Manila Standard - 2017 July 10 - Monday

‘Martial law until 2022’ Speaker: Du30 must be given time to quell Mindanao rebellion

By Rio N. Araja and Macon R. Araneta

H

OUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez wants martial law in Mindanao to stay until 2022 or until President Rodrigo Duterte steps down.

PIECE FOR PEACE. Budding Filipino artists take part in an art fair and on-the-spot creative stance in response to Marawi City’s urgent call for aid during the opening of ‘Piece for Peace in Marawi’ at the SMX Aura in Taguig City. Proceeds of the sale of finished works will be used to provide essential items such as food and clothing for displaced families in Marawi. Ey Acasio

Military eyes ‘cyber force’ to stop terror’s Internet blitz THE Armed Forces of the Philippines on Sunday announced it will build a “cyber workforce” that will secure and defend the military’s information networks and systems.

Armed Forces spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo made the statement after various groups started using the internet as a platform for attacks.

He made the statement after the military concluded its Cybersecurity Summit aimed at educating and informing its members about the latest trends in Cybersecurity.

“It is high time the AFP raised awareness for a secure and resilient AFP cyberspace as we adapt to the rapid technological advancements brought by the digital age,” Arevalo said The two-day summit was spearheaded by the Office of the Deputy Chief-of-Staff for Communication Electronics and Information System. It took place on June 28 to 29 in Camp Aguinaldo.

The meeting gathered some of the military’s information technology experts and representatives from the CEIS offices of the AFP Major Services and Unified Commands, Philippine National Police and Philippine Coast Guard.

Resource persons from the Department of Information and Communications Technology, PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group, National Privacy Commission and other partners from the private sector attended the event.

Among the topics discussed in the summit Next page

VOL. XXXI • NO. 146 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Tremors bring out need for disasters dept

By Rio N. Araja and Alena Mae S. Flores LEYTE Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez urged President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday to certify as urgent a bill to create a separate department to exclusively manage disasters and calamities in the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that rocked Eastern Visayas and the destruction caused by

fighting in Marawi City.

Romualdez, a member of the committee on climate change, said her House Bill No. 344 aims to drastically reduce red tape in the delivery of assistance during natural and man-made disasters.

“I am appealing to our President to certify my bill as urgent measure because this will help mitigate the impact of future disasters and save

lives and property,” said Romualdez.

“We need a department that would solely focus on natural and man-made calamities without the ugly red tape that has caused many delays in the delivery of immediate assistance needed by the victims,” Romualdez said.

She also appealed to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to Next page

TWO farmers groups in Ilocos Norte denounced what they described as “apparent unfairness and opportunism” of the ongoing legislative inquiry in the House of Representatives into the alleged misuse of the province’s tobacco excise funds, as they rallied behind

embattled Gov. Imee Marcos.

This came as the Philippine Constitution Association appealed to the Supreme Court to intervene in the ongoing conflict between the Court of Appeals and the House of Representatives over the case of six Ilocos Norte provincial officials being detained by lawmakers for more than a

month now for contempt.

In separate resolutions, the Ilocos Norte Federation of Mango Producers Associations and Ilocos Norte Federation of Vegetable Growers Associations condemned the “insufferable and biased acts” of the House committee on good government and public accountability as regards to the

‘Muslim ID plan must be stopped’

By Macon RamosAraneta

ongoing investigation of the provincial tobacco funds.

The mango growers group said the power of legislative inquiry as provided under the Constitution does not give Congress the power to deprive any citizen of constitutionally vested rights to freedom of movement, or the presumption

SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday called for an immediate end to the Muslim ID card system being implemented in certain towns in Tarlac province to screen potential security threats as a result of the ongoing conflict in Marawi City.

“The Muslim ID card system is a discriminatory policy that violates the constitutional right of Muslim Filipinos to equal protection under the law. It should be scrapped immediately,” Gatchalian said.

Even though the policy might have been carried out in good faith by local governments and police forces in the area, it nevertheless singles out Muslims in an

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Leyte Rep. Yedda Romualdez

Farmers decry House bias vs ‘Ilocos Six’

By Rey E. Requejo

He said the extension of martial law could give the President more time to quell the over 40 years of rebellion and armed conflict in Mindanao.

“Being from Mindanao, I support the martial law even up to 2022 just to be able to solve the problem,” he added.

He clarified, however, that this was his personal position and not the stand of the House of Representatives.

“You should realize that rebellion in the area has beeen there for more than 40 years. Up to now, it continues to beset the country. We should put an end to it even just in Mindanao,” he said.

He said terrorism is not the only problem in Mindanao because rebel groups have existed in Mindanao for so many years.

“You know that the problem is not all about the ISIS [Islamic State]. There is the New People’s Army. They want to oust the government. That is rebellion, too,” he said.

On May 23, the Office of the President released Proclamation No. 216, declaring a state of martial law and suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao. Next page

Young Pinoys bag prize in Vienna music festival FILIPINO classical musicians placed second, “with outstanding success,” at the string orchestra category of the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria on Saturday, July 8.

The Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra, under conductor Jeffrey Solares, is composed of musicians between the ages of nine and 21 from all over the country. The group was established in 2014.

Thirty-five ensembles from all

over the world participated in the festival but only six qualified for the competition. The MSJO was pitted against groups from Taiwan (first and third place), Australia (fourth and fifth place) and Denmark (Special award for development of string culture).

The 11th SCL Festival was held at the famous Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. “The entire building was a veritable temple for classical music,” Solares Next page

Alvarez seeking measure to legalize same-sex union

By Rio N. Araja HOUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Sunday called for the legalization of same-sex marriages and support for heterosexual couples just wanting to live together but not getting married.

He said he would file a bill to determine the rights of couples who wanted to live together but were not ready to get married.

“We will also take that up, the

issue of those who do not want to get married but just want to live together,” Alvarez said.

“Right now, there is no law to protect the rights of the couple.

We will pass a civil-union law to govern such relationship.”

The bill would protect the property rights, custodial rights over children and adoption rights for childless couple, he said.

“Even if the couple are not Next page

EUROPEAN STINT. The Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra places second at the Summa Cum Laude International Music Festival in Vienna, Austria.

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MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

PH ranked 15 among Web users T th

HE Philippines now ranks No. 15 worldwide in the absolute number of internet users, with some 54-million Filipinos browsing the web or a penetration rate of 52 percent of the population, Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. said Sunday.

“There’s no question a growing number of Filipinos is relying increasingly on the internet not only for communication, information, education and entertainment, but also to earn a living by selling goods and services, to shop and to perform financial transactions from banking to paying bills,” Campos said in a

statement.

“This is why Congress has to be highly responsive in classifying internet service as a basic telecommunications service.

This way, regulators can actually do their job and assure every Filipino greater access to superior internet services including accelerating connection speeds.”

‘Martial...

government will present their case to the Congress, notwithstanding the overwhelming number of allies the President has in both Houses.

Senator Gregorio Honasan said they would decide based on “the most current comprehensive consolidated report from the martial law administrators, local governments, and coordinated agencies on the ground.”

The leftist youth organization Anakbayan said the proposal to extend martial law to tackle the communist insurgency exposed “the facist bent” of those behind the plan.

Earlier, Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr. acknowledged that martial law was indeed directed against the communist New People’s Army.

“Even without martial law, peasant leaders, indigenous people, activists, and ordinary people have been harassed and killed by trigger-happy military and policemen on the mere accusation of being NPA rebels.

Martial law must be stopped now. Extending its duration and scope will only make things worse,” said Vencer Crisostomo, Anakbayan national chairman.

With Sandy Araneta

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The period of martial law is limited to 60 days by the Constitution, and can only be extended

by Congress.

In the Senate, the majority bloc said they see an easy approval of an extension of martial law in Mindanao should the President request it.

“Yes, if the situation so warrants,” said Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III. Senator Francis Escudero expressed the same view, saying Congress would give its approval if the President and military officials can show that problem on Maute terror group still subsists and that martial law is still needed to address it.

Senator JV Ejercito added that it will be easier to approve an extension of martial law since no abuses or human rights violations were reported during the period.

Both Ejercito and Senator Juan Edgardo Angara said they wanted a new military briefing before extending martial law.

Senator Panfilo Lacson said the extension will largely depend on how the security officials of the

Young...

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said. “The acoustics made you feel you are so brilliant and you don’t want to stop playing at all.”

The children’s 25-minute program included Mozart’s Divertimento in D, Bartok’s Romanian folk dances, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, as well as Ryan Cayabyab’s “Ondoy Ondoy,” composed especially for the MSJO. Aside from the Vienna competition, the MSJO also performed in Salzburg and will have concerts and workshops in Prague in the Czech Republic and Munich,

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were the National Cybersecurity Plan 2022, Data Privacy Act of 2012, Cyber Crime and Prevention, and Cyber Threat Awareness and Updates.

Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff for CEIS Major Gen. Jose Tanjuan Jr. said his office had been developing a plan to enhance the military’s cyberspace

Farmers...

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of innocence until proven guilty.

“In conducting the investigation to the alleged misuse of the tobacco funds of Ilocos Norte, the [House] committee . . . failed to observe the necessary constitutional rights of Gov. Imee R. Marcos and the six Ilocos Norte officials,” the vegetable farmers, led by their president Ricardo Tolentino, said in a resolution.

They said the proceedings in the House have ceased to be in aid of legislation because they have become politically tainted.

They added that the accuser in the House was acting as an investigator, prosecutor and judge.

“If the House committee presses on the detention of . . . Governor Imee Marcos, the association is resolved to seek the House to detain with her all of the members of the Mango Growers Association in order to demonstrate our support for her against this sinister proceed-

Germany.

In preparation for their European trip, the MSJO held a series of fund-raising activities at the Insular Life Auditorium in Alabang, Manila House in Taguig, the Ayala Museum in Makati and in Ayala malls. They also gathered funds through crowdfunding site gogetfunding.com.

Speaking on his commitment to mentoring the children, Solares said: “The focus of our music development efforts is youth development, people development.

We want to help raise the level of classical music performance among young Filipinos.. what we try to sell are goods for the spirit, things that nurture the soul.” capabilities.

“The development of the AFP Cyberspace Strategic Plan is one of the thrusts of the AFP in attaining information security,” Tanjuan said.

“It will provide the Armed Forces with a road map that will lead us to the realization of a fully cyberspace-capable organization by 2022.”

The AFP Cyberspace Strategic Plan is expected to be finalized within the third quarter of 2017.

PNA ings,” the resolution said.

The vegetable farmers led by its president Wilfredo Valdez echoed the sentiments of the mango growers, saying they were offended by the presentation to the media of a detention cell being prepared for Marcos.

Philconsa, meanwhile, urged the Supreme Court to intervene in the test of wills between the House and the Court of Appeals.

In a statement over the weekend, Philconsa asked the Court to act on the letter of the three CA justices seeking advisory opinion on the “unexpected, unorthodox reaction” of the House on the writ of habeas corpus they issued in favor of the six Ilocos Norte officials.

Through its chairman Manuel Lazaro and president Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the Philconsa urged the Court to consider the letter as an administrative matter and issue a decision to resolve the conflict.

“This is the judicial process/vehicle to enable the Supreme Court [to] resolve the clashing postures,

The top five countries with the highest number of internet users are China, 731.4 million; India, 462.1 million; the United States, 286.9 million; Brazil, 139.1 million; and Indonesia, 132.7 million, according to Internet World Stats.

Those that ranked just below the Philippines were Italy, with 51.8 million users; Vietnam, with 49.7 million; Turkey, with 46.1 million; South Korea, with 45.3 million; and Thailand with 41 million.

The figures were based on data from the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication

technologies, country reports and Facebook Inc. The figures were updated on March 31, 2017.

Campos has introduced a bill that seeks to distinguish the internet service as “a basic telecommunications service within the jurisdiction and regulatory power of the National Telecommunications Commission.”

“We have to enable the NTC to effectively protect and advance the rights and welfare of internet users,” Campos said.

The internet service is now regarded as a “value-added service,” making it out of the NTC’s reach when it comes to mandating minimum standards and improvements.

Akamai Technologies Inc.’s State of the Internet Report as of the first quarter of 2017 tagged the Philippines’ 5.5 Mbps average connection speed as the slowest in the Asia Pacific compared with Thailand’s 16 Mbps, Vietnam’s 9.5 Mbps, Malaysia’s 8.9 Mbps and Indonesia’s 7.2 Mbps.

Mbps is short for megabits per second, a measure of network transmission or data transfer speed. A megabit is equal to one million bits.

The Philippines ranks No. 100 worldwide in average connection speed. South Korea is No. 1 at 28.6 Mbps and Paraguay is No. 148 at 1.4 Mbps.

As proposed by Campos in

House Bill 5337, internet service suppliers that fail to deliver escalating connection speeds within fixed deadlines face up to P100,000 in daily fines that could last up to 500 days, or reach up to ₱50 million, for every violation.

The bill also spares the NTC and its officers from possible civil proceedings with respect to any directives they may issue to ensure the performance of timebound improvements in internet services.

The measure seeks to bring up to date the 22-year-old Public Telecommunications Policy Law of the Philippines, which makes no mention at all of the internet or internet services.

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RELIEF. Philippine National Police personnel help distribute relief goods donated by the Qatar government on Saturday (July 8, 2017) at the Lanao del Sur provincial capitol in Marawi City. PNA

unfair and patently illegal manner, Gatchalian added.

If allowed to continue, Gatchalian said the ID system would encourage hostility against Muslims in affected communities and make them susceptible to religious profiling by law enforcement authorities.

He also reminded the public that law-abiding Muslims should not be unfairly linked to the violent extremism espoused by groups such as the Islamic State-inspired Maute group and its allied terrorist networks in Mindanao.

“Terrorism is an unholy crime against humanity that has been denounced by every religion in the world, including Islam. Our lawabiding Muslim brothers and sisters are not the enemy, and I will oppose any policy which implies that they should be treated with suspicion merely because of their religious beliefs,” Gatchalian said.

Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said singling Muslims out and branding them as a potential threat would not make communities safer, but would only sow animosity.

Over the weekend, the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Mujiv Hataman, expressed alarm over the proposal.

“We believe this policy clearly discriminates against the believers of Islam and could set a dangerous precedent,” he said.

Hataman said the Muslim-only

ID could make matters worse, as it could “ignite anger among young Muslims who are the primary target for recruitment of extremist groups.”

The officer-in-charge of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Catalino Cuy, for example, said he sees nothing irregular in the move by local officials to implement security measures.

Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa, while saying the proposal is a local, not a national initiative, said he regards the ID as merely “a form of record keeping.”

At the heart of the controversy is a plan by Police Regional Office 3 Director Supt. Aaron Aquino to issue mandatory IDs that all Muslim residents must wear. These IDs must be signed by the local chief of police and government units for “easy, proper and efficient authorization.”

Aquino said the IDs can can help local communities identify suspicious individuals so they could be reported to the authorities.

The practice of issuing IDs, he added, is being successfully implemented in Paniqui, Tarlac, and should be expanded to the entire region, “not only to protect the civilian populace but also vital government installations against terrorism.”

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana last week said a Muslimonly ID would be discriminatory, but the officer-in-charge of the DILG, Catalino Cuy, said he saw nothing irregular in the move by

local officials to “implement security measures.”

PNP chief Dela Rosa, while saying the proposal is a local, not a national initiative, said he regards the ID as merely “a form of record keeping” and said it violated no human rights.

Last week, Police Regional Office 3 Director Supt. Aaron Aquino said authorities in Central Luzon planned to issue mandatory IDs that all Muslim residents must wear. These IDs must be signed by the local chief of police and government units for “easy, proper and efficient authorization.”

Aquino said the IDs can can help local communities identify suspicious individuals so they could be reported to the authorities.

The practice of issuing IDs, he added, is being successfully implemented in Paniqui, Tarlac, and should be expanded to the entire region, “not only to protect the civilian populace but also vital government installations against terrorism.”

But Human Rights Watch said the ID system would discriminate against Muslims based on religion, which is prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights treaties to which the Philippines is a party.

“The IDs could also violate the rights to equal protection of the law, freedom of movement, and other basic rights,” said Carlos Conde, Philippine researcher for Human Rights Watch.

in order to avert a constitutional crisis,” the group said.

Philconsa cited the mandate of the Court under the Constitution “as the final arbiter of constitutional questions/legal controversies” and its duty to “interpret and allocate the jurisdictional boundaries of the rights and obligations of the parties involved when a writ of habeas corpus is issued.”

The group believes that the House would honor and abide by the Supreme Court ruling on the matter.

“In the remote event the House still refuses to honor and execute the resolution or decision of the Supreme Court in the administrative matter, the President shall undoubtedly execute or implement the decision of the Supreme Court, as mandated by his oath of office to preserve and defend the Constitution and execute its laws,” Philconsa said.

The three magistrates in the CA special fourth division that ordered the release of the so-called “Ilocos Six”—Associate Justices Stephen

Cruz, Edwin Sorongon and Nina Antonio—sought guidance from the Supreme Court after the House refused to honor their orders, including the immediate release of the Ilocos Norte officials and instead issued a show cause order against them.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. earlier issued a statement calling on the House leaders to recall the show cause order and instead consider legal remedies under the Rules of Court in questioning the CA orders, including a possible petition before the Supreme Court.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines and Philippine Bar Association have also issued similar statements.

The CA earlier ordered the release of Pedro Agcaoili, Provincial Planning and Development Office chairperson; Josephine Calajate, provincial treasurer; Eden Battulayan, Provincial Treasurer’s Office staff; Encarnacion Gaor, Provincial Treasurer’s Office staff;

Genedine Jambaro, Provincial Treasurer’s Office staff; and Evangeline Tabulog, provincial budget officer.

They have been detained since May 29 after being cited in contempt by the House committee on good government and public accountability during its probe into the alleged misuse of P66.45 million in tobacco funds to buy motor vehicles.

It also issued a show cause order requiring House sergeant-at-arms Roland Detabali to explain why he should not be cited in contempt for the defying the order and twice rejecting the service of the CA ruling.

However, the House officials refused to accept the orders and insisted that they were invalid because the appellate court has no jurisdiction over the matter.

Instead, the House committee issued a show cause order requiring the CA justices to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for ordering the release of the so-called Ilocos Six.

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include her bill seeking to create the Department of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management among the priority measures, adding that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council is not enough to address the various concerns during calamities.

“The current set-up has proven to be inadequate in preparing our country from major calamities which we will have to face on a yearly basis. This new department will drastically reduce, if not totally eliminate, the bureaucratic red tape which has caused many delays in the delivery of immediate assistance needed by the victims,” she said.

In the wake of the fighting in Marawi, she added, there was a need to strengthen the government’s arm in delivering assistance to victims of man-made calamities.

HB No. 344 was originally advocated by Romualdez’s husband, former Leyte congressman Martin Romualdez.

The latest earthquake that struck Eastern Visayas killed two people, injured 72 others, and caused damage estimated at P108.45 million, with more than 1,000 houses damaged.

The aftershocks and the announcement of an extended power outage in the provinces of Bohol, Samar, Biliran and Southern Leyte and parts of Leyte have added to the residents’ sense of devastation, Romualdez said.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said Sunday it is working on restoring power in Samar, Leyte, Biliran, and Bohol and is testing of its substation before allowing power from Cebu to flow through the Tabango-Ormoc bypass line, which was completed on Saturday.

National Grid completed the Tabango-Ormoc bypass line at 9:26 p.m. Saturday and further testing is currently being done at the Ormoc substation.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi thanked crews that worked on 24-hour shifts to bring back electricity within three to five days in the quake-affected areas in the Visayas, especially in Leyte.

Cusi on Saturday conducted an aerial and ground inspection of the various power plants, including geothermal facilities, that sustained damage from the magnitude 6.5 quake that recently hit the region.

Cusi said he hoped that power will be fully restored within seven days with the implementation of a combination of bypass and build-back-better program.

The National Electrification Administration, meanwhile, has organized the Power Restoration Rapid Deployment task force to assist the quake struck electric cooperatives in the Visayas, Administrator Edgardo Masongsong said over the weekend.

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married, they still must possess the right to inherit, right to support and so many other rights.”

Alvarez’s proposal, if passed, would allow samesex couples to adopt a child.

News

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

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Palace seeking 2nd Sona translators MALACAÑANG plans to hire interpreters who will translate President Rodrigo Duterte’s second State of the Nation Address for attending diplomats.

“We are also thinking of hiring interpreters,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a radio dzBB interview.

“The problem is, although everyone could understand English, sometimes the President speaks in Visayan dialect, sometimes in Tagalog, that’s why not all could understand,” Andanar said.

Duterte will be delivering his second Sona on July 24, and local officials and diplomats are expected to attend.

Andanar said preparations are currently underway for the annual event.

Andanar said brochures will be distributed to Sona attendees highlighting the accomplishments of the Duterte administration during his first year in office.

“Aside from the simple Sona wanted by the President without what we call a fashion show, we are preparing a brochure, with pictures of the projects of the President that will be implemented or he will be doing the groundbreaking, that would be distributed to the guests in the gallery,” Andanar said. Sandy Araneta

QUAKE AID. Philippine Constitution Association president and former Rep. Martin Romualdez (left) along with former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (center) and former Davao Rep. Anton Lagdameo (right) gives financial assistance to Kananga Leyte Mayor Rowena Codilla (2nd left) and Vice Mayor Elmer Codilla during their visit to the earthquake damaged area in Kananga Leyte. Ver Noveno

Customs plan problematic—solon T

By Rio Araja

HE establishment of temporary storages for overstaying and abandoned cargoes could create more problems that it could solve at the Port of Manila and Manila International Container Port, according to a lawmaker.

Muntinlupa City’s Rep. Ruffino Biazon, former chief of the Bureau of Custom, said Customs Commissioner Nicanor

Faeldon must heed the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte to cut red tape, since the bureau’s plan to put up temporary stor-

Ex-general named drugs board chief AMID the administration’s war on illegal drugs, President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed retired Gen. Dionisio Santiago chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board, Malacañang said on Sunday.

Santiago served as DirectorGeneral of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella.

“His expertise and advocacy is fighting illegal drugs, which became his platform when he ran in the last elections,” Abella said.

“General Santiago’s return to the national government with his appointment to the DDB will greatly contribute to the President’s vision of a drug-free Philippines,” said Abella.

Santiago, who had also served as chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, replaced Benjamin Reyes, who was removed from the position last May for presenting numbers that contradicted the government’s statistics on illegal drug users.

Based on his profile posted on the website of the Philippine

ages could only add another layer to bureaucracy.

Doing business must be short and simple at the BoC, Biazon said.

“The planned transfer of overstaying and abandoned cargoes is just a temporary answer. A more appropriate solution should be formulated,” he said.

He reacted to a draft Customs administrative order that shall pave the way for the implementation of Section 307 of the Customs Modernization

and Tariff Act. “It would be better to look for a permanent solution to be able to fast track the disposition of overstaying and abandoned goods,” he said.

The draft order seeks to allow the BoC to impose rates for storage services in identified Customs facilities and warehouses.

BoC drew flak from detractors, who said the new system could only breed corruption and trigger prices of commodities to go up.

He said the establishment of new storages is only band-aid solution.

“We should not be focusing on temporary solutions.

We should find other ways for long-term and permanent remedies. If we are able to simplify and expedite the process of auctioning of the overstaying and abandoned cargoes, this would translate to additional revenues that the government can use for important programs for poor BIAZON Filipinos,” he cited.

Davao bishop new CBCP president

FLOOD CONTROL. Workers

install concrete pipes along a street in Quezon City to improve drainage and prevent flooding. Manny Palmero

SANTIAGO

Constitution Association, Santiago served as PDEA chief from 2006 to 2010.

Santiago also served as Bureau of Corrections director from 2003 to 2004, Army commanding general from March to November 2002, Central Command Visayas commanding general from July 2001 to March 2002, and commanding general of the Special Operations Command from 1999 to 2001. Sandy Araneta

Ex-PTA head joins NIA board; farmers up in arms

By Rio Araja THE 1.6-million strong National Confederation of Irrigators Association Inc. urged on Sunday the Duterte administration to reconsider the appointment of a former head of a parents-teachers association and consultant for several private companies as the sixth board member of the National Irrigation Administration.

In a July 6 letter to President Rodrigo Duterte, NCIAI president Silvestre Bonto said “the recent appointment of the sixth board member of NIA representing the ‘private sector’ in the person of Gregorio G. Sarmiento is contrary to law.” NCIAI boasts 1.6-million farmers “It is not in accordance with Republic Act 3601 and Presidential Decree 552 [An Act

Creating NIA] which provided for farmer representation in all government body of all government agencies, such as the NIA,” the document read.

Bonto said the NCIAI has been asserting its right to sit as one of the NIA’s board members in the past 20 years, but it was only recently that the government granted their right.

“For this, the NCIAI is very

thankful,” he added.

On June 2, 2016, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco appointed Sarmiento to represent the rice and corn (farmer) sector “to serve the unexpired term of office that began 01 June 2016 and will end on 30 June 2017 vice Silvestre Bonto assigned by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.”

