Manila Standard - 2017 June 23 - Friday

VOL. XXXI • NO. 129 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

RESCUED. An infant, one of the residents who were trapped when the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters took six teachers and six students hostage, is rescued by officials of Barangay Simsiman, Pigkawayan, North Cotabato on Wednesday, June 21, 2017. The hostages were students of Malagakit Elementary School, but the military later clarified that none of the hostages were students. Police said the firefight erupted after 300 ‘fully armed’ BIFF fighters attacked a barangay outpost in Barangay Malagakit and a Cafgu detachment in Barangay Simsiman, North Cotabato. Mark Navales

KL pushes measures to counter terrorism

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan MALAYSIA is calling for the creation of a mechanism that will enable it, the Philippines and Indonesia to share intelligence reports as a way to prevent the spread of terrorist groups in Southeast Asia.

During the trilateral meeting on security, Malaysian Foreign Minister Dato’ Sri Anifah Aman said the enforcement agencies of Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia must constantly engage with one another by identifying and combating terrorist activities in the region.

“There is an urgent need to facilitate the prompt exchange and assessing of information, [and to] strengthen intelligence agencies and cooperation,” Anifah said in his opening remarks.

“We propose [that] we work towards formalization of mechanisms for our cooperation and continue cooperation before the end of the year,” he added.

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Maute enlists 40 foreign terrorists

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

F

ORTY foreigners have joined the Maute group to battle the government, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año said Thursday.

In an interview, Año said 20 of the foreign terrorists were Indonesians, while the rest are from Malaysia, Saudi, Yemen, and other countries.

Indonesians have also joined other terrorist groups, such as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, the Abu Sayyaf and the AKP, he said.

Año also said Isnilon Hapilon, the Abu Sayyaf leader, and Abdullah Maute, one of the two Maute brothers, were still

alive. The other Maute brother, Omar, was believed to be dead.

Fighting between the Maute terrorist group and government troops has been going on in Marawi City since May 23.

Año said local politicians who were funding the Maute operations had no links to the Islamic State, but were helping the local terrorists for their own reasons.

“They have common interests, which is to fight the government, so they join

or they support Maute for their personal political interest, but that makes them also guilty,” he said.

Año admitted they did not have a timeline to retaking Marawi City, where the fighting has been building-to-building.

Lt. Col. Jo-ar Herrera, spokesperson for Joint Task Force Marawi, said Thursday the Maute terrorists were abandoning their firearms and blending in with

Lawyers’ group hits out at martial law enforcers

By Rey E. Requejo THE Integrated Bar of the PhilippinesLanao del Sur Chapter has criticized martial law implementors for committing illegal searches and seizures and massive looting of civilian properties in Marawi City.

THE Philippine Constitution Association, through its Board of Governors and Officers, manifested its support of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation No. 216 declaring martial law and suspending habeas corpus in Mindanao.

Philconsa president Martin Romualdez regrets that some sectors have questioned Proclamation 216, notwithstanding that the great majority of the people and Congress have expressed their wholehearted support of Proclamation No. 216.

Chairman Manuel Lazaro remarked the unfolding of the horrendous or heinous activities of Maute/IS every day since the Proclamation have justified and warranted the judicious wisdom and propriety of President Duterte’s actions.

Romualdez and Lazaro intoned: “Now is the time for all citizens to stand united in support of President’s Duterte’s fight against the Maute/IS rebels to secure the safety of the people and the very existence of the state.”

In a three-page statement submitted to the Supreme Court by petitioners seeking to nullify President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law proclamation in Mindanao, the IBP in Lanao del Sur through its president Aminoden Macalandap, Next page

Duterte’s first year ‘felt like three years’ in office

By John Paolo Bencito MALACAÑANG said President Rodrigo Duterte’s first year in office “felt like three years” because of the amount of work his administration has accomplished, and took aim at critics who act “as if they were not Filipinos.”

After winning the presidential race with a commanding lead over his closest rivals, Duterte will mark his first year in office on Friday, June 30, still trying to fulfill his campaign promise of change.

“You know it actually feels like three years already, right? Con-

sidering the amount of work to be done, considering the challenges and all the matters that have been addressed,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella.

Duterte’s spokesman added that he simply wished for people to be “more united in appreciating [the President] and not act as if they were not Filipinos.”

On the campaign trail, Duterte, then Davao mayor, vowed to eradicate the illegal drug trade and stop criminality in six months; raise police, military salaries within three years; eliminate

By Maricel V. Cruz THE Sandiganbayan’s First Division on Thursday convicted former Presidential Commission on Good Government chairman Camilo Sabio over the P12-million vehicle lease deals undertaken by the commission in 2007 and 2009 that it said were anomalous.

The anti-graft court found Sabio guilty of two counts of graft and ordered him imprisoned for

12 to 20 years and perpetually disqualified from holding public office.

Based on the facts of the case, the PCGG and UCPB Leasing and Finance Corp. signed two contracts for the lease of four vehicles amounting to P5.4 million in 2007 and five vehicles worth P6.7 million in an unknown date.

The Sandiganbayan said the contracts were signed without a public bidding.

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Six BIFF men killed in firefight

By Francisco Tuyay SIX members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters were killed in a clash with government troops in Barangay Malagakit, Pigcawayan, North Cotabato on Wednesday, a military official said Thursday.

Capt. Napoleon Alcarioto, spokesman for the 602nd Brigade, said civilians told the military that the BIFF rebels retrieved the dead bodies and fled on board a motorized outrigger on the Ligusan Marsh.

Civilians also saw eight BIFF members who were wounded, Alcarioto said.

On the other hand, two members of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit were wounded during the exchange of Next page gunfire.

IBP backs justices in House row

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Former PCGG chief gets 12-year jail term for graft

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By Rey E. Requejo and Maricel V. Cruz ARMED TO THE TEETH. Manila International Airport Authority equips its security personnel with MP-9 as-

Manila targets.

“The airport is not under any threat, but the sight of armed security men is good for the passenger’s peace of mind,” said MIAA general manager Eddie Monreal.

THE Integrated Bar of the Philippines chapter in Ilocos Norte on Thursday rallied behind the Court of Appeals in its clash with the House of Representatives in the case involving six provincial officials being held at the House for alleged contempt.

Chapter president Cherrie Grace Bareng-Asistin said the House should abide by the order of the appellate court’s Special Fourth Division to release

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sault rifles to patrol the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at regular intervals as part of the heightened safety and security measures. Many of the airport police have not been issued with side firearms. Eric Apolonio

Airport cops gear up for anti-terror drive

By Joel E. Zurbano THE Manila International Airport Authority has deployed security personnel equipped with assault rifles, machine pistols and bullet proof vests.

The armed security personnel from the Airport Police Department are part of heightened security measures at the four terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport following reports of possible terrorist attacks on Metro

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Pagcor kicks in P10b for Marawi

By John Paolo Bencito

S

TATE gambling regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. will provide the P10 billion that will be used to rehabilitate war-torn Marawi City, Malacañang said Thursday. “[Budget Secretary Benjamin] Diokno said the first 10 billion [pesos] would come from Pagcor,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters.

The Department of National Defense-led “Bangon Marawi,” which aims to bring back the

situation in the strife-torn city to normal as soon as possible, is still awaiting President Duterte’s signature, Abella said.

Among the agencies that will join the rebuilding efforts are the trade, education, social welfare, public works, energy and infor-

'LGBTQ students prone to bullying'

By Sandy Araneta and Rio N. Araja STUDENTS across the Philippines experience bullying and discrimination in school because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, Human Rights Watch says in a report released on Thursday.

While Philippine law provides protections against discrimination and exclusion in schools, lawmakers and school administrators need to take steps to ensure they are fully implemented, the group says.

The 68-page report, “Just Let Us Be’: Discrimination Against LGBT Students in the Philippines,” documents the range of abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students in secondary schools.

It details the widespread bullying and harassment, discriminatory policies and practices, and an absence of supportive resources that undermine the right to education under international law that put LGBT youth at risk.

“LGBT students in the Philippines are often the targets of ridicule and even violence,” said Ryan Thoreson, a fellow in the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch.

“And in many instances, teachers and administrators are participating in this mistreatment instead of speaking out against discrimination and creating classrooms where everybody can learn.”

Human Rights Watch conducted in-depth interviews and discussions with 98 students and 46 parents, teachers, counselors, administrators, service providers and experts on education in 10 cities in Luzon and in the Visayas.

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Monreal said he wanted the armed security personnel to be highly visible and told them not to use mobile phones or other personal gadgets while on duty.

Some 200 members of the Police-Aviation Security Group are deployed in the four terminals but are not armed.

A 2015 Commission on Audit report said out of 147,041 police personnel, only 124,738 have been issued side arms.

Some 623 PNP officers were using donated handguns while 3,654 officers firearms could not be accounted for or had no record of having been issued service firearms.

The PNP is violating a 1993 National Police Commission order for failure to comply with a one-gunone-police ratio, the CoA said.

Under the Aquino administration,

Duterte’s...

From A1 red tape in government and ensure that Filipinos don’t have to line up when dealing with government offices; restart peace talks with secessionist groups; and shift to a federal form of government.

Now dealing with an Islamic State-inspired terrorist threat in Mindanao where he declared martial law, Duterte, 72, may be hard pressed to fulfill his promises.

His critic, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, however, said concern about the President’s health was unnecessary since he was likely to live a long life since “weeds do not die

LGBT students said that existing protections were irregularly or incompletely implemented, and that secondary school policies and practices often facilitated discrimination and failed to provide LGBT students with information and support.

Lawmakers in the Philippines have recognized that bullying in secondary schools is a problem and have taken important steps to address it, Human Rights Watch said.

In 2013, Congress passed an anti-bullying law and the Department of Education issued regulations prohibiting bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

And during the 2016 presidential campaign, then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte condemned bullying and discrimination against LGBT people.

President Duterte has spoken out against bullying and discrimination against LGBT people in the past, and he should do so now,” Thoreson said.

Yet Human Rights Watch’s research shows that LGBT students still encounter physical bullying, verbal harassment, sexual assault and cyberbullying in schools.

Many students were not aware of anti-bullying policies or did not know where to seek help if they were persistently bullied.

The hostility students face in school is often exacerbated by discriminatory policies and practices, Human Rights Watch says.

Schools in the Philippines impose gendered uniform and hair-length requirements without exceptions for students who do not identify with their sex the budget to buy 12,268 9-millimeter pistols was diverted to buy patrol jeeps, the Crime Data Processing System and an Automated Fingerprint ID System.

On Monday, the National Capital Region Police Office received information that a document was being circulated through social media that a series of bombings would be launched in the National Capital Region.

That memo, dated June 16, spoke of a series of terror attacks planned by the extremist Maute group in Manila, Makati and Quezon City.

Aside from the threat posed by extremist groups, the deployment of heavily armed security men at the airport was also made to prevent a similar incident at the Resorts World Manila in Pasay City early this month where 37 people died following an attack by a lone gunman.

Monreal also said that additional CCTVs at the Naia Terminals will be set up. With Vito Barcelo easily.”

Speaking in the regular “Kapihan sa Senado,” Trillanes said he presumed the President is healthy and capable of doing his job.

“So, I am not too focussed on it [health],” he said, responding to questions about the President’s week-long absence from public events.

But Trillanes said the public has the right to know the truth about the President’s health, not because they want him to die but because it’s in the Constitution.

Another member of the minority bloc, Senator Francis Pangilinan, said there was nothing personal when he asked the Presient to disclose to the public his health condition. With Macon Ramos-Araneta

mation and communications technology departments.

Military engineering brigades will initiate rebuilding projects under the supervision of an undersecretary.

In the same news briefing, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said the Budget department had downloaded P662,500,000 to Social Welfare as of June 6, enabling it to buy family food packs, hygiene kits and non-food items for those affected by the month-long siege of Marawi by the Maute terrorists.

Taguiwalo said her department had spent P294 million to

Maute...

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civilian evacuees to get out of Marawi City.

“As their bailiwick native land, the terrorists are knowledgeable of the terrain here in Marawi City. They are also using that advantage to slip out of the area to escape,” Herrera said in a statement.

Government security forces have arrested several alleged high-profile members of the Maute group, including Cayamora and Farjana Maute, parents of Abdullah and Omar, leaders of the group, as well as the brothers’ other siblings.

Amid this, Herrera assured the public that government troops are doing everything to track down members of the group who were able to flee Marawi City.

Sporadic clashes have been ongoing in Marawi City since May 23 after the Maute group attacked the city, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to put the entire Mindanao under martial law.

Brig. Gen. Ramiro Manuel

KL...

From A1 Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said it is necessary to focus as well on social media as terrorists groups have been using these as a platform to lure recruits to their cause.

“The threat that we are facing is imminent. No action is not an option. This is incumbent upon us to taking complete action. This is also due to the fact that the threat of terrorism is even more worrying because of the social media factors,” she said.

“Therefore cooperation among the three of us is a necessity. The cooperation among the three of us is a must,” Marsudi added.

Anifah agreed with Marsudi and said that nowadays, social media are being used to give terrorists the advantage.

“Technology has enabled terrorism to spread their message faster and more promptly than ever before,” he said.

He added that the terrorists may have employed some experts to use social media accounts to recruit more fighters.

“They probably have experts in using social media to recruit followers in foreign countries,” he said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said that countries must not forget that “drugs, crime, poverty and injustices” can create fertile ground for extremists.

“The struggle to uplift the quality and dignity of each of life is the ultimate struggle,” Cayetano said.

In a joint statement, Cayetano

Lawyers’...

From A1 accused the military and the police of committing crimes, while implementing martial law and fighting Maute terrorists.

The lawyers’ group expressed “severe outrage and condemnation over illegal searches and seizures in Marawi City by military men, police and other law enforcement agencies which results in rampant loss and deprivation of properties and possessions of innocent civilians.”

“As shown in video footages and pictures posted in social media, military men who committed these criminal acts in public exhibited no remorse,” the statement signed by Macalandap said.

The IBP chapter lamented the

help those affected by the Marawi crisis. She said her department was in charge of providing food and non-food items to the evacuees.

At total of 69,434 families have been displaced by the conflict as of June 21, but of those affected by the conflict only about five percent are actually in the evacuation centers. The rest are staying in their homes.

Taguiwalo said they were in the process of procuring family-sized tents, one tent for every family, in preparation for the return of the evacuees to Marawi City.

She said they had also distrib-

uted P1,000 in cash assistance to the evacuees for the observance of Ramadan. They had also prepared Ramadan food packs that would be distributed starting Monday.

The private sector and representatives from different volunteer groups have been helping the government in its relief effort. Those include the International Red Cross, UN-related agencies, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific.

San Miguel Foundation also offered the toll-free passage of the cargo trucks going to Mindanao at the STAR Tollway and SLEX.

Rey, commander of Task Force Ranao, said improvised explosive devices planted by the group are delaying the clearing operations being conducted by government troops.

“The Maute terrorists are pushed back in a corner due to the AFP’s continuous effort. But they are using IEDs to block the government troops,” he said.

He added that Maute group members are using hostages as human shields and slaves to gain grounds.

“Hostages were even forced to place LPG tanks with fuel as IEDs against the AFP troops,” he said.

Herrera said the number of Maute members still resisting government forces in Marawi has dwindled to a little over 100.

“According to the information we are getting from the ground troops operating in the area, there are more or less 100 members of Maute terrorist group left after one month battle here in Marawi,” he said.

As of 6 p.m., June 21, a total of 276 Maute terrorists have been killed while 271 firearms have been recovered. On the

government side, 67 have been killed in action while 461 were wounded.

A total of 26 civilians have also been killed while 1,658 have been rescued due to the conflict.

The three suspected members of Maute terrorist group arrested

by Philippine Coast Guards in Iloilo were charged Thursday before the Department of Justice’s special panel of prosecutors.

The suspects identified as Faridah Pangompig Romato, of Carmen, Cagayan de Oro; Aljadid Pangompig Romato, alias Miks Jadid Romato, of Iligan City; and Abdulralman Dimakuta Sevad, of Marantao, Lanao del Sur were presented before the DOJ’s special panel of prosecutors for inquest proceedings on rebellion charges.

The hearing was held inside the Camp Evangelista in Cagayan De Oro City, where most arrested Maute members and supporters are currently detained pending request of the DOJ before the Supreme Court for their transfer to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

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said that he and his counterparts have agreed to intensify counterterrorism cooperation by blocking the movement of terrorists, funds, weapons and social media disinformation.

They agreed 15 points that their senior officials need to raise during the upcoming meeting among other Asean members.

The 15 points are: 1) enhance effort and cooperation in addressing the root cause underlying conditions of extremism including but not limited to poverty, narcotics or illegal drugs, crime and social justice; 2) promote social and economic development particularly in adjoining areas of the three countries; 3) enhance the intelligence and information sharing amongst all security and intelligence agencies on potential, imminent and real threats; 4) stop the flow of the terrorist financing; 5) contain the spread of terrorism and terrorism-related content in the cyberspace, particularly in the social media; 6) prevent and suppress the terrorist exploitation of information and communication technology and the dissemination of terrorist messages; 7) prevent and stop the flow of illicit arms and arms smuggling as well as the movement of all terrorists; 8) consider the provision of specialized military and law enforcement training; 9) support the trilateral cooperative agreement and other subregional efforts to combat translational crime;

10) review and implement all of our existing agreements on terrorism and violent extremism; 11) make a cross-analysis comparison of each other’s laws on terrorism with a view to enhancing legislation; 12) counter the extremist narrative through education, community engagement including the involvement of religious leaders and the promotion of tolerance, moderation, and unity in diversity; 13) explore initiatives to provide support for victims of terrorism; 14) promote deradicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration programs as part of comprehensive measures in countering terrorism; and 15) protect and safeguard vulnerable groups, particularly women, children, and the youth, from the influence of terrorism.

Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte and Indonesian President Joko Widodo also agreed to step up cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism, Malacañang said on Thursday.

Describing the phone call between President Duterte and President Widodo as “productive and fruitful,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said that the Indonesian leader reaffirmed his support for the Philippines’ fight against terrorism and quest for Mindanao peace.

Abella also said that both leaders noted the importance of the ongoing trilateral meeting among foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

“rampant loss of valuable personal belongings of innocent and helpless civilians” as a result of the alleged “wholesale illegal searches and seizures-unparalleled in its magnitude for even the Marcos years of martial rule pales in comparison.”

The local lawyer’s group also said it has received numerous reports of forced entries of private residential and commercial establishments without search warrants even though these places bore no badge of suspicion of having links with the Maute terrorist group.

It claimed that forced entries were done “without the presence of the media, the owners or any authorized persons” with the police and military showing “total disregard of plain view doctrine of searches and seizures activities.”

“And yet, no one raises a voice of

dissent,” the group said.

Because of this, the IBP chapter called on martial law administrator, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, to “immediately stop searches and seizures without court warrants.”

It also asked Lorenzana to “create a credible multi-agency investigation committee composed of independent groups and individuals to avoid whitewash and ensure impartial findings and swift prosecution.”

While the group assured that they support the declaration of martial law in Mindanao, it said that it “has not closed its eyes on any forms of abuses committed in the implementation thereof.”

The chapter warned of taking legal actions should the martial law implementors fail to act on this issue.

With John Paolo Bencito

Six...

From A1 “The situation is back to normal as most of the civilians particularly those residing along the highway are back at their homes while others are still in the evacuation centers,” Alcarioto said.

Classes at the Malagakit Elementary School, which the BIFF occupied for hours during the skirmishes, are still suspended.

Some 200 to 300 BIFF rebels swooped down on two military detachments in the villages of Malagakit, and Simsiman, and started firing at troops manning the posts on Wednesday.

The BIFF then forcibly entered and destroyed several houses in three villages, forcing civilians to flee to safer ground as fighting lasted for hours.

The BIFF withdrew under the cover of darkness, leaving a militiaman---Abraham Cutay and a civilian dead.

A military statement said 63 civilians were rescued by the Joint Task Force Central, which clashed with the BIFF rebels in North Cotabato.

Soldiers from the 602nd Brigade advanced towards the Malagakit Elementary School to rescue the hostages, who were used as human shields, and engaged the fleeing rebels at about 6 p.m.

Wednesday.

The rebels left 31 of their captives behind as they fled.

Thirty-two residents trapped in the crossfire left their homes and joined the rescued hostages.

Members of the 34th Infantry Battalion provided mortar fire support to the Simsiman Detachment in Barangay Simsiman, Pigcawayan, North Cotabato, and blockaded Barangay Malagakit, while troops from the 7th Infantry Battalion and the 34IB attacked the rebels.

Two BIFF members were held by the troops of the 22nd Mechanized Company, 2nd Mechanized Battalion, Mechanized Division, at a checkpoint in Butilin, Datu Salibo, Maguindanao at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday.

Troops found two sachets of shabu on the BIFF members. With John Paolo Bencito

IBP...

From A1 the so-called Ilocos Six who were detained for their alleged misuse of P66.45 million in tobacco funds for Ilocos Norte to buy motor vehicles.

She made her statement even as Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Thursday stood pat on the House leadership’s decision to issue a show-cause order against three Court of Appeals justices asking them to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for granting the habeas corpus petition of the “Ilocos Six.” Alvarez also asked the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to “discipline” Associate Justices Stephen Cruz, Edwin Sorongon and Nina AntonioValenzuela “to rectify the uneasy situation its [the appellate court’s] recklessness has created.”

Asistin called on the House leaders to respect the independence of the judiciary instead of issuing the show-cause order against the six Ilocos Norte officials. ‘‘Respect begets respect. Yes, there is separation of powers, and in this case, there is no encroachment on the power of the legislative branch by the judiciary,” Asistin said. ‘‘If the writ of habeas corpus was already issued, then it should be immediately executory, even pending appeal or motion for reconsideration owing to the fact that the life and liberty of the detained persons are at stake.”

Asistin said all lawyers should know the mandate and authority of the appellate court under the law.

She cited Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980 that gave the appellate cout the “original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, habeas corpus and quo warranto, and auxiliary writs or processes whether or not in the aid of its appellate jurisdiction. ‘‘If the writ was issued by a court that has competent jurisdiction over the matter, then it should be respected by the agency or whoever it was issued to.

Former...

From A1 Former PCGG Intelligence Officer Teresita Avante-Rosal concurred that the contracts were illegal.

The Sandiganbayan ruled that Sabio acted in bad faith in signing the contracts.

The camp of Sabio said they will appeal the case.

But apart from this case, Sabio is also facing three counts of graft for embezzlement and inability to liquidate cash advances.

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FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

BPI still recovering mistaken withdrawals

By Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta

ANTI-TERROR FRONT. Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano (second from left), Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (third from left) and Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman (third from right) linked arms during a trilateral meeting in security in Manila on June 22, 2017. AFP

Convert Marawi into tourist hub – Gordon

By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Richard Gordon on Thursday proposed to convert Marawi City and other municipalities around Lake Lanao to enable the city to rise from the ashes of war once the armed conflict ends.

Gordon, a former Tourism secretary, said the move would also spur the development of the entire island of Mindanao.

“We must all aim for the common good. At this point in time, we must already think how Marawi can rise after the war,” said Gordon.

“The losers here are the people, but they could be the biggest winners if we aim for the common good that after this battle that is going on there, we can convert Marawi and Lake Lanao and all the other areas around Lake Lanao, like some cities in Europe and other parts of the world, as tourism attractions,” he said.

Gordon said a strong tourism industry will not only help in Marawi’s rehabilitation, it will also bring economic development not only to Marawi but also to the whole of Mindanao.

He added that the government should exploit the beauty of Lake Lanao and its surrounding areas as potential tourist hubs in Lanao del Sur, and put in place a tourism development plan that would make them comparable to other cities in the world built around lakes.

Palace junks idea Du30 behind ‘downgrading’ M

By John Paolo Bencito

ALACAÑANG on Thursday junked allegations that it was President Rodrigo Duterte himself who ordered the downgrading of charges against the 19 Leyte cops who were implicated in the brutal killing of Albuera town mayor Rolando Espinosa and another inmate in November 2016.

Following allegations made by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV that he could prove Duterte’s hand in the Department of Justices’s order to downgrade the charges to homicide, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella laughed off the solon’s latest bombshell by turning into Trillanes’ recent interview before UK state broadcaster BBC, wherein he appeared to have chickened out.

“Versus Leyte cops?

All right, maybe it’s best to summarize this Senator Trillanes with the interview he did with BBC,” Abella said in a Palace news briefing Thursday. “[What the] Senator [said] seemed to be out of tune and not reflective of the times,” he added.

Superintendent Marvin Marcos, former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region 8 (CIDG-8) director, and his men were originally slapped with murder charges for allegedly conspiring to eliminate Espinosa.

Last week however, they were able to walk out of detention on bail, following the DoJ’s order to downgrade the charges to homicide.

Malacañang likewise

insinuated that Trillanes might have already “gone crazy” following his allegations that President Rodrigo Duterte gave the green-light to some members of the Philippine National Police Academy Class 1996 to handle the operation of death squads nationwide.

“Really, I think the interview with HARDtalk just summarized everything that he is. You know, he seems to be really given to his huge fantasies,” Abella said, again referring to the BBC interview.

