street waifs to beg in the streets or commit petty crimes," Baguilat said.

Overall, children comprise less than four percent of those accused of misdemeanors and criminal offenses, the lawmaker said, citing CRN research.

Baguilat also slammed the Malacañang statement that

lowering MACR “was part of the legislative agenda” of the President, arguing that it is a means to ensure that the Filipino youth would accept responsibility for their actions and be subjected to government intervention programs.

Only nine percent in the Pulse Asia survey believe the age barrier it should be brought down to nine.

"Thus, most Filipinos see the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility as going against the best interests of children," he said.

At present, at least five bills had been filed at the House of Representatives that seek to amend the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act to lower the MACR. The bills are now under deliberation by a technical working group organized by the Committee on Justice.

EU ‘won’t intrude’ in domestic affairs

TWENTY YEARS AFTER. Former President Fidel Ramos (center) with his famous thumbs-up sign leads the commemoration of the privatization of the MWSS in 1997. With him, from left to right: former administrators Jose Mabanta and Angel Lazaro, incumbent Administrator Reynaldo Velasco, former MWSS trustee Glicerio Sicat, former DPWH Secretary’s chief of Staff Mark Dumol; and Alfredo Reyes. Not in the photo are: Soledad Cruz of DOF; Justice Oscar Garcia of OGCC & Corp. Sec.; former DPWH secretary and chairman Gregorio Vigilar; former administrator Reynaldo Vea and former trustee Amaury Gutierrez.

MWSS chief hopeful on legacy projects IF A grand plan will push through, Metro Manila and its nearby provinces are assured of safe, clean, affordable and sustainable water in the next 25 to 50 years with the possible implementation of long overdue flagship dam projects.

These projects, namely the Kaliwa and Laiban dams, include the rehabilitation of the Wawa Dam under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

This was disclosed by Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Administrator Reynaldo V. Velasco at the recent book launching of the 15th year commemorative book of the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation, graced by former President Fidel V. Ramos and other top government officials and leaders in the water industry.

Velasco assured stakeholders the new MWSS Board of Trustees under the Duterte administration “will deliver the needed dam projects long started and stalled during FVR’s presidency to ensure adequate, safe, potable, affordable and sustainable water supply for Metro Manila and the adjoining provinces serviced by MWSS."

Describing the privatization of MWSS as "a master stroke of a genius" during Ramos’ administration, Velasco revealed the water agency has reached 96 percent of its total serviced area, and has reduced unaccounted-for water at 10.6 percent by Manila Water and 32 percent by Maynilad, the two private concessionaires of the system.

"Another bright spot of the successful legal framework of the PPP between MWSS and its concessionaires was the opening of new opportunities beyond our borders.

These two water partners have shared their best practices to other parts of the country and our Asean neighbors like Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia, some, I understand, with your blessings and support," Velasco told Ramos.

He added that he has always reminded the concessionaires that MWSS must have at least a royalty on the PPP Legal Framework.

In a related development, Velasco announced that MWSS will undertake the New Centennial Water Source Project, involving Kaliwa and Laiban dams, to

comprise the water legacy project of the Duterte administration.

Funding for the first phase of the project, the New Centennial Water SourceKaliwa Dam Project, was submitted to the National Economic and Development Authority on Jan. 17.

By March 21, the Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee confirmed the financing shift of the project from PPP to Official Development Assistance.

The project is located at Barangay Pagsangahan, General Nakar and Barangay Magsaysay, Infanta, both in Quezon Province.

The project involves the construction of a dam with a discharge capacity of 600 million liters per day and a 27.7-kilometer raw water conveyance tunnel with a design capacity of 2.4 mld.

Velasco and the MWSS Board are hopeful that Laiban Dam will be implemented during President Duterte's term since "it is a sustainable development project that will serve the ‘Marilaque’ corridor to insure long-term freshwater for Metro Manila and other areas.”

THE European Union ambassador to the Philippines said Tuesday that Europe “will not intrude” into the human rights issue in the Philippines, but would like to discuss the aspect of human rights and how it handles the fight against illegal drugs.

“We’re not interfering in the domestic affairs here. In fact, you will also notice that the true examples often highlighted from the European parliament. It’s not for me to say how parliament speaks. They speak like politicians, which is normal in a democratic system,” EU Ambassador Franz Jessen told a press conference.

He reiterated that the EU is not meddling with the local affairs of the Philippines, but affirmed its culture of respect for human rights.

“Human rights are important for us. It is not only being discussed and sit in a meeting room and talk about the human rights, but it also about companies to where they invest because they want to make sure labor rights are respected and they do not get caught in a human rights situation,” the envoy said.

Jessen said European companies don’t want to be in a critical situation when faced with accusations of labor malpractice that would affect their reputation.

The importance of reputation “is very high” for European companies, he said, adding that Euro firms want to operate in countries they can defend back home.

EU is “committed to engage constructively with the Duterte administration” in areas from the health sector and law enforcement to the peace process, environment, disaster risk reduction and development specifically in Mindanao, Jessen said.

He said the Union is reviewing whether the Philippines can still qualify for trade incentives that are preconditioned on compliance with international agreements, including labor and human rights.

When asked on the PH justice system in the war against illegal drugs, Jessen said they are “keeping an eye for developments” and will not jump to conclusions.

“Our justice program, we’ve been working with the justice sector in the Philippines for many years and it is important for us that the lessons we’re trying to develop together with the European people are being adhered to.

So, if killings are happening, investigations are appropriate,” he said. Vito Barcelo

Sports

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

PSL sending team to Kazakh tilt

W

ITH Foton begging off, the Philippine Superliga will be sending its selection team to represent the country in the AVC Asian Women’s Club Championship in Oskemen, Kazakhstan from May 23 to 30.

PSL president Ramon Suzara presented the Rebisco-PSL Manila to the media, saying that the squad is capable of pulling off a surprise in the prestigious tourney where eight of Asia’s best club teams will be competing.

Bannered by Rachel Anne Daquis of Cignal, the squad’s main

objective is to gain experience and exposure needed for the AVC Asian Senior Women’s Championship and the 29th Southeast Asian Games this August.

Also making the squad were FIVB Women’s Club World Championship veterans Mika Reyes, Kim Fajardo, Jaja Santia-

go, Frances Molina and Jovelyn Gonzaga as well as grizzled international campaigner Aiza MaizoPontillas, Maika Ortiz, Denise Lazaro and Rhea Dimaculangan.

Towering Gen Casugod and Lourdes Clemente were also tapped, making Rebisco-PSL Manila one of the tallest squads ever assembled.

“This team is expected to play at a high level,” said Suzara, who is the chairman of the powerful marketing and development committee in the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC).

“This is the first time for us to compete in the AVC Asian club

with an all-Filipino lineup because we want to give these players, who are all national pool members, a chance to gain experience against eight of the best club teams in Asia.”

Also in the press launch held during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum Tuesday at the Golden Phoenix Hotel in Pasay City were Rebisco marketing executive Kathy Simundo, Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. president Joey Romasanta and LVPI acting president Peter Cayco as well as head coach Francis Vicente.

Before flying to Kazakhstan, members of Rebisco-PSL Manila

side will be displaying their talents against other members of the 25-man national pool in the Clash of Heroes on May 15 at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan.

Vicente said he likes the composition of the team as it is composed of tall players capable of being trained for new positions.

In fact, 6’5” Jaja Santiago was designated to play open spiker together with 6’1” Casugod.

“Asian volleyball is all about speed,” said Vicente, admitting that he is fascinated with the way Japan plays. “But if we will have that speed together with ceiling, I think we will go far.”

Cabuyao unbeaten, nips PUP CABUYAO took control early then banked on its defense in the stretch to edge Polytechnic University of the Philippines, 8-7, in a duel of unbeaten teams in the 18-and-Under Men’s Fast Pitch softball tournament at the Sto. Niño baseball field in Marikina yesterday.

Jerome Tenorio keyed a threerun homerun in the third inning as Cabuyao took a 5-1 lead. But the PUP batters struck back behind John Lucas, who hit two RBIs, before Gino Riparip, Russel Disamparo and Aaron Gecolea stepped up to help push the team within, 6-7, at the end of the sixth.

Tenorio, however, made another RBI to give Cabuyao a tworun cushion in the final inning then the Laguna-based squad held PUP to just one run to escape with the victory.

“We’re just in the middle of the tournament but we’ve already witnessed a series of big matches between some of the country’s best young softball players (abuyao and PUP),” said AsaPhil and Cebuana Lhuillier president Jean Henri Lhuillier. “Every team is giving it all they’ve got so we can expect the action to heat up in the last half.”

It was Cabuyao’s sixth straight win while dealing PUP its first defeat in four starts in the tournament conducted by the Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines (Asaphil) and hosted by Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro.

Led by Rachel Ann Daquis, members of the Rebisco-PSL Manila Team that will compete in the AVC Asian Women’s Club Championship from May 23 to 30 in Oskemen, Kazakhstan are shown during their guesting at the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at the Golden Phoenix Hotel. Ey Acasio

FightCon returns with bigger attractions “FIGHTCON,” the country’s first-ever fight and conditioning convention, is back for a second run with bigger fights, new attractions, and a brand expo this Saturday at the MetroTent Convention Center in Pasig City with S+A, ABS-CBN’s free TV sports channel, as the official TV media partner.

Launched last year, the first-of-its-kind event unifies combat sports, fitness, and even music all in one venue.

This year it heightens the ex-

citement more with MMA and Muay Thai competitions, a conditioning challenge, combat sports demos and exhibitions, plus live performances from some of the country’s celebrated artists.

“FightCon” was designed to promote mixed martial arts, encourage athleticism and gather fighting and fitness communities in one event. It serves as a hub for various activities that cater to fighters, fans and brands alike.” said Paul

Gaw, founder and producer of “FightCon.” Guaranteed to be larger than last year’s event, fight fans are sure to get a kick out of the affair’s new highlights, beefed up activities, and superior lineup.

“FightCon” also teamed up with no less than ONE Championship Heavyweight Champion, Brandon “The Truth” Vera to boost the promotion of mixed martial arts in the Philippines together with S+A. S+A is the home of ONE

Championship in the Philippines and has been instrumental in raising interest and awareness on the sport through airing of various local and international MMA events as well as through featuring the inspiring stories of the fighters.

For more information and stories, go online visit ABSCBN’s sports hub sports.abscbn.com, and follow their official social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter (@ ABSCBNSports).

Archers, Bulldogs, Cubs win Martin Cup games THE La Salle Green Archers, the National University Bulldogs and the San Beda-Alabang Red Cubs turned back separate rivals last Monday in the ongoing 23rd Fr. Martin Cup Summer Basketball tournament.

The Green Archers weathered a late comeback by the Ateneo Blue Eagles to pull off an 86-85 win at the St. Placid gymnasium inside the San Beda-Manila campus in Mendiola.

Bacolod standout Miguel Corteza tallied 20 points for the Green Archers, who went on to post their third straight win in Group A. The Blue Eagles could have sent the match into overtime after rallying from 12 points down midway in the fourth when Corteza fouled Rodney Manuel during an attempt in the last 0.3 seconds, with La Salle ahead by two, 86-84.

Manuel, who led the Blue Eagles with 17 points, however,

split his charities in the ensuing play, allowing the Archers to escape with the one-point win.

Meanwhile, the NU Bulldogs gave new coach Jamike Jarin a rousing welcome with a 101-71 pummeling of the San Beda-B Red Lions in another senior encounter.

Koy Galvelo tallied 12 points for the Bulldogs, who posted their first win in Group B. On the other hand, the Alabang Red Cubs relied on their outside shooting to put away the San Beda-Manila Red Kittens, 79-64.

Steve de la Cruz led with 20 points, and joined hands with William Zuno for triples that allowed the Alabang Red Cubs to enjoy a 17-points in the closing minutes of the game.

In women’s action, Bettina Penaflor made 24 points for the University of Santo Tomas Tigresses in their 65-57 beating of La Salle.

Doroy, Quizon prevail CEBU CITY—Veteran internationalists and national pool members Allaney Jia Doroy and Daniel Quizon stamped their class as they ruled their respective brackets with plenty to spare in the ongoing National Age Group Chess Championships at the Robinson’s Galleria here.

Surigao del Sur’s Allaney Jia Doroy, 2016 Asian Youth Chess Championships gold medalist, who padded her FIDE rating by a whopping 92 points in last month’s Bangkok Open, did not drop a single match, racking 9.5 points over 11 rounds in U18 girls.

Dasmariñas, Cavite’s Daniel Quizon, a regular Asean Age Group Chess Championships gold medalist, likewise, completed his assignments unbeaten in the U14 boys, also duplicating Doroy’s score.

Settling for runner-up and thirdplace positions in the premier tilt for boys and girls co-presented

by Province of Cebu and Marty Pimentel and supported by Philippine Sports Commission were Laila Camel Nadera (8 points) of Cebu and Alexis Anne Osena (7.5) of Lipa, Batangas in the U18 girls(7.5), respectively.

In the U14 boys, Jave Mareck Peteros (8) of Cebu bagged the silver medal with Justine Diego Mordido (7.5) of Dasmariñas, Cavite bagging the bronze.

National pool member and seasoned international campaigner John Marvin Miciano continued to hog the driver’s seat in the U20 boys with 1.5 points between him and his closest opponent.

The U20 girls saw national pool member WFM Marie Antoinette San Diego getting a share of the lead with Venice Vicente and Mira Mirano at 9.5 points apiece.

Eustaquio gets break in MMA SINGAPORE—ONE Championship, has just announced two additional bouts to complete a stacked fight card at ONE: Dynasty of Heroes set for the Singapore Indoor Stadium this May 26.

Former world title challenger Geje “Gravity” Eustaquio of Baguio City, Philippines is scheduled for a highly-anticipated rematch against Anatpong “Mak” Bunrad of Thailand.

Also, Indonesian National Grappling Champion Jeremy Meciaz makes his ONE Championship debut against Chen “Rock Man” Lei. Ticket information for ONE: DYNASTY OF HEROES is available at www.onefc.com.

The Dynasty of Heroes features a spectacular main event bout with ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion “Unstoppable” Angela Lee of Singapore taking on rising star Istela Nunes of Brazil. In the co-main event of the evening, ONE Welterweight World Champion Ben “Funky” Askren returns to the ONE Championship cage to defend his title against young Malaysian welterweight standout Agilan “Alligator” Thani. All four fighters have unblemished professional records.

Flyweight competitor Eustaquio is one of the most efficient wushu practitioners in the Philippines. His solid striking and grappling skillset has led him to big wins over the course of his career in ONE Championship.

Training in the high altitudes of Baguio City, Eustaquio hones his craft with his world-class teammates at the famed Team Lakay. Known for his ability to keep his composure while facing adversity, Eustaquio is set to do battle against Anatpong Bunrad in a highly-anticipated rematch.

Palawan hosts BAP convention REBEL SPORTS. Team Rebel Sports has just launched a wide array of customized sports uniforms and sports apparel, which is now being introduced in the local market, catering to different sports disciplines like basketball, football, softball, soccer, rugby, baseball, hockey, cricket, taekwondo, swimming, track and field and cross-training among others. The group has initially started its basketball line by tapping their ambassadors composed of past and present collegiate players. Among those who were included to be part of Team Rebel Sports are former Kyle Drexler Neypes (forward) and guard Rev Diputado of the National University, Wilson Baltazar of the Lyceum Pirates, an NCAA All-Star, Jeff Perlas, assistant coach of Lyceum and member of the NU Bulldogs champion squad (Season 77), Nzu Sseu of Lyceum, NCAA Season 92 Rookie of the Year, aspiring player Jonas Perlas and Matthew Aquino, center of NU Bulldogs.

Cocolife is Travel Cup champion

Cocolife team manager Joseph Ronquillo proudly hoists the elegant championship trophy after his team won the Brotherhood Basketball League “WCA Travel Cup” title against Goto Pilipinas, 82-77, during the awarding ceremony. In photo are BBL president Erick Kirong of Macway Travel [center], Commissioner Romy Divino, playing coach Rey Alao, players Tolits Natividad, Tristan Bradley, Popoy Banzali, Jay -R Casulla, Mark Lagrimas, Joey Protacio, Otep Ronquillo and Francis Camacho, with deputy coaches and technical men.

TEAM COCOLIFE made a classic comeback to capture the championship against Goto Pilipinas following an 82-77 win in their winner-take-all finals in the Passion Division of the Brotherhood Basketball League ‘WCA Travel Cup’ at the Trinity University of Asia Gym in Quezon City.

The Congee Masters of Jhong Castaneda took control of the game as they steered the team to a double-digit spread in first three quarters before the Underwriters of team manager Joseph Ronquillo patiently chopped the advantage halfway through the final period and took the upperhand at 76-75, with 3:04 remaining in the game.

The game’s best player Tolits Natividad combined forces with inside operator Mark Lagrimas, Popoy Banzali, Francis Camacho, Otep Ronquillo and Tristan Bradley’s sticky defense to neutralize the vaunted run and gun play by Goto Pilipinas en route to Cocolife’s first major cage title.

The tournament was organized by BBL president-founder Erick Kirong of Macway Travel and presented by World Cruisers Adventures Travel and Tours, headed by CEO Engr.

Joven Diaz.

“The breaks of the game and our never-say-quit habit led us to this victory. It’s a team effort and hats off to our boys,” said playing coach Rey Alao.

AS part of its continuing efforts to improve, the Basketball Association of the Philippines Region IV A and B hosted its fifth annual convention at the Puerto Princesa City, Palawan last April 26 to 29.

More than 150 participants took part in the four-day convention, hosted by BAP Region-IV A and B provincial director Meneles “Boy” B. Viray and supported by Mayor Luis M. Marcaide III and Vice Mayor Nancy Socrates.

Guest speakers were Paul Advincula (coaching) and Jose Mel Bernarte and Andrew Ayson (officiating).

Viray was assisted by Dulce Amor B. Viray, BAP Region-IV A&B City commissioner, for Puerto Princesa.

Next year, the BAP Region-IV A and B Convention will be held in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro on Feb. 17 to 19, 2018.

LOTTO RESULTS

6/49 00-00-00-00-00-00 6/42 00-00-00-00-00-00 6 DIGITS 0-0-0-0-0-0 3 DIGITS 0-0-0 2 EZ2 0-0

P0.0 M+ P0.0 M+

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

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

Sports

Bolts try to boost bid for Top 2 slot

By Jeric Lopez

Derrick Favors (left) of the Utah Jazz and Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors battle for the rebound in the second half of the Warriors’ 121-95 win in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. AFP

Warriors sweep Jazz, make Western finals L

OS ANGELES—Stephen Curry scored 30 points as the Golden State Warriors wrapped up a series sweep with a 121-95 rout of the Utah Jazz on Monday.

The Warriors advanced to a Western Conference finals showdown against either Houston or San Antonio after overcoming a fleeting Utah rally to take the series 4-0 at Salt Lake City’s Vivint Smart Home Arena.