According to Bonto, he was not informed about his re-

placement, and that he continued to stay as NIA’s sixth board member.

“Your recent appointment will deprive the 1,605,044 farmers, the 8,599 primary irrigators’ associations and the NCIAI with their rightful representation to the NIA board,” he said.

Bonto urged the President “to give back to the NCIAI their right.”

MALACAÑANG on Sunday congratulated the new president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Davao Archdiocese Archbishop Romulo Valles.

“The new Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines [CBCP] head from Davao signals a new day of peace for a multi-cultural Philippines,” said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella in a statement.

Archbishop Valles has served Mindanao as a Catholic priest for four decades, said Abella.

“His familiarity with Davao and Mindanao would augur well for the country as we promote interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding as part of our efforts to rebuild Marawi and to transform Mindanao into a land of fulfillment,” said Abella.

“Our warm congratulations to Archbishop Valles as he leads the Catholic faithful in the country, towards developing a deeper spiritual life and for the Church to have a more open dialogue and cooperation with the government, especially in working for the poor and the marginalized,” Abella also said.

The CBCP on Saturday elected Valles as the new CBCP president.

Valles was elected at the Bishops’ bi-annual plenary assembly held at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Paco, Manila. Sandy Araneta

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Opinion

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL

Muslim ID is discriminatory

D

EFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is absolutely correct when he describes as discriminatory a plan by police and military officials in Central Luzon to issue mandatory IDs to more than 26,000 Muslims in the region as a way to flush out terrorists.

Sadly, the response from other relevant government officials has not been as enlightened.

The officer-in-charge of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Catalino Cuy, for example, said he sees nothing irregular in the move by local officials to implement security mea-

sures.

Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa, while saying the proposal is a local, not a national initiative, said he regards the ID as merely “a form of record keeping.”

At the heart of the controversy is a plan by Police Regional Office 3 Director Supt.

Aaron Aquino to issue man-

datory IDs that all Muslim residents must wear. These IDs must be signed by the local chief of police and government units for “easy, proper and efficient authorization.”

Aquino said the IDs can can help local communities identify suspicious individuals so they could be reported to the authorities.

The practice of issuing IDs, he added, is being successfully implemented in Paniqui, Tarlac, and should be expanded to the entire region, “not only to protect the civilian populace but also vital government installations against terrorism.”

This idea is not only un-

constitutional; it is both foolish and dangerous.

Section 5 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution clearly states: “The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed.”

The operative phrase, in this instance, is “without discrimination or preference.”

How difficult is it to see that singling out Muslims for a mandatory ID clearly discriminates against them and their religion?

As Lorenzana put it: “Why only Muslims? Why not require everyone to have an

ID?” From a practical point of view, a Muslim-only ID is foolish. If a terrorist wants to mingle with the general population undetected, would he do so dressed in a way that marked him as a Muslim? If he passed himself off as a non-Muslim, what good would a Muslimonly ID be?

Beyond the foolishness, the decision to focus only on Muslims is dangerous because it might later be used as the basis for a national policy, and fuel resentment among Muslims that feeds the kind of extremism we have been trying so hard to

avoid.

The governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Mujiv Hataman, made this point as he expressed alarm over the proposal.

“We believe this policy clearly discriminates against the believers of Islam and could set a dangerous precedent,” he said.

Hataman said it could just make matters worse, as it could “ignite anger among young Muslims who are the primary target for recruitment of extremist groups.”

Bad ideas need to be nipped in the bud. This is clearly one of them.

Water

Where are you going?

THAT question annoys me, especially when my mother asks it of me when she catches wind of some trip that I am to make. I think that it should no longer be anybody’s business—not that of my mother’s—where I should go and where I should be. I chafe at what I consider to be an intrusion into the sacred precincts of my privacy. But in one of my fits of annoyance lately, I gave this question repeatedly asked me by my mother plenty of thought. It is of the same tenor as that she asks of her favorite grandson, my eldest nephew: “When are you coming home?”

After the evil spell of irritation passed, sobriety came on me and I realized that the question was that of an 85-year-old who hardly has any of us in her company. Although the three of us, siblings, are no spring chickens ourselves, there is still a lot to be excited about, so much to occupy our days, so many events to look forward to. We can be alone because we know that it will not be long before we re-

join the company of others: At work, at school, at choir practices, at parties, at outings. Not so with my mother.

The possibilities are severely restricted now, and her world has considerably shrunk to her room, sometimes, the rest of the house, and then the joy rides she takes in the afternoons by her lonesome self in her car, driven around by her faithful driver.

Really, while it often annoys me because I take it to be a demand that I be by her side all the time, it is in fact not so, because I am hardly ever by her side, even when she and I are both in Tuguegarao. She lives in her own house and I, in mine.

But as long as Jet, my brother, and I are around, her world is secure. The thought that we are not too far away is comforting enough for her. That might not make sense to us, but it is her world—and soon, it will be mine too, try as I may to deny it or put it off!

When the glow of youth has

I will try very hard to assure her that I will not be gone too long.

faded, when many of your relatives and friends have left for the hereafter, when close friends are burdened by sickness and old age and cannot keep you the same merry company they used to, then it really becomes a lonely world, and it gets lonelier still when the only ones you have left—who may not even live with you—announce that they are leaving you to yourself even for just some time. When there are not too many years left, every day is precious. Especially so because we are a family that

more than half-way through our lives lived very closely together, if not under one roof. Time was when the upper floor of the house was my parents’ domain that the three of us, siblings, also shared, and the lower floor was where grandpa and grandma pottered around—and lazy afternoons were spent watching grandma at her old, reliable sewing machine, or doing some fancy crocheting.

Then the nest started to empty. We went off to school, I to the seminary. It was only years later that I learned how mommy would cry after the first few days I left for the seminary and she would enter my room and see my empty cabinet. Jet too went off to law school, and soon, even Michee left for Maryknoll. At least, she still had daddy—until he was appointed a justice of the Court of Appeals and had to leave for Manila too.

She did not complain but it must have hurt tremendously. But she was courageous and she kept it

all within. It is so easy now to protest that she is being selfish when she wants us close by, but really, I have absolutely no idea of the anguish with which she found herself alone in an empty nest and the courage with which she bore it.

Daddy has ways of coping— because, although afflicted by weakened limbs, he gets invited to lectures and to participate in committee meetings of varied concerns. And he has always refrained from being a complainer, sometimes, even perilously keeping his medical issues to himself. Mommy remains intellectually alert, and can still lecture on the Family Code, Obligations and Contracts and Wills, hardly ever glancing at the books she has herself authored.

But she does not get the breaks daddy has, and less still, those that we have. So, why should I complain when she bothers me with the lonely and pained question: “Where are you going?”

Turn to A5

IN 1978, WHILE travelling through Europe with my mother, I noticed that Europeans would buy bottled drinking water. Sure there were water fountains in most parks, but these were “sin gaz,” or natural water, which many then eschewed, preferring soda water.

I kept telling my mom that we in the Philippines were lucky that we could drink our water straight from the taps. We then referred to this free H2O as “Nawasa juice,” which was the government-owned water service at the time. FVR privatized it in the mid-90s, and divided NCR into two concession areas: Manila Water went to the Ayalas and Maynilad to the Lopezes. These were two of the richest oligarchs in the country.

Lopez later sold Maynilad to a consortium led by the legendary MVP, the CEO of the Metro Pacific Group which controls power distribution (also bought from the Lopezes), telecommunications, and superhighways, among others.

Ironically, these days we buy bottled water, whether here in NCR or in the provinces. Even if the water service providers tell us that the water they bring to our taps is potable, we do not trust them enough. A whole new business has emerged out of ensuring “safe” drinking water. Clearly, I have had to eat my 1978 observation.

We know of course, that there are three essentials without which human life cannot be without: Food, water, and oxygen. These are gifts from the Creator that need to be sustainably preserved and enhanced by homo sapiens species if its existence were to continue.

Food production requires water and nitrogen from the air. A kilo of palay, for instance, requires as much as 5,000 liters of water, whether from rain or from irrigation canals. Everything that we humans eat cannot thrive without water, be it from plants or animals. And the human body requires daily doses of water, normally eight glasses full a day.

We may not realize it, and we complain only about the high service charge that the water distribution companies charge us monthly for the water it delivers to our taps, but our source of water in Metro Manila is supplied by only one: Angat Dam in Bulacan.

Unlike temperate countries where water could be sourced from the snow that melts after winter, tropical countries such as ours source our drinking water from rivers, lakes and underground aquifers. These in Turn to A5

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

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Opinion

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

A5

Diplomacy duplicity THERE are two different accounts on the first one- on- one meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Top of the list in the sidebar meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany was the alleged Russian meddling in the last US elections that purportedly helped Trump beat Democratic rival Hilary Clinton.

But as in the case of two diametrically opposed ideologies, what transpired in the TrumpPutin dialogue was given different versions. Contrasting accounts given by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov can only make this issue fester. Tillerson said Mr. Trump brought up the issue with Putin.

Trump, nagged by Americans to raise the issue, did so. But he did it on his own and not in the name of the American people who are alarmed Russia can influence such an important democratic process. Russia is also being accused of interference to influence the outcome of elections in Germany, France and other key European nations.

But as it is with such closed door meetings, the account given in separate media briefings by the two sides turned out to be “he said, he said” Lavrov told media Trump raise the issue but Putin denied

the allegation.

It was not pursued further by Trump and Putin took it to mean that the matter was closed and his counterpart wanted to move on.

In a highly complicated world, Russia’s role in geopolitics is vital in resolving the Syrian civil war, the Crimean crisis in Ukraine, North Korea’s nuclear threat and, further down the line, an escalating tension between Beijing and Washington on the South China Sea territorial dispute.

This is the world of diplomacy.

Heads of state don’t normally push even the most contentious concern that affects mankind.

Confrontation as much as possible is avoided except in the case of the Cuban missile crisis in the fifties when President John K. Kennedy threatened a missile attack on the Russian launch pads in Cuba which directly threatened the United States. Kennedy invoked the Monroe Doctrine that explicitly bans other foreign powers to gain a foothold and influence in South America.

In another development in the international arena, the US was warned by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres that if the US continues to disen-

gage in its global commitments, it will be replaced as a world leader.

Guterres said this is not good for America and the world. These are strong words coming from the top official of the world body.

One never heard such candor during the watch of the staid former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of South Korea.

Guterres has the gravitas to lead the UN. He’s a former Prime Minister of Portugal and UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Will Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte find themselves together as international outcasts? Duterte has also criticized the UN for being nothing but a talk shop. He wants to cut Philippine contribution to the world body. The Philippines is one of the founding fathers of the League of Nations, dating back to its origin in San Francisco before it moved to New York City. The UN charter was drawn in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 1945. The quintessential diplomat Carlos P. Romulo who went on to become the UN’s General Assembly president, led the Philippine delegation in the first UN organizational meeting in San Francisco.

Guterres was particularly

miffed that Trump pulled out from the Paris agreement on climate change and the reduction of fuel emission. Aside from threatening to slash US financial contribution to the UN, Trump has also threatened to cut US funding to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and let Western Europe sustain Nato. International observers, however, think Nato is not just for Europe’s defense. It is a buffer against Russian aggression and a first line of defense before a first nuclear strike against American soil.

The annual session of the UN General Assembly starts in September. Normally, heads of state or their foreign ministers deliver speeches before the GA. For sure, President Duterte will not miss such an important occasion for his first appearance in the world stage.

Being the fine wordsmith he is, we expect Philippine Ambassador to the UN, Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin, to craft for the President a sober meaningful speech so he does not rant and rave about the UN, the US and other human rights groups meddling in his internal affairs of fighting the drug menace There are more profound and meaningful words to deliver such a message to the international community without rankling them and making more enemies for us.

Defending national interests THE latest in the now-protracted West Philippine Sea saga comes in the form of new military facilities built by China on some of the disputed islands according to released satellite photos from American think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. The images show missile shelters and radar and communication sites under construction on Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi Reefs.

For his part, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said experts from the department are still studying if the structures are indeed new. If they are, he would recommend to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Philippines file a formal diplomatic protest against Beijing.

The development comes in the heels of a US Navy destroyer sailing within 12 nautical miles of a small isle in an island chain claimed and controlled by China, earning the ire of the Asian power who called it a “serious political and military provocation.” The incident involving American warship USS Stethem is the second spat in six weeks, although US officials claim the patrol is routine procedure authorized by the principle of freedom of navigation.

Closer to home, the US Embassy confirmed weeks ago that American soldiers, at the request of the Philippine government, are providing technical assistance to Filipino troops battling ISISaligned terrorists in Marawi City.

Local security officials clarified, however, that no American

personnel was directly involved in combat operations.

The two countries signed a Mutual Defense Treaty in 1951— five years after granting of Philippine independence—but the 1987 Constitution forbids direct participation of foreign troops in local conflicts.

In a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte, Ambassador Sung Kim had renewed his country’s commitment to support the Philippines’ counterterrorism and rehabilitation efforts in the embattled Islamic city even as fighting rages on far longer and more fiercely than initially expected.

This support—despite a perceived cooling of relations early in the Duterte administration— reveals the vital importance of stable ties with our historic and traditional allies, as well as the possibility of such ties recovering their old strength, especially in critical areas of cooperation such as counterterrorism, a real global, borderless threat.

Elsewhere, there were more displays of alliance in the high seas. Lorenzana confirmed that the US Navy combat ship USS Colorado, after a naval exercise in Cebu, conducted some joint patrols with the Philippine frigate BRP Ramon Alcaraz in the Sulu Sea, ostensibly to deter piracy and other illegal activities.

The joint patrol also “further

Where...

From A4 I too miss the excitement of younger days, and I too have found slammed in my face the doors of opportunity that once were wide open. If acceptance and resignation are difficult for me, how much more might they be for an 85-year-old mother and father? Not too long ago, in one of her afternoon visits to my house—that, for her, is an ice-cream parlor of sorts—she

Water...

From A4 turn are part of natural recycling that includes rainfall trapped in clouds that replenish the same sources. We trap these through dams, purify them in filtration and treatment plants, and then allow these to flow through a network of pipes into our taps.

But because we have through generations despoiled the natural cycle that sustains our living environment, and because we have multiplied our numbers several times over, the supply of water vis a vis increasing demand is now a cause for worry.

It has become urgent for us to develop other sources of water.

Angat, which flows to La Mesa Dam may no longer be sufficient in the years to come. For years on end, we have been talking about developing one in Laiban in the foothills of the Sierra Madre, but we have not gone be-

demonst rates US commitment to the security of the Philippines and enduring US interest in promoting stability and prosperity in the Indo-AsiaPacific region,” the US Embassy in Manila said.

Amid the profound dangers posed by the possibility of a global terrorist network, the imperative to categorically protect the country’s sovereignty and national patrimony even as we take advantage of key alliances is stronger than ever.

On one hand, the country’s stance on issues like the West Philippine Sea dispute should be guided by an abiding belief in what by law and by history belongs to us, from physical territory to the resources that rightfully belongs to the Filipino people.

On the other hand, as a small state in a global stage rife with competing interests, it is in the best interest of the Philippines to maintain and fortify the rule of international law. This is the only way for the country to secure a semblance of a level playing field faced, for instance, with a rising superpower like China. This is exactly what gave the Philippines distinct ascendancy when it received a favorable arbitral tribunal ruling, something that this administration can still take advantage of.

A worthwhile model is Japan’s proactive approach in internation-

was giving me instructions about something I had to do five years from now. I reckoned that that was not too long from now, and that there was no reason for her not to be around. But she said, without any sentimentality or emotion: “I shall not be around then.” I showed no emotion either, but when she left, I sat long and stared emptily—at nothing—for a long, long time in the realization that “Where are you going?” was a question I will be asking her perhaps in the not too distant future, to which I will

yond talking and planning.

Decades ago, the late Enrique Zobel proposed that we pump water from Taal Lake uphill towards Tagaytay where a treatment plant could be set up, and then allow gravity to bring it to our households. At the time it was proposed, it seemed still untimely.

Now it is worth considering.

Singapore gets its water from a dam on its border with Malaysia, for which it pays. But looking into their future, they have gone into recycling storm drain water, and have now embarked on desalination of sea water as an alternative. It may cost them an arm and a leg, but who cares?

It is a basic necessity. And new technological developments may just make it more affordable in the future, who knows?

Before a water system was set up in Davao in the 60s, every household had water tanks connected to their roof downspouts.

And since it always rained each

al affairs, in particular in upholding international order specifically on the security and governance aspect of the maritime domain. Its “multilayered security cooperation” forged critical ties with likeminded countries with coastal territories that are important in Japanese sea-lanes of communication.

The Philippines, for instance, stands to benefit from a planned provision of patrol vessels to boost, on one hand, its search-andrescue and fisheries protection capabilities, but also its maritime surveillance capacity vis-à-vis increased Chinese incursion in Philippine-claimed waters.

Ultimately, the complexity of the dynamic in the region tells us that the government’s independent foreign policy should by no means focus on pleasing Beijing at the expense of all the other players. The two, it bears repeating, are not mutually exclusive.

A year after landmark ruling from The Hague, independent think tank Stratbase ADR Institute is holding a forum called “The Framework of Conduct, One Year After Arbitration” on July 12 at the Manila Polo Club.

Fresh insights and analyses geopolitical issues will be discussed by top experts which include Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana, former DFA secretary Albert del Rosario, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and Stratbase ADRi president and academic Dindo Manhit, among others.

no longer expect any answer!

I will try very hard to ward off the “reflex” of annoyance next time she asks me this question. I will try very hard to assure her that I will not be gone too long. Because when the day comes that no one shall ask me any longer: “Where are you going?”, then I shall truly be alone! rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph rannie_aquino@outlook.com

afternoon and early evening in Davao, when its mountains were still lush with forests, that sufficed until their water system was set up.

In Cebu City with its huge population, water supply has become critical. There was a time when Gov. Lito Osmeña proposed to tap water from the Inabanga River in Bohol and pipe these underwater in the narrow straits that separate the two provinces. But the Boholanos would not agree, and till now, alternative sources of water for greater Cebu households remain to be tapped.

We can go on and on, and cite so many other urban centers across the country where water is becoming a future, if not present problem.

In my Butuan City hometown, the taps yield so little water, yellowish at that, because of a botched privatization deal concocted by the recently elected mayor.

We cannot produce enough rice to feed our huge population

because we have not irrigated our fields enough. Of the 4.5 million hectares of paddy we cultivate, only 1.7 million hectares are irrigated; the rest depend on rainfall. So each time a severe El Niño visits, we have a major rice crisis.

Unlike the Indo-Chinese peninsula (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand) where the headwaters from the Himalayas flow through the mighty Mekong, the Chao Phraya and Tonle Sap, we have narrow and shallow rivers.

Our Laguna de Bay is so near, yet we have allowed it to decay with the mindless proliferation of fishpens which while supplying us with bangus and tilapia, has become toxic with fish excreta. A Belgian firm sealed a deal with the Arroyo administration to desilt the lake, but because the PNoy administration declared it to be a corrupt deal in “a basta” fashion, we lost the

The millennials I HAVE always been ambivalent about taking hook line and sinker the general notion that millennials are lazy, self-absorbed, arrogant and lacking in civic mindedness and vision.

Loosely dubbed as Generation Y, Generation Me, Digital natives, and Rent Generation, the millennials are the moststudied generation ever. My ambivalence springs from the many studies saying that millennials are not arrogant, merely confident and they are conscious of health, economic and environmental issues, are civic- oriented, compassionate, team players and results oriented—all positive qualities.

My ambivalence became even more heightened when I accepted being a judge in the Philippine national competition of Enactus—an international, non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring students to improve the world through entrepreneurial action. The word Enactus is an abbreviation of the organization’s mantra that says, “We believe investing in students who take Entrepreneurial Action Why did for others creates a better world for us all.” The the bigger and competition was about searching for a univer- more prominent sity or college-based team that conceptual- schools in ized and implemented an Metro Manila entrepreneurial project that impacted a commu- not join the nity by empowering its citizens to improve their competition? lives in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable manner. The winner of the Philippine competition would go on to compete in London this September against winners from other countries.

The Enactus competition was participated in by nine universities and colleges across the country. Each participating team was composed of several college students who had to study what a community needed and then develop an innovative entrepreneurial project that allowed the participating beneficiaries in a community to make money or augment their income using raw materials that are indigenous to their communities. The teams had to show how their respective projects empowered their beneficiaries, how much they earned from the enterprise and how the projects can be sustained.

What I saw in the presentations amazed me. The winning team—students from the Holy Trinity College of General Santos City—showed that because they saw the need to address poverty in General Santos City, as well as the various skin problems suffered by many of the residents of a particular barangay which resulted in their lack of self-esteem, the students developed an organic soap product made from the leaves of the Neem tree which grows abundantly in that city, turmeric or yellow ginger and virgin coconut oil. They showed that their project had helped many families earn more money while solving their skin problems in the process. They have likewise taught their beneficiaries in General Santos City to produce Graviola tea—a health product—from the leaves of the guyabano. The Holy Trinity team helped the families involved in the two projects to make their packaging world class for effective marketing. Most importantly, the champion team helped the beneficiaries register the businesses to ensure economic sustainability.

The first, second and third runners up, namely: The Sultan Kudarat State University-Access campus, Sultan Kudarat State University-Isulan, and the Nueva Vizcaya State University, presented entrepreneurial projects too that had an impact on their respective communities, empowered the people and ensured economic, social and environmental sustainability.

These millennials have successfully debunked the negative impression people generally have against their generation.

Yet, the curious factor was, these millennials were all from the poor regions of the country. What struck me—as well as the other judges—was that the bigger and more prominent schools in Metro Manila did not join the competition, for reasons not known to the organizers. From Metro Manila, only Adamson University participated. Most of the participants were schools in Mindanao and, in fact, the top three in the competition all came from Mindanao.

One cannot help asking, do the students from the colleges and universities populated by kids from wealthy families represent what is negative among the millennials? Could they be so uninterested in improving the lot of poor members of the Philippines society that they did not wish to be bothered with joining this competition that brings out in students a spirit of caring, civic mindedness, compassion and a desire for empowering others through entrepreneurship?

I’d like to think that I am wrong and that the negative impression of the rich-kid millennial is unjustified. But then again, they must take the challenge to disabuse people’s minds that they are self-absorbed, arrogant and lazy. There are more competitions of this nature by Enactus in the years to come. I cannot wait to see them finally participating.

Email: ritalindaj@gmail.com Visit: www.jimenolaw.com.ph opportunity to make it deeper, causing instant flooding for the metropolis.

The problem may have been overlooked, or the need for another dam for NCR water may have been delayed by inaction or plain mindlessness. We expect the Duterte administration, now on its second year, to do something positive and decisive.

It has launched a new Build, Build, Build initiative focused on modernizing our public infrastructure, another victim of bureaucratic inaction through decades of neglect. Let it also focus on water, one of three essentials of human survival. *** Another good friend passed

away, on the first anniversary of the reign of Rodrigo Duterte whom he helped immensely to become president.

Atty. Lory Ata, who served as election lawyer and legal advisor of the President, whose sage advice our President respected, passed into the ages after a long battle with the big C. Had it not been for his declining health, Lory would have been a major figure in the Duterte Cabinet. He opted to serve as a PCSO director and devote the rest of his life to helping the charitable institution expand its services to the needy.

Farewell, dear friend. It was a privilege to have worked with you.

A6

News

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Group wants PEA officials indicted for plunder case

By Rey E. Requejo A CIVIL society group has prodded the Office of the Ombudsman to indict for graft and plunder charges officials of the Public Estates Authority and a private developer over alleged highly anomalous and illegal sale of more than 41 hectares of reclaimed land along Roxas Boulevard in 1988.

In a supplement to their complaint-affidavit filed on Friday, the United Filipino Consumers and Commuters Inc., through its lead convenor Rodolfo Javellana Jr., asked Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to immediately resolve the graft and plunder charges against PEA officials and executives of Manila Bay Development Corp. since it has been pending with the anti-graft body for more than two years now.

“It is not amiss to point out that this case has long been pending resolution with [the Ombudsman]... roughly about two and a half years from the time it was filed. This honorable office must therefore now resolve this case with dispatch,” Javellana said in his motion for early resolution.

ROAD TO FREEDOM. Several biker groups hold a motorcade along Edsa in Quezon City to support the government’s campaign against illegal drugs. Manny Palmero

Legarda: Increase education budget for S&T, innovation

By Macon Ramos-Araneta THE Philippines has been classified as a mere “innovation follower” by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation for not contributing significantly to the global innovation system.

Senator Loren Legarda said the classification also means the country under-invests in scientific research and is not willing to embrace needed reforms that could bolster innovation potential.

“Being a mere follower is simply unacceptable, especially since

the Filipino talent has contributed a number of game changing solutions to the world,” she said.

Legarda underscored the need to invest in higher education in order to create an innovation ecosystem.

“Our state universities and colleges need significant support, es-

Red tide alert up in Placer—BFAR

By Anna Leah E. Gonzales

T

HE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has raised the red tide alert over the coastal waters of Placer in Masbate.