In an interview with ‘Hard Talk’ host Stephen Sackur, Trillanes continued to rant about the President’s martial law declaration and his bloody drug war, which has killed thousands since Duterte took office.

At one point of the interview, Sackur asked Trillanes whether he is a Democrat, but the solon replied: “I’m from the Nacionalista Party.”

The television anchor then clarified that he was referring to an advocate or supporter of democracy.

In a press conference at the Senate, Trillanes said it was Duterte himself who gave the order to kill Espinosa inside his jail cell, citing his alleged discovery

that Duterte himself was running a “death squad” in Malacañang through his most trusted police officer, Supt. Edilberto Leonardo, and Supt. Marvin Marcos, who led the team which killed Espinosa.

Trillanes also alleged that some members of

the Philippine National Police Academy Class 1996 have handled the operation of death squads nationwide.

Trillanes likewise said he received information from several sources that a certain Supt. Leonardo, who belongs to PNPA

Class 1996 and a “kumpare” of presidential son and Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, leads a group of policemen in executing plans to conduct extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of suspected drug dealers and drug users.

THE Bank of the Philippine Islands on Thursday said it is still in the process of recovering the P46 million that was “mistakenly withdrawn” by its clients at the height of the bank’s massive system glitch, a bank executive told a congressional hearing.

BPI president and chief executive officer Cezar Consing told the House committee on banks and financial intermediaries, chaired by Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, the technical glitch had led to “mis-postings” and “P46 million were mistakenly withdrawn” by BPI clients.

This even as the Central Bank said the glitch was a “human error,” with Chuchi Fonancier, assistant governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, citing reports and evidence that allayed fears that the problem was caused by hacking.

Consing said what happened was accidental and the BPI has been addressing the problem.

“It was accidental,” Consing said in response to Evardone’s query if the circumstances caused by the technical glitch was “illegal.”

“The fact is most of this P46 million is getting paid back, most, if not all of it,” Consing said.

He said the funds were from “merchants, small businesses” accounts.

“We are making arrangements with them to settle. Almost all of them have expressed willingness to settle,” Consing said.

BPI Chief financial officer and executive vice president Joseph Gotuaco said the average mis-posting on both debit and credit amounted to P7,000.

“The highest amount that was debited was P1.6 million and the highest credit was P2.5 million,” Gotuaco said.

Strengthen infant care—Villafuerte

By Maricel V. Cruz

A HOUSE leader on Thursday urged local government units to expand their respective health, nutrition and water sanitation programs supportive of infant care and development in order to better protect babies from deadly diseases.

CamSur Rep. LRay Villafuerte, House committee on local government vice chairperson, said LGUs should take their cue from the Quezon City government, which has been cited by the United Nations Children’s Fund recently as a model for its integrated First 1,000 Days Program that aims to put in place measures to ensure quality care for infants from conception up to the child’s second birthday.

“The first 1,000 days in the life of a child, which includes its 270 days inside the mother’s womb up to the time he or she is

two years old, is crucial in reducing mortality and malnutrition rates among Filipino children. It is, thus, imperative for LGUs to come up with their respective infant care programs,” Villafuerte said.

Villafuerte, a former governor, said poor communities in CamSur were fortunate to be among the recipients of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Intervention Package from the national government that provides integrated services on health, nutrition, early education and social services on the first 1,000 days of life.

He said other areas chosen as recipients of the P5.9 billion, three-year ECCD intervention package implemented starting last year were Davao del Sur, Pangasinan, Quezon, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Leyte, Zamboanga del Sur and Sulu.

“The program’s objective is to reduce mortality and morbid-

ity rates among children 0-23 months old, reduce the prevalence of stunting and wasting among children 0-23 months old, and increase chances of children meeting developmental milestones,” Villafuerte said.

To institutionalize the program down to the barangay level, Villafuerte earlier filed House Bill 1340, known as the “First 1,000 Days Act, to enable the government to implement a maternal and childcare program in every village covering the first 1,000 days of an infant’s development.

Villafuerte said the maternal and child care program covered

by HB 1340 includes nutritional counseling, immunization and vitamin supplementation for the mother; intensified communitybased food production projects to ensure the adequate supply of nutritious foods; exclusive breastfeeding for the first six (6) months and complementary feeding.

ADVT

A4

Opinion

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

EDITORIAL

No infra golden age

T

HE government’s much-hyped “golden age of infrastructure” may not happen under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. A decision by the Finance department to have the government first build the infrastructure projects and later bid out their operation and maintenance to the private sector may take a longer time given the state’s poor track record in construction.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III calls the new infrastructure tack as “hybrid” public-private partnership deals that

Adelle Chua, Editor

essentially exclude private sector investments during the construction stage. The government is tapping cheaper official de-

velopment assistance loans, presumably from China and Japan, to finance the infrastructure projects, instead of letting commercial bank credits fund them.

Construction of PPP projects by the government would actually prove cheaper and quicker in the long run because the state could borrow at lower rates through grants and concessional loans.

But the private sector does not totally agree

with this presumption.

Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of the biggest infrastructure companies in the Philippines, says the funding shift to ODA loans may result in delays. With ODA loans as the main source of funding, Philippine infrastructure projects will be covered by procurement procedures and protocol by the donor-country.

“And since the funding will come mainly from abroad, say Japan or

China, then disbursements of the funds are subject [to review] of their government. That may take time,” MPIC Metro Pacific Investments Corp. chairman Manuel Pangilinan warned earlier.

The new funding mode has already prompted the Transportation department to abandon the auctions planned for the P108.2billion contracts to develop, operate and maintain five regional airports under the PPP

scheme. The airport projects are situated in Bohol (Panglao), Davao, Iloilo, Laguindingan and Bacolod.

Opting for the ODAloan type of funding, however, opens major infrastructure projects to graft opportunities, as well as red tape. The government should also learn its lesson from the past, when no major infrastructure project was built under the Aquino administration because of too much bureaucracy.

PENSEES FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN AQUINO

Francis whips up a storm

Trillanes’ latest meltdown LOWDOWN

JOJO A. ROBLES HELL hath no fury like an opposition senator embarrassed on the world stage. And so Senator Antonio Trillanes went on the warpath yesterday, apparently after hearing all the laughter elicited by his appearance on BBC’s HARDtalk show.

Trillanes’ performance during the half-hour interview with HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur was all over social media yesterday. And not in the way the senator or his fellow propagandists from the opposition would have liked.

Unlike so many foreign media outlets that have drunk the anti-Duterte Kool-Aid and who have all too frequently served as platforms for the opposition from which to bash the Philippine president, Sackur and his team did their own research on

current issues in this country.

And they came up with the sort of questions that made Trillanes —never know for his eloquence or even for his firm grasp of the facts—look like a buffoon on international television.

To be sure, Trillanes gamely tried to defend his opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte’s policies. But the senator could only lamely predict that Duterte’s popularity was bound to drop, when asked why he seemed so out of tune with what an overwhelming majority of Filipinos actually feel about their leader.

Pressed by Sackur to explain, Trillanes could only say that “the bulk” of Filipinos don’t really know what’s happening “on the ground.” As if Trillanes, who ceased to be an ordinary Filipino since his election to the elite Senate, knows better than the regular Pinoy on the street what it feels like to have people like him inflicted on them on a daily basis.

Asked about the proliferation of illegal drugs in the Philip-

pines, Trillanes came up with the totally incredible and unsupported claim that the number of drug addicts was a lot less than what Duterte and his officials are saying. He even denied that “shabu”—known abroad as

Try as he might, Trillanes will never be able to make us forget his spectacular debacles. crystal meth—was the drug of choice in the Philippines, saying that marijuana was actually the most abused narcotic in the land.

When Sackur demanded to know if Trillanes was a “demo-

crat,” the senator could only say that he belonged to the Nacionalista Party. “I’m not asking about your political affiliation,” the presenter said, probably wondering if all Filipino senators were as dumb as the person he was interviewing.

It got to the point where Sackur actually made it look painful for all Filipinos to watch the unmasking of Trillanes as a know-nothing opposition leader.

I mean, all of us already know what Trillanes is capable of, but we don’t really need HARDtalk to advertise the senator’s incompetence all over the world.

Trillanes probably thought he would score easy points against Duterte in an interview with yet another clueless foreign journalist. Little did he know that Sackur and his team actually wanted to get to the bottom of Trillanes’ opposition to the president.

And the HARDtalk interview succeeded in proving that Trillanes could not even explain why he was opposed to Duterte.

And that he could not even present facts that could convince any real journalist who wasn’t already sympathetic to the senator’s cause, like all those writers and pundits from the New York Times, Time magazine and other clearly biased outlets.

HARDtalk and Stephen Sackur tore Trillanes a new one, as they say. And that got the senator really mad afterwards. *** What Trillanes did was to call a press conference. Free at last from the insistent and wellresearched questions of Sackur, Trillanes railed against the Duterte administration for being an “epic failure” and for not making good on its promises to the Filipino people after nearly one year in office.

But it all sounded like the senator was trying to make up for his mistake of expecting softball questions requiring him merely to give his usual unthinking answers and walking right into

SOME cardinals are sulking.

They complain that they had asked for a fraternal conversation with Pope Francis over Amoris Laetitia, the exciting, if controversial, papal exhortation on love, particularly married love, but have received no response. They then have had recourse to the medieval “dubita”—doubts—by which they hope to call attention to what they discern to be serious doctrinal issues. The cardinals, among whom is the ermine-clad Burke who has never forgiven Francis for having kicked him out of the supreme tribunal of the Church, tasking him to take care of the knights of the Order of Malta instead, are bristling with resentment over what they take to be a betrayal of traditional church teaching.

Once more, just what did Francis say in Amoris Laetitia? Among the many wonderful things he wrote on, he acknowledged the “difficult situations” that Catholic couples often find themselves in: divorced Catholics re-marrying, spouses abandoned by spouses and eventually linking up with others similarly situated. The Pope then acknowledges that compelling them to return to the “status ante” could even be more troublesome, disruptive and vexatious. I have never read him condoning adultery, or concubinage or bigamy. These, he insists, remain serious evils.

But does one give up on those who fall? Is the Church the privileged circle of the pure and the holy or—a metaphor original to Francis—a “field hospital,” right in the midst of the battlefield into which are carried the bloody, the mangled and the grievously wounded?

Pope Francis knows that he is the guardian of doctrine, but he is also convinced that teaching doctrine is not his most important ministry.

Preaching Jesus and bringing to the world his mercy—that, to him, is what it has been all about. “Merciful as the Father,” that was theme of the Jubilee Year, and that is what he calls on all bishops, priests and lay Christians to be merTurn to A5

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Opinion The mundane radicalism of today’s terror

By Leonid Bershidsky THE UK tabloids hesitated about what to call the white driver of a van who crashed into a crowd of worshippers at the Finsbury Park mosque in London on Monday.

But Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling tweeted furiously that he was no less a terrorist than the perpetrators of recent Islamic State-inspired attacks.

“Let’s talk about how the Finsbury Park terrorist was radicalized,” she wrote, and posted a picture of nationalist politician Nigel Farage standing in front of an anti-refugee billboard. How Darren Osborne, the van driver, was radicalized is a fair question, if indeed he can be called a radical.

Osborne’s profile is similar to that of Khalid Masood, the convert to Islam who perpetrated the March 22 attack that started on Westminster Bridge in London. Osborne, a father of four, is 48. Masood, 52, had three kids.

Masood had a long history of violence and went to jail for one of the brawls in which he used a knife. Osborne is described as “shouty” and volatile, though seems to have kept his outbursts to the level of pub confrontations. Neither could hold down a job for long. Neither had any links with radical organizations. They appear to have led miserable, angry lives.

Osborne wasn’t provoked to violence by anyone nearly as mainstream as Farage: His isn’t among the 32 accounts Osborne followed on Twitter. Jayda Fransen and Paul Golding, leaders of the far right Britain First party are.

After the Finsbury Park attack, Fransen posted a video claiming it was “intellectually dishonest” to compare “sporadic” right-wing terrorism with the “industrialized” mayhem perpetrated by Islamist terrorists.

In fact, however, a lot of terrorism these days is sporadic.

From time to time, there are major plots, like the Islamist one that resulted in the 2015 Paris attacks or, on the right-wing side, the foiled 2016 Kansas conspiracy to blow up a mosque, or this year’s failed plan by some Germany Army servicemen to assassinate politicians and blame it on Muslim refugees. But attacks such as the Westminster one, the more recent one on London Bridge and the Finsbury Park one don’t require much planning. They can be spur-of-the moment angry outbursts, requiring no more than a few hours of seething and frantic action.

In a lengthy 2016 report to the US Department of Homeland Security, Pete Simi of the University of Nebraska, Omaha, described the common radicalization paths for US far-right terrorists. They closely match those of Islamist extremists: A troubled personal history, a desire to belong and be accepted, the thrill of the forbidden, the search for a cause to which one could serve with violence.

Some take this path deliberately and take months, even years, to get to a violent terror

Trillanes’...

From A4 an ambush. There was nothing new in Trillanes’ allegations, except the figurative but unmistakeable smell of his own burnt flesh, which was still bearing the tread-marks of the BBC’s presenter’s questioning.

If the opposition learned anything from Trillanes’ meltdown on international television yesterday, it should be that they cannot send an unprepared, inarticulate fool to represent them in an important forum.

Trillanes’ blustery style of making unfounded claims may go over well with a local media that still believes he is one of the most credible critics of the Duterte administration, despite the fact that the citizenry has long tired of his antics; but not every foreign media outlet can be deceived by the fakery that

attack. Others go through a kind of fast-food version of radicalization that can be limited to the spur-of-the-moment adoption of a cause to justify a strong violent impulse. Simi wrote: “Whether real or perceived, a quest for personal significance is based on the view that an individuals’ personal significance is being threatened. Threats to personal significance include: social rejection, exclusion, personal loss and humiliation. In an attempt to protect oneself from the threat of personal insignificance, individuals will often align with groups experiencing similar perceived injustices. These experiences motivate a person to accept extremist ideologies, which often encourages the conception of violence as a form of retaliation or ‘self-defense.’”

For a Muslim afflicted by a deep sense of personal insignificance in the face of an unfair world, the Islamic State cause with its calls for DIY terror is perhaps the easiest to adopt. For a white man with the same psychological profile, the anti-Muslim cause holds similar attraction. And though fewer far-right attacks than Islamist attacks reach the front pages—primarily because not many are deadly enough—Muslims have to be on a constant lookout for haters.

Hate crime statistics are woefully incomplete and hard to analyze. But the numbers are a constant white noise in Western societies. The London Metropolitan Police reported 1,264 Islamophobic hate crimes in the financial year that ran through March 2017—a 13-percent increase compared with the previous fiscal year. Only a minority of these crimes were violent, but they included assaults and property damage.

In Germany, 208 anti-Muslim crimes were registered in the first three months of 2017, including 15 attacks on mosques.

In the US, CAIR, the Muslim civil rights organization, reported 260 verified anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2016, up from 180 in 2015.

These relatively minor attacks only make the news when police report sharp increases in hate crime after major Islamist acts of terror. There has been such an increase in London after the London Bridge incident.

Osborne’s attack is part of that statistical bump, another case of instant radicalization, an angry outburst that left a trail of blood and suffering.

“He looked normal when I saw him at the pub,” one mate commented of Osborne. “He had a nice family,” said another acquaintance. That’s what casual acquaintances usually say about a terrorist; they don’t recognize the radical within. They look shocked. There seems little society can do if friends, neighbors and family fail to detect violent impulses in a person or protect him (rarely her), and others.

“How was he radicalized?” is a question largely for those whose lives intersected with that of the attacker. Bloomberg Trillanes is known for.

The opposition clearly has more eloquent champions than the two-time coup plotter who, when at a loss for a reply, has been known to walk out of the hall or to turn off someone else’s microphone. It’s the BBC, for crying out loud; you don’t send a third-string defender to do battle with LeBron James.

I expect Trillanes to keep trying to redeem himself after his meltdown by making even more and more outlandish accusations against Duterte. But I also think even his colleagues in the opposition will be snickering as he tries to salve his wounded pride by becoming more and more bitterly opposed to the president.

But it’s like that time when Trillanes was humiliatingly pulled out of the Peninsula Hotel by his waistband. Try as he might, Trillanes will never make us forget his spectacular debacles.

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

A5

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Qatar BACK CHANNEL ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO SADLY, many Filipinos’ knowledge of another country is mostly culled from stories we hear from our workers deployed there. The significance of the diplomatic rift that ruptured relations between Qatar on one hand and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on the other only came to light because we have an estimated 300,000 workers there.

The displacement of our OFWs is always the first and foremost concern of our Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Labor. Ambassador Ali Ibrahim Al Malki was asked if the DoLE and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello informed the concerned Qatari authorities about the suspension of OFW deployment.

Ever the quintessential diplomat, the ambassador merely replied “no we were not.” He knows the cardinal rule in diplomacy is never to offend the host country where an ambassador is assigned.

This is an instance wherein the host country is remiss in elementary courtesy in its bilateral relations. In an aside, I told the ambassador that this is the new

normal of how this administration does things here. He merely smiled at my remark even as I added that certain Cabinet officials were fired on the spot and sometimes they only learned about their dismissal in the next day’s newspapers.

But for the occasional squawking from a caged parrot in the ante room, the media group had a most pleasant evening with their host. Ambassador Al Malki, after all, was graceful in that he had invited us to his home. Arab ambassadors are usually reticent and not keen on inviting total strangers into their home unless he or they are hosting a national day event in their residences. That he hosted a dinner-briefing for journalists speaks volumes about how highly he regards the Philippines and its people.

Filipinos actually are the ones who should be grateful to Qatar for hiring 300,000 OFWs who would otherwise be unemployed in their own country. Many of the Filipinos in Qatar are not the usual stereotype domestics or caregivers. Many are skilled in the engineering, accounting and medical services field. Qatar benefits as well from the Filipino workers deployed in the Gulf state.

Going back to the issue at hand on why four Arab countries cut diplomatic relations with another Arab state, the ambassador

said it is something really hard to understand. Allegations of Qatar support for terrorist groups were not provided by Saudi Arabia nor the UAE. The ambassador assured that Qatar will endure any long term diplomatic and economic boycott.

“Qatar will survive. We are a strong country and our people are resilient.” he said as he belied stories of empty food shelves in Doha’s supermarkets and false news reports of Qatar’s isolation due to its airlines being banned from flying into Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt. As everyone, knows Qatar Airways makes enough money just flying its three-times-a-day flights from Manila and Clark Airbase in Pampanga to Doha carrying our OFWs to their work places in the Middle East.

After dinner over the piece de resistance of roast leg of lamb, it was the ambassador’s turn to ask us over sweet tea and coffee questions about Marawi and the Mautes. Why Marawi, and why are government troops taking long in its clearing operations?

It was a situation when even the locals do not have ready answers.

However at home later I wanted to kick myself for not offering a plausible answer. I had initially said the ISIS -backed Mautes were using Marawi’s mosques as bomb shelter from government air strikes. Our planes were hesitant to bomb places of worship even

if the Maute marauders were seen on video desecrating Christian churches and the images of saints inside.

Since the government troops discovered a stash of money and drugs in captured Maute houses, I now favor extrajudicial killings of these lawless terrorists. The toll in human suffering—civilians killed, families displaced and separated—can never be quantified. The ones who suffered most are the children who have to stop schooling because of the fighting. Young boys age nine to 15 are conscripted by the Mautes to bear arms to fight government troops. This is against the United Nations convention prohibiting the use of child warriors. The Mautes and their IS backers have no regard or respect for international laws.

Marawi was chosen because it is the center of culture and has a vibrant economy. The Mindanao State University is in Marawi and the economic elite make Marawi the perfect IS target to create the most impact and international headlines.

With ISIS on the run from the US-led coalition, this brutal band seeks to create a new theater of war in Asia and divert US attention to them in their traditional killing grounds in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

What better place or target than the only Christian country in Asia?

The world’s biggest business VIRTUAL REALITY TONY LOPEZ THE world’s biggest business is not firearms, not drugs, not oil. Neither is it manufacturing. It is travel and tourism.

Tourism contributed $7.6 trillion to the global economy (10.2 percent of global GDP) and generated 292 million jobs (one in 10 jobs on the planet) in 2016.

According to the World Economic Forum, for the sixth consecutive year, tourism growth outperformed that of the global economy, showcasing the industry’s resilience in the face of global geopolitical uncertainty and economic volatility.

Left out from this nearly $8-trillion business yearly and massive employment generation binge is the Philippines.

Among the major countries of the Asean (The Asean Big Five which includes the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore), the Philippines has consistently performed the worst—in global rankings as a competitive tourist destination, in tourism arrivals, in tourism income, in tourism job generation, and in tourism infrastructure.

Our tourism management is also one of the worst. Proof: First, we keep copying the tourism advertising of other countries like Poland in 2010, Switzerland in 2012, and South Africa and Quebec, Canada just this year. Yet, each time, the branding fails as soon as it is launched. And the tourists do not show up. Second, the Philippines consistently fails to hit its tourism arrival targets. The target was 6 million in 2016.

Actual: 5.9 million. We should

Francis...

From A4 ciful as the father. In fact, nowhere does Francis give blanket approval for communion to those in “difficult situations.”

He rather asks pastors, in the exercise of priestly prudence but suffused with Christ’s charity, to discern carefully with the “wounded” Catholic whether or not, in his or her conscience, there has come about a separation from God and from Christ’s Body, the Church.

Nikolai Berdyaev, a frequently read Russian theologian, argued against a perpetual hell because, he argues, it is incon-

be doing 10 million arrivals annually by now. We are getting only 60 percent of that.

Why aim for 10 million? We have a population of 105 million, more than enough warm bodies to welcome 10 million visitors. The ratio is three people for each visitor. We speak the language of tourism and the internet, English. We have among the world’s most beautiful beaches (better than those in Thailand, the No. 1 in tourism in Asean) and natural wonders like the Banaue Rice Terraces, Mayon Volcano with its perfect cone, Tagaytay with its lake within a lake and volcano within a volcano. We have Manila which is 446 years old which became a Spanish enclave in 1571 and a Muslim hub centuries before that. It also is home to the world’s largest Chinatown.

We have 7,107 islands. Our biodiversity is the second richest in the world. Our culture blends the best from the East and and from the West (We have 500 years of Christianity). This also makes our cuisine unique but with universal appeal.

In 2015, the latest year for which complete comparative data is available, the Philippines had only 5.361 million arrivals, last among the Asean Big Five and next to the last among the Asean 9 (not counting Brunei).

In 2015, the Philippines had only 5.36 million tourists, No. 6, behind No. 1 Thailand 29.88 million; No. 2 Malaysia 25.72 million; No. 3 Singapore 15.23 million; No. 4 Indonesia 10.40 million; No. 5 Vietnam 7.94 million; and No. 7 Cambodia 4.77 million.

In 2011, the comparative rankings were: 1. Malaysia 24.71 million; 2. Thailand 19.09 million; 3. Singapore

13.17 million; 4. Indonesia 7.65 million; 5. Vietnam 6.01 million; 6. Philippines 3.91 million; 7. Cambodia 2.88 million; 8. Laos 2.72 million; 9. Myanmar 816,000; and 10. Brunei 242,000.

Thailand, No. 2 in 2011, overtook Malaysia to become No. 1 in 2015. Already poorly performing, the Philippines slid one rung to No. 7. Between 2011 and 2015, Thailand’s visitor arrivals increased by a whopping 10.78 million people or 56.46 percent or by an average of 2.7 million tourists a year or 14.11 percent per year.

In the same four-year period (2011-2015), arrivals in the Philippines rose by just 1.464 million tourists or 37.37 percent, an average rise per year of 366,000 or 9.33 percent. This number—366,000, Thailand generates every six weeks. It takes the Philippines one year to generate it. What a shame.

Who or what is to blame then? Four factors: 1. President BS Aquino’s rift with China; 2.

Peace and order; 3. Poor tourism infrastructure; 4. Simple mismanagement of the tourism program. Three times in the past seven years, the Philippines was found to have copied the tourism advertising programs of four other countries.

On August 2010, during BS Aquino’s first year as president, eight Chinese tourists died in a hostage-taking incident in Manila. Aquino visited the site of the tragedy apparently smiling, or at least with a smirk. He refused to apologize to the families of the victims.

In succeeding years, he carried on a quarrel with China on territorial claims in the South China Sea. So the Chinese stopped coming to Manila.

Six of every 100 visitors to Asia are Chinese. Some 55 mil-

lion Chinese visited the Asia Pacific last year.

On the security front, the Philippines has the world’s longest-running communist insurgency, the world’s longest-running Muslim separatist movement, and according to President Duterte himself, some four million drug addicts.

On May 23, 2017, Duterte declared martial law on the Philippines’ second largest island, Mindanao which has 20 percent of the total population. Officials announced that ISIS–Islamic State of Iraq and Syria—is trying to establish a caliphate or an IS province in Marawi City, the Philippines’ premier Muslim city.

More than 300 have died after nearly a month of deadly skirmishes between government troops and socalled Muslim “rebels” trying to establish a caliphate in Mindanao.

