Manila Standard - 2017 July 11 - Tuesday

VOL. XXXI • NO. 147 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Maute using teeners to fight govt

By John Paolo Bencito and Joel E. Zurbano CHILDREN are being forced by the Maute terrorist group to bear arms and fight against government forces in the ongoing siege in Marawi City, the military said Monday.

Following accounts of civilians rescued

ID plan not part of fight vs terror

By John Paolo Bencito ARMED Forces of the Philippines spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla on Monday told police and military officials not to look at the ongoing war against terror as a religious war and called a plan to issue a Muslim-only ID discriminatory.

“We are not saying that our Muslim brothers are part of this rebellion,” Padilla said at a Palace news briefing. “Only a few of them are. This is not a fight between religions… This is a fight between [the government and] evil forces that are bringing havoc to Marawi, period. Religion has no involvement here.”

Padilla tagged proposals for a Muslim-only ID system in Central Luzon as discriminatory, noting that the authorities should not look at a person’s religion when asking for proof of identification.

“We’ve stated our opinion that it is discriminatory when you ask for identification from one sector of society only,” he said in Filipino.

“So our proposal is that when we start checking IDs of individuals, it must be applicable to everyone,” Padilla said.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana earlier expressed opposition to the plan to issue IDs only for Muslims, saying that security officials should “reconsider their actions” and warned Next page

from the war zone, Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla admitted that the military is reluctant to shoot at the children, mostly teenagers, being used as fighters by the Islamic State-inspired forces.

“We continuously get disturbing narratives from the escapees that children as well as hostages are being employed

in the firefight and disturbing as it is, our troops are doing their best to avoid any casualty among these children that are being employed,” Padilla said.

“But if... they are armed... and are involved in the fighting, there is nothing much that we can do; similarly with the hostages who are being forced,” he added.

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CHILD WARRIORS. This undated handout photo from the Philippine military, received Monday, shows militant members of the Maute group, an ISIS-affiliated group, inside a house in Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur, seized by the group on May 23 to create an IS province with some 100 still holed up in the city despite intense attacks by military troops to oust them. AFP

No to martial law extension—AFP

By John Paolo Bencito

T

HE military on Monday shot down a proposal

by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to extend President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao up until 2022, saying that five years might be too long.

WORKERS DISSENT. Workers from the Caraga region in Mindanao rally in Mendiola, Manila and stage what they call their camp-out at the

Intramuros office of the Department of Labor and Employment to kick off this year KamPOBREro, a protest by workers nationwide against President Duterte’s failure to fulfill his promise to end contractualization and implement a minimum wage. Norman Cruz

SC takes up Aftershock hits Leyte: poll protest Water, power shortage vs Robredo

By Rey E. Requejo THE Supreme Court will hold today its preliminary conference on the election protest and counter-protest filed by both former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo, respectively, in connection with the vice presidential race in last year’s elections.

Marcos supporters gathered outside the Supreme Court compound on Monday for an overnight vigil and to convey their sentiments for the immediate resolution of the protest.

Marcos was set to join the vigil at 10 p.m.

The 15-member bench, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, originally set the preliminary conference on the protest of Marcos and the counterprotest of Robredo on June 21, but moved it to July 11 to give way for the oral arguments and the resolution of the petitions Next page

A 5.9-MAGNITUDE aftershock rocked Leyte island Monday as the region was still reeling from the deadly tremor last week. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, seismologists said.

The US Geological Survey said the moderately strong quake struck Leyte island near Ormoc, a city of about 200,000 people, at 9:41 a.m. at a relatively shallow depth of 12.7 kilometers.

A 6.5 quake stuck the region on

Crisis looms over House inquiry

Thursday last week, killing two people and leaving 72 others injured.

Large areas of Leyte, home to some 1.75 million people, and some parts of the central Philippines were still without electricity this week due to damage to a Leyte power plant.

The Philippines lies on the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific Ocean region where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

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By Rey E. Requejo

OIl firms reverse gears, hike diesel price by P1.2

By Alena Mae S. Flores DIESEL prices will go up by P1.20 per liter, kerosene by P0.90 and gasoline by P0.70 starting today, Tuesday, to reflect the movement of oil prices in the world market.

Eastern Petroleum Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Seaoil Philippines and Flying V issued separate advisories on the in-

creases, the second for this month.

“Phoenix Petroleum Philippines will increase the prices of diesel by P1.20 per liter and gasoline by P0.70 per liter effective 6 a.m. of 11 July 2017,” the company said.

Last week, the oil firms also raised the price of diesel by P0.70 per liter, kerosene by P0.55 and gasoline by P0.30.

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In a Palace news briefing, Armed Forces spokesman Brig.

Gen. Restituto Padilla said there should be an “intelligent basis” for any proposals to extend or lift Duterte’s martial law proclamation, which will expire on July 22.

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella also reiterated that the move to extend Duterte’s martial law declaration “would rest on the assessment and the recommendation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP], the Philippine National Police [PNP] and other stakeholders of the Marawi situation.”

He added that the proposal to extend martial law for five years was Alvarez’s “personal opinion.”

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GROUND RUPTURE. Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology Director Renato Solidum finds Monday one of several cracks in Ormoc City caused by the magnitude-6.5 earth shock that rattled Leyte last week, while a magnitude-5.4 earthquake rumbled yet again underneath Leyte, Cebu, Negros Oriental and Bohol.

A LAW dean and former governor of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines on Monday warned that the continuous refusal of the House of Representatives to heed the order of the Court of Appeals to release six employees of the local government of Ilocos Norte might lead to a constitutional impasse.

Jose Vicente Opinion, who is also dean of the Eastern Samar State University College of Law, even suggested that the so-called “Ilocos Six” detainees should elevate their case before the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, supporters of the Marcos family have urged Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos not to attend the hearing Next page

News

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Justice revives theft case vs Romero

By Maricel V. Cruz THE Justice Department has ordered the refiling of a P3.4-million qualified theft case against fugitive billionaire and 1-Pacman party-list Rep. Michael Romero and two other former officials of Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. In a 19-page resolution, the department said “clear probable cause exists” against Romero, Edwin Jeremillo and Felicia Aquino for conspiring to issue 18 company checks in one day, bearing the amount of P200,000 each.

“First, the respondent-appellees were able to take a total amount of P3,409,844.10 from the bank account of HCPTI, which shows taking of personal property. Second, the said money belongs to HCPTI. It must be stressed that amounts of more than P500,000 must be approved by the chairman of HCPTI. The acts of respondentappellees Romero and Jeremillo in issuing and drawing 18 checks in the amount of P200,000 except for the last two showed their intent to circumvent the existing board resolution of HCPTI without the needed consent of their chairman,” read the resolution signed

by Justice Undersecretary Deo Marco.

The checks, supposedly for “marketing expenses,” were made payable to the “National Food Authority and/or Felicia Aquino.” It was Romero and Jeremillo who signed and issued the checks, which in turn were cashed by Aquino.

The Justice Department granted the petition for review filed

by HCPTI corporate secretary Jerome Canlas, who sought to overturn the September 2016 resolution of the Manila city prosecutor’s office dismissing the case.

The Justice Department recognized Canlas as a valid complainant representing Romero’s father, construction magnate Reghis Romero II.

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Mylene Enriquez, a science research specialist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said there would be thousands of aftershocks from last week’s 6.5-magnitude quake.

As of Monday, Phivolcs recorded 687 aftershocks.

The city of Ormoc and Kananga town in Leyte was placed under state of calamity following the strong aftershock that struck the province Monday, the Palace said.

“It was determined that Ormoc City, along with Kananga, a Leyte municipality, would be declared under a state of calamity,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, who was in Leyte province following a briefing attended by top Cabinet officials.

Among the immediate concerns that need to be addressed are the loss of power and the need for clean, potable water, Abella said.

Among those who attended the briefing were Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council chief Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad, and local officials led by Ormoc Mayor Richard Gomez, Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez and Kananga Municipality Mayor Rowena Codilla.

Residents of Ormoc were struggling with a shortage of potable water and power after last week’s powerful earthquake, Gomez said.

“Our water system, which relies on surface water, was also hit,” the mayor said in Filipino. “The river water we use was also affected. Our tap water flows weakly and it’s murky.”

Authorities are still repairing three major power facilities damaged by last week’s quake. Rio N. Araja, John Paolo Bencito, AFP

SC...

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against President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration in Mindanao.

Both parties set the issues to be tackled and resolved by the tribunal during the preliminary hearing.

The PET has resolved to set just one preliminary conference for the protest and counter-protest, citing Rule 3 of the 2010 PET Rules that allows adjustment in the rules “to achieve a just, expeditious and inexpensive determination and dis-

Focus on Marawi services T HE rehabilitation work in Marawi City will focus on the repair of basic services as the neutralization of the remaining Maute group terrorists is just a matter of time, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said Monday.

Basic services refer to electrical power, water, sanitation, health and education, Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said.

“The primary attention and focus for the rehabilitation, of course, will go to the basic services initially,” Padilla said.

He made his statement even as the Customs officials and

employees detailed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport have been raising money to help the families affected by the armed conflict in Marawi City.

The bureau, according to Naia-Customs Special Deputy Collector Norsalem Raymond Mama-o, has raised P480,000 since the program to collect donations started last month.

The initial cash donations from 458 Customs personnel will be sent to the evacuation centers in Mindanao.

Various agencies and local government units in Metro Manila have already sent cash and other assistance to Marawi City, which was declared under the state of calamity by the municipal and provincial governments in Lanao del Sur. Mama-o said the money will be delivered to deserving recipients in various evacuation centers in Sagularan, Baloi and Iligan City.

“It’s our way of helping our brothers in Marawi and at the

same time our little own way of showing our support to our commissioner,” he said.

Padilla said once the fighting is over, government agencies along with other stakeholders will work so that the basic services can be restored immediately.

He said the Department of Education is now coordinating with military engineers on where they will be placing the materials that will be used in the rehabilitation of the schools damaged in Marawi.

“They are also working with other contractors to make sure that as soon as the coast is clear

and the signal is given, many of these materials that will be used for the reconstruction and repair of the schools in Marawi will be among the first items that will comprise the convoy for the full recovery efforts,” Padilla said.

And as of 6 p.m. Sunday, the Maute group terrorists killed in the ongoing military operations totaled 379, with the civilians executed by the lawless elements reaching 39, and government casualties 89.

The number of rescued civilians has been placed at 1,723 and captured terrorists weaponry at 451.

No...

a broad united front of forces who are against the return of martial law,” the Communist Party of the Philippines said in a statement.

“The Red fighters of the NPA must firmly grasp their weapons, confront the fascists in the battlefield, wage guerrilla warfare intensively and extensively, further deepen and expand the people’s support and carry forward the people’s war to ever greater heights,” the group added.

The CPP also said that Duterte was speaking with a “forked tongue” to lay the basis “for nationwide martial law, which will further aggravate the campaign of murder and brutalities under his strongman rule.”