In its recent shellfish bulletin, BFAR said the coastal waters of Irong-Irong in Western Samar; Puerto Princesa Bay in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan; and Mandaon in Masbate are still positive for paralytic shellfish poison that is beyond the regulatory limit.

Agriculture Undersecretary for Fisheries

and BFAR Director Eduardo Gongona said all types of shellfish from these areas are not safe for human consumption.

The ban is up for hard- and soft-shelled clams, oysters and mussels that are susceptible to red tide contamination as they feed by sifting microscopic food out of the water.

“Fish, squids, shrimps and crabs are safe for human consumption provided that they are fresh and washed thoroughly, and internal organs such as gills and intestines are removed before cooking,” Gongona said.

Areas which continue to be free from toxic red tide include the coastal waters of Cavite, Las Piñas, Parañaque, Navotas, Bulacan, Bataan, Bolinao, Anda, Alaminos, Sual, Wawa and Bani in Pangasinan,

Masinloc Bay in Zambales, Mandaon in Masbate, Juag Lagoon in Matnog and Sorsogon Bay in Sorsogon, Honda Bay in Puerto Princesa City and Inner Malampaya Sound in Taytay Palawan.

Red tide occurs when algae rapidly increase in numbers to the extent that it dominates the local planktonic or benthic community.

Blooms are caused by environmental conditions that promote explosive growth usually caused by a metabolic response to a particular stimulus or from the physical concentration of a species in a certain area due to local patterns in water circulation, warm sea surface temperatures and high nutrient content.

pecially from the government, in conducting researches and projects that can keep pace with the best in the world, and we must not hesitate in investing in institutions that can in fact lead in research and development,” she said.

“We need to promote a culture

of innovation to encourage creative thinking and knowledge creation and dissemination towards expanding and maintaining economic competitiveness. But in order to create an innovation ecosystem, we need to invest in higher education,” Legarda added.

17,000 jobs for Pinoy workers in UK—solon

By Macon Ramos-Araneta MORE than 17,000 jobs are available in the United Kingdom which are open for Filipinos seeking employment opportunities abroad, Senator Joel Villanueva said.

Villanueva met with Philippine ambassador to United Kingdom Antonio Lagdameo along with British businessmen Bruno De Penanster, Ananas Anam and Michael Cheong of Manning Impex to discuss employment opportunities available for Filipinos in the UK. At present, Britain is looking for civil engineers, foremen, nurses, caregivers, computer programmers, cooks, bookkeepers, and cashiers, among others.

Villanueva, chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employ-

ment, and human resources development, said these are in-demand jobs with the highest pay in the UK. “The United Kingdom has generously offered us a variety of job opportunities fit for our world-class skilled workers,” he said, adding that monthly salary for civil engineers may reach up to P139,000 while nurses may get as much as P113,000 per month.

Caregivers, on the other hand, are offered as high as P61,000 monthly while cooks and bookkeepers may receive hourly rates of P350 and P286, respectively.

“The world needs a lot of skilled workers. I believe our country possesses a highly skilled workforce that are very much qualified to meet the international standards and fill in the demands of the global job market,” Villanueva added.

New power players to enter Occ. Mindoro

By Rio N. Araja

AGE OF INNOCENCE. Children play at a broken fishing boat in garbage-filled Manila Bay in Baseco, Tondo. AFP

OCCIDENTAL Mindoro Rep. Josephine Sato has assured a steady supply of electricity in the province as an exclusive power contract expires next year.

“There is light at the end of a tunnel,” Sato said, adding that the province’s local officials have been closely working closely with the Department of Energy, National Electrification Administration, National Power Corp. and other concerned national agencies to ensure that power requirements of the province are met.

By 2018, a 25-year energy conversion agreement entered into by Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative Inc. and Island Power Corp. will expire, thus allowing other power investors to step in.

The exclusive ECA has prevented other independent power producers from investing in the province, affecting largely Omeco consumers.

The IPC has failed to produce power since 2007.

While waiting for the ECA to expire, Sato said local officials are exploring other means to improve the power situation, including boosting a 20 megawatt diesel power plant of the Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corp. in San Jose.

Sports

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MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Philracom adds P15m to prize pot W ORLD-CLASS horseracing looms on the horizon as the Philippine Racing Commission (Philracom) increases the pot for the races and begins implementing a rating-based handicapping system as a result of its recent membership to the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), whose mission is to promote good regulation and best practices on international matters pertaining to the sport.

The country’s governing body for horse-racing has allotted P15 million in prize money, divided equally among the three racing clubs during a 15-weekend stretch which serves as a test run of its new rating-based IFHA handicapping system.

Benefitting from this increase in prize money are races scheduled at the Manila Jockey Club on July 23, Aug. 13, Oct. 15, Nov. 26 and Dec. 17; the Philippine Racing Club on July 9, Aug. 20, Sept. 10, Oct. 1 and Dec. 24; and the Metro Turf on Sept. 17, Oct. 29, Nov. 19, Dec. 10 and Dec. 31.

The Philippines is adopting IFHA’s rating-based

handicapping system this year as the international body’s 31st member country.

Making up the elite IFHA membership is Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, South America, India, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Panama, Puerto Rico, Scandanavia, Singapore, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

“These IFHA member countries are enjoying a boom in their respective horse-racing industries

because of the rating-based handicapping system, and soon, we in the Philippines, will do too,” said Philracom Chairman Andrew A. Sanchez. “Our IFHA membership will ensure that Philippine racing will move towards globalization.”

Philracom Commissioner Bienvenido Niles Jr. said that the benefits of Philracom’s affiliation with IFHA will benefit the entire industry and help grow the revenues.

“Once we do this (rating-based handicapping), we can be sure that people will have confidence na ‘yung mga kabayo are safe to bet on, they’re healthy, walang gamot, competitive. They will know that the handicapping is balanced para the races will be exciting. I think if we can do that, ‘yung mga bettors natin will be happy,” he said Even the horseowners, Chairman Sanchez said, will benefit from this because of the increase in prize money.

“Dati iilan lang ang nabibiyayaan. Ngayon marami na, because we are increasing prizes from Classes 1 to 5. And once a racehorse owner gets

the benefit from this, he will import more horses or use his earnings to make his local ones here competitive dahil kaya na niya gastusan,” Sanchez reasoned out.

An additional P100,000 in prizes will be given in Class 1 races, with Classes 2 to 5 getting P80,000, P60,000, 40,000 and P20,000, respectively, distributed from first to fourth places. Winning horse owner gets P30,000 in Class 1, while P20,000 and P10,000, are allotted in Classes 2 and 3, and 4 and 5, respectively.

One area that excites Executive Director Buencamino, a veterinarian, is in the transfer of technology from one member IFHA nation to another.

“There is a committee on IFHA on horse welfare. If there’s anything that we need, they can provide us with technical advise. Normally naman, there’s a lot of sharing among members, so if there is a disease that is unique to a certain country, they let us know the treatments that are used,” said Buencamino.

PH paddlers bag 4 golds in Taiwan tilt

By Randy Caluag PHILIPPINE dragon boat team coach Len Escollante didn’t mind shelling out US$200 after losing a friendly bet to her player Daniel Ortega.

With Ortega and Roger Masbate leading the charge, the Philippine team topped the semifinal race of the 20-seater men’s 200-meter race in record fashion to highlight the Filipinos’ four-gold medal haul at the close of the 2017 Taiwan International Dragon Boat Championships on Sunday. ``I had been challenging them to break their world record in every race. All the hard work of training twice a day finally paid off,’’ said Escollante, She then happily handed two crisp 100-dollar bills to Ortega after the team’s semifinal victory with a time of 40.16 seconds, which was better than the team’s 41-second performance during the 2014 ICF Dragon Boat World Championships in Poznan, Poland last year.

With the gold medal in the 10-seater 200-meter race already tucked under their belts, the Filipino paddlers again mightily cruised to the finish on the murky waters of Fulu River in Changchua County to complete the golden feat in the 20-seater.

With drummer Patricia Ann

Bustamante and steersman Christian Burgos, the team also topped the men’s 10-seater 500-meter race and then capped the day with another victory in the men’s 20-seater 500m for the team’s fourth gold medal in the prestigious tournament. ``This is essentially the start of our preparations for the world championships and the Asian Games next year,’’ said Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation president Jonne Go. The Filipinos received a standing ovation from the huge crowd after the record feat, then slowed down a bit with a 40.48-second The victorious Philippine paddlers after topping the men’s 20-seater 500m race clocking in the 200m big boat finale to beat Chinese Taipei’s Fitness Factory (43.57s) and Taiwan’s Ludong Township (47.01s).

For Escollante, the next goal LONDON —For the first time Murray, who has battled hip don in straight sets in the second now is to break the 39-second since 2011, the top four men’s pain, is the only one of the ‘Big round last year. barrier. seeds have reached the Wimbledon Four’ to have dropped a set in the Former coach Boris Becker “Hopefully, we will aim for last-16 with Andy Murray, Novak first week. praised Djokovic for his first week 38 seconds prior to the Asian Djokovic, Roger Federer and RaHe faces unpredictable French- performances after fears that the Games,’’ said Escollante, whose fael Nadal taking centre-stage on man Benoit Paire who is in the last- Serb had lost his love for the sport wards overshadowed the team’s ‘Manic Monday’.

16 for the first time. after losing all four Grand Slam three-gold feat in the last year’s The four stars have shared the “He has very good hands, moves titles he held last year.

ICF world championships last in Wimbledon title since 2003 when well, takes a lot of chances, goes “Boris knows me very well. So he’s Moscow.

Federer won the first of his seven for his shots,” said Murray who has right when he says that the passion is The Philippines timed 53.84 sectrophies at the All England Club. a 1-0 career lead over Paire. back,” said second seed Djokovic. onds in winning over host Taiwan Djokovic has claimed three with Murray has not lost at Wimbledon - Federer faces ‘natural heir’ (54.30) and Hong Kong (54.80) in defending champion Murray and before the quarter-finals since 2006.

Federer bidding for a record eighth the 200m small boat and submitNadal winning two apiece.

Djokovic takes a 1-0 career edge Wimbledon title, which would also ted the best time of 2 mins and 22 It’s the kind of domination that over unseeded Adrian Mannarino make him the oldest champion at the seconds to bag its third gold in the looks unlikely to end Monday of France into his last-16 clash, All England Club, faces Grigor Dim500m small boat. when the fourth round takes place. with that win coming at Wimble- itrov boasting a 5-0 record over the

Heavyweights brace for Manic Monday

AFP Cavaliers, PNP Responders clash today for title Games Monday

Smart-Araneta Coliseum 6:30 p.m. Former professional players vs UNTV Cup selection 8 p.m AFP Cavaliers vs PNP Responders (8PM)

THE AFP Cavaliers have the momentum with a four-game winning streak heading into the finals, but the PNP Responders hope to repeat their magical run last year as they clash in a winner-take-all UNTV Cup Executive Face-off finals today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The no. 1 seed AFP, whose streak includes a victory over rival PNP, entered the finals after a breezy 86-70 semifinals victory over the Judiciary Magis last June 25, moments after the Responders eliminated DOJ, 89-77, to set up their highly-anticipated match.

Game time is at 8 p.m., right after the exhibition game between the UNTV Cup selection and the ex-professional players: Ramon Fernandez, Atoy Co, Ed Cordero, Jerry Codinera, Jojo Lastimosa, Ronnie Magsanoc, Allan Caidic, Dindo Pumaren, Vince Hizon, Olsen Racela, Noli Locsin, Bogs Adornado, Pido Jarencio, Philip Cezar, Alvin Patrimonio, Bong Hawkins & Kenneth Duremdes.

This is the third time that the AFP and PNP meet in the finals of the UNTV Cup, with the former winning the first two in Season 2 and Season 4.

The Cavaliers are expected to bring

their suffocating full-court press to a whole new level, especially now that the team is set to play with a complete arsenal for just the second time this tournament.

Set to meet the PNP for the first time, BGen. Gener Del Rosario, who did not play when the AFP edged out the Responders, 94-86, in the final game of the elimination round, brings additional firepower to a balanced-scoring Cavaliers’ side with his 15.7 scoring average tallied in three games. He had a team-high 17 points in their series-clinching game against Judiciary.

“We’ll prepare hard pero syempre gusto naming makuha ito,” said AFP’s coach Sonny Manucat, who admits that hectic schedules of the players cost some of the team’s practice.

But he added that the team remains motivated with their co-soldiers currently fighting in Marawi City as their inspirations: “(we want to win) gusto naming ialay lahat doon ang game na ito.” “‘Yung masasabi kong inspirasyon namin ‘yung mga kasamahan naming sundalo na namatay sa labanan, na nasugatan, ‘yung mga pamilya na namatay ‘yung asawa sa laban nila.”

Meanwhile, the Responders, champions of the Season 5 tournament, try to ride the all-around game of the duo of Anthony Padua and PSupt. Dexter Vitug as they attempt to prove that third try’s luck when they face the AFP in the finals for the third time.

ers are now barred from fighting after they were found to have medical records that were either tampered or produced illegally.

“The blacklisted boxers are barred from fighting. Their licenses will only be activated upon submission of new CT scans,” said Mitra, who signed the ban order with commissioners Eduard Trinidad and

Petron favored in volley finals Games Tuesday

(Muntinlupa Sports Center) 5 p.m. – Cignal vs Foton 7 p.m. – Petron vs F2 Logistics

IM Roderick Nava (seated, left) and participant Francois Magpily shake hands after making the ceremonial moves. They are with Shell Active Chess officials, led by Alex Dinoy (second from left), Gene Poliarco (second from right) and Christine Guison, Pilipinas Shell Country Community Liaison Officer (center). Lino Santos

Magpily forces 3-way tie in chess FRANCOIS Marie Magpily flashed top form against male rivals, beating five of them as she gained a share of the juniors lead even as Chester Reyes grabbed the top spot in kiddies play in the 25th Shell National Youth Active Chess Championships at held SM Mall of Asia Music Hall over the weekend.

Ranked sixth in a field of146, Magpily toppled Paulo Delicano, John Pascual, Rhey Lacambra and Vic Derotas before the Gen. Pio National HS standout foiled

Daryl Batula to post an impressive sweep of her first five matches in the 13-16 age group Swiss system event sponsored by Pilipinas Shell.

No. 5 Earl Mantilla and ninth seed Cedrick Gaddi matched Magpily’s strong start to force a three-way tie for the lead with Mantilla testing Magpily’s mettle in the sixth round. Gaddi will take on Michael Erese, the lone 4.5 pointer after the first half of the nine-round tournament sanctioned by the NCFP.

GAB suspends 70 boxees for submitting fake CT Scan results THE Games and Amusement Board has stepped up its drive to stamp out shenanigans that put the Filipino boxers at risk.

As a result of its more stringent clean-up drive, the regulatory agency suspended 70 boxers who were found to have submitted fraudulent CT Scan records to get their fight licenses.

GAB chairman said the box-

man once tipped as his natural heir.

“It’s a great day to play. I would be happy to be a fan,” said Federer of a day when all last-16 matches in the men’s and women’s events are played.

Federer is playing in the fourth round for the 15th time.

Nadal, fresh from a 10th French Open title, faces fellow left-hander Gilles Muller, who is looking to make the quarter-finals for the first time in seven years.

Nadal has a 5-1 record over Muller although he will be wary that the Luxembourg grass court specialist beat him at Wimbledon in 2005. AFP

Matthew Gaston.

The Board released the Order on GAB Case No. 04-17( Motu Proprio complaint vs Lory Abeleda, et. al.), dated July 7, 2017 which “ordered the BLACKLISTED and BARRED from applying for or renewing his license, transacting sith GAB, or otherwise acting as a professional licensee of the Board,

until further orders of the Board upon submission of the original copy of their CT scan results”.

Mitra said the GABs medical section observed irregularities in the CT scan results submitted by the boxers. After further investigation, they were proven to be fake and tampered.

The GAB has not yet released

the names of the boxers and their managers pending further investigation.

The CT Scan is one of the requirements for boxers to obtain professional license from the GAB. Boxers who lost by knockouts are also required to get CT Scans to prove their fitness to fight again after medical suspension of at least 60 days. Randy Caluag

DESPITE being the challenger to the crown, Petron will be slightly favored when it clashes with reigning champion F2 Logistics in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference best-of-three finals starting tomorrow at the Muntinlupa Sports Center.

Foton head coach Moro Branislav and Cocolife mentor Kungfu Reyes picked the Blaze Spikers over the Cargo Movers for their deep bench, vast experience and strength on both ends of the floor.

Reyes, who guided RC Cola-Army to a masterful conquest of the Thailand junior national team en route to the Invitational Conference title last year, also noted that Mika Reyes, Remy Palma and Ria Meneses have the abilities to stop Majoy Baron, who was named Most Valuable Player in the recent UAAP wars.

The first time these two titans met, the Blaze Spikers emerged victorious after more than two hours of battle, 23-25, 23-25, 25-14, 25-15, 15-9.

“This time, I go for Petron,” said Reyes shortly after steering the Asset Managers to an impressive fifth-place finish.

“They have deeper bench, more matured players, efficient setter, effective opposites, stable blocking and good rotation. Aside from that, their middle blockers can stop the middles of F2 Logistics. So it’s going to be a very interesting series.”

Cignal coach George Pascua disagreed with them, however.

Pascua, the chief architect of Petron’s sweep of this conference two years ago, said the character and familiarization of F2 Logistics players with each other would play key roles to their victory.

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

P0 M+ P0 M

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

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MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

Blu Girls rebound, surprise Mexicans

THE Philippine Blu Girls snapped out of a five-game skid, repelling world No. 10 Mexico, 4-2, in the World Cup of Softball XII at the ASA Hall of Fame Complex in Oklahoma Saturday.

Francesca Altomonte homered to centerfield and drove in runner Reese Gueverra from first to give the 17th-ranked Pinays a two-run cushion on their way to posting their second win against five losses in the eight-team tourney.

“The Blu Girls have been putting a great fight against some tough rivals in the World Cup. Their performance has proven that they are ready to face the toughest and are continuously improving to prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics,” said AsaPhil president and Cebuana Lhuillier president/CEO Jean Henri Lhuillier.

The Filipinas earlier shocked the No. 4 Australians, 7-5, in the opening day but dropped their next five matches.

The Pinays and the Mexicans face off again in the ranking match Sunday noon (early Monday in Manila).

Altomonte had two RBIs and one run on a 2-for-3 batting clip to lead the offense.

Sierra Lange pitched a seven-hitter, allowing two runs and striking out four, in a no-relief job to earn the win.

The Pinay softbelles jumped the gun on Mexico in the top of the second with Angelie Ursabia sending Kailey Cuico home on a single. Skylynne Eliazar doubled the lead as she reached the plate off a fielder’s choice.

But Mexico quickly drew level in bottom second, courtesy of Sierra Rodriguez’ run-scoring ground ball single and Stefania Aradilla’s sacrifice fly.

The Blu Girls will next see action in the Canada Cup International Softball Championship in Surrey, British Columbia where it will clash with Pakistan and host Canada on July 11, and Chinese Taipei on July 12 at Softball City.

The other members of the team are Gabrielle Maurice, Dani Gilmore, Chelsea Suitos, Garie Blando, Hailey Decker, Riflayca Basa, Mary Luisse Garde, Cristy Roa, Dione Macasu, Arianne Vallestero, Ma. Celestine Palma, Lorna Adorable, Shaira Damasing, Mia Macapagal, Reese Guevarra, Riezel Calumbres, Lovely Arago, and Lyca Basa.

Sports Trevor Ariza (right), James Harden (center) and Chris Paul of the Houston Rockets attend their team’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2017 Las Vegas Summer League at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP

Harden’s $228-m salary is richest in NBA history L

OS ANGELES—The Houston Rockets inked James Harden to a contract extension worth a reported $228 million on Saturday.

The Houston Chronicle reported the exact value of the deal, which will keep Harden under contract for six years, will depend on future leaguewide salary cap figures.

Harden had two years, worth $59 million, left on his previous contract.

He benefitted from a provision in the new collective bargaining agreement covering extensions for superstars. He was eligible for the Designated Player Veteran Extension, which for him was worth an additional $169 million over four seasons.

“Since he arrived in Houston, James has exhibited the incredible work ethic, desire to win, and passion to be the best that has made him one of the most unique and talented superstars in the history of the game,” Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said in a statement announcing the signing.

“Additionally, the commitment he has shown to our organization, the City of Houston, and Rockets fans all over the world makes him a perfect leader in our pursuit of another

championship.”

For the second time in three seasons, Harden was second in NBA Most Valuable Player voting, with the award going to Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Harden led the NBA in assists, averaging 11.2 per game. He was second in scoring, averaging 29.1 points. He had career bests in points, assists and rebounds (8.1) for a third straight campaign.

He became the only player in NBA history to get at least 2,000 points, 900 assists and 600 rebounds in the same season.

Meanwhile, the NBA has slapped Philadelphia 76ers player Joel Embiid with a $10,000 fine for swearing on social media.

The announcement was made in a one sentence news release by league executive vice-president Kiki VanDeWeghe on Saturday. No details were provided.

The league said Embiid was being fined for “using inappropriate language on social media.”

In an Instagram video posted this week, Embiid can be heard saying “Fuck LaVar Ball”.

Embiid and LaVar Ball have been insulting each other since the draft in June, with Embiid angered by Ball-senior’s branding him injury prone.

After the Lakers took Lonzo Ball with the second overall pick, Embiid wrote on his Twitter account, “Please dunk on him so hard that his daddy runs on the court to save him.”

Cebu braces for Cobra Ironman 70.3 staging PREPARATIONS are in full swing for the 2017 Cobra Energy Drink Ironman 70.3 Philippines on Aug. 6 with Cebu putting its best foot forward to ensure another successful staging of the country’s premier triathlon.

The Queen City of the South earned raves from all over following its hosting of last year’s first-ever Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific where Australian Tim Reed and Swiss Caroline Steffen ruled their respective sides to share top honors at Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa. With the organizing Sunrise Events, Inc., they are guaranteeing another world-class setup for the grueling 1.9K swim, 90K bike, 21K run race

that starts and ends at ShangriLa’s Mactan Resorts and Spa. Reed is back to defend his crown against a stellar roster of pros and though Steffen has opted not to seek a repeat – actually missing out on a shot at a sixth straight title in Cebu, the depth of the women’s field remains as talent-laden as ever with Dimity-Lee Duke going for a follow-up to her breakthrough win in Regent 5150 Triathlon in Subic recently.

As determined to race for top honors as the more than 27 pros are a number of Filipino elite aces, CEO tri racers and close to 2,000 age-groupers and mixed, all-male, and allfemale relay participants.

August Benedicto and Monica Torres are also ex-

pected to defend their respective titles in the Filipino Elite category, which stakes $1,000 to the winner.

A record 51 countries and a running roster of 2,696 participants have so far signed up for the blue-ribbong event backed by title sponsor Cobra Energy Drink and presentor Tourism Promotions Board Philippines and Summit Natural Drinking Water, also the official hydration partner.

Listup for the pros is ongoing with deadline set on July 16. For details, visit sunriseevents.com.ph.

Also on tap are the IronGirl on Aug. 4, a 5km fun run for females 12 years old and above, and the popular Aussies Tim Reed (left) goes for back-to-back, while Dimity-Lee Duke seeks a IronKids on Aug. 5. follow-up to her Regent 5150 romp.

La Salle paddlers sweep 4 categories in Dragon Boat Cup PADDLERS from De La Salle University swept four categories of the small boat division last Saturday in 1st Triton-Philippine Collegiate League Dragon Boat Cup held at the Baywalk, Roxas Boulevard, Manila Bay. The Green Paddlers first prevailed over the San Beda Rowing Society in the 500 meters Open, clocking four minutes and 20,34 seconds.

San Beda Dragon Boat Rowing Society finished behind in 4:59:62, followed by the Adamson Paddlers in 5:00:53.

La Salle also took the mixed 500, the Open 250 and the Mixed 250 honors also at

the expense of San Beda.

The Dragon Boat Cup, organized by the PCL in partnership with the internationally seasoned Triton Dragon Boat Racing Team, featured the best collegiate dragon boat and regular teams in the country.

The event started off with a Taoist priest blessing the day by performing the eyedotting ceremony on a dragon boat with Triton President Carol Salonga, PCL Organizer Geraldine Bernardo, International Dragon Boat Federation certified Technical Official Marcia Cristobal, and Philippine Dragon Boat Federation Vice Presi-

dent Aaron Garcia.

Other results: Small Boat 250 meters (Women)- 1. Blue Phoenix at 1:21:70; 2. Rogue Pilipinas at 1:21:77; 3. Seahawks at 1:24:15; Small Boat 250 meters (Open)- 1. Bruins at 1:05:97; 2. Seahawks A 1:06:34; 3. Rogue Pilipinas at 1:07:25 Small Boat 250 meters (Mixed)- 1. Seahawks B at 1:09:31; 2. Blue Phoenix at 1:09:89; 3. Rogue Pilipinas at 1:09:99.

Standard Boat 250 meters (Mixed)- 1.