Seven countries, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, have travel advisories to their citizens against visiting parts or the whole the Philippine archipelago.

As for tourism infrastructure, among the Asean Big Five, the Philippines has the worst—in global ranking, in business environment, in safety and security, in health and hygiene, in human resource and labor market, and in ICT readiness, according to the World Economic Forum survey of 136 countries for 2017.

In airports and ground and port infra, the Philippines has the lowest ranking among the Asean Five. We do not have adequate and enough airports and enough hotel rooms to host 10 million guests a year.

So we miss cashing in on the world’s biggest business.

ceivable that God’s love should ever fail. Amor semper vincit.. love always conquers. Pope Francis of course does not deny the reality of hell. In fact, he has been rather traditional, conservative in fact, in talking about the Devil. But he is as certain about the mercy of God, and that, for him, was the most important thing that Jesus came to teach the world. Laws will keep us from clawing and tearing each other. But love and mercy alone will allow us to do truly great things and scale formidable heights in our evolution as human persons.

It is not a storm to be feared that Francis has whipped up.

There is a storm only because

some, in the Church, who should know better, rate canon law a more precious commodity than mercy. That, of course, is not new. To the pious Jews and rabbinic lawyers of the time, Jesus was in fragrant violation of the law many times—but what laws they were! Minutiae of conduct and quitting about what was and was not work on the Sabbath—these were the concerns of the law of the time, and these, Jesus did not consider good reason to do good on the Sabbath even if it appeared that he was breaking the law.

Francis is not even going the far. He is asking the Catholic in dire moral straits to seek refuge in conscience—and urging

pastors to accompany them in this labor of soul-searching. It is a storm that should should blow decaying branches off and allow fresh buds to sprout.

It is easier to put on the pretensions of righteousness by choosing the company only of the righteous and to maintain a code of inflexible conduct. Compassion and mercy—these, however, have taken greatness because they are the very attributes of God himself—and we are so unlike God, no matter the purple and crimson we wear!

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Overseas applicants warned anew

By Vito Barcelo

T

HE Department of Labor and Employment warned anew overseas Filipino jobseekers against illegal recruiters and advised them to verify the status, license, and the legitimacy of placement agencies before applying for overseas employment.

“This is to prevent mi- victimized by illegal recruitgrant workers from being ment and human trafficking,”

DoLE said.

In a statement, the DoLE enumerated various ways in checking the legitimacy of a recruitment agency before pursuing a job application.

“Log in the website of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration [POEA]. Then check all the status of licensed recruitment agencies listed at http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgibin/agList.asp?mode=all. Job seekers can fill-in the name

of the agency and choose the category of the recruitment agency whether land-based or manning agency,” the Labor department said.

OFWs are also urged to call POEA to check the legitimacy of the jobs being offered and the license status of their recruitment agencies.

The POEA has released a public advisory which warns OFWs and job hunters who plan to seek employment

abroad to avoid accepting job offers coming from Chuuk State Hospital in the Federated States of Micronesia.

POEA officer-in-charge Aristodes R. Ruaro said Chuuk State Hospital was ordered to cease recruiting Filipino workers following reports of maltreatment, contract violations, harassment, discrimination and abuse to their Filipino migrant workers.

The Philippine Consulate

in Agana, Guam said that the Micronesian government has made no effort to improve the working conditions and failed to assist Filipino workers in receiving timely and proper salaries and benefits from their employers.

It was also discovered that the said hospital was reported to have been recruiting health workers from the Philippines without the proper approval from POEA.

Ombudsman indicts ex-mayor

By Rio N. Araja THE Office of the Ombudsman indicted on Thursday an ex-mayor of Negros Oriental for failure to liquidate cash advances granted to him for his travel and field operations expenses.

Ombudsman Conchita CarpioMorales found probable cause to indict former Tayasan mayor Anthony Isidro Bayawa for three counts of failure to account for his travel expenses, which is punishable under Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code.

Records showed that Bayawa incurred non-liquidated cash advances of P371,908.63 from 2002 to 2008.

“Records is bereft of evidence showing that respondent submitted his local travel liquidation documents such as certificate of travels, plane or boat tickets, hotel room and lodging bills, certificate of appearance and others, within 30 days after his return to his official station. There is likewise no proof that he was able to submit documents in support for the liquidation of the cash advances for the procurement of accessories for donated vehicles, payment for the freight and handling of the donated vehicles as well as for the expenses during the Pasalamat 2007 festival which should have been submitted to the accountant

within 20 days after the end of the year,” the resolution read.

Meanwhile, the Ombudsman also convicted Pilar Mayor Lucio Gonzales of Surigao del Norte for demoting an employee in May 2007.

The Sandiganbayan sentenced Gonzales to suffer imprisonment of six to 10 years for graft.

Gonzales was also perpetually disqualified from holding public office.

The Ombudsman said Gonzales committed graft when he removed Victor Literato as municipal agriculturist.

According to prosecutors, the mayor subsequently issued office orders initially appointing Anecita Penera, then Alex Literato as officers in charge of the municipal agricultural office.

Gonzales claimed Victor’s removal was due to the latter’s sub-par performance.

“Even granting for the sake of argument that Victor Literato’s performance was less than desirable, still, the Court cannot countenance the position taken by the accused… as the Court finds the accused’s designation of Penera and Alex Literato was not only patently illegal, but was also committed with manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence,” the decision read.

PRSP AGAINST FAKE NEWS. Philippine National Police Spokesperson General Diosdado Carlos was the guest speaker of this year’s first General Membership Meeting of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines. He was joined by the society’s past presidents, Charlie Agatep, Bong Osorio, Butch Raquel, Elpi Cuna, and Jones Campos, together with incumbent president Jika Dalupan. Today, June 23, PRSP will hold its second GMM featuring Inquirer’s John Nery (inset) who will talk about ‘Fake News.’ The session will be held at Palm Grove, Amorsolo Tower, Rockwell Drive, Makati City. Call 7514506 to register.

American MMDA resumes declogging of ‘esteros’ in NCR fugitive

By Joel E. Zurbano arrested AN AMERICAN fugitive wanted by US federal authorities for raping a child in Virginia, USA was nabbed by immigration agents in Manila.

The suspect, Teodoro Lumaban Jr., was cornered near the US Embassy along Roxas Blvd. in Manila by operatives from the bureau’s fugitive search unit.

Lumaban was about to renew his US passport at the embassy when he was accosted by arresting agents who were armed with a warrant of deportation.

“I issued the warrant pursuant to a summary deportation order that the BI board of commissioners issued against him for being an undocumented and undesirable alien,” BI chief Jaime Morente said.

He said the American’s passport was already canceled by the US government and that he was ordered expelled for posing risk to public safety and security due to his being a fugitive from justice.

“Lumaban had been hiding in the country for more than three years and that he had an appointment with the US Embassy to renew his passport when he was arrested,” Bobby Raquepo, BI-FSU acting head, said.

Raquepo said the fugitive was unaware that his passport was canceled and that the US Embassy, which sought his arrest, had already informed the BI-FSU about his scheduled appointment.

Lumaban is now detained at the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig.

He has an outstanding arrest warrant issued by a US district court in Virginia where he was charged with sexually assaulting a minor.

Lumaban’s name had been placed in the BI blacklist and US. Vito Barcelo

THE Metro Manila Development Authority has resumed its cleanup operation of all clogged creeks and open waterways in line with its anti-flood measure in the National Capital Region.

The latest operation was conducted by the MMDA Flood Control and Sewerage Management Service team Thursday morning along Jose P. Rizal Extension in Barangay Comembo, Makati City and along Kanduli Street in Barangay Poblacion in Pateros.

MMDA records showed that at least 800 truckloads or about 6,000 cubic meters of garbage and silt from several waterways in Metro Manila were collected during the first half of the year.

The cleanup is being undertaken

by MMDA personnel under the Estero Blitz program, a yearly flood mitigation project in preparation for the rainy season.

Motorists and commuters experienced traffic on Wednesday after some parts of Metro Manila were hit by flash floods because of heavy rainfall.

The MMDA also reported that half-tire deep floods prevented motorists from passing along the three eastbound lanes of Commonwealth Avenue near Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City.

Gutter-deep floods also caused the slow moving traffic in Commonwealth Avenue-Villa Beatriz in Quezon City affecting four westbound lanes of the road. The same situation was also experienced at

the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Tandang Sora Street.

Light vehicles were also prevented from passing along the southbound lane of Katipunan-Aurora Boulevard, also in Quezon City because of above gutter deep.

To date, MMDA has cleaned and cleared eight waterways—Estero de Galina in Manila, Makati and Pasay; Libertad retarding pond in Pasay; Estero de San Miguel, Estero de Quiapo, Estero de Magdalena, Estero de Maypajo, and Estero dela Reina, all in Manila; and Lapu-lapu/spine open canal in Malabon and Navotas.

The agency is also expected to clear major waterways in Caloocan, Valenzuela, Quezon City, Pasig, Marikina, Taguig, Pateros, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Las Piñas, Muntin-

lupa and Parañaque in the following months until October.

Among those scheduled for declogging and clearing from June to October will be Pasong Malapad Creek, Lagoon (tributary of Pasong Malapad Creek), Veinte Reales Creek, Walingwaling Creek (tributary creek of San Juan River), Tanque Creek, Villa Verde and Sta. Lucia Creeks, (tributaries of Tullahan River), Pinagkatdan Creek, Sto. Rosario—Silangan River, Maytunas Creek, Ermitano Creek, Estero Tripa de Gallina- Buendia Outfall, Sto. Nino Creek, Dahlig Creek, Pasong Diablo River, and the Coastal Open Canal.

MMDA general manager Thomas Orbos said the Estero Blitz project aims to curb massive flooding in Metro Manila as

agency personnel are busy all-year round to make sure that massive flooding will be mitigated during the onset of the rainy season.

“As early as March, we have been working to ensure that the various waterways and esteros as well as sewers in Metro Manila are garbage-free to allow the continuous flow of water during heavy downpour,” Orbos said.

Orbos also said that the responsibility of maintaining the waterways lies with the local government units especially the respective barangays.

The MMDA men cleaned up the creeks armed with heavy equipment, such as crane, dump trucks and spider backhoe. Some of them had to use small boats or bancas to fish out the floating debris and refuse from the waterways.

’Cracker EO to limit injuries, says Health

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

ART AND TRADE. Vendor sells paintings for P2,500 apiece along Rajah Sulayman Street in Malate district in Manila. Lino Santos

HEALTH Secretary Paulyn Jean RosellUbial said she expects fewer fireworksrelated incidents for succeeding New Year’s Day revelries following President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to limit the use of firecrackers on selected areas.

With Executive Order No. 28 in place, Ubial said they are hoping for lesser revelry-related injuries although the number of cases dropped by 30 percent in 2016 compared to the previous year (2015).

“What we’re saying, we will try to have fireworks display in a community or regulated areas. But there will be no [firecrackers] for individual household use,” said Ubial, adding that they are yet to finish the draft of EO 28’s Implementing Rules and Regulations.

In the Senate, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said it behooves Congress to enact legislation limiting and regulating the use of pyrotechnic devices and banning the manufacturing and sale of dangerous firecrackers after President Duterte issued an order on its nationwide ban.

“It’s time for Congress to adopt a similar measure. I hope that the leadership of Congress will include it in the priority

agenda when we resume session in July,” he said.

According to Drilon, the President's order would be “a big boost in the Department of Health’s) antifirecrackers drive particularly during the New Year celebration to prevent deaths and injuries.”

Citing a DoH report, he noted that the country has about 1,000 firecracker-related injuries per year, with an estimated P10 million in health cost.

“But what is more aggravating is the fact that more than half of the victims were children,” he added.

“I fully support the issuance of the executive order that limits the use of firecrackers in the country. It is a laudable measure,” said Drilon. “I’m glad that it will be implemented nationwide,” he added.

He said that a similar policy has been implemented in some parts of the country including the President’s hometown when he was still mayor of Davao City, and “it’s been proven effective.”

Meanwhile, the Health chief also called on members of the firecracker industry who will be affected by the enforcement of EO 28 to instead engage in a differrent business.

Sports Lagarde targets 2 titles at PPS Digos net meet GENERAL Santos City ace Klyde Lagarde hopes to live up to the hype as he banners the cast in the Palawan PawnshopPalawan Express Pera Padala Digos leg regional age group tennis tournament, which got under way in Davao del Sur yesterday.

But Lagarde, one of the 10 recipients of the Macs Crankit Tennis Academy scholarship in Australia, faces a formidable set of challengers in both the boys’ 16- and 18-and-under divisions where he is the top seed and a host of talented players raring to foil his bid.

They include No. 2 Ramon Bentillo, Duke Silva, Jyle Cyrin Martinez and Ronnel Aboy in the 16-U side with Bruce Hurtado joining the hunt in the premier division of the Group 2 tournament sponsored by Palawan Pawnshop and presented by Slazenger.

April Minette Bentillo, also a member of the Aussie-bound group, gains the top seeding in the 14-U category with Angelica Novis, Jilian Manangking and Jasmen Kadalum out to foil her bid while a toss-up among Tenielle Madis, “While the Aussie-bound players are out to impose their will, we expect others to step up,” said Palawan Pawnshop president/CEO Bobby Castro.

“The circuit has produced a number of new stars and we believe a lot of talents remain untapped, especially in the provinces.”

Close to 200 entries are clashing for top honors and ranking points in the five-day tournament with Danna Abad and Jazzelle Madis tipped to dispute the 16- and 18-U titles in the girls’ side of the event backed by Asiatraders Corp. and the Unified Tennis Group, led by PPS-PEPP, Cebuana Lhuillier, Wilson, Toby’s and B-Meg. Keen competition is also expected in the boys’ 14-U division with Cedric Pamplona, Karl Palo, Andre Sing and Andrei Padao claiming the top 4 ranking with Pamplona, Sing and Padao also vying in the 12-U side top-billed by Reyman Saldivar Jr. Tenielle Madis also looms as the player to beat in the 10-unisex side, which also drew Joji Taketomi, Raicy Bentillo and Sawn Globasa, according to PPS-PEPP sports program development director Bobby Mangunay. For details, call 0915-4046464.

A7

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Referee slammed in ring death of Aussie at hands of PH boxer

S

YDNEY—The ringside doctor at a fight where an Australian boxer died should have intervened when he showed signs of concussion, a Sydney coroner found Thursday, while also criticising the referee for not stopping the bout.

Davey Browne Jr died in hospital from a brain injury four days after he was knocked out 30 seconds from the end of the super featherweight 12-round contest against Carlo Magali of the Philippines in Sydney in September 2015.

Deputy New South Wales

state coroner, magistrate Teresa O’Sullivan, said the 28-year-old father-of-two’s death was “preventable”.

“The seriousness of his condition at the end of round 11 was recognised by a number of witnesses present at the time, albeit with the benefit of hindsight,”

she said in her findings.

“Action could have been taken to examine Davey and stop the fight prior to the point when it ended in the 12th round.”

O’Sullivan criticised attending physician Lawrence Noonan, who said he did not act because the referee had not stopped the fight, and recommended that a ringside doctor’s obligations to intervene should be strengthened.

She described Noonan’s approach as a “manifestly inadequate method to assess whether Davey had sustained or recovered from concussion and

whether he was fit to continue”, and also censured referee Charlie Lucas.

“Mr Lucas’s failure to recognise the seriousness of Davey’s condition serves to emphasise the need for an examination by a ringside doctor who is trained to detect concussion, to properly assess a fighter’s fitness to continue,” she said.

She called for more comprehensive state regulations, noting it was a “striking feature of the evidence that many witnesses did not know which rules applied to this contest, and had a flawed understanding of the rules”.

Pagente tops Head tennis tilt GENNIFER Pagente dominated the final and 12th leg of the 19th HEAD Junior Tennis Satellite Circuit recently by winning two titles, while Marrielle Jarata copped the 10-and-under Unisex crown at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center in Manila.

The No. 1 Pagente blasted Kryshana Brazal, 6-1, 6-2, to capture the girls’ 16-and-under singles’ diadem. She even sustained her best effort in the girls’ 18-andunder singles’ finale, crushing Patricia Lim, 6-4, 6-3, for her backto-back crown.

Jarata, on the other hand, beat Kidlat Estogero, 4-2, 4-5, 4-2, for the unisex crown of the last leg of the tournament participated by 300 players all over the country.

The tournament is supported

by Chris Sports, the nationwide sports retail chain, Toalson strings, UBE Express, the Premium Airport Bus Service, media partners People’s Television, Aksyon Sports, Business Mirror, Philippine Locale, Cook, Health and Fitness, Pilipino Mirror and Philippines Graphics.

Tony Lascuña threatens to blast the opposition

Lascuña grabs 1-stroke lead in ICTSI golf ANTIPOLO—Tony Lascuña birdied No. 9 for the second straight day for a four-under 67 then pounced on Ferdie Aunzo’s late miscues to grab a one-stroke lead halfway through the P3 million ICTSI Forest Hills Championship at the Forest Hills Golf and Country Club here yesterday.

Aunzo looked headed to seizing the second day honors with an eaglespiked seven-under card in another ideal condition at the par-71 Nicklaus course. But the former national champion seeking an end a long title drought bogeyed two of the last three holes and blew the lead with a 66.

That enabled the reigning Or-

der of Merit titlist to take charge at seven-under 135 as erstwhile leader Arnold Villacencio failed to match his hot birdie-laden 65 start with a bogey-riddled 74 despite the absence of the dreaded wind at the hilly layout.

“I just played my usual game,” said the 46-year-old Lascuña, one of the winningest players on the circuit. He added that he has nothing more to prove although he moved 36 holes away from nailing a follow-up to his one-shot win over Jay Bayron at Manila Masters at Eastridge last April and snapping a string of runner-up finishes at least in the last four legs of

the tour sponsored by ICTSI. “I’m not getting any younger and easily get tired unlike before,” added Lascuña, who birdied four of the first 11 holes from the back then holed out with that six-footer to negate his second straight bogey on the difficult par-4 No. 5.

While Lascuña savored his big finish, Aunzo rued his bogey-parbogey windup that ruined what had been a remarkable start for a player who last won way back in 2009.

He birdied two of the first three holes, dropped a shot on the fourth but rolled in an eagle-putt from 20 feet off a solid rescue shot from 230 yards. He kept his charge

with birdies in the next two and after a routine par on the ninth, he gunned down another pair to launch his backside bid.

But just when he thought he had the course in check and the field in control, Aunzo wavered at the finish, missing the par-5 16th green and the last for bogeys.

That also allowed a slew of others to close in and get a crack at the top P550,000 heading to the final 36 holes of the event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. with recent Calatagan leg winner Zanieboy Gialon also shooting a 67 to join rookie Ira Alido, who matched par 71, at fourth at 138.

Poomsae tilt lures 1,500 jins AROUND 1,500 athletes from various taekwondo chapters nationwide are expected to compete in the 2017 PLDT Home Ultera/MVP Sports Foundation National Poomsae Championships on June 25 at the Makati Coliseum.

Poomsae (forms) participants display skills in attack and defense techniques against imaginary opponents. Poomsae is a way of understanding and practicing breath control,

balance, coordination and concentration as one strives for perfection.

Entries from regions like ARMM, CAR, CARAGA and NCR and chapters such as Central Gymnasium, Powerflex, Ateneo, San Sebastian College, University of the Philippines, San Beda College, De La Salle Zobel, De La Salle University, Team Baguio, Pangasinan, Cebu, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, PNP and AFP, among others, will

vie in four events—individual colored belts and blackbelt, freestyle and synchronized poomsae.

The tournament is sponsored by Smart Communications Inc., MILO, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee and Meralco Foundation.

Martial arts enthusiasts and sports aficionados, especially children who are interested in the sport, are invited to watch the event starting at 9 a.m.

Rinna Babanto (left) and Dustin Jacob Mella, shown during their performance in the Asian Taekwondo Poomsae Championships, are expected to vie for honors in Sunday’s tournament.

Marikina subdues Ilocos United, gains ground on Manila JPV Marikina relied on a couple of early goals and subdued Ilocos United, 2-1, last Wednesday night to gain ground on leader Meralco Manila which dropped points for the first time in the inaugural season of the Philippines Football League.

Japanese striker Takumi Uesato scored his sixth goal of the season to lead an early barrage from the Marikina side at Quirino Stadium in Vigan, where Ilocos suffered a fifth

Regulations around boxing differ across state lines in Australia.

Browne’s widow Amy Lavelle said outside the court she was hopeful the findings would prevent future incidents.

“I guess it just provides a bit of satisfaction and pleasure to gain acknowledgement about what happened,” the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported her as saying.

“He was a very gentle person. He was just a fighter in the ring, it was a sport for him. He was very skilled at it and he had many titles.” AFP

straight defeat.

Getting a rare start, Alen Angeles opened the scoring in the fourth minute for JPV, which now has 15 points, just a point off Meralco, after the Sparks were held to a 2-2 draw by the Davao Aguilas at Davao del Norte Sports Complex in Tagum City.

Chima Uzoka pulled a goal back for coach Ian Gillan’s men at the half-hour mark, but Marikina hung tough to secure

MATCHES SATURDAY (Rizal Memorial Stadium) 4 p.m. - Meralco Manila vs Stallion Laguna (Panaad Stadium) 7 p.m. - Ceres Negros vs Kaya Makati

a fourth straight win.

The Sparks blew a two-goal advantage that they established in the first 11 minutes as Milos Krstic and Dylan De Bruycker cancelled out earlier strikes from Tahj Minniecon and Phil Younghusband to set the stage

for a thrilling finish.

Minniecon scored the quickest goal in league history as he pounced on a loose ball in the box and half-volleyed past Davao goalie Marko Trkulja in the second minute, before Younghusband doubled the lead 10 minutes later with a precise strike from just inside the box.

But the Aguilas, egged on by close to 4,000 fans, fought back with Krstic directing a free kick past Manila keeper

Ace Villanueva midway in the first half. A quick counter attack in the 73rd minute saw De Bruycker finish past Villanueva after a lovely return ball from Levi Gilmar Fernandez.

“Davao played well in the second half and were able to sustain their momentum until the end,” said Sparks coach Aris Caslib.

Davao coach Gary Phillips expressed delight over his side’s performance. ”We will take this as a win,” said Philipps.

Big guns seek to rebound HARTFORD—Rory McIlroy will be making just his third start since the Masters as the Northern Irishman tries to kick start his game this week at the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship.

Less than a week after the finish of the 2017 US Open a star-studded field will tee it up at the TPC River Highlands course, 16 kilometres (10 miles) south of Hartford, Connecticut.

The world number three has dropped to 69th in the FedEx Cup standings, with poor form and a nagging rib injury which has limited him to just seven starts. He also got married to PGA of America employee Erica Stoll.

“I always felt 2017 was going to be a bit of a transitional year,” said McIlroy, who missed the cut at the US Open. “With, obviously, Nike going out of the golf equipment business and getting married, moving and changing residences, and all that sort of stuff. I didn’t factor an injury into that as well.”

This is McIlroy’s first appearance at the $6.8 million Travelers. He said the course suits him and he is confident he can contend, beginning Thursday when he tees off with Jim Furyk and Brian Harman.

“The golf course is great—I can see why Jim Furyk hit 58 last year and why guys can go low,” McIlroy said. “If you’re on with your scoring clubs, it gives you a lot of opportunities.” AFP

LOTTO RESULTS

6/49 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 6/42 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0.0 M+ 6 DIGITS 00-00-00-00-00-00 3 DIGITS 00-00-00 2 EZ2 00-00

Sports

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

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FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

Becker shocked by court ruling LONDON, United Kingdom—Former German tennis star Boris Becker said he was “surprised and disappointed” after being declared bankrupt by a court in London on Wednesday for failing to pay a “substantial” long-standing debt.

Lawyers for the three-time former Wimbledon champion pleaded with a Bankruptcy Court registrar to allow Becker a “last chance” to pay off the debt which dates back to 2015.

But Registrar Christine Derrett, who recalled watching Becker play on Centre Court, ruled there was a lack of credible evidence the outstanding payment would be forthcoming and refused to adjourn the case.

“Surprised and disappointed that Arbuthnot Latham chose to bring these proceedings against me,” Becker, 49, wrote on Twitter, referring to the bankruptcy application made by private bankers Arbuthnot Latham & Co in connection with a judgment debt owed to them by the sixtime major winner.

“This order relates to 1 disputed loan which I was due to repay in full in one month time! It is disappointing that my request for today’s hearing to be postponed was refused,” said Becker.

“My earnings are well publicized and it was a clear that I have the means to repay this debt.”

The German’s lawyers had argued there was sufficient evidence to show that he would be able to pay the debt soon through a refinancing arrangement, involving remortgaging a property in Mallorca, which was expected to raise six million euros ($6.7 million).

His advocate told the registrar his instructions from Becker were that it was expected the deal would be approved by a Spanish bank in approximately one month.

Becker’s lawyer said his client was not likely to benefit from bankruptcy and it could have an adverse effect on his “image”.

But the judge responded: “He should have thought about that a long time ago.”

She added: “It is not often the case that a professional person has a judgment (debt) outstanding against them since October 2015. This is a historic debt.