It was a second consecutive 4-0 series victory for the Warriors, who also notched a sweep against Portland in the opening round of the playoffs.

“We gotta good thing going, we’re playing well,” Curry said afterward.

“Tonight we had an opportu-

nity to seal the deal and thankfully we came out on top,” added Curry, praising the Warriors allround offensive display.

“That’s our approach to every game. We don’t know who’s going to have a hot night. We want to keep that going,” he said.

The Warriors laid the foundation for the win with a devastating first quarter performance which saw them pour on 39 points to open up a double-digit lead against a shellshocked Utah.

“Guys really came out focused,” said Warriors forward

Draymond Green, who had a triple-double. “We knew what the game plan was and executed that game plan. I think the most important thing, though, is we imposed our will on the game. We had the game at our pace.”

The Jazz battled back to reduce the deficit to eight points at halftime at 60-52.

Utah remained in touching distance throughout the third period but the Warriors always looked capable of finding an extra gear when it mattered.

The decisive period came at the end of the third period when both Curry and Andre Iguodala both hit three-pointers in quick succession to help the Dubs pull away to 93-79 heading into the fourth quarter.

Lessons through winning That burst of scoring was a foretaste of what was to follow in the fourth quarter, with the Warriors pulling further clear to wrap up victory by a 26-point margin.

Curry was one of five Warriors players to hit double figures, with Klay Thompson adding 21 points and Kevin Durant 18. Green added 17 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for a triple-double.

For Utah, Gordon Hayward top scored with 25 points while Shelvin Mack had 18 and Dante Exum 15.

Curry meanwhile played down the suggestion that the Warriors may suffer deeper into the playoffs after romping through the first two rounds without dropping a game.

“Every team that we’ve played had a lot of pride,” Curry said.

PFF chief gets seat in Asian council MEMBER associations of the Asian Football Confederation have voted to give Philippine Football Federation president Mariano “Nonong” Araneta one of four slots allocated to Asia on the FIFA Council.

Araneta, along with Mahfuza Kiron (Bangladesh), Zhang Jian (China), Chung Mong Gyu (Korea) were given the nod by member nations during the AFC Congress 2017 in Manama, Bahrain.

“I’d like to thank everyone for having supported us and we promise not to let them down. We will do our best when representing Asia at the FIFA Council,” said Araneta in a statement released online from Bahrain.

The four secured votes requiring the simple majority.

They got 27 votes over Australia’s Moya Dodd who received 17 votes in the first round.

As part of the FIFA Reforms, the AFC will now have seven members on the FIFA Council.

The reforms also aim to increase the role of women in football governance and each Confederation will have one female representative on the new body.

The term of office for all the FIFA Council Members is from 2017 until 2019. Peter Atencio

“We haven’t lost but within these games we’ve really had to check ourselves.

“You can learn lessons through winning and that’s what we’ve done.”

Jazz star Hayward, who may have played his last game for the team as he prepares for free agency, said Utah had been defeated by a “historically great team.”

“They make you pay for your mistakes,” Hayward told reporters. “You have to be almost perfect every possession, or else they turn it into a 9-0 run or 10-0 run.

“You can’t have one mental lapse against them. This was a great learning experience for us.

They showed why they are who they are, and we’re not quite there yet. But you have to take positives from it.” AFP

BEFORE yet another lengthy break, the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup hosts two critical games expected to affect the wild race to the quarterfinals.

Already through to the next round, league-leading Meralco (7-1) now looks at improving its chances of finishing in the top two as it plays unpredictable GlobalPort (2-6) at 4:15 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Bolts are also in chase for their fourth straight win.

In an equally critical tilt, TNT KaTropa and Star, tied for fourth place with similar 6-2 cards, break their deadlock as they cross paths at 7 p.m.

Following a weekend full of movements left and right, these four teams playing are bound to present a new look.

All of them will have new faces, with one team even changing imports over the weekend.

Meralco made a minor tweaking despite its good campaign thus far.

It will now have an added shooter in Garvo Lanete to take the place of promising rookie Jonathan Grey, who was dealt away.

On the other hand, the Batang Pier had a major overhaul upfront as it now has an entire different big men at its disposal.

GlobalPort will now be reinforced by Sean Anthony, Bradwyn Guinto and Grey after parting ways with JR Quinahan and Anthony Semerad.

The Batang Pier are hoping that these new bunch can help the team in its cause against the Bolts as they try to stay in contention for a spot in the top eight.

The Hotshots and the Tropang Texters each made significant moves as well ahead of their match-up.

Star tapped a familiar face as it brought back Ricardo Ratliffe, its import from last season, to take the place of Tony Mitchell.

For TNT, it acquired Semerad while giving away one of its seasoned players in Larry Fonacier.

Coach: Gilas must step up

By Peter Atencio

INTENSE DUEL. Kailuphia, ridden by Jockey O. P. Perez, and August Moon of Jockey R. R. Camanero engage in an intense duel during the 5th National Press Club Philippine Racing Commission Charity Race at the Sta. Ana Race Track in Naic, Cavite. Roman Prospero

RAISING their game to a higher level will be a challenge that the Batang Gilas Pilipinas national under-16 boys basketball team will have to take.

That’s because their rivals in the coming 2017 SEABA Under-16 Championship are levelling up in their games as well.

National coach Michael Oliver said this with less than a week to go before they plunge into action on May 14.

“We really have to go higher in the level of our game and maintain our competitiveness,” said Oliver during Tuesday’s weekly PSA Forum at the

Golden Phoenix Hotel in Pasay City.

Oliver said that based on scouting reports, many teams joining are fielding in players who have foreign blood in them.

Thailand, he added is an example, because chances are, they may have a Thai-American cager in their roster.

Oliver talked about the competitiveness of the field after revealing the final lineup of Batang Gilas, which included highly-touted 6’11” center Kai Sotto.

The son of former PBA big man Ervin Sotto, Kai made the final cut with La Salle Zobel’s Raven Cortez, Rence Keith Padrigao of Adamson and Xavier

School’s Miguel Tan. Then, there’s Migs Pascual and RC Calimag of San Beda, Terrence Fortea of National University, Mclaude Guadana of Lyceum, Rafael Go of Chiang Kai Shek College and Shaun Chiu of PACE. Also listed are John Bismarck Lina of University of Santo Tomas and San Beda’s Joshua Lazaro.

There are five squads entered and are seeking three qualifying slots to the FIBA Asia Under 16 qualifiers this October.

The Philippines is set to meet Singapore at 12 noon in their first game at the Araneta Coliseum on Sunday.

ICTSI Orchard begins; Lascuña confident DASMARIÑAS, Cavite—Tony Lascuña hopes to rebound from a failed bid at Luisita and ride the momentum of a proam victory as he heads the local charge against an elite foreign cast in the ICTSI Orchard Golf Championship reeling off today (Wednesday, May 10) at the Orchard’s Player course here.

“This is a big morale boost but I still have to play quality golf in the next four days.

The field is strong and anything can happen here at Orchard,” said Lascuña, who ruled Monday’s pro-am tournament of the $60,000 event put up by ICTSI with amateur partners John Laurel, Juanchit Jose and Siegfried Ramos.

The foursome pooled a 17-under 55 to nip 2014 Orchard Championship winner Ru-

fino Bayron, Arnel Paras, Paul Griba and David Astejada, who assembled a 56, while Michael Bibat, Alex Dy, Amy Dy and Bien Cerbo placed third with a 57.

Lascuña, the reigning Philippine Golf Tour Order of Merit winner, actually moved within one of Micah Shin halfway through the Luisita Championship last week but closed out with a pair of 71s to settle for joint fourth with Jhonnel Ababa and American Brett Munson.

He rued his poor putting in the last two rounds but the veteran campaigner vowed to make up for the slack in this week’s event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. which offers a top purse of $10,500.

“I’m ready and I feel good now with my stroke. I just hope it will click in all four

days,” said Lascuña, who drew Bayron and last week’s playoff loser Mathiam Keyser of South Africa in the 7:45 a.m. flight on No. 1.

Keyser, who lost to absentee Miguel Tabuena in sudden death in Tarlac, also vowed to complete an unfinished business with a triumphant campaign here, along with a slew of foreign aces, including Solaire Philippine Open champion Steve Lewton, John Catlin, Nicolas Paez and John Michael O’Toole of the US and Korean Park Jun Sung.

Keanu Jahns, who rallied with a solid, eagle-aided 65 to snare solo third at Luisita, is also expected to figure prominently along with fellow locals Ababa, Mars Pucay, Frankie Miñoza, Mhark Fernando, Gerald Rosales, Cassius Casas, Jay Bayron, Rufino Tony Lascuña is all primed up for a title crack Bayron and Elmer Salvador.

Meralco rates down in May

B3

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com

Closing May 9, 2017

8500 8000 7500 7000 6500 6000

7,923.50 38.83

By Darwin G. Amojelar

PESO-DOLLAR RATE Closing MAY 9, 2017

45.00 46.50 48.00

P49.925 CLOSE

51.00

HIGH P49.885 LOW P49.935 AVERAGE P49.914 VOLUME 352.500M

P427.00-P647.00 LPG/11-kg tank P38.25-P50.40 Unleaded Gasoline P27.75-P32.96 Diesel

OPRICES IL TODAY

P32.85-P41.15 Kerosene P20.75-P21.75

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Tuesday, May 9, 2017

F OREIGN E XCHANGE R ATE Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

49.8550

Japan

Yen

0.008831

0.4403

UK

Pound

1.294200

64.5223

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128469

6.4048

Switzerland

Franc

1.001302

49.9199

Canada

Dollar

0.730567

36.4224

Singapore

Dollar

0.711541

35.4739

Australia

Dollar

0.738600

36.8229

Bahrain

Dinar

2.655267

132.3783

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266681

13.2954

Brunei

Dollar

0.709019

35.3481

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000075

0.0037

Thailand

Baht

0.028858

1.4387

UAE

Dirham

0.272272

13.5741

Euro

Euro

1.092600

54.4716

Korea

Won

0.000883

0.0440

China

Yuan

0.144823

7.2202

India

Rupee

0.015542

0.7748

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.230681

11.5006

New Zealand

Dollar

0.690500

34.4249

Taiwan

Dollar

0.033169

1.6536 Source: PDS Bridge

IN BRIEF Max’s earned P176m in first three months

RESTAURANT chain operator Max’s Group Inc. said Tuesday it booked a net income of P175.98 million in the first three months, up eight percent from P162.32 million year-on-year, on the back of strong sales from restaurants coupled with higher commissary revenues and license fees.

Max’s Group said in a disclosure to the stock exchange first-quarter systemwide sales rose 10 percent to P3.93 billion from P3.58 billion in the first quarter of 2016 while revenues grew 9 percent to P2.91 billion.

Restaurant sales increased 4 percent to P2.42 billion, driven by new store openings and stable same-store sales performance. Commissary sales rose 40 percent to P311.44 million, on additional franchised outlets.

Revenues from new franchises, royalty and continuing license fees surged 34 percent to P180.12 million from P134.37 million as the company signed new overseas deals. “We are off to a relatively solid start for the year notwithstanding the challenging commodity pricing situation. While we expect to encounter some more of these headwinds, we will continue to push forward with our strategies,” Max’s Group president and chief executive Robert Trota said. Jenniffer B. Austria

Global Estate sees higher Boracay sales

GLOBAL Estate Resorts Inc., a unit of property developer Megaworld Corp., said it expects to generate P1.8 billion in sales from its second residential development within the 150-hectare Boracay Newcoast in Boracay Island.

Global Estate said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the three-tower residential cluster called Ocean Garden Villas would offer 225 units ranging from one-bedroom to two-bedroom resort-type suites.

“This new residential development will have close access to Newcoast’s private beach and natural coves facing the morning sunlight. We hope to provide our residents a new and refreshing take of living in one of the world’s best islands,” Global Estate vice president of sales and marketing Jennifer Palmares.”

Fong said. The project is due for completion in 2021.

The company expects to generate around P1.8 billion in sales from the new development.

“Sixty percent of the entire Boracay Newcoast is devoted to green and open spaces. Once completed, we hope that the township, which will be the new side of Boracay that complements the White Beach area on the other side, will serve as a model of sustainable development for a truly world-class island,” Palmares-Fong said. Jenniffer B. Austria

B1

ICTSI’s net profit up by 28% to $57.6m

PSE COMPOSITE INDEX

49.50

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

FIRST GEN’S DIRECTORS. First Gen Corp. chairman and chief executive Federico Lopez (center) joins two other top company officials for

a photo opportunity, after stockholders reelected them, along with other incumbent directors, to the company’s board during the annual stockholders’ meeting on May 9. With Lopez are fellow directors Francis Giles Puno (left), concurrent president and chief operating officer and Richard Tantoco, president and chief operating of subsidiary Energy Development Corp., the world’s largest vertically integrated geothermal company. First Gen is the country’s leading clean and renewable energy company with 3,471 megawatts in installed capacity.

Espenilla wants stronger measure vs dirty money

By Julito G. Rada

I

ncoming Bangko Sentral Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. on Tuesday vowed to prevent the entry of dirty money in the financial system and cited the need to expand the antimoney laundering law.

Espenilla, who was named by President Rodrigo Duterte as the successor of Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., said the relaxation of the deposit secrecy law would be another challenge he would face once he assumed the top BSP post.

“The expansion of the antimoney laundering law, including casinos, is one of the biggest challenges,” Espenilla, who currently serves as deputy governor for bank supervision and examination sector, said in a news briefing Tuesday, a day after he was named

by Duterte as the next BSP head.

Espenilla said expanding the antimoney laundering law would result in a more secure financial system.

“It is BSP’s job to make sure that that the banking system is secure and prevent the entry of illegal funds in the financial system,” Espenilla said.

Cyber thieves stole $81 million from the account of Bank of Bangladesh in Federal Reserve in New York in February last year.

“The BSP has a critical role to prevent the entry of dirty funds in the country,” Espenilla said.

Banking executives on Tuesday welcomed the appointment of Es-

penilla, saying this would ensure that policy reforms implemented under the 12-year watch of Tetangco would continue.

Bankers Association of the Philippines president Nestor Tan, who is also the president and chief executive of BDO Unibank Inc., the largest bank in the country, said in a statement Espenilla was “a good appointment” and he is “very capable and he represents continuity.”

Philippine National Bank executive vice president Horacio Cebrero said among the equally qualified candidates for the BSP top post, Espenilla would provide continuity for the excellent monetary policies that was put into place by Tetangco.

“That is needed in the type of market dynamics brought about by developments in both the domestic and international markets. His long experience with the BSP and direct involvement in policy matters are welcomed positively by the mar-

kets,” Cebrero said.

“We are sure that DG Espenilla will bring the BSP to the next level that they have placed in their vision,” Cebrero said.

Security Bank Corp. president and chief executive Alfonso Salcedo Jr. said Espenilla’s appointment was a “good choice” while East West Banking Corp. vice chairman Antonio Moncupa Jr.--one of the contenders for the BSP governorship―said Espenilla’s appointment “would do the country good.”

Union Bank of the Philippines president and chief operating officer Edwin Bautista said “we are in good hands.”

“We expect Gov. Espenilla to continue the reforms he has championed these past years,” Bautista said.

ING Bank Manila senior economist Joey Cuyegkeng said Espenilla’s appointment also demonstrated President Rodrigo Duterte’s confidence with and trust on his economic team.

INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services Inc. said Tuesday net income grew 28 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, on the back of strong international trade.

The port operator owned by businessman Enrique Razon Jr. said net income hit $57.6 million in January to March, up from $45.1 million in the same period last year.

ICTSI’s revenue from port operations went up 12 percent to $297 million from last year’s $266.5 million.

“The increase in revenues was mainly due to volume growth, tariff rate adjustments at certain terminals, new contracts with shipping lines and services and the contribution from the company’s new terminal in Matadi, DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo],” ICTSI said.

The port operator handled consolidated volume of 2.27 million twenty-foot equivalent units in the first quarter, up 11 percent from 2.05 million TEUs last year.

“The increase in volume was primarily due to continued improvement in global trade activities particularly in the emerging markets, continuing ramp-up at ICTSI Iraq and the contribution of ICTSI Democratic Republic of Congo, the company’s terminal in Matadi, DRC,” ICTSI said.

Capital expenditure in the first quarter reached $33 million, or about 14 percent of the $240-million capex budget for the full year.

The capex is mainly allocated for the completion of the initial stage development of the company’s greenfield projects in Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq; the second development of port in Australia, Mexico, Honduras and Manila.

ICTSI also invested $9.1 million in SPIA in Buenaventura, Comlumbia and allocated $25 million for its shares in 2017 to complete the initial phase of its joint venture container terminal project with PSA International.

Gokongwei Group infuses fund in e-commerce company

By Othel V. Campos JG Summit Holdings Inc., the holding company of the Gokongwei family, joined five other Asian and American investors that infused $550 million in electronic commerce company Sea Limited.

Sea Limited, formerly Garena Interactive Holding Limited which is behind online shopping platform Shopee, announced a $550-million new round of investment from six investors including JG Summit.

“We look forward to working closely with Sea to deepen its presence in the Philippines and to nurture the growth of our country’s e-sports and e-commerce ecosystems,” said JG Summit president and chief executive Lance Gokongwei.

The parties did not disclose the specific investment of JG Summit in Sea Limited.

Sea Limited said in a statement the majority of the new capital infusion would be used to grow e-

commerce platform Shopee, with a focus on key markets.

Shopee has more than doubled in size in the past nine months and now has an annual gross merchandise value exceeding $3 billion.

Founded in Singapore in 2009 as Garena Interactive Holding Limited, Sea Limited is the company’s new brand at the corporate holding company level to reflect leadership across multiple platforms.

Aside from Shopee, its other brands are online gaming com-

pany Garena and digital payments service AirPay. “Garena is a brand that is beloved across our game ecosystem, our Shopee brand has become synonymous with e-commerce in our region, and AirPay is quickly becoming a leader in digital financial services,” said Sea Limited founder, chairman and group chief executive Forrest Li. “We cherish these three brands, and are now embracing an overall identity for our entire company,”

he said.

Apart from JG Summit, the new set of investors include Cathay Financial Holding Co., Ltd., a leader in the insurance, securities, and banking industry in Taiwan; GDP Venture, a leading growth investor; Farallon Capital Management Llc., a global institutional asset management firm; Hillhouse Capital, a global investments firm; and Taiwan’s President International Development Corp.

Nomura expects BSP to hike rates in 2nd half THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is likely to increase interest rates in the second half of the year because of rising inflation rate, Japanese financial holding company Nomura said in a report Tuesday.

“We reiterate our forecast of a total of 50 basis points in rate increases in the second half of the year [i.e. after Mr. Nestor Espenilla takes office in July]. We continue to see a clear case for policy rate hikes this year because of rising inflation risks,” Nomura said.