Bruins at 1:06:44; 2. Rogue Pilipinas at 1:06:84; 3. Seahawks at 1:07:14.

Water, eggs and bananas donated by the Triton members past and present were given away to the competing teams.

Food stalls from the likes of Kowloon House, Native Plate, and Pizza Hut, among others dotted the venue.

On the other hand, fun activities and side attractions were plenty, such as all-day music from up and coming bands.

There was the battle rope challenge by PACE x Freyo, Happy Bubbles, and merchandise booths for Grosby products and Krooberg footwear also kept the venue crawling with fans and spectators. Peter Atencio

Nelle takes charge, lifts Cubs past Staglets

By Peter Atencio Games Tuesday

(The Arena in San Juan) 8 a.m. Perpetual Help vs LSGH(jrs) 10 a.m. JRU vs LPU (jrs) 12 nn Perpetual Help vs CSB (srs) 2 p.m. JRU vs LPU (srs) 4 p.m. Letran vs Mapua (srs) 6 p.m. Letran vs Mapua (jrs) THIS time around, the San Beda Red Cubs did not have an easy time with the San Sebastian Staglets.

But with veteran guard Evan Nelle taking charge and finding the open man in the last period, the Red Cubs pulled off an 8675 triumph over the Staglets Sunday at the Letran College gymnasium in Intramuros.

Nelle scored only six points and handed 14 assists for the Red Cubs at the start of the 93rd National Collegiate Athletic Association junior basketball tournament.

He scored on a drive and then assisted Peter Alfaro during a fastbreak--two crucial plays that fuelled the Red Cubs’ decisive scoring run in the last five minutes.

With the Stags threatening, 69-72, the Red Cubs then moved away on a 12-0 blast.

Dominguez backs Sasa port project

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Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

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Ayala investing P11b in El Nido

By Jenniffer B. Austria

P

ROPERTY developer Ayala Land Inc. earmarked P11 billion to fully develop its first tourism estate development in El Nido, Palawan into an integrated resort community.

Javier Hernandez, chief operating officer of Ayala Land-led Ten Knots Development Corp., said Lio Tourism Estate in El Nido, once fully developed, would have 1,000 hotel keys as well as commercial establishments, residential communities and facilities and amenities for eco-adventure and leisure travel.

The 325-hectare development currently offers 213 hotel rooms targeting families, returning Filipino migrants, young professional and backpackers.

Another 787 new hotel rooms will be built until 2022, including the 200-room Seda Hotel and Resort.

Ayala Land started selling commercial lots ranging from

800 to 2,600 square meters which would be developed for hospitality-related projects.

Ayala Land’s premier residential brand Ayala Land Premier is also set to launch by the second quarter of 2018 a residential project in El Nido.

The residential offerings will include mid-rise condominium units comprising of three and four-story structures.

Ayala Land started improving infrastructure and facilities in El Nido. It recently opened the new Lio Airport Terminal that could accommodate 200 passengers.

A transport terminal for landbased transport is also set to

open by October for guests’ convenience.

Other township components to be developed are employee housing, a market, schools, medical facilities and church.

Operating inside the estate is Shops@Lio which aims to provide guests with a unique shopping and dining experiences by the beach.

Restaurants and bars offer various choices of local and international fare, while non-food retailers include tour operators, boutique and souvenir shops and a spa.

Shops@Lio, which offers 3,000 square meters of leasable space, is expected to expand

its offerings in the future with more choices and services for the convenience of both guest and locals.

Currently being developed is Kalye Artisano, an artists’ village that will serve as a platform for various forms of visual and performing arts, and will showcase crafts and creations from local artists.

Kalye Artisano (Artist Village) with 1,500 sqms GLA is expected to be completed by December 2017.

Ayala Land already developed 10 percent of the total 325 hectares. The company said it would keep 45 percent of the land area as nature preserved sites.

SMC still pushing airport in Bulacan

PH net oil imports surge 78% to $2.1b THE country’s net oil import bill surged 78 percent in the first three months$2.137 billion from $1.2 billion a year ago on higher crude prices.

Data from the Energy Department showed the net import volume from January to March reached 38.410 million barrels, up from 36.065 million barrels over the same period last year.

Oil imports hit 42.064 million barrels composed of crudes, finished products and other products amounting to $2.383 billion, up from 39.710 million barrels equivalent to $1.405 billion a year ago.

Exports of petroleum products slightly rose to 3.655 million barrels in the first three months from 3.645 million barrels a year earlier.

Net oil import bill in 2016 declined 12.3 percent to $6.78 billion from $7.73 billion in 2015 on lower oil prices. Oil import volume increased 8.3 percent last year to 149.304 million barrels from 137.907 million barrels in 2015. Alena Mae S. Flores

ERC asked to clear Atimonan supply deal

By Darwin G. Amojelar SAN Miguel Corp. remains keen on building an international airport in Bulacan province and is not interested in the bidding for the operations and maintenance of Clark International Airport under the hybrid public-private partnership model.

“No, I think if ever, we will just be concentrating in this Bulacan airport,” San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said when asked if he was interested to the join the bidding for Clark O&M. State-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority earlier said it would roll out the bidding for the construction of the P12.5-billion expansion of Clark International Airport.

The auction for O&M for Clark airport will immediately follow after the award of the bidding for the construction.

The winning bidder for the O&M will have inputs in the design of the new airport.

Ang said its unsolicited offer to build an international airport in Bulacan was already submitted to the Transportation Department.

“I think Secretary [Arthur] Tugade is evaluating it and we have been in continuous in talks about the technical matters. So I hope soon DOTr [Department of Transportation] can decide on it,” Ang said.

He said the proposed Bulacan airport would not be in conflict with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Clark airport.

IN BRIEF

MERALCO AWARD. Senior officers and men of Manila Electric Company celebrate after bagging the Company of the Year award in the 15th Philippine Quill Awards organized by the International Association of Business Communicators at the Marriot Grand Ballroom in Pasay City.

The Quill Awards celebrate outstanding public relations, marketing, advertising and brand communications campaigns. Ey Acasio

Espenilla seeks improved credit information

By Julito G. Rada BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said there is a need to improve credit information in the country to encourage banks and other lending institutions to lend more to different sectors.

Espenilla said that instead of forcing banks to lend to clients, the better approach was fixing the barriers to lending.

“Mandated lending is basically you require the lender, ready or not, on a quota basis, to lend to a segment that creditor may or may not be ready to serve. So that is where the problem lies,” he said during the induction of

new officers of the Credit Management Association of the Philippines in Makati City.

“So if you don’t know those customers, you are not geared to serve them. You are [now] faced with a difficult choice of not complying, then you pay the penalty,” he said.

Espenilla said even if lenders were able to comply, they would not know the risks and they might actually lose a lot.

“I think the way to solve that is, rather than focus on mandated lending, we must deal with the issues that make it easier for creditors to lend on a voluntary basis by first improving the credit information law. There

are other issues in play such as the difficulty of enforcing contracts,” he said.

Espenilla said lending to the different sectors of society was very vital to sustain the growth momentum of the economy.

Under the Republic Act 10000 or the Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009, 25 percent of banks’ total loanable funds should be set aside for agriculture and fisheries in general, of which at least 10 percent should be made available for agrarian reform beneficiaries.

However, latest data showed that banks continued to fall short of the mandated limit despite posting a double-digit growth in

loans for agriculture and agrarian reform last year.

Bangko Sentral data showed that the banking system was able to set aside P488.2 billion of total loanable funds for agriculture and agrarian reform last year or 12.8 percent higher than the P432.73 billion disbursed in the same period in 2015.

The total loanable funds generated by the banking industry increased 24.3 percent to P3.53 trillion last year from P2.84 trillion in 2015. But the combined allocation of loanable funds from agriculture and agrarian reform of 13.83 percent last year was way below the minimum threshold set by the law.

May production likely up 7.8% MANUFACTURING output likely picked up in May from the previous month, on improving demand for Philippineproducts, Moody’s Analytics, a division of Moody’s Corp., said in a report over the weekend.

“The Philippines’ industrial production is expected to grow 7.8 percent year-on-year in May after rising 5.9 percent in April. The archipelago’s manufacturers are receiving a boost from improved global demand, which is supporting the export-oriented electronics industry,” Moody’s said.

Moody’s said aside from sustained strong demand abroad, another reason for the continuous expansion of industrial production was the robust domestic demand.

“Both private investment and consumption are rising rapidly, thanks to favorable demographics and ample investment opportunities that will leave the Philippines as one of the fastestgrowing economies globally for the foreseeable future,” it said.

The government expects the economy to expand between 6.5 percent and 7.5 percent this year, anchored mainly

on robust domestic demand, higher fiscal spending and investments.

First-quarter growth settled at 6.4 percent, slower than 6.8 percent a year ago, weighed down by sluggish public spending. Despite the slower first-quarter GDP growth, it remained one of the fastest in the region. The economy grew 6.9 percent in 2016.

The National Economic and Development Authority earlier said the outlook for the manufacturing output remained positive despite the slower growth in April.

The Philippine Statistics Authority said the volume of production index for manufacturing grew 5.9 percent in April 2017, lower than the 12.8 percent in the previous month and the 10.1 percent in April 2016.

“Despite the slowdown at the onset of the second quarter, manufacturing output is expected to sustain its growth following anticipated increases in demand during the harvest season and the enrollment period in schools,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said in a statement.

Julito G. Rada

BEST INFRASTRUCTURE DEALS. First Metro Investment Corp., the investment banking

arm of the Metrobank Group, wins three awards for two landmark infrastructure deals at The Asset Triple A Asia Infrastructure Awards 2017. Light Rail Manila Corp.’s P24-billion project loan facility is recognized as the Transport Deal of the Year, Philippines and Transport Deal of the Year in Asia. The other award is the Renewable Energy Deal of the Year – Hydro, Philippines for Hedcor Sibulan Inc.’s P4.1 billion multi-tranche project notes facility. Shown during the awarding ceremony are (from left) First Metro first vice president Francisco Javier Bonoan, The Asset editor-in-chief Daniel Yu, First Metro vice president Maria Teresa de Vera and first vice president Arsenio Kenneth Ona.

LOCAL government officials of Atimonan, Quezon asked the Energy Regulatory Commission to approve the power supply agreement between Manila Electric Co. and Atimonan One Energy Inc., the company building a 1,200-megawatt coal plant in the province.

Rep. Danilo Suarez of the 3rd District of Quezon said during a recent hearing that the construction of the coal plant would spur economic activities in Atimonan while providing security of supply to the Luzon grid.

“To ERC, what are you waiting for? What is your timeline?

You are now experiencing yellow alert…At the end of the day, it is a statement that cannot be denied that power supply in Luzon is thinning,” Suarez said.

He said revenue derived from the power plant would be shared by barangays, municipality and the province which would mean medical, educational and livelihood projects to residents.

“That’s why we are concerned. At the end of the day, the question is when will we start building the plant? We knew for a fact that this company can construct and complete a power plant on time,” Suarez said.

Alena Mae S. Flores

BOI plans to upgrade incentives

By Othel V. Campos THE Board of Investments said it plans to modernize the incentives given to sectors and businesses seeking registration with the agency.

BoI managing director Ceferino Rodolfo said the agency was looking for a more responsive set of tools to help raise the competitiveness of registered companies.

“We see the need to modernize and harmonize the menu of incentives to make it competitive vis-a-vis other countries,” he said over the weekend.

BoI plans to add tools to the incentives menu to make it more competitive and responsive to businesses, he said.

Rodolfo said both BoI and the Finance Department agreed on the principles of granting incentives that involved a focused, performance-based, time-bound and transparent set of incentives.

“But ours is only two, since it was what was called for under EO [Executive Order] 226. And we can say upfront that not all applications for registration are approved,” Rodolfo said.

EO 226 or the Omnibus Code of Investments of 1997 allowed BOI to give income tax holiday and duty-free importation of capital equipment.

B2

Business

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Stock index seen reaching 8,200

By Jenniffer B. Austria

S

TOCKS are expected to move sideways this week, as investors remain on the sidelines waiting for fresh leads on the economy, but analysts said the passage of the tax reform program later this year will likely push up the benchmark index to 8,200 points.

BDO Unibank Inc. chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said the bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index would likely continue to trade between 7,700 and 8,000 levels this week amid lack of fresh

leads.

Analysts said investors would likely to take hints from President Rodrigo Duterte’s first State of the Nation Address before the end of the month.

First Metro Investments Corp. assistant vice president Cristina Ulang said the index would likely hit a high of 8,200 before the end of the year, on expectations the proposed tax reform program would be be passed by September.

Ulang said the market would also draw strength from robust corporate earnings this year as well as the planned infrastructure programs of the Duterte administration.

She said with inflation rate easing to 2.8 percent in June, the business environment remained conducive for growth.

The PSEi last week gained 0.6 percent to close at 7,889.33 on July 7, while the broader all-share index rose 0.9 percent to

4,735.12. All major sub indices ended in the green, led by industrial sector which rose 1.6 percent followed by property and financials which both advanced 1.2 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers of P269.9 million last week, while average daily turnover declined to P6.09 billion from the previous week’s average of P8.3 billion.

Top gainers last week were SSI Group Inc. which jumped 14.1 percent to P4.69, East West Banking Corp. which rose 12.7 percent to P32 and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. which went up 7.6 percent to P10.22.

Heavy losers included developer 8990 Holdings Inc. which dropped 7.6 percent to P6.10, Concepcion Industrial Corp. which dipped 7.2 percent to P66 and San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. which shed 2.4 percent to P309.

Globe spends $100m in US submarine link

By Darwin G. Amojelar GLOBE Telecom Inc. said it invested $100 million in the Southeast Asia-US submarine cable system which is set to start commercial operations next month.

“We are going to be commissioning what you call the SEAUS cable system that goes from Los Angeles to the Philippines via Guam. I think by Aug. 11,” Globe president and chief executive Ernest Cu said.

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS WEEKLY STOCKS REVIEW STOCKS

JULY 3-7, 2017 Close Volume

Value

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

MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl. Reinsurance Corp.

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

3.93 57.9 123.80 102.90 4.07 1.32 36.75 16.2 32 7.92 0.67 1.8 860.00 0.690 92.75 0.89 15.62 25.75 67.45 90 120 253 59.6 220.6 1625.00 85.20 1.45

128,000 272,830 5,188,180 8,545,510 152,000 626,000 1,628,300 82,600 25,939,600 8,300 467,000 727,000 3,480 12,088,000 18,253,220 3,732,000 243,300 10,400 523,190 5,000 4,730 22,180 908,890 1,406,790 720 109,770 6,019,000

FINANCIAL 505,310.00 15,403,229.50 640,557,061 910,998,156.00 397,930.00 793,950.00 59,798,635.00 1,336,260.00 826,404,195.00 68,075 313,780 1,319,840.00 2,905,395.00 8,393,740.00 1,632,028,543.50 3,356,060.00 3,799,916.00 269,110.00 34,547,303.00 446,542.50 592,295.00 5,511,906.00 53,499,424 272,701,928.00 1,169,085 9,349,460.00 8,918,520.00

Aboitiz Power Corp.

Agrinurture Inc. Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. Alsons Cons.

Asiabest Group Basic Energy Corp.

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

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

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

Pepsi-Cola Products Phil.

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

Pilipinas Shell Pryce Corp. `A’ RFM Corporation Roxas and Co. Roxas Holdings San Miguel ‘Pure Foods `A’ SFA Semicon Shakeys Pizza SPC Power Corp.

Swift Foods, Inc. TKC Steel Corp.

Universal Robina Victorias Milling Vitarich Corp.

Vivant Corp.

Vulcan Ind’l.

40.2 8.47 0.85 1.45 32.8 0.270 115.8 14.14 7.15 18.7 165.2 29.2 74.5 95.25 66 1.98 5.28 11.88 12.300 15.86 9.99 8.03 6.04 1.7 18.7 70 15.40 13.64 14.9 1.730 208.00 60.00 3.82 3.59 31.9 19.9 18.84 0.249 266.60 7.30 3.25 9.77 6.96 10.50 1.98 10.22 69.2 6.45 4.40 2.05 5.03 309 2.39 13.96 4.5 0.146 1.40 164.3 4 2.13 30.95 1.08

10,880,600 19,444,300 20,842,000 21,683,000 990,900 125,010,000 3,060 6,500 8,852,800 7,929,300 10 5,481,900 7,180 290 1,460,620 2,265,000 261,400 189,800 8,201,800 9,860,200 5,552,400 13,279,200 63,739,100 46,000 4,805,100 442,030 242,700 2,576,700 22,328,900 3,434,000 2,753,950 6,610 2,261,000 241,000 8,638,300 3,694,200 10,958,400 3,310,000 3,775,170 336,000 4,157,000 16,206,600 2,520,000 38,000 22,111,000 15,100,500 12,641,050 857,700 1,407,000 5,000 1,498,500 68,260 15,249,000 10,650,100 4,046,500 5,690,000 2,805,000 3,877,170 22,000 50,296,000 30,200 340,000

INDUSTRIAL 431,728,015.00 567,739,270.00 17,567,600.00 31,793,720.00 31,297,490.00 34,925,800.00 351,127.00 92,208.00 63,220,664.00 146,710,400 1,652.00 152,813,635.00 529,190.00 24,868.50 97,009,500 4,400,950.00 1,382,438.00 2,250,250.00 100,770,190.00 156,652,200.00 56,254,648.00 104,101,501.00 386,599,284.00 78,460.00 89,836,996.00 30,950,261.00 3,706,166.00 34,647,560.00 323,310,798.00 5,773,970.00 570,483,446.00 396,989.50 8,807,850.00 839,800.00 275,754,895.00 72,440,378.00 202,128,382.00 810,240.00 1,004,485,080.00 2,453,910.00 13,428,230.00 161,361,828.00 16,993,180.00 396,244.00 43,920,810.00 153,427,594.00 871,869,707.50 5,702,835.00 6,157,700.00 10,250.00 7,615,641.00 21,212,856.00 35,560,130.00 146,718,766.00 18,350,049.00 828,760.00 3,843,390.00 633,902,551 88,050.00 107,336,900.00 940,625.00 356,010.00

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

Forum Pacific GT Capital House of Inv. JG Summit Holdings Jolliville Holdings Keppel Holdings `A’ Keppel Holdings `B’ Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp.

Lopez Holdings Corp.

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

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

0.365 75.35 14.16 1.25 6.53 0.335 0.335 870 8.2 14.70 6.49 7.76 0.193 1200 7.70 80.00 6.3 5.37 6.12 0.98 7.29 15.5 0.415 6.7 3.6 0.0560 1.050 2.400 2.70 103.50 2.7 791.00 1.47 0.91 303.800 0.2850 0.2070 0.241

3,380,000 3,545,340 14,340,100 3,639,000 108,400 15,490,000 3,140,000 888,440 6,479,800 55,394,300 68,200 256,500 1,920,000 606,205 103,300 3,769,890 1,701,900 6,600 11,800 10,888,000 6,855,000 20,373,200 450,000 130,207,400 359,000 179,750,000 2,969,000 21,776,000 16,000 315,360 77,000 1,169,780 3,539,000 415,000 21,990 1,990,000 1,210,000 900,000

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

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

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

6.100 1.36 6.40 2.490 1.140 40.000 3.88 5.36 5.3 0.650 1.19 1.540 0.184 0.550 47.2 0.790 0.157 1.73 1.58 1.15 4.11 4.59 0.380 0.3550

1,956,700 42,987,000 2,700 1,164,000 64,358,000 32,254,000 6,077,000 21,645,000 586,900 750,314,000 3,136,000 9,521,000 48,940,000 32,316,000 1,051,200 78,205,000 2,800,000 33,336,000 129,616,000 10,470,000 1,000 140,206,000 374,760,000 5,730,000

HOLDING FIRMS 1,244,850.00 268,614,670.00 203,902,778.00 4,697,870.00 703,235.00 5,241,350.00 1,073,150.00 764,214,670 52,761,611.00 802,513,734.00 435,154.00 1,982,085.00 376,380.00 728,216,320.00 793,328.00 303,641,097.00 11,640,763.00 35,738.00 64,210.00 10,664,120.00 48,989,234.00 311,624,476.00 186,750.00 861,327,802.00 1,187,750.00 9,787,480.00 3,509,710.00 50,965,740.00 43,200.00 32,564,448.00 207,340.00 926,940,425.00 5,103,960.00 376,660.00 6,666,974.00 568,400.00 260,330.00 217,840.00 PROPERTY 12,092,734.00 57,307,580.00 17,572.00 2,907,260.00 74,921,150.00 1,288,240,595.00 23,769,320.00 117,346,952.00 3,095,156.00 460,315,150.00 3,722,730.00 14,599,770.00 9,071,640.00 17,003,320.00 49,468,480.00 59,519,300.00 444,090.00 56,345,130.00 179,896,510.00 11,521,640.00 4,110.00 639,601,450.00 147,554,450.00 2,056,000.00

Close

JUNE 27-30, 2017 Volume Value

3.95 55.7 124.00 104.00 4.05 1.26 36.7 16.3 28.4 8.00 0.69 1.78 835.00 0.700 87.5 0.91 15.5 25.60 66.75 88.05 141 243.6 58.5 217 1610.00 85.15 1.36

340,000 383,690 6,377,910 9,179,720 2,000 465,000 820,300 56,300 9,125,900 140,400 9,385,000 2,508,000 690 20,528,000 6,957,960 3,410,000 96,800 16,200 286,950 3,810 5,980 11,300 503,400 1,833,830 520 167,240 8,901,000

1,366,470.00 20,922,380.50 778,984,623 959,422,291.00 7,950.00 600,340.00 30,135,105.00 910,450.00 262,509,420.00 1,101,446 7,077,850 4,500,780.00 572,170.00 14,192,970.00 605,592,352.00 3,195,140.00 1,497,136.00 402,723.00 19,258,182.50 335,540.00 706,118.00 2,721,416.00 29,540,856 401,262,980.00 834,200 14,244,493.00 13,508,750.00

38.9 8.06 0.85 1.47 29.05 0.260

5,929,600 7,627,500 2,058,000 6,034,000 688,200 56,930,000

231,026,350.00 60,188,148.00 1,756,700.00 9,028,570.00 20,046,040.00 15,354,200.00

14.22 7.1 18 165.2 26.5 73.8 85.1 85.4 1.96 5.26 11.98 12.020 15.8 10.00 7.54 6.05 1.68 18.9 70 15.10 13.20 13.3 1.620 204.00 64.00 3.47 3.55 31.05 18.92 18.68 0.243 260.80 7.24 3.26 9.68 6.21 10.98 1.95 9.50 67.6 7 4.45 2.04 5 316.6 2.34 12.96 5.1 0.145 1.35 162.9 4.12 2.08 33.35 1.01 61

15,500 10,437,400 10,984,600 350 5,079,700 8,400 30 95,380 2,766,000 208,200 373,900 16,222,100 31,303,200 14,157,400 14,128,700 36,466,700 575,000 4,724,500 267,190 195,300 786,300 10,761,500 7,131,000 2,224,190 15,160 1,061,000 51,000 14,857,500 4,785,900 7,667,100 9,820,000 2,966,580 567,100 11,402,000 19,009,200 1,136,300 13,600 12,134,000 3,465,400 9,444,970 1,365,700 926,000 6,000 996,500 37,300 9,923,000 5,199,700 323,200 6,420,000 1,532,000 8,419,980 64,000 40,832,000 24,400 2,290,000

219,506.00 74,961,344.00 200,494,178 57,820.00 128,971,935.00 626,580.00 2,553.00 8,208,284 5,416,480.00 1,110,274.00 4,449,880.00 197,706,312.00 506,863,694.00 141,899,464.00 107,195,180.00 219,840,466.00 1,038,750.00 89,104,874.00 18,761,646.00 2,966,932.00 10,438,908.00 145,006,746.00 11,831,900.00 461,350,592.00 911,860.00 3,883,590.00 181,840.00 463,033,515.00 91,309,406.00 143,816,940.00 2,404,530.00 776,532,504.00 4,121,696.00 36,457,180.00 186,161,090.00 7,158,156.00 143,086.00 23,324,340.00 47,536,886.50 651,349,215.00 9,509,559.00 4,121,640.00 12,280.00 4,995,258.00 11,824,570.00 23,863,330.00 67,558,152.00 1,668,140.00 943,660.00 2,122,280.00 1,360,576,874 257,130.00 86,519,950.00 778,910.00 2,385,560.00

0.365 76.15 14.30 1.18 6.30 0.350 0.365 850 7.9 14.10 6.2 7.90 0.207 1210 7.60 81.00 5.8 5.42 6.13 0.99 7.22 14.7 0.410 6.39 3.2 0.0540 0.950 2.200 2.70 104.00 2.65 803.00 1.43 0.88 303.000 0.2900 0.2100 0.250

6,280,000 5,103,580 19,301,300 398,000 1,010,700 27,480,000 3,840,000 1,444,230 5,858,100 54,145,300 37,800 281,000 350,000 451,765 51,400 7,438,070 132,300 154,100 7,600 9,323,000 10,143,600 11,986,800 1,190,000 120,530,600 9,000 143,560,000 471,000 19,122,000 223,000 518,600 77,000 2,442,890 12,440,000 2,347,000 20,580 7,990,000 1,470,000 340,000

2,294,900.00 386,986,606.50 276,677,760.00 470,980.00 6,561,506.00 9,835,150.00 1,399,750.00 1,216,040,805 46,280,032.00 778,452,296.00 233,500.00 2,179,452.00 71,890.00 544,992,200.00 396,520.00 599,876,981.00 757,335.00 853,126.00 41,534.00 9,236,840.00 73,982,788.00 175,899,934.00 513,150.00 766,574,897.00 29,100.00 7,646,290.00 456,770.00 43,348,870.00 595,420.00 53,242,607.00 206,180.00 1,944,417,680.00 19,323,250.00 2,143,740.00 6,237,408.00 2,345,750.00 312,190.00 83,020.00

6.600 1.31

4,634,700 100,780,000

29,396,079.00 143,580,730.00

2.540 1.170 39.750 3.83 5.34 5.27 0.550 1.09 1.580 0.185 0.510 47.75 0.710 0.158 1.67 1.25 1.02

937,000 27,937,000 41,210,000 5,909,000 41,536,000 165,300 408,697,000 1,264,000 23,725,000 130,210,000 9,074,000 1,264,400 6,505,000 350,000 17,753,000 50,248,000 13,579,000

2,342,470.00 32,077,410.00 1,632,569,165.00 22,510,450.00 228,331,658.00 875,627.00 231,345,920.00 1,419,240.00 38,608,070.00 24,833,230.00 4,618,410.00 60,685,330.00 4,611,970.00 55,070.00 30,406,680.00 63,868,170.00 14,668,040.00

4.3 0.400 0.3600

151,003,000 350,070,000 2,320,000

660,450,700.00 134,183,900.00 823,050.00

STOCKS

JULY 3-7, 2017 Close Volume

Value

Close

Phil. Realty `A’ Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry Primex Corp.