“One has the impression of a man with his head in the sand.” AFP

NCAA calendars 3x3 hoop THE sport of 3x3 basketball will be added to the calendar of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

NCAA Management Committee chair Fr. Glyn Ortega, OAR, of season 93 host San Sebastian College said they plan to have this in the second half of the school year.

“It will be in the second semester calendar,” said Ortega.

The inclusion of the event comes three weeks after the International Olympic Committee Executive Board on Friday announced 3x3 basketball will be in its own calendar.

They have plans to include 64 athletes for 3x3 as part of the Olympic Basketball program starting with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

With the decision, 3x3 becomes the first-ever new Youth Olympic Games discipline to be included in the Olympic program.

The leagues gets ready for the start of the Games this July with plans to bring the games straight to the students.

The NCAA holds its first school games with a juniors and a seniors game between Season 93 host San Sebastian and Arellano U on July 13 at the Arellano U Gym in Legarda, Manila.

Ortega, OAR said this will be part of the “NCAA on Tour” that will be held every Thursday.

The next games will be Mapua Gym on July 20, then at San Sebastian-Cavite on July 27, Letran Gym on Aug. 3, Emilio Aguinaldo Gym on Aug. 10 and Perpetual Help Gym on Aug. 17. Peter Atencio

TNT KaTropa point guard Jayson Castro (17) glides to the hoop in traffic during the TNT game against the San Miguel Beermen.

TNT KaTropa targets 2-0 lead over Beermen

By Jeric Lopez

T

NT KaTropa is in a good position to hold a huge advantage over the Grand Slam-seeking Beermen.

The Tropang Texters are eyeing a commanding 2-0 lead over San Miguel Beer in the continuation of their best-of-seven titular tilt in the finals of the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup. In the driver’s seat with a 1-0 advantage, TNT KaTropa aims on taking another step towards the title as it looks to repeat over

the Beermen in Game 2 tonight at 7 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Game 1 was a titanic clash as both protagonists had their moments. The Tropang Texters emerged victorious thanks to their difference-making import Joshua Smith, who lifted his team to victory despite playing on one good foot.

With the game on the line and ball in hand, Smith, after the initial play failed to materialize, took it upon himself to sink the game-winning jump hook to lift TNT KaTropa to a hard fought 104-102 escape over San Miguel. TNT holds a 1-0 series lead.

Smith is playing hurt and is reported to be just around 60 percent. His impact in the middle is still making a big difference for TNT KaTropa.

It is now up to the Beermen to adjust to give themselves a chance of tying the series.

Hotshot rookie Roger Pogoy

also shone. He had a career night in his finals debut, scoring a game-high 27 points to lead the Tropang Texters.

San Miguel actually started well in Game 1, holding several seven-point leads, banking on 21 first quarter points by Charles Rhodes.

But foul trouble slowed their big men as the Beermen and eventually allowed the Tropang Texters to take control of the match.

San Miguel beer is hoping to add a second PBA conference crown this season and move closer to a second Grand Slam

after winning the 2017 PBA Philippine Cup. The Beermen are the most successful team in the history of the PBA and are the only remaining original franchise in the league. They lead the league with the most titles with 23 and the most all-time games won with more than 1,200 victories.

The Beermen won their first Grand Slam in 1989 and now own the Perpetual Jun Bernardino Trophy after winning three consecutive PBA Philippine Cup titles from 2015 to 2017.

Yabo eyes spectacular win at ONE: Light of a Nation

Jimmy Yabo (right) unloads a roundhouse kick against opponent Benedict Ang during their match at ONE: Ascent to Power. ONE Championship

FILIPINO fighter Jimmy Yabo guns for a spectacular finish at ONE: Light of a Nation.

After falling short in two of his ONE Championship outings last year Yabo seeks to start his 2017 campaign on a high note as he is set to take on an outstanding grappling prodigy.

Yabo will test the mettle of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Bruno Pucci on the undercard of ONE: LIGHT OF A NATION, which takes place at the Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar on 30 June.

The 36-year-old native of Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu dropped two-straight matches inside the ONE Championship cage in 2016. He lost to Singaporean sensation Benedict Ang via thirdround stoppage in May be-

fore suffering the same fate at the hands of China’s Ma Jia Wen three months later.

Itching to enter the winner’s column once again, Yabo eyes a huge victory over Pucci in his fifth assignment as a ONE Championship competitor.

“It’s tough because my back is against the wall. But I’m optimistic as fight day approaches,” he said. “I am looking to make a statement.

It’s my first fight in ONE Championship this year. A big win will spark a strong momentum in my journey in this great organization.”

Yabo is no stranger to highlight-reel performances as he boasts one of the best finishing percentages in ONE Championship’s featherweight division, having thwarted five of his opponents by way of knockout.

Although Yabo has experienced highs and lows throughout his nearly decade-long career, the rededicated veteran is looking to add another win to his slate.

According to Yabo, he aims to replicate his spectacular win over Pakistan’s Bashir Ahmad.

Yabo, a proud product of the local mixed arts martial scene in the Philippines, picked up his first win under the ONE Championship umbrella in February 2016 by knocking out Ahmad in just 21 seconds with a counter right cross.

“One punch or one takedown can change a fight. I have to be the clear winner.

I am prepared for this fight, but I need to execute my game plan suitably on fight night to go home with the win,” he said.

Cash prizes up for grabs

By Peter Atencio LAGAWE, Ifugao Province— Prizes will be at stake for competition ranging from the familiar 10-kilometer relay to the obscure battawel race.

With P15,000 and P10,000 up for grabs, kids aged 16 and below will take part in the events that will be showcased in the two-day Gender and Development Indigenous Games.

They are among the 12 ethnic games that have attracted 438 participants from two tribes in the municipality of Lagawe. Activities kick off today at the Ifugao Provincial Capitol Plaza.

“I want these traditional games, or what we call indigenous sports exposed to the world so that they

could also appreciate what is Ifugao, and what is the heritage of their ancestors,” said Governor Pedro Mayam-O. Mayam-O discussed his thoughts on the Games following a courtesy call made by the Philippine Sports Commission, which was led by commissioners Celia Kiram, Charles Maxey and Philippine Sports Institute assistant director Henry Daut.

The kids come from the tribes of Tuwali and Ayangan.

Members of both tribes take pride in the 10-marathon relay and batawel race, a palay-carrying contest.

In the marathon relay, kids aged 13 and below will race up and down the mountain roads of Lagawe and Banaue in in-

creasing distances of 800 meter, 1,500-meters and up.

The winning team gets P15,000 in cash while the runners-up receives P10,000 and P7,000.

And it will be held in the last day of competitions this Saturday.

Meanwhile, older kids are expected to take part in the battawel race.

The race involves contestants carrying heavy bundled rice husks in different weights placed in baskets.

The runners will run a certain distance to win medals, and cash prizes.

The conduct of the Games was made possible through technical coordination with Ifugao sports office chief Maureen Inhumang.

Other events that will also offer cash purses are the guyyudan, or tug-of-war, among elementary and secondary students.

PSC officials call on Ifugao governor Pedro Mayam-O. They are, from left: PSC planning’s Dole Llanto, Philippine Sports Institute’s Henry Daut, Commissioner Celia Kiram, Governor Mayam-O, Commissioner Charles Maxey and PSC Planning’s Manny Bitog.

Melco Resorts raises capital stock to P11.9b B2

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Thursday, June 22, 2017

F OREIGN E XCHANGE R ATE Currency

Unit

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

B1

Credit Suisse cuts growth target

US Dollar Peso

United States Dollar

1.000000

50.2390

Japan

Yen

0.008979

0.4511

UK

Pound

1.267500

63.6779

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128187

6.4400

Switzerland

Franc

1.028383

51.6649

Canada

Dollar

0.750075

37.6830

Singapore

Dollar

0.719942

36.1692

Australia

Dollar

0.755000

37.9304

Bahrain

Dinar

2.653857

133.3271

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266681

13.3978

Brunei

Dollar

0.717360

36.0394

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000075

0.0038

Thailand

Baht

0.029429

1.4785

UAE

Dirham

0.272279

13.6790

Euro

Euro

1.117000

56.1170

Korea

Won

0.000875

0.0440

China

Yuan

0.146415

7.3557

India

Rupee

0.015498

0.7786

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.233318

11.7217

New Zealand

Dollar

0.722300

36.2876

Taiwan

Dollar

0.032848

1.6503 Source: PDS Bridge

IN BRIEF

By Julito G. Rada

G

LOBAL financial services company Credit Suisse cut its growth forecast for the Philippines this year to 6 percent from the previous estimate of 6.4 percent amid a weak labor market.

“Having stood on the positive side of consensus for some time, we have now cut our 2017 GDP forecast down to 6 percent from 6.4 percent previously. This compares with the current consensus expectation of 6.4 percent, which we note has been rising steadily since the end of last year,” the Zurich-based bank said.

“Driving our forecast is our expectation that private consumption will moderate further due to an unusually weak labor market,” it said.

Credit Suisse said employment growth declined sharply over the past two quarters, sharper than typically implied by a post-election slowdown. In

addition, a significant number of workers dropped out of the labor force since the start of the year, with the labor force participation rate declining by more than 2 percentage points as a result.

Credit Suisse cited three potential reasons for the declining number of labor force. These are the uncertainty in the lead-up to “endo,” or temporary contract worker regulations; weak government spending year-to-date; and K-to-12 education reform partly contributing to decline in labor force participation rates.

“Our model suggests that employment growth transmits to consumption growth with a threequarter lag. As such, the negative

impact of a weaker labor market will likely be felt keenly over the rest of this year,” it said.

Credit Suisse also lowered its 2017 private consumption forecast to 5.7 percent from 6.5 percent previously. It said the forecast implied a moderation from 7 percent seen last year and below the latest consensus forecast of 6.1 percent.

“We do not expect other items in GDP to offset weaker private consumption: First, implementation of big-ticket public infrastructure projects is likely to remain disappointing… Second, while private fixed investment has been strong, it is unlikely to accelerate further given robust

BSP keeps policy rates unchanged

Manila Water ups Vietnam stake

MANILA Water Company Inc. said its Singapore subsidiary completed additional investments in Saigon Water Infrastructure Corp. of Vietnam.

Manila Water said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Manila Water South Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd. completed its subscription to additional 6.146 million primary shares of Saigon Water at a price of 16,900 Vietnamese dong per share.

Manila Water said the total amount of the subscription amounted to 103.867 billion Vietnamese dong.

“As a result of this additional subscription, MWSAH now holds 38 percent of the outstanding capital stock of SII,” said Manila Water.

“The transaction is in line with the investment strategy of Manila Water in Vietnam and Asia,” the company said.

Anna Leah E. Gonzales

Standard Chartered backs infra projects

STANDARD Chartered Bank of the UK offered to provide financial and technical assistance to implement the proposed railway system in Mindanao under the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program.

Standard Chartered officials, in a recent meeting with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, offered the bank’s services in facilitating the conversion of the Development Bank of the Philippines into the country’s infrastructure bank.

Dominguez and Standard Chartered officials also discussed the Philippines’ plan to sell Chinese renminbi-denominated Panda bonds this year, the Duterte administration’s proposed Comprehensive Tax Reform Program and national ID system, the rehabilitation of the Agus hydropower plants in Mindanao, and the possibility of offering green bonds and project bonds to help finance the country’s infra buildup.

“There are five projects approved by the National Economic and Development Authority, and the largest is the railway in Mindanao.

We want to see how we can help there. We also want to clarify how we can help closely DBP as an infra bank—putting up an infra fund, or providing advisory [services],” Lynette Ortiz, chief executive and country head of the bank’s global banking division for the Philippines, said during the meeting. Julito G. Rada

MNHPI gets nod to raise cargo fees

STATE-RUN Philippine Ports Authority granted the petition of San Miguel Corp.-led Manila North Harbour Port Inc. to increase cargo-handling rates by 24 percent over the next three years.

The increase, however, will not be compounded but will be based on the existing tariff rate as of Jan. 19, 2015.

PPA issued Memorandum Circular No. 4-2017 on June 19 approving an 8-percent increase under the first tranche effective July 21, 2017 or 30 days after the memo was published.

The second tranche or the second 8-percent will be implemented on July 21, 2018 while the last and third tranche will be imposed on the same date a year after.

The rate increase was lower than the proposed 37.45 percent tariff increased forwarded by MNHPI last year.

MNHPI said it had no choice but to ask for the increase considering the tremendous economic changes that adversely affected the business environment in the Philippines and affected critical cost drivers necessary to support port operations such as labor, fuel, power and equipment.

Darwin G. Amojelar

growth rates already seen so far this year,” it said.

It also said exports were likely to moderate in the second half compared to the first half. It said with GDP likely slowing further from here and private consumption looking less robust, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas might keep rates on hold this year.

S&P Global Ratings said earlier it was expecting the Philippine economy to grow at an average of 6.5 percent in the next two years despite threats from both domestic and external fronts.

The major global credit ratings agency said strong domestic demand would remain a main driver of expansion this year and next.

BUSINESS MENTORS. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez calls on almost a thousand Negosyo Center business counsellors to help the

government develop smarter Filipino entrepreneurs. Speaking at the first Negosyo Fair Business Counsellors’ Conference at SM Megamall, Lopez highlighted the role of business mentors as front liners of the Negosyo Centers, which he considers an important infrastructure of entrepreneurship. The Negosyo Fair 2017 is open to the public until June 24 at SM Megamall.

Tetangco bows out with high growth, low prices

By Siegfrid Alegado AMANDO Tetangco Jr. saw inflation surge to almost 11 percent and economic growth plunge to as low as 0.5 percent during his term as Philippine central bank governor. As he oversees his final rate meeting on Thursday, price gains are about a third of that and the economy is booming.

In his 12-year stint, Tetangco boosted reserves, reined in inflation, kept the currency stable and transformed the economy into among the world’s fastestgrowing. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas held its benchmark rate at a record low 3 percent on Thursday, as predicted by all economists in a Bloomberg survey.

“Bangko Sentral is one of the most well-respected and credi-

ble central banks in the region,” said Michael Wan, an economist at Credit Suisse Group AG in Singapore. “Tetangco is to be credited for that. He has provided a very firm foundation for inflation targeting and built up strong buffers for the economy.”

Tetangco adopted dramatic reforms including transitioning to a rate corridor in 2016 for greater policy flexibility. He advocated targeted measures—such as capping property loan collaterals—a method that addresses specific risks, like asset bubbles, without hurting other parts of the economy.

The 64-year-old outgoing governor, who served under three presidents, has upheld central bank independence and avoided controversies. He was first appointed by Gloria Arroyo in

2005 and retained by Benigno Aquino in 2011.

A shooting enthusiast and car lover, Tetangco perfected the use of moral suasion: the art of influencing market behavior with his words rather than direct intervention. He also built the central bank into one of the most predictable in Asia, with policy makers including his deputies flagging the outlook for months in advance.

His other accomplishments include successfully pushing for a law that eased rules on foreign ownership of banks, boosting their capital and adopting stricter risk management.

The last time annual inflation exceeded the target was in 2008 as oil prices surged. Bangko Sentral met the goal in the succeeding years until 2015 and 2016 when price gains were so muted

that inflation fell below the target.

The inflation goal is determined by the central bank and may vary for each year. From 2017 to 2020, the target range is 2 percent to 4 percent.

Tetangco has kept rates steady since 2014 as the economy expanded more than 6 percent. In contrast, others in the region such as Indonesia and Malaysia have loosened monetary policies.

While economists predict the Philippines will be among the first to increase rates in the region this year, Tetangco’s successor Nestor Espenilla said in May the bank isn’t in a race to raise rates. Inflation is expected to ease after peaking in the third quarter and remain in the target range in 2017, the deputy governor said. Bloomberg

THE Monetary Board, the policy-making body of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, on Thursday kept the benchmark interest rates unchanged, on lower inflation and expected robust economic growth.

Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., who attended his last policy meeting as board chairman prior to his retirement on July 3, said interest rates were maintained at 3.5 percent for overnight lending, 3 percent for overnight borrowing and 2.5 percent for deposit facilities. The reserve requirement ratios were also retained.

“The board’s decision is based on its assessment that the inflation environment continues to be manageable. Latest baseline forecasts indicate a lower path of future inflation, with average inflation remaining within the target of 2 percent to 4 percent for 2017-2019,” Tetangco said.

The manageable inflation prompted the board to reduce the inflation average forecast this year to 3.1 percent from 3.4 percent made on May 11. The forecast for 2018 was kept steady at 3 percent. Inflation is projected to average 3 percent in 2019/ Inflation rate averaged 3.2 percent in the first five months, slightly higher than the midpoint of the target range of 2 percent to 4 percent for 2017.

Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the board considered several factors in its decision to maintain the policy rates. “While there may be potential transitory impact of the proposed tax reform program, the social safety nets are expected to mitigate the resulting inflationary pressures. The long-run effects on productivity will improve overall supply and further dampen inflation,” Guinigundo said.

He said prospects for the global economy had improved, but risks to external demand remained tilted to the downside.

Julito G. Rada

5 Qatar firms coming to invest $176m in PH

By Othel V. Campos FIVE companies from Qatar pledged to invest $176 million in the Philippines, despite the diplomatic crisis in the Middle East, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority said Thursday.

Peza director-general Charito Plaza said the companies were pushing through with the proposed investments they committed during an investments roadshow in March 2017.

“The Qatar crisis is to our advantage. While they were bound by a trade embargo from several of its neighboring countries, they are now turning to the Philippines for food and other basic requirements. They are now telling us

that the more they will invest in the Philippines,” Plaza said.

Plaza said three of the companies committed to build retirement villages. GBS-Blackleaf would invest $90 million while FQR Comsortium committed $60 million. Chitilion Group pledged $6 million.

MMGI, another Qatari company, is poised to put up a $10-million hospital facility while NFCA would $10 million for a nanocarbon technology facility.

The Qatari companies made the commitments to invest in the Philippines before the diplomatic crisis in Qatar surfaced. Several Middle Easter countries cut ties with Qatar over accusations that the latter was supporting extremism.

IPC CERTIFICATE. IP Converge Data Services Inc., a pioneering local cloud services provider and data

center operator, is awarded the new international standard for quality management systems, ISO 9001:2015. Shown during the awarding ceremony are (from left) IPC senior manager for sales and marketing Pinky Zamora-Villacrusis Sr., TUV Rheinland Philippines Inc. managing director Tristan Arwen Loveres, IPC chief executive Reynaldo Huergas and IPC vice president for data center and network operations Dominico Ratuiste.

B2

Business

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Market declines; peso slides further

S

TOCKS fell for a third day while the peso slid to a new three-month low, following overnight losses on Wall Street and on anticipation of another interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve before the end of the year.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, dropped 28 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 7,858.34, as five of the six sectors declined.

The heavier index, representing all shares, also went down 9 points, or 0.2 percent, to settle at 4,699.52, on a value turnover of P8.7 billion. Losers outnumbered gainers, 102 to 98, while 47 issues were unchanged.

Ten of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by Crown Equities Inc. which surged 10.4 percent to P0.201 and East West Banking Corp. which jumped 5.4 percent to

P29.50. Alliance Global Group Inc. of tycoon Andrew Tan rose 2.1 percent to P14.40.

Meanwhile, the peso lost five centavos Thursday to close at 50.345 against the US dollar. It was its weakest level since it settled at 50.36 on March 14, 2017. Total volume turnover reached $802 million, higher than $727 million on Wednesday.

This marked the ninth straight day the peso fell since it traded at 49.495 on June 8, 2017.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said in a news briefing that the markets thought, after previous statements from Fed officials, that there was a definitive clue that the US central bank would continue policy tightening once this year and two to three times more next year.

“The peso actually depreciated starting yesterday [Wednesday], hitting 50 to a dollar on account of pronouncements of some Fed officials that even if inflation is still offtarget, the fact that labor market conditions are becoming tighter, that would in effect be transmitted in terms of higher inflation. As

the labor market continues to tighten, there would be some pressure on inflation moving forward,” Guinigundo said.

“Because of that, market thought that is a definitive clue that they will continue tightening monetary policy in the US, that means one more time before end of year, and 2-3 times in 2018. That’s one of the major reasons why the dollar became strong relative to the peso,” Guinigundo said.

Asian markets mostly rebounded Thursday from the previous day’s sell-off but energy firms struggled to recover after another plunge in oil prices as glut fears return.

Both main crude contracts dived more than two percent Wednesday despite a bigger-than-forecast drop in US inventories, with analysts suggesting OPEC and Russia should announce further output cuts.

“The fact that oil is now falling on a bullish inventory number must be a red light for producers and traders alike,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda.

With Bloomberg, AFP

Melco Resorts raises capital stock to P11.9b

By Jenniffer B. Austria MELCO Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp., the developer and operator of integrated resort and casino City of Dreams Manila, is increasing authorized capital stock to P11.9 billion ahead of an equity offering to finance expansion and pay down debt.

Melco said in a regulatory filing it would hike its authorized capital stock to P11.9 billion divided into 11.9 billion shares with a par value of P1 per share from P5.9 billion.

“The reason for the proposed increase in the authorized capital

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2017

NAME

OPEN

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

FINANCIALS 4.02 51,000 51.5 65,810 105 2,881,750 3.96 53,000 121 2,554,170 1.3 11,000 36.95 665,300 16.22 16,000 29.5 4,760,300 800 420 0.7 1,811,000 86 1,254,800 0.95 1,086,000 15.44 60,800 25.05 100 68.5 265,410 243.6 1,920 113 50 88.05 1,060 58.9 254,590 221.4 633,960 85.25 29,880 1.28 21,000

205,020 3,340,574 302,325,201 209,880 307,930,067 14,300 24,617,090 259,176 137,379,540 337,430 1,277,870 107,806,354 1,032,530 935,556 2,505 17,952,224 468,218 5,512 93,680 14,994,076.50 140,329,186 2,545,946.50 26,890

1,060,722.50 -4,952,013 13,341,005 218,485 3,216.00 -118,710 38,400 27,463,383.50 53,550 3,484,449 9,528 10,090,901.50 34,599,112 -9,299 -

39.6 7.88 0.83 1.55 27.8 0.265 104.7 7.44 18.26 23.65 14.12 78 76.5 2.01 5.48 11.5 12.1 16.04 9.75 7.2 5.98 18.96 70 14.6 13.44 13.3 1.74 211 60 3.93 3.6 30.75 19.28 18.94 260.6 0.242 6.9 3.1 9.55 6.3 1.95 9.34 68.9 6.9 312.8 4.5 4.98 2.35 12.88 5.12 0.146 1.4 164 2.27 1.06

INDUSTRIAL 39.8 3,329,100 8 1,374,900 0.84 718,000 1.57 1,071,000 28.05 149,000 0.275 6,970,000 104.7 10 7.49 4,572,000 18.3 360,200 23.65 1,039,100 14.12 1,000 78 1,140 76.5 790 2.01 1,139,000 5.49 10,000 11.88 31,500 12.2 3,132,200 16.1 4,407,700 9.82 274,200 7.35 6,113,800 6 17,544,800 19 912,900 70.45 54,790 15.2 238,200 13.5 322,400 13.3 2,844,300 1.82 1,879,000 212.8 399,000 61 4,170 3.93 171,000 3.6 37,000 31 1,593,700 19.3 236,900 19.16 928,000 261 842,540 0.245 5,850,000 7.45 819,100 3.15 35,237,000 9.56 2,387,600 6.5 1,096,200 1.98 2,154,000 9.34 790,100 69.5 464,920 6.97 1,872,900 312.8 12,150 4.5 153,000 5 618,700 2.42 5,983,000 12.9 2,029,100 5.15 9,400 0.149 3,640,000 1.4 354,000 165 6,134,040 2.3 15,716,000 1.1 426,000

132,412,500(64 10,945,519 604,480 1,671,130 4,188,430 1,905,950 1,047 34,444,324 6,589,612 24,688,270 14,120 88,920 60,585 2,298,600 54,850 363,116 38,264,634 71,350,674 12 2,683,949 44,766,095 106,056,891 17,340,558 3,841,684.50 3,619,836 4,367,762 38,503,468 3,371,450 85,240,900 254,342.50 675,720 133,200 49,385,100 4,587,012 17,677,558 220,783,068 1,430,000 5,939,957 110,965,420 22,870,349 7,134,999 4,257,830 7,415,078 32,264,385.50 13,098,352 3,841,794 692,510 3,086,356 14,751,440 26,289,020 48,312 531,950 503,400 1,030,299,357 36,814,270 462,360

,545,519.9998) 683,570 -6,720 3,311,025 5,585,284 -5,621,065 2,020 231,588 3,313,302 ,523,214.0002 749,866 7,261,076 -18,235,284 -351,228 617,740.50 -1,586,058 -3,319,742 3,640 -36,065,054 -50 -90,000 12,093,120 -208,068 -11,126,836 -41,649,948 49,000 95,808,790 -736,108 29,475 -39,200 920,414 23,502,496 978,091 -2,848,250 -972,614 1,832,930 -8,192,370 62,373,101 3,307,160 25,440