It said the appointment of Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. as the successor of Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. who was set to retire on July 2 suggested no change in the regulator’s inflationtargeting framework.

The appointment of Espenilla announced by Malacañang Palace Monday was warmly welcomed by stakeholders in the domestic banking industry, saying this

would ensure that the reforms instituted by the regulator for the past few years would continue.

Inflation in April remained at 3.4 percent, the same rate a month ago, as slower increases in the rest of commodity groups offset increments in the prices of food, transportation and communication.

The April inflation, however, was faster than 1.1-percent registered a year ago and the highest in more than two years, or since it hit 3.7 percent in November 2014.

The Bangko Sentral earlier predicted that inflation this year would settle between 2 percent and 4 percent.

National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary for investment programming Rolando Tungpalan said the stable inflation rate in April was a respite from the upward inflation trend seen in the first three months of the year. Julito G. Rada

CONCEPCION’S NEW SYSTEM. Concepcion Industrial Corp., the industry leader in air-conditioning

and refrigeration, enlists BackOffice Associates and Fasttrack Solutions Inc. as it migrates from BaaN to SAP S/4 Hana to improve core business operations. Shown during the project signing are (seated, from left) Froilan Rabatan, senior manager of Concepcion Business Services Inc.; Roldan Natindim, assistant vice president for business transformation of CBSI; Victoria Betita, chief finance officer of CIC; Krish Datta, chief executive of BackOffice for Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East; Patrick Tan, vice president of operations and marketing of BackOffice; and Kerwin Malabanan, managing director of Fasttrack.

B2

Business

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Market retreats; ICTSI advances First Gen studies 35% S stake in LNG terminal tocks retreated Tuesday to end a threeday surge, as investors booked profits a day after the benchmark index rallied to a nine-month high.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, shed 38 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 7,923.50. This reduced the bellwether’s total gains this year to 15.8 percent.

The broader all-share index also dropped 22 points, or 0.5 percent, to settle at 4,709.25, on a value turnover of nearly P10 billion. Losers outnumbered gainers, 128 to 83, while 42 issues were unchanged.

Six of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led

by Philippine Realty & Hold-

ings Corp. which jumped 15.1 percent to P0.84. Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. advanced 2.1 percent to P92, after reporting a 28-percent growth in first-quarter profit.

GT Capital Holdings Inc., the investment vehicle of tycoon George Ty, rose 1.2 percent to P1,300, while conglomerate SM Investments Corp. gained 0.9 percent to P784.

Meanwhioe, global equity markets were mixed, with Asian shares slipping after a rally to

strength and earnings continue to buoy growth, while concerns over French elections have disappeared following Emmanuel Macron’s victory this week.

Investors will be parsing comments from Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari later Tuesday for any clues on US central bank policy.

South Korean voters are going to the polls to elect their next president, while Australia’s Treasurer will deliver his budget Tuesday evening in Canberra at a time when the country’s top credit rating is said to be at risk.

Earnings continue to be released with Walt Disney Co., Mitsubishi Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Deutsche Telekom AG among those notable. With Bloomberg, AFP

a two-year high while European stocks were bolstered by corporate earnings. The dollar strengthened and oil reversed losses.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed as Commerzbank AG posted better-than-expected results. Japan’s Topix fell after closing at the highest since December 2015 in the previous session. Chinese stocks fluctuated after erasing more than $500 billion from equity values amid a crackdown on financial leverage. The Aussie fell to the lowest level since January after disappointing retail sales data.

Stocks are trading at record levels amid optimism over the global economy. Volatility is declining to multi-year lows in fixed-income and stock markets as labor-market

By Alena Mae S. Flores FIRST Gen Corp. is open to taking 30-percent to 35-percent stake in the planned first liquefied natural gas terminal in the country, an executive said Tuesday.

First Gen president and chief operating officer Francis Giles Puno said the company remained keen on taking part in the development of an LNG facility. Puno said the company was “flexible” in terms of the ownership stake that it planned to take in the terminal “to make

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2017

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

FINANCIALS 3.52 131,000 49.2 5,500 105.6 4,434,260 4.09 2,000 122.9 2,561,100 1.3 216,000 36.5 514,400 16.02 4,100 23 1,512,600 7.73 2,000 0.67 32,000 1.71 38,000 830 10 0.77 40,839,000 86.4 2,095,970 0.71 130,000 15.5 18,900 25 100 68.1 294,380 240.6 2,060 112.5 140 86.5 1,900 58 1,653,930 219 1,656,090 82.2 125,660

455,090 270,750 468,151,542 8,180 315,954,249 261,010 18,792,315 65,856 35,108,075 15,494 22,180 64,230 8,300 29,960,190 181,582,275.50 92,300 292,950 2,500 20,022,049 496,732 15,745 164,850 96,011,614 363,423,886 10,312,755

73,945 2,905,495 74,815,429 2,757,400 1,600 2,624,780 -7,600 57,103,577 4,004,016.50 24,080 -62,297,908.50 32,184,324 240,497.50

41 5.7 0.82 1.41 20.45 0.275 99.05 6.95 16.9 22.8 14.4 71.1 81.2 1.91 5.72 11.66 12.8 9.89 6.35 5.86 1.76 19.7 72.1 12.5 15.48 8.52 1.54 218.8 73 4.53 3.7 24.35 31.6 22 18.96 271.8 0.243 6.18 3.6 9.7 11.4 2.13 9.98 2.09 72.15 5.55 295 4.76 3.2 13.46 4.45 0.148 1.35 178.5 1.58 31.55 1.13

INDUSTRIAL 41 1,725,500 5.9 2,849,500 0.83 835,000 1.43 1,321,000 23.2 266,800 0.31 121,360,000 99.05 10 6.98 8,828,600 16.9 4,793,800 23.25 129,600 14.4 13,200 71.1 790 81.2 270 1.91 1,200,000 5.88 6,100 11.9 22,900 12.86 3,004,400 9.9 2,351,700 6.45 2,698,000 5.89 12,247,100 1.76 14,000 19.96 10,276,100 72.15 328,550 12.5 2,800 15.48 51,600 8.58 4,083,400 1.54 974,000 219 625,190 73 1,030 4.55 1,017,000 3.7 50,000 27.4 10,600 32.15 1,751,100 22.2 1,386,700 19.3 3,269,400 272.4 433,610 0.248 1,600,000 6.23 44,300 3.63 136,000 9.72 21,757,200 11.42 2,000 2.14 7,006,000 10 1,427,500 2.14 1,453,000 72.35 613,670 5.7 5,384,400 300 62,540 4.8 251,000 3.29 161,000 13.58 764,600 4.5 17,000 0.152 1,180,000 1.37 316,000 178.5 1,684,560 1.58 5,653,000 32.15 2,300 1.15 652,000

71,286,900 16,639,267 690,760 1,881,060 6,030,540 36,381,450 990.5 61,710,620 81,313,738 3,004,650 191,090 56,386 22,380 2,304,950 35,148 272,312 38,585,206 23,588,876 17,226,805 72,051,297 24,640 209,014,210 23,723,697 35,016 799,784 35,194,116 1,511,700 137,206,564 75,190 4,680,020 187,160 266,630 56,309,140 31,037,225 63,187,166 118,504,794 393,020 277,611 494,210 214,084,755 22,830 14,998,900 14,392,502 3,087,070 44,374,500 29,922,340 18,761,950 1,204,600 523,850 10,356,176 76,050 177,330 429,380 302,863,549 9,021,880 73,655 744,340

-10,277,540 -265,448 -837,150 -7,628,003 14,207,146.00 -254,660 14,599,404 -361,175 -441,342 -5,049,039 -33,012,982 12,471,694 -616,900 12,941,692.00 -659,280 61,337,954 110 -74,260 6,762,050 -9,127,280 34,321,110 -14,203,796.00 -134,210 28,891,222 6,253,800 1,295,628 2,683,347.50 637,772 -15,096,000 196,800 -3,290 3,149,418 1,530 25,270,851 -5,716,770 12,925 -

0.375 77 14.84 1.2 6.21 0.425 0.415 893.5 8.35 13.3 7.98 5.89 0.226 1,303 86.9 4.29 4.85 1.05 7.5 16.98 6.72 4 0.066 1.09 1.89 2.49 109.6 2.94 800 1.4 304 0.3 0.239 0.255

0.365 76.2 14.58 1.11 6.12 0.36 0.37 880.5 8.23 13.1 7.95 5.48 0.202 1,274 85.55 4.26 4.85 1.02 7.3 16.7 6.66 3.96 0.059 1.09 1.85 2.49 107.9 2.7 775 1.39 299 0.285 0.217 0.25

HOLDING FIRMS 0.37 1,350,000 76.5 1,894,480 14.72 9,493,200 1.19 1,348,000 6.12 59,400 0.37 47,190,000 0.37 16,150,000 883 367,560 8.24 301,300 13.18 5,606,900 7.95 144,400 5.89 54,000 0.203 2,520,000 1,300 285,570 86 2,810,700 4.27 15,000 4.85 10,100 1.02 2,099,000 7.3 294,200 16.74 2,314,100 6.69 19,983,400 3.96 14,000 0.064 706,620,000 1.09 1,000 1.89 322,000 2.49 5,000 108.4 310,630 2.86 203,000 784 767,660 1.39 400,000 304 6,130 0.29 2,020,000 0.224 1,750,000 0.255 750,000

493,500 145,088,764.50 139,602,616 1,533,810 368,171 18,175,800 6,261,300 325,409,415 2,495,240 73,882,498 1,148,074 300,502 555,340 370,647,355 242,569,975.50 64,080 48,985 2,148,570 2,178,778 38,812,104 133,707,888 55,640 44,547,040 1,090 601,180 12,450 33,812,200 577,840 603,018,555 557,050 1,857,970 590,450 386,330 190,250

23,307,491 -736,250 974,300 -24,247,495 -709,215 28,901,406 119,954,585 45,449,791 -701,268 11,151,378 36,049,617 -224,620 7,470 -4,381,943 118,166,960 26,500 -459,140 2,390 127,350

6.81 1.35 2.29 1.4 38.85 4.4 5.37 0.51 1.03 1.46 0.16 0.54 51.8 0.71 0.175 1.79 1.01 1.03 4.5 4.48 0.44 0.41 0.85 4.47 28

6.79 1.26 2.26 1.36 38.05 4.23 5.26 0.5 1.03 1.39 0.16 0.53 51.45 0.7 0.169 1.75 0.97 1 4.2 4.35 0.41 0.37 0.74 4.4 28

4,703,639 13,841,160 498,020 7,315,710 920,627,360 41,107,920 28,987 2,671,370 10,300 821,300 777,600 1,691,410 7,142,495 535,310 566,040 28,740,190 11,514,450 3,151,910 25,500 158,875,720 57,518,050 2,799,650 178,087,170 4,177,520 2,800

-660,557 -1,423,160 335,283,795 20,925,590 -578,000 342,650 8,000 516,000 -106,400 19.9999 2,196,360 -1,000 57,840,550 2,702,750 89,650 323,100 -

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

AG FINANCE ASIA UNITED BANK PH ISLANDS BDO LEASING BDO UNIBANK BRIGHT KINDLE CHINABANK COL FINANCIAL EAST WEST BANK FILIPINO FUND FIRST ABACUS IREMIT MANULIFE MEDCO HLDG METROBANK NTL REINSURANCE PB BANK PBCOM PHIL NATL BANK PHIL STOCK EXCH PHILTRUST PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK

3.46 49.3 106 4.09 123.9 1.26 36.7 16.2 23.25 7.75 0.7 1.7 830 0.68 87.55 0.71 15.5 25 68.3 242 112 87 58.45 217.6 82.05

3.52 49.3 106 4.09 124.8 1.3 36.7 16.28 24 7.75 0.7 1.71 830 0.77 87.6 0.71 15.5 25 68.7 243.6 112.5 87 58.5 221.6 82.45

3.35 49 105.1 4.09 122.2 1.15 36.5 16 22.95 7.73 0.67 1.62 830 0.68 86.1 0.71 15.5 25 67.5 240.6 112 86.5 57.9 216.8 82

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

41.8 6.02 0.85 1.46 20.45 0.28 99.05 7 16.9 23.1 14.52 74 85 1.95 5.8 11.66 12.8 10.2 6.42 5.9 1.76 21.5 72.35 12.52 15.5 8.68 1.55 218.8 73 4.72 3.8 24.5 31.6 23 19.3 275.4 0.243 6.31 3.68 9.9 11.42 2.14 10 2.16 72.15 5.62 295 4.8 3.29 13.6 4.45 0.153 1.37 182.7 1.61 32.5 1.13

41.8 6.02 0.85 1.47 23.35 0.31 99.05 7.02 17.06 23.25 14.52 74 85 1.96 5.88 11.9 12.86 10.26 6.47 5.95 1.76 21.6 72.4 12.52 15.5 8.71 1.59 222.8 73 4.72 3.8 27.5 32.7 23.05 19.5 277.6 0.248 6.31 3.68 10.1 11.42 2.17 10.4 2.18 72.45 5.74 300 4.8 3.29 13.66 4.5 0.153 1.39 185.3 1.62 32.6 1.16

ABACORE CAPITAL ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANGLO PHIL HLDG ANSCOR ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B AYALA CORP COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FJ PRINCE A FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL JG SUMMIT JOLLIVILLE HLDG KEPPEL HLDG A LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP METRO PAC INV MJC INVESTMENTS PACIFICA PRIME MEDIA PRIME ORION REPUBLIC GLASS SAN MIGUEL CORP SEAFRONT RES SM INVESTMENTS SOLID GROUP TOP FRONTIER UNIOIL HLDG WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

0.375 76.9 14.7 1.2 6.2 0.41 0.415 890 8.32 13.3 7.95 5.48 0.225 1,285 86.55 4.29 4.85 1.03 7.45 16.72 6.7 3.96 0.059 1.09 1.85 2.49 108.2 2.9 790 1.4 300 0.3 0.239 0.25

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

6.8 1.32 2.29 1.39 38.45 4.38 5.26 0.5 1.03 1.42 0.16 0.53 51.8 0.7 0.174 1.75 0.98 1.01 4.2 4.38 0.435 0.38 0.75 4.43 28

VOLUME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

ROBINSONS LAND ROCKWELL SHANG PROP SM PRIME HLDG STA LUCIA LAND STARMALLS SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND

26.5 1.68 3.34 32.9 0.98 6.12 0.9 5.24

26.9 1.74 3.34 33 1.02 6.99 0.9 5.25

25.85 1.68 3.26 32.35 0.98 6.12 0.89 5.19

25.9 1.72 3.32 32.5 1.01 6.99 0.89 5.23

2,148,500 822,000 264,000 13,882,000 14,287,000 8,100 149,000 2,680,800

56,221,190 1,407,740 873,340 453,596,580 14,321,190 50,178 132,620 13,994,001

7,663,890 1,720 85,421,820 552,650 -79 -1,400,218

2GO GROUP ABS CBN ACESITE HOTEL APC GROUP APOLLO GLOBAL ASIAN TERMINALS BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY BOULEVARD HLDG CALATA CORP CEBU AIR CENTRO ESCOLAR DFNN INC DISCOVERY WORLD EASYCALL GLOBE TELECOM GMA NETWORK GOLDEN HAVEN GRAND PLAZA HARBOR STAR IMPERIAL INTL CONTAINER IPM HLDG ISLAND INFO ISM COMM JACKSTONES LBC EXPRESS LEISURE AND RES MACROASIA MANILA JOCKEY MELCO CROWN METRO RETAIL MLA BRDCASTING NOW CORP PACIFIC ONLINE PAL HLDG PHILWEB PLDT PREMIUM LEISURE PRMIERE HORIZON PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL SBS PHIL CORP SSI GROUP STI HLDG TRANSPACIFIC BR TRAVELLERS WATERFRONT WILCON DEPOT

17.5 44.8 1.72 0.53 0.045 12.36 5.31 9.96 0.09 1.91 108.2 9.99 8.99 2.49 3.52 2,128 6.11 16.2 14.54 3.06 3.65 90.1 8.99 0.188 1.37 3.64 15.6 4.38 3.89 2.42 8.65 3.59 15.54 2.55 11.9 5.4 7.62 1,802 1.58 0.41 44 79.8 5.91 2.34 1.06 2.15 3.8 0.71 5.39

18 44.85 1.72 0.53 0.047 12.36 5.31 10.18 0.091 1.91 108.4 9.99 8.99 2.55 4.15 2,128 6.2 16.38 15 3.15 3.69 92.25 9 0.19 1.4 3.75 15.88 4.44 3.94 2.53 8.79 3.65 16.9 2.69 11.9 5.5 7.62 1,808 1.58 0.41 44.5 79.8 5.95 2.4 1.1 2.29 3.9 0.71 5.39

16.2 44.65 1.59 0.51 0.045 12.1 5.31 9.78 0.086 1.87 106.2 9.94 8.6 2.48 3.52 2,090 6.1 16.2 14 3 3.65 88.05 8.95 0.184 1.36 3.5 15.6 4.25 3.6 2.42 8.15 3.59 15.52 2.53 11.8 5.37 7.35 1,764 1.56 0.41 43.7 79 5.88 2.29 1.06 2.13 3.69 0.64 5.33

SERVICES 17.1 44.85 1.6 0.53 0.046 12.1 5.31 9.95 0.086 1.87 106.6 9.94 8.6 2.55 4.15 2,120 6.15 16.38 15 3.02 3.66 92 8.95 0.184 1.4 3.59 15.8 4.3 3.81 2.5 8.4 3.61 16.9 2.62 11.8 5.38 7.36 1,765 1.56 0.41 43.85 79 5.88 2.3 1.1 2.15 3.82 0.66 5.38

1,441,400 29,000 131,000 918,000 71,900,000 17,400 12,300 33,463,700 160,430,000 4,516,000 359,150 1,300 202,300 6,000 40,000 43,150 366,700 2,800 3,700 4,856,000 37,000 4,775,500 387,100 11,250,000 493,000 820,000 23,300 1,269,000 3,785,000 268,000 5,846,200 628,000 1,000 2,544,000 25,000 152,700 1,021,800 127,425 6,485,000 1,400,000 1,541,300 157,810 220,800 2,695,000 16,486,000 267,000 10,854,000 27,279,000 4,496,000

24,536,048 1,297,605 216,600 481,510 3,291,000 213,224 65,313 334,741,514 14,133,930 8,502,100 38,353,218 12,962 1,757,927 14,990 144,580 91,258,460 2,245,844 45,666 52,178 14,750,380 135,670 435,989,497.50 3,474,055 2,086,370 677,170 2,923,990 366,458 5,475,740 14,176,740 668,770 49,476,262 2,270,830 16,218 6,669,540 296,620 822,707 7,656,048 226,251,290 10,137,550 574,000 67,604,465 12,513,162.50 1,299,721 6,277,250 17,909,890 576,050 41,493,950 18,017,800 24,091,927