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

0.630 34.50 4.1 24.45 1.78 3.28 33.30 1.06 7.29 0.980 6.000

42,759,000 4,400 4,486,000 16,326,600 592,000 1,461,000 23,890,000 29,119,000 12,400 9,665,000 22,915,900

2GO Group’ ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Apollo Global Asian Terminals Inc. Berjaya Phils. Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Cebu Air Inc. (5J) Centro Esc. Univ.

DFNN Inc. Discovery World FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Golden Haven Grand Plaza Hotel Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. `A’ IPeople Inc. `A’ IPM Holdings Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones LBC Express Leisure & Resorts Lorenzo Shipping Macroasia Corp.

Manila Broadcasting Manila Bulletin Manila Jockey Melco Crown Metro Retail NOW Corp.

Pacific Online Sys. Corp.

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

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

SSI Group STI Holdings Travellers Waterfront Phils.

Wilcon Depot

23.3 41.95 1.63 0.495 0.043 10.76 5.3 9.79 0.0880 96.65 9.7 8.75 2.41 970 2060 6.25 15.64 13.20 2.94 101 3.42 12.68 8.72 0.185 1.4400 3.53 15.94 4.65 1.76 8.50 16.46 0.610 2.21 8.9 5.16 2.600 11.52 5.34 2.92 180.00 10.90 1759.00 0.395 1.570 45.15 88.00 6.09 4.69 1.570 3.71 0.930 8.610

4,656,500 198,500 4,196,000 1,956,000 109,335,200 200 53,800 54,493,100 253,930,000 1,056,060 15,400 2,869,200 28,000 690 96,165 1,690,600 234,800 100 4,720,000 10,742,690 221,000 319,100 1,639,100 30,570,000 9,711,000 286,000 26,500 19,237,000 12,297,000 16,518,500 24,700 1,798,000 147,000 25,476,200 72,367,500 4,705,000 30,200 139,600 43,000 113,620 12,556,200 452,465 5,980,000 40,158,000 2,504,500 5,299,700 9,031,000 120,993,000 227,197,000 30,781,300 121,785,000 80,564,700

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

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

United Paragon

0.0030 1.81 5.12 14.82 2.0800 2.0500 1.03 0.390 8.50 2.600 0.290 0.184 0.192 0.011 0.0110 1.92 6.3 2.01 0.6300 1.0000 0.0100 0.0100 6.97 9.04 3.01 0.0130 2.7000 160.30 0.0085

MINING & OIL 3,138,000,000 9,095,000.00 39,866,000 70,171,330.00 1,677,600 8,929,698.00 11,700 168,054.00 8,000 16,660.00 93,000 193,290.00 25,944,000 26,380,550.00 4,470,000 1,727,700.00 53,500 458,067.00 13,720,000 35,531,540.00 1,560,000 445,750.00 20,100,000 3,660,580.00 1,400,000 264,940.00 142,100,000 1,525,600.00 2,000,000 22,000.00 2,971,000 5,842,990.00 37,554,400 249,514,756.00 1,157,000 2,309,450.00 17,687,000 11,703,210.00 945,000 944,650.00 135,700,000 1,408,900.00 3,400,000 34,000.00 1,739,100 12,391,885.00 6,448,700 58,087,697.00 5,193,000 15,733,120.00 70,300,000 849,400.00 827,000 2,201,670.00 5,476,600 877,936,703.00 5,000,000 43,100.00

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

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

41.9 107 514.5 512 105 112 115 512 525 6.04 1002 1018 1.05 108 1030 1129 1016 106 113.4 77 81.75 76.3 79 80.5 78.5 78 78 2.35

59,500 4,280 3,230 4,450 285,260 4,010 60,910 2,000 410 16,031,400 6,520 4,600 560,000 54,140 1,125 5 7,875 34,990 13,780 6,030 43,930 57,090 13,500 136,210 18,400 219,520 465,910 3,000

LR Warrant

2.470

WARRANTS & BONDS 8,133,000 20,687,590.00

Makati Fin. Corp.

Italpinas Philab Holdings Xurpas

2.95 3.89 5.89 8.22

33,000 1,090,000 243,200 25,959,200

First Metro ETF

119.2 10.5

USD DMPL A1

26,967,180.00 147,315.00 18,379,480.00 398,963,060.00 1,031,990.00 4,681,600.00 791,020,525.00 30,360,010.00 86,686.00 9,114,200.00 135,735,151.00

JUNE 27-30, 2017 Volume Value

0.630 33.85 4.03 24.25 1.75 3.23 33.00 1.02 7.28 0.900 5.810

43,860,000 2,400 1,517,000 9,537,100 674,000 795,000 28,374,200 8,615,000 100 501,000 20,383,800

27,240,050.00 77,295.00 6,397,150.00 229,921,060.00 1,161,130.00 2,542,640.00 939,829,130.00 8,792,970.00 728.00 452,500.00 120,392,071.00

23.25 42.3 1.57 0.495 0.043 11.28 5.6 9.25 0.0880 97.9 9.53 8.55 2.31 970 2048 6.15 15.95 13.22 2.86 97.8 3.40 12.68 8.74 0.187 1.4000 3.5 15.74 4.33 1.77 7.10 15.60 0.590 2.34 8.74 4.59 2.610 11.46 5.05 2.91 181.00 10.76 1798.00 0.395 1.550 44.55 87.00 5.98 4.11 1.430 3.46 0.810 7.940

2,362,700 266,600 2,301,000 1,026,000 169,100,000 42,000 172,300 78,614,600 138,210,000 843,760 400 389,400 77,000 34,170 214,695 558,100 118,600 115,500 7,254,000 10,546,050 174,000 28,100 1,147,000 49,070,000 1,092,000 226,000 18,100 2,908,000 61,580,000 17,353,500 100 4,399,000 319,000 107,941,000 87,702,000 5,580,000 4,500 85,800 29,000 131,600 3,251,600 465,725 4,860,000 170,573,000 8,243,000 3,703,760 8,714,500 200,949,000 149,382,000 24,534,000 89,828,000 65,484,500

55,380,700.00 11,308,710.00 3,699,600.00 506,565.00 7,452,000.00 454,280.00 945,986 720,705,119.00 12,163,870.00 82,702,831.50 3,812.00 3,347,706.00 178,250 33,144,900.00 447,541,575 3,416,524.00 1,888,314.00 1,724,536 21,299,560.00 1,063,304,047.50 591,480 355,600.00 10,066,320.00 9,245,190.00 1,494,840.00 784,770.00 285,260.00 12,609,370 124,207,120.00 116,284,455.00 1,560 2,770,580.00 712,280.00 960,776,788.00 419,401,420.00 14,872,730.00 51,180.00 439,919 84,570.00 22,451,300.00 35,380,894.00 851,134,200.00 1,920,100.00 264,681,150.00 369,956,315.00 324,341,175.00 54,385,445.00 807,687,710.00 223,174,490.00 83,612,360.00 74,665,590.00 523,329,168.00

0.0029 1.72 5.21 14.90 2.1500 2.0700 0.92 0.390 8.50 2.510 0.285 0.179 0.186 0.011 0.0110 1.96 6.4 2.03 0.7000 0.9500 0.0110 0.0110 7.10 9.00 2.98 0.0120 2.8000 160.50 0.0085

3,106,000,000 43,486,000 1,358,500 500 102,000 12,000 13,426,000 8,340,000 371,700 11,919,000 230,000 19,870,000 12,580,000 268,500,000 54,200,000 1,981,000 29,325,600 1,479,000 107,009,000 1,701,000 17,000,000 32,700,000 8,663,900 7,059,300 2,571,000 179,700,000 201,000 4,808,430 50,000,000

9,190,100.00 75,013,910.00 6,997,231.00 6,770.00 215,540.00 24,640.00 12,762,250.00 3,336,700.00 3,201,742.00 30,098,260.00 66,450.00 3,556,830.00 2,381,060.00 2,843,400.00 596,200.00 3,850,030.00 189,008,154.00 2,986,660.00 81,052,470.00 1,667,420.00 177,100.00 328,400.00 61,064,796.00 63,251,052.00 7,696,550.00 2,160,800.00 564,560.00 774,347,753.00 447,400.00

41.75 105.5 515 523 105.6 112.5 110.3 515 520 5.96 1002 1020 1.07 108 1039 1100 1017 106

173,500 75,390 250 25,490 25,270 370 147,290 3,000 2,830 5,102,300 11,565 113,010 284,000 1,160 2,350 9,735 4,705 40,500

7,300,300.00 8,041,940 128,750.00 13,168,540 2,655,141.00 41,325.00 16,211,913.00 1,545,000.00 1,471,600.00 29,996,493.00 11,612,170.00 2,167,550.00 302,120 125,742.00 2,441,650.00 10,687,665.00 4,771,755.00 4,292,500.00

77 82 76.15 79 80

1,580 328,360 1,600 25,000 71,180

120,890.00 26,565,479.00 121,840.00 1,975,000.00 5,694,400.00

78.9 78 1.95

68,700 150,930 3,000

5,395,230.00 11,873,493.00 5,850.00

2.330

449,000

1,027,070.00

3.95 5.94 8.47

1,788,000 304,700 27,683,100

6,978,910.00 1,793,573.00 235,398,115.00

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 28,040 3,321,564.00

118.2

52,570

6,226,800.00

DDOLLAR DENONIMATED SEC. 13,920 147,668.80

10.48

2,640

27,671.20

SERVICES 113,466,730.00 8,366,250.00 6,698,200.00 968,135.00 6,304,600.00 2,176.00 288,768 527,729,431.00 22,185,100.00 101,672,515.50 150,046.00 22,806,505.00 66,690 669,300.00 197,447,380 10,511,939.00 3,695,176.00 1,320 14,053,890.00 1,055,726,355.00 755,180 3,875,388.00 14,293,632.00 5,630,340.00 14,685,940.00 1,004,520.00 420,912.00 90,044,180 23,006,810.00 128,303,533.00 378,380 1,101,950.00 327,390.00 227,593,005.00 363,448,959.00 12,263,930.00 347,602.00 751,086 124,490.00 20,499,768.00 139,621,136.00 798,451,375.00 2,382,500.00 62,562,240.00 112,868,960.00 469,051,739.50 55,206,125.00 527,154,210.00 359,666,670.00 117,521,060.00 108,496,890.00 673,363,131.00

PREFERRED 2,495,000.00 458,100 1,662,880.00 2,311,250 29,971,080.00 449,125.00 6,979,464.00 1,024,000.00 213,750.00 96,982,285.00 6,551,130.00 4,682,780.00 589,350 5,756,930.00 1,161,665.00 5,645.00 7,995,545.00 3,702,395.00 1,467,154.00 460,836.50 3,583,676.50 4,349,824.00 1,066,650.00 10,943,986.00 1,445,290.00 17,301,099.00 35,971,934.00 6,700.00

SME 97,300.00 4,265,260.00 1,426,126.00 223,036,700.00

WEEKLY MOST TRADED STOCKS Abra Mining Century Property MRC Allied Ind. Boulevard Holdings STI Holdings Pacifica `A’ Manila Mining `A’ Megaworld Oriental Pet. `A’ Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

VOLUME 3,138,000,000 750,314,000 374,760,000 253,930,000 227,197,000 179,750,000 142,100,000 140,206,000 135,700,000 130,207,400

STOCKS Metrobank Ayala Land `B’ I.C.T.S.I. Mla. Elect. Co `A’ SM Investments Inc. Bank of PI Semirara Corp.

Pilipinas Shell Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

Eastwest Bank

VALUE 1,632,028,543.50 1,288,240,595.00 1,055,726,355.00 1,004,485,080.00 926,940,425.00 910,998,156.00 877,936,703.00 871,869,707.50 861,327,802.00 826,404,195.00

Cu said of the total project cost of $250 million, Globe contributed $100 million for the project.

The SEA-US cable was connected to the Globe cable landing station in Barangay Talomo, Davao City which also houses the power feed equipment necessary to run the system.

It is expected to ease the country’s dependence on international cable systems routed through northern Philippines and prevent a repeat of a 2008 incident where major international cables were broken due to the Taiwan earthquake thereby, leaving the Philippines isolated for a few days in terms of internet connectivity The SEA-US cable system consortium in which Globe is a part of will link five areas and territories that include Manado (Indonesia), Davao (Philippines), Piti (Guam), Oahu (Hawaii, United States) and Los Angeles (California, United States).

The 14,000-kilometer cable system will consist of two fiber pairs with an initial design capacity of 20 terabits per second and will use the latest in submarine fiber-optic technology with 100 gigabits per second transmission equipment per pair.

Such additional capacity will cater to the exponential growth of bandwidth between Southeast Asia and the United States.

Smart expands LTE reach SMART Communications Inc. plans to roll out long term evolution network in nearly half of the country’s cities and municipalities this year.

“We are committed to bring Smart LTE to more areas in the Philippines and to make it available to even more Filipinos like never before,” PLDT and Smart senior vice president for network planning and engineering Mario Tamayo said.

“We target to blanket with LTE close to half of the country’s cities and municipalities, covering 70 percent of the population, by the end of this year,” he said.

Smart said it was on track toward meeting its three-year network rollout plan submitted to the National Telecommunications Commission in July last year, where Smart committed to make LTE progressively available to 95 percent of cities and municipalities across the country by end-2018.

LTE, an all-IP network, delivers superior experience for users, particularly for data. It can also be quickly upgraded to LTE-A, which can provide even faster speeds and greater capacity to subscribers who are using LTE SIMs on LTE-capable handsets.

“This strategic LTE rollout not only gives an immediate boost to internet speeds and reliability, but lays the foundation for further improvements as well,” said Tamayo.

Smart is currently re-equipping its cell sites to use lowfrequency bands such as 700 MHz and 850 MHz to provide better indoor coverage.

It is also deploying high-frequency bands like 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz to increase the cell sites’ capacity to handle more calls, texts, and everincreasing mobile data traffic.

Darwin G. Amojelar

Business

B3

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

2GO restates ’15, ’16 profits

By Jenniffer B. Austria LOGISTICS firm 2GO Inc. said it has restated its audited financial statements in 2015 and 2016 to ensure fair presentation and establish accountabilities.

2GO said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the restatement was supported by the new management of the company.

“Soon after we took over the management of the company, we engaged SGV to audit the company’s balance sheet and income statement as of the closing date to ensure fair presentation of financial statements and establish accountabilities,” 2GO president Dennis Uy said Uy said the audit revealed that certain accounts in the previously audited reports required restatement.

“The new management, with the support and approval of the newly elected members of Audit Committee and the Board of Directors, agreed to restate prior period financial statements to reflect the state of the business.” Uy said.

“The potential of 2GO to grow and be a major player in this dynamic shipping and logistics industry remains intact.

The restatement is a commitment of the new management and board of directors to raise corporate governance standards in the company,” he added.

2GO based on the restated 2016 and 2015 financial statements of the company posted profits of P344 million and P109.1 million, respectively.

The restate figures are significantly lower compared with the profits of P1.33 billion in 2016 and P1.08 billion 2015 as earlier filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Uy’s Udenna Investments in September announced its entry in 2GO through the acquisition of a 32-percent stake in Netherlands-based KGL Investment B.V., which owns about 60 percent of KGLI-NM, which in turn controls Negros Navigation Co. Inc. or Nenaco.

VOYAGER AWARDS. Voyager Innovations wins four prized trophies at the recently concluded 15th Philippine Quill Awards organized by the International Association of Business Communications Philippines at the Marriott Grand Ballroom. Voyager’s freenet, the free internet platform which allows users to access the apps and sites of partner brands at no cost, takes home an Excellence Award for its 2016 rebranding launch. Voyager Voices, the company’s preferred millennial workplace and employer branding campaign, meanwhile, bags a Merit Award. Shown are the business and marketing teams of Voyager Innovations and PayMaya Philippines, along with VOY, the internal PR team of Voyager.

Dominguez backs Sasa project

By Julito G. Rada

F

INANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III is in favor of modernizing the Sasa port in Davao because of its potential benefits not only to the local government but also to the national economy.

“Davao port has to be modernized. There is no question about it... The trade is going fast in Davao, in fact they just launched (recently) the Davao-Bitung (Indonesia) fast shipping, and you know Davao has benefited from that and so will Bitung...,” Dominguez said.

He said Bitung was nearer to Davao than Jakarta, adding flour

mills in Mindanao could actually supply the Sulawesi city at lower cost than other parts of Indonesia.

“So it is really a very healthy trade between Indonesia and Davao. Davao’s exports of agricultural products are growing very fast so definitely they need a better port service,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez, however, said

the Sasa modernization issue was a “very complicated” one because of the fact that the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Davao did not approve the plan. “... So they have to decide, that is really a local decision that has to be made by the city government...,” he said.

Dominguez said a delay in the modernization would not derail trade in the area although a slowdown could be expected.

The Philippine Ports Authority in March this year requested the Transportation Department to ask the National Economic and Development Authority to cancel the P19-billion Davao Sasa Port Modernization project due to cost issues and terms

of the deal.

Initially, the project was estimated to cost around P5 billion but the amount increased to P19 billion due to expanded scope when it was rolled out under the PPP program under the previous administration.

Under the terms, the winning private firm would be responsible for the cost of the construction and other development works at the port to turn it into a modern container terminal that meets international standards.

The Transportation Department earlier prequalified Asian Terminals Inc., International Container Terminal Services Inc., Bollore Africa Logistics,

Singapore-based Portek International Pte. Ltd. and San Miguel Corp. for the Davao Sasa Port project.

Sasa Port is actually designed for break bulk cargo vessels, which is vital to the economy of Davao City.

About 500,000 metric tons of steel, wheat, fertilizer, motor vehicles, heavy equipment and other cargo not suitable for containers went through Sasa Port in 2014, according to PPA data.

Davao Integrated Port and Stevedoring Services Corp., an operator at the Sasa port, said the current capacity of Sasa stood at 700,000 twenty-foot equivalent units.

Performance Management: What Lies Ahead?

I USED to wonder how much impact performance management has on employee performance. This is because beside being time-consuming due to its complexity, it haphazardly influences the reward system of the organization. Performance management could be one of the utmost inspiring and developmental events in the career of an employee alongside drive performance improvements and organization-wide results if done properly as featured in the global human capital trends at Deloitte University Press.

Traditional versus Modern Approach The conventional performance appraisal, as described by Jeffrey Mello in his book entitled Strategic Human Resource Management, is focused on the past, one-sided, hierarchical, downward communication from top to bottom, about the appraisal of the supervisor on the performance of the employee. It is linked to compensation and often put employees in a defensive position that can result to uncollaborative actions.

By contrast, the modern approach also known as performance feedback as said by Mello, involves mutual exchange of information that both supervisors and employees reveal, discuss and assess together to plan for future work activities. It is more neutral and employees have control and influence in the process. It is also informal and is more concerned in designing a system that fits with the strategic objectives of the organization. On the word of Mello, an effective performance management system is one that “utilizes data about past performance to set goals, plans and objectives for the present that should result in high levels of performance in the future.”

Innovative Ideas–The Case of Deloitte Companies that have sought out new ideas in the continuous process of managing the performances of people to get desired results include Deloitte, GE, Gap, Accenture and Adobe Systems. As a case in point, let us look at Deloitte when it committed itself to find a better perfor-

MARIE ANNETTE GALVEZ-DACUL

GREEN LIGHT mance management system that is accurate, timely and future-focused as presented by performance management experts Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall in their article at Harvard Business Review.

Its new approach was an outcome of “simple counting of hours, a review of research in the science of ratings and carefully controlled study of its own organization.”

To gauge performance, Deloitte came up with a performance snapshot that simply focused on questions on what you do with employees than what you think of them, yet it had a more complete view of the organization. The snapshot facilitated salary increases and bonuses, development and succession plan as well as performance pattern. It believed that the purpose of performance management system is “to see performance accurately, reward it accordingly and inspire even better performance in the future” by focusing on the future instead of the past.

The innovative performance solution of Deloitte is expected to bring better performance. As presented by Buckingham and Goodall, by putting emphasis on coaching and feedback and seeking for ways to simplify performance management, the hurdles of the organization on leadership, engagement and capability are provided solutions that exist and can be implemented. Deloitte eventually had a new system, a system that eliminated traditional practice of cascading objectives, annual reviews and 360-degree feedback and welcomed a new approach that promotes speed, agility and constant learning. It believed that there are several factors that influence performance and it cannot be summed up in a single value. Thus, their question now is not what is the simplest view of you but what is the richest view of you.

Forward Looking In almost two decades in the university I work, performance measures have evolved from performance-based to objectives-based performance measurement systems. Today, while I am being evaluated on performance goals in the past academic year, my SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals for identified key result areas in the next academic year are concurrently set by me and my supervisor. I think it is vital that organizations must understand that gone are the days that the focus is on the past as we are now in the time that the focus is on the future. In other words, given our ever-changing environment, we must learn to look forward rather than backward. This approach also made me realize that we should not be wasting time criticizing others when we can be better off by engaging others, which is more humanistic and likely sustainable.

Experiences are part of human’s learning process, that is why as an organization, when we collectively come to a decision to change, we should encourage the shift from parochial to inclusive thinking. It is noteworthy that organizations are exposed to best practices as it facilitates the organization in improving itself through learning from others. Moreover, managers and employees alike must understand that performance management system does not belong to HR only. I deem that everyone has a daily role to play in the organization, thus, it is important that the mission of the organization, and personal values and goals of the employees are aligned. In the end, a strategic choice is knowing what is fair and balance for everyone.

Ms. Dacul is a Doctor of Business Administration student at De La Salle University. She is a Senior Agribusiness Specialist at the University of Asia and the Pacific.

The views expressed here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.

RECOGNITION. The Philippine Book Development Federation Inc. holds its special

board meeting on June 22 at the REX Knowledge Center in Quezon City. Philbook is a group of national associations involved in book publishing and book-related activities.

The Philbook meeting recognizes president Dominador Buhain (center, front) for his re-election in two international associations as the president of Asia Pacific Publishers Association and first vice president of the Forum of Asia Pacific Graphic Arts. The re-election of Buhain recognizes his important role both in publishing and printing associations in the Philippines.

BSP urges wider CMAP coverage BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. urged the Credit Management Association of the Philippines to expand its coverage to the medium and small enterprises in the country to make the sector further contribute significantly to economic growth.

In a speech during the general membership meeting and induction of officers of CMAP in Makati City on Friday, Espenilla said the MSME sector accounted for 99.5 percent of total business establishments in the country and employed around 61.6 percent of the total workforce. About 60 percent of exporters come from the MSME sector.

“MSME borrowers either face higher borrowing costs or are forced to turn to informal lenders for their financing requirements. I urged you, industry leaders, to be mindful of this and to help prevent further proliferation of this practice. Technology and innovative thinking are essential. Embrace and leverage on fintech

[financial technology] to better serve the unserved...,” Espenilla said.

He said creditors most of the time did not know what was the capacity of the borrowers and borrowers usually did not communicate this to creditors. He said others opted not to give credit and others who gave credit made sure that there were collaterals to compensate for their lack of knowledge.

CMAP president Luis Arriola said he would work on the enhancement of the association’s data bank, especially on court cases, establishment of regional chapters in the key cities of the country for greater and more extensive coverage and initiate measures towards the organization or formation of the Asean Credit Management Association.