“He feigns confusion why the NPA continues to carry out attacks when he has not ordered any letup in the armed offensives of the AFP against the NPA and the people,” the CPP added.

The communists made these pronouncements after Duterte said he would refuse to resume peace talks with them until they stop extorting businesses by collecting “revolutionary taxes.”

The CPP accused Duterte of crying “crocodile tears” when he talked about the grave sufferings and hardships of the people in Marawi City, despite his orders to pound their homes with relentless aerial bombardment in the name of “driving away the terrorists.”

“To justify martial law in Mindanao and make him look like a valiant hero, Duterte contrived a demon in what he claims was a rebellion by the “Maute-ISIS” group without even offering clear and solid evidence. To justify imposing martial law nationwide, he will have to come up with a bigger demon.”

Alvarez on Monday said the House will throw its support behind Duterte if he asks for an extension of martial law.

“We will support if the President decides so,” Alvarez said about an extension of military rule.

Kabayan party-list Rep. Harry Roque, meanwhile, said the Stateof-the-Nation Address would be an opportune occasion for the President to seek an extension, even though this is two days after military rule lapses.

Also on Monday, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III dismissed Alvarez’s proposal to extend martial law by five years to 2022.

“That sends a message that rebellion is still there,” said Pimentel, president of the PDP-Laban.

“The request for an extension should come from the President,” Pimentel said.

Senator Francis Escudero agreed, saying only the President can seek an extension. With Maricel V. Cruz,

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MORE RELIEF. Students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa, Manila repack goods consisting of canned food, slippers, used clothes, instant noodles and sanitary kits donated from PUP campuses from all over the country for residents displaced by the war in Marawi City. Norman Cruz

Maute...

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Hostages who refuse to fight for the rebels are shot and killed, Padilla added.

“When our soldier’s lives are at risk, they take appropriate measures to defend themselves, and that is allowable even by the Geneva Convention. So, there’s no question about that,” Padilla said.

If the situation permits, however, they will try to rescue a child caught inside the war zone, he added.

“Every time we have an opportunity to rescue a child or an individual who is being forced into the fight, we will do that and there have been many occasions in the past that we have done so,” he said.

“If we see it is a child who is wounded, we will help him. And we are not in a hurry to shoot at children

even though they are armed. If we can shoot to disable, we will,” he added in Filipino.

As of Sunday, the number of civilians rescued remained at 1,723 while the number of terrorists killed stood at 379. Government casualties rose to 89.

Immigration officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, meanwhile, stopped seven travelers after learning that five of them carried the surname Maute.

The passengers namely—Ashary Maute, Yasser Maute, Abdulrhaman Maute, Al Nizar Maute, Abdulcahar Maute, Acmali Mawiyag and Cota Mawiyag—were about to leave the country through a Cebu Pacific Air flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia around 11 a.m. Monday when the authorities approached them at the Immigration lane in the departure area of Naia Terminal 3.

Naia Immigration-Port Operation

Crisis...

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before the House of Representatives Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on July 25.

They made the call after the House said a detention room was being prepared “just in case” Marcos was cited in contempt and therefore must be detained. It also said a room was ready for the Court of Appeals justices who ordered the release of the Ilocos Six. “There is a separation of powers among the three branches of government. If the House of Representatives continues to disregard the lawful orders of the Court of Appeals, there will really be a constitutional impasse,” Opinion said.

“The CA should not be bullied. The next best thing for the Ilocos Six is to go to the Supreme Court, which is the only one that can resolve this impasse.”

The six were detained on May 29 by the House committee on good government and accountability that is inquiring into Ilocos Norte’s purchase of motor vehicles amounting to P66.45 million that came from the province’s share of tobacco excise taxes.

They were cited in contempt by lawmakers who accused them of refusing to answer relevant questions.

Opinion said if the purpose of the congressional inquiry was in aid of legislation, then the lawmakers were well within their right to cite the local government employees in contempt.

“But it seems to me the purpose is to investigate an anomaly in the implementation of a law, in which case that

position of every contest before the tribunal.”

The tribunal has scheduled the hearing on the plea by Marcos, the only son of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, after it denied Robredo’s motion questioning the cash bonds set by the tribunal for the protest and counter-protest.

Marcos has repeatedly pleaded for the immediate proceedings and resolution of the case stemming from the general elections in May last year in which he is questioning his loss to Robredo in the vice presidential race.

He earlier filed successive motions

Division chief Marc Red Marinas said agents of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were investigating the suspected Maute group members.

Immigration eventually allowed three of the seven passengers to leave. The four others, however, were covered by arrest warrants issued by various courts.

Earlier, the military appealed to the public not to discriminate against people simply because they had the Maute surname.

Padilla said not everyone with the surname is related to the leaders of an Islamic State-inspired group that has been fighting with government troops in Marawi City for over a month.

Padilla urged individuals with the last name Maute to submit themselves to the National Bureau of Investigation and declare they are not part of the group. With Vito Barcelo

is already beyond their jurisdiction,” he said.

He said some statements by lawmakers that undermined the CA’s order for a writ of habeas corpus and for the temporary release of the Ilocos Six had aggravated the situation.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, in particular, has been vocal in rejecting the appellate court’s orders. Instead, the House committee issued a show-cause order requiring the three CA justices why they should not be cited in contempt for ordering the release of the six officials of Ilocos Norte.

The CA’s Special Fourth Division has already started contempt-of-court proceedings against Alvarez and House of Representatives Sgt.-At-Arms Lt. Gen. Roland Detabali for disregarding its three orders.

On June 1, a CA resolution required Congress to file its comment on the case. A day after, the court issued a writ of habeas corpus and ordered Detabali to produce the detained employees. On June 9, the CA issued another resolution granting the petitioners’ request for provisional release provided they posted bail at P30,000 each.

Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Fari’s has also repeatedly threatened the six employees that they might be detained until June 30, 2019, or until the lawmakers are satisfied with their answers.

In their motion before the CA filed on June 23, petitioners Josephine Calajate, Encarnacion Gaor, Genedine Jambaro, Evangeline Tabulog, Pedro Agcaoili Jr. and Eden Battulayan asked the appellate court to resolve their habeas corpus case immediately and to declare their continued detention illegal and a form of torture.

seeking the immediate resolution of his election protest.

The electoral tribunal earlier required Marcos and Robredo to pay cash deposits of P66.02 million and P15.44 million, respectively, for their protest and counter-protest.

Marcos filed the protest on June 29 last year, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated elections. He sought annulment of about a million votes cast in Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao.

In his protest, Marcos contested the results in a total of 132,446 pre-

cincts in 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities.

Robredo filed her answer in August last year and also filed a counterprotest and questioned the results in over 30,000 polling precincts in several provinces where Marcos won.

She also sought the dismissal of Marcos’ protest.

However, the high court, in a ruling earlier this year, dumped Robredo’s plea and proceeded with the case.

Robredo won the vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos, who received 14,155,344 votes.

PNA, with Joel E. Zurbano

On Saturday, Alvarez suggested for martial law in Mindanao shoult be extended until 2022 or until President Rodrigo Duterte steps down, saying that this would give the President more time to quell the over 40 years of rebellion and armed conflict in Mindanao.

The military is set to hand over its assessment on the implementation of martial law to Duterte as early as this week, before the President makes his second Stateof-the-Nation Address.

Both Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Año and Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa had said they would recommend an extension of martial law if the Marawi crisis remained unresolved.

Padilla said that while he does not have any idea on why Alvarez would make such proposal, the military could only make recommendations as far as martial law is concerned.

The final decision on martial law still rests on political leaders like Alvarez, the military spokesperson added.

Padilla said the 80 to 100 terrorists who are holding out in Marawi posed a significant threat to the security situation in Mindanao.

“Inside Marawi, ground commanders estimated, there are about 80 to 100 [terrorists] still remaining in the areas that we are addressing right now … They are not groups anymore, they are just individuals or small groups, but still the threat that they pose is clear and present,” he said.

Padilla maintained that the military still must assess whether it has accomplished the orders given to troops when martial law was proclaimed.

“Our primary basis is whether or not we have accomplished the operational directives given to us at the very beginning of martial law,” said Padilla.

Duterte himself on Friday last week said the situation in the besieged city of Marawi remains “critical,” as he hinted that he might not lift his declaration of martial law in Mindanao before his second State-of- the-Nation Address on July 24, or two days after the constitutionally mandated 60-day limit for military rule ends on July 22.

Communist rebels, meanwhile, warned they would intensify attacks on the government if Duterte extends martial law.

“If Duterte continues along the path to attain his ambitions of becoming a strongman, he is bound to be confronted and opposed by Macon Ramos-Araneta

ID plan...

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of negative repercussions should they persist.

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said given the anti-terrorist drive, a proposal for a national ID system made sense.

“IDs will eventually be really necessary for the entire nation,” Abella said.

Oil...

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Domestic pump prices follow the movement of world oil prices on a weekly basis.

International oil prices rallied last week amid reports of a decline in US inventories, although the oversupply continues.

The Energy Department said the Philippines’ net oil import bill surged 78 percent in the first three months to $2.137 billion from $1.2 billion a year ago, and on higher crude prices and higher demand.

Data from the department showed that the net import volume from January to March reached 38.410 million barrels, up from 36.065 mil-

lion barrels over the same period last year.

Oil imports hit 42.064 million barrels composed of crude oil, 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.

The net oil import bill in 2016 declined 12.3 percent to $6.78 billion from $7.73 billion in 2015 on lower oil prices.

The oil import volume increased 8.3 percent last year to 149.304 million barrels from 137.907 million barrels in 2015.

News Aguirre denies fake news charges

By Rey E. Requejo JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday rejected the administrative case filed against him before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly spreading “fake news.”

“That [allegation] is false. I have never been a fake news king,” Aguirre said, when sought for comment on the complaint against him for alleged violation of Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees filed last week by Akbayan Youth, Millennials Against Dictators, and other youth groups.

Aguirre said that he did not spread “fake news” when he revealed in a press conference last June 7 the supposed intelligence information about the involvement of some opposition lawmakers in the attacks of local terror group Maute in Marawi City last May 23.

“First of all, that’s not fake news. It is a raw intelligence report and I made that clear to the media. I said this is mere intelligence report that I have to validate and that I don’t want to make speculations,” he said.

Instead, the Justice secretary again pinned the blame to the media for wrong reporting on his statements.

“You are the ones who are not telling the whole truth about that press con. You did not report my precaution that this is only an intelligence reports,” he said.

Aguirre earlier drew criticisms for implicating opposition lawmakers Antonio Trillanes IV, Bam Aquino, Gary Alejano and former political adviser Ronald Llamas in the Maute attack supposedly as part of a grand destabilization plot against the Duterte administration.

In the said press conference, he even showed to reporters an alleged photo of the meeting between the senators and some Muslim clans in Marawi weeks before the attacks, but it turned out that the photo was taken in September 2015.