3,664,374 -163,300 4,500 47,865,446 294,070 18,070 20,370,507 86,000 53,041,650 277,510 -2,199,692.00 178,420 8,400 -1,195,370 2,207,650 -4,072,059 -18,690 -230,170 283,363 -1,275,467 21,717,965 1,887,600 7,040,605 -1,365,208 -128,200 -603,100 3,657,590 6,700 11,726,544

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

0.0033 1.75 5.3 13.48 2.05 1.9 0.91 0.43 9.03 2.59 0.26 0.2 0.2 0.012 0.012 1.88 6.45 2.28 0.93 0.011 0.012 4.03 0.013 8.82 3.16 162.4 2.69 0.0093

0.0034 1.99 5.3 13.96 2.25 2.39 0.91 0.44 9.03 2.59 0.26 0.2 0.2 0.012 0.012 2 6.45 2.28 0.93 0.011 0.012 4.13 0.013 9.04 3.17 162.4 2.69 0.01

0.0033 1.7 5.18 13.48 2.05 1.9 0.9 0.42 8.63 2.51 0.25 0.195 0.2 0.011 0.012 1.88 6.23 2.14 0.89 0.01 0.012 4.03 0.012 8.8 3.11 159 2.69 0.009

MINING & OIL 0.0034 199,000,000 1.99 27,484,000 5.18 1,908,600 13.96 1,000 2.1 175,000 2.39 33,000 0.9 4,307,000 0.42 780,000 8.65 300 2.56 1,917,000 0.26 330,000 0.195 13,530,000 0.2 590,000 0.012 7,300,000 0.012 16,000,000 1.93 228,000 6.25 4,456,600 2.27 19,000 0.92 347,000 0.011 85,200,000 0.012 5,100,000 4.13 112,000 0.012 25,900,000 8.86 1,032,600 3.11 737,000 159.7 1,623,180 2.69 11,000 0.0095 94,000,000

664,700 51,011,320 9,938,278 13,576 369,170 67,960 3,887,380 331,450 2,631 4,895,870 83,050 2,647,280 118,000 85,500 192,000 447,380 28,031,288 40,930 315,780 931,900 61,200 459,000 310,900 9,147,399 2,309,110 259,148,699 29,590 881,000

-1,051,770 -92,596 -316,000 7,650.00 2,600 -8,899,765 30,000 1,300 1,669,911 -327,600 50,560,027 -20,600

ABS HLDG PDR AC PREF B1 AC PREF B2 ALCO PREF B DD PREF FGEN PREF F FGEN PREF G GLO PREF P GMA HLDG PDR GTCAP PREF B LR PREF PCOR PREF 2A PF PREF 2 PNX PREF 3A SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2D SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2G SMC PREF 2H SMC PREF 2I

44.4 524 530 107.7 104.6 112.5 115 525 5.9 1,030 1.08 1,060 1,020 105.5 80.5 76.15 78 80.5 79 78.7 78.4

44.4 524 530 107.7 105 112.5 115 525 5.9 1,030 1.09 1,060 1,020 105.5 81 76.15 78 80.95 79 78.7 78.4

44.4 524 530 107.7 104.6 112.5 115 525 5.8 1,025 1.08 1,025 1,019 105.5 80.3 76.1 78 80.4 79 78.7 78.35

PREFERRED 44.4 3,100 524 90 530 40 107.7 6,000 105 14,130 112.5 10,000 115 11,000 525 20 5.85 827,000 1,025 2,055 1.09 530,000 1,025 1,620 1,019 200 105.5 5,000 80.3 106,400 76.1 9,000 78 67,270 80.4 78,360 79 420 78.7 105,900 78.35 6,300

137,640 47,160 21,200 646,200 1,482,708 1,125,000 1,265,000 10,500 4,836,710 2,108,300 572,450 1,664,685 203,815 527,500 8,597,103 685,000 5,247,060 6,307,913 33,180 8,334,330 493,655

4,451,710 -

LR WARRANT

2.4

2.45

2.35

WARRANTS 2.36 549,000

1,307,650

-

9,085,850 605,333 70,134,271

-252,720 -4,708,214

2,377,014

-20,960

18,725

-

NAME

MS

PROPERTY 6.79 1.3 2.27 1.39 38.4 4.23 5.37 0.5 1.03 1.46 0.16 0.54 51.55 0.7 0.17 1.75 1 1.03 4.5 4.37 0.415 0.38 0.84 4.4 28

691,800 10,688,000 219,000 5,287,000 23,907,400 9,463,000 5,400 5,316,000 10,000 576,000 4,860,000 3,182,000 138,520 761,000 3,310,000 16,329,000 11,570,000 3,137,000 6,000 36,225,000 136,910,000 7,280,000 222,785,000 944,000 100

ITALPINAS PHILAB HLDG XURPAS

4.36 6.55 8.3

4.68 6.57 8.46

4.36 6.42 8.07

FIRST METRO ETF

131.2

132

130.5

USD DMPL A1

10.7

10.7

DOLLAR DENONIMATED SECURITIES 10.7 10.7 1,750

SHARES

VALUE

TRADING SUMMARY FINANCIAL

56,372,865

INDUSTRIAL

238,444,482

HOLDING FIRMS

830,483,681

PROPERTY

537,906,946

SERVICES

387,059,952

MINING & OIL

492,202,626

GRAND TOTAL

2,553,091,112

4.6 6.42 8.12

SME

1,997,000 93,700 8,510,200

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 131 18,100

1,929.73 (down) 10.33 1,563,339,210.45 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 11,420.05 (down) 105.81 1,841,459,645.31 HOLDING FIRMS 8,051.69 (down) 1.05 2,261,754,837.656 PROPERTY 3,564.54 (down) 26.71 1,649.79 (down) 12.52 1,990,037,570.13 SERVICES MINING & OIL 12,671.71 (down) 137.97 1,560,120,636.676 PSEI 7,923.50 (down) 38.83 376,450,760.733 All Shares Index 4,709.25 (down) 22.00 9,675,372,534.95 Gainers:83; Losers: 128; Unchanged: 42; Total: 253

sure that the project will push through.”

“We’re more motivated to make sure that the project pushes through and we have a good consortium that will support it. And we think that there are a number of players that will support it because it’s an important infrastructure for the country,” Puno said.

First Gen reported $45 million in recurring net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company, or 11 percent lower than $51-million registered in the same period last year.

First Gen said in a statement its merchant power plants suffered from lower revenues due to seasonally soft prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, the country’s trading floor of electricity.

The company recorded attributable net income of $47 million in the three-month period, down $17 million from a year ago.

First Gen, however, said it exceeded expectations as various subsidiaries successfully implemented strategic initiatives. First Gen’s debt reduction program also started to pay off with a decline in interest expenses.

“Electricity prices in the spot market are normally lower in the first quarter due to cooler weather conditions.

First Gen is optimistic that the company will catch up in the following quarters, especially during the summer months,” First Gen president and chief operating officer Francis Giles Puno said.

Shakey’s posts 26% growth in net profit

By Jenniffer B. Austria RESTAURANT chain operator Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. said Tuesday net income jumped 26 percent in the first three months to P173 million from a year ago, led by stronger sales.

Systemwide store sales, a combination of companyowned and franchise store sales, grew 22 percent to P2 billion in the first quarter from P1.6 billion in the same period last year, the company said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

Same-store sales growth was registered at 11.6 percent in the first quarter, as instore head count and average checks increased.

“We are pleased with the robust first-quarter numbers, particularly the double digit SSSGs owing primarily to the success of our ‘2017 meal deal’ promotion. The first quarter is typically a lean season for our business so we are glad that the combined results of marketing programs and successful store openings have delivered the desired results,” SPAVI president and chief executive Vicente Gregorio said.

“While growth may moderate in the coming months, we are firmly on track to meet our full-year targets especially considering the seasonality of our business, where we usually see an increase in consumer spending towards the year end,” he said.

The pizza chain added five new stores to its network bringing total store count to 189. It targets a total of 20 new outlets by year-end, hoping to close 2017 with a 204-store network.

Business

B3

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Cargo volume growth slower

By Darwin G. Amojelar

HEALTHCARE VENTURES. Endeavor Philippines and Ayala Healthcare Holdings Inc. host the second event under its #HealthcareRedefined series, bringing together

entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers within the sector. The event gathered panelists who have founded their own ventures. Shown are (from left) Amit Kakar of Bamboo Capital Partners, Nick Ray of Queen’s Road Capital, Endeavor Philippines managing director Manny Ayala, Endeavor Philippines manager for entrepreneur selection and growth Johanna Wiese, CXA Group founder and CEO Rosaline Chow Koo, Endeavor Entrepreneur and mClinica founder and CEO Farouk Meralli and Christian Besler of AC Health.

Meralco rates down in May

By Alena Mae S. Flores

P

OWER rates of Manila Electric Co., the biggest retailer of electricity, fell by P0.29 per kilowatt-hour in May due to lower generation charges.

Meralco said in a statement the overall rates for a typical residential household now stood at P9.60 per kWh from last month’s rate of P9.89 per kWh. “This amounts to a P58 decrease in the total bill of a typical residential household consuming 200 kWh,” the company said.

Meralco said generation charges declined due to the lower cost of power purchased from the Independent Power Producers and the PSAs (Power

Supply Agreements).

The overall generation charge dropped P0.2126 per kWh in May to P4.8839 per kWh from P5.0965 per kWh in April, inclusive of the last installment of the incremental liquid fuel cost due to the Malampaya maintenance shutdown from January 28 to February 16, 2017.

Meralco said the cost of power bought from IPPs declined P0.87 per kWh, while the cost of electricity from PSAs decreased

P0.14 per kWh. “As a result of the quarterly repricing, natural gas prices increased this month to reflect higher world crude oil prices.

Despite the increase in fuel prices, there was a reduction in IPP costs because of higher plant dispatch and the recent peso appreciation,” it said.

Meralco said the strengthening of the peso against the US dollar contributed to the drop in power cost from PSAs this month.

Meralco obtains 38.5 percent of its power requirements from the IPPs and 40.6 percent from PSAs. The cost of supply from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, the country’s trading floor of electricity, however, increased P0.68 per kWh due to plant outages and higher power

demand in Luzon.

Meralco secures 20.9 percent of its requirements from the WESM. The company noted a slight increase in the transmission charge of residential customers this month by P0.02 per kWh, while taxes and other charges went down by a combined amount of around P0.10 per kWh. Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges, meanwhile, have remained unchanged for 22 months, after they registered reductions in July 2015.

Meralco, which has over six million customers, does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges. Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while

payment for the transmission charge is remitted to National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

Meralco earlier reported net income increased 6 percent in the first quarter to P4.8 billion from P4.5 billion a year ago, on higher electricity sales.

Meralco’s core net income was unchanged at P4 billion in the first quarter from a year earlier, as operating and business conditions proved to be challenging, the company said.

Energy sales in January to March reached 9,317 gigawatthours, up 3 percent from 9,077 gWh sold in the same period in 2016.

Meralco’s revenues grew 12 percent in the first quarter to P64.7 billion, while operating expenses stood at P6.2 billion.

BoI approves P391-m coco processing plant

By Othel V. Campos THE Board of Investments approved the proposal of Ahya Coco Organic Food Manufacturing Corp. to set up a P391-million coconut processing plant in Barangay Gumalang, Baguio district, Davao City.

“With the growing demand for coconut products abroad, the country, as one the world’s largest coconut producers, hopes to address such demand,” said Trade Undersecretary and BoI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo.

The project falls under the production and manufacture of export products category of the 2017 Investment Priorities Plan that gives non-pioneer incentives to non-traditional products for exports by fully-Filipino-owned or at least 70 percent Filipino company with foreign component.

Formal operations of the agriculture company started in December 2016 with 396 employees.

The facility is producing canned coconut milk of about 7,286 metric tons per year, 6,970 MTPY canned coco water, 485 MTPY of virgin coconut milk and 1,061 MTPY of coconut flour.

Ahya secures its coconut requirements from the farmers in Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley Province and Davao del Sur. The production process for coconut water involves the de-husking of coconuts, filtration and collection, pasteurization and canning.

The processing of coconut milk, meanwhile, comprises shelling, paring, extraction, pasteurization and canning. Virgin coconut milk and flour involves drying, extraction and packing.

The company plans to export all products to the United States, China and Europe.

Exports of coconut products amounted to $1.410 billion in 2016, slightly up from $1.404 billion in 2015, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

IN BRIEF

FDA orders Sanofi, Watsons to stop ads

DBP IN SIQUIJOR. Development Bank of the Philippines opens five new branches in the first quarter of the year, with more DBP branches set to open within the year. DBP president and chief executive officer Cecilia Borromeo and Siquijor governor Zaldy Villa (second and third from left) cut the ceremonial ribbon during the inauguration of DBP Siquijor branch. With them are DBP executive vice president Anthony Robles (leftmost) and Siquijor town mayor Richard Quezon.

Tadeco says joint venture benefits govt and 30,000 workers

By Anna Leah E. Gonzales clarifying the “erroneous al- lawmakers that the JVA is not tion of personal interference” in profits and other payments TAGUM Agricultural Development Company Inc. said Tuesday its joint venture with the Bureau of Corrections is beneficial to the government and some 30,000 direct and indirect workers in the banana industry and other allied sectors.

Tadeco president and chief executive Alex Valoria defended the validity of the joint venture in a position paper to the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and the Committee on Justice,

legations” made against the company.

Tadeco said the agreement bertween BuCor and the company aimed to help rehabilitate inmates at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm and prepare them for their eventual reintegration to society by providing them with a decent means of livelihood while serving their sentences.

Tadeco has developed a banana plantation inside the DPPF Reservation to achieve the goals.

“We respectfully would like to point out to our honorable

PHILIPPINE cargo volume grew at a slower pace in the first quarter due to the significant drop in the export volume.

Latest data from the Philippine Ports Authority showed cargo volume in the first quarter totaled 54.298 million metric tons, up 4.15 percent from 52.133 mmt handled in the same period last year.

Domestic cargo volume also posted positive figures of 23.825 mmt, up 4.91 percent than the 22.710 mmt registered in 2016.

Foreign cargo volume posted a 3.57-percent increase from 29.422 mmt in 2016 to 30.473 mmt this year.

“The healthy economic performance explains the sustained robust operations of Philippine ports at large,” PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago said in a statement.

“While we posted volume growth for the period, the growth pace, however, is slower.

Last year, we registered some 8 percent growth in volume compared to the 4 percent for the same period this year,” Santiago added.

He attributed the slower pace to the overall decline in export cargo volume, which dropped 8 percent in the first quarter from a year ago.

First-quarter export volume stood at 9.04 mmt compared with 9.78 mmt handled in the same period last year.

Container volume, meanwhile, totaled 1.521 million twenty-foot equivalent units, up 4.08 from 1.461 million TEUs handled on year.

Domestic boxes posted a 7.71-percent increase to 638,435 TEUs, while foreign boxes registered a measly 1.61 percent hike after growth was pulled by the drop in export boxes of 5 percent to 408,018 TEUs from 427,562 TEUs. Ports that posted growth in TEU-volume include NCR North, Davao, Batangas, South Harbor and the Manila International Container Terminal.

Passenger traffic maintained its upward trend with a 0.89-percent increase to 15.893 million against the 2016 figure of 15.753 million.

only about money; the more important aspect to it is its core purpose of the rehabilitation of the inmates which has been a proven success,” Valoria said.

“The benefits to thousands of ex-inmates, their spouses and children, and finally to the communities they eventually settled into are immeasurable,” he added.

Davao del Norter Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. whose family owns Tadeco, did not attend the hearing as a member of the House justice committee “to obviate any percep-

on his part.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who filed a House resolution calling for an investigation into the BuCorTadeco agreement, however, joined the meeting after figuring in a personal quarrel with Floirendo.

Valoria said the joint venture translates into the secure livelihood and future of at least 181,000 Filipinos.

Tadeco paid P438 Million in taxes and fees to the Philippine government in 2016 alone. BuCor, meanwhile, gets over P26,900 per hectare

from Tadeco, contrary to claims that BuCor was at the losing end of the deal.

“Last year 2016, Tadeco actually paid the BuCor a total of P142,719,662. This equates to P26,900 per hectare. We must emphasize that Tadeco paid to BuCor not only the guaranteed annual production and profit share but also the Inmates Farm Training Support, Stipend and Support Program and Training Subsidy. The financial benefits paid by Tadeco from 2004 to 2016 amounted P1,620,549,230,” Valoria said.

THE Food and Drug Administration ordered French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur Inc. and one of the country’s biggest drugstore chains, Watsons Personal Care Stores (Philippines) Inc., to cease and desist from advertising, promoting and conducting immunization activities in Watsons drugstores.

The FDA also asked both companies to show cause why administrative and criminal charges should not be filed against them for conducting such activities without FDA authorization.

FDA director general Nela Charade Puno said the FDA did not issue an authorization to allow immunization community-based health services to Sanofi, Watsons or any drug store.

“As such, there is no assurance on the safety and quality of the service rendered in these drugstores and thus poses a potential health hazard to the consuming public,” Puno said.

Metro Retail set to open 7 stores

CEBU-BASED retailer Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. said it will start construction of seven new stores in the second quarter of the year as part of the company’s fiveyear plan to double its footprint.

Metro Retail plans to double its gross floor area to 800,000 square meters by 2020 from 400,000 sq. m. in 2015 by opening 50 to 70 stores.

Metro Retail said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it recently opened its 51st store in Canduman, Mandaue City, after launching four in 2016, bringing its GFA to 440,000 as of end 2016.

“Our expansion and partnerships enable MRSGI to consistently grow its footprint and serve more customers,” Metro Retail chairman and chief executive Frank Gaisano said.

Jenniffer B. Austria

Ray S. Eñano, Editor business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com

B4

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

Business

Dollar advances on Fed hike talk H ONG KONG―The dollar extended gains in Asian trade Tuesday as investors swung their attention to expectations of another US interest rate hike next month, but equities struggled under the weight of profit-taking following the previous day’s rally.

Regional markets surged Monday, with Tokyo and Seoul leading the way, following centrist Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France’s presidential election and last week’s solid US jobs report that reinforced views of a strengthening

economy.

The better-than-expected reading on US payrolls preceded a record close on Wall Street and helped send Wall Street’s VIX index of volatility in New York’s markets to its lowest level since 1993.

It also had investors betting the Federal Reserve will stick to its plan to raise borrowing costs twice more this year―including once next month― having lifted rates in December and March.

The likelihood of further tightening has seen the dollar rally more than four percent since hitting a low around 108.30 yen in mid-April.

Analysts say it could push further following the release of sales and consumer price index figures this week.

“While we think the Fed will be resolute on its course towards at least two rate hikes, the market

is underpricing the risk that (the central bank) will tighten rates more quickly than expected, so a robust retail sales print and a stronger-than-expected CPI print will be a call to action for dollar bulls,” said Stephen Innes, senior trader at OANDA, in a note.