Arriola said he would also push for the CMAP membership base to cover practically all industries involved, either as provider or taker of credit.

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

B4

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

Business

G-20 gives concessions amid US tariff warning W ORLD leaders reached a compromise on trade at the Group of 20 summit as officials agreed to fight protectionism while tacitly recognizing US President Donald Trump’s concerns about excess steel capacity and what he says are unfair trade practices.

Hours after the agreement was struck early on Saturday, the final statement nonetheless left the US isolated on climate change, according to officials from three G-20 countries. At the same time, the statement refers to the use of “trade defense instruments,” leaving the shadow of tariffs hanging over the world.

Talks ran into a major rift over global economic policy on Friday as Trump, who spent much of his election campaign complaining about “unfair” trade hurting the US, held firm to his America First doctrine.

G-20 officials are concerned about a trade war over steel as Trump gears up for a decision on whether to impose punitive

tariffs amid ongoing complaints about dumping on global markets.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit’s host, said Friday that leaders need to find a common solution to steel overproduction, otherwise the risk of “bilateral actions” increases.

In its communique, the G-20 pledged renewed efforts to combat excess capacity in the steel industry, according to a leaked copy of the text.

“We will keep markets open, noting the importance of reciprocal and mutually advantageous trade and investment frameworks,” according to the draft statement. The G-20 will “continue to fight protectionism in-

cluding all unfair trade practices and recognize the rule of legitimate trade defense instruments in this regard.”

Trump’s administration is weighing whether to impose tariffs, quotas or a combination of both on steel imports under national security grounds through Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, even though only a fraction of US steel is used for defense. Trump’s Commerce Department launched its review in April, missed a self-imposed deadline for a decision last month and is expected to announce a verdict soon.

“We stand united in opposition to protectionism, that I think will be a positive outcome from this meeting,” Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau told reporters in Hamburg. “What I believe to be the case is we all recognize the importance of trade to our economies, the importance of trade to growth, and the difficulties protectionism presents.

That’s a subject that has reached

consensus.”

The final statement underlined Trump’s lone stand on climate change, saying that all G-20 members except for the US “state that the Paris Agreement is irreversible,” according to several officials.

In the statement, the US announced that “it will immediately cease the implementation of its current nationally-determined contribution and affirms its strong commitment to an approach that lowers emissions while supporting economic growth and improving energy security needs.”

The first day of the two-day summit was marred by disagreement on free trade and climate change as Trump’s protectionist stance was blamed by other participants for causing an impasse.

During a working lunch, Trump stressed that he would always defend the American worker, according to a western diplomatic official familiar with the closeddoor session. Bloomberg

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and Hamburg’s mayor Olaf Scholz (left) talk with policemen and firemen who were deployed during the G20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany, on July 8, 2017. AFP

Chile’s salmon industry swims against current

By Giovanna Fleitas SANTIAGO, Chile―Salmon are leaping in their millions from Chilean fish farms to US, Japanese and European dining tables--but surging demand and environmental concerns have Chile wriggling on the hook.

The world’s second-biggest producer of the juicy pink fish after Norway, Chile earned $3.8 billion from farmed salmon last year―but campaigners warn the environment is paying a high cost.

“The demand for salmon is unsustainable,” says Liesbeth van der Meer, director of environmental group Oceana Chile.

“There is an ecological burden that the system can no longer endure. Beyond a certain quantity of salmon, it collapses.”

She calculates that for every 190 grams of salmon produced, a kilo of local fish is used to feed the farmed salmon.

To make the industry sustainable, Chile should halve its current salmon production, she says.

Yet the industry estimates that demand for salmon is rising by 10 percent a year.

And 70,000 jobs in Chile depend on it.

Killer algae Last year, red algae infested the waters off southern Chile, killing other sea life. Environmentalists blamed it on waste emissions from fish farms.

The algae wiped out a fifth of Chile’s salmon production in 2016.

It fell from 883,000 to 728,000 tons―most of that exported to the United States, Europe, Brazil and Japan.

Chile’s size in the market is such that the fall contributed to a 40-percent rise in world salmon prices.

Producers are recovering from that blow.

But the president of the SalmonChile trade association, Felipe Sandoval, acknowledges they are having to “think and take steps to ensure medium- and long-term stability” and

The Chevening Alumni Foundation of the Philippines, Inc. with Ambassador Ahmad

AS IF WE NEVER SAY GOODBYE YOU might have noticed of late that my columns have taken a rather foreign affairs flavor. I’ve written about our relations with China, Russia, Sweden, ASEAN, the United States, and Japan, among others. Foreign and diplomatic relations have always been an interest of mine; I will never pass up a good opportunity to go abroad and learn about other countries as well as share a bit about ourselves to other nations.

Indulge me once again as I write about our diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom, and pay tribute to a man who has both been a good patron and true friend.

Great Britain has always been close to my heart, and I’ve admitted here before that I am a certified Anglophile, brought about, in no small part, by my having the opportunity to be a British Government or Chevening scholar when I took up my Master of Laws Degree (LL.M.) at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Just recently, His Excellency Asif Anwar Ahmad CMG, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Philippines, was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, one of the highest forms of recognition by Her Majesty the Queen for service in foreign and Commonwealth affairs (hence, the addition of the “CMG” to his name).

This bit of good news, however, was tinged with a bit of the sad, for Ambassador Ahmad will be leaving the Philippines and moving on to his next assignment as High Commissioner to Jamaica.

There was a lot of frenzied speculation as to where Ambassador Ahmad was going after his Manila post. I recall in a dinner hosted by my good friend, former Defense Chief Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr., and his lovely wife, former Congresswoman Nikki Prieto Teodoro, guests at the table were all trying to pin Ambassador Ahmad down and make him admit where he will be assigned to next. Some of us even threatened to apply the “third degree”! But all efforts were to no avail as Ambassador Ahmad, true to form, did not cave-in under intense pressure. Alas, we were all relegated to the juvenile joy of sounding off, in excited voices, possible locations based on clues given by the Ambassador. But, now it can be told: He is Jamaica-bound.

Let me hasten to add, during the ongoing interrogation or, rather, during our desperate attempt to pry information, I saw US Ambassador Sung Kim make a phone call. In a few seconds, he had the information we had been trying to get for hours.

Diplomatic niceties or security protocols prevented Ambassador Sung Kim from sharing it with us then.

But from his smile, I knew. American intelligence at its best.

I recall when Ambassador Ahmad was appointed to the Philippines in July 2013. He caused quite a buzz, admiration, and interest when he started speaking and even tweeting in Pilipino. In the months before his arrival in the country, he

UK Ambassador Asif Ahmad

learned Pilipino from a Filipina in the UK. Hearing him speak, you could easily mistake him for a local.

Ambassador Ahmad is one of that rare breed of diplomat who “walks the talk’. In his sterling stint as British Ambassador to the Philippines, he has immensely improved the relations between the Philippines and the United Kingdom in terms of investments, education, and cultural exchange, among others.

He has brought Britain to Manila and Manila to Britain, so to speak.

There was a substantial increase in Chevening scholars, and the annual Great British Festival at Bonifacio High Street was something more people looked forward to every year.

His Excellency had also been instrumental in the Yolanda aid and relief effort. The Filipino people will always be grateful for this. It’s an emotional connection we will never forget and shall always cherish. Under Ambassador Ahmad’s watch we saw the increase of trade and investments between the Philippines and the UK to double its former size. What also doubled in size was the British Embassy in Manila.

Ambassador Ahmad’s tenure in Manila also saw to the re-opening, after sixteen years, of visits of Cabinet-level officials to the country, like the State Secretary for International Trade, the State Secretary for International Development, and two Foreign Secretaries. Even HRH Anne, the Princess Royal, returned to the Philippines for a five-day visit that took her all the way to Ormoc.

Last week, the Chevening Alumni Foundation of the Philippines Inc. or CAFPI, which I currently serve as President, held a farewell party for His Excellency, one of several parties feted in his honor. In the short but sweet and meaningful gathering of Chevening scholars, we all expressed our profound gratitude for his support to the program.

We will truly miss Ambassador Ahmad and we wish him all the best in his new appointment. Perhaps a visit to Jamaica is in order, a sentimental journey to catch up with an old friend someday.

To His Excellency Asif Anwar Ahmad CMG, Godspeed and my warmest regards, my friend. Till we meet again.

A sea-water salmon farm on Tagua Tagua lake, Puerto Montt, in southern Chile: environmental groups warn the industry has grown so big in Chile as to be unsustainable. AFP

reduce costs.

Separately, the industry has been criticized for pumping antibiotics into the salmon, prompting warnings that this could promote drug-resistant super-bacteria.

In 2016 the Chilean salmon industry used 382.5 tons of antibiotics.

That was 700 times the amount used in Norway.

Jobs and growth The government in 2007 had to reduce the intensity of salmon farming due to an outbreak of infection.

Any further health alerts will hit production, warned Eugenio Zamorano, head of aquaculture in the fisheries ministry.

But “if the health and environmental parameters are working, the industry can grow,” he told AFP.

New regulations affecting the fish farms will come into force in 2018 in response to weather phenomena in the Pacific that experts suspect are due to climate change.

Compared to Chile’s two other major salmon-producing regions, Magallanes―the furthest to the south―has a relatively good level of environmental controls, without too many fish farms close together, the government says.

With cooler waters, farms in Magallanes use less than one percent of the antibiotics used in the other two regions, Aysen and Los Lagos.

“Magallanes offers a possibility for sustainable development” in salmon farming, said Zamorano.

The government’s aim, he says, is “to generate sustainable development of an economic activity that generates jobs and revenues.” AFP

With Maisara Dandamun- Latiph, Mai Valera, Ambassador Asif Ahmad, Atta. Joel Gregorio, Elcid Pangilinan, Stephen Michael Co, and Ronald Rodriguez

CAFPI Vice President Elcid Pangilinan

With Atty. Joel Lloren, Stephen Michael Co, JJ Moreno, Atty. Tess Lacerna, Judge Amifaith Fider-Reyes, and Tony Abad

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

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LGUs LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

GIFT OF READING. Employees of the AAI Worldwide Logistics Inc. recently donated a percentage of their bonuses to support Philippine Business for Social Progress’ Give a Gift of Reading campaign. The logistics company,

through its AAI Charity Foundation Inc., recently donated 21 reading nooks, with 40 reading books each to Laur Central School in Nueva Ecija. The books, which were covered by AAI employees themselves, will benefit over 700 students. In photo are some Grade One pupils with (from left) AAI Charity Foundation Inc.’s Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinators Jessica Cagampang and Maria Queypo, AAI Worldwide Logistics Inc.’s Chief Finance Officer Agnes Mariano, PBSP Relationship Management Officer Lea Sacay, and PBSP Project Officer Christine Balboa. Manny Palmero

QC traffic, parking woes loom

By Rio N. Araja

A

QUEZON City councilor on Sunday called out officials of two of the city’s barangays to address looming parking problems and traffic woes in their areas once two high-rise buildings are completed along the corner of Edsa and Aurora Boulevard and A. Bonifacio Avenue.

District 1 Councilor Peter Anthony “Onyx” Crisologo, a civil engineer, urged officials of barangays E. Rodriguez Sr. and

Balingasa to ensure the tenants of the new buildings would not simply park their vehicles along the secondary roads there.

“While we welcome development, added revenues and job creation, we should also look at the traffic taking its toll on productivity of the labor force and health of the people,” he said.

He called on the owner and administrator of the mixed-use building rising at the corner of Edsa and Aurora Boulevard, under Barangay E. Rodriguez Sr. to assure the motorists and the public of unimpeded traffic flow in the area once its operations begin.

Crisologo also called on the building administrator of The Celandine, a 46-story residential con-

dominium on A. Bonifacio Avenue, Barangay Balingasa to ensure that traffic would not be a problem.

“The building administrators must police their own ranks. They must not allow their tenants to park at the surrounding streets,” Crisologo said. “We know Quezon City is a mixed-use development. But traffic must always be a consideration.”

The Manila Standard obtained a copy of City Council Resolution No. 6857, authorizing Filinvest Land Inc. to construct high-rise facilities at the corner of Edsa and Aurora Boulevard near the Cubao Elementary School

and allowing its deviation from the parking requirements of Ordinance SP-918 of 2000, or the Quezon City Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.

The Sept. 19, 2016 resolution, authored by District 4 Councilor Marvin Rillo, gave the developer the green light to push through with its construction on the 11,764-square meter project site requiring 3,481 parking slots.

“Thus, the allotted 1,185 parking slots (for the Filinvest project), as per plan, does not conform with the existing zoning ordinance, having a deficiency of 2,296 parking slots,”

Navotas hospital to add 50 beds

By Jun David AS THE Navotas City Hospital celebrated its second anniversary, Mayor John Rey Tiangco announced the city government’s plans to build more healthcare facilities for Navoteños.

The NCH will have an additional building that will house 50 more beds, raising the hospital’s total bed capacity to 100, Tiangco said.

The new building will feature an orthopedic section, a rehabilitation therapy center, an ear-nose-throat clinic, and other services.

“The rise in the number of admissions for the past two years reflected the need of our constituents for more medical and health services. We intend to address this need and secure the health of every Navoteño,” he said.

According to NCH, comparative data between July to December 2015 and July to December 2016 showed that admissions in the hospital rose by 80 percent.

Tiangco also revealed that Navotas will soon have a medical and wellness center that will replace the current Navotas Emergency and Lying-in Clinic. The center will offer services that include mammogram, rehabilitation, drug testing, x-ray, laboratory, ECG, 2D echo and animal bite.

NCH also recently inaugurated its hemodialysis unit that could serve up to 15 patients every day.

SPEECH LAB. To elevate the training of its residents’ communication skills, the local government of Muntinlupa led by Mayor Jaime Fresnedi led the

turnover of three speech laboratories to Lakeview Integrated School in Putatan last July 5. Muntinlupa provides these equipment to secondary schools in the city as part of its holistic approach in shaping good quality education for all.

ARMM hits investment target in 6 months COTABATO CITY—The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has exceeded its 100-percent-increase target in investments at the close of the first semester of 2017, the Regional Board of Investments in ARMM said.

Lawyer Ishak Mastura, RBOIARMM management head, said that as of June 30, the board had already registered P3.65 billion, more than 100 percent of the registered investments in the same period up to mid-2016.

Mastura said RBOI-ARMM

mainly registered three investment projects for 2017. The first is a P32-million fish processing and cold storage project of the Abing Seafoods and Cold Storage in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.

It was designed to address the needs of the fisherfolk in the

province in processing, storage, and in preserving their sea catch.

Second is the P33.5-million cargo-shipping project of J. Sayang Shipping Lines, Inc. also based in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, for interisland trade and for cross-border shipping with Sabah, Malaysia.

ADDA training set for MTPB

By Sandy Araneta MANILA Mayor Joseph Estrada is requiring every member of the Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau to undergo extensive seminars and training on the implementation of the Anti-Distracted Driving Act. Estrada said he has no intention of allowing local traffic enforcers to apprehend ADDA violators in the city unless they have all become knowledgeable and competent enough to enforce the provisions of the new law.

“We’re requiring them to first undergo seminar on ADDA before they start flagging down motorists for violation,” Estrada said. “We don’t want our men going around apprehending motorists if they don’t know the A to Z of this law.”

Estrada cited past incidents when traffic enforcers got into fights with motorists because of the confusion on the implementing rules and regulations of ADDA. “If possible, everyone should be able to recite it even in their sleep,” Estrada said, as he underscored the importance of fully knowing the anti-distracted driving law.

MPTB chief Dennis Alcoreza said they have sent a letter to the Land Transportation Office requesting the agency to conduct ADDA seminars to the 200 men of the bureau soon.

“We’re not yet ready [to enforce ADDA],” Alcoreza pointed out. “We want to make sure that our traffic enforcers have the technical know-how in enforcing this law and avoiding problems.”

Even if MTPB enforcers cannot implement ADDA yet, Alcoreza pointed out that there are MMDA and LTO enforcers that are regularly operating in Manila and going after the ADDA violators.

Maguindanao food model to fight malnutrition

By Nash B. Maulana BULUAN, Maguindanao—The province is embarking on a model cycle of food production to boost children’s nutrition in all Maguindanao’s 36 towns, amid frequent incidents of families displaced by armed conflict.

Eeman Aljani, head of the Maguindanao governor’s office information staff, said programs designed to address malnutrition concerns included model activities for both home- and school-based food sufficiency campaign.

Local chief executives were tasked to promote production of nutritious foods

through sustained dialogue with producers like bakeries, and possibly by forging partnership with the local business sector on operating bakeries, Aljani said.

He said production subsidy in terms of improving on ingredients for enhanced energy contents of foods sold to schoolchildren formed part of efforts to sustain

nutrition programs, beyond the usual feeding activities.

Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu said LGUs would have to engage the private sector more frequently on improving food nutrition for children as their way through promoting their constitutional rights.

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LGUs

Standard MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 C2 TODAY Manila

P13.9-b infra projects for CAR

By Dexter A. See

B

AGUIO CITY—The Cordillera office of the Department of Public Works and Highways is receiving more than P13.9 billion of infrastructure projects for implementation by the regional office and the 12 district offices to improve the condition of major road networks regionwide.

Of the total, P9.7 billion was programmed for national road network services, P1.2 billion will be used for flood management services, and P1.1 billion

was earmarked for maintenance and construction services of other infrastructure projects.

In addition, P166.3 million will be utilized for various infra-

structure projects including local projects, P282.5 million was programmed for local infrastructure program, P549.72 million will be utilized for design and building, and P100 million will be used for preliminary detailed engineering of various projects.

Engineer Nerie D. Bueno, DPWH-CAR regional director, said P5.4 billion worth of major infrastructure will be implemented by the regional office while the different district offices will be implementing over P7.65 billion worth of various infrastructure projects up to the end of the year.

Benguet received the highest

funding allocation with a total of P1.32 billion followed by Kalinga with a little over P1.3 billion and Ifugao with a total of P1.3 billion, Mountain Province was allotted P1.1 billion, Abra with P1.085 billion, Apayao with P1.060 billion and Baguio City with P617 million worth of projects.

Currently, the region has a total of 2,247 kilometers of national roads with a percentage of 91 percent concreted roads while 9 percent remain to be paved this year.

Based on the data obtained from the DPWH-CAR’s planning division headed by Engr. Angelita

Mabitasan, the funding allocation was distributed to 387 projects wherein the regional office will be implementing a total of 39 projects while the district offices will be implementing 349 projects.

Kalinga topped the list of the number of projects with 104 followed by Baguio City with 52, Mountain Province (50), Benguet (46), Abra (39), Ifugao (37), and Apayao (21).

Bueno said this year’s P13.9 billion funding for the programmed infrastructure projects is a far cry from the P3 billion annual allocation received by the region for infrastructure projects in 2011.

CARITAS HEALTH SHIELD, INC.

CARITAS CORPORATE CENTRE, 97 E. Rodriguez Sr. Avenue, Quezon City 1102 www.caritashealthshield.com.ph

NOTICE OF SPECIAL STOCKHOLDERS’ MEETING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the special meeting of the stockholders of Caritas Health Shield, Inc. (CHSI) will be held at the 7th Floor, Activity Center, Caritas Corporate Centre, No. 97 E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd., Quezon City on July 25, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. for the transaction of the following agenda: 1. Call to order 2. Report on Attendance and Quorum 3. Consideration of the following Board Resolutions: 3.1. Increasing the authorized capital stock of the corporation from the present Php30 million to Php630 million; and 3.2. Of the Php600 million increase, Php200 million shall be initially subscribed and fully paid Stockholders of record as of June 27, 2017 will be entitled to notice and vote at this meeting.

Quezon City, July 5, 2017.

FOR THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CHARLES B. ESCOLIN Corporate Secretary If you cannot personally attend the meeting, you may designate your authorized representative by submitting a proxy instrument to Ms. ISIDRA C. PERIO or Ms. MICHEL D. ESPANIOLA at the 4th Floor, Caritas Corporate Centre, No. 97 E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd., Quezon City not later than July 21,2017. Proxy Verification shall be held on July 24,2017 at 1 :00 o’clock p.m. at the same address.

(MS-JULY 10, 2017)

Republic of the Philippines Department of Health CENTRAL OFFICE BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE

INVITATION TO BID PROCUREMENT OF PASSENGER SHUTTLE VEHICLE – RE-BID IB NO. 2017-242-A 1.

2.

3.

The Department of Health (DOH), through the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2016 intends to procure the following projects listed below:

IB No.

Name of Contract

ABC (PHP)

Cost of Bidding Documents (Php)

2017-242-A

Procurement of Passenger Shuttle Vehicle – Re-bid

17,500,000.00

25,000.00

Interested bidders may obtain further information from the COBAC Secretariat, Ground Floor, Building 6, DOH, San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila and inspect the Bidding Documents at 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday.

The DOH will hold a Pre-Bid Conference and the Submission and Opening of Bids at COBAC Conference Room, G/F, Bldg. 6, DOH, San Lazaro Cmpd., Rizal Ave., Sta. Cruz, Manila on the schedule given below:

Activity (Date & Time)

6.

Regional Bids and Awards Committee (RBAC) - XII 2nd Floor, Vensu Building, National Highway General Santos City, South Cotabato Tel. No. (083) 250-1093/302-2040 Email: rbacxii@gmail.com

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a nondiscretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

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

5.

of two notorious drug pushers in the town—Jaime Bautista (below left), alias Jimmy, and Benedicto Duller, alias Bidik—who were arrested in a drug buy-bust operation in Barangay Wawa. The suspects face charges of violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. Roy Tomandao

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

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

4.

BUSTED. Chief of Police Sr. Insp. Lindley S. Tibuc of Siniloan, Laguna talks to the Standard after the arrest

IB No.

Name of Contract

2017242-A

Procurement of Passenger Shuttle Vehicle – Re-bid

Pre-bidding Conference

Submission and Opening of Bids

04 July 2017; 10:00 A.M.

18 July 2017; 9:00 A.M.

Bid must be duly received by the BAC Secretariat at the address below on or before the date given above. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated below:

Form of Bid Security

Amount of Bid Security (Not less than the required percentage of the ABC)

(a) Cash or cashier’s/manager’s check issued by a Universal or Commercial Bank. (b) Bank draft/guarantee or irrevocable letter of credit issued by a Universal or Commercial Bank: Provided, however, that it shall be confirmed or authenticated by a Universal or Commercial Bank, if issued by a foreign bank. (c) Surety bond callable upon demand issued by a surety or insurance company duly certified by the Insurance Commission as authorized to issue such security. (d) Bid Securing Declaration

Two percent (2%)

Five percent (5%) No percentage required

Bid opening shall be at COBAC Conference Room, G/F, Bldg. 6, DOH, San Lazaro Cmpd., Rizal Ave., Sta. Cruz, Manila. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address above. Late bids shall not be accepted.

7.

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

8.

For further information, please refer to: COBAC-A Secretariat Building 6 Department of Health San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila Tel. Nos. 651-7800 local 1625 to 1627; 1650 to 52 Facsimile No.: 711-6061/740-6830

(SGD.) NESTOR F. SANTIAGO, JR, MD, MPHC, MHSA, CESO III Assistant Secretary of Health COBAC – C Chairperson (MS-JULY 10, 2017)

INVITATION TO BID The Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) through its Regional Bids and Awards Committee (RBAC) - XII, invites Rural Banks and Cooperatives to bid for the hereunder projects: Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC)

Items

Non-Refundable Fee

ITB No. RBAC XII-CCT 2017-02 Service fees for the distribution of DSWD Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program cash grants to Non-Cash Card/ Prepaid Card Beneficiaries in various Municipalities for six (6) payouts -- May, July, September & November 2017 and January & March 2018 payouts (Regional Coverage): Note: Bid shall be on a per Province basis.

COTABATO (NORTH COTABATO) 2,184 Beneficiaries/Payout Kidapawan City and Midsayap

P

314,496.00

P

500.00

SOUTH COTABATO 4,676 Beneficiaries/Payout City of Koronadal and General Santos City (Dadiangas)

P

673,344.00

P

500.00

SULTAN KUDARAT 700 Beneficiaries/Payout City of Tacurong

P

100,800.00

P

500.00

Prospective bidders should have experience in undertaking a similar project within the last five (5) years from the date of submission and receipts of bids, with an amount of at least 50% of the ABC. The Eligibility Check/Screening as well as the Preliminary Examination of Bids shall use non-discretionary “pass/fail” criteria. Post-qualification of the lowest calculated bid shall be conducted.

All particulars relative to Eligibility Statement and Screening, Bid Security, Performance Security, Pre-Bidding Conference(s), Evaluation of Bids, Post Qualification and Award of Contract shall be governed by the pertinent provisions of R.A. 9184 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRRs).