0.36 74.9 14.12 1.25 6.29 0.33 0.335 840 7.87 14.5 7.6 0.206 1,201 7.36 78.2 5.55 5.41 5.24 1 7.2 14.7 6.12 0.053 0.94 2.19 2.55 103 2.61 780.5 0.86 1.43 304.6 0.28 0.217

HOLDING FIRMS 0.37 1,690,000 75 685,350 14.4 10,204,200 1.28 501,000 6.29 95,600 0.34 2,930,000 0.355 470,000 855 128,420 7.9 433,100 14.56 8,657,900 7.7 8,800 0.207 360,000 1,206 170,045 7.68 42,600 79.55 552,080 5.92 42,400 5.53 192,200 6.18 607,500 1 1,689,000 7.42 968,600 14.7 2,865,200 6.15 17,073,200 0.055 21,710,000 0.95 87,000 2.2 13,318,000 2.55 140,000 103 109,650 2.7 76,000 785 652,170 0.86 38,000 1.5 4,314,000 306 6,790 0.285 550,000 0.217 220,000

616,250 51,491,113.50 146,173,410 633,620 608,621 985,600 162,000 109,175,525 3,419,467 125,915,308 67,750 74,400 205,453,220 327,675 43,719,155 246,990 1,153,889 3,768,905 1,691,800 7,166,399 42,276,184 105,104,064 1,184,140 82,640 30,531,920 357,000 11,371,887 201,030 513,775,800 32,680 6,413,560 2,076,686 155,000 47,740

4,554,170.50 13,246,492 6,700 1,462,880 -2,986,248 46,808,708 -30,450,175 9,597,896.50 2,620,648 -6,425,340 -22,153,319 -17,260 -1,113,239 -50,695,805 -422,280 14,250.00 -

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

AG FINANCE 4.02 ASIA UNITED 50.5 BANK PH ISLANDS 105.5 BDO LEASING 3.96 BDO UNIBANK 120.4 BRIGHT KINDLE 1.3 CHINABANK 37.1 COL FINANCIAL 16.2 EAST WEST BANK 27.9 MANULIFE 805 MEDCO HLDG 0.73 METROBANK 85.2 NTL REINSURANCE 0.95 PB BANK 15.4 PBCOM 25.05 PHIL NATL BANK 67.5 PHIL STOCK EXCH 243.8 PHILTRUST 106 PSBANK 88.1 RCBC 58.95 SECURITY BANK 221 UNION BANK 85.2 VANTAGE 1.29

4.02 51.5 105.5 3.96 121 1.3 37.2 16.24 29.5 810 0.73 86.3 0.98 15.44 25.05 68.5 244 113.2 89 58.95 222.4 85.3 1.29

4.02 50.3 103.7 3.96 120.3 1.3 36.85 16.06 27.75 800 0.7 85.2 0.92 15.34 25.05 67.3 240 106 88.05 58.75 220.8 85.2 1.28

ABOITIZ POWER 39.8 AGRINURTURE 7.93 ALLIANCE SELECT 0.83 ALSONS CONS 1.57 ASIABEST GROUP 28.3 BASIC ENERGY 0.27 BOGO MEDELLIN 104.7 CEMEX HLDG 7.47 CENTURY FOOD 18.3 CIRTEK HLDG 24 CNTRL AZUCARERA14.12 CONCEPCION 78 CONCRETE A 78 CROWN ASIA 2.06 DAVINCI CAPITAL 5.48 DEL MONTE 11.6 DNL INDUS 12.1 EAGLE CEMENT 16.12 EEI CORP 9.8 EMPERADOR 7.2 ENERGY DEVT 6.05 FIRST GEN 18.98 FIRST PHIL HLDG 70.3 GINEBRA 14.6 HOLCIM 13.6 INTEGRATED MICR 13.72 IONICS 1.79 JOLLIBEE 215.4 LIBERTY FLOUR 63 LMG CHEMICALS 3.98 MABUHAY VINYL 3.6 MANILA WATER 30.75 MAXS GROUP 19.48 MEGAWIDE 19.1 MERALCO 262.8 MG HLDG 0.244 PANASONIC 6.9 PEPSI COLA 3.19 PETRON 9.6 PHIL H2O 6.3 PHINMA ENERGY 1.98 PHX PETROLEUM 9.4 PILIPINAS SHELL 69.5 PRYCE CORP 7 PUREFOODS 319.8 RFM CORP 4.59 ROXAS HLDG 4.99 SFA SEMICON 2.6 SHAKEYS PIZZA 13.04 SPC POWER 5.12 SWIFT FOODS 0.146 TKC METALS 1.4 UNIV ROBINA 168.1 VITARICH 2.28 VULCAN INDL 1.06

40 8.03 0.86 1.57 28.9 0.275 104.7 7.64 18.4 24 14.12 78 78 2.06 5.49 11.88 12.36 16.4 9.84 7.43 6.1 19.06 70.6 15.28 13.6 13.98 1.82 215.4 65 3.98 3.6 31.15 19.48 19.18 263.4 0.248 7.55 3.19 9.62 6.7 2 9.43 69.5 7.07 319.8 4.6 5.04 2.6 13.2 5.28 0.15 1.44 169.4 2.39 1.1

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

0.375 75.5 14.48 1.31 6.64 0.345 0.36 855 8 14.7 7.7 0.207 1,215 7.88 79.55 5.92 6.88 7.25 1.02 7.5 14.9 6.26 0.055 0.95 2.37 2.55 105 2.75 791.5 0.86 1.52 306 0.285 0.217

0.365 75 14.34 1.31 6.32 0.33 0.335 843 7.93 14.52 7.7 0.206 1,208 7.4 78.8 5.72 5.41 5.24 1.01 7.5 14.86 6.24 0.054 0.94 2.24 2.55 104.9 2.64 791 0.86 1.43 305.4 0.285 0.217

8990 HLDG 6.25 A BROWN 1.65 ARANETA PROP 2.55 ARTHALAND CORP 1.12 AYALA LAND 40.5 BELLE CORP 3.88 CEB LANDMASTERS 5.95 CEBU HLDG 5.28 CEBU PROP A 5.98 CENTURY PROP 0.53 CITY AND LAND 1.07 CITYLAND DEVT 1.44 CROWN EQUITIES 0.185 CYBER BAY 0.51 DOUBLEDRAGON 47 EMPIRE EAST 0.71 EVER GOTESCO 0.155 FILINVEST LAND 1.69 GLOBAL ESTATE 1.25 IRC PROP 0.97 MEGAWORLD 4.55 MRC ALLIED 0.385 PHIL ESTATES 0.36 PHIL REALTY 0.66 PRIMEX CORP 4.08 ROBINSONS LAND 24.95 ROCKWELL 1.73

6.25 1.67 2.55 1.17 40.5 3.89 5.98 5.28 5.98 0.54 1.13 1.46 0.208 0.52 47 0.72 0.162 1.77 1.32 0.99 4.72 0.4 0.365 0.66 4.25 25 1.78

6.1 1.54 2.51 1.12 39.65 3.8 5.64 5.27 5.98 0.53 1.03 1.42 0.18 0.51 46.5 0.7 0.155 1.68 1.25 0.96 4.55 0.38 0.36 0.63 4.06 24.5 1.72

VOLUME

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

3.2 34.35 1.03 6.36 0.9 6.01

3.24 34.35 1.03 7.28 0.91 6.08

3.2 33.9 1.01 6.36 0.88 5.89

3.2 34.05 1.03 7.28 0.88 5.9

677,000 15,719,900 3,269,000 2,100 789,000 4,841,300

2,173,230 534,729,580 3,350,870 13,908 698,380 28,987,367

221,473,435 5,082,437

2GO GROUP 24.7 ABS CBN 43.1 ACESITE HOTEL 1.7 APC GROUP 0.51 APOLLO GLOBAL 0.043 ASIAN TERMINALS 10.92 BERJAYA 5.55 BLOOMBERRY 9.72 BOULEVARD HLDG 0.09 CALATA CORP 2.17 CEBU AIR 99.1 CENTRO ESCOLAR 9.98 DFNN INC 8.7 DISCOVERY WORLD 2.3 EASYCALL 3.2 FAR EASTERN U 970 GLOBE TELECOM 2,090 GMA NETWORK 6.12 GOLDEN HAVEN 15.64 GRAND PLAZA 13.2 HARBOR STAR 3.12 IMPERIAL 3.45 INTL CONTAINER 101.4 IPEOPLE 12.12 IPM HLDG 8.8 ISLAND INFO 0.188 ISM COMM 1.37 JACKSTONES 3.55 LBC EXPRESS 16.38 LEISURE AND RES 4.34 LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.97 MACROASIA 6.26 MANILA BULLETIN 0.68 MANILA JOCKEY 2.22 MELCO RESORTS 9.92 METRO RETAIL 4.65 MLA BRDCASTING 16.88 NOW CORP 2.6 PACIFIC ONLINE 11.42 PAL HLDG 5.18 PAXYS 3.1 PHIL SEVEN CORP 170 PHILWEB 11.06 PLDT 1,825 PREMIUM LEISURE 1.56 PRMIERE HORIZON 0.385 PUREGOLD 45.3 ROBINSONS RTL 87.3 SBS PHIL CORP 6.35 SSI GROUP 3.41 STI HLDG 1.46 TRAVELLERS 3.28 WATERFRONT 0.93 WILCON DEPOT 7.68

25.3 43.4 1.7 0.51 0.043 10.92 5.55 9.84 0.092 2.2 99.8 9.99 8.79 2.52 3.2 970 2,120 6.13 15.8 13.2 3.12 3.46 101.4 12.66 8.85 0.192 1.4 3.55 16.38 4.4 1.28 6.74 0.68 2.37 9.98 4.75 16.88 2.63 11.42 5.21 3.1 170 11.42 1,825 1.57 0.4 45.5 88 6.35 3.62 1.51 3.42 0.94 7.85

24.3 43 1.66 0.495 0.042 10.92 5.55 9.65 0.089 2.15 99.1 9.98 8.55 2.3 3.2 970 2,090 6.09 15.62 13.2 3 3.39 100 12.12 8.75 0.188 1.36 3.5 15.34 4.31 0.97 6.26 0.6 2.22 9.78 4.5 15.6 2.59 11.42 5.18 3.1 170 10.72 1,815 1.55 0.385 44.95 87.3 6.1 3.27 1.45 3.28 0.9 7.45

SERVICES 24.4 743,700 43.2 8,800 1.67 283,000 0.5 781,000 0.042 31,500,000 10.92 13,300 5.55 15,200 9.72 15,614,800 0.091 50,420,000 2.16 2,641,000 99.1 142,540 9.99 1,600 8.56 299,900 2.52 16,000 3.2 1,000 970 10 2,098 32,665 6.12 111,800 15.62 27,800 13.2 27,600 3.03 3,496,000 3.39 6,000 100.4 2,306,450 12.66 4,400 8.75 385,000 0.19 7,700,000 1.36 253,000 3.5 13,000 16.36 19,000 4.36 739,000 1.09 2,087,000 6.35 6,296,300 0.64 1,205,000 2.35 100,000 9.8 6,300,800 4.66 22,968,000 15.6 500 2.62 614,000 11.42 5,000 5.2 75,700 3.1 1,000 170 130 10.98 2,190,400 1,815 42,050 1.55 6,347,000 0.4 490,000 45 1,865,300 88 798,180 6.32 2,480,700 3.57 29,606,000 1.48 44,713,000 3.33 14,624,000 0.92 13,041,000 7.55 34,369,900

18,412,395 379,910 474,540 387,620 1,325,800 145,236 84,360 151,875,871 4,593,570 5,720,610 14,149,685.50 15,969 2,595,919 ( 39,000 3,200 9,700 68,518,490 683,028 435,206 364,320 10,619,180 20,540 232,590,393 54,516 3,374,000 1,464,150 345,090 45,730 301,294 3,223,320 2,379,730 40,720,838 752,920 230,390 62,300,913 107,495,870 8,312 1,600,950 57,100 393,600 3,100 22,100 24,517,338 76,367,550 9,846,820 190,800 83,993,290 70,229,945 15,448,414 105,482,260 66,537,240 48,951,300 11,994,430 260,117,383

154,750 -46,200 99,045,745 12,810 -21,600 -2,673,791.50 860,072.9998) 9,091,190 117,600 3,519,616 26,586 7,590 3,500 0 -1,375,207 2,376,548 -25,521,980 -84,260 14,926,155 -3,100 36,027,410 7,987,313 -11,232,635 2,762,950 23,997,390 -5,227,010 82,990 87,187,105

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

0.003 1.65 5.01 13.1 2.23 2.25 0.9 0.395 9.35 2.44 0.3 0.18 0.192 1.96 6.15 2.06 0.52 0.95 0.01 0.01 5.88 0.012 8.93 2.91 160.6 2.88 0.0082

0.003 1.67 5.01 14.98 2.29 2.27 0.92 0.395 9.35 2.48 0.3 0.181 0.192 1.97 6.23 2.13 0.56 0.96 0.011 0.011 5.97 0.012 8.95 2.95 160.6 2.88 0.0088

0.0029 1.65 5 13.04 2.23 2.25 0.9 0.395 9.01 2.43 0.285 0.18 0.192 1.93 6.15 2.05 0.475 0.95 0.01 0.01 5.81 0.012 8.91 2.9 160 2.77 0.0082

MINING & OIL 0.0029 1,219,000,000 1.66 3,470,000 5 34,100 14.98 1,700 2.25 203,000 2.25 202,000 0.92 272,000 0.395 80,000 9.02 62,600 2.46 1,825,000 0.29 100,000 0.18 4,200,000 0.192 1,000,000 1.93 182,000 6.23 823,600 2.07 14,000 0.52 1,466,000 0.96 17,000 0.01 41,300,000 0.011 5,200,000 5.97 106,600 0.012 11,000,000 8.91 1,269,700 2.95 1,221,000 160.1 948,360 2.78 12,000 0.0088 4,000,000

3,536,500 5,753,270 170,753 22,422 456,350 454,540 246,820 31,600 565,879 4,493,180 28,850 756,010 192,000 355,890 5,105,543 28,890 784,535 16,310 423,900 57,000 625,418 132,000 11,329,155 3,592,780 151,838,865 33,720 34,600

95,700 1,130,680 -9,003 -1,772,140 192,000 -75,750 143,479 10,560 55,000 -3,198,025 -505,508 2,870 -

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

42.2 511 520 105 115.2 512 5.81 1,100 1,013 106 77 77 79 78.5

42.25 511 520 105 115.2 515 5.81 1,100 1,013 106 77 77 79 78.5

42.2 511 520 105 114.5 512 5.81 1,100 1,013 106 77 77 79 78.5

PREFERRED 42.2 27,800 511 1,820 520 10 105 10,150 114.5 19,620 513 6,000 5.81 50,000 1,100 190 1,013 330 106 5,020 77 10 77 5,000 79 210 78.5 900

1,173,410 930,020 5,200 1,065,750 2,253,990 3,078,000 290,500 209,000 334,290 532,120 770 385,000 16,590 70,650

329,410 -290,500 -

LR WARRANT

2.35

2.39

2.32

WARRANTS 2.35 183,000

428,000

-

ITALPINAS MAKATI FINANCE PHILAB HLDG XURPAS

3.91 3.08 6.05 8.13

4.08 3.08 6.11 8.26

3.9 3.07 5.8 8.06

SME 4.04 3.08 6 8.08

3,295,430 15,390 496,202 16,412,243

1,632,577

FIRST METRO ETF 118.6

119

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 117.9 118.2 17,770

2,099,478

-

USD DMPL A1

10.48

10.48

DDS 10.48

25,885.60

-

NAME

OPEN

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

MS

PROPERTY 6.1 427,400 1.54 33,323,000 2.51 593,000 1.15 5,482,000 40 11,787,800 3.8 3,461,000 5.65 20,699,100 5.27 47,700 5.98 400 0.53 24,401,000 1.11 187,000 1.43 197,000 0.201 628,430,000 0.51 1,162,000 46.85 76,200 0.7 15,096,000 0.162 860,000 1.72 33,325,000 1.27 38,491,000 0.96 406,000 4.61 52,597,000 0.38 80,970,000 0.365 390,000 0.64 19,966,000 4.17 568,000 24.8 2,219,800 1.76 172,000

2,612,344 52,364,360 1,489,810 6,306,380 472,888,590 13,247,800 118,950,514 251,764 2,392 12,951,540 198,300 282,170 125,112,930 594,100 3,561,225 10,642,970 138,230 58,057,290 49,631,950 396,610 244,863,210 31,590,900 142,250 12,813,660 2,349,000 54,949,215 299,210

-778,415 -22,400 -45,086,955 -244,370 3,427,444 -8,679,810 29,360,970 547,900 -6,765,630 12,678,210 45,600 47,168,400 -364,750 2,011,900 -4,100 -8,310,935 -

10.48

TRADING SUMMARY

SHARES

FINANCIAL

16,679,996

INDUSTRIAL

152,084,073

HOLDING FIRMS

105,057,762

PROPERTY SERVICES

1,001,789,764 320,289,857

MINING & OIL

1,299,232,384

GRAND TOTAL

2,898,075,886

824,000 5,000 82,900 2,011,600

2,470

VALUE 1,928.84 (up) 6.11 1,085,140,816.60 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 11,085.88 (down) 68.15 2,285,951,235.444 HOLDING FIRMS 7,800.98 (down) 9.01 1,612,745,980.70 PROPERTY 3,677.19 (down) 30.54 1,718.76 (down) 7.62 1,875,462,580.97 SERVICES MINING & OIL 12,462.90 (down) 34.36 1,610,848,945.13 PSEI 7,858.34 (down) 28.03 191,095,233.0508 All Shares Index 4,699.52 (down) 9.27 8,683,566,900.69 Gainers: 98; Losers: 102; Unchanged: 47; Total: 247

stock of the corporation and the resulting amendment of the corporation’s articles of incorporation is to enable the corporation to tap into any potential funding raising opportunities, in the form of equity offering with a view to using the proceeds of such fund raisings to repay outstanding indebtedness, fund growth and expansion, for general corporate purposes and/or for such other purposes to be determined by the Board,” Melco said.

The planned capital hike is one of the agenda for shareholders approval during company’s annual stockholders meeting slated on June 26.

Melco said aside from the capital hike, it would also seek shareholders approval for the conduct of an equity offering including the issuance of share via top-up placement or private placement.

The final terms and conditions of the top-up offering including the number of shares to be sold and the issue price will be determined by the company’s board of directors.

Melco said in the event that shares amounting to at least 10 percent of the total issued and outstanding capital stock of the corporation were issued during the equity offering, it would seek a waiver of the requirement to conduct a rights or public offering by the majority of the outstanding shares held by the attending minority shareholders.

S&P hikes Meralco’s debt rating

By Alena Mae S. Flores S&P Global Ratings on Thursday raised its long-term corporate credit rating on power distributor Manila Electric Co. to ‘BBB-’ from ‘BB+’.

S&P said in a statement the outlook for Meralco’s credit rating remained stable.

“At the same time, we raised our Asean regional scale rating on the Philippines-based power distributor to ‘axA-’ from ‘axBBB+,’” the debt watcher said.

S&P upgraded Meralco as it expected the company to show financial discipline and maintain moderate leverage with a ratio of funds from operations to debt at above 30 percent.

S&P upgraded Meralco’s rating despite the utility’s sizable investments by 2021 of about P120 billion, principally in its distribution network, to improve operational resilience and reliability at a time of customer and load growth.

“In parallel, the company is likely to infuse meaningful equity into its portfolio of power generation projects, and distribute sustained amounts to its shareholder,” it said.

S&P said it expected an increase in Meralco’s net debt to about P70 billion by end2021, from negative P6.3 billion on Dec. 31, 2016.

“Furthermore, we consider existing power purchase agreements as debtlike liabilities, and therefore add some P71 billion to the company’s reported debt.

This number looks high for the rating, as it would theoretically translate into a FFO [fund from operations]-todebt ratio of close to 25 percent in 2021,” it said.

S&P said it believed the company had options to manage its leverage in the five years to come, and would take necessary steps to ensure its FFO-to-debt ratio was above 30 percent.

Motoring

Amaia brings communities together in Air Race, Car Show T

HERE has been no shortage of fun and excitement in Amaia Land communities this summer as homeowners and neighboring communities recently engaged in exhilarating activities that included an adrenaline-filled drone racing competition—the first ever in the property development circuit—and a car show weekend.

Held last April 29 at the Rain Garden, Lakeside Evozone, of NUVALI, Air Race 2017 drew mostly businessmen and IT personalities from Metro Manila who had wanted a much needed break from their daily grind.

Amaia’s major sponsors, Pepsi Co. and DJI Philippines,likewise came in full force.

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

B3

Amaia levels up the fun and excitement as it holds Air Race 2017, a thrilling drone-racing competition, at Amaia Steps Parkway NUVALI on April 29.

The drone race participants had a grand time seeing their “toys” racing overhead as they made new friends and enjoyed the camaraderie in a competitive atmosphere. Three participants won major prizes, namely, Mr. Robert Battlad (1st place) Mr. Marc Cometa (2nd place), and Mr. Gregg Villaver (3rd place).

Amaia Air Race 2017 brings together businessmen and IT personalities from the metro as they gain new friends and see their “toys” race overhead.

Amaia Air Race 2017 participants bring their A game in an adrenalinefilled drone race, which saw three contestants bringing home major prizes.

According to Amaia executives, the Air Race was organized to encourage amity and sportsmanship among the homeowners and guest players to promote the two Amaia projects in the sustainable-living estate of Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

A week earlier, Amaia Land likewise brought homeowners and automobile enthusiasts together at the Auto Show Weekend held in the retail area of Amaia Steps Sucat in Paranaque City. Organized last April 22, the event lured Amaia residents,

FASTLANE One stop shop for car accessories AS THE country’s largest automotive accessories retail chain, Blade offers globally recognized brands such as Sparco, OMP, Goodyear, Polaroid and Chupa Chups. “The brands we carry are all licensed and Blade is an official distributor of the aforementioned brands. All branded merchandise that we carry are original and licensed,” explains Albert Go of Blade. For brands such as Sparco, OMP and Goodyear, Blade caters to the consumer line of automotive products such as air compressors, seat belt pads, and car floor mats. They also offer a complete line of car care products such as Blade signature products, Sonax, Mother’s, Meguiar’s and Wurth among others.

Blade is located in all SM, Robinsons and Ayala Malls nationwide. Blade Auto Center’s line of car accessories and gadgets are reasonably priced due to its high purchase volume. “Savings are passed on to the customers. With our network of 50 locations, Blade is able to negotiate for the lowest cost,” adds Go. Trained personnel are on hand to

assist and answer any inquiries, plus installation of accessories is also an option for consumers.

Established in 2004, Blade Auto Center is the largest chain of car accessories shops in the country with over 50 stores nationwide. They have carved a niche in the aftermarket industry with its extensive line of affordable automotive accessories and car care products that ranges from car audio-video down to air fresheners and even Tamiya products.

local car clubs, and other groups like Honda Cars Manila Bay, Isuzu Alabang, and Volkswagen Alabang The auto show was graced

by Kristel Joy Manolo, Amaia Land’s Project Development Manager for South Metro Manila, and Jose Delima Sanchez, barangay captain of Brgy. San Antonio in Paranaque City.

Participants enjoyed the various display and retail booths, lights, music, and car showcases in the event. More than 100 awards were also given includ-

ing Best in Presentation, Best Interior, Best Nissan, Loudest Engine Roar, VIP Ride, and Amaia Car Choice.

A white Toyota BB bagged the Best of Show trophy while ten lucky guests also received P100,000 worth of accident insurance from Prulife UK. The event, which was geared to attract future homeowners and successfully give people a taste of Amaia Land’s invigorating lifestyle, was made possible by partners and sponsors, namely, Big Hit Productions, Titos of

Isuzu PH stages 2017 Service Skills Olympics ISUZU Philippines once again held its annual Service Skills Olympics last June 3 at Filinvest Tent in Alabang.

The one-day program was designed to empower and appreciate the importance of the key dealer parts and service personnel namely—service advisor, service technicians and parts analyst— whose roles have been the catalyst for the success of the company. The activity also strengthens and improves the theoretical and technical skills of IPC’s dealer parts and service personnel.

Spearheaded by IPC President Hajime Koso, EVP Shojiro Sakoda and Vice President for Aftersales Koji Hanawa, three categories–divided into various subcategories–such as Service Technician, Service Advisor, and Parts Analyst, comprised the competition ranging from written to practical exams.

Winners of parts analyst category were Joselito Tubilla of Isuzu Mandaue (2nd Runner Up); Joana Zorilla of Isuzu Pampanga (1st Runner Up); and Jessie Huyno of Cagayan de Oro (declared overall champion).

Know the driving ‘safe zone’ ON JULY 6, the law on anti-distracted driving will come into force. The Department of Transportation recently revised the rules and regulation of the Anti-Distracted Driving Act, with a new provision for the “safe zone,” where dash cams or cellular phone placements are allowed.

The use of mobile phones for navigation applications such as Google Maps or Waze are allowed, as long as they are set before driving. The new “safe zone” cannot be more than four inches from the vehicle dashboard. Anything beyond that distance will be deemed to be in the “line of sight,” where gadgets and objects are prohibited.