The greenback was also up against the pound and euro―which has run out of steam since pressing higher leading up to the French election―and most other high-yielding currencies, including the South Korean won, Indonesian rupiah and Mexican peso.

The Australian dollar was down almost one percent on concerns about fresh figures pointing to a further growth slowdown in key export market China. Traders are also keeping an eye on the annual budget statement out of Canberra later in the day.

Tokyo’s Nikkei ended 0.3 percent lower a day

after jumping more than two percent to a 17-month high, while Sydney dropped 0.5 percent, Wellington shed 0.2 percent and Taipei retreated 0.2 percent.

Manila, Jakarta and Bangkok also turned lower.

But Shanghai recovered from recent selling pressure to close 0.1 percent higher, while Hong Kong jumped 1.3 percent. Singapore was also slightly up.

Seoul, which ended at a record high Monday, was closed as South Korea held its presidential election.

The tepid performance Tuesday comes despite a record close for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Wall Street.

In early European trade London rose 0.1 percent, Paris added 0.4 percent and Frankfurt was up 0.3 percent. AFP

Dutch open largest offshore wind farm THE HAGUE, Netherlands―Dutch officials on Monday opened what is being billed as one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, with 150 turbines spinning in action far out in the North Sea. Over the next 15 years, the Gemini wind park, which lies some 85 kilometers (53 miles) off the northern coast of The Netherlands, will meet the energy needs of about 1.5 million people.

At full winds the wind park has a generating capacity of some 600 megawatts, and will help supply some 785,000 Dutch households with renewable energy, the company said.

“We are now officially in the operational stage,” the company’s managing director Matthias Haag told AFP, celebrating the completion of a project first conceived in 2010.

The 2.8-billion-euro ($3 billion) project is a collaboration between the Canadian independent renewable energy company Northland Power, wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Wind Power, Dutch maritime contractor Van Oord and waste processing company HVC. It has been “quite a com-

plex” undertaking, Haag said, “particularly as this wind park lies relatively far offshore... so it took quite a lot of logistics.”

Gemini will contribute about 13 percent of the country’s total renewable energy supply, and about 25 percent of its wind power, he added.

It will also help reduce emissions of carbon-dioxide emissions, among the so-called greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, by 1.25 million tons, the company says.

The Netherlands remains dependent on fossil fuels which still make up about 95 percent of its energy supply, according to a 2016 report from the ministry of economics affairs.

A handout picture taken on May 3, 2017 and released on May 8, 2017 shows wind turbines at the Gemini wind park, an offshore wind farm in the But the Dutch government North Sea. AFP has committed to ensuring that some 14 percent of its energy comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar power by 2020, and Bucking the trend Turkey has an excellent reputa“Turkey is very advanced

By Fulya Ozerkan 16 percent by 2023, with the Emre Ali Kodan, consultant tion when it comes to hair im- in cosmetic surgeries and hair aim of being a carbon neutral ISTANBUL, Turkey―On his plants,” 27-year-old Jameel said, transplantation, so the patients for the Health Tourism Associaby 2050. to-do list for his trip to Istanbul, speaking to AFP after the surgery are buying a very high quality tion, said 5,000 foreign patients Gemini “is seen as a stepPalestinian tourist Jameel wants at an Istanbul hospital, on condi- treatment at a quarter of the nor- undergo hair transplants in Turmal cost” in some other coun- key every month, with the vast to visit the Blue Mosque and take tion of not using his full name. ping stone” in The Nethermajority coming from the MidFaisal Abu Ahmad, from Saudi tries. a tour on the Bosphorus, like any lands, and has “shown that a Arabia, said his uncle underwent Package offers for foreign pa- dle East and the Arabian Peninother tourist. very large project can be built But he has one more, less the treatment in Turkey and so he tients include pickup from the sula, including Saudi Arabia, the on time, and in a very safe airport, hotel accommodation, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. conventional purpose―to have followed suit. environment,” Haag added.

“We are setting our sights on “Rapid hair loss pushed me to surgery itself and tourism.

1,500 strands of hair implanted AFP Around 1,200 euros ($1,312) a 10-percent increase in hair one by one, in an increasingly undergo the operation. I started

IMF: Macron victory is ‘good news’ for Asia SINGAPORE—Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential election is “good news” for trade-reliant Asia as it eases fears of rising protectionism in Europe, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday.

Changyong Rhee, director of the fund’s Asia and Pacific Department, said Macron’s win over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, an economic nationalist, had made him more optimistic that major trade tensions would ease.

“If you asked me this question (on rising protectionism) three to six months ago, I would probably have answered that I am very seriously concerned on the possibility of trade tensions in the global economy,” he told reporters in Singapore.

“But now I feel a little bit better,” he added, citing a meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last month and Macron’s victory on Sunday.

“I think the result of the French elections really show that it’s good news to open trade and globalization, and it reduces the uncertainties of the eurozone,” Rhee said.

“So I think at this moment I am a little bit more optimistic that these trade tensions will resolve without bigger tensions.”

The IMF’s latest economic outlook had flagged increasing protectionism in Asia’s major trading partners and tightening global financial conditions as key downside risks to regional growth.

“Asian economies are particularly vulnerable to trade shocks... given the reliance of many Asian economies on exports, more protective trade policies would generate a significant negative impact on the region,” said the report issued last month.

It said the Asia-Pacific was expected to remain the world’s fastest growing region this year and next, at 5.5 percent and 5.4 percent, but growth was “clouded with significant uncertainty.” AFP

Hair therapy boosts Istanbul’s receding tourism

popular anti-hair loss treatment in the Turkish metropolis.

With over 300 clinics specialized in hair transplant alone, Istanbul is becoming a growing hub in the industry, attracting patients from all over the world but mainly from the Middle East and the Gulf.

Experienced surgeons, advanced technology and relatively low prices are a plus for many tourists.

And its growth in the last couple of years has come as a boon for a city where foreign tourism has fallen drastically since a spate of terror attacks in 2016.

“I came to Turkey for the hair transplant and a bit of tourism.

getting bald spots,” he said.

Symbol of Istanbul At the tourist hubs of Istanbul such as Taksim Square, it is hard to miss the men wandering around with shaved heads and bandages after their operations, proudly sporting the branded headbands of their clinics.

They have become so ubiquitous that residents of Istanbul joke that a man with a bandaged head could be the city’s new symbol.

“Prices are very, very attractive. However, the second most critical element is the quality of this treatment,” said Talip Tastemel, the general manager of Clinic Expert.

would get a patient three days in Istanbul and a top quality medical treatment, whereas the same surgery could cost up to 6,000 euros in Europe, or only slightly less in the Middle East.

The operation is carried out with Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) where tiny hairs are taken out one by one from areas where the patient still has hair like the nape of the neck.

After the harvesting, they are implanted in the areas where the patient has lost hair. The procedure takes around eight to 10 hours, while the tiny transplanted hairs can take weeks or months to take root and grow.

Patients walk on Taksim square after an hair transplant surgery on May 2, 2017 in Istanbul. With over 300 clinics specialized in hair transplant alone, Istanbul is becoming a growing hub in the industry, attracting patients from all over the world but mainly from the Middle East and the Gulf. AFP

transplant alone (in 2017). It would not be a dream to reach up to 6,500 patients a month,” he told AFP. Patients from Greece, Italy and Russia are also showing interest, he said.

“Despite the decline in the tourism sector in 2016, we see a five-percent growth in health tourism, based on statistics,” Kodan said, adding that the aim was to achieve up to seven billion dollars in revenue this year.

Tastemel said the hair treatment sector was showing a resilience lacking in other branches of the tourism sector, which saw revenues plummet more than 17 percent in the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2016.

“Even when there were problems in the tourism industry it didn’t affect the medical tourism domain very much,” he said.

“We kept doing a high number of operations even during the crisis period.”

‘Cars, watches and hair’ A pharmacist himself, Jameel said he tried many medicines to stop hair loss but they didn’t work.

“At this age, losing your hair has a big impact on your looks.

“That’s why when you lose it, you start looking for solutions to fix this hair problem,” he said.

Tastemel said men need to be proud of their hair.

“To be honest, men don’t have many accessories to present themselves with. It is mainly our cars, our watches and our hair at the end of the day,” he said. AFP

Muslim leaders OK cop support

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor Roger M. Garcia, Assistant Editor jimbo.gulle@gmail.com mslocalgov@gmail.com WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

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By Jun David MUSLIM leaders in the Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela or Camanava area yesterday expressed their support to the peace and order campaign of the Philippine National Police in the northern part of Metro Manila.

Muslim leaders and their imams residing in Camanava expressed this during a dialogue with the Northern Police District officials led by NPD Director Supt. Ricardo Fajardo.

“We love our country so much, the Moro fought side by side with the Filipinos against the invaders, so we will not allow our country to be destroyed,” a Muslim leader from Caloocan said, requesting anonymity.

Fajardo assured the Muslim leaders of continuous police service and protection to prevent similar incidents like the recent explosions in Quiapo, Manila, which have claimed at least two lives.

The dialogue was meant to show the concerns of the PNP to the Muslim community, and assure them the police will be their guardian against criminality and terrorism, the NPD said in a statement.

It also aims to defuse tension and urges cooperation and unity among every Muslim group, according to Fajardo.

“Let us all together help in maintaining the peace and order in Camanava and report those who will disturb the peace,” he said.

The imams vowed to render full cooperation to the PNP’s anti-crime and anti-terrorism drive by encouraging their community leaders to police their own community and deny criminal and terrorist groups the opportunities to carry out their acts.

In another development, Navotas Mayor John Rey Tiangco has congratulated a centenarian couple for their valuable contribution to the city.

Tiangco recently visited couple Abundio Montesa, 103 and his wife Cirila, 100 at their house and gave each of them P10,000.

He also pledged to give the pair P2,000 monthly allowance in addition to their daily expenditures.

LGUs LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

BIKINI BEAUTIES. The 25 candidates from different provinces of the Miss Bikini Pageant 2017 organized by Slimmers World pose during the press presentation and pre-pageant night at the Diamond Hotel in Manila. Manny Palmero

15 Davao scholars to China D

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera

AVAO CITY—Fifteen students are set to study in Naning, China under the Educational Exchange Program as part of the sisterhood agreement of Naning and this city.

The students will have a full scholarship in any school in Naning, and they are also free to choose their course. The Naning government will also cover the accommodation of the scholars.

Mayor Sara Duterte said the city government will also give the students allowances to help

in their study in China.

On Sunday, the Mayor of Naning, Zhou Hongbo, visited Davao City to discuss the scholarship grants to the students and the businesses the two cities can venture into.

Duterte said she

Pangasinan hands out bags of palay, fertilizer

By Dexter A. See LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The provincial government led by Gov. Amado I. Espino III, in coordination with the Department of Agriculture, on Tuesday distributed some 2,000 bags of certified palay seeds and 4,000 bags of fertilizer to farmer beneficiaries in support of the Agro-Industrial Enterprise Program at the Pangasinan Training and Development Center.

The program, which was conceptualized by the governor, aims to increase the yield of the farmer beneficiaries tilling an area of 2,000 hectares in the second district, and to deliver the appropriate package of technology to these farmers to become more productive partners towards economic development.

Stressing the importance of the program, Gov. Espino said the provincial government is doing its best to help and support the needs of the marginalized farmers. As

speaking Mandarin since it is the native tongue of the people living in Naning.

The mayor said Davao is also hoping that soon, the city can also sponsor scholarships for the students of Naning.

“As of now we don’t have a specific project for scholarship grant [for Naning students], but their offer of scholarship grant is the start.

This is the start of education cooperation,” she said.

On June, Naning will also have a “Naning Day” here in Davao that will showcase their culture as part of the cultural cooperation of the two cities.

Naning invited Davao City to witness the 12th China International Expo on December 2018. Naning will name one of the gardens there as “Davao City Philippines” to showcase the city’s tourism industry.

Ayala Land volunteers learn from forest regeneration expert

such, he urged the farmers to take care of themselves and their crops even if they get discouraged when calamities happen.

Joining Espino in the distribution of the farm inputs were Vice Gov. Jose Ferdinand Z. Calimlim, Jr. and Second District Board Member Nestor “Nikki Boy” D. Reyes.

During the distribution, Officer-in-Charge Provincial Agriculturist Dalisay A. Moya welcomed the farmers from the eight municipalities—Aguilar, Basista, Binmaley, Bugallon, Labrador, Lingayen, Mangatarem, Urbiztondo—of District II in Pangasinan.

Also on the same day, the governor turned over four tractors and 177 water pumps to organized farmer’s associations from the six congressional districts of the province at the Provincial Agriculture Office in Tebag, Sta. Barbara.

The provincial government had availed of the World Bank’s Philippine Rural Development Project fund to push the local farmers towards entrepreneurship.

SSS supports beneficiaries of Nueva Ecija bus crash THE Social Security System has implemented the special processing of death and funeral benefits for beneficiaries of SSS members who died in the Nueva Ecija bus mishap last month.

“The Social Security Commission headed

by Chairman Amado Valdez has instructed management to immediately release their funeral and death benefits. Thus, I have directed the SSS branch nearest to the accident area to allot special lanes for the survivors and families of the deceased members,” SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said.

Families applying for death and funeral benefits do not have to submit fact-of-death

welcomes the development because of the sisterhood agreement of the two cities.

“It is a welcome project between Davao City and Naning City in China, hopefully we can finish the Memorandum of Agreement by August so we can present it to them by September, so by next school year we can send the scholars there,” the mayor said.

Duterte said the scholars will undergo training in writing and

documents but only standard documentary requirements. Meanwhile, victims who suffered from injuries may avail themselves of the SS and Employees’ Compensation sickness benefits on submitting the standard requirements for doctor’s evaluation.

To date, out of the 33 reported casualties of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office of Nueva Vizcaya, six were confirmed as SSS members. So far, only Maximo G. Esperon’s legal dependent from Solano, Nueva Vizcaya has claimed the benefits.

“In one day, we received and processed the funeral benefit application from Maximo’s mother, Julita G. Esperon. She received a Turn to C2

Ayala Land volunteers remove weeds that suppress native trees from growing at the company’s pilot forest protection and regeneration site in Alaminos, Laguna.

Ayala Land volunteers recently combed parts of its environmental stewardship among Ayala Land employees pilot forest protection and regeneration site in Alaminos, and advance their level of understanding of sustainability Laguna, removing vegetation and reforestation approaches. that suppresses growing native Pat Dugan, who was named trees in the area and recognizing 2016 Champion of Asia the importance of forest fire Pacific Forests by the Food prevention during dry season. The and Agriculture Organization, activity was part of NaturALI, a explained the techniques in a short continuing program to promote talk before leading the troop to the Assisted Natural Regeneration hillside for experiential learning.

(ANR), organized by the company As a developer of sustainable with the help of expert forester Pat estates, Ayala Land aims to be Dugan. carbon neutral by 2022. The ANR departs from conventional protection and expansion of Pat Dugan explains proper techniques tree-planting activities to focus on to nurture tree species before leading permanent forest ecosystems in approaches that foster the growth the troop to the hillside for experiential its landbank through ANR is one of naturally-occurring tree species. learning. of the ways it plans to achieve Participants learned that the best its goal.NaturALI is among the way to grow a forest was to tend the wild native seedlings various initiatives that express Alagang Ayala Land, that sprouted from seeds dispersed by the best reforesters the company’s commitment to social development and ―bats and birds. This has helped sustain a mindset for environmental stewardship.

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

LGUs

Standard WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 C2 TODAY Manila

Co-ops nix repeal of tax exemption

By Dexter A. See

B

AGUIO CITY—The Network of Cooperatives in Northern Luzon has joined forces with other cooperative organizations in the different parts of the country in objecting to the attempt of legislators to repeal their tax exemption that could lead to “the eventual extinction of cooperatives.”

Rafael Gayaso, executive director of the Northern Luzon Federation of Cooperatives and Development Center, said aside from the repeal of their manda-

tory tax exemption, cooperatives are also “hounded” by the coverage of Republic Act 9510 or the Credit Information System Act. It would mean additional ex-

SSS...

From C1

for death and funeral applications from the families of five other deceased members. They are entitled to receive funeral and death benefits amounting to about P102,180 and P308,813.34 respectively.

The SSS funeral benefit ranges from P20,000 to P40,000 depending on the member’s paid contributions and credited years of service. EC funeral benefit, on the other hand, is pegged at P20,000. Butch Gunio

check worth P24,057.29 as funeral benefit,” SSS Solano Branch Head Jose Rizal S. Tarun said.

Esperon’s mother is also entitled to receive lump sum death benefits amounting to about P93,480.12.

Meanwhile, SSS branches in Meycauayan, Solano, San Jose and La Union are still waiting NOTICE OF EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF ESTATE WITH WAIVER AND RENUNCIATION OF RIGHTS Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late ANGEL VELANTE and PHOEBE VELANTE was extra-judicially settled by and among their heirs as per Doc. No. 8663; Page No. 18; Book No. XXXV; Series of 2015, executed before CARLYN A. MONASTRIAL - Vice Consul (Philippine Consulate-San Francisco, California, USA).

(MS-MAY 10,17 & 24, 2017)

penses on their part and “runs counterproductive to the primary purpose of strengthening cooperatives in the countryside,” he said.

Under the tax reform program proposed by the Finance department, cooperatives will no longer enjoy their tax exemption as provided for under the provisions of RA 9520 or the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008, and that cooperatives stand to be treated like corporations where they will be assessed a 30-percent annual income tax apart from other taxes that will be collected by the state.

Gayaso explained cooperatives are the extension of local government units in providing the needed assistance for the basic needs of marginalized sectors like the urban poor, farmers, housewives, among others.

“We want to send a message to our national officials that it will be the members of the marginalized sector who will be deprived of the cooperatives which are considered as the extension of the local governments in providing basic services to the less fortunate sectors,” Gayaso stressed.

He added the cooperatives are also questioning the inclusion of

cooperatives in the coverage of the Credit Information System Act. In fact, cooperatives were not included as part of the law but the term “cooperatives” was deliberately inserted in the implementing rules and regulations of the law, which the group finds to be “irregular and unlikely.”

Gayaso pointed out the inclusion of cooperatives in the coverage of the Credit Information Corp., which is empowered to implement the CISA, will result in additional expenses for the cooperatives.

He also said cooperatives should not actually be covered

under the law, considering they are not dealing with the public like banks and pawnshops but are directly dealing with their members, who are screened from the start.

He disclosed various cooperatives are intending to question the inclusion of cooperatives in the coverage of the CIC by filing the appropriate petitions before the concerned courts to prevent the imposition of the excessive P30,000 daily penalty against the cooperative starting July 1, 2017, once they will not subject their cooperatives to the CIC.