The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines and the Justice and Court Reporters Association earlier belied Aguirre’s claim that he was misquoted in reports from the said press briefing as he claimed.

The media groups said Aguirre’s statements were caught on record and reported by the media verbatim.

In their complaint, the youth groups asked the Ombudsman to hold Aguirre accountable for violating Section 4 of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees for his repeated unsubstantiated public accusations and allegations thus failing to discharge his duties with “excellence, professionalism, intelligence, and skill.”

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Villar berates BPI chief on smuggling, garlic cartel

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

S

ENATOR Cynthia Villar on Monday chided officials of the Bureau of Plant Industry for “not doing their job, resulting to the resurgence of cartel in the sale of garlic.

Villar even threatened to sue BPI if it would continue to fail to stop the cartels and smuggling of garlic.

During the hearing on the rising cost of garlic by the Senate agriculture1 JUNE_JULY_PROMO_7colX40cm.pdf

and food committee, which she chairs, Villar berated BPI director Vivencio Mamaril for not doing his job.

“What has the Bureau of Plant Industry been 9:54 doing?

What happened to the 7/4/17 AM

High Value Crop Program, why is [garlic production] not increasing?” she asked.

Villar noted that they have this program to increase the production of certain commodity annually, buy in this case, it’s going down. It’s decreasing and not increasing, She also threatened to file charges against the BPI in behalf of garlic farmers if it would not act on the garlic cartels and smuggling.

“I will be the one filing charges against you if the garlic farmers don’t.

You are cartelizing garlic. You’re kill-

ing the farmers,” Villar said.”Why are you killing the industry? You want the industry to die so your cartel would thrive? Stop that!,” she said.

The senator also said she would ask the competitive commission to investigate the BPI. “I will file a case,” she reiterated to Mamaril.

Villar also scored the BPI chief for giving an irregular list of importers given permits to import garlic. The list did not show the name of the owners, the complete address of the trading companies and the import quantity they applied for.

Comelec urges Congress to decide on brgy., SK elections

By Vito Barcelo THE Commission on Elections on Monday said it will continue to prepare for the forthcoming village and Sangguniang Kabataan elections scheduled this coming October despite Congress’ reluctance to push through with the elections.

Comelec chairman Andres Bautista said they did not suspend all election preparation activities, including biddings and procurement of equipment in connection with the 2017 barangay and SK elections because there was no bill yet that would postpone the local elections.

However, the Comelec chief appealed to lawmakers to inform the poll body by July at the latest if the polls would push through or not, saying this would prevent the government from wasting the funds for the barangay and SK elections.

The Comelec said it temporarily suspended the printing of 80 million election ballots as they are still awaiting the final decision of Congress, but has continued to conduct biddings and procurement of election materials such as corrugated boxes for election ballots, envelopes and billboards, among others.

This is the second time in two years that lawmakers have been asked to postpone the barangay elections, following a law deferring last year’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls to 2017.

In a radio interview, Bautista said they are still awaiting Congress’ action if the elections will push through.

While the elections would be conducted manually, Bautista said it would be better to postpone but not to reschedule it before the May 2019 mid-term elections. “The Comelec is ready for the elections” he added.

Promo runs from June 1- 30. Per DTI - FTEB Permit No. 6469 Series of 2017.

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Opinion

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

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EDITORIAL

Eager Speaker

H

OUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Saturday he is in favor of extending martial law for another five years, or until the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in 2022.

This would enable the administration to stop the conflict in Mindanao, which has been going on for decades.

President Duterte placed Mindanao under martial law on May 23, in response to the attack on Marawi City by members of the Maute group.

Under the Constitution,

Adelle Chua, Editor

martial law is good until July 22 unless extended.

He should know, the Speaker said, because he is from Mindanao and he is aware that rebellion and armed conflict are not confined to the terrorist activities carried out by the Mautes. There are other groups including the communist rebels.

These are, of course, his personal thoughts, the Speaker qualified.

It’s a good thing military leaders, who in fact do know better, shot down Alvarez’s precipitate—no, foolish—idea.

They say five years might be too long.

Members of both Houses of Congress are not, in fact, opposed to the idea of the extension of martial law especially since the terrorists have not yet been defeated, even as we have been promised they would be, by a certain time, several times.

Nobody denies that the problem is has deep roots and needs a good, lasting solution. No less than Mr. Duterte said the situation remains critical in Marawi.

The extension of martial law will need to be backed, however, by hard facts from the battle field and input from those who are living and fighting the war.

Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla added that any proposal on martial law should have an “intelligent basis.”

The opinion of politicians like Alvarez—who obviously wants to get on the good graces of the President—must not count as much as the recommendation of those who do know better.

We can only come up with one explanation why Mr. Alvarez would come up with statements as controversial as this.

This is the same person who said “bring it on!” when threatened with an ethics complaint. He has also called appellate court justices idiots for holding a view different

from his political interests, and has threatened to abolish the Court of Appeals. He is also notorious for saying he would tear any Supreme Court ruling adverse to martial law—even as Mr. Duterte himself said he would respect any decision from the Court.

Alvarez is trying too hard to paint himself a staunch supporter of the President, when all he needs to do is to think logically and be his own man. He comes off instead as somebody we cannot take seriously.

Magnificent dissent on martial law

Masters of the House LOWDOWN

JOJO A. ROBLES HOUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and his sidekick, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, are trying so hard to ape President Rodrigo Duterte, it’s painful to watch. And the fact that they’re failing so miserably is not really a knock on their macho cred as much as it is a revelation of their lack of understanding of the president’s role and that of their own, as leaders of the House of Representatives.

I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, as well, that Alvarez and Fariñas are so alike, they’re practically twins. But more on that later.

I’m glad that Malacañang distanced itself yesterday from Alvarez’s latest brain fart, which made the speaker say he wants Duterte to continue imposing martial law in the whole of

Mindanao until the end of the president’s term in 2022. Even Duterte has not gone that far, saying only that he wants military rule to go on in his island hometown until the terrorist threat is eradicated.

And I’m also elated that the Philippine Constitutional Association, through its chairman Manuel Lazaro and president Martin Romualdez, has asked to Supreme Court to intervene and put an end to Fariñas’ bullying of the Court of Appeals. This will probably not sit well with Fariñas and Alvarez, who have already declared that they will not appreciate any intervention by the high court in their campaign to continue detaining the so-called “Ilocos Six,” despite the House leaders’ tenuous legal position that they can and will jail anyone who doesn’t give the right answers during House investigations.

My own belief is that the two House leaders are locked in a competition to out-Duterte Duterte himself. They sure have the

swagger down; but I don’t think they truly understand that a) they only look like cheap copies, and b) their role as House leaders is way different—and a lot more constricting—than that of the president.

Both Alvarez and Fariñas think nothing of escalating local problems into national crises.

The immense powers of the presidency, compared to those of a House speaker or majority whip, are immediately clear: While the president, especially a popular one like Duterte, is in

command of the entire executive branch and enjoys a national mandate, a House leader’s authority is limited by his election to represent a particular district, just like any congressman, and by the agreement of his fellow House members.

But why do Alvarez and Fariñas act the way they do anyway? I don’t know, but if they don’t change—and soon—they could get in real trouble. *** But I said that Alvarez and Fariñas were acting so alike, they might as well be twins.

Here’s why: Both House leaders think nothing of bringing their personal political vendettas before the House and escalating local problems into national crises.

We’ve already seen how Alvarez brought his purely personal spat against his former friend and political patron,d fellow Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo, to the national stage, which the speaker used to harass the business of his colleague’s family.

By seeking the nullification of the Floirendos’ long-standing joint venture agreement with the Bureau of Corrections, Alvarez sought to punish his former bosom body for the wrongs committed by Floirendo’s lover on Alvarez’s own. And yes, this is one more thing that makes Alvarez different from Duterte—whom I have never heard of using his vast powers to get back at his personal foes.

Alvarez has been bullying agencies in the executive branch in order to nullify the contract of the Floirendos’ Tagum Development Corp. And he is succeeding because no congressman dares to point out the error of what he’s doing.

In Ilocos, meanwhile, Fariñas has caused the detention for over a month already of six Ilocos Norte local executives, all because he wants the Marcos family—which resurrected his moribund political career just like Floirendo once backed and bankrolled Alvarez’s own

AS ALWAYS, for columns like this, I begin with a disclosure.

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen is a close friend and a longtime colleague. We met in 1985 when we were both students at the University of the Philippines College of Law and members of the UP Law Paralegal Volunteer Organization. We also co-founded a human rights and environmental law organization together. We have been colleagues at the UP Law faculty for decades.

This association with Justice Leonen does not stop me from being objective about his dissent in Lagman vs. Medialdea, the martial law decision of the Supreme Court. In fact, for the record, I am inclined toward the arguments of Justice Antonio Carpio in his concurring and dissenting opinion in Lagman where the latter limits the validity of martial law to Marawi.

From the beginning, having sources on the ground and looking closely at what was happening, it was clear to me that the Maute group in Marawi was committing rebellion. They are terrorists, yes, but they are also committing rebellion and public safety imperatives could justify a martial law declaration. I think the main opinion’s dichotomy of rebellion and terrorism is wrong and I think Justice Leonen’s distinction between the two, while policy wise and politically speaking is compelling, fails technical legal scrutiny.

Having disclosed my reservations about the Leonen conclusions, let me be clear though that I think Justice Leonen has done the country a great favor with this great and magnificent dissent. I echo the words of veteran journalist Glenda Gloria who posted in Facebook: “A thoughtprovoking dissenting opinion.

Which only deep reflection, nuanced thinking, long conversations with players on the ground, and solid commitment to peace can bring about. Thank you for this, Justice Marvic Leonen.”

The gist of the Leonen dissent is that martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus are unjustified because first, the group committing atrocities in Marawi are terrorists and not rebels. They are committing acts of terrorism and are not engaged in political acts of rebellion. Second, there is no sufficient factual basis, contrary to the submission by the respondents, to declare martial law. Third, the declaration of martial law is vague and unduly expansive. These make it unconstitutional.

On his first point, Leonen insists that the Maute group are not rebels but terrorists. They

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Opinion

THERE are three things that Supreme Court justices who opposed and dissented from the majority opinion on the declaration of martial law have in common.

First, all of them are paranoid that martial law, Marcos-style, will come into effect.

Second, that the Court gave President Rodrigo Duterte the license to extend martial law and expand it to the whole country if he believes that the IS-inspired Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups would spill beyond the borders of Mindanao.

Third, that there would be human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings reminiscent of the dark days under Marcos.

I think these spring from prejudice arising from mere speculation.

If one reads Article VII, Section 18 of the 1987 Constitution, one will discover that it is a reactionary charter to erase everything that reminded Mrs. Cory Aquino of her predecessor.

Under the 1987 charter, martial law is a toothless tiger. It enumerates the things the president or the martial law administrator can and cannot do.