In line with this development, Waze’s features can also be used in compliance to the newly revised regulation. Waze’s hands-free feature is incorporated to ease usability. Waze would like to remind drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and use voice commands to navigate and report incidents along the way. The voice command tells drivers exactly when and where to turn so they can

keep their eyes on the road with full focus.

Safety is always a top priority for Waze and drivers are always encouraged to use the app as it is intended, by docking the phone and leveraging hands-free functionality during their entire route for an undistracted drive.

Waze also has dedicated safety features that complement the new regulation. For instance, Waze’s ‘Share your ETA’ feature was launched because there have been accidents caused by drivers texting while on the move to update their arrival time. This feature was introduced to prevent this.

Waze encourages the ‘Planned Drives’ feature.

This feature allows users to connect through their calendar or tell Waze their intended time of arrival. Waze will then prompt the right time to leave, considering traffic. With this feature, motorists are able to plan ahead without having to speed, which increases the chance to get into an accident.

Manila, Atosh, Autophile.ph, Anytime Fitness Santana Grove, Nuff Said Society, Hive, Malachi, Ineng’s BBQ, South Unite, and When In Manila.

To help Filipino families have access to superior quality, affordable homes, Amaia Land offers flexible payment schemes such as cash, deferred cash, and in-house and bank financing.

For inquiries about Amaia, visit www.amaialand.com or like www.facebook.com/AmaiaLand.

Winners of the Service Technicians Category, together with IPC executives.

For the service advisor category, winners were Jessie James Marilla of CDO on third place, just a few points short of Melvin Esguerra of Isuzu Cavite and Julius Cesar Opaco of Isuzu Mandaue, who took the first and second spots, respectively.

Meanwhile, Isuzu Pasig tandem of Martt Erruze Pugay and Leovence Galeja bagged the championship for the service technician category, followed by Isuzu Davao’s Leonido Gascon and Reynaldo Berberio and Jusua Cantre and Mark Tirso dela Cruz II of Isuzu Bulacan.

Winners of the Part Analyst Category, together with IPC executives.

From the winners, IPC will develop one team who will represent Isuzu Philippines to the 2017 Isuzu World Technical Competition to be held in Japan this November.

For his part, Koso said that he is looking forward for another victory from the latest ISSO winners, saying that the results show every Isuzu employees’ knowledge and confidence on the brand.

“I believe that from these pool of winners, IPC has a greater chance of bagging the top post in this year’s Isuzu World Technical Competition and I’m looking forward to that,” he said.

Last year, IPC won second place in the LCV category, which was held in Thailand and 3rd place in the Category B: emission regulation for N-series, Euro 4 and below held in Japan. Jumar Verano of Isuzu Pasig, Charlie Belano of Isuzu Alabang, with their head coach Bong Corocoto who is the Assistant Section Head for Technical Service were the LCV team. While, Nap Marquez, head coach and Assistant Section head for training, Crispin Maldonado of Isuzu Pasig and Erwin Cartagena of Isuzu Cabanatuan were the Category B team.

Winners of the Service Advisor Category, together with IPC executives.

RAMON L. TOMELDAN Edi tor DIN O DIREC TO III A ss t . Edi tor

B4

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

Motoring

The Teutonic alternative Text and photos by Dino Ray V. Directo III

J

UST when the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V were making a killing in the crossover game, German giant Volkswagen decided to enter the game a bit late by introducing the Tiguan in the global market in 2007.

This Teutonic SUV managed to gain moderate success globally, and in 2013 the domestic market finally got a taste of the Tiguan. Unfortunately, the market felt shortchanged since the variant came with the old platform which is a deal breaker in my book. Volkswagen reintroduced the Tiguan this year with a lot of expectations from a misjudged market. Will it be a game changer and have more amenities that will justify its P2.2M price tag?

The folks at Volkswagen PH provided me with the smaller, standard wheelbase version of the Tiguan. Despite its compact measurements, this model has grown by 3.1 inches in wheel-

For more details on Waze visit: www.waze.com

base specs in comparison to the previous model. The rear seats also offer more space and have tons of it at the rear compartment. This unit is powered by a rather “lazy” 1400 cc turbo gasoline engine, pumping out 149bhp with 250NM of torque.

Volkswagen Ph says it has a turbo diesel unit version and I have already expressed my intent of driving one out for a long weekend.

In terms of handling, the Tiguan will vie to be the most crisp and sporty entrant in its segment, and will give its competitors, including the Mazda CX-5 a serious run for its money. This 2017 version is 100 pounds lighter and engineers

tuned the chassis just right for comfortable long drives with a bit of body roll during cornering. This baby can run circles around the RAV4 and can go head to head with the Honda CR-V with blood on its nose.

The only downside for this unit is the gasoline engine, which sadly pales in comparison with its Japanese counterparts. I bet the turbo diesel is the best bang for your buck. Style wise, the Tiguan can confidently hold its head up high with its chiseled features, LED front and rear lamp clusters and most importantly, you get that solid Ger-

man feel. It feels like a comfortable armored personnel carrier.

The dashboard layout is well designed and driver controls are idiot proof.

As much as we like the new Tiguan, we lament the fact that it is actually less powerful than its predecessor. In this Euro- spec version, it has all the mix to be a segment leader, with its tasteful design, rich materials, and highend features. If the Tiguan is to carve its own niche in this Japanese dominated market, Volkswagen needs to equip its models with a “wow” factor. Filipinos are a picky bunch you know.

The cockpit controls are driver friendly

The latest version is slightly bigger than its predecessor

The perfect travel companion YOU now have something to look forward to during roadtrips with Focal’s line of perfect travel buddies. Designed and engineered to maximize your listening pleasure, Focal’s Spirit One S, Spirit Classic and Spirit Professional offer an audio experience worthy of the brand’s high-fidelity loudspeakers through these line of premium headphones.

The Sprit One S was developed to take full advantage of Focal’s technological advancements and the company expertise acquired down the years about headphones technology. It is destined for all those who are searching for more than just a stylish product, but also for real acoustic equipment.

For the discerning audiophile, Focal’s Spirit Classic headphones offer a warm sound combined with the dynamics of the transducers will enable you to find the pleasure of listening to all of your music with wonderful details. Spirit Classic’s sound tuning is perfect for listening at home: extended low end, a detailed mid-range and linear top end for a lighter, open sound: all you would expect from Focal.

Spirit Classic give its best when the user is at home in a relatively quiet background.

For the professional who demand the absolute best, Focal’s Spirit Professional headphones have been

specifically designed to meet the expectations and requirements of Recording Studios, Home Studios and Broadcasting Studios. The extreme care paid to the design of the Mylar - Titanium alloy transducer enabled us to combine rigidity, lightness and high damping properties to preserve the dynamics of the audio signal and to provide remarkably neutral sound without any distortion. The highly accurate reproduction of bass frequencies will reveal the smallest defects in the mix, while avoiding acoustic constraints of the workspace. Spirit Professional offers excellent acoustic insulation to address the constraints of the often noisy environments specific to Broadcasting and Home Studios.

LGUs

Estrada unveils ‘modern’ OMMC

By Sandy Araneta MANILA Mayor Joseph Estrada on Wednesday led the unveiling of the fully-renovated and modernized Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center, one of the city’s six public hospitals, in yet another milestone in the capital’s healthcare program.

The OMMC is now comparable to modern and fully equipped government hospitals in Singapore through the P300 million fund allotted by Estrada, hospital director Dr. Rachel Marinas said.

“Yes, we’re a public hospital built for indigent patients. But with the improvements introduced by Mayor Estrada, we’re now like a private hospital, and we can even compare our hospital to public hospitals in Singapore, which has some of the best healthcare in the world,” Marinas said.

Dr. Loi Ejercito, who represented her husband the mayor during the hospital’s blessing on Wednesday—part of the weeklong celebration of the 446th Araw ng Maynila on June 24— was amazed by the OMMC’s complete transformation.

She said this was Estrada’s gift to poor Manileños who could not afford quality healthcare services that are normally provided in expensive private hospitals.

Built in 1969 during the tenure of Mayor Arsenio Lacson, the 300-bed OMMC has undergone a complete facelift under Estrada—boasting a new building and lobby, new operating room complex, surgery, and Intensive Care Unit wards, and modernized Medicine, Ophthalmology, and Pediatrics departments.

Estrada’s administration also procured state-of-the art medical and laboratory equipment such ECG machines, 2D echo machine, evoked otoacoustic emission machine, biological refrigerator, phacoemulsification machine, morgue freezer, video laryngoscope, fully automated hematology analyzer, coagulated analyzer, chemistry analyzer, digital fluoroscopy and x-ray machines, among others.

Marinas said all these equipment and medical services are free of charge for every Manileño.

When he assumed office in 2013, Estrada initiated a P500-million rehabilitation of the six city-run hospitals and 59 community health centers, including the acquisition of a long line of brand new hospital equipment and facilities.

One of the hospitals, Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital, was recently ISOcertified. The other city-run hospitals are Sta. Ana Hospital, Ospital ng Tondo, Ospital ng Sampaloc, and Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center.

In November 2016, the city acquired a P36-million stateof-the-art CT scan machine for GABMMC. In April last year, the city government acquired a P117-million MRI machine for the Ospital ng Maynila on top of more brand-new CT scan and digital X-ray machines.

Estrada also recently put up a dialysis center and an Eye Care Center at GABMMC.

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor Roger M. Garcia, Assistant Editor jimbo.gulle@gmail.com mslocalgov@gmail.com FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

C1

More powers for MMDA?

By Rio N. Araja

T

HE 36-member Quezon City council supports two measures in Congress to expand the powers and functions of the Metro Manila Development Authority.

District 1 Councilor Peter Anthony “Onyx” Crisologo on Wednesday said Quezon City, and the other 15 cities and one municipality making up the National Capital Region, supports giving the MMDA more teeth to implement uniform policies, guidelines, and programs and projects.

“For example, there is Ordinance No. 550 in Mandaluyong City, allowing only spouses, par-

ents and siblings to be with motorcycle riders. On the other hand, Quezon City has its own, too, regulating child back riders on motor bikes. Both have different features,” he told reporters.

Crisologo, a director of the Metro Manila Councilors League, represented group president and District 2 Caloocan City Councilor Carolyn Cunanan in the recent meeting of a technical working group created

by Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo.

Castelo, as chairman of the House committee on Metro Manila development, wanted to thresh out and study the details of his own House Bill 4642 and Marikina City Rep. Bayani Fernando’s HB 5057.

Under the proposed measures, the Metro Manila Council, MMDA’s policy-making body, would ensure that the policies, guidelines, programs and projects of the 17 localities in the metropolis are consistent with one another and with the Authority.

“We welcome both bills aimed at coming up with a clear-cut role of the MMDA and that of the local government unit,” Cri-

sologo stressed.

The technical working group is dissecting the provisions of HB 4642 to amend Republic Act 7924 that created the MMDA. The proposals aim to give the agency the power to review development permits with metrowide transport and traffic impacts, undertake the delivery of basic services in coordination with and authority of the local government, and ensure all 17 LGUs are well-informed of the MMC’s approved ordinances with penal sanctions through publication in a daily newspaper.

HB 5057, on the other hand, aimed to strengthen the MMDA by amending its charter.

Under the proposal, the MMDA may deputize personnel from the

Philippine National Police, local traffic bureaus, duly licensed security guards, or any member from a non-government organization to enforce all traffic laws and regulations metro-wide.

The Authority would also promulgate rules and regulations, set policies and standards, and enact ordinances for metrowide application, per the proposal of Fernando, a former MMDA chairman.

“The beauty of both proposals is that their issues are not confined to traffic concerns alone.

Both bills would address many other important issues, such as problems on waste management and disposal and flooding,” Crisologo said.

Turn to C2

RESILIENCE ART.

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda receives the ‘Artwork of Commitment’ during the launching of the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute at the Bahay ng Alumni at the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City on Tuesday. Also in photo (from left) are professor Leonilo Doloricon, UP president Danilo Concepcion, and UPRI executive director Dr. Alfredo Mahar Francisco Lagmay. Norman Cruz

Author Gil latest to gain Makati centenarian gift

By Joel E. Zurbano THE Makati City government on Wednesday gave a P100,000 cash gift to an educator and book author named as the latest centenarian awardee in the city this year.

Mayor Abigail Binay personally greeted 100-year-old Avelina J. Gil—a famous writer and author—by paying her a visit at her home in Barangay Poblacion last Wednesday and awarding her incentive check, a bouquet of flowers and a plaque of recognition.

Gil is one of three new centenarians recognized by the city government this year. A resident of Makati since 1962, she graduated cum laude at the University of the Philippines with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Education at the age of 19.

Upon her retirement from teaching,

Gil became the editor-in-chief of Phoenix Publishing House.

Two other new centenarians visited by Binay were Emilia R. San Luis of Barangay Sta. Cruz and Zita D. Relova of Barangay San Antonio.

To date, 41 centenarians have received the P100,000 cash gift. This recognition of Makati centenarians started in 2012 through City Ordinance No. ‪‪2012-099.

The first batch of centenarians awarded in January 2013 consisted of nine people—only one man among them—and four of them were honored posthumously.

In 2014, nine centenarians also were awarded P100,000, done quarterly upon the recommendation of the Makati Social Welfare Department to increase the chances of recipients being able to at-

PCSO to pay for child’s hospital bill THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office will help the troubled security guard who holed himself up in a room of a mall in Quezon City on Wednesday owing to his sick child who needs surgery.

PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan said he directed his staff to coordinate with the Quezon City Police District when he heard the news over the radio to determine how the agency can help the child.

Police identified the troubled offduty guard as Hermigildo Marsula Jr. of Bulacan and of Grandiose Security and Services Corp., who was drunk when the incident happened at the Eton Centris Mall.

“The PCSO is always ready to help Filipinos, whether they are rich or poor, we are always ready to help them,” Balutan said, noting the agency was fulfilling its mandate to help every Filipino in need of medical assistance.

Balutan said every Filipino in need should not hesitate to seek help from the PCSO to avoid what happened to Marsula.

“The PCSO is one with the government in fulfilling the dream of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte that no one will die due to sickness because they don’t have money to pay for hospitalization,” Balutan said.

For his part, PCSO chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz assured the

family of Marsula the agency will help in paying the hospital for the child’s operation.

“That is our mandate, to assist the medical and financial needs of Filipinos, whether they are security guards or any Juan dela Cruz,” Corpuz said.

“As I always say, the agency does not choose who to help, everyone is welcome here. That is the real mandate of the agency, to help those in need,” Balutan added.

“We have 57 PCSO branches in different parts of the country, you can submit the required documents to the nearest branch for us to give you financial assistance,” he said.

tend the awarding ceremony themselves.

For the first quarter of 2015, three lady centenarians were awarded with similar cash gifts.

The honorees were able to meet the criteria set by the MSWD as the lead implementer of the BLU Card Program:

1) He or she must be a Filipino citizen; 2) The person must be a bonafide resident of Makati; 3) The person must reach 100 years old between January to December of the current year; and 4) The person must be a BLU Card and Turn to C2

LGUs

Standard FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017 C2 TODAY Manila

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South Railway line to push through T HE South line of the North-South Railway Project that would provide a reliable railway system between Bicol and Manila will finally push through under the Duterte administration after a number of hitches in the past.

President Rodrigo Duterte is set to officially approve the project, now costing P285 billion, by the end of the month, Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said Wednesday.

Salceda earlier assured Bicolanos the project would push through, this time under a different procurement method, since it “remains a priority investment

project of the national government and a vitally urgent infrastructure for Southern Luzon.”

It involves a new sets of railway tracks from Tutuban in Manila to Legazpi City in Albay, then to Matnog in Sorsogon, crossing the Southern Tagalog region and mainland Bicol.

Previously estimated at P171

billion, the project was reportedly stricken out of the Department of Transportation’s Public Private Partnership projects list due to funding and investment problems.

It was reclassified under the direct expenditure scheme, which means the national government and Congress “would find ways to look for the needed financing to implement it,” said Salceda, senior vice chairman of the house ways and means committee.

He said Japan and China both recently committed to the project, which is scheduled to start this year and would be completed by 2021, within the term of President Duterte.

Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, in a separate statement, also assured the NSRP south line would be finished under the President’s tenure.

“As I have been advised, the Tutuban-Los Banos line would be financed, and therefore implemented, by Japan, and the Los Banos-Matnog line would be financed by China. This is a critical and central project of President Duterte,” said Salceda.

The lawmaker recently consulted with Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, and National Economic and Development Authority Deputy

Director General Rolando G. Tungpalan.

The NSRP south line was one of three railway projects approved by the Neda Investment Coordination Committee during the joint technical board and Cabinet Committee meeting last June 1.

It was approved in 2015 by the Bicol Regional Development Council, which Salceda chaired, and endorsed to the Neda InterAgency Coordinating Committee for PPP. It was approved by the Neda Board on Feb. 16, 2015.

Salceda said the South Railway Line, when completed, will vastly improve connectivity and effi-

ciency among urban centers and regional growth hubs, and thus enhance productivity in the industry, services and agriculture sectors It will further boost Bicol’s tourism by as much as 30 percent, which forms part of the predicted 24 percent in economic returns it will bring to the countryside when fully operationalized, the Albay solon added.

The lawmaker, one of the most ardent proponents of the project, said the NRSP South Line completes Albay’s multi-modal transport model—air, sea, road and rails—and is expected to unlock the huge potential of Bicol, particularly Albay, the regional center.

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From C1 Meanwhile, in celebration of the Philippine Environment Month this June, the Quezon City government through the QC Environment Protection and Waste Management Department will conduct a simultaneous clean-up activity in all rivers and creeks that traverse the city on June 28 and 30 from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m.

The clean-up aims to make Quezon City’s four major river systems and its 41 tributaries clean and clear of solid waste; provide jobs to at least 120 indigent residents; encourage public concern for the environment; and raise awareness on the benefits that can be gained by protecting the environment.

It would also organize groups that will be responsible in continuously maintaining the cleanliness of the city’s river ways.

In 2015, the EPWMD, through its Riverways Cleaning Operations Group, collected 1,824 cubic meters of solid waste from the four rivers.

CENTENARIAN.

Makati Mayor Abby Binay greets 100-year-old Avelina J. Gil as she paid a visit to the latter’s home in Barangay Poblacion on Wednesday. The mayor awarded a P100,000 check, a bouquet of flowers. and a plaque of recognition to Gil, one of three new centenarians recognized by the city government.

Two other new centenarians Binay visited were Emilia R. San Luis of Barangay Sta. Cruz and Zita D. Relova of Barangay San Antonio. See related story on C1.

RT-23492 (302329) REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES TITLE NO. 384 SQ. METERS METROPOLITAN TRIAL COURT AREA: REG. OWNER: SPS. HERMINIO BRANCH XL (40) – QUEZON CITY DOMINGO AND

SPS. FIDEL M. PASION JR. and CESARIA A. PASION, Plaintiff/s.

LOCATION:

CARMELITA MAGNO 49 CENTRAL BOULEVARD, Q.C. (P. Tuazon, Quezon City)

-versus-

NOW THEREFORE, by virtue of CIVIL CASE NO.: 05-34708 the said WRIT and in accordance with Rule 39, Sec. 19 of the Rules of Court, FOR: SUM OF MONEY the undersigned Sheriff hereby gives notice to all interested parties and to HERMINIO DOMINGO the public in general.

Defendant/s x--------------------------------x

That on July 19, 2017 at 10:00 o clock in the morning at the 3rd floor Hall of Justice Quezon City will sold at PUBLIC AUCTION to the GREETINGS: highest bidder for cash the described WHEREAS, by virtue of the WRIT properties to satisfy the said execution OF EXECUTION dated MAY 26, and sale.

2009 issued by Judge JOSEPHUS JOANNES H. ASIS of Metropolitan Please be guided accordingly.

Trial Court branch XL (40) Quezon Quezon City, Metro Manila, May 19, City, for recovery of the principal 2017. amount of P 119,217.00 plus cost, interest, attorneys fees and expenses (Sgd.) ANDRES R. LACORTE in the above-entitled case, levy was SHERIFF III made by the Sheriff of this Court on WARNING: September 10, 2009 thru the Register It is absolutely prohibited to remove of Deeds of Quezon City the rights, Deface, or destroy this Notice of Sale interest, and participation of said on or before the date of the sale, defendant HERMINIO DOMINGO, in Under penalty of the law. the REAL PROPERTY including its (MS-June 23, 30, Jul. 7, 2017) improvements described as follows:

NOTICE OF SHERIFF’S SALE

RESERVE YOUR AD SPACE NOW! email us at advertise @ manilastandard. net or call us at 832-5547

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC Notice is hereby given that Mr. Ariel L. Perez officially resigned as Marine Personnel Coordinator and is no longer connected with TEEKAY SHIPPING PHILIPPINES, INC. effective June 9, 2017.

Any transactions made by him on the company’s behalf will not be honored.

TEEKAY SHIPPING PHILIPPINES, INC. In compliance with POEA Requirement POEA-029-SB-042605-R (MS-JUNE 23, 2017)

Republic of the Philippines Department of Agriculture Bureau Of Fisheries And Aquatic Resources REGIONAL OFFICE NO. 4-A 2/f, ICC Bldg., NIA Cmpd., EDSA, Diliman, Quezon City TeleFax: (02) 926-86-16

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC TO

: ALL COMMERCIAL FISHING VESSEL OWNERS/ OPERATORS Cavite, Batangas, Quezon

WHAT

CONSULTATION ON FAOs : PUBLIC IMPLEMENTING RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE VESSEL MONITORING MEASURES (VMM)/VESSELMONITORING SYSTEM (VMS) AND FISHERIES OBSERVER COVERAGE

WHEN

: July 7, 2017

WHERE : Legazpi City In accordance with Rule 65.2 (c) of the Rules and Regulations implementing Republic Act No. 8550, as amended by R.A. No. 10654, all commercial fishing vessel owners/operators in Region 4A (CALABARZON) are hereby notified and invited to attend the abovementioned public consultation.

The exact final venue shall be disseminated once the bidding process is completed. For more information, please contact Ms. Virginia M. Bartolome at mobile number 0998-991-0432 or email at bfar4afmred@gmail.com.

(Signed) DR. LILIAN C. GARCIA, CESE Regional Director (MS-JUNE 23, 2017)

Air ambulances need fixing

By Macon Ramos-Araneta two to three flights a day. This to gunshot wounds, multiple stab THE Department of Health in Mimaropa is temporarily suspending its air ambulance service out of Palawan, as the airplanes need preventive maintenance and scheduled check-up, Regional Director Eduardo C. Janairo said Wednesday.

The air ambulance normally averages three flights a day out of Palawan, but DOH-Mimaropa is still procuring the parts needed to repair the planes from abroad, as they are not available here in the country.

“We have not anticipated the numerous requests for passenger transport, and upon inspection of the aircrafts, it is found out that several parts need to be replaced immediately in both of the aircrafts,” said Janairo.

“The air ambulance averages

is how essential the demand for emergency patient transport is due to the isolated island barangays that make up the province of Palawan,” he added.

A total of 92 patients had been transported by the two air ambulances since the start of the partnership of DoHMimaropa and the Philippine Adventist Medical Aviation Services Inc. through a memorandum signed on Feb. 8, 2017.

Per DoH records, 12 trauma patients were transported in February, 35 emergency patients in March, 24 in April, and 21 last May. The patients’ ages ranged from 2 months to 70 years old.

Janairo said the medical conditions of the patients transported were hemorrhages, kidney and heart problems, trauma due

wounds, and other emergency conditions needing a higher level of treatment and care.

Patients came from the islands of Cuyo, Magsaysay, Balabac, and the mountain areas of Brooke’s Point, Palawan, and the air ambulance even transported patients from Zamboanga and Tawi-Tawi.

Several severe cases were brought to Manila for proper treatment.

“Emergency response vehicles, including aircraft ambulances, must be maintained regularly for safety and reliability during operations. While occasional mechanical failures are inevitable, much can be done to prevent them,” Janairo emphasized.

“We shall resume our regular operation once the necessary parts are replaced and the aircraft are fit to fly again,” he added.

Mindanao showcase at SM Aura TO MARK the end the Ramadan, the Anak Mindanao party-list (AMIN) is presenting an exhibit on the ethnic culture of Mindanao at the atrium of the SM Aura in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Dubbed “Muslim in the Philippines: History and Culture,” the exhibit will be inaugurated

by AMIN party-list Representative and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao First Lady Sittie Djalia A. Turabin-Hataman on June 26.

According to Rep. TurabinHataman, the exhibit is a traveling show co-sponsored by SM Malls. Its first stop was at SM North Edsa in Quezon City, where it attracted hundreds of shoppers who checked out the ethnic fashions being modeled by a group of young cultural dancers.

Mall goers also had the chance to enjoy the traditional tribal music performed with indigenous instruments.

The exhibit was designed by curator Marian Pastor Reyes of TAO Inc. As with the first show at SM North Edsa, the exhibit at SM Aura will display several artifacts from the various tribes that inhabit Mindanao, from the Yakan to the Maranao.