RESERVE YOUR AD SPACE NOW! email us at advertise@manilastandard.net

or call us at 832-5547 HERITAGE TREE. Mayor Jaime Fresnedi (second from left) leads the unveiling of a marker for a heritage tree located in Alabang Elementary School last April 25, conducted in celebration of the local government’s 100th Founding Anniversary. Through a memorandum of agreement between the local government and Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the 110-year-old mango tree in Alabang will be included in the environmental agency’s heritage tree conservation program to place limits on its removal and for its protection.

NOTICE OF ANNUAL STOCKHOLDERS’ MEETING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the annual meeting of the stockholders of Caritas Financial Plans, Inc. (CFPI) will be held at the 4th Floor Caritas Corporate Centre, No. 97 E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd ., Quezon City on Friday, May 26, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. for the transaction of the following agenda: 1. Call to order 2. Report on Attendance and Quorum 3. Review and Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Stockholders’ Meeting 4. Management/President’s Report 5. Approval of Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements 6. Ratification of all acts of the Board of Directors 7. Election of the Board of Directors for the ensuing year 8. Appointment of External Auditor 9. Such other business as may properly come before it Stockholders of record as of May 8, 2017 will be entitled to notice and vote at this meeting.

Quezon City, May 4, 2017.

Davao VRU nabs 4,487 over smoking ban

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera DAVAO CITY—The newlyformed Davao City Vices Regulation Unit has apprehended 4,487 violators of the city’s 15-year ban on smoking as of Tuesday, the city government said.

The violators were issued with citation tickets, which they will settle within three days. First-time offenders will pay an administrative penalty amounting to P500, attend smoking cessation counseling, and return the citation tick-

et to the police station. Police will file cases against those who will fail to return the citation tickets.

Under the ordinance, succeeding violations, will automatically be filed in court—even if the violators have complied with the requirements.

Minors, on the one hand, will be required to report to the Davao City Social Services and Development Office for assessment and referral to the smoking cessation clinic for counseling, and to the Barangay Council for the Protec-

Republic of the Philippine CITY OF NAGA BIDS & AWARDS COMMITTEE

If you cannot personally attend the meeting and you wish to be represented thereat, you may designate your authorized representative by submitting a proxy instrument to the Office of the Corporate Secretary, 4th Floor, Caritas Corporate Centre, No. 97 E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd ., Quezon City not later than May 22, 2017.

INVITATION TO BID FOR THE SUPPLY AND DELIVERY OF BRAND NEW BACKHOE LOADER, MINI DECLOGGER AND MINI DUMP TRUCKS The City Government of Naga, through the Machinery & Heavy Equipment Account of City Engineers Office (CEO), intends to apply the sum of Eighteen Million Two Hundred Thousand (P 18,200,000.00) Pesos being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for Supply and Delivery of Brand New Backhoe Loader, Mini Declogger and Mini Dump Trucks for use in maintenance works of the CEO, Contract Reference Number: 2017-017. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

Item Quantity Unit No.

1

1

2

1

3

2

(MS-MAY 10, 2017)

NOTICE OF ANNUAL STOCKHOLDERS’ MEETING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the annual meeting of the stockholders of Caritas Life Insurance Corp. (CLlC) will be held at the 4th Floor Caritas Corporate Centre, No. 97 E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd., Quezon City on Friday, May 26, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. for the transaction of the following agenda: 1. Call to order 2. Report on Attendance and Quorum 3. Review and Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Stockholders’ Meeting 4. Management/President’s Report 5. Approval of Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements 6. Ratification of all acts of the Board of Directors 7. Election of the Board of Directors for the ensuing year 8. Appointment of External Auditor 9. Such other business as may properly come before it Stockholders of record as of May 8, 2017 will be entitled to notice and vote at this meeting.

Quezon City, May 4, 2017.

FOR THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Items

Backhoe-Loader Specifications: Length x width x height (mm) – 7085x2313x3424; Operating weight(kg) – 7600; Diesel engine type-Cummins B4.5-C99/Dong Feng Cummins 4BTA3.9-C110; Rated output (KW) – 74/82; Transmission case type – CARRARO; Gear shift position – 4 forward and 4 Reverse Gears; Max. traction force(KN) – 70; Rated load(kg) – 1700; Rated load bucket capacity(cu.m.) – 1.0; Max. Breakout unit force(KN) – 60; Max. dump clearance(mm) – 2714; Dump reach(mm) – 845; Wheel base(mm) – 2155.5; Total time of elevating, loading and unloading – 9.5; Rated digging bucket capacity(cu.m.)

– 0.3; Max. digging depth(mm) – 4405; Max. digging radius(mm) – 5481; Max. dumping height(mm) – 3737; Max. digging force(KN) – 50; Additional: LTO registration to government plate; After sales and availability of spare parts within LGU-Naga City and NCR; Provide shop service manual, parts manual and standard tool kit; To conduct seminar and training for proper usage and maintenance.

Mini Declogger Specifications: General: Overall dimension – 6000x2000x2710mm; GVW/Kerb weight – 7300 kg/4350kg; Cab: Cab Capacity – 3 persons allowed; Air-conditioner equipped; Engine Engine: Fuel typeDiesel; Engine brand – 4KH1-TCG40; Power – 120HP/130HP (88KW/96KW); Displacement-2999ml; Emission standard – Euro III, Euro IV; Chassis: Drive type – 4x2, left hand drive; Transmission – gear box, no overhaul within 500,000km; Wheelbase/No. of Axle – 3360mm/2; Tyre specification – 7.00x16; Tyre number – 6 tyres and 1 spare tyre; Max. Speed – 100 km/h; Paint – metallic paint; Superstructure Superstructure: Vacuum tank capacity – 5,000 liters; Tank material – mild steel; Suction head – 7m; Vacuum pump unit – high efficiency, vacuum rare up to 93%, quick suction and discharge; Suction hose – high quality, wire strength hose; Install vacuum pump drive by engine thru PTO, hydraulic system, multi-way valve, pressure gauges, water-gas separator; oil-gas separator, oil tank reservoir, level inspection window and suction hose; Rear door can be hydraulic opened for completee discharge of solid stuf stuff; All other accessories: tool kit, English manual; Optional: Tank material could be mild steel, stainless steel; Italy vacuum pump is available; Additional: LTO registration to government plate; After sales and availability of spare parts within LGU-Naga City and NCR; Provide shop service manual, parts manual and standard tool kit; To conduct seminar and training for proper usage and maintenance.

Mini Dump Truck, 12-footer, 2-cubic meter capacity, 4-cylinder diesel engine, turbo-charged and intercooled 4 cycle vertical in line, water-cooled direct injection type, power steering, 5-speed manual transmission 6-wheeler type, 2 cubic meters load capacity Specifications: Clutch: Dry, single plate, with damper springs, hydraulic control; Brakes: Vacuum over hydraulic; Tire size: 750x16 12PR or 8.25x16 14PR; Electrical: 12Vx2 series, alternator 24 volts; Warranty: Based on manufacturer or dealer option; Additional requirements: requirements 1. Color tone: cabunit Warranty orange, dump box-blue; 2. With audio system, public address radio amplifier, speaker and microphone – 12 or 24V; 3. LTO registration to government plate; 4. After sales and availability of spare parts within LGU-Naga City and NCR; 5. Provide shop service manual, parts manual and standard tool kit; 6. To conduct seminar and training for proper usage and maintenance.

TOTAL

Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC)

10,000,000.00

5,000,000.00

3,200,000.00

P 18,200,000.00

The City Government of Naga now invites bids for Supply and Delivery of Brand New Backhoe Loader, Mini Declogger and Mini Dump Trucks for use in maintenance works of the CEO, Contract Reference Number: 2017-017. Delivery of the Goods is required within sixty (60) calendar days. Bidders should have completed, within ten (10) years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

If you cannot personally attend the meeting and you wish to be represented there at, you may designate your authorized representative by submitting a proxy instrument to the Office of the Corporate Secretary, 4th Floor, Caritas Corporate Centre, No. 97 E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd., Quezon City not later than May 22, 2017.

(MS-MAY 10, 2017)

Federalism lecture series hits Isabela CAUAYAN CITY, Isabela—Exactly a year after Filipinos voted for President Rodrigo R. Duterte, who ran on the platform of shifting the government to a federal system, the national campaign being spearheaded by the Department of the Interior and Local Government has reached the Queen Province of the North.

More than a thousand students, college instructors, local officials, and residents trooped to the gymnasium of the Isabela State University campus here to listen to the presentations of the People’s National Movement for Federalism or PENAMFED. DILG Undersecretary Emily O. Padilla, in charge of Legislative Liaison, Public Affairs, and Special Concerns, outlined President Duterte’s programs and the role of federalism as “an implementing mechanism to address the concerns of ending corruption and enhancing services, ending the drug menace which has resulted to dysfunctional families.”

Dindi Tan, a former college professor from La Union who works with Padilla, spoke in native Ilokano to lecture on the basic concepts of federalism. She defined it as “the sharing of powers from top to bottom, to level the playing field of development at the local level.”

Also present at the event dubbed as “Pederalismo Para Sa Kinabukasan” are Freddie Uy, MRRD-NECC-PENAMFED regional chairperson, and several Provincial Board members such as RicJay Angubong, Manuel Alejandro, and Randy Arriola. Abe Almirol

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

Munti puts time limit on computer shops

Interested bidders may obtain further information from City Government of Naga and inspect the Bidding Documents at the City Planning and Development Office (BAC Secretariat Office), 2nd Floor City Hall Building, City Hall Compound, J. Miranda Avenue, Concepcion Pequena, Naga City from 8:00AM to 5:00PM.

THREE hours for high school and one hour for elementary students—these are the maximum hours an individual can spend in computer shops in Muntinlupa City, according to a new local ordinance.

The Muntinlupa City Council recently passed Ordinance No. 17-044, requiring owners of computer shops in the city, including those found in non-commercial establishments or residences with computer units for rent, to regulate their scope of operation.

Mayor Jaime Fresnedi says the ordinance aims to promote the well-being of the youth, and hopes its implementation will lessen negative implications and effects of long exposure to computer games and the Internet to city residents.

Provision in Section 3 of the ordinance prohibits computer shops from running a 24-hour operation, and must only run from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. the next day. Renters 17 years old and younger shall only be allowed in the shops until 9 p.m. unless accompanied by a parent, in which case they can stay up to 2 a.m.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be acquired by interested Bidders on Wednesday, May 10 to 31, 2017 from the City Planning and Development Office (BAC Secretariat Office), 2nd Floor City Hall Building, City Hall Compound, J. Miranda Avenue, Concepcion Pequena, Naga City, and upon payment of the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents, pursuant to the latest Guidelines issued by the GPPB, in the amount of Twenty Five Thousand (P 25,000.00) Pesos, and an Annual Registration Fee of Three Thousand (P 3,000.00) Pesos. Please present your Document Request List (DRL) from PhilGEPS showing your company name.

It may also be downloaded free-of-charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and at www.naga.gov.ph, provided that bidders shall pay the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

Official Receipts should be presented upon submission of bids.

The City Government of Naga will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on Friday, May 19, 2017 at 3:00PM at the City Procurement Office, City Hall Building, City Hall Compound, J. Miranda Avenue, Concepcion Pequena, Naga City, which shall be open to prospective bidders.

Bids must be duly received by the BAC Secretariat at the City Procurement Office, City Hall Building, City Hall Compound, J. Miranda Avenue, Concepcion Pequena, Naga City on or before Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 3:00PM. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security, either in the form of cash or cashier’s/manager’s check issued by a universal or commercial bank (2% of ABC), or, Bid Securing Declaration (BSD).

CHARLES B. ESCOLIN Corporate Secretary

ordinance. Failure to follow this may constitute a violation of the smoking ban, Engracia said.

The VRU is set to strictly enforce the Policy in public conveyances, accommodation, and entertainment establishments, enclosed and partially enclosed public places, public buildings, public outdoor spaces, and workplaces.

To also ensure public awareness and compliance, the unit is set out to distribute stickers and posters to establishments, public places, and public utility vehicles.

IN BRIEF

FOR THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CHARLES B. ESCOLIN Corporate Secretary

tion of Children for a diversion and rehabilitation program.

Voltaire Engracia, VRU chief, said the arrests were mostly made by police ahead of the full operations of the deputized enforcers and inspectors hired by the unit to help implement the ordinance.

Engracia noted his unit will be authorized to inspect business establishments to ensure compliance with the ordinance.

Establishments will also be strictly required to display signage to remind the public of the

Bid opening shall be on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at City Procurement Office, City Hall Building, City Hall Compound, J. Miranda Avenue, Concepcion Pequena, Naga City. Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below. Late bids shall not be accepted.

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

For further information, please refer to: MR. FLORENCIO T. MONGOSO, JR. Acting City Administrator Office of the City Administrator 2nd Floor City Hall Building City Hall Compound, J. Miranda Avenue Concepcion Pequena, Naga City 4400 bac@naga.gov.ph/junmongoso@naga.gov.ph www.naga.gov.ph ( M S - M AY 10 , 2 017 )

(SGD) FLORENCIO T. MONGOSO, JR. BAC Chairperson

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

World IN BRIEF British drug trafficker held in Thailand BANGKOK―A British drug trafficker convicted over a $1.3 million narcotics ring has been arrested in Thailand after years on the run, police said Tuesday, the latest example of global underworld figures using the kingdom as a bolthole.

Jonathan Moorby, 47, was detained by Thai police on the popular southern tourist island of Koh Samui on Monday following an investigation by British detectives.

He has a string of previous drug offenses to his name but went on the run in 2014 shortly before an English court sentenced him to nearly 20 years in jail in absentia for conspiracy to supply more than 1 million ($1.3 million) of cocaine and amphetamines.

“We were asked by the British embassy’s Interpol representative to arrest the suspect,” Major General Soontorn Chalermkiat of Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Police, told reporters. AFP

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

Climate envoys set to meet B

ONN―Climate negotiators return for talks in Bonn Tuesday under the cloud of Donald Trump’s threats to pull America from the hard-fought Paris Agreement, as the president prepares to hold a special meeting to discuss US participation.

Deputy PM says he feared dildo attack WELLINGTON―New Zealand’s deputy prime minister testified Tuesday that a colleague accused of careless driving feared an attack from a dildo-wielding demonstrator when he navigated his car through a throng of protesters.

Two demonstrators, neither carrying sex toys, were slightly injured during the incident in March last year which resulted in lawmaker Chester Borrows facing charges.

Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett was a passenger in Borrows’ car as it left the function and told Whanganui District Court a protester had threatened her in an “aggressive” social media post that morning.

The threat comprised a picture of a rubber device with “Paula B” written on it, captioned “see you shortly bitch”.

Bennett said the threat was taken seriously as a few weeks earlier an anti-globalization protester had hit another minister, Steven Joyce, in the face with a pink dildo during an event marking New Zealand’s national day. AFP

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HOT EVEN FOR CATS. A cat drinks water at a zoo amid rising temperatures in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. AFP

New theory on the primitive hominids MAROPENG, South Africa―Primitive hominids may have lived in Africa at the same time as humans, researchers said Tuesday, in new findings that could change the understanding of human evolution.

Fossils found deep in South Africa’s Rising Star cave complex in 2013 have been dated by several expert teams, with their findings suggesting the hominids, called Homo naledi, may have lived alongside Homo sapiens.

It had previously been thought that the hominids were millions of years old.

A team of 20 scientists from laboratories and institutions around the world, including in South Africa and Australia, established the age of the fossils which suggests that Homo naledi may well have lived at the same time as humans.

Their findings have been published Tuesday in three papers in the journal eLife.

The focus of the team’s research has been South Africa’s barely accessible Rising Star Cave system, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heri-

tage Site, about 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. The area has been an incredibly rich source of artifacts for palaeontologists since it was first discovered.

“There has been a great deal of speculation on how old Homo naledi was... Everyone who has examined the anatomy of Homo naledi has suggested that it would be in the millions of years,” said project leader and researcher at Wits University, Lee Berger.

But now, having established the age of the fossils using six independent methods, the team estimates that they are between 236,000 and 335,000-yearsold―the beginning of the rise of modern human behavior, said Berger.

Researcher John Hawks said that the separate discovery of new Homo naledi fossils―including a pristine skull―in two other caves “confirmed that we’re looking at an anatomical pattern that is very different from any other common species”.

Some experts disputed the findings of the team that discovered the initial fos-

sils and named the new species Homo naledi, arguing that they were merely early Homo erectus.

“We’re looking at a diversity of species in Africa in the latest stages of our evolutionary history that no one had suspected would be there,” said Hawks, an academic at the University of Wisconsin in the United States.

“That implies that as our species arose, it arose with others, that there were a diversity of hominid species in Africa occupying these environments during what we had considered to be the critical time period of modern human origins.”

Work has begun to also date the latest fossils to be found.

Paul Dirks, a professor at Australia’s James Cook University which is involved in the project, said that Homo naledi’s hand structure and the more recent era in which it is thought to have lived means it could have been a toolmaker.

The new findings have shown that the history of evolution is far more complicated than a straight-forward sequential history, he said. AFP

After months of uncertainty, the US president appeared closer to a decision on whether he intends to keep a campaign promise to withdraw Washington from the climate-rescue pact, whose practicalities are being haggled over during UN talks in Bonn.

Trump and his top climate and economic aids will kick off discussions in earnest on Tuesday in the US, a senior administration official said, adding that “they are meeting tomorrow at 1.30 pm”.

Uncertainty over America’s future has already loomed large during the 11-day meeting to work out the nuts and bolts of implementing the international deal, which Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was instrumental in bringing about.

David Balton, the US deputy assistant secretary for international environmental affairs, said Monday: “The last thing I heard is that the president, our president, has indicated that he plans to make a decision some time over the next couple of weeks, but not this week.”

A total of 196 countries are now parties to the climate deal, clinched in 2015 after years of tough bartering, which Trump threatened to “cancel”.

The May 8-18 Bonn meeting is meant to start drafting a guide for member countries to execute the pact, which seeks to brake global warming by curbing fossil fuel emissions.

But the negotiations risk being hamstrung over fears that the world’s number two carbon polluter will pull out and throw the pact into disarray.

“There’s no question that if the US withdraws it is going to create difficulties... in the negotiations,” Paula Caballero of the World Resources Institute think-tank said as climate envoys met for their first session since Trump took office.

The US did send a delegation to the talks, led by Obama-era negotiator Trigg Talley, who declined to comment on their brief.

A State Department official told AFP: “We are focused on ensuring that decisions are not taken at these meetings that would prejudice our future policy, undermine the competitiveness of US businesses, or hamper our broader objective of advancing US economic growth and prosperity.”

Numerous speakers at a plenary session Monday stressed that the deal cannot be “renegotiated” -- a proposal of Trump’s Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

Widely hailed as the last chance to stave off worstcase-scenario global warming, the Paris Agreement was savaged by a campaigning Trump, who called climate change a “hoax” perpetrated by China.