In case of invasion or rebellion, when public safety requires it, the President may for a period of 60 days suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or place the Philippines (or any part thereof) under martial law. However, within 48 hours from the proclamation, the president shall submit a report to Congress, either in person or in writing.

Congress, voting jointly, or a vote of at least a majority of all its members in regular or special session, may revoke such proclamation. The revocation shall not be set aside by the President.

Upon the initiative of the president, Congress may extend such proclamation or suspension for a period to be determined by Congress if the invasion or rebellion shall persist and if public safety requires it.

Congress, if not in session, shall within 24 hours following such proclamation convene in accordance with its rules without need of a call.

The Supreme Court may review, in an appropriate proceeding initiated by any citizen, the sufficiency of the factual basis of the proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or the extension thereof, and must promulgate in a decision thereon within 30 days of its filing.

A state of martial law does not suspend the operation of the Constitution (with reference to civil and human rights) to authorize the conferment of jurisdiction military courts and agencies over civilians where civil courts are able to function, or automatically suspend the privilege of the writ.

The suspension of the privilege of the writ shall apply only to persons judicially charged with rebellion or invasion or offenses inherent to or connected with the invasion.

During the suspension of the privilege of the writ, any person thus arrested or detained shall be judicially charged within three days; otherwise, he shall be released.

The case of Marawi City is a clear case of rebellion. It’s on the ground, more than anything else. And since the rebels are ISinspired, it means that their only object is to sow panic and terror.

It is the height of naivete on the part of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Justices Antonio Carpio and Benjamin Caguioa to think that the rebelsterrorists will stop when the siege of Marawi ends. The IS in fact wants to establish a caliphate in this part of the world.

Intelligence reports have already confirmed the existence of these terror cells in other Mindanao cities.

Should President Duterte wait for all these to happen?

In fact, I would like to think that the extension of martial law is urgent at the rate the terror groups are acquiring firearms and ammunition.

I will not go so far as to subscribe to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s proposal, however, to extend martial law until the end of Mr. Duterte’s term. It will also be stupid because it will discourage invest ments and economic growth.

Still, those opposing martial law in Mindanao obviously do not understand what is going on. They are misled by their biases. *** The Supreme Court should now act on the fate of the “Ilocos Six.” They have been detained for far too long by the House of Representatives because of their refusal to answer questions on the supposed misuse of tobacco excise taxes by the Ilocos Norte provincial government.

The refusal of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to honor the decision of the Court of Appeals is a miscarriage of justice. It has also created a constitutional crisis simply because Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Farinas, who is salivating to be governor, wants to file a case against the incumbent governor, Imee Marcos.

In the first place, the House and the Speaker have two other remedies to solve this crisis.

They can file a motion for reconsideration, and they can elevate the case to the Supreme Court.

Alvarez obviously thinks he is above the law, and head of the House of Representatives.

So why is the chief justice dragging her feet on the matter? *** Another case of stupidity on the part of Alvarez is his advocacy for same-sex marriage. He also wants couples living together outside of marriage to be given the rights and privileges of a married couple.

Alvarez obviously believes that having mistresses is the new norm.

And same-sex unions? Let’s see how far that goes with the Catholic majority.

Masters...

Duterte is apparently staying on the sidelines of these political intramurals among some of his most prominent supporters, for reasons only the President knows.

Of course, Floirendo and Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos are known to be particularly close to the president. Floirendo is, on paper, the biggest contributor to Duterte’s presidential run, while Marcos is one of only three governors whom the President says backed his nationwide campaign.

But one day, I suspect that Duterte will wade in and tell everyone concerned to “stop it, just stop it.” Until then, though, I expect the House twins to continue doing what they’re doing—never mind if they’re not really working to help the Duterte administration and merely abusing what limited powers they enjoy to pursue their personal agendas.

Those opposing martial law in Mindanao obviously do not understand what is going on. They are misled by their biases.

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declining fortunes—to not stand

in the way of his daughter’s plans to replace him as congressman in 2019. And with the enthusiastic help of Alvarez, Fariñas has triggered a crisis between the House and the judiciary, which the House leaders claim has no jurisdiction over them or their rules on the openended detention of their “resource speakers.”

Like Alvarez, Fariñas has been getting away with escalating a local problem into a national crisis because no congressman wants to cross “Majo,” as the Ilocano congressman is called.

Of course, the only person who can stop these two from their depredations is Duterte himself. And

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Wassalam’u’alaikum

TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO

Who’s afraid of martial law?

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

FORMATION GARY OLIVAR IT’S GOOD to be back on this page after nearly three weeks away. My wife just returned last Sunday from a six-week visit to the States, which quickly unblocked my temporary writer’s block. My faithful readers should be so lucky as to be in a marriage like ours (36 years and counting) where such things can still happen. *** We’re glad that Senators Richard Gordon and Bam Aquino, from both sides of the aisle, have joined various Mindanao officials, as well as Human Rights Watch, in opposing a proposal by Central Luzon police officials to issue ID cards only to Muslims. This plan is reportedly already being implemented by the town of Paniqui in Tarlac.

The proposal, after all, is patently unconstitutional. Section 5 of the 1987 Charter states that “no religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.”

Freedom from compulsory selfidentification cannot be arbitrarily withheld from this or that social class or grouping.

In order to avoid violating the Constitution, it would be far better to institute a national ID card system that covers everyone. Such universal coverage would not be discriminatory, and would also provide better security protection because nobody escapes its reach.

Over time, a properly designed national ID card can also replace the plethora of government-issued identification schemes we have to live with today, leaving only one’s passport and perhaps driver’s license. Eventually the ID card might also be usable for non-government transactions, such as purchasing goods and services.

One such proposal is already wending its way through Congress, authored by the perennially prolific former President and now Congresswoman Gloria Arroyo. *** Earlier last week, the National Police Commission (Napolcom) announced its decision to strip local government executives in Mindanao of administrative authority over police units assigned in their areas.

Perhaps not surprisingly, virtually all the executives affected were Muslims, in areas with large if not majority Muslim populations.

This has raised a predictable outcry. In particular, the governor, both congressmen, and most of the mayors in Lanao del Norte called the action “sweeping, unfounded and baseless.” They pointed out that, even through the fiercest of fighting in Marawi in nearby Lanao del Sur, they’ve been able to maintain peace and order as well as inter-faith harmony in their own province.

On the presumption of regularity in performing official duties, we think that Napolcom may be entitled to the benefit of the doubt when they unfavorably lumped the two Lanao provinces together. And it’s not unreasonable to seek to centralize policing authority in a region

as recently fraught with violence as Mindanao has been.

Nonetheless, the outcry from the Lanao del Norte leaders illustrates the dangers of painting with too broad a brush. This is especially true if the picture is as complex as the Muslim community’s ethnic, religious, and political history, now interlaced with the dangers of imported jihadism. We cannot tread too carefully when grievances of all sorts are bubbling just under the surface. *** Right after Napolcom’s controversial decision, it was the turn of the PNP itself to arouse the ire of Mindanao politicians, by exiling two abusive Mandaluyong cops to duties in Marawi. This time the criticism came from the ARMM governor and Lanao del Sur’s provincial crisis committee, joined in by an unlikely ally: Defense Secretary Lorenzana, who said, correctly enough, that “we don’t need problematic cops in [places like] Marawi.”

Such punitive transfers are nothing new to the PNP, following a similar exile last year of hundreds of erring Metro Manila cops to Basilan.

It’s practically a standing inside joke by now in the organization: Mindanao is where you’re sent for punishment if you’ve been a bad cop.

These days, however, with so much unrest down south, and, at the same time, with everyone there looking forward to a federalist solution to longstanding demands for autonomy, those jokes don’t go over so well anymore. Treat us with more respect—this is essentially what Mindanao’s leaders are saying.

If those errant cops are being exiled, as General Bato has maintained, to give them a chance to “reform themselves,” we would point out that punishment, not selfreform, is what’s due them, no different from anybody else. And even if reform were a valid objective, it shouldn’t come at the expense of compromising the quality of police service, especially in Marawi, Basilan, or any other similar hot spots in Mindanao. *** To close this resurrected column, let me congratulate General Dionisio Santiago on his new appointment as chair of the Dangerous Drugs Board, the policy-setting and oversight body for the country’s anti-drug initiatives.

General Dionix used to be AFP chief of staff under former President Arroyo, and then headed the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. More recently, his name has never been far from President Duterte’s lips whenever the discussion turned to drugs.

The new DDB head has promised to work to amend the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001, as well as evaluate government’s drug rehabilitation programs.

With less than 300 addicts having been processed to date in the sprawling 10,000-bed mega-rehab facility in Fort Laur, such an evaluation is clearly overdue. We’re confident that the general is the right man for the job.

Readers can write me at gbolivar1952@yahoo.com.

A controversial sign HAIL TO THE CHAIR VICTOR AVECILLA DAYS ago, a photograph of a highway border welcome arch in Marawi City appeared on the front page of another daily newspaper. The arch had a sign bearing the phrase “Islamic City of Marawi.” Many lawyers have been debating about the sign ever since the photograph made it to the news.

The constitutional mandate on the separation of church and state prohibits the use of public funds and property to promote religious institutions and activities. Accordingly, all local government units operating under the Constitution, including those in the autonomous regions, have to be secular in character. This means that no province, city, or municipality in the country can identify itself with any religion.

In the same light, no sign or marker paid for or maintained by public money, or erected on government property, is supposed to identify itself with any religion.

The separation of church and state applies to all religions. Thus, no local government unit can officially call itself a “Catholic,” “Protestant,” “Christian,” “Aglipay,” or “Iglesia” province, city, or municipality.

In other words, the sign “Islamic City of Marawi” appearing on that welcome arch invites legal scrutiny on constitutional grounds.

Even assuming that the charter of Marawi City allows the use of the phrase “Islamic City of Marawi,” that provision in the charter

Magnificent...

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are not engaged in political acts

of rebellion. In the words of Leonen “Their ideology of a nihilist apocalyptic future inspired by the extremist views of Salafi Jihadism will sway no community especially among Muslims.”

For Justice Leonen, “There is no rebellion that justifies martial law.

There is terrorism that requires more thoughtful action.” He points out the political consequences of recognizing the Maute terrorists as rebels: “Elevating the acts of a lawless criminal group which uses terrorism as tactic to the constitutional concept of rebellion acknowledges them as a political group. Rebellion is a political crime. We have acknowledged that if rebels are able to capture government, their rebellion, no matter how brutal, will be justified. Also, by acknowledging them as rebels, we elevate their inhuman barbarism as an “armed conflict of a non-international character” protected by International Humanitarian Law. We will be known worldwide as the only country that acknowledges them, not as criminals, but as rebels entitled to protection under international law.”

In effect, we are glorifying the Maute terrorists when we call them rebels, making them equivalent to

invites constitutional challenge as well because all laws—and a city charter is a law—must comply with the Constitution’s mandate on the separation of church and state.