Throughout the booths, cultural dancers will be garbed in traditional Muslim attire as a musician performs ethnic music using the indigenous instrument from Maguindanao, the kulintang.

Rep. Turabin-Hataman, the wife of ARMM Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman, hails from Basilan and has been championing Mindanao’s tribal culture.

The lawmaker said she also wanted to present Mindanao’s colorful heritage to the Filipino people, hence this traveling exhibit.

“With this show, we hope the Filipinos of Luzon will learn more

and understand the Mindanao culture, which has been thriving in the Philippines for over a thousand years now,” she said.

“That is why we included a timeline that follows the history of Mindanao, particularly the member provinces of the ARMM, which covers Basilan, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi,” the solon added.

Highlights of the show include century-old artifacts such as weapons, musical instruments, and decorative items from the Maranao, Maguindanao, the Tausug and Yakan, among others. Most of the items are from the personal collection of Rep. Turabin-Hataman.

After the exhibit at SM Aura, “Muslim in the Philippines: History and Culture” will move on to other major SM malls in Metro Manila and in other SM malls located in the major cities of Luzon.

Ayunan Gunting-Al-Hadj

ited free entrance to premier cinemas in Makati, free tours in Metro Manila and other parts of the country through “Lakbay White Card holder for at least Saya,” free salon and spa services, cakes on their birthday and five years.

Other privileges accorded to golden wedding anniversary, Makati seniors include unlim- free medical care and hospitali-

zation, and free and subsidized medicines for maintenance and various illnesses.

Elders are also exempted from the city’s number coding scheme, and upon their death, their beneficiaries are entitled to P3,000 in burial assistance.

Author...

From C1

IN BRIEF P700k for Kalinga poor from DSWD TABUK CITY, Kalinga—At least 35 indigent residents in the province were recently granted P700,000 worth of livelihood assistance under the Sustainable Livelihood Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The recipients, who are members of the Istay-MakunNa Sustainable Livelihood Program Association (SLPA), went through seven days of skills training on bread and pastry production, in partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

The DSWD also provided their training and assessment fees and starter kits, like baking equipment, utensils, and ingredients.

Of Istay-Makun-Na SLPA’s 35 members, 27 are Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries, while eight are certified indigents who earn a living from farming and manual labor.

SLP is a community-based capacity building program that increases the economic opportunities of the families through the different modalities like the Microenterprise Development-Skills Training (MD-ST). Brenda Jocson

Cavite City Regada Water Festival set ALL roads leads to historic Cavite City as it stages its annual “Mardi Gras” Regada Water Festival on June 24 along P. Burgos Avenue to the corner of Salamanca Road.

Thousands of local and foreign tourists are expected to join the 22nd Water Festival, with water sprinklers and fire trucks installed along the streets.

The Water Festival, which coincides with the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, is celebrated every June 24 all over the country.

The festivity full of culture and old-school fun will lead

by Mayor Totie Paredes, Vice Mayor Denver Reyes Chua, and Councilor Ian Barron.

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World

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

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IN BRIEF North Korea calls Trump a psychopath SEOUL―North Korea on Thursday called US President Donald Trump a “psychopath” as tensions soar following the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who was evacuated in a coma from North Korean detention last week.

Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the US president was in a “tough situation” at home and claimed he was toying with the idea of a preemptive strike on North Korea to divert attention from a domestic political crisis.

“South Korea must realize that following psychopath Trump...will only lead to disaster,” an editorial carried by the paper said.

A series of atomic tests and missile launches since last year have ratcheted up tensions on the Korean peninsula, and Warmbier’s death has further strained relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

Trump slammed the “brutal regime” in Pyongyang, and said he was determined to “prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency.”

His language was echoed

by South Korean President Moon Jae-In, who said in an interview ahead of a White House visit next week that North Korea bears responsibility for the student’s death.

“I believe we must now have the perception that North Korea is an irrational regime,” Moon told CBS television’s “This Morning.”

Moon, a center-left politician who was sworn in last month after a landslide election win, favors engagement with the North, rather than the hard-line stance taken by his ousted conservative predecessor Park Geun-Hye. AFP

Tycoon backs charges against President Park SEOUL―A top South Korean business tycoon on Thursday in court backed prosecutors allegations that the ousted South Korean president Park Geun-Hye solicited bribes from businesses in return for policy favors.

Chey Tae-Won, chairman of SK, the country’s second largest conglomerate after Samsung, became the first business mogul who took the stand at what is being dubbed in South Korea “the trial of the century”.

Chey was one of seven tycoons that Park held confidential meetings with in February last year.

She denies the allegations, arguing companies made voluntary donations to two foundations she said were aimed to help develop sports and culture.

Chey admitted in court that he had sought government approval for a merger and acquisition project, a license for duty free shop and the early release of his brother who was in jail for embezzlement when he met Park near the presidential Blue House.

One of Park’s top aides, Ahn Jong-Beom, now arrested, asked SK to donate an additional 8.9 billion won ($7.8 million) to one of two foundations allegedly controlled by Choi Soon-Sil, a confidante of the impeached ex-president.

SK, which had already donated 11.1 billion won to Choi’s foundations, rejected the request and its request for policy favors was declined.

“Is it true that the accused Park Geun-Hye expressed gratitude over the 11.1 billion won SK had donated and asked for continuous cooperation (for the two foundations)?”, prosecutor Lee WonSeok asked. AFP

HEAT WAVE. Young men jump into the river Aare on June 21, 2017 in Bern. Europe sizzled in a continent-wide heat wave with London bracing for Britain’s hottest June day since 1976 as Portugal battled to stamp out deadly forest fires. Cooler weather was aiding their efforts, but thermometers were still hovering around 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), a level matched across oven-like swathes of Europe, including Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and even alpine Switzerland. AFP

Ethiophians face starvation W ARDER, Ethiopia―The Somali people of Ethiopia’s southeast have a name for the drought that has killed livestock, dried up wells and forced hundreds of thousands into camps: sima, which means “equalized”.

It’s an appropriate name, they say, because this drought has left no person untouched and spared no corner of their arid region.

And it has forced 7.8 million people across the whole of Ethiopia to rely on emergency food handouts to stay alive.

But by next month, that food will have run out, aid agencies say.

Droughts are common in Ethiopia, and in past years the government and the international community have mounted impressive efforts to curb starvation.

This year though, Africa’s second most-populous country is struggling to find the money for food aid, say aid agencies.

“We’re looking at the food pipeline actually breaking, so the food is running out in about a month’s time,” said John Graham, country director for Save the Children.

“After that, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Once a global byword for starvation and poverty after a famine in 1984-85 killed hundreds of thousands, Ethiopia has seen its economy grow rapidly in the

last decade. Health indicators such as infant mortality and malaria deaths have also improved.

A stronger economy allowed Ethiopia to spend an impressive $766 million (683 million euros) fighting one of its worst droughts in decades in 2015-16.

This year, however, things are different.

Economic growth has slowed, due in part to protests spurred by long-simmering grievances against Ethiopia’s one-party state.

Donors have also been distracted by other regional crises.

To the southeast, Somalia is suffering from severe drought, with warnings it could tip into famine.

Ethiopia’s western neighbor, South Sudan, has suffered four months of famine, and extreme hunger is at its highest levels ever after more than three years of civil war.

Ethiopia by contrast has a strong central government and is relatively free from conflict.

But with the situation so desperate in the region, donors aren’t responding to the country’s emergency as they have in the past, said Mitiku Kassa, head of Ethiopia’s National Disaster Risk Management Commission, Mitiku Kassa.

“They are stressed with the needs, especially from those countries which (have) declared famine,” Mitiku said. “That is why it is underfunded.”

Even though Ethiopia has contributed $117 million of its own money this year and the international community $302 million, a funding gap of $481 million remains, according to the United Nations.

In the drought ravaged town of Warder, the hundreds of displaced families crowding a ram-

shackle camp say handouts of rice and sugar are becoming less frequent.

“Skipping meals is common,” said Halimo Halim, a grandmother living with her children in a shelter made of sticks and pieces of plastic. “Skipping is the order of the day.”

Families of nomadic herders such as Halimo’s are central to the economy of Ethiopia’s southeastern Somali region.

The drought has deprived goats, sheep and donkeys of water, killing them or making them so weak that by the time the rains come they perish in the cold.

Around 465,000 people who have lost their livestock have migrated to an estimated 250 camps in the region.

The settlements are often located near water sources, but that presents its own problems. AFP

Glacier samples set for global archives

COOLING OFF. Children cool off in the running water flowing from a fire hydrant in Pantin near Porte de La Villette, north of Paris, on June 21, 2017. AFP

LA PAZ―Scientists studying global warming recently climbed Bolivia’s towering Mount Illimani and extracted samples of glacier ice packed with thousands of years of climate data.

The international ICE Memory project team braved low oxygen and bitter, ice-cold wind that whipped them mercilessly at an altitude of 6,300 meters to drill deep into the glacier and pull out two cylinders of ice.

The weather was too dangerous for the team to extract a third sample as originally planned.

The ICE Memory project members, who have completed a similar task at Mont Blanc in the Alps, will take their samples to a research station in Antarctica.

One of the samples will be studied, and the other one preserved.

Their goal is to create an “ice archive sanctuary in Antarctica ... in an effort to preserve ice cores from the world’s key endangered glaciers,” according to the group’s website, which is sponsored by

the French and Italian national commissions for UNESCO. That way, future scientists “will still have enough highquality raw material to investigate and make future discoveries,” says the site.

“This second expedition has been a fantastic collective success,” said Patrick Ginot, ICE Memory expedition coordinator.

The team of 15 scientists from France, Russia, Brazil and Bolivia, supported by some 30 porters and guides, faced extreme conditions in their May 22-June 18 quest for the ice samples.

One of the samples taken reached all the way down to the bedrock at a depth of 137 meters into the glacier, and the second to 134 meters, ICE Memory said.

These long shafts of ice were then cut into smaller lengths and taken away in heatproof cylinders.

The samples were treated as precious relics once they were returned to base camp and carefully stored for transportation. AFP

IS blows up mosque were Baghdadi became ‘caliph’ BAGHDAD―Jihadists on Wednesday blew up Mosul’s iconic leaning minaret and the adjacent mosque where their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014 declared himself “caliph” in his only public appearance, Iraqi officials said.

The Islamic State group swiftly issued a statement via its Amaq propaganda agency blaming a US strike, but the US-led coalition condemned the destruction as a crime against “the people of Mosul and all of Iraq”.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi said the destruction of the sites was “an official declaration of defeat” from the jihadists in the eight-month-old battle for Mosul.

“Our forces were advancing toward their targets deep in the Old City and when they got to within 50 meters of the Nuri mosque, Daesh [IS] committed another historical crime by blowing up the Nuri mosque and the Hadba” mosque, Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir Yarallah, the overall commander of the Mosul offensive, said in a statement.

The destruction of two of Mosul’s best-known landmarks comes on the fourth day of an Iraqi offensive backed by the USled coalition to take the Old City, where holdout jihadists are making a bloody last stand.

It adds to a long list of Iraqi heritage sites and monuments the jihadist organization has destroyed in Iraq and Syria since Baghdadi created his “caliphate” straddling both countries, almost exactly three years ago.

IS proclaimed its self-styled “caliphate” in June 2014, after sweeping across Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland, an unprecedented experiment in jihadist statehood.

The Iraq-born Baghdadi appeared at the Nuri mosque in Mosul, Iraq’s second city, days later to declare himself “caliph” and urge the world’s Muslims to move in.

It remains the last public appear-

ance to date for the jihadist supremo, whose fate and whereabouts are currently unclear and whose “state” has been shrinking for two years.

Iraqi forces on Sunday launched an assault on the Old City of Mosul, eight months into a huge offensive to wrest back the northern city from the jihadists, who had made it their de facto Iraqi capital.

The ancient minaret known as “Al-Hadba” (Hunchback) lies next to the Nuri mosque and was the most loved and recognizable landmark in Mosul, sometimes referred to as Iraq’s Tower of Pisa.

The “Hadba” was completed in 1172 and had distinctive orna-

mental bands of brickwork wrapping around its cylindrical shaft.

It started listing centuries ago and has long been considered an endangered monument.

The minaret, with its unmistakable shape, was the symbol of the city and featured in many local shops signs and advertisements. It gave its name to countless restaurants, companies and sports clubs.

When IS imposed its tyrannic brand of sharia, or Islamic law, in the early stages of its “caliphate”, it destroyed several key heritage sites in Mosul, including the main museum and shrines to Jonah and Seth. AFP

World

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

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FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

Pakistanis gasping in grave pollution ISLAMABAD―Furhan Hussain moved to Islamabad seeking fresher air, only to find Pakistan’s leafy capital in a semi-permanent haze. Frustrated, he joined a vanguard of citizens monitoring pollution themselves amid a void in government data.

Fast-growing Pakistan is home to some 200 million people and suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the world, thanks to its giant population plying poorly maintained vehicles on the roads and unchecked industrial emissions.

Countries such as India and Sri Lanka publish statistics or warnings to help citizens cope when air pollution goes to dangerous levels.

But Pakistan is “one of few countries who do not monitor air quality”, says Hussain, of the informal PakAirQuality network, a group of concerned citizens monitoring pollution in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi then publishing their data on Twitter.

The lack of official information means citizens may be unaware of what they are breathing in. And without irrefutable data charting the scale of the problem it can be difficult to enforce change.

The issue is acute in developing Pakistan, where emissions standards often go ignored partly because of a belief the country cannot afford to hamper its economic growth, says Imran Saqib Khalid of the Islamabad-based Sustainable Development Policy Institute.

Government policies do not outline a long-term strategy or move towards renewables.

Instead, Pakistan is building some 13 coal-fired power plants with Chinese assistance under a $50 billion investment plan.

Officials insist these will not affect air quality. “Usage of ultra critical technology has been ensured to reduce emissions,” an official from the Ministry of Climate Change told AFP. Without data, it can be impossible to prove otherwise.

The situation becomes particularly dire in the north during winter, when cities are blanketed in thick toxic smog reminiscent of Victorian England’s ‘pea-soupers’. AFP

FILM FESTIVAL. A general view of the atmosphere at the ‘Celestial Cinema’ during day one of the 2017 Maui Film Festival At Wailea on June 21, 2017 in Wailea, Hawaii. AFP

Lean on North Korea, Tillerson urges China W ASHINGTON―US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday urged Chinese officials to apply greater diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to force Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear weapons program.

Tillerson’s remarks came after he and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis met with the Chinese visitors at the State Department, where Mattis said he saw scope for an improved defense relationship.

The extent to which Beijing can influence Pyongyang is a key issue in trying to defuse the North Korea crisis, and Tillerson’s remarks came the day after President Donald Trump appeared to suggest China’s President Xi Jinping had come up short in efforts to lean on Kim Jong-Un’s regime.

Calling North Korea the “top security threat” to the United States, Tillerson said China has a “diplomatic responsibility to

exert much greater economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime if they want to prevent further escalation in the region.”

Trump-who frequently denounced China on the campaign trail―has turned to Beijing to help pressure its ally North Korea, prompting concern among Asian partners that America might go easy on the South China Sea territorial dispute.

But on Tuesday, Trump sent a tweet suggesting Xi’s efforts had not borne fruit.

“While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know

China tried!” Trump tweeted.

He did not elaborate on what might happen next if China, by far the North’s most important trading and diplomatic partner, is out of ideas.

Tillerson said the US and Chinese officials had agreed that companies from both countries should not do business with any UN-designated North Korean entities.

In Beijing, officials insisted that they have not given up hope of influencing Pyongyang and that the problem is not China’s alone.

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China was not the “focus and the crux” of the crisis.

“In order to resolve the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, China has been making unremitting efforts and we have been playing an important and constructive role,” Geng said.

Last month, Beijing and Washington signed a limited deal to open new markets for each other’s exports, and a long-standing friend of the Chinese leadership, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad,

was confirmed as US ambassador.

But tensions remain―particularly over China’s building of artificial islands in disputed South China Sea waters.

“Secretary Mattis and I were clear that the US position remains unchanged,” Tillerson said.

“We oppose changes to the status quo of the past through the militarization of outposts in the South China Sea and excessive maritime claims unsupported by international law.”

Still, Mattis encouraged greater communication with the Chinese military and said it was important to look to areas of expanded cooperation, including some sort of officer exchange program to “improve transparency and mutual understanding.”

Despite international condemnation and sanctions, North Korea has a small nuclear arsenal and is developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that threaten Japan and South Korea -- and one day could even hit some US cities. AFP

Teachers learn to carry guns in the classrooms

BRISK BUSINESS. A rice vendor serves his customers from a stall in the Eminonu District in Istanbul on June 20, 2017, with the Suleymaniye Mosque in the background. AFP

LOS ANGELES―Teachers in Colorado are being trained to use guns, which they will be allowed to carry in classrooms to fire back in the event of a school shooting.

A group of 17 teachers and staff in Weld County are taking part in a three-day course this week organized by the conservative organization Coloradans for Civil Liberties.

Laura Carno, the founder of the group, told AFP that the so-called FASTER training is carried out by off-duty police officers who teach participants how to respond in the event of an emergency.

FASTER is the acronym for “Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response,” a program created in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children as well as six staff members were killed.

“The reason why [carrying weapons in schools] is developing is because it’s a dangerous world,” Carno said, referring to some of the mass shootings that have taken place in the United States in recent years.

Under Colorado law, staff at schools can carry concealed

weapons as long as they have a permit and are designated as security officers.

Carno said the majority of those taking part in the training this week work in rural districts where a police response could take 30 to 45 minutes.

The training involves lessons about gun safety and use as well as emergency response and how to overcome a threat as students flee a classroom that comes under attack.

“The purpose is not to replace police and emergency medical personnel, but to allow teachers, administrators, and other personnel on-site to stop school violence rapidly and render medical aid immediately,” according to FASTER’s website.

Such training, however, has been denounced by groups that favor gun control and who say weapons do not belong in schools.

“The dangers of adding guns to a school environment are dramatically increased by allowing loaded lethal weapons into a school environment on a daily basis―as the promoters of FASTER envision,” Ken Tolz, founder of Safe Campus Colorado, told the NBC station in Denver. AFP

Funeral to be held for Otto Warmbier CHICAGO―Otto Warmbier, the US college student imprisoned for more than a year by North Korea and sent back home in a coma that proved fatal, will be buried Thursday in his home state of Ohio.

Sentenced to hard labor for stealing a political poster from a North Korean hotel, the 22-yearold Warmbier was medically evacuated in a coma last week after nearly 18 months in captivity.

Suffering from severe brain damage, he died Monday in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

President Donald Trump slammed Warmbier’s detention and eventual death as “a total disgrace.”

Warmbier’s funeral will be held at Wyoming High School― located in the city of Wyoming, a suburb of Cincinnati―from which he graduated in 2013. He will then be buried in Cincinnati’s Oak Hill Cemetery.

Blue and white ribbons, the colors of the high school, were still tied to trees in the city of about 8,000 to show of support for Warmbier’s family after Otto’s recent return.

Warmbier’s father Fred earlier told reporters that his son was lured to North Korea, as other US tourists have been, by tour groups run out of China.

“Otto’s a young, thrill-seeking, great kid who was going to be in that part of the world for a college experience and said, ‘Hey, I’ve heard some friends who have done this. I would like to do this.’

So, we agreed to let him do that,” Fred Warmbier said.

“They lure Americans, and then they take them hostage and then they do things to them, and that’s what happened to my son,” he added.

Warmbier was arrested as he was about to leave North Korea and sentenced in March 2016 to 15 years of hard labor. Soon after his family heard nothing more about his fate Then, just before he was to be medically evacuated, the North Korean regime revealed that Warmbier had been in a coma for much of his imprisonment.

Warmbier died Monday of severe brain damage, which doctors said was likely due to cardiopulmonary arrest.

Medical tests did not show what precipitated his injuries, but also found no evidence of the botulism infection that North Korea claimed was the cause of his coma. AFP

Life

F

OR the two young lovers—Dr. Mark Agas and Kara Gozali— jewelry is more than just a luxurious gift, it’s an untold story.

“Kara is truly a unique woman,” shares the handsome young doctor of his ladylove.

Apart from being blessed with good looks (and winning personalities to boot!), the two share similar dreams, striving to build successful life in medicine. A step ahead of his girlfriend, Agas is a resident ophthalmologist at St. Luke’s Medical Center. Gozali, on the other hand, is a medical student at the University of Santo Tomas.

“I guess what separates her from other women I met is her being exceptionally stunning; she remains grounded. She is genuine, kind-hearted, family-oriented, God-fearing, and she’s effortlessly fun to be with. She’s the perfect partner,” the dashing 30-something beams.

The feeling is mutual, and the PMAP (Professional Models Association of the Philippines) model shares her same glowing sentiments of her beau, “It’s honestly so hard to find someone who says things as it is with no filter. That’s why I found Mark to be very refreshing. Of course, he’s so good-looking too!” she chuckles.

Gozali recalls their memorable first meeting, and being intensely fascinated with the handsome, young man. “Our conversation was just so fluid. You could talk to him about anything and everything with no second thoughts,” she reveals.

Unlike other suitors who had pursued her, Agas carried himself with a quiet confidence and was a little old-fashioned, which she found endearing. “He was warm and treated me like a true gentleman (would). The world lacks men like Mark nowadays.”

From opening doors, sending her a quick good luck text before a big exam, or surprising her with a hot cup of coffee to fuel her through late-night study sessions, he never forgot to show his love and appreciation through the little things. But he has no qualms as well with surprising her with grand display of love— such as giving gifts of jewelry.

“Jewelry is special because it is personalized,” he shares, answering why he prefers gifting his love with a little luxury.

“Jewelry that you bought 20 years ago will remain a classic piece 20, 30, or even a hundred years from now. It never gets old, because it transcends time.”

Unlike other tokens, jewelry entails a careful process of selection and consideration, which makes it such a thoughtful gift. “Whenever I give Kara jewelry, I won’t just pick any item.

There always has to be a meaning behind every detail. That’s how you show your infinite and unique affection,” he shares.

Gozali has been showered with many such gifts and considers herself loved and lucky.

“Jewelry, in my opinion, is a tangible representation of stories and memories. When Mark gives me jewelry and accessories, it makes me feel special. Contrary to what people think, jewelry is not an easy gift to give,” she explains. “No piece of jewelry

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

SHOPPING

D1

TOKEN OF LOVE.

Dr. Mark Agas and model Kara Gozali surprise and express love to each other with thoughtful gifts such as jewelry.

MARK AGAS AND KARA GOZALI

The couple shares similar dreams, as both strive to build successful life in medicine

LOVELY expressions

is bought ‘just because’. There’s a story behind it, and knowing the reasons why that person chose that particular design is kind of romantic. It’s just like a storybook waiting to be told,” she shares.

Gozali loves the many trinkets that Agas has given her so far, and some of her favorites have been from Thomas Sabo. But as much as she loves receiving these gifts, Kara finds greater satisfaction in giving them. “In any relationship, communication is key, and I believe that jewelry is one form of it. It is symbolic and flattering at the same time. When one gives jewelry, you know that time and effort was spent choosing the ‘best one’,” she says.

“Men, of course, don’t get minding

getting watches and jewelry, too!” she laughs. Agas couldn’t agree more.

The giving of gifts isn’t about being materialistic, they both agree, but in making sure that your loved one feels appreciated. People tend to forget the power of a simple and thoughtful gift.

Indeed, love should be recognized and nurtured—not just with gifts, but with words of kindness, respect and affection. Dr. Mark Agas and Kara Gozali, in their sweet unfolding love story, have always made it a point to remind each other of just that.

Thomas Sabo is available at Power Plant Mall, Alabang Town Center, SM Mall of Asia, SM Megamall, TriNoma and Greenbelt 3.

NBA’s

first official online store

S Maison is SM Supermalls's upscale lifestyle destination in the Mall of Asia complex

5 REASONS

why you should go to

S Maison

By Bernadette Lunas

THE 62nd SM Supermall, S Maison, continues to attract and intrigue, a year since its opening.

If you haven’t been in this upscale lifestyle destination, here are five reasons why you should go and discover SM Prime Holdings’s premier offering to shoppers and diners.

It makes you feel you’re inside an iridescent shell

surface treatments inside the mall like that inside of an iridescent shell. Seating areas on pods, meanwhile, resemble pearls out of a clam; large, organic-shape black pearls add luster to the lobby area.

Prix Versailles at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris recently recognized the water-theme design of the luxurious S Maison for design excellence in Interior Spaces-Shopping Malls category. “It’s a testament to our unwavering pursuit to deliver the most delightful of malling experiences,” enthuses SM Supermalls senior vice president Steven Tan.

S Maison brought these two dining establishments to the Philippines. Aside from Uma Uma Ramen and Bijin Nabe, also making their entry into Manila at S Maison are Mazendo, Chibo Okonomiyaki, Rossini Ristorante Italiano, and Epilogue Cafe.

Other dining outlets at the 25,534-square meter mall are XO 46 Heritage Bistro, Golden Cowrie, BLK 513, Texas Roadhouse, TWG, and Starbucks.