With the rest of the world waiting ever since, Trump has said he will make his decision before the next G7 meeting on May 26-27 in Sicily.

Salaheddine Mezouar of Morocco, who presided over the last high-level climate negotiations in 2016, said he trusted that “the good sense and pragmatic spirit President Trump and his team” would prevail.

“It would be difficult, crazy, to go against public opinion, against the domestic will, and the will of the international community,” Mezouar said in Bonn.

Some fear a US U-turn would dampen enthusiasm among other signatories for more efforts on emissions-cutting targets.

This is key, as current pledges place the world on track for warming much higher than the ceiling of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) written into the agreement. AFP

Man in US for 19 years but is ordered deported LOS ANGELES―An Indian man who fled persecution in his country and has been in the US for nearly two decades was detained in California on Monday after losing his latest appeal over a deportation order.

Gurmukh Singh, who is married to an American citizen and has two US-born daughters, was taken into custody by federal agents after failing to get a stay in his case, his attorney and family said.

The 46-year-old Sikh taxi driver from India’s Punjab state sneaked into the United States without a visa through the border with Mexico in 1998.

He later applied for asylum, citing religious persecution. But his family and lawyer say he failed to properly pursue the case and was ordered deported.

Singh married a US citizen in 2010 but his deportation case resurfaced when he applied for a residency visa in 2012 given his new status.

He was subsequently jailed for about five months but after rights activists posted his bail, he was released and his case has since been going through the appeals process.

His family said in the past several years, he had been checking in with the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a regular basis pending the outcome of his appeals against the deportation order.

Alexis Perez Nava, with Resilience Orange County, a group helping with his case, said Singh was detained on Monday after the 9th

Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request to quash the deportation order.

“We are completely devastated.

This has completely broken us apart, emotionally and physically,” Singh’s 18-year-old daughter Manpreet told AFP. She said her father had no criminal record, had always paid his taxes and just sought to “live a normal life and feed his family.”

“Watching him emotionally break down is probably the last thing any daughter wants to see,” Manpreet said, her voice breaking.

“He just looked at us this morning and said ‘I don’t know what is going to happen to us any more. Please forgive me and take care,’” she added.

Lori Haley, an ICE spokeswoman, said Singh was ordered detained after his case had “undergone exhaustive review at all levels of our nation’s legal system.”

She added that while the priority for federal authorities was to focus on criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety, those like Singh who violate immigration laws were not exempt from action.

“All those in violation of our nation’s immigration laws may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removed from the United States,” she said in an email.

Singh’s detention comes amid a clampdown by the administration of President Donald Trump against undocumented immigrants. AFP

VICTORY DAY. Russian servicemen march at Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow. Russia marked the 72nd anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. AFP

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

World

South Koreans go to polls to vote for new president S

EOUL―South Koreans went to the polls Tuesday to choose a new president after Park Geun-Hye was ousted and indicted for corruption, against a backdrop of high tensions with the nuclear-armed North.

Voters have been galvanized by anger over the sprawling bribery and abuse-of-power scandal that brought down Park, which catalyzed frustrations over jobs and slowing growth.

Left-leaning Moon Jae-In, a former human rights lawyer, has held a commanding lead in opinion polls for months. The final Gallup Korea survey of the campaign gave him 38 percent support, followed by former tech mogul Ahn Cheol-Soo on 20 percent.

“I feel the people’s strong will to change the government... we can make it a reality only when we vote,” Moon said after casting his ballot with his wife in western Seoul.

Hong Joon-Pyo of Park’s Liberty Korea party, who according to the last poll languished in third place in the 13-strong field on 16 percent, urged voters to support him and branded Moon a “proPyongyang leftist”.

A record turnout was expected, and 63.7 percent of voters had cast their ballots four hours before the polls closed compared with 59.3 percent at the same point five years ago.

Kim Sun-Chul, 59, said he voted for Moon because “this country needs to restore democracy which has been so undermined by the Park government”.

National elections are public holidays in South Korea and nearly 14,000 voting stations opened at 6 am (2100 GMT Monday).

Exit poll results will be available immediately after voting closes at 8 p.m. (11:00 GMT).

The campaign has focused largely on the economy, with North Korea less prominent, but after a decade of conservative rule a Moon victory could mean a sea change in Seoul’s approach towards both Pyongyang and key ally Washington.

The 64-year-old―accused by his critics of being soft on the North―has advocated dialogue to ease tensions and to bring it to negotiations. He is seen as favoring more independence in relations with the US, Seoul’s security guarantor with 28,500 troops in the country. AFP

KUWAIT FASHION WEEK. A model

wears a creation by Morroccan designer Faiza Antri Bouzar during the Kuwait fashion week in Kuwait City. AFP

WASHINGTON―US President Donald Trump insisted there is no evidence he colluded with Russia after a Senate hearing that highlighted warnings that his former national security adviser was vulnerable to Russian blackmail.

With the issue of the president’s ties to Moscow back in the spotlight, Trump took to Twitter to dismiss as “old news” the Senate testimony Monday by former acting attorney general Sally Yates about his former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Instead, Trump chose to play up former director of national intelligence James Clapper’s acknowledgement during the same hearing that he was not aware of any evidence of collusion between the president and Russia, which American intelligence has concluded tried to sway the US election in Trump’s favor.

“Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows - there is ‘no evidence’ of collusion w/ Russia and Trump,” Trump said.

Clapper, however, had added that he had not been aware that the issue was under investigation by the FBI until it was publicly revealed in March, suggesting the agency might have evidence he wasn’t privy to.

Asked about it, Yates said answering the question would require revealing classified information. But she noted that “you should not draw from that an assumption that that means that the answer is yes.”

Yates, a Barack Obama appointee sacked by Trump early in his presidency, took the stand alongside Clapper during the hotly-anticipated three-hour hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Yates confirmed reports that she had told the White House, six days into Trump’s administration, that Flynn, a former military intelligence chief, had not been honest with Vice President Mike Pence about his discussions with the Russian ambassador to Washington, leaving him vulnerable to leverage from Moscow.

It nevertheless took 18 days before the president, pressed by Pence and others, dismissed the retired army lieutenant general, who had advised him on security issues throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. AFP

Governor gets two years jail for blasphemy

Town hooked on pirate social network GASPAR, Cuba―On a traffic island in a country town, young Cubans are doing what most of their compatriots cannot: surfing an online social network.

In one of the least wired countries on Earth, Gaspar, population 7,500, is one of the most connected towns of all.

Illegally, but with the grudging tolerance of the authorities, four local techies have launched “Gaspar Social”―rural Cuba’s answer to Facebook.

“I think it’s wonderful what these lads here in Gaspar have done. It was a healthy change for a town that had rather lost its spark,” says Arletty Guerra, 22, one of the locals thumbing her smartphone.

More than that, Gaspar Social’s promoters hope it will lead the rest of the communist island to greater connectivity.

Most Cubans must pay $1.50 an hour to connect via state telecom firm Etecsa’s wifi points. Users of Gaspar Social do not.

Though they cannot access the world wide web via Gaspar Social, they can share photos and videos with other users in the town.

It opened to the general public in October―two months before Etecsa installed the town’s first official wifi hot spot.

“In the beginning it was a network just for playing video games,” says one of its creators, municipal computer technician Osmani Montero, 23.

Anti-IS group to assess campaign COPENHAGEN―Key members of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria meet in Copenhagen on Tuesday to assess the campaign’s next steps as the jihadists’ “caliphate” collapses.

Though officials warn that military action will continue for some time, they are generally upbeat about the progress and quickening momentum of the fight.

After months of brutal, street-by-street combat, IS has now lost control of most of its stronghold of Mosul in Iraq, while the jihadists have become largely isolated in their Syrian bastion of Raqa.

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis and his Danish counterpart Claus Hjort Frederiksen are among the senior leaders from

Trump insists no evidence on collusion

15 countries attending Tuesday’s summit.

“We’re going to look to the future, determine what more is needed, if anything,” Mattis told reporters ahead of his arrival in Denmark.

Several coalition countries are keeping a nervous eye on the region as IS-held territory diminishes.

Thousands of foreign fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, and coalition nations―particularly in Europe―are bracing for a possible wave of battle-hardened jihadists returning home.

According to a senior US administration official, Interpol has identified 14,000 foreign fighters it knows has traveled to Syria and are still alive.

The largest numbers come from Tunisia, followed by Saudi Arabia.

Thousands more have traveled from Europe, including 100 or so from Denmark, said the official, who asked not to be named.

The international law enforcement agency Interpol is now part of the anti-IS coalition, becoming the alliance’s 68th member.

The campaign against IS began in autumn 2014 and has seen the Iraqi security forces -– backed with coalition training and air power –- reverse humiliating losses and recapture several key cities including Ramadi and Fallujah.

Iraq’s second city Mosul is now mainly back under Iraqi control, though IS continues to hold the Old City on the west side, where its fighters are preparing for a bloody last stand. AFP

“Then we opened it to all the people in Gaspar and the number of users grew hugely in just a month.”

Yoandi Alvarez, 30, a medical student, raised money to buy the first aerial and server for the network.

“The antenna was near my house,” he recalls. “There were users at two or three o’clock in the morning sitting in the doorway to get online, covered in quilts and blankets.”

Some 500 of the town’s 7,500 inhabitants have started using Gaspar Social.

The team had to buy four extra relay antennas to handle the large number of users.

To the chat and file-sharing functions it has added a news page -- with state-authorized stories only. AFP

REHEARSAL.

Dancers of the Szeged Contemporary Dance Company perform on the stage of the Muepa Arts’ Palace in Budapest on March 8, 2017, during their reharsal for German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Don Juan”, choreographed

by Hungarian Tamas Juronics and the company.

The premiere of “Gluck: Don Juan / Vivaldi: The Four Seasons” was held on May 9, 2017. AFP

JAKARTA―Jakarta’s Christian governor was jailed for two years Tuesday after being found guilty of blasphemy, in a shock decision that has stoked concerns over the rising religious intolerance in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Islamic hardliners outside the Jakarta court cheered and shouted “God is greatest!” as news came through that Basuki Tjahaja Purnama was to be sent to prison, a surprisingly harsh punishment after prosecutors recommended only probation.

Purnama, Jakarta’s first non-Muslim governor for half a century and its first ethnic Chinese leader, looked calm when the verdict was announced and said he would appeal, as some of his supporters in court burst into tears.

The governor was taken to a Jakarta prison after the verdict but it was unclear whether he would remain in jail or be released later to allow him to file his appeal.

The governor was hauled into court last year to face trial on charges of insulting Islam while campaigning for re-election, in a case critics said was politically motivated.

The trial came after a series of major protests in the capital against the leader, known by his nickname Ahok, that drew hundreds of thousands onto the streets.

His once unassailable opinion poll lead shrank amid the controversy and he lost the race to lead Jakarta last month to a Muslim challenger, a result that fuelled fears Indonesia’s moderate brand of Islam is coming under threat from increasingly influential radicals.

The five-judge panel at the Jakarta court found Purnama guilty of blasphemy after a months-long trial. AFP

Life

T

WO Filipino women won this year’s Mary Kay Dream Beautiful Contest Asia Pacific Finale at Intercontinental Hong Kong. Chrismel Santos, a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant from Zamboanga, was awarded as this year’s Beauty Artist of Mary Kay Asia Pacific for her skills, creativity, and passion towards makeup. Bellatrix Tan, also from Zamboanga, was hailed as one of the three Faces of Mary Kay Asia Pacific along with Tongtong Wang from China and Mahira Khan from Malaysia.

Another source of Filipino pride is that all three pairs that represented the Philippines were part of the Top 8 contending duos in the Finale Night.

Out of the 50,000 hopeful Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultants and models from Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Taiwan, 23 pairs were chosen to participate in the Mary Kay Dream Beautiful Contest Asia Pacific.

“We believe that a woman who has faith in herself has the capability to unleash her full potential. Whatever your mind can conceive, your heart can believe that you can certainly achieve.

Congratulations to all the winners who believed in themselves and stepped onto the stage with confidence,” says K.K. Chua, Mary Kay Asia Pacific president, during the finale night.

More than just a competition, it was also a wonderful learning opportunity for the participants because it included makeup and modeling workshops. Coco Rocha, international supermodel and Dream Beautiful contest judge admits she had a really great time with all the contestants while preparing for the actual competition. “This year I had my own workshop with the girls, so I got to know them better which has made it more exciting. The venue is bigger and the audience is larger, it was definitely a different experience this year!” says Rocha.

Over 800 guests consisting of beauty consultants, media, and VIPs gathered together to witness the finalists in a cruise-inspired show. The beautiful models showcased the talents of their respective beauty artists as they strutted across the runway. The judging panel included Rocha, Mary Kay Global Beauty Ambassador Luis Casco, Korean celebrity makeup artist Jung

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

FASHION & BEAUTY

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2016 Beauty Artist of Mary Kay Asia Pacific and Winning Independent Beauty Consultant from Philippines Chrismel Santos and Face of Mary Kay Asia Pacific from Philippines Bellatrix Tan (eighth and ninth from left) with (from left) Jason Capobianco, Coco Rocha, Stephen Webster, Yuandi Chen, Tongtong Wang, Mahirah Khan, Lorraine Ramadas, Sherry Adkins-Green, Mary Kay Asia Pacific president K.K. Chua, Jung Saem-Mool, and Luis Casco

Pinays bring pride

to Philippines Saem Mool, and global fashion and beauty photographer Jason Capobianco as well as Mary Kay’s Chua, Mary Kay chief marketing officer Sheryl Adkins-Green, and Mary Kay vice president of Global Brand and Design Stephen Webster.

The three winners of the Faces of Mary Kay Asia Pacific and the win-

ning Beauty Artist will attend a Mary Kay brand campaign photo shoot in Seoul representing Mary Kay’s Beauty Inside and Out. The Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultants of the winning models will also be recognized in Mary Kay Applause Magazine in the Asia Pacific Region which will also be honored in their local

markets. Participations in local makeup workshops and projects, as well as speaking opportunities at Mary Kay seminars in their respective countries will also be granted to them.

Mary Kay Dream Beautiful was supported by official fashion sponsor Nine West, which provided the wardrobe of contestants for the Finale show.

International supermodel Coco Rocha discusses her modelling workshop for Mary Kay Dream Beautiful

One-stop wedding planning shop in BGC LAST month, brides in Metro Manila had access to stress-free wedding preparations as international wedding planning company BG Bridal Gallery opened its showroom in Bonifacio Global City.

Catering to all of the bride’s and groom’s needs, BG Bridal Gallery offers engaged couples a one-stop shop solution to wedding planning. With a free consultancy service from their expert wedding planners, the company aims to make wedding planning easy and stress-free.

The international wedding planning company also has years of experience planning weddings in Tokyo and New York, giving brides access to global wedding themes and designs that can make their wedding day extra-special.

From themes like rustic, modern and fairy tale weddings, to destination ceremonies like beach settings, BG Bridal Gallery gives couples a wealth of ideas to draw from to make their ideal wedding a reality.

“Our goal is to make wedding planning as smooth as possible for brides by providing them with one-stop global themes and design wedding planning services,” said BG Bridal Gallery CEO Tony Wakiyama.

BG Bridal Gallery offers brides the choice of two comprehensive wedding planning packages (“I Do” and “Happily Ever After”), designed to make creating one’s dream wedding a breeze.

The package not only includes full planning and coordination but also

iPhoto

BG Bridal Gallery offers engaged couples a one-stop shop solution to wedding planning

UNIQLO GIVES BACK TO THE COMMUNITY TO STRENGTHEN its commitment to making Filipino lives better, Uniqlo, in partnership with ABS-CBN Foundation, provided clothing to over 250 families in Bantay Kalikasan: Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilong Pasig Community. Held in Paco, Manila, the event marked UNIQLO’s second clothing donation drive.

From left: Jen Santos, director of Bantay Kalikasan; Geri Sia, general manager of UNIQLO Philippines; and Tomokiyo Yoshikawa, head of Corporate Social Responsibility for the ASEAN region, Uniqlo.

assistance in getting a church, the bridal gown, groom’s suit and entourage outfits, make-up services, photo and video coverage, flowers, cake, bridal car, reception venue, food, host and entertainment, making it truly a one stop shop for all a bride needs to make their day truly meaningful and memorable.

The BG Bridal Gallery Showroom is at Unit 312, 3rd Floor C2 Building, Bonifacio High Street Central, BGC, Taguig City.

To inquire or to book a BG Bridal Gallery’s wedding package, brides can visit the showroom, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Sunday (except holidays). They can also sign up for a free consultation at the BG Bridal Gallery Facebook or call (02) 720-9804 or email infoph@bgbridalgallery.com.

The international wedding planning company offers a free consultancy service from their expert wedding planners

Life

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

Discount card

for makeup artists

By Bernadette Lunas

A

S CURRENTLY the biggest beauty store in the country, spanning around 2,500 square meters, it’s not unusual to bump into a makeup artist stocking up on their beauty and skin care essentials at the SM Store Beauty Section in Makati.

The SM Beauty Pro-Card, exclusive to makeup artists, entitles cardholders to a 10 percent discount on purchases at the SM Beauty Section

Muriel Jada Nubla applies makeup on her model

Makeup artist Jigs Mayuga

“[The SM Beauty Store] features a wide range of products, from affordable to prestige cosmetics, skin care brands, and fragrance. It’s a beauty hall you can call your playground,” says Watsons Group Marketing Manager Sharon Decapia.

Almost 200 of the most esteemed local and global beauty brands are housed in the flagship store in SM Makati. The Cosmetics and Skin sections are aglow with brands like Dior, MAC, Clinique, Aveda, Kiehl’s, Glamglow, and more. The luxury fragrance lineup boasts of Prada, Nest, Lalique, Atelier Colognes, Thiery Mugler, Guerlain, and Jean Patou among other labels. Masstige brands including BYS, Happy Skin, Pixi, Ofra, NYX, The Body Shop, and many more are also available in the beauty store.

Makeup artist Jigs Mayuga, whose celebrity clients include Cheska Garcia-Kramer and Bea Alonzo, says he goes to SM Beauty Store to get some of his favorite cosmetics items such as the Infallible Pro-Matte foundation from L’Oreal, Fit Me Concealer from Maybelline, Happy Skin lippies, and eyebrow pencils from K-Palette.

As a special token of appreciation to its makeup

artist customers, SM Beauty has launched the SM Beauty Pro-Card, a discount card exclusive for makeup artists.

The SM Beauty Pro-Card entitles cardholders to a 10 percent discount on purchases at the SM Beauty Section. In addition, they also enjoy perks from the store, such as first dibs on new collections and exclusive invite to events.

Along with Mayuga, Jesi Mendez, Jing Monis, Fanny Serrano, and Bambi Fuentes, among other established and up-and-coming makeup artists were in attendance during the launch of the discount card.