The separation of church and state is not directed against religion per se. It is to put all faiths at an equal, neutral footing in terms of the way the government uses public property and spends public funds. That way, incumbent officials of the government will not be tempted to give preferential treatment to the church of their faith and prejudice other faiths.

This arrangement also protects the sensitivities of those who do not belong to any organized religion, because the constitutional freedom to worship includes the freedom not to worship.

In the long run, the government, be it national, regional, or local, should not be seen as favoring any particular religious faith.

Although the population of Marawi City has a Muslim majority, the fact that there are a number of non-Muslims in the city cannot be ignored. The neutrality of government must apply to both the majority and the minority religions in any of its territories.

How that sign in Marawi City came to be is anybody’s guess.

What makes it controversial is how and why the regional authorities of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the city government of Marawi allowed that signage to be displayed so conspicuously.

Speaking of separation of church and state, the practice of local government units in naming public streets after religious personalities and leaders of organized religions should be the subject of scrutiny

by Congress on constitutional grounds.

Public streets are maintained by the government. The electric posts which illuminate them at night consume electricity paid for by the government. Street sweepers and garbage collectors who keep these roads tidy draw their salaries from public funds. The same may be said for policemen who keep these streets safe day and night.

Since the upkeep of these streets is shouldered by the government, it may be reasonably argued that the expenditure of public funds for the upkeep of a road named after a religious personality is not in accord with the constitutional mandate on the separation of church and state.

Private roads are different. Since they are maintained by the owner of the subdivision or village that owns them, those roads may be named after anybody, including religious personalities. *** To say that the people of Marawi City have been suffering for the past weeks is to describe the situation there rather mildly. Actually, the city has been a war zone.

When the fighting ends and Marawi City is eventually rebuilt, the root cause of the violence there should be identified and nipped in the bud.

Perhaps this is the ideal time for the Department of Education to discourage the proliferation of ultra-conservative Muslim-run schools which encourage young Muslim Filipinos to take the path of violence and hatred against non-Muslim Filipinos.

Like all constitutional rights, religious freedom is not absolute.

The freedom cannot be invoked

simply to justify non-compliance with the laws. As a Supreme Court decision puts it, religious freedom is not synonymous to freedom from compliance with law on the ground of religious dogma.

Therefore, a school operated by a faith that promotes hatred and violence against non-believers, can be regulated, or even outlawed by the state, even if the lessons are held in a classroom environment.

The needless and unjustified taking of a life is not only prohibited under Philippine law; it is a breach of the basic postulates of practically every organized religion that operates on the face of the earth.

From the 1980s up to the turn of the twentieth-century, many of the Christians and Muslims in Marawi City did not treat each other as enemies in a war. More often than not, the fighting took place outside of Marawi City, like in Maguindanao and Cotabato.

The problem in Marawi City started at the turn of the current century when Muslim terrorists from the Middle East entered the Philippines clandestinely to foment, among Muslim youths in key areas in Mindanao, a hatred for non-Muslims. Eventually, all that hatred culminated in extremist groups like the Maute.

For law and order to return to Marawi City, it is imperative that the government capture the ring leaders of the Maute and lock them up for a long time. The government should likewise dismantle those “hate centers” in Mindanao which brainwash young Muslim Filipinos into hating non-Muslims. They should be replaced by classrooms with competent local teachers who sincerely believe in religious tolerance.

Luis Taruc, for example, Huk rebel leader from the 1960s whom we have just raised to the status of national hero.

Leonen rightly says: “I honor the sacrifices of many by calling our enemy with their proper names: terrorists capable of committing atrocious acts. They are not rebels desirous of a viable political alternative that can be accepted by any of our societies. With their plans disrupted and with their bankrupt fanaticism for a nihilist apocalypse, they are reduced to a fighting force violently trying to escape. They are not a rebel group that can hope to achieve and hold any ground.”

On the insufficiency of factual basis to declare martial law, Justice Leonen points out: “The government’s presentation of facts and their arguments of their sufficiency are wanting. First, there are factual allegations that find no relevance to the declaration of martial law and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Second, there are facts that have been contradicted

by Open-Source Intelligence sources. Lastly, there are facts that have absolutely no basis as they are unsupported by credible evidence.” For instance, respondents did not reveal their sources to support the insinuation that the ASG Basilan, AKP, Maute Group, and BIFF have vowed loyalty to the ISIS and that these

groups formed an unholy alliance.

On his third argument that the Proclamation No. 216 is constitutionally vague, Leonen is of the opinion that the scope of martial law has been illegally expanded when the General Order issued to implement it included the objective “undertake all measures to prevent and suppress all acts of rebellion and lawless violence in the whole of Mindanao, including any and all acts in relation thereto, in connection therewith, or in furtherance thereof.”

Based on this, all acts of lawless violence throughout Mindanao, even if unrelated to the ongoing hostilities in Marawi, have been included in the General Order. Accordingly, the, Operational Directive for the Implementation of martial law coming from the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines orders his forces to: “dismantle the NPA, other terror-linked private armed groups, illegal drug syndicates, peace spoilers and other lawless armed groups.”

Justice Leonen warns of the ghost of the Marcos dictatorship: “The government’s concept of martial law, from the broad provisions of Proclamation No. 216 therefore partakes of different senses. Rightly so, the public is not specifically guided and their rights are put at risk. This is the ghost of martial law from the

Marcos era resurrected. Even Proclamation No. 1081 of September 21, 1972 was more specific than Proclamation No. 216. Yet, through subsequent executive issuances, the scope of martial law became clearer: it attempted to substitute civilian government even where there was no conflagration. It was nothing but an attempt to replace democratically elected government and civilian law enforcement with an iron hand.”

To end, let me close with Leonen’s final words, which will be quoted by many generations of law students called to recite on this great and magnificent dissent: “We all need to fight the long war against terrorism. This needs patience, community participation, precision, and a sophisticated strategy that respects rights, and at the same time uses force decisively at the right time and in the right way. The terrorist wins when we suspend all that we believe in. The terrorist wins when we replace social justice with disempowering authoritarianism.

We should temper our fears with reason. Otherwise, we succumb to the effects of the weapons of terror.

We should dissent—even resist— when offered the farce that martial law is necessary because it is ‘only an exclamation point.’”

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TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

‘New circular to let more endo in govt’

By Maricel V. Cruz TWO party-list lawmakers on Monday chided the Civil Service Commission, Commission on Audit, and the Department of Budget and Management for issuing a circular that allows government agencies to hire personnel on contracts of service and job orders instead of putting an end to contractualization in the public sector.

ACT teachers party-list Rep. France Castro and Antonio Tinio were referring to Joint Circular 1, or the “Rules and Regulations Governing Contracts of Service and Job Order Workers in the Government,” dated June 15, 2017 issued by the three agencies.

They urged the CSC, CoA and DBM to amend the joint circular to ensure the guidelines would end “endo” rather than assure its continued proliferation.

Tinio said: “It is about time that CSC, CoA and DBM release guidelines governing contracts of service and job orders in government after their silence allowed the number of JO and COS workers to balloon to up to 595,162 as of July 2016, making

government the biggest user of endo workers.

“However, instead of ending endo in government, the circular further allows government agencies to hire personnel on COSs and JOs until end of 2018.”

Castro said the prospect of ending contractualization in the public sector was now far-fetched with the guidelines.

This, along with President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign promise to end contractualization in the private sector.

In the circular, there is no commitment on the part of DBM that it will create new positions that will give COS and JO workers regular positions. Instead, the said circular contains loopholes that will pave the way for government agencies to continue hiring COS and JO workers even for regular functions and duties of the agency,” Castro said.

“This will only lengthen the suffering of workers who are deprived of job security, decent salaries, and benefits,” she added.

The two lawmakers said one loophole in the joint circular was “Provision 7.1” that permitted hiring through COS.

DRESSING UP. Workers start reparing and cleaning the hall of the House of Representatives in Quezon City in preparation for the forthcoming State-of-the-Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte on July 24. Lino Santos

SC stops takeover of SSS property T

By Rey E. Requejo

HE Supreme Court has issued a status quo ante order enjoining the expropriation of the P1.4-billion property of Social Security System in Pasay City by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

In a three-page resolution promulgated last June 21, the SC’s Third Division granted the appeal of the state-owned SSS for the issuance of status quo ante order on earlier orders of Pasay City Regional Trial Court, Branch 108, allowing NGCP to take over the 7.5-hectare property at the Financial Center along Diokno Ave. via expropriation proceedings.

“The Court resolves to grant the petitioner’s prayer for the is-

suance of a status quo ante order and/or writ of preliminary injunction and to issue a status quo ante order effective immediately as of this date and continuing until further orders from this Court,” the SC resolution stated.

“Now, therefore, you, your agents, representatives and any person or persons acting upon your order or in your place or stead, are hereby enjoined from implementing the orders dated

March 2, 2017 and April 24, 2017 of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 108 Pasay City,” it said.

The high court also ordered the NGCP to comment on the petition of SSS within a non-extendible period of 10 days from receipt of notice.

The NGCP moved to sequester the property, which was supposed to be the site for the construction of the SSS Corporate Center of the South, to build its Pasay 230kV Substation Project reportedly aimed at improving its power quality and system reliability.

This prompted the SSS to seek relief from the SC, arguing the NGCP had no authority to expropriate government properties.

The state-owned pension fund cited its mandate to protect the legal interests of its members—including

its 34 million pensioners—over the land.

The SSS noted the Pasay RTC, on the premise of a mere delegated power to expropriate, granted NGCP the right to enter and take over the land it seeks to own “without evident circumspection.”

The SSS argued the trial court wrongly applied in Section 6 of Republic Act 10752 (An Act of Facilitating the Acquisition of Right-of-Way Site or Location for National Government Infrastructure Projects) in issuing the writ of possession in favor of NGCP. The trial court adopted NGCP’s arguments that Section 6 of R.A. 10752 provides that upon the filing of an expropriation complaint, the service of notice to the defendant and the deposit of 100 percent of the relevant BIR zonal value of the

land to be expropriated, the issuance of a writ of possession becomes ministerial on the part of the Court.

However, petitioner raised the inapplicability of RA 10752 to this case owing to the private character of NGCP and the public character of SSS’ land to be expropriated.