It features a curated mix of upscale

To complement the luxury liner architecture retail brands of The Conrad Manila—in which S Maison is It houses pioneering dining concepts The upscale mall offers an assortment of housed on the first and second levels—the inCraving for Uma Uma Ramen’s Hakata style unique retail outlets and luxury fashion brands, terior of the mall is designed after the idea of ramen? Curious about the Beauty Hotpot of Bi- such as bridal wear boutique Rosa Clara, lug“Pearl of the Orient.” jin Nabe? But couldn’t find them anywhere here gage label Zero Halliburton, golfing store EmFrench design firm Malherbe injected lustrous in the country?

Continued on D2

THE National Basketball Association (NBA) and International Athletic Trading Company, Inc. (IATC) launched NBAStore.com.ph, the first official online NBA Store in the Philippines. The online destination will provide fans across the Philippines with access to official NBA merchandise on their computer, mobile and tablet devices.

Managed by IATC, the mobile-optimized NBAStore.com.ph has a wide assortment of authentic NBA merchandise from all 30 teams, including jerseys, footwear, headwear, accessories, and collectibles from brands such as adidas, Mitchell & Ness, New Era, Nike, Spalding, Stance, Under Armour, and Upper Deck.

“The launch of NBAStore.com.ph strengthens our efforts to extend our reach further across the Philippine archipelago,” said IATC President and CEO Melvin Lloyd Lim. “We are committed to bringing the NBA closer to the fans by outfitting them with the latest authentic NBA merchandise.”

“With the combined presence of our four brick and mortar NBA Stores in the country and NBAStore. com.ph, we now can provide authentic NBA merchandise to our fans in the Philippines wherever they are,” said NBA Philippines managing director Carlo Singson. “NBAStore.com.ph gives us an exciting new platform to engage our fans, and provides them with another touchpoint to our players and teams.”

NBAStore.com.ph has payment options including credit card, cash-on-delivery, online banking, as well as over-the-counter bank deposits and non-bank partner outlets.

NBAStore.com.ph marks the league’s 14th branded international online store, with the league generating a third of its merchandise sales from outside the United States. The other 13 branded international sites are: nbastore.com. au (Australia), nbastore.co.nz (New Zealand), LojaNBA.com (Brazil), NBA.TMall.com, nbastore.cn, NBAJD.com and NBA Store WeChat (China), NBATienda.com (Mexico), NBAStore. eu (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), NBAStore. in (India), NBAStore.co.id (Indonesia), nbastore. tw (Taiwan), and nbastore.hk (Hong Kong).

For all the latest news and updates on the NBA and NBA Store Philippines, visit www.nba.com and follow the NBA on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ philsnba), Twitter (www.twitter.com/nba_ philippines) and Instagram (@nbastoreph).

D2

Life

B

H&M TEAM

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

EHIND any successful company are talented individuals who build it into what it is. Even for one of the world’s largest fashion retailers, H&M, their employees are their backbone.

The Swedish-born now-global company understands this fact, and instills in the core of H&M the importance of all their employees. As one of the leading and largest fashion retailers in the world, they have over 161,000 employees in different countries across the globe, including more than 700 employees in the Philippines since their opening here in 2014.

“Our values set us apart from the others,” Country HR Manager Gigi Mathay states proudly. “It’s not just a writing on the wall, but we live it, say it in casual conversations, and apply it even outside of work. We believe and respect in each one’s individuality and capabilities, and we are together in the great-shared adventure of servicing the customers’ wants and needs. This service-oriented approach and the regard for the employees’ well-being and growth are what make H&M a place of possibilities.”

“At H&M, it is important for us to foster healthy relationships among our teams. We’re very proud to see our employees continuously progressing and achieving success for themselves,” Mathay continues. “We want to keep inspiring our people not just to do great work, but especially to love what they do.”

The people who make the company can attest that H&M is a great place to work and build a career into. It comes down to positive culture and values, growth opportunities, capable and motivated team, and purposeful and challenging work—and these testimonies from H&M employees from different positions prove that the company has got all these.

It’s a goal for many to work for a global retail company, just like it was for H&M’s Indoor Window Responsible Jennifer Tantiado. “When I heard it was coming to the country, I jumped at the opportunity,” she shares. Tantiado joined in 2014 as a Visual Merchandiser and worked her way up to becoming Visual Merchandising Manager and then to the Indoor Window Responsible in-charge of window displays in all of the H&M stores; and a part of the Support Office Sales Team. Tantiado can

makes magic happen

Swedish fashion retailer H&M gives its employees endless possibilities and fosters healthy relationships among teams

say that H&M consistently opened doors of opportunities for her. She says she owes her success to “training with amazing mentors and working with a great bunch of people who supported and believed in [her].” And she, herself, is proof that H&M rewards hard work and commitment.

For VM Material Responsible Exzequiel Esquivel and Department Manager and Mentor Walter Ortiz, the company’s principles and regard for employees are what they admire most of H&M. “They prioritize progression for the employees, without discrimination,” says Ortiz who now holds a management position in the H&M flagship store. Esquivel, on the other hand, started out as a Visual Merchandiser for one of the H&M stores, and now coordinates with the global team and heads

Gigi Mathay, H&M Country HR Manager, shares that the regard for employees’ well-being and growth is what makes H&M a place of possibilities

the acquisition of all materials for store visuals.

He describes H&M as a “value driven company that believes in their people.

They discover and develop the talents

within them to help them grow.”

Jennifer de Leon also shares her appreciation for the “socially responsible” company “with a big heart” that teaches her new things every day. After work-

ing in another company for over 10 years, she wanted to expand her horizons and challenge herself in a new work environment. H&M provided just that when she started off as a Department Manager in H&M Canada. “I was given the chance to support in expansion, recruitment, and trainings,” she says, which exposed her to different skills and ideas. Then from there, she progressed to become a Store Manager in Vancouver. When the Philippine market was about to launch, she grabbed that opportunity to be reunited with her family and work in H&M Philippines.

She opened one of the first stores in the country as Store Manager. With her experience, she was able to work her way up to becoming the Area HR Manager who looks after the development and employee relations, and reports directly to the Country HR Manager.

Henrik Nordvall is a stellar example of how the company presents endless opportunities for their employees. Just like De Leon, Nordvall started out his now-nine-year career in H&M in another country. Straight from university, the fresh-grad went to work for H&M in Sweden, and eventually ended up working for the company in Norway, Hong Kong, Finland, United Kingdom and, in the last two years, Philippines, where he now stays with his family. He’s been employed in different roles, but now holds the position of Sales Manager. He says, “My journey in H&M has been fostered by encouraging team members, who have supported and believed in my capabilities from the beginning. I make sure to cultivate the same environment with my colleagues wherever H&M takes me. Within the H&M team, regardless of your position, you are counted on to contribute and share your opinion, and there is no prestige in being right or wrong. It is what allows us to continue carving great career paths for our evergrowing crop of new talents, especially here in the Philippines, where the people are already so driven and loyal.”

Seeing how fulfilled H&M’s employees are, it’s no wonder that the company has been so successful. H&M’s service doesn’t just go on when catering to customer’s style needs, but also in taking care of the people that make the brand the triumph that it is today, with over 4,135 stores in more than 63 markets worldwide—and growing. The company continues its expansion in the country with more stores and more opportunities waiting for future employees.

Log on to career.hm.com to find out what cool career opportunities are there for you.

Steltz, The Gallery’s annual sale HAVE you been looking for the perfect centerpiece for your home? Head over to Steltz, The Gallery for some serious retail therapy and where designer lighting fixtures are offered at big discounts as part of its annual sale which runs until June 30.

The red tag sale is exclusive to all FLOS collections featuring exquisite works by design icons Philippe Starck, Jasper Morrison, Achille Castiglioni, Antonio Citterio, and Marcel Wanders to name a few.

FLOS, a company founded in 1962

Pet Express Doggie Run 2017 5K winners 1st placer Cris Sabal (middle); 2nd placer Gian Sibayan; and 3rd placer Arsenio Ruenga with Pet Express AVP for Marketing Janine Ngo

Doggie Run 2017 at SM Mall Of Asia IT WAS a day of fun, fitness, and lots of furry friends during the Pet Express Doggie Run 2016 held recently at the SM Mall of Asia.

Now on its seventh year, the annual event is considered Manila’s biggest dogrun. More than that, it is for the benefit of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of humane treatment of all animals.

Runners had an early warm up before the run and enjoyed freebies and exciting games sponsored by Mogu-Mogu and Oishi. Raffle prizes were given to lucky runners like Danica de la Cruz, who won a Hisense LED TV. The Pet Express Doggie Run 2017 is a

project of Pet Express with the support of PAWS, Metromart.com, Acuaverde, Aurum One, Pedigree, Royal Canin, Hartz, Science Diet, Holistic Recipe, Cesar, SmartHeart, Saint Roche, Wahl, Hartz, Ezydog, Kong, Pawsh Couture, Bayopet, Canidae, Kibbles n Bits, and Dextrolyte.

For more info, visit Pet Express stores at SM Cubao, SM Mall of Asia, SM Hypermarket Store in Makati, SM City Masinag, SM City North Edsa, SM City Dasmariñas, SM Megamall and SM City Fairview, and Pet Express Stores In Alabang Hills.

Become a fan of Pet Express Facebook Page at PetExpressPH and follow @PetExpressPH on Instagram and Twitter.

5 reasons...

sit back in a La-Z Boy reclining chair as S Maison has not one, not two, but three state-of-the-art Director’s Club Cinemas each with 38-seating capacity.

pire Golf, street lifestyle store Urban Athletics, British luxury fashion label Joseph, and denim brand True Religion.

Also included in S Maison’s retail lineup are Denovo Diamonds, Jo Malone, Mele and Marie, Cole Haan, and Moressi.

Its location is accessible with a sense of exclusivity

From D1

S Maison is accessible enough to shoppers, workers, staycationers, and anyone within the SM Mall of Asia complex. But its location on Seaside Boulevard cor. Coral Way, which is in the corner of the complex facing MaIt has state-of-the-art cinemas nila Bay, gives an impression of it being Enjoy the latest movie releases as you away from Manila’s hustle and bustle.

FLOS Gun Lamp

Dining areas become bright and stunning with beautiful lighting by Skygarden

K tribe lamp by FLOS adds a dramatic ambiance to any space

in Merano, Italy, has made its mark in the world of interior design with its unconventional approach to the art of lighting, weaving tradition into revolutionary trends. Recognized with numerous awards for its unparalleled craftsmanship, FLOS has always cultivated creative collaborations with great lighting artists resulting to eclectic collections of functional yet sophisticated pieces and commercially successful products that can be found in many upscale homes, hotels, and industrial settings.

The FLOS collections feature an extensive and versatile range of lighting fixtures that creates a dramatic ambiance in any space. The pendant light collection offers a selection of modern and minimalist designer lamps that complement any décor. Its floor lamps are striking in their simplicity and cast a magical brilliance to a room. Customers will also be delighted with FLOS’ Wall & Ceiling Light Collection with its intuitive designs made with revolutionary materials.

Discounts are good for all FLOS items that are currently on stock or for items that customers may wish to order.

Check out Steltz’s annual sale and visit their showroom at 6th floor, East Wing of Edsa Shangri-la Plaza Mall or call (02) 642-1421 or 470-1617 for more details. Visit their website www.steltzinternational.com for other collections.

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

It's always a fun day with the cast of all-kids variety show, "Team Yey"

HOT MAMA

Sarah Lahbati

TV helps parents, kids learn and have fun together

BARES SECRET WORKOUT Mother-of-one Sarah Lahbati brings sexy back in the latest episode of "Sports U"

KAPAMILYA actress Sarah Lahbati is spilling the beans on the fitness regimen that has helped her become one of the hottest mothers in showbiz in Sports U on ABS-CBN. Sarah will let viewers join her in the gym, where she works out to become a strong and healthy mom to her son Zion.

Meanwhile, the program will also feature father-and-son basketball players Dondon and Ice Hontiveros, who will have a showdown in the hard court in a post-“Father’s Day” bonding,

and young Filipino gymnast Karl Eldrew Yulo, who bested taller competitors in the recent “Palarong Pambansa” to win five gold medals.

Be inspired and motivated by their stories with Dyan Castillejo on Sports U on Saturday 6:30 a.m. on S+A. You may also view it via streaming on www.iwantv.com.ph and www. skyondemand.com.ph. Follow their Facebook page athttp://facebook. com/SportsUtv and official Twitter account (@SportsUTV) for more updates.

PEOPLE

N

OW that the school year has started, engage your kids in quality time in between school schedules by taking inspiration from activities you can learn together on YeY channel’s Team YeY, the only local allkids variety show where kids learn something new every day.

Teach your kids the basics of food preparation by involving them in preparing simple snacks like sandwiches, veggie sticks, or simple ulam-and-rice combos. Make it extra fun by arranging food in fun shapes and figures. Try making Monster Burgers, as shown in “Snaks

…are not talking about

…are talking about La Luna Sangre Much has been written about the return of Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla on the boob tube. Although they are the main stars of La Luna Sangre, we can’t deny the fact that the series’ impressive performance especially in the ratings game is also due to the all-star cast that’s making positive impression among viewers and netizens across different social media platforms. The show has only been around for a week but it is definitely the viewers’ most favorite primetime show now.

Jake Zyrus Unless you’re living under a rock, you wouldn’t know that Charice has already changed her name into something that she feels matches her persona and status as an individual.

Like Rustom Padilla, killed

by BB Gandanghari, Charice has just been killed by Jake. And the singer’s grandmother vowed to kill the person who murdered her granddaughter. Oh by the way, while people respect her decision, this doesn’t change the fact the she has already lost a lot of things including her once blooming career.

Edgar Allan Guzman There are actors in the industry whose career can’t just flourish.

They remain bit players either on TV or in film. They might be given an important role once just to test the waters but no follow up would be made if they failed to deliver. And that exactly what’s happening to Edgar Allan. No wonder he’s transferring to another network again trying to find better opportunities.

Barbie Forteza The trending Kapuso show, Meant to Be, is singing its swan song today ending its five-month run on primetime. While there are four leading men who play four interesting characters, it’s the role that Barbie plays makes the show even more captivating. The show would have been different, the ratings would have been different, too, had another actress played Billie, the real star of the show. We wouldn’t be surprised if Barbie would win an award for her relatable performance in a romcom.

Maja Salvador By now, a few memes inspired by her show, Wildflower, have dominated your social media timeline. What’s really good about social media is that we can see the viewers’ instantaneous reaction on an actor’s performance in a particular scene. And it’s safe to say that Maja’s acting in Wildflower makes the viewers go wild evidenced by how people respond online.

Kiko and Baron What else can two washed up celebrities do to still be in the limelight? Simple -- make a scene. And that’s what the two did in a latest event that was supposed to promote Kiko Matos’ official URCC bout. Baron, who was uninvited in the event, was there to trash talk the first until the two engaged in a fight. They could’ve come up with a better scheme and script to make this publicity stunt believable. Nice try though.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Friday, June 23, 2017

ACROSS 1 Chi follower 4 Earnings 9 Manitoba tribe 13 — be an honor 14 On one’s feet 15 Map for a navigator 16 Had a spat 18 Column order 19 Not cool 20 Quick lunch 22 Vanity 25 Sine qua non 26 Writer — Nin 28 Grills 32 Itinerary word 35 Money-hunger 37 Dive 38 Cookie nugget 40 Ear bone 42 Unclad 43 Cowboy show 45 Sir, in Seville 47 Work as a tailor 48 Meager 50 Luxuriate 52 Movie 54 Takes away 58 Cleans oneself (2 wds.)

62 Pitch-black 63 Out of bed 64 Hungry ones’ hall

Naman “ of Team YeY. Turn TV bonding into a fun learning experience by tuning in to Team YeY’s “StorYeY” to revisit classic Philippine literature. Stand by to explain any questions they might have, and turn it into an educational viewing habit.

If you’re into arts and crafts, you can make homework into a fun bonding session by getting crafty and creative together. Tune in to Team YeY’s “Artstig” for kid-friendly ideas.

To make rainy days festive, improvise by organizing DIY party games at home with the kids. Invite cousins and classmates over on a weekend and engage them in team games as seen on Team YeY’s “Sunday Funday” and “Game Play.”

Take a short break by jamming with your kids while watching Team YeY’s “Soundcheck.”

This will also give you an opportunity to see and experience what your kids are into these days. Try teaching them your favorite songs, too—they’ll enjoy learning “old” songs from you too!

67 Tilts 68 Dull green 69 Util. bill 70 Zip 71 Lieu 72 NNW opposite DOWN 1 Provoke 2 Itched 3 Border state 4 Distorting 5 Fill with wonder 6 Hoedown partner 7 Barely makes ends meet 8 Type of car 9 Eat heartily (2 wds.)

10 Punjab princess 11 Clapton or Sevareid 12 Engrave 15 Apple drinks 17 Coolidge or Gam 21 Bird beak 23 Ms. Teasdale 24 Behaviors 27 Lop off 29 Cash substitutes 30 Prospector’s quest 31 Regurgitate

32 TV adjuncts 33 Hotcakes eatery 34 Verdi opera set in Egypt 36 Banqueted 39 Roosting 41 Delight in 44 Basket willows 46 Got slimmer 49 Naval off.

51 Fontanne’s husband 53 Reddish kangaroos 55 Coagulates

56 Spares, maybe 57 Pizzazz 58 Disney or Whitman 59 On a cruise 60 Getz or Mikita 61 Fleece 65 Shakespearean oath 66 Spacewalk, to NASA

You don’t need a Zumba class to get exercise—just dance with the kids and have some laughs as you attempt to follow the dance along to Team YeY’s “Galaw Go” segment.

Set aside a little time each day to play and learn with them, and tune in to Team YeY daily day of the week at 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m..

Team YeY airs on YeY channel exclusively on TVplus, with catch up episodes on iWant TV. YeY is a free and exclusive channel on digital TV via ABS-CBN TVPlus, which you can get for a one-time payment of P1499. ABS-CBN TVplus signal coverage is available in Metro Cebu, Cagayan De Oro, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, Metro Manila, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Tarlac, Benguet, and Cavite. Yey is also available on cable via SKYcable and Destiny Cable and on direct-to-home or satellite TV via SKYdirect.

For more information, visit tvplus.abs-cbn. com and follow ABS-CBN TVplus and Yey on Facebook. You can also subscribe to YeY’s YouTube channel for your daily dose of YeY.

Andeng and Anton played by Bea Alonzo and Ian Veneracion tie the knot in ABS-CBN's top-rating show "A Love to Last"

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

RIVAL NETWORKS

claim shows did better ‘A

Love To Last’ hits new all-time high rating with much-awaited TonDeng wedding.

Viewers nationwide tuned in to the highly anticipated wedding of Anton (Ian Veneracion) and Andeng (Bea Alonzo) as the episode hit a new all-time high national TV rating for A Love to Last on June 16 and generated buzz online.

The kilig moments in the so-called wedding of a lifetime scored 24.3 percent nationwide from combined urban and rural homes compared to its rival program, which only recorded 12.8 percent, according to data from Kantar Media.

The show’s official hashtag that night #ALTLTheWedding also topped the trending topics on Twitter as netizens expressed how Anton and Andeng’s love for each other touched and inspired them.

As the story continues, watch out for the other half of the wedding as well as their reception and honeymoon. What other challenges will Anton and Andeng face as newlyweds?

A Love to Last airs on ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN HD (SkyCable ch.167).

Catch up on the show’s past episodes via iWant TV or skyondemand.com.ph for Sky subscribers. *** ABS-CBN’s highly anticipated epic saga series La Luna Sangre instantly impressed viewers as the action-romance teleserye with Angel Locsin, John Lloyd Cruz, Richard

ISAH V. RED

Mulawin Vs Ravena," with cast led by Dennis Trillio (center), is one of the most talked about series on Facebook and Twitter

control and destruct their peaceful lives.

What will happen to Lia and Mateo after the appearance of the Blood Moon? Will they be able to experience the simple life they wish for?

La Luna Sangre airs after FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano on ABS-CBN and on ABSCBN HD (SkyCable ch 167). *** Two of GMA Network’s biggest primetime series this 2017, Mulawin vs. Ravena and

Angel Locsin and John Lloyd Cruz in a scene from "La Luna Sangre"'s pilot telecast

Gutierrez, Kathryn Bernardo, and Daniel Padilla scored high in national TV ratings on June 19 and trended online worldwide.

Viewers warmly welcomed the series into their homes as it reaped a national TV rating of 33.9 perecent from combined urban and rural homes, more than double the rating of My Love from the Star (13.8 percent), according to the data from Kantar Media.

The episode’s official hashtag #LaLunaSangreAngSimula trended on Twitter worldwide as fans shared positive feedback about the show’s top-caliber production. Angel, Mateo (John Lloyd’s character), and Tristan (Daniel), played by Justin James Quilantang, also trended on Twitter nationwide.

The pilot episode offered a glimpse into the lives of the Lia (Angel) and Mateo (John Lloyd Cruz), who both settled to live a peaceful life for their daughter after their powers vanished. But a looming danger awaits the world of men, vampires, and werewolves as Sandrino (Richard) plans to

#KudosForTheFlashbacks.”

On the other hand, My Love From the Star had around 50,000 comments and was marked with the hashtags #KudosToJennylynMercado, #FunPlot, and #GoodDirection.

The two GMA-produced series are the

My Love From The Star, earned spots in the top ten most-buzzedabout shows worldwide according to a New York-based international media business website.

WorldScreen.com released their Social Wit List for May 2017 where the sequel Mulawin Vs. Ravena ranked third and the network’s local adaptation of the Koreanovela My Love From The Star ranked fifth in the list of top 10 new shows with the most number of Facebook and Twitter comments during their premiere across the globe.

According to the site, Mulawin Vs. Ravena’s premiere “drew around 104,000 comments, and there was much buzz about the #GreatCast and #Cinematography that had many viewers honoring the #Nostalgia and #GoodMemories it brought about:

only dramas from the Philippines that made it to the list, topping over popular global productions, which included ones from the U.S. and France.

Meanwhile, the other programs included in the list are U.S.A.’s Dirty Dancing, Twin Peaks, Beat Shazam, Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland, World of Dance; France’s Emmanuel Macron, Baisers caches; and U.K.’s Three Girls.

GMA Public Affairs: Changing Lives, One Story at a Time TOMORROW, three decades after it pioneered documentary, news magazine, and public service programs in the Philippines, GMA Public Affairs looks back on some of its most unforgettable reports to discover the positive transformations these helped bring about in Sa Serbisyong Totoo, Nabago Ang Buhay Ko. Hosted by Jessica Soho, Sa Serbisyong Totoo, Nabago Ang Buhay Ko features some of the most powerful stories told by shows produced by GMA Public Affairs and how these stories changed the lives of the people involved.

I-Witness’ 2009 documentary “Ambulansyang de Paa” gave viewers a visual of an ambulance as it makes its way down a steep mountain, carrying a patient who has never seen a doctor in his life. Yet the “ambulance” is nothing more than a hammock, transported on foot by residents desperate to get medical aid. In the documentary, one-year-old John Lloyd was but skin and bones. The makeshift ambulance-on-foot in Bansud, Oriental Mindoro served as his only lifeline.

Today, John Lloyd is in much better health, starting his second year in elementary school. He says there is now a health center nearby, and parts of the once-rugged road have been paved for better access to basic services.

Ten years before John Lloyd’s story aired, Brigada Siete’s 1999 documentary “Batang Alipin” brought to light the situation of laborers working in slave-like conditions inside a vinegar factory. One of the youngest workers rescued was 15-year-old Zaldy.

Eighteen years later, Zaldy now has his own family and works as a mechanic. After being freed from his harrowing experience as a child, Zaldy says he is determined to secure a better life for his own children.

In 2013, GMA News TV’s Reel Time told the heartwrenching story of 10-year-old Mary Rose in the documentary “Salat”. Never knowing when the next meal would come, Mary Rose and her siblings were severely malnourished.

The documentary saw an outpouring of generosity for the family. Mary Rose is now 14 and in the pink of health. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, Mary Rose has been able to continue her schooling and is now in her second year of high school.

Many more stories of hope and transformation abound. Pioneering public service program Wish Ko Lang has been instrumental in reuniting longlost family members. Twins Judy and Danica, who were separated at birth, saw each other again for the first time in 30 years through the wish-granting program.

Bringing family members together has also been an advocacy of public service program Imbestigador, which has facilitated countless rescues of trafficked women and children, including those from Sabah, Malaysia.

For years, flagship Public Affairs Program Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho and long-running issues-oriented program Reporter’s Notebook followed the stories of those devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda relentlessly. Four years later, GMA Public Affairs meets the families of Marvin and Raphael building a new life in their new homes.

And there are many more tales of transformation behind GMA Public Affairs’ thirty years on the air.

After four George Foster Peabody Awards, 11 New York Festival Gold Medals and three Emmy nominations, GMA Network remains the most internationally-awarded in Philippine Television through its News and Public Affairs programs. More than any accolade, however, the stories of those whose lives have been changed by public service programming remain the greatest reward.

Tomorrow, watch how GMA Public Affairs helped changed the lives of people, one story at a time. Sa Serbisyong Totoo, Nabago Ang Buhay Ko hosted by Soho airs on GMA’s SNBO.