The complete schedule of activities is listed, as follows: ACTIVITIES 1. Issuance of Bid Documents 2. Pre-Bid Conference 3. Submission / Opening of Bids / Bids Evaluation 4. Post-qualification 5. Notice of Award 6. Performance Bond 7. Issuance of Notice to Proceed

SCHEDULE July 10 to 31, 2017 July 17, 2017, 1:30 PM 2/F Vensu Building, National Highway, General Santos City July 31, 2017, 1:00 PM 2/F Vensu Building, National Highway, General Santos City August 1 to 12, 2017 August 13, 2017 August 14 to 23, 2017 August 23, 2017

Bid Documents will be available at LANDBANK General Santos Highway Branch to prospective bidders upon payment of the applicable non-refundable amount to the LANDBANK Cashier, General Santos Highway Branch.

LANDBANK reserves the right to (1) reject any and all bids at any time prior to the award of the contract; (2) waive any minor formal requirements in the bid documents; (3) accept such bids it may consider advantageous and beneficial to the Bank, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

REGIONAL BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE REGION XII

Solar power lights up Leyte

By Robbie Pangilinan THE 6.5 magnitude earthquake that shook the Visayas region on Thursday left many parts of the area without electricity.

The quake, centered eight kilometers southwest of Jaro town on Leyte Island, busted power lines in Leyte, leaving the whole province in the dark.

“During these times, we should rely on nature to provide us with energy, such as solar power,” says Korean businessman Ralph Kim of the Unique Korean Corp., a firm that supplies solar energy to residential, commercial, and industrial clients from its Sky Taeho main factory in South Korea.

Kim is extending assistance to the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc by installing several units of his Eco-Generator—a whole package of solar technology in a single machine that does not take up a big space, very easy to install, and can be used 24/7.

The company’s portable solar device is ideal for houses and is very affordable. It can light up all the lights of a house, electric fans, and a TV for 16 hours, he says.

“It gives you power supply anywhere and anytime. No more brownouts. No more power problems,” assures Kim. In 2015, Kim came to the Philippines and saw the country’s energy problems.

He has been around Asia but he set his heart in the Philippines and went back and forth from Korea before establishing his mission here, which is to use solar power for electricity.

“Sunshine is a gift from God. It is clean and free.

We should use it. You have abundant sunlight here, but a shortage of electricity supply,” ends Kim.

Noveleta’s Chua flaunts record today NOVELETA, Cavite—Mayor Dino Reyes Chua is scheduled to present his accomplishments in his first year of service as the chief executive of the smallest town in the province of Cavite on Monday, after the 8 a.m. flag raising program.

Chua will be presenting his projects that have been beneficial to the people of Noveleta in front of 16 barangay chairmen and councilors, local government staff, investors and citizens of the town.

Chua is also set to present the peace and order situation of the town with the assistance of Senior Insp. Henry Salazar, acting chief of police, and following the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war against illegal drugs.

The mayor managed to find funding for the construction of the Noveleta Food Court with the assistance of the Department of Health, which provided a P10million fund for it to be built by the town’s chief of Barangay San Jose.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources also raised a total of P5.16 million for the Fisher’s Hub built in Barangay San Rafael IV. Chua continues to provide Educational Assistance to hundreds of students in the town, and has appointed the Monthly Job Fair for jobless citizens that have brought good results for each applicant.

The mayor is also proud of his project of Senior Citizens’ Free Movies to every Noveleta grandfather and grandmother in SM Rosario.

He will also feature the town’s Clean and Green program and the Mangrove planting in San Rafael IV. Chua also provided time for Noveletano youth in the Children’s Day program in November 2016.

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World IN BRIEF ‘True Blood’ actor Nelson Ellis dead at 39 WASHINGTON―Nelsan Ellis, an actor best known for his role in the vampire series “True Blood,” has died. He was 39 years old.

The actor died following complications from heart failure, his manager told CNN. His portrayal of Lafayette, a gay cook and medium, helped him spring onto the acting scene after his character became a favorite of fans of the HBO drama, which ran from 2008 to 2014.

“We were extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Nelsan Ellis,” the HBO network said in a statement Saturday. “Nelsan was a longtime member of the HBO family whose groundbreaking portrayal of Lafayette will be remembered fondly within the overall legacy of True Blood.”

“Nelsan will be dearly missed by his fans and all of us at HBO.” As news of his death spread many fans posted a clip from the show where Ellis’s character bursts out of his restaurant kitchen to confront a table of homophobic diners.

An alumnus of New York’s prestigious Juilliard performing arts conservatory, Ellis’s credits include silver screen appearances in 2009’s “The Soloist” as well as 2011’s Oscar-award winning film “The Help.”

“My heart breaks for his kids and his family,” wrote his co-star in that film Octavia Spencer in an Instagram post.

“He was sooooo funny. I miss him.”

The Illinois native also depicted Martin Luther King Jr in “The Butler,” released in 2013. AFP

Japan floods death toll rises to 18 TOKYO―The death toll from heavy rains and flooding in Japan’s south has risen to 18, officials said Sunday, as rescue teams continued their search for survivors.

Swathes of Kyushu―the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands―have been left devastated after overflowing rivers and torrential downpours swept away roads, houses and schools this week.

Thousands of people have been evacuated to makeshift shelters in school gyms and public buildings, but many remain stranded, with emergency services battling through thick mud and rain to try to reach them.

More than 500 people were still cut off by Sunday, public broadcaster NHK reported, with collapsed bridges and waterlogged ground on steep hillsides hampering rescue efforts.

The government was doing its “utmost” to recover those missing or stranded, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a rare weekend press conference.

Officials of Fukuoka and Oita prefectures said a total 18 people had been confirmed dead while 27 were missing or could not be reached.

Five people were in critical condition, Suga said, with the government still trying to ascertain if their injuries were a result of the severe weather.

Television footage showed rescue helicopters held up at a makeshift heliport―unable to fly because of the downpours, while people prayed for the safety of their family members.

More than 20 inches of rain deluged parts of Kyushu in 12 hours on Wednesday, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to warn of possible significant damage.

Rains have continued intermittently since, with up to 22 centimeters recorded in Fukuoka in the past 72-hour period. AFP

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

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A deadly route to Europe M

ADRID-The number of migrants arriving on Spain’s southern coast has more than doubled in 2017 from last year as they avoid passing through conflictwracked Libya on their way to Europe.

BULL RUN. Puerto de San Lorenzo’s fighting bulls run among participants during the third bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain on July 9, 2017. Each day at 8:00 a.m. hundreds of people race with six bulls, charging along a winding, 848.6-meter (more than half a mile) course through narrow streets to the city’s bull ring, where the animals are killed in a bullfight or corrida, during this festival, immortalized in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and dating back to medieval times and also featuring religious processions, folk dancing, concerts and round-the-clock drinking. AFP

Eight boats carrying 380 people have been rescued since Wednesday in the Alboran Sea, which connects northeastern Morocco and southeastern Spain, in the Western Mediterranean.

“We are worried because we are seeing numbers which we have not seen in years. And it’s a dangerous area, where the currents are very strong,” said the spokesman for the Spanish branch of rights group SOS Racisme, Mikel Araguas.

Last week, an inflatable dinghy that had apparently set out from Morocco with 52 people aboard was flipped over after being hit by a strong wave. Only three survivors were rescued by the Spanish coastguard.

The United Nations Refugee Agency called it “the worst tragedy in the last decade in the Spanish Mediterranean” involving migrants.

The Italian sea route remains the most popular for migrants.

Italy has accepted around 85,000 of the 100,000 people who have arrived in Europe by sea this year according to the International Organization for Migration.

But the Spanish route further west is gathering pace. Between January and June, more than 6,400 people were rescued at sea between Morocco and Algeria and Spain, according to the IOM, compared to 8,100 during all of 2016.

The figure is close to the more than 9,000 migrants who arrived in Greece during the period.

The vast majority of migrants who come to Europe are sub-Saharan Africans fleeing poverty or conflict in their home countries.

Most leave nations such as Guinea, Gambia or the Ivory Coast and make their way to Lib-

ya where they hope to cross over by boat to Italy.

But the word is getting out that this route is becoming more risky, with “ever harder controls”, said Helena Maleno Garzon of migrant aid agency Caminando Fronteras.

Many migrants passing through Libya, wracked by chaos since the 2011 toppling of dictator Moamer Kadhafi with rival militias and administrations seeking to control the oil-rich country, have reported dramatic tales of abuse in the country.

Migrants have reported being sold “on a slave market”, according to the IOM. Amnesty International has complained of migrants being tortured and jailed while the UNHCR has published reports by migrants of “appalling” conditions at Libya’s migrant detention centers.

As a result some migrants prefer to make their way to Morocco or Algeria and from there cross the Mediterranean to Spain.

Adding to the appeal of this route is the fact that the sea crossing is shorter and it costs less.

Prices charged by people smugglers have fallen to around 900 euros ($1,000) per person, compared to 1,500-2,000 euros in 2016, said Andres Garcia Lorca, the Spanish central government’s deputy delegate in the southern province of Almeria.

Morocco also appears to have softened its controls, said Araguas. European Union border agency Frontex for its part says it has not noticed “any change in border vigilance” on the part of Morocco.

Recent social unrest in northern Morocco’s Rif region also appears to have added to the migratory pressure. AFP

Dash for passports empties Albanian village TREBISHI―Trebisht in northeastern Albania looks like a ghost village, emptied of its residents by a rush to get Bulgarian passports that open the door to the European Union.

Arman Kadriu has an Albanian name, but the 12-year-old boy says he considers himself Bulgarian.

“I don’t want to stay here taking care of cows. I want to be a football player,” he said, covered in sweat, as he juggled a ball with his feet on a dusty road in the village in the Golo Brdo region.

“In England, with a Bulgarian passport, it’s possible,” he said, switching languages to say “Dovizhdane!”―goodbye in Bul-

garian.

Bulgaria and Albania do not share a border.

And non-EU member Albania, where a law on minorities is under consideration, does not count Bulgarians among its recognized ethnic communities, unlike the Greeks, Macedonians or SerbMontenegrins.

The ethnicity of historically Slavic-speaking communities in parts of Albania’s east has long been fluid and disputed―neighboring Macedonia claims they are ethnic Macedonians.

But according to the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, which helps in obtaining a pass-

port, Bulgarian families have been settled in Albania since the 5th century and their descendants are part of its diaspora.

No statistics are available, but Bulgarian organizations in Albania estimate that there are around 100,000 of these descendants.

The European Parliament seems to agree: in February, it requested of Tirana “that the rights of people with Bulgarian ethnicity in the Prespa, Golo Brdo and Gora regions be enshrined in law and ensured in practice”.

The recommendation “has given renewed hope. Every day at least seven or eight people come to ask about obtaining Bulgarian

citizenship,” said Haxhi Pirushi.

He heads the Prosperity Goloborda association, which provides certificates of Bulgarian origin to Albanians and is recognized by the government in Sofia.

Perched on a hill, Trebisht is a sleepy place.

A few men spend their day on the terrace of the “Democracy” bar and others work the land, while young people travel three kilometers to cross the Macedonian border for temporary work.

Once the village counted “around 6,000 inhabitants, but more than 2,500 left four or five years ago when they had the opportunity to benefit from a Bulgar-

ian passport,” explained resident Tahir Mucina.

In the neighboring village of Vernice “there is hardly anyone left”, said the 31-year-old.

Since Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, its citizens have been able to work and reside wherever they want within the bloc, with all the restrictions lifted in 2014.

Mucina said he was also “on the lookout” for passports for himself, his wife and their three children.

Albania, as a whole, is a nation of mass emigration, spurred by an average wage of 340 euros ($388) and an unemployment rate affecting nearly one in three young people. AFP

Another year of freedom without peace in S. Sudan JUBA, South Sudan―South Sudan on Sunday marked its sixth independence anniversary in muted fashion, with no official celebration as the world’s newest nation reels from a brutal and destructive ongoing civil war.

A third of the population has been forced from their homes creating one of the world’s worst refugee crises, tens of thousands have been killed, and a famine and food shortages have threatened the lives of millions more.

“Today I have nothing to celebrate,” said 34-year-old father of three Ariik Majok, who works as a night watchman in the capital.

On July 9, 2011, dignitaries from around the world joined crowds of South Sudanese to celebrate the country’s independence from Sudan, to the north, after decades of civil war.

But two years later, in December 2013, a new conflict was sparked when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup.

The war since then has been characterized by ethnic fighting, sexual violence and extreme brutality with civilians the primary victims.

Last month, the government announced it was canceling official independence celebrations for the second year running. “Our situation

does not require us to celebrate,” said spokesman Michael Makuei.

On Sunday morning in Juba there were no celebratory posters or banners, rather an air of mourning for the lost promise of independence pervaded the quiet streets.

“I don’t regret voting for the independence of South Sudan,” said Majok, “although I am not happy with the way things are going on in South Sudan.

“I did not expect this,” he said of the war, spiraling inflation and food crisis.

Wani John, a 39-year-old civil servant, said he too saw nothing to celebrate.

“There is no peace and stability.

People are dying and our leaders are not solving the situation. I am not a happy citizen,” he said. “What we simply want is peace.”

The laments of residents in Juba were echoed by international aid agencies which are struggling to address South Sudan’s multiple crises and to raise funds for emergency relief work.

“Millions of children in South Sudan are suffering unthinkable hardships and setbacks in their education, nutrition, health and their rights,” said Mahimbo Mdoe, South Sudan representative for the UN children’s agency, UNICEF. AFP

BOAT PARTY. Guests attend the DailyMail.com NYC Boat Party hosted by Swish Beverages for White Girl Rose on July 8, 2017 in New York City. AFP

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

C4

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

World

SHOW. Jenny McCarthy hosts her SiriusXM Show backstage at Fenway Park in Boston before The New Kids On The Block sold out Hometown Concert at Fenway Park on July 8, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. AFP

Earhart photo claims doubted MAJURO―A Marshall Islandsbased military expert has cast further doubt on claims that a blurry photograph shows famed US aviatrix Amelia Earhart alive in the territory in 1937.

The fate of the legendary American and her navigator Fred Noonan during their round-theworld flight is one of aviation’s greatest mysteries, and has fascinated historians for decades.

Earhart and Noonan vanished on July 2, 1937 after taking off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, and the prevailing belief is that they ran out of fuel and ditched their twin-engine Lockheed Electra in the Pacific Ocean near the remote Howland Island.

But a documentary being aired on the History Channel― ”Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence”―claims to have unearthed a beguiling new clue about what happened to the pair.

The program suggests that Earhart, who was seeking to become the first woman flier to circumnavigate the globe, and Noonan may have survived and been taken prisoner by Japanese forces.

It cites a blurry black-andwhite photograph discovered in the National Archives in Washington, purportedly showing the pair in the Marshall Islands after their capture.

But military expert Matthew B. Holly told AFP the photo appeared to have been taken about a decade earlier.

“From the Marshallese visual background, lack of Japanese flags flying on any vessels but one, and the age configuration of the steam-driven steel vessels, the photo is closer to the late 1920s or early 1930s, not anywhere near 1937,” he told AFP. Holly, an American living in Majuro, has spent decades identifying the locations of lost US aircraft and the identities of American servicemen killed in action in the western Pacific nation.

He added that by January 1937 the Japanese had closed most of Micronesia to foreign vessels, “including Marshallese commerce, which is obviously flourishing in this photo.

“Additionally, there are no Japanese sailors to be seen.”

There is no dispute that the photo shows the dock at Jabor Island in Jaluit Atoll, which was the headquarters for Japan’s administration of the Marshall Islands between World War I and World War II. AFP

Lopez released to house arrest CARACAS―Venezuela’s most prominent political prisoner, Leopoldo Lopez, vowed Saturday to continue his fight for freedom after being released from jail and placed under house arrest.

The surprise move came amid the intensifying pressure on the embattled leftist government of Nicolas Maduro, with a rising toll of death and destruction from three months of non-stop street protests.

Lopez, leader of the Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) party and a symbol of resistance to the Maduro government, emerged hours after his release from prison looking fit and happy.

He pumped his fist in the air, unfurled the Venezuelan flag and told a crowd of supporters who had gathered outside: “Yes, we can!”

“I maintain my firm opposition to this regime,” Lopez said in a statement read by a leader of his party. “I reiterate my commitment to fight until conquering Venezuela’s freedom.”

President Nicolas Maduro, in televised remarks later Saturday, called for a message of “peace and rectification” from Lopez.

Maduro said he hoped the statement from Lopez could provide the basis for reconciliation “because the nation wants peace.”

Lopez, a 46-year-old Harvardtrained politician, was held for more than three and a half years in a military prison outside Caracas for allegedly “inciting violence” by calling for anti-government protests.

His release has been a key demand of Venezuela’s opposition and the international community, amid an intensifying political confrontation aimed at forcing the unpopular Maduro to hold early elections.

Attorney General Luisa Orte-

ga―the most senior figure to defy Maduro―accused the government of using Lopez to “improve its image.”

“People deprived of liberty cannot be used as if they were hostages that can be objects of negotiation,” she told the Chilean daily newspaper La Tercera.

At least 91 people have died since April 1 in clashes between protesters and security forces over moves by the courts and the government to strip the National Assembly of power, delay elections and rewrite the constitution.

The Supreme Court said it had ordered Lopez’s move to house arrest for health reasons, calling it a “humanitarian measure.”

In Madrid, Javier Cremades, Lopez’s Spanish lawyer, underscored that “all of Leopoldo Lopez’s civil and political rights must still be restored.”

“What’s more, there are still 300 political prisoners in the Bolivarian jails,” he added.

Foro Penal, an NGO, puts the number of political prisoners in Venezuela at 433. The government insists they are in jail for acts of violence.

The US State Department called the release of Lopez “a significant step in the right direction”―but said many more such steps are needed.

On Friday night, Lopez’s wife Lilian Tintori spent an hour visiting her husband in his cell at Ramo Verde prison just outside Caracas.

The former mayor of a Caracas municipality, Lopez was an early champion of street protests to force political change in Venezuela as the oil-rich country spiraled into a severe economic and political crisis after the death of Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez. AFP

Trump cuts isolated figure among traditional US allies W

ASHINGTON―During a difficult visit to Europe Donald Trump appeared out of sync with traditional allies, struggling to show that unorthodox strategies toward rival powers Russia and China can deliver results.

MEMORIAL. This file photo taken on July 16, 2016 shows crowds gathering at a makeshift memorial for the victims of the deadly Bastille Day attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Nice will commemorate on July 14, 2017 the first anniversary of the attack committed against the crowd that celebrated Batille Day. For the past year, the question of security measures deployed on the Promenade des Anglais before the attack that caused 86 deaths is at the heart of a polemic and torments survivors and relatives of the victims, who are relying on the investigation opened in Nice to obtain answers. AFP

Gulf states settle in for the long haul DOHA―More than a month since the start of the diplomatic crisis gripping the Gulf, hopes of a swift resolution seem as remote as a summer downpour in the desert.

Both sides―the group of Saudi-led allies against Qatar―seem as entrenched in their positions as ever and as unlikely to find a face-saving solution for all as at any time since the conflict erupted on June 5.

“I think that this crisis has a way to go still,” said Kristian Ulrichsen, a Gulf analyst with the Baker Institute at the USbased Rice University.

He is not alone.

A weary US State Department this week signaled its belief that the rowwhich has seen Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt sever ties with Qatar over claims it supports Islamist extremists―will rumble on, at best, for some time.

“We believe that this could potentially drag on for weeks. It could drag on for months,” State Department spokeswom-

an Heather Nauert said on July 6.

The first days of July had offered a tiny, hopeful glimpse of a resolution as the region awaited Qatar’s response to the list of 13 onerous demands placed on Doha by the Saudi-led bloc.

But a defiant Qatar, which denies the charges of supporting extremism, then called the demands -- such as closing broadcaster Al-Jazeera and the Turkish military base in Doha -- “unrealistic”.

In return, Saudi and its allies threatened further sanctions, while Qatar hit back, labeling the four Arab states “siege countries”.

“There will be no lifting of the sanctions any time soon, I can’t see that happening,” said Andreas Krieg of the Defense Studies Department at King’s College London.

The crisis seems to be in deadlock.

“It appears that Saudi Arabia and the UAE underestimated Qatar’s ability to very quickly bring on board major regional powers such as Turkey and Iran,”

Christopher Davidson, an expert on Middle East politics at Britain’s Durham University, told AFP. “In this context, pushing forward with any form of cross-border intervention seems unlikely, with instead a long drawn out slow-bleed of Qatar’s economy probably being the preferred SaudiUAE strategy.”

So what happens next?

On the diplomatic front, the push is coming from the West with the visit of British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson to the region this weekend, followed by the scheduled arrival of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in regional mediator Kuwait on July 10.

In Nauert’s statement she also warned the conflict “could possibly even intensify”.

This could manifest itself in two ways.

On the sanctions front, attention appears to be turning to regional political organizations and, more tentatively, trade. AFP

At one point Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel exchanged a knowing glance as the US president veered off on another tangent.

What were to be remarks about women entrepreneurs had become a Trumpian soliloquy on his daughter Ivanka’s merits and his paternal failings.

“If she weren’t my daughter it would be so much easier for her,” Trump said. “It might be the only bad thing going for her.”

A few feet away, Merkel and Trudeau’s nervy laughs were corporal acknowledgment that Trump’s political peers are still unsure how to take the mercurial 71-year-old.

Throughout the meeting there was a sense the president of the United States, leader of the socalled “indispensable nation,” has shifted positions, leaving everyone else struggling to correct.

In Warsaw, on the first stop of his four day trip, Trump sought to reassert his claim to lead the free world.

Like a king riding along the cavalry front line, he sounded the charge against terrorism and bureaucracy, which he painted as threats to Christian civilization.

He embraced allies by affirming his commitment to NATO’s mutual defense clause, satisfying long-standing demands to be clearer about the alliance.

But for many, Trump’s idea of the West as a group of nations that “cry out ‘We want God’”― a West of high borders and fierce nationalism― seemed out of kilter with the times.

“It is no accident that he gave this speech to a country with an ultra-conservative and Euroskeptic government,” said Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution.

“The great risk,” Wright added, is that Trump’s remarks “begin dividing Europe into old and new―or those who don’t like him and his message and those who do.”

Trump’s claim to be the guardian of Western values was further undermined by a press conference that saw sustained attacks on the free press and a downplaying of Russia’s election interference.

Later at the G20 in Hamburg, Trump appeared even more clearly outside the policy mainstream.

The artful drafting of a joint communique saw world leaders banding together without the United States: in the fight against climate change, it was 19 in favor and a lone Trump against.

“To get 20 of your friends to agree where to have dinner together tonight is really hard,” said top Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn, denying US isolation.

Trump’s efforts to reset relations with global rivals were equally vexed. AFP

Life

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

FOOD

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

D1

Food for life

For 35 years and counting, East-West Seed has changed the lives of thousands of Filipino smallholder farmers who now enjoy higher yield and income.

F THE JOYCE OF EATING JOYCE BABE PAÑARES

OR two days in March last year, with not a wink of sleep, Rowena Mendez Manalo counted ear after ear of corn harvested from her family’s farm in San Ildefonso, priced at P10 each. After 48 hours of backbreaking work, Manalo – a true farmer’s daughter – earned her first P1 million.

“That was the first time I held a million pesos in my life. It was surreal,” she said.

It was a vindication for Manalo and her husband Jun, who rented their first half-hectare farmland two decades ago with a borrowed capital of P5,000, a part of which they also used to buy ampalaya and sitaw seeds.

“Other farmers would laugh at us, because they were already veterans and they owned their land. They would taunt us: what did we know about farming? They did not believe we could make it,” she said.

Jun, she recalled, would console her with a promise that one day, they will have their own farm, including the lands of those who belittled them.

Twenty years later, the Manalos now own seven hectares of farmland on which they grow corn and eggplants.

“During harvest time, our farm would look like lavender fields with the purple eggplants we produce,” she said.

An hour and a half ride away from San Ildefonso, another smallholder farmer, 55-year old Johnny Gatuz, tills

his land in San Rafael together with his wife, Marivic.

Both former overseas workers, the couple borrowed P50,000 to rent their first hectare of land where they planted kalabasa and okra.

“Our first five years have not been easy.

Sometimes, we would just break even. It was a learning curve for us,” Gatuz said.

Their turning point came in 2015 when they started intercropping and planting tomatoes, ampalaya, and papaya.

While he still rents his farmlands, Gatuz has since expanded with 4.5 hectares of land now. He was also able to buy a water pump, power spray, grass cutter, and a hand tractor.

“There is future in vegetable farming. You don’t need to go abroad to hit gold. You can achieve that here, by planting vegetables,” Gatuz said.

What is common in the success stories of Manalo and Gatuz is their use of East-West Seed products, which increased their yield and income.

Established in 1982 by Dutch seedman Simon Groot and Filipino seed trader

“You don’t need to go abroad to hit gold,” said former OFWturned-farmer Johnny Gatuz, 55. “You can achieve that here, by planting vegetables.”

Benito Domingo in a five-hectare lot in Lipa City, East-West Seed combined European technology expertise with Asian tropical farming know-how.

East-West aims to address major challenges in the local vegetable industry, including food and nutrition sustainability and improving smallholder farmers’ income. Currently, the Philippines imports over $3 million worth of vegetables, which if supplied locally could alleviate poverty incidence among farmers who are the second poorest labor force in the country.