It noted that Section 6 of RA 10752 specifically required as condition precedent that whenever it was necessary to acquire real property for right-of-way site or location for any government infrastructure through expropriation, the appropriate implementing agency, through the Office of the Solicitor General, Office of the Government Corporate Counsel or their deputized counsel, shall initiate the expro-

Republic of the Philippines NATIONAL FOOD AUTHORITY Region 10 Baloy, Cagayan de Oro City (08822) 7332215/ (088) 8552721

Aguirre: Revamp 2 NBI bodies

NOTICE OF AUCTION OF 2017 LOCALLY PROCURED CORNGRAINS The NATIONAL FOOD AUTHORITY (NFA), Region 10, Baloy, Cagayan de Oro City wishes to announce that it will conduct AUCTION of its 2017 LOCALLY PROCURED YELLOW CORNGRAINS (YGN) STOCKS as follows: Province Warehouse Variety Estimated Volume Minimum Bid Price (in bags of 50 kg) per kg (P/kg) Bukidnon YELLOW CORNGRAINS 92,807 P 11.50 per kg GID Aglayan 965 GID Maramag 4,591 GID Kalilangan 30,281 GID Wao 56,970 Sale shall be on a per lot of TEN THOUSAND (10,000) bags, ex-warehouse and on an “As-IsWhere-Is No Selection” basis.

To qualify, interested bidders are required to submit the original and photocopy of following documents: a.

Current and Valid NFA license (corn users, poultry & hog raisers, feedmillers, cornmillers);

b.

Current and Valid Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Registration license as Corn User and Processor;

c.

Current and Valid Business Permit/License to engage in business that uses corn as an input raw material issued by the Office of the Mayor of the City/Municipality.

d.

Current and Valid Registration Certificate:

e.

d.1.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), if the prospective bidder is a sole proprietorship;

d.2.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), if the prospective bidder is a corporation;

d.3.

Cooperative Delopment Authority (CDA), if the prospective bidder is a cooperative

In case of representative, a duly notarized authorization from the owner that he/she is authorized to represent the business entity in the Auction and all activities thereto.

Bid documents governing the Auction may be purchased by interested pre-qualified bidder upon payment of a non-refundable bidding fee of Two Thousand Pesos (P2,000.00) to the NFA Cashier at NFA Baloy, Cagayan de Oro City.

Offer must be accompanied by Bid Security equivalent to 10% of the total amount of the bid price in the form of Cash/ Cashier’s or Manager’s Check payable to NFA issued by a reputable commercial bank in Cagayan de Oro City.

The schedule of activities is as follows: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Date/Time Submission of:  Pre-Qualifying documents Working days  Issuance of Certificate of PreJuly 17, 2017 Qualification and Eligibility to and every Wednesday and 8:00 - 12:00 AM / Bid Friday thereafter at 3F, NFA 1:00 - 5:00 PM  Issuance of documents to Pre- R-10 bldg, Baloy, Cagayan Qualified Bidder de Oro City Pre-Auction conference 9:00 AM Deadline for Submission of Tender 1:30 PM Auction proper/ Opening of Tender 1:31 PM

Pre-Auction and Auction proper shall be conducted every Wednesday and Friday at the same time and venue, respectively, thereafter until the volume is exhausted or the Auction is terminated.

The National Food Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to waive any formalities or defects found therein and to accept such bid(s) as may be considered the most reasonable and advantageous to the National Food Authority and the government or annul the bidding process and not award the contract at any time prior to contract award without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

For further information, please contact Ms. Roseminda T. Simon/ Ms. Ida Eli, 2F NFA-10 bldg., Baloy, Cagayan de Oro City with telephone nos. (088)8552721, (08822) 732215, fax no. (088)8552723.

JAIME S. HADLOCON Assistant Regional Director Chairperson –Auction Committee M. Standard – July 11, 2017

priation proceedings.

The government corporate counsel pointed out that “NGCP’s delegated authority to exercise the right of eminent domain does not automatically vest it with the power to acquire property already devoted to public use, as this requires a specific grant from the national legislature.”

In its March 2 order, the Pasay RTC granted NGCP’s urgent motion for the issuance of a writ of possession of the 60,872-square meter property of SSS in Pasay City valued at P1.46 billion pending resolution of its complaint for expropriation.

The Pasay RTC denied SSS’ motion for reconsideration in a resolution issued on April 24, 2017, prompting the SSS to elevate the case to the SC.

GARLIC CARTEL. Senator Cynthia Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on

Agriculture and Food, raises Monday threats of charges against the Bureau of Plant Industry over the surge in prices of garlic in the past months, accusing it of being in collusion with garlic importers.

MMDA to craft regl devt plan for Metro THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority will be crafting its regional development plan for Metro Manila which will be aligned with the Philippine Development Plan of 2017 to 2022.

Director for Metropolitan Planning Josefina Faulan said the agency was conducting consultations with various sectors to lay out policies and strategies for the development of the National Capital Region.

“We have completed a first draft for NCR’s sectoral assessment that will go into the RDP. We are now conducting bilateral consultations with different sectors as we delve into crafting crucial strategies for developing the country’s capital guided by the overall Philippine Development Plan,” Faulan told a recent executive briefing on the PDP. She added the RDP would be based on MMDA’s roadmap for urban development Greenprint 2030 which aimed to provide a sustainable and clean environment in Metro Manila.

For his part, MMDA Chairman Danilo Lim believed the implementa-

tion of the PDP would help in easing the traffic congestion in Metro Manila.

He reiterated the support from Metro Manila mayors was important to ensure the plan would be integrated into the local policies and projects.

“It is only timely that we are discussing the PDP—of which, infrastructure development is a key part—as this is the best solution to the heavy traffic that we are experiencing in Metro Manila,” Lim said.

The National Economic and Development Authority said 35 out of 75 infrastructure flagship projects of the Duterte administration were dedicated to Mega Manila.

To date, six out of 35 Mega Manila projects have been approved by the Neda board which include the new configuration of the LRT Line 1 North Extension Project which can accommodate up to 1.28 million passengers daily.

A National Transport Policy was also approved that would synchronize decisions and investments among all transport-related agencies and between the national and local levels. PNA

JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has ordered a revamp in two divisions of the National Bureau of Investigation following involvement in corruption as complained of by three local IT solution firms.

In separate department orders, Aguir re has reorganized the NBI Cybercrime Division and Digital Forensics Laboratory.

NBI is under the administrative supervision of the Department of Justice.

Head Agent Manuel Eduarte was named new chief of the Cybercrime Division with Special Agent Alex Bautista as executive officer and Senior Agents Juliana Gabionza, Ryner Ergo and Nina Grace Bacho, and Agents Chris Edgardo Anonuevo and Ma. Aiza Arcega as members.

For the Digital Forensics Laboratory, Special Agent Victor Lorenzo was designated chief with Special Agent Christopher Paz as executive officer and Agent Edgardo Añonuevo and Special Investigator Jay Salangguste as members.

The reshuffle in the two divisions came after Aguirre ordered an investigation on allegations against members of the NBI Cybercrime Division and Digital Forensics Laboratory involved in the operations on the offices of Intellcash International Inc., Datacentric Corp. and Delta Clout.

The DoJ chief earlier created a fact-finding team chaired by Undersecretary Raymund Mecate for this purpose. Rey Requejo

Sports

A7

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Petron, F2 start title faceoff F 2 LOGISTICS switches its title-retention bid a notch higher when it clashes with powerhouse Petron in Game 1 of their Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference best-of-three finals series today at the Muntinlupa Sports Center.

Elite women’s volleyball action unfolds at 7 p.m., with both the Cargo Movers and Blaze Spikers looking to gain momentum in this thrilling series that is tipped to go down the wire due to the power, intensity, heart and desire of both teams.

Prior to that, Cignal and Foton will try to shut down their respective campaigns on a high note when they figure in the battle for 3th to 4th places in the 5 p.m. first match of this prestigious club tourney backed by Rebisco, Belo and Gold’s Gym with TV5

Games Today

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

as official broadcast partner.

Rookie team Cocolife copped the fifth place after defeating Sta. Lucia while Generika-Ayala captured the seventh place after overcoming Cherrylume in the classification phase of this league that also has Senoh, Mikasa, Mueller, Asics and Grand Sport as technical sponsors.

Petron, the squad that swept this tourney two years ago, is said

to have an edge after booking a scary 23-25, 23-25, 25-14, 25-15, 15-9 victory in their first and only match this conference.

The Blaze Spikers have a loaded roster.

Former F2 Logistics star Mika Reyes is anchoring the defense at the net together with collegiate stars Marivic Meneses of University of Santo Tomas and Remy Palma of Far Eastern University.

High-flying Bernadeth Pons, Carmela Tunay and Sisi Rondina as well as mainstays Frances Molina and Mina Aganon are taking

charge of offense while veterans R hea Dimaculangan and Aiza Maizo-Pontillas provide the leadership.

But for head coach Shaq Delos Santos, despite his powerhouse squad, overcoming a very disciplined, very talented team like F2 Logistics is easier said than done.

“Having a strong lineup alone is not the key to winning a title,” said Delos Santos, adding that it’s quite difficult to stop the rampaging F2 Logistics squad. “We still have to work hard and prepare. It’s going to be an exciting battle.”

Creamline braces for Pocari tiff, grounds Air Force CREAMLINE primed up for its much-awaited clash with Pocari Sweat this weekend as it ripped Hair Fairy-Air Force, 25-19, 2522, 22-25, 25-12, to match the defending champion’s hot start in the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan late Sunday.

League leading scorer Alyssa Valdez continued to dish out explosive form, hammering in 20 attack points and producing three aces as she spearheaded the Cool Smashers’ dominating run in the fourth frame to finish off the Lady Jet Spikers and nail their third straight victory.

Pocari Sweat also picked up its third win in row late Saturday, checking an impending skid with a late burst in the decider to edge the Power Smashers, 25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 20-25, 15-11.

The two unbeaten teams take a break Wednesday before colliding on Saturday in what promises to be a slam-bang duel between two of the fancied teams in the mid-season conference of the league organized

by Sports Vision.

Valdez has also been drawing solid support from the bench with Rosemarie Vargas blasting in 10 kills and finishing with 11 points and Pau Soriano adding 10 markers.

The Cool Smashers also pounced on the Jet Spikers’ sloppy service reception, coming away with nine aces. They also won in attacks, 48-38, and produced 12 digs more than their rivals with 59.

Playmaker Jia Morado also kept Creamline’s vaunted offense going by coming with 36 excellent sets, 12 more than Wendy Semana of Air Force, which bounced back with a three-point win in the third before crumbling in the fourth.

SPURS WIN. Dejounte Murray (5) of the San Antonio Spurs drives against Furkan Korkmaz of the Philadelphia 76ers during the 2017 Summer League at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. San Antonio won, 101-95. AFP

OKC’s Adams...

From A8

10-14-year-old boys and girls at the indoor court of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines College of Engineering on July 19.

“I’m looking forward to meeting the Filipino fans and experiencing the country’s vibrant culture,” said Adams. “I’m also excited to work with the talented athletes from across the Philippines at NBA 3X.” “This will be my first trip to the Philippines, and I can’t wait to see the passion Filipinos have for the game of basketball,” said Theus.

“With the inclusion of 3-on-3 basketball in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, NBA 3X is a testament to the growth and popularity of the game internationally.”