A Glam Session was also held to let guests in on the hottest trends in makeup and hairstyle. According to Monis, the sizzling summer season is the best time for collarbone-length or pixie cut hair.

Three makeup artists battled during a makeup challenge. Muriel Jada Nubla’s Fall/Winter look emerged as the winner.

Follow SMBeautyPH on Facebook and @smbeautyph on Instagram.

Summer with Parisian WITH Pantone’s 2017 colors taking inspiration from the earth—like Hazelnut, Kale, Pale Dogwood and Island Paradise, Parisian’s new collection highlights neutral tones—light tones of blush, nude and gray along with black, tan and olive.

Parisian’s Summer collection shows that minimal accents can have major impact. Looking for a pair of the best flat shoes from the office to the bar and beyond? Well, you’re in luck as flat shoes are totally having a moment right now. Designed for style and comfort, these make the point with point toe details or sling-back silhouettes. If you like something more fancy, there are strappy stilettos and

Tod’s icons book

wraparound ankle-tie heels.

Then there are fresh ankle boots or booties. Their versatile nature, nonchalant aesthetic, and comfort factor make the ultimate wear with everything shoe, and one you can shop guilt-free.

Match your new summer footwear look with the new Parisian bag collection. Backpacks are back—neater, ergo chicer than before, while minimalist totes and trendy mini bags will sizzle up your summer style.

Parisian Shoes and Bags’ Summer Collection is available at all SM Stores branches nationwide. Get connected with Parisian through Parisian Shoes and Bags on Facebook and @SMParisian on Twitter and Instagram.

HOW do you become a style icon? The answer may be found among photos of legendary lifestyles collected in Timeless Icons, a volume produced by Tod’s.

A tribute to the ever-modern allure of icons, whether from yesterday or today, perfect interpreters of a timeless esthetics.

Brigitte Bardot and Lauren Hutton, Steve McQueen and Sean Connery, Cate Blanchett and Gisele Bündchen, George Clooney and Brad Pitt: images and details from their private life reveal precise ways of being, strong enough to always be in fashion.

A timeless elegance, reflecting personality and quality are an unmistakable value of the Tod’s brand.

In the Philippines, Tod’s is located at Greenbelt 4 and Rustan’s Shangri-La, Shangri-La Plaza. Follow @ssilifeph on Instagram for more information.

‘Timeless Icons’ pays tribute to the ever-modern allure of style icons, such as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Steve McQueen, and Audrey Hepburn

VA N I T Y C O R N ER

Different shades of nude Style On-point with pointed-toe flats

Parisian backpacks let you ahead of the pack

NUDE lipstick is the ideal choice for a no-makeup look.

But much like everything else, it doesn’t come in oneshade fits all.

Local cosmetics brand Ever Bilena’s Matte Lipstick Nude Collection offers different shades to match every skin tone. Each lipstick has a stunning matte finish and vitamin E to keep those puckers supple.

Women with alabaster or fair skin should opt for nude lipsticks with tinges of dusty, baby pink such as Ever Bilena Matte Lipstick in Mirrored Mocha, to warm up the lips and distinguish it from the skin. Meanwhile, beige and caramel hues, as in Ever Bilena in Skin, are perfect for those with medium skin tone. Women with dark skin toffee shades like Ever Bilena in Port. tone should go for shades darker than their complexion, or This lipstick collection is available in beauty stores, bronzy browns with hints of shimmer or dusty rose with drugstores, and other leading retailers nationwide.

Cruelty-free shampoo bar TO ENCOURAGE more consumers to support Human Society International’s global campaign to ban cosmetic animal testing and trade, Lush relaunched its bestselling New shampoo bar.

The revamped New shampoo bar is now adorned with the charNeat and chic Oliver backpack

Step ahead with the Nita booties

ity’s Be Cruelty Free message in both English and simplified Chinese.

The solid bar has cinnamon leaf, bay, and clove bud essential oils combined with peppermint to boost blood flow, stimulating hair follicles. An infusion of nettle and peppermint helps stimulate the scalp and promote healthy hair, while rosemary soothes and calms scalp while adding shine to hair.

New shampoo bar is available in Lush stores in Metro Manila.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

Asian superstar Gong Yoo as a 900-year-old immortal in the mega hit fantasy drama, "Goblin"

Why ‘GOBLIN’ a must-see?

O

VER the past few weeks, I’ve been sifting through popular streaming sites, including the one ABSCBN sued for $8 million for copyright infringement, looking for the most watched Korean Drama in the region. Most of the sites I visited were consistent about one thing – they all show Goblin as one of the top dramas online.

I tried watching the first two episodes until I decided to dedicate a few hours of time in the next few days watching the remaining 14 episodes. Each episode runs for more than hour.

Written by the same guys behind Lovers in Paris, The Heirs, and Descendants of the Sun, the gothic fantasy fairy-tale, which carries the international title Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, revolves around the romance between the two characters played by Kim Go-eun (Cheese in the Trap) and Gong Yoo (Coffee Prince, Train to Busan).

Kim is Ji Eun Tak, a high school student who has a special ability to see ghosts. All her life, she’s been told by the ghosts whom she’s befriended that she’s the Goblin’s bride.

Meanwhile, Gong is Kim Shin, a 900-yearold goblin and protector of souls who is in search for his human bride who can end his immortality.

Shot in stunning locations in Quebec, Seoul and some nearby provinces, Goblin is charming in each and every frame. The intertwined past and present day stories presented in the series are both tear inducing and heartwarming. Although the overall theme of the romantic drama is death and how depressing immortality can be, it also highlights how someone can live a beautiful life regardless of the person’s age.

Gong, as we know him, is a very effective actor. In the series, he lives in a lavish lifestyle but he cries every night for being left behind by the people he cared for. Imagine, he’s 939 years old and has gone through different levels of emotional circus. Gong is able to address the varied emotional requirements of his character be it in a light comedy scene or in a heavy drama.

Kim, on the other hand, makes Ji Eun Tak an-easy- to-love character. She’s able to deliver what the character asks for – a kindhearted teenager who masks her longing

for affection by keeping herself busy.

Although crying in K-Dramas is hardly new, there are a few scenes that are so convincing the audience would want to console Kim for crying too much.

In these respects, it is safe to say that Goblin is a perfect example of a TV series that follows an interesting and an unconventional romantic tale made even more remarkable by the actors that play the main characters. No wonder its final episode recorded a nationwide audience share enough to make it the second highest rated drama in Korean cable television history. Additionally, the series has also become the most watched K-Drama through video-ondemand services surpassing the record set

by KBS 2TV’s Descendants of the Sun and tvN’s Reply 1988.

In terms of critical reception, Goblin is also reaping numerous awards since its telecast ended. At the recently concluded 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards, touted as South Korea’s version of Hollywood’s Golden Globe, it walked home with three major awards including the Grand Prize for screenwriter Kim Eun-sook, Best Director for Lee Eung-bok, and Best Actor for Gong Yoo. At the Korean Cable TV Awards, on the other hand, the romantic fantasy series was awarded Best Drama and won three more awards.

Goblin, which aired from Dec. 2 to Jan. 21 on tvN, was telecast in Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore within 24 hours of its premiere in South Korea. And due to its massive following and great demand, ABSCBN is airing the Tagalized version of the series on its primetime block beginning since last Monday.

Risking it all in ‘Extortion’ PLAYING the survival game, a family vacation turns into a race for survival in Extortion starring Eion Bailey, Academy Award® nominee Barkhad Abdi, Bethany Joy Lenz, and Danny Glover.

Extortion brings the action at a Caribbean resort where Kevin Riley (Bailey) and his family take a carefree boat ride that turns tragic when they’re stranded on an island.

Near death, a local fisherman (Abdi) who demands a million dollars to rescue them, then vanishes. Riley must race to find his dying wife (Bethany Joy Lenz) and son on an unknown island before their time runs out.

Also starring Danny Glover, the movie shows that even paradise can be deadly.

Extortion opens in cinemas nationwide on May 17 from OctoArts Films International.

Eion Bailey, Bethany Joy Lenz, and Mauricio Alemany in a scene from "Extortion"

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Wednesday, May 10, 2017

ACROSS 1 Seagoing 6 Court summons 10 India and invisible 14 A-list types 15 Eatery fare 16 Crossbow arrow 17 Fencers’ blades 18 Freedom org.

19 — fixe 20 Way to float 22 Look as if 23 Big galoots 24 Quilting social 26 Uses a compass 30 Wood cutters 34 Reels in 35 Masculine principle 36 Ray gun blast 37 Burrows 38 Fetch 40 Happy rumble 41 Paul Anka’s “— Beso” 42 Brace 43 Mandalay’s locale 44 Good-as-new tire 46 Most trim 48 Aardvark prey 49 Swedish import 50 Like some horses 53 For the most

part (2 wds.)

59 LP player (hyph.)

60 Staff member 61 Flexible 62 Pet shop sounds 63 Form 1040 experts 64 Willow shoot 65 Chicken wire 66 Superman’s alias 67 “Cape Fear” star DOWN 1 Must have 2 Brand for Bowser 3 Worm’s-eye — 4 Two fives for —— 5 Training sessions 6 Docks 7 5K and 10K 8 Cuba, to Castro 9 Leafing through 10 Wading birds 11 Twig juncture 12 “Fish Magic” artist 13 Mushroom part 21 Edge a doily 25 Turtle-to-be 26 Of longer standing 27 Jack up 28 Gold brick

29 Mag. workers 30 Cold mo.

31 Blue as the sky 32 Nukes, slangily 33 No-fat Jack 35 Small bark 38 “St. Elmo’s Fire” cast (2 wds.)

39 Towel’s place 40 Knock-knock joke 42 Corral 43 Ancient Euphrates city 45 Pungent root

46 Most recent 47 Pig out 49 Four-door model 50 Phony 51 Take on 52 Switch positions 54 Ready to harvest 55 Sushi-bar soup 56 Water or tel.

57 Newscaster — Huntley 58 This spot

Stars in Rotary Club’ movie fundraiser

Actor TJ Marquez and a fan during ‘Fast and Furious 8’ block screening

CELEBRITIES graced the fundraising movie showing of Fast and Furious 8 for the benefit of Rotary Club of Sta. Mesa’s numerous projects.

Among the showbiz stars at the special screening presented by the Rotary Club of Sta. Mesa on April 18 at Uptown Mall Cinema 3 in Fort Bonifacio were PMPC Star Awards awardee Teejay Marquez, actress Nadia Montenegro and daughters Ynna, Yana and Ykka, PBA host Chiqui Reyes, Sports5 host Carla Lizardo, Binibining Pilipinas International Precious Lara Quigaman and husband Marco Alcaraz, Eurasia artist Sara Paola, celebrity doctor Joan Clarence, and Teddy Corpuz and Jeff Cucullo of Rocksteddy.

“Tickets were sold out, so

we are happy because this is a great help for the club,” says outgoing President Robert Nazal.

“The mission of the Rotary Club of Sta. Mesa, Quezon City is to be of service above self. To fulfill this mission, we provide services to the community through fundraising events such as this,” adds incoming President Jose Paulo Legaspi.

“This is my little way of helping. I salute the Rotary Club for this advocacy,” says Teejay.

Event sponsors are GlutaMAX, Kajuayan Coco Water, Nice Day Coffee, Pumpedupkicks, Empire tattoo, Learning Center Affiliates, The Lighthouse Marina Resort, Subic Sailing, Meister, and YSA Skin and Body Experts.

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017

P

RESIDENT Mayor Joseph Estrada’s 80th birthday bash at the Manila Hotel on April 19 was one memorable gathering.

For one, all 11 children of the ex-president were there.

Bringing together the entire brood took some doing, and daughter Jackie, who organized the party, gets the well-deserved credit for it.

Joining Jackie were JV, Jake, Jerika, Joma, Jojo, Techie, Jacob, Jude, and Jason. The big surprise was when Jinggoy arrived, having been granted a furlough from detention in Camp Crame to be with his dad for the night.

Mayor Erap must have melted inside when his sons and daughters took the stage to serenade him with a medley of Filipino classics.

Completing the family line-up were Erap’s 16 grandchildren, including Ellie, the daughter of Jake and Andi Eigenmann.

Showbiz, politics at ERAP’S

BIRTHDAY BASH

PRESIDENTIAL TABLE. Former President Joseph Estrada joined by President Rodrigo Duterte, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

Photos by Lino Santos

Luis "Chavit" Singson, Manny Pacquiao, and the man of the hour

Mayor Erap Estrada (center) with son Jinggoy and his family

Erap with Boots Anson Rodrigo, whom he shared the screen in six different films

23 amateur photographer compete in

‘PHOTO FACE-OFF’ NEW SEASON A+E Networks Asia’s original production Photo Face-Off is back in frame on History.

Featuring its largest crop of 23 contestants from eight territories, the series is expected to bow across Asia in the second half of 2017.

In this new season, the original series will focus on the overarching theme of capturing photo stories of popular, socially-trending and culturally-relevant subjects, interests and movements of today. Shoots in familiar Southeast Asian capital cities will be complemented by some off-the-beatentrack, colorful locales to surprise and delight contestants and viewers.

In each episode, four local photography amateurs from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam take on photography challenges in their home cities that test the shooters’ creativity, skill and technical knowledge.

The three-round battle in each episode comprises a speed challenge making contestants think on their feet in a race against time; a themed challenge to deliver on a client’s creative brief; and a final face-off where the remaining two contestants compete against award-winning resident professional photographer and chief judge Justin Mott. The winner earns a spot in the final as the country representative, prizes, and potential bragging rights for beating an awardwinning professional photographer.

Together with Justin, local expert guest judges in each territory will judge the work of contestants. They will also offer an array of practical photography advice and handy tips on the series that viewers can put into everyday use.

For the fourth year running, Canon is the presenting sponsor of Photo Face-Off; while Tourism Authority of Thailand is an episodic sponsor. The prizes at stake for this season’s group of talented shutterbugs include a Canon DSLR, an all-expenses-paid trip to participate in the esteemed Canon PhotoMarathon Asia Championship, as well as a cash prize.

Photo Face-Off is the first and the top photography reality competition TV series in Asia, produced by Beach House Productions for A+E Networks® Asia.

The party was also remarkable because big names in Philippine politics were there to greet the former President on his birthday, like former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and husband Mike, former

First Lady Imelda Marcos, former Vice President Jejomar Binay and daughter Senator Nancy Binay, former Ilocos Sur Governor now Narvacan councilor Chavit Singson, former Senators Juan Ponce

Enrile and Bongbong Marcos Jr., Senator Manny Pacquiao, Mayor Junjun Ynares and wife Andrea Bautista, and Navotas Congressman Toby Tiangco.

Showbiz celebrities also

turned up, among them Bacoor Mayor Lani Mercado, Marichu “Manay Ichu” Maceda, Pilita Corrales, Lorna Tolentino and son Rap, Tirso Cruz III and wife Lynn, Annabelle Rama and Daisy Romualdez, talent manager June Rufino, Viva’s Vincent del Rosario, Boots Anson Roa, and Eddie Garcia.

Edu Manzano emceed the event, and Sarah Geronimo and Lani Misalucha performed for the Mayor.

But, the special guest of the evening was President Rodrigo Duterte, Erap’s kumpare (the mayor is the godfather of the President’s grandson, Stonefish Carpio).

When it was time for him to give a speech, Mayor Erap thanked everybody for coming to the party. He delighted everyone by acknowledging Dr. Loi Estrada as his “one and only wife.”

“I may be an ex-Mayor of San Juan, an ex-Senator, ex-Vice President, ex-President and exconvict, but I promise her (Dr. Loi) that I will never be her exhusband,” he said.

ABS-CBN most preferred network for news and entertainment MORE Filipinos relied on ABSCBN for news and entertainment as TV Patrol and FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano secured spots on the list of the most watched programs in April.

This is based on data from Kantar Media, which showed that nine out of the top 10 most watched programs in the country were produced by ABS-CBN. The Kapamilya network also garnered an average audience share of 43 percent among urban and rural homes in April, or nine points higher versus GMA’s 34 percent.

ABS-CBN primetime series FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano maintained its reign for the whole month with an average national TV rating of 37.7 percent. Filipinos still grip on to the story of Cardo (Coco Martin) that not only provides

action-packed scenes every night, but also promotes values and crime awareness to viewers.

Meanwhile, more viewers tuned in to TV Patrol as it recorded an average national TV rating of 29.1 percent compared to rival program 24 Oras with only got 18.6 percent.

With Noli de Castro, Ted Failon, and Bernadette Sembrano as anchors, it continues to provide timely and relevant news to viewers to be in the service of the Filipino.

Also on the list is The Voice Teens, which got 35.5 percent as it returned to showcase the talents and fulfill the dreams of young Filipinos. Viewers also tuned in to the cute transformations of Kapamilya child stars in Your Face Sounds Familiar with 34.5 percent, while the magical and valuesladen stories of Wansapanataym

Kapamilya shows that stay ahead in national TV ratings race

captivated viewers, hitting 32.6 percent.

The inspiring stories of letter senders in MMK also continued to touch viewers’ hearts, as it recorded an average national TV rating of 31.8 percent.

Current affairs program Rated K was also a hit among viewers, recording an average national TV rating of 20.5 percent.

Also in the top 10 were the family-oriented series My Dear Heart (26.5 percent) and Home Sweetie Home (23.3 percent). The story of Heart (Heart Ramos) continues to inspire viewers as she fights her illness while changing the life of Dr. Margaret (Coney Reyes) along the way. The married couple, Romeo (John Lloyd Cruz) and Julie (Toni Gonzaga), meanwhile, continue to show the strength of their relationship and

love for each other despite life’s challenges.

Meanwhile, Pusong Ligaw instantly captivated viewers with its story about love, friendship, and achieving one’s dreams, as it scored an average national TV rating of 17.9 percent. The recently concluded The Greatest Love, which showed the undying love of mothers for their children, scored 14.4 percent.

ABS-CBN also won across all time blocks nationwide, particularly in primetime (6 p.m.12 mn), hitting an average audience share of 49 percent beating GMA’s 33 percent. The primetime block is the most important part of the day when most Filipinos watch TV and advertisers put a larger chunk of their investment in to reach more consumers effectively.

ABS-CBN also drew more viewers in the morning block (6 a.m.-12nn), with an average audience share of 34 percent, compared to GMA’s 33 percent; in the noontime block (12nn-3 p.m.) with 42 percent versus GMA’s 36 percent; and afternoon block (3 -6 p.m.) with 43 perccent while GMA got just 35 percent.

Meanwhile, ABS-CBN also reigned in other parts of the country. In Total Balance Luzon, the Kapmilya network registered an average national audience share of 44 perent versus GMA’s 36 percent; in Total Luzon where it recorded 39 perent, compared to GMA’s 36 percent; in Total Visayas with 51 percent, beating GMA’s 28 percent; and in Total Mindanao with 52 percent versus GMA’s 29 percent.