“There is a lot of potential in the Philippine vegetable sector. Annually, the country’s vegetable production is increasing by almost two percent but it is not enough to meet the local demand.

That is why we still need to import more than $3 million worth of vegetables, which could easily be supplied by our local farmers,” said Mary Ann Sayoc, East-West Seed general manager.

Manalo and Gatuz have both been nominated for East-West’s “Search For 35 Hero Farmers” across the country.

The contest marks the company’s 35th year in the Philippines, where it has partnered with roughly 5,000 farmers who benefitted not just from East West’s seeds but training courses as well.

For these two hero farmer nominees, East West seeds are more than just seeds to plant – these are seeds of hope for smallholder farmers like them across the country.

“Before, I would only harvest one to two kilos of tomatoes per plant. Now, yield has more than doubled to 6.2 kilos per plant this year,” Gatuz said. “Prior to using East-West seeds, we earned about P25,000 a month. Now, on good months, we earn as much as P800,000.”

Manalo said their income also rose to more than 200 percent when she and her husband started planting East-West seed products.

“We now earn enough such that my son, who is a seaman, no longer has to leave the country. He now helps us in our farm,” she said.

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

Cooking well with wholesome kitchen food staples

Healthy Options’ kitchen food staples include sea salt, turmeric powder, all purpose flour and olive oil, among others.

COOKING can be fun, more so when it yields to a great outcome that can both nourish and delight the whole family.

When cooking for your family, it pays to know about healthy ingredients.

Cooking well need not mean always whipping up fancy dishes. With the right ingredients, cooking everyday meals and even some special concoctions that can lead to less meal boredom can be a breeze. Healthy Options, the Philippines’ leading one-stop shop for all-natural products, highly recommends wholesome kitchen food staples that feed to nourish, and not just satiate hunger.

Some overlooked ingredients even have enchanting aroma and flavor while packing a healthy wallop. Among the culinary product finds at Healthy Options

is the Natural Nectar Mediterranean Sea Salt (Coarse) in 24.7-ounce canisters.

It can be used whole on salads, roasting vegetable, grilled meats, and other foodstuff, enhancing flavor in a healthy way.

Also worth checking out is Simply Organic Turmeric, available at Healthy Options. Also known as Indian saffron and yellow root, the powder is the dried and ground rhizome of the Curcuma longa root, which is a member of the ginger (Zingiberacea) family. Turmeric’s warm aroma, bright color, and gingery/peppery taste are relied upon in cooking throughout Asia.

When whipping up tasty snacks or meals, you will not go wrong using Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Baking Flour and Field Day Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Get your quality food staples and cooking ingredients at Healthy Options. Stores located at Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City; Rustan’s Supermarket, Makati City; Festival Supermall, Filinvest, Alabang; Ayala Center, Cebu City; SM City, North Edsa; SM City Manila; SM Megamall B, Edsa, City; SM Pampanga; SM Mall of Asia; SM Clark; Bonifacio High Street, Taguig; Trinoma, North Edsa, Quezon City; SM City Davao; RockwellMakati; SM City Cebu; Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati City; Commerce Mall, Alabang Town Center; Abreeza Mall, Davao City; Robinsons Magnolia, New Manila, Quezon City; Excelsior, Eastwood City, Libis, Quezon City; SM Aura, Taguig; Century City, Makati; Glorietta 2, Makati City; Centrio Mall, Cagayan de Oro; and Nuvali, Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Life

D2

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

A curated introduction

J

to Japanese drinking culture

APANESE drinking culture is fascinating, especially to those who are used to drinking sessions that are rowdy right off the bat. Refined yet convivial, they have an emphasis on savoring flavor to give tribute to the makers of the liqueur. And it’s a fascination that’s led to the continuing global surge in sales of Japanese liqueurs.

Whisky connoisseurs from all over have already ventured deep into the undiscovered world of Japanese whiskies, which have taken their place among the finest in the world. Since the first whisky distillery opened in Kyoto nearly a hundred years ago, the Japanese have created some of the most elegant flavor profiles for the drink.

It’s best to have your first taste at a place where the experience is curated by those who love Japanese whisky best but who also strive to create a connection between themselves and you, the customer-drinker.

At Lit Manila, your first taste is both experiential and emotional.

Their weekly master class with different themes every Wednesday, 7:30-9 p.m., is facilitated by its resident whisky connoisseur, Francis Hasegawa, designed with a top mission in mind: to help Filipinos navigate the uncharted waters of Japanese spirits and enlighten them on the unique flavors, diversity, stories, and experiences Japanese spirits present.”

There are also exclusive quarterly special bottle events, during which bot-

Lit Manila’s resident whisky connoisseur Francis Hasegawa

Lit Manila has a wide selection of whisky cocktails, including (from left) Sakura Drift, Ebisu Sour, and Momotaro Fizz.

tles of several rare vintages and limited editions are opened and paired with carefully selected dishes.

These classes at the Philippines’ first and only Japanese spirits bar are a must-experience, not just for those who love fine liquors but also those who wish to experience the everyday rituals of Japanese life.

Not sure where to start? Experience a “whisky f light,” in which you savor three taste portions of whisky and a highball (a whisky soda) as your introduction to whisky in general and Japanese whisky in particular. Each f light features famous Japanese whisky company Suntory’s selection, various blended whiskies, and “Franco’s Choice,” personally curated by Hasegawa.

One unusual feature of Lit is the emphasis on bar seating; the intent is to encourage interaction between bartenders and customers. Most Filipinos will shy away from such an arrangement, but it is designed to encourage convivial discovery between bartender and customer. To this end, each bartender has been carefully schooled on pairing whiskies with mood and taste preferences, able to steer you towards the most agreeable choice.

And if all this leaves you wanting more, Lit has a deeply stocked bar; their menu features more than 60 items at any time, drawing from the offerings of the six Japanese whisky companies most prominent on the world stage. Their collection of over 300 bottles includes limited editions and rare vintages of whisky, plus other Japanese crafted spirits and liqueurs, from Nihon-shu (sake) to shochus, rum, gin, vodka, and beer.

Lit Manila is located at ground floor Serendra, Bonifacio High Street Taguig.

For reservations and inquiries, call 0917-5100014 or check out their official Facebook page, LIT MANILA.

FOODPRENEURSHIP

More people interested to start ice cream business BUDDING foodpreneurs and business owners turned out at the recently concluded Technolux Business Series featuring Taylor Soft Serve Machines and Comprital Italian Gelato and Soft Serve Mixes at the Mall of Kitchens (MOK) to learn more about the essentials of starting an ice cream business.

The event was part of Technolux’s ongoing Business Series rolled out earlier this year and brings product demos, seminars and client trainings among other activities in key cities across the country.

Participants in the recent event were treated to a highly informative presentation by Aaron Patrick Cezar, sales manager of Culinary Best Source Inc., who discussed the ins and outs of the lucrative ice cream business including keys to profitability using the right kind of equipment and ice cream mixes.

The talk also focused on the many features of Taylor machines such as achieving the correct twirl of soft serve ice cream to maximize profitability. USA-brand Taylor is the top choice of many establishments because of its track record for reliability. A worry free and smooth operation is very important in every business.

The event also highlighted the convenience, consistency, versatility, and profitability of using Comprital which guarantee quick return on investments with its range

Barbecue parties are merrier when everyone gets to participate in the preparation and partake of the delicious and easy to cook meats Aaron Patrick Cezar, sales manager of Culinary Best Source Inc., discusses the advantages of Taylor machine, highlighting its reliability which is very important in business.

of high quality, easy-to-use gelato and soft serve ice cream mixes imported from Italy.

“In any business, appearance of product, high yield or output, and variation are keys to achieving a winning product and ultimately profitability. All these were discussed during the event as well as costings and ROI,” added Cezar.

Cezar said Technolux was very pleased with the positive feedback from the audience, most of whom have scheduled individual demos and R&D to help

You can also choose from a wide range of flavors for your artisan gelato by using Comprital

them get started.

The next Business Series by Technolux at the Mall of Kitchens featured Vittore Italian Coffee Machines and Monin Coffee Syrups and Sauces.

Visit MOK at 9703 Kamagong St., corner Lawaan St., San Antonio Village, Makati. Or call Technolux (8964941 / 899-5012 / 890-6758), check Technolux.net and Cbsiph.com to know more about a wide range of equipment suitable for your business needs.

Celebrations made easy FAMILIES and friends always seem to find a reason to get together and rekindle old ties. Whether it’s a simple, impromptu family reunion, a visit to lolo and lola in the province, the town fiesta, a barkada summer outing, the neighborhood basketball league competition or celebrating your daughter’s Reyna Elena rank in the Santa Cruzan, Filipinos just love to gather around and celebrate both big and small milestones.

Social gatherings, or salu-salo, are so common that they’re practically a way of life. That doesn’t mean that preparing for salu-salos are a breeze.

Planning, organizing and setting up a party can be overwhelming especially if you’re pressed for time. Here are some tips on how you can make celebrations easy: Let everyone in on the fun. Organizing a get-together can be quite overwhelming especially if the schedule is a bit tight. Ask your family and friends to help out in the preparations. Get their ideas on the theme, the type of party setting and their preferred entertainment for the big day. Let your loved ones know that you value their help and are counting on them to pitch in to make sure the celebration is a success.

The more hands the merrier. Celebrations that would draw a big crowd

like family reunions or fiestas require a lot of hands on deck. Ask your loved ones to help out before, during and after the get-together. Group your friends and relatives into teams that will handle specific roles such as food, venue and entertainment.

Eats matter. Of course, the highlight of every salu-salo is the food. Start your menu planning by keeping your family and guests’ food preferences and allergies in mind. To make your event preparations less challenging, choose delicious yet easy-to-prepare meals like Fresh Options’ Crispy Pata, Pork Humba, Beef Kare-Kare or Chicken Galantina De Manille.

For outdoor or more casual celebrations, you can also try Fresh Options’ Garlic Chicken, Ilocos Bagnet, Pork Sisig, Bopis. Pinoy-style BBQ, Sweet style Chicken Inasal, and other all-time classic flavors that are sure to satisfy Filipino’s discerning taste.

Get-togethers are made extra special with Fresh Options’ assorted value-added meat. Preparing for the celebration is now made easy. All you have to do is microwave or pan fry the Fresh Options’ value-added meat you want to enjoy. Fresh Options valueadded product lines are yummy and easy to prepare. They’re available at outlets and supermarkets nationwide.

MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

Gil Cuerva happy to have been welcomed by soap fans NEW showbiz hottie Gil Cuerva is very grateful to all the fans who constantly support his soap on GMA7, the local adaptation of the hit Koreanovela My Love from the Sta, opposite Jennylyn Mercado.

“It feels good that we have solid viewers who stick it out with us on a daily basis,” he says. “It’s because of them why all of us in this production are doing our best to come up with an exciting and fun-filled episode in each passing night. Anyway, that’s our main goal: to entertain and make them happy.

“From someone who is just new in the field, I feel proud especially when we learn that our ratings are successively high. It just proves that the viewing public likes our offering and at the same time, all our hard work is paying off. It’s no secret that we’re really exerting our best efforts just to make the show a must-see especially that the original was highly successful.”

The fashion model-turned-actor reveals that since the airing of the maiden episode, he wanted to know the viewers’ honest feedbacks about his portrayal of the male lead.

“Actually, I’m open to all kinds of comments when it comes to my acting. I’m interested to know what people really think of my performance. Whether positive or the otherwise, I would take all their opinions in. I don’t want the pleasing or cheesy cliché praises alone.

“I would rather hear both the pros and cons about my work. It’s good to know where I need to improve at based on people’s feedbacks. As a new actor, that’s all you can ask for. It’s important to my growth in the ‘biz.”

So far, what’s the best comment he has received about his portrayal?

“It concerns my voice! Some quarters say it’s kind of thin and I don’t enunciate the words clearly. For me, those are points for improvement. As I’ve said, I take opinions that are full of sense. Those two I take seriously.

“I’m aware as well that I need to improve in my Tagalog. You guys know that it’s not my first language.

I guess it’s normal if I still stammer when delivering my lines in the local vernacular. I’m still learning. But what’s good about me is my determination to practice speaking it every day. I really try to improve in this department!”

Undoubtedly, he’s one of the hottest new finds these days. Proof is the very warm reception the fans gave him during the recently-concluded Artist Center Grand Fans’ Day. “Oh, thank you! That’s nice to hear. But honestly, I don’t think that I’m already that popular. I’m just thankful to be part of a hit program like My Love from the Star. Actually, it’s more of the show that’s gathering attention, thanks to everyone’s concerted effort.

“I would like to give special credit to Jennylyn (Mercado) who’s doing very well as the female lead. Her acting is something to rave about. The story revolves around her and I can say she’s carrying the show. Kudos to Jen and of course, to all who are involved in the production. That’s why it’s a great show,” ends Gil. ******** According to McCoy de Leon, it was Coco Martin who inspired him to try doing an indie project like Instalado, one of the finalists in the 2nd TOFARM Film Festival 2017.

“That’s right!” he says. “He told me that it’s one effective way to start honing your acting skills before conquering the mainstream. He started as an indie actor, remember? But look at him now!”

The newbie got the chance to work with Martin in FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano where, in the story, they play brothers-in-law.

“Actually, Coco is easy-to-deal-with. On the set, he’s very accommodating. He won’t let you feel that he’s the main star. He’s so kind not only to his co-stars but to the whole staff and crew as well. You can see that he has a soft spot for the masses. It’s no wonder why he’s at the peak of success right now.”

Many say that he has resemblance to the award-winning actor.

“That’s flattering! It’s a good feeling getting compared to Coco. But definitely, I still have a long way to go before I reach even half of his accomplishments.

He’ll always remain to be my idol on and off cam,” De Leon states.

FASHION X FILM. The cast of “Bridging the Gap” along with director Edward Enninful (center)

‘BRIDGING THE GAP,’

a film celebrating American optimism

G

AP, the iconic American clothing brand, has launched Bridging the Gap, a film directed, cast, and styled by Edward Enninful, creative fashion director of W Magazine and upcoming Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue.

The film is a celebration of American optimism shared by Enninful and Gap. Enninful selected individuals he’s worked with, championed, and admired, all of whom embody American culture today. The iconic Gap basic white T-shirt serves as a blank canvas for the subjectsto make their own, offering a glimpse of how their differences unite them.

“I love the optimistic American style that Gap celebrates and the simplicity of the basic white T-shirt that allows you to be yourself,” said Enninful. “Growing up, I loved the imagery I saw from America as it celebrated being the land of the free and home of the brave. This project is about authenticity and people living their truths.”

“Gap is a quintessentially American brand and we strive to embody all of America in everything we do,” said Craig Brommers, Gap Chief Marketing officer. “Bridging the Gap is about showing the many faces of what it means to be an American and bringing all of those sides together.

Edward is the perfect partner in this project as he and Gap share an optimistic view of the world.”

The cast sings ‘Sunny’ by Boney M., which conveys a message of optimism as a direct nod to the film’s concept: though the subjects dance

The medleys of Juris’ heart IT’S rare that a concert hasn’t even happened, and it’s already a hit. That’s true of Juris…Medleys of My Heart, the much-awaited comeback concert of Juris, which goes onstage on July 14 and 15, 8 p.m. at the Music Museum.

The audience will be treated to the sight and sound of Juris breathing life into her various favorite songs, OPM hits and songs that speaks of her life as a singer.

This will be Juris’ first time to perform songs that speaks from her heart and she is very thankful for the opportunity. Her repertoire for the concert will include songs associated with her—like her earlier hits and songs from her journey as a singer to an accomplished wife and mother.

“I’ve sung a lot of songs in my career, but none as beautiful as the concept of this special show, so I’m very honored to be able to do so,” says Juris. “I hope I can do justice to the beauty of these songs.”

Juris will be joined by her special guests, which will include Jay Durias and Jason Dy on July 14 and Aiza Seguera and Daryl Ong on July 15. .

Presented by PLDT Home, with special thanks to sponsors Hungry Panda, Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar, Victoria Sports, Hawk Bags, Sogo Hotel, Mossimo, Island Gas, Aqua Sweet, Sound Qoncept, Edward Dela Cuesta Photography. Media Sponsors Crossover 105.1 and Manila Standard.

Produced by Live Artists Production, Inc. and BET Productions, tickets are available at Ticketworld (8919999), Music Museum (7210635) and at Live Artists Prod. (9202643).

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Monday, July 10, 2017

ACROSS 1 Google rival 6 Pulverize 10 Gymnastics move 14 Helen, in Spanish 15 Excursion on foot 16 Tighten 17 Robin of ballads 18 Norse deity 19 Length x width 20 Clank 22 Pertaining to record storage 24 Sun, poetically 26 Insect’s middle 27 Remedy 31 Fem. title 32 Taken — (startled) 33 Livy’s clothes 36 Norm 39 — -majeste 40 Make butter 41 Arizona tribe 42 Captain’s milieu 43 Prince Val’s love 44 Implied but unsaid 45 Water-power org.

46 500-mile race locale 48 Departure 51 PC button

52 Makes unambiguous 54 Greeted the moon 59 Used plastic 60 Disney CEO Bob — 62 Hold forth 63 Inch forward 64 Defense gp.

65 Maritime 66 Did a salon job 67 Ballooned 68 Heavy rainfall DOWN 1 Four quarters 2 Swit co-star 3 Bring to a boil 4 Don’t count — —!

5 Rowboat part 6 Electrical unit 7 Opera set in Egypt 8 Sidestep 9 Trusted follower 10 Knacks 11 Insect stage 12 Mountaineer’s aid (2 wds.)

13 Campanile sound 21 Poet’s before 23 — d’oeuvre 25 Wash 27 Close friends

28 Busy as — — 29 Apollo acronym 30 Make a hole in one 34 Umpire’s call 35 Hill 36 Somewhat, in music 37 Neat as — — 38 Moreno or Rudner 40 Categorizing 41 Sombrero 43 State firmly 44 Moguls 45 Swapped

47 Wood residue 48 Former Denver QB 49 Vee makers 50 Candy base 52 College woman 53 Seeger of folk music 55 Coat or sweater 56 Volcanic rock 57 Minnesota, to Jacques 58 Remove 61 Use one’s scull

to their own rhythm, displaying their individuality, they also come together as a symbol of unity.

The full cast includes Priyanka Chopra, actress; Wiz Khalifa, rapper; Christie Brinkley, model and actress; Casil Mcarthur, model; and model and activist Adwoa Aboah, model Maria Borges, champion fencer Miles Chamley-Watson, theater, film and television actor Jonathan Groff, model Fernanda Ly, model Lineisy Montero, model Ellen Rosa, model and Instagram star Jasmine Sanders, actress and model Yara Shahidi, and model and designer Alek Wek. The film is supplemented by a ‘Making Of’ video created by The Madbury Club featuring Enninful and the cast who share their thoughts on what it means to bridge the gap and offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the film’s creation.

In the Philippines, Gap is exclusively distributed by Casual Clothing Retailers, Inc., a member of SSI Group, Inc. Gap is available in Central Square at Bonifacio High Street, Abreeza Davao, Alabang Town Center, Ayala Cebu, Eastwood Mall, Estancia at Capitol Commons,Glorietta, Robinson’s Magnolia, Shangri-La Plaza, SM Mall of Asia, SM Megamall, and Trinoma. Follow Gap on Facebook or Instagram @GapPhilippines, and visit www.ssilife.com.ph for more information.

From left: Pancho Magno, Sanya Lopez, Thea Tolentino, and Rocco Nacino, the lead cast members of GMA 7’s latest afternoon offering, "Haplos”

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

ISAH V. RED

G

MA Networkis home to drama series that puts the audience in a catatonic state. Thanks to the spellbinding narrative that meanders far beyond what the heart can feel and the eyes can see in reality.

This time around, the network pilots its newest Afternoon Prime series – Haplos.

It is a story about genuine love for family and how love is always victorious. GMA’s home-grown talents, Sanya Lopez, Thea Tolentino, Pancho Magno, and Rocco Nacino, are the lead stars of the new series expected to equal or surpass previous and current drama series in ratings. That begins today.

Lopez is Angela Alonzo, a physical therapy undergraduate whose goal in life is to find and love a man as amazing as her father. Tolentino is Lucille Bermudez, Angela’s half-sister and a sexy promo girl who uses her looks to her advantage. But she is greedy and her character is dubious.

Yet, she wants to be wealthy someday.

Magno is Benedict Dizon, Angela’s admirer and an attractive fitness instructor who wishes to become a successful businessman with a trophy wife. Nacino breathes life to the character Gerald Cortez, Angela’s boyfriend, handsome and a hardworking salesman. He is passionate in life and desires to have a family of his own.

Lopez gave a peek on

Pantasya ng Bayan Kim Domingo “undresses” in a new sexy photo book

A different kind of series

BEGINS TODAY IN GMA AFTERNOON PRIME what the show is about. “Tungkol ito sa isang babae na may gift. And yung gift na yun, dun iikot yung story.

Yung gift na yun gagamitin niya para sa kabutihan and yun yung dapat nila abangan,” she says. Her on screen partner, Nacino, expressed his delight to be paired with Lopez again, “I’m happy that I’m working with Sanya again. I’ve always told her that I’ll be behind her, para tulungan siya and it’s been a very fruitful learning process for her.”

Pancho, who also worked with the two in their previous show, is excited to reunite with them in this new series.

“Siyempre iba na, na-e-excite kami to play roles na very different from our previous characters in Encantadia.

Ibang-ibang klase ng fantasy naman yung gagawin namin,” he says.

Tolentino she says she’s excited about the show’s fantasy element and fight scenes. “Dun ako na e-excite, sa kakaiba na may powers.” On what viewers can expect from her character, she adds “Abangan nila kung paano ko paiikutin ang pamilya ni Angela, at ng mga taong mahal niya na nakapaligid sa kanya.”

The series, which has a touch of enchantment and sensuality, revolves around the intertwined lives of Angela,

Lucille, Benedict and Gerald.

In the story, Angela is a simple and beautiful girl who lives a quiet and peaceful life. She is in a relationship with Gerald but has many admirers, including Benedict. Unknown to her, she has a special gift, she can heal people with just the touch of her hands, soothint emotions and even cure illnesses. But everything changes when she meets Lucille who brcomes jealous of her sister’s gif.

Like Angela, Lucille’ has a gift, too, but it is dark and can cause problems. She uses this to steal everything her sister has. She will put Angela’s life at risk, make her sad and troubles, hence, a bitter rivalry between them is born.

Angela is left with no choice but to harness her gift to take those that Angela took away from her, before it’s too late.

Also in the series are Patricia Javier as Minda Alonzo, Angela’s protective and loving mother; Emilio Garcia as Renato Alonzo, the father of Angela and Lucille; Francine Prieto as Mercedes Bermudez, the outspoken mother of Lucille; Diva Montelaba as Wendy Reyes, Angela’s best friend; and Celia Rodriguez as Lola Biring, the grandmother of Angela and Lucille from whom they inherited their powers. *** French-Filipina bombshell

and GMA Artist Center’s Kim Domingo is sexual fantasy of many Filipino men since her “Twerk It Like Miley” dubsmash video on the Internet. Now, fans are about to fall deeper under her spell with the release of a new photo book.

Out now from Summit Books is Kim Domingo: State of Undress, a collection of intimate photos of the sultry star accompanied by never-before-revealed details of her rise to fame. Together, the images and stories conjure up an even more alluring vision of the angelic-faced, voluptuous-bodied beauty.

The photo book is divided into three chapters representing who Kim was, who she is, and who she wants to be. The first one featuring nostalgia-washed snapshots

by Shaira Luna acquaints readers with Kim’s past, from her strict childhood to her early career lows. The second chapter punched up by Ejay Leung’s provocative photography breaks down Kim’s rise to being the pantasya ng bayan to landing her two FHM Philippines covers. The final chapter, accompanied by an elegantly seductive set by Paolo Pineda, seeks to demystify the enigma that is.

Kim Domingo: State of Undress was launched on July 1, at National Book Store Glorietta 1, available in newsstands, bookstores, convenience stores, and supermarkets

nationwide for P250. *** Heart Evangelista is Paris attending the Paris Fashion Week, and the photos she posted on her Instagram account are drawing lot of ‘likes” because of her outfits of mostly branded pieces–clothes, shoes, and bags, from the world’s top designers and fashion houses.

What her Instagram followers are crazy about is the D&G (Dolce & Gabbana) pasta dress that the commented on as fits her to a T. Heart is one of the few movie/TV stars that can carry clothes as if they were really made for her, eve if they’re merely pret a porter, much more so a couture outfit. She can manage to pull off mix and matches of pieces, distressed pair of jeans with offthe-rack tops, and yet, people think what she wears is the work of a hired stylist.

Heart ia in Paris upon the personal invitation of friends, like Hermes’ representative Michael Coste. She’ll be away for a week but when she returns she will start taping for her new romcom for GMA 7 titled My Korean Jagiya that will be shot in Seoul. She will have a popular Korean actor for a leading man. Who could it be?

Heart is super thrilled to meet him.

That’s for sure. And we are curious who could this lucky Korean guy be.