“We are excited to partner with NBA 3X Philippines and see this as a platform to elevate 3-on-3 basketball in the country,” said Raul Hora, President and CEO of AXA Philippines. “In the same way that we assist clients in making sound financial decisions, we look forward to seeing boys and girls of all ages showcase their skills, exhibit teamwork, and execute their gameplan to win on and off the court. With Steven, Reggie, and the Laker Girls in attendance, this event is a great opportunity to provide the NBA experience to fans.”

The competitive 3-on-3 tournament includes divisions for boys (under-13, under-16, under-18, and open category), girls (under-16 and open category), an invitation only Celebrity Division featuring local personalities, as well as a new

division exclusive to AXA employees and distributors.

Adams, a 7’0” center from New Zealand, was drafted 12th overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2013 NBA Draft.

He was selected to the NBA AllRookie Second Team in 2014.

During the 2016-17 season, Adams averaged 11.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1 block per game.

Theus was drafted 9th overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 1978 NBA Draft and selected to the NBA AllRookie First Team in 1979. A twotime NBA All-Star, Theus played 13 seasons in the NBA before playing internationally. He was named head coach of Sacramento Kings during the 2007-08 season before becoming an assistant coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2009-2011. He is currently the head coach of Cal State Northridge in the NCAA.

NBA 3X Philippines 2017 is presented by AXA Philippines together with official partners CloudFone, Globe At Home and Globe Prepaid, Panasonic, as well as supporting partners SM Mall of Asia and Spalding. Official NBA broadcasters for the event are ABS-CBN Sports and Action, Basketball TV, and NBA Premium TV. All participants in NBA 3X Philippines 2017 will receive an NBA 3X jersey with special prizes for the winners of each division. Registration fees for the age divisions run at Php 1,000 per team, while open divisions run at Php 1,600 pesos per team.

For more information on NBA 3X Philippines 2017 and the registration process, log on to www. nba3x.com/philippines and follow www.facebook.com/nba3xasia.

Magpily captures chess crown FRANCOIS Marie Magpily kept her poise in the stretch then nipped four others in the tiebreak to capture the juniors crown and also the Top Female award in the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship’s NCR leg held at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall last Sunday.

The No. 6 Magpili, who swept her first five games in impressive fashion, upended fifth seed Earl Mantilla and No. 9 Cedrick Gaddi at resumption then bounced back from an eighth round loss to top seed Julius Gonzales with a final round draw with No. 8 Michael Erese to finish with 7.5 points.

Gonzales, Erese, Carl Ancheta and Joshua Navarro also wound up with 7.5 points but Magpily, playing out of Gen. Pio del Pilar National High School, took the crown on su-

perior tiebreak score to become the first female player to win an overall division crown.

Erese, from Arellano University, took the runner-up honors while Gonzales of La Salle Greenhills edged Ancheta and Navarro for third and the last berth in the national finals of the 25th staging of the country’s longest talent-search sponsored by Pilipinas Shell.

Sharing top honors were Cyrus Francisco of San Beda and Far Eastern U ace Dale Bernardo, who ruled the kiddies and seniors categories, respectively, of the second leg of the five-stage regional elims sanctioned by the NCFP. Joining the grand finals are the two other top female players Roilanne Marie Alonzo of La Concepcion College-Bulacan and Ynna Canape of UP, who pooled six points each in

the kiddies and seniors divisions, respectively.

WIM Charlene Suede, a former SNYACC finalist, and Shell ER Adviser for Brands Karla Lucban-Zarate graced the awards rites of the tournament backed by Shell V-Power, Shell Advance, Shell Rimula, Shell Helix, Shell Fuel Save, andShell Card and held in partnership with SM Supermalls.

The third-ranked Francisco, who scored 4.5 points in the first five rounds, split the point with Srihaan Poddar in the sixth then crushed Jeremiah Cruz and Al-Basher Buto before the San Beda bet halved the point with Chester Reyes to finish tied for first with Reyes and Cedric Abris with 7.5 points.

Francisco took the 7-12 age- Magpily flashes the thumbs-up sign after capturing the juniors group crown with a superior tie- crown and the Top Female award in the 25th Shell Active Chess Championship’s NCR leg held at SM Mall of Asia. break score.

IAAF clears 16 Russian athletes to compete as neutrals PARIS—Sixteen Russian athletes, including 2013 world long jump champion Aleksandr Menkov, were given the green light Sunday to compete internationally as neutrals, world athletics’ governing body announced.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said its doping review board had agreed that the applications of the athletes met the exceptional eligibility criteria to compete in international competition as neutral athletes, while the Russian national federation (RusAF) remains suspended.

The athletes were named as Menkov,

Viktor Butenko (discus), Timofey Chalyy (400m hurdles), Danil Danilov (hammer), Olga Eliseeva (race walks - European U20 Championships only), Alexey Fedorov (triple jump), Irina Gemeniuk (triple jump), Irina Gordeeva (high jump), Viacheslav Kolesnichenko (sprints), Aleksandr Lesnoi (shot put), Konstantin Lyadusov (shot put), Iuliia Maltseva (discus), Alena Mamina (sprints), Viktoriia Prokopenko (triple jump), Ilya Shkurenev (decathlon) and Valentin Smirnov (middle distance).

In addition, the board extended neutral athlete status for three athletes who had

previously been approved to be able to compete at the European U20 Championships: Aksana Gataullina (pole vault), Polina Miller (sprints) and Yana Smerdova (race walks).

“The participation of all these athletes as neutral athletes in international competition is still subject to formalities for eligibility under IAAF Rules being completed and subject to acceptance of their entries by individual meeting organisers,” IAAF said in a statement.

In total this year 39 applications have been approved, of which nine are for the forthcoming IAAF World U18 Championships.

“It is important to reiterate that this re-

view process is about ensuring there is a level playing field in which the world’s clean athletes have confidence,” said IAAF president Sebastian Coe. “It’s a huge task and one which cannot be rushed if we are to ensure the rights and aspirations of clean athletes are protected.”

The IAAF has received more than 150 applications from Russian athletes, some 50 of which have been endorsed by RusAF. A total of 25 Russian athletes (23 in 2017 and two in 2016) have previously been declared eligible to compete as neutral athletes. AFP

Blu Girls rally past Mexicans, end up 7th THE Philippine Blu Girls battled back from 2-6 down in the fifth inning and upended No. 10 Mexico for the second straight, hacking out an 8-7 decision in eight innings to clinch seventh place in the World Cup of Softball XII in Oklahoma Sunday.

Francesca Altomonte, who anchored the Phl’s 4-2 conquest of the Mexicans in the group stage Saturday, delivered again, earning a walk-off single that gave the 17th-ranked Filipinas back-toback wins over the Mexico and a strong finish to their campaign in the eight-team meet.

Mexico wound up last in the tourney ruled by world no. 1 Japan, which edged the US, 2-1, in the title clash.

“I’m so happy with the progress of the team. With every tournament, it’s evident that they’re getting better,” said Asaphil president Jean Henri Lhuillier.

The Cebuana Lhuillier chief also expressed confidence of the Blu Girls strong performance in the upcoming World Championships in Canada.

Against the Mexicans, the Blu Girls had to fight back into the game twice.

The Mexicans opened a 6-2 after five innings but the Blu Girls struck back with a pair of two-run home runs in the bottom sixth, courtesy of Arianne Vallestero and Altomonte, to bring the match back to push the match into extra innings.

After a scoreless seventh frame, Mexico surged ahead on a Tiffany Lane-Rojas sacrifice fly that sent in Irene Rivera for a one-run cushion.

But Altomonte hit a single in the bottom eighth and drove in Reese Gueverra and Vallestero for the marginal runs.

PSA Forum tackles boxing, caging, running A MIX of boxing, basketball and dragon boat will be tackled in the resumption of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum today at the Golden Phoenix Hotel (along Macapagal Ave. Sunrise Drive) in Pasay City.

Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines executive director Ed Picson is going to talk about the national team’s coming campaign in the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Hamburg, Germany as well as the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Coach Pat Aquino, meanwhile, will be accompanied by members of Perlas Pilipinas to also discuss their bid for the FIBA Asia Women’s Cup in Bangalore, India and the SEA Games.

Joining them in the 10:30 a.m. session presented by San Miguel Corp., Golden Phoenix Hotel, Accel, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, are the PH Dragon Boat team that won four gold medals in world breaking fashion in the 2017 Taiwan International Dragon Boat Championships and officials of the PTT Run for Clean Energy set on July 16 at the CCP Grounds.

Dragon boat will be represented by Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation president Jonne Go along with coaches and members of the goldmedal winning team, while coming in behalf of the PTT Run are Vittaya Viboonterawud, director for Commercial Fuel and Lubricants, PTT Philippines, Paul Senador, president PTT Philippines Foundation Inc., and Subterranean Ideas’ Matt Ardina and Glenndale Atmosfera.

Fil-Am...

From A8 the triple jump in 16.45 meters, with Zhu Yaming of China taking the gold in 16.82 meters.

In women’s long jump, Marestella Torres-Sunang cleared 6.2 meters for fifth, with Vietnamese rival Bui Thi Thu taking the gold in 6.54 meters.

India’s Neena V. and Nayan James claimed the silver and bronze with leaps of 6.54 and 6.42 meters, respectively.

The buildup of the national athletics’ squad is fully supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, and in part by the Ayala Corporation, UCPB Gen, and Cherrylume Corrugated Sheets.

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

Sports

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

A8

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

Generals eye semis stint in NCAA’s Season 93

Eric Cray thanks the heavens after his gold-medal feat in the 400-m hurdles of the22nd Asian Athletics Championships in India. Inset shows Trenten Beram (second from left) during his Philippine record-breaking stint in the 200 meters. PATAFA photos

Fil-Am shatters 200-m mark in Asian tourney

By Peter Atencio

F

IL-AMERICAN Trenten Beram broke the national record for the second time during the final day of the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship in Bhubaneswar, India.

The Cebu-born Beram surpassed his own Philippine record in the 200 meters set during the 2016 PATAFA Weekly Relays.

In the finals of the Asian tournament, where the 21-year-old University of Connecticut student came in fifth, he broke it again with a scintillating 20.96-second clocking, the first time ever a Filipino breached the 21-second barrier.

Ralph Waldy Soguilon used to hold it way back in the 2007 with 21.17 seconds.

Yang Chung Han of Taipei won the gold in 20.66 seconds, with Park Bonggo of Korea settling for the silver in 20.76 seconds.

Femi Seun of Qatar (20.79) and Bie Gie of China (20.85) were third and fourth, respectively.

Because of his feat, Beram will now be officially included in the national team in its future international competitions.

Beram’s feat came a day after Olympian Eric Cray snared a gold medal in the men’s

400-meter hurdles.

After skipping the 100-meter sprints to focus on his pet event, Cray bagged the gold with a run of 49.57 seconds.

He also holds the national mark and SEA mark of 48.98 seconds in the World Championships in Madrid.

Chen Chieh of Taipei came away with the silver (49.75) and Jabri of India took the bronze in 50.22 seconds.

Two years ago in the SEA Games, Cray established the course record of 49.40 seconds to win the gold.

Cray’s gold-medal win ended the Philippines’ 44-year gold-medal drought in an Asian meet.

His clocking was also .01 second faster than his performance in Osaka a

Turn to A7

New-look Knights take on Cardinals

SMB sends Van Opstal to G’Port for Pessumal

By Jeric Lopez EVEN after bagging the season’s first two championships in the Philippine Basketball Association, San Miguel Beeer is certainly not content.

In an attempt to even bolster their already formidable championship core, the Grandslam-seeking Beermen shipped seldom-used rookie big man Arnold Van Opstal to GlobalPort in exchange for fellow newbie gunner Von Pessumal.

The one-one-one swap of Gilas Cadets was finalized by both teams yesterday and was immediately approved by the Commissioner’s office.

Primarily, the 12-man group of Gilas Cadets, as per the approved agreement of the PBA and the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas, a permanent member of the training pool of the Nationals is not allowed to be traded for two years.

But in this instance, since the traded players are both members of the pool, the trade was given a thumbs up.

This move comes just days after San Miguel Beer celebrated its conquest of the recently concluded Commissioner’s Cup. With Pessumal now in tow, the Beermen will have another shooter in their fray to further deepen their backcourt rotation.

For the Batang Pier, it finally has a project big man to fill in the hole in the middle.

few months back.

The Philippines finished 11th place overall at the biennial continental athletics conclave in a field of 45 Asian nations with 1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medals. It was the best-ever finish for team Philippines since 1991. The next Asian Championships will be held in Doha, Qatar in 2019.

Meanwhile, Anfernee Lopena was seventh in the 100-meter semis in 10.78 seconds, while Francis Medina clocked 53.34 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles heats.

EJ Obiena took the bronze in the pole vault at 5.5 meters, with Ding Bangchao of China and and Masaki Ejima taking the gold and silver, respectively, with 5.65 meters.

Mark Harry Diones earned the silver in

LAST summer, Emilio Aguinaldo College coach Ariel Sison and members of his coaching staff made a lot of effort in sharpening the skills of the team’s second stringers and rookies.

They played most of their pre-season in the Fr. Martin Cup summer tournament without their injured key players.

With Season 93 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association already under way, Sison expects to see results and improvements.

“Mas nahasa ang team, mas lumalim ang rotation ko,” said Sison.

In the coming days, the Generals are hoping they can do better than their 6-12 win-loss record last year.

With key players Francis Munsayac, Sidney Onwuberre and Hamadou Laminou returning to action, they want to get off to a bright start in the new season.

Sison is upbeat of the rookies he found to replace veterans Igee King and Jorem Morada, who have graduated.

He now has a shooter in Jethro Mendoza, who came from EAC-Cavite, while Dagupan find Tristan Bugarin and former Adamson standout Jerome Garcia can help out in the wings and at the point.

Garcia, a point guard, is expected to help provide leadership with Munsayac, in an effort to boost EAC’s Final Four bid.

“Iyun ang pangarap namin, Final 4. We will do our best,” said Sison.

The rest of the Generals’ roster is made up of rookie Renz Tampoc of Lyceum, Sean Neri, Raymund Pascua, Irvin Mendoza, John Diego, John Corilla, Jervin Guzman, Jesse Bautista and Haspee Altache. Peter Atencio

IMG JUNIOR WORLD OPENING CEREMONY. Members of the Philippine delegation attend the opening ceremonies of the IMG Academy Junior World Golf Championship at the Torrey Pines grounds in San Diego, California. A total of 43 jungolfers sent to the event

by Junior Golf Foundation of the Philippines are competing in the annual four-day meet featuring players from at least 50 countries.

THE Letran Knights, the University Benilde Blazers at 12 noon, while the Perpetual Help Altas and the Jose Rizal JRU Heavy Bombers meet Lyceum of University Heavy Bombers will start the Philippines University at 2 p.m. their respective bids when they take After losing Nigerian Bright Akhuetie, on different foes in the Altas have remained the 93rd National Colintact with another NigeGames Today (at the Arena) legiate Athletic Asso- 8 a.m.rian Prince Eze expected Perpetual Help vs CSB (jrs) ciation men’s basketball to carry the load for them.

10 a.m.- JRU vs LPU (jrs) tournament today at the 12 nn.- Perpetual Help vs CSB (srs) Gab Dagangon, AJ 2 p.m.- JRU vs LPU (srs) Arena in San Juan.

Coronel, Keith Pido, Flash 4 p.m.- Letran vs Mapua (srs) Fifth-year swingman Sadiwa, Jack Hao, Daryl 6 p.m.- Letran vs Mapua (jrs) Rey Nambatac, along with Singontiko and JG Ylagan Bong Quinto, JP Calvo, are also back this season. and Jerrick Balanza, are now the new “We’re moving forward and optimistic leaders of the Knights. They are expected of our chances this year, even though we to take charge when they meet the Mapua lost a key piece in our team,” said PerpetCardinals at 4 p.m. ual Help coach Nosa Omorogbe.

“Sila na ngayon ang veterans na aasahan JRU still has the core of its roster from ko,” said Knights’ coach Jeff Napa, who is a season ago, with the likes of Teytey now in his second year with the Knights.

Teodoro, John Grospe, Gio Lasquety, Mark The Cardinals, who are coming off dela Virgen, Ghana’s Abdul Razak Abdul an 82-91 loss to the Arellano University Wahab and Cameroon’s Abdel Potouochi.

Chiefs, are without two-time MVP AllThe strength of LPU’s game lies in well Oraeme and will bank on the expe- the presence of CJ Perez from Ateneo, rience of Laurenz Victoria and Andrew Spencer Pretta from San Sebastian and Estrella to keep them afloat. the Marcelino twins, Jayvee and Jaycee.

The Altas will play the College of St. Peter Atencio

Injured Fultz to skip summer league LOS ANGELES—First overall draft pick Markelle Fultz is not expected to play any more summer league NBA games as he recovers from an ankle sprain suffered on Saturday night in Las Vegas, the US media reported.

The Philadelphia 76ers draft pick was helped off the court after rolling his left ankle in a game against the Golden State Warriors in Las Vegas.

Fultz, who recorded eight points in 15 minutes in Philadelphia’s 9593 win, landed on Warriors guard Jabari Brown’s heel while trying to stop Brown from driving to the basket.

Fultz

Fultz was well enough to walk around after the game and the injury is not believed to be serious, American sports broadcaster ESPN reported.

“I’m ok, thank you for all who were worried!” Fultz tweeted Sunday.

Earlier Saturday, Fultz signed a contract. Details were not disclosed, but he is slated to make $5.8 million in his rookie season.

The 6-foot-4 Fultz averaged team highs of 23.2 points and 5.9 assists to go along with 5.7 rebounds during his first and only season with the University of Washington.

Philadelphia have dealt with major injuries to high draft picks in recent years. Third overall pick Joel Embiid missed his first two seasons and played in just 31 games last season.

The 2016 number one pick, Ben Simmons, missed his entire rookie season with a foot injury. AFP

OKC’s Adams, Theus, Laker Girls coming to PH THE National Basketball Association announced on Sunday that Steven Adams of the Oklahoma City Thunder, former NBA coach Reggie Theus, and the Laker Girls will attend NBA 3X Philippines presented

by AXA on July 22 and 23 at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall.

Registration for NBA 3X Philippines 2017 begins today on a firstcome first-serve basis at www.nba3x.com/philippines and runs until July 14 or until all slots are full.

NBA 3X Philippines 2017 will feature a 3-on-3 tournament featuring men’s and women’s teams of all skill levels as well as NBA entertainment throughout the weekend.

The 2017 edition of NBA 3X Philippines will begin with a preliminary tournament July 15 and 16 at Don Bosco Technical Institute Makati that will determine the participants in the finals at the SM Mall of Asia.

Additionally, the league will conduct an NBA Cares clinic for Turn to A7

PhilWeb tender offer snubbed

B3

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

B1

7000

Peso dips to 50.70 vs dollar

6500

By Julito G. Rada

PSE COMPOSITE INDEX Closing July 10, 2017

8500 8000 7500

6000

7,837.47 51.86

PESO-DOLLAR RATE Closing July 10, 2017

45.00 46.50 48.00 49.50

P50.695 CLOSE

51.00

HIGH P50.580 LOW P50.695 AVERAGE 50.663 VOLUME 438.800M

P435.00-P680.00 LPG/11-kg tank P38.95-P51.01 Unleaded Gasoline P27.35-P31.46 Diesel

OPRICES IL TODAY

MAYNILAD-PLDT PROJECT. Maynilad Water Services Inc. teams up with PLDT Inc. to install a smart monitoring system that logs and

alerts issues from water data transmissions, effectively preventing water outages and reducing interruptions. Shown during the signing of the agreement are (from left) Maynilad head of technical services division Marcos de Jesus, Maynilad chief information officer Francisco Castillo, Maynilad president and chief executive Ramoncito Fernandez, PLDT vice president and head of PLDT Alpha Vic Tria and PLDT vice president and head of corporate relationship management Jay Lagdameo

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

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monday, July 10, 2017

F OREIGN E XCHANGE R ATE Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

50.6090

Japan

Yen

0.008783

0.4445

UK

Pound

1.288900

65.2299

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128025

6.4792

Switzerland

Franc

1.037990

52.5316

Canada

Dollar

0.776398

39.2927

Singapore

Dollar

0.723589

36.6201

Australia

Dollar

0.759700

38.4477

Bahrain

Dinar

2.651816

134.2058

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266660

13.4954

Brunei

Dollar

0.720981

36.4881

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000075

0.0038

Thailand

Baht

0.029342

1.4850

UAE

Dirham

0.272287

13.7802

Euro

Euro

1.140200

57.7044

Korea

Won

0.000867

0.0439

China

Yuan

0.146914

7.4352

India

Rupee

0.015480

0.7834

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.232721

11.7778

New Zealand

Dollar

0.726100

36.7472

Taiwan

Dollar

0.032704

1.6551 Source: PDS Bridge

IN BRIEF DBS sees imports rising 9% this year IMPORTS are likely to grow percent to 9 percent this year on sustained domestic demand, although such increase would be slower than the 18.4-percent expansion a year ago, DBS Bank of Singapore said Monday.

The bank said in a report the sluggish import growth figures in the past two months simply reflected high base effects. “Despite the last two months’ data, imports are still on course to post growth of some 8 percent to 9 percent this year. Not quite the 18.4 percent recorded last year, but it will match the 8.7 percent recorded in 2015,” DBS said.

DBS said export and import growth in May would likely to come in at 15.7 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. Imports fell 0.1 percent in April.

“Some market participants are beginning to wonder if this was a clear sign of a marked moderation in domestic demand. These participants forgot that import growth averaged 40 percent [YoY] last year ahead of the general elections… As such, it is best to not read too much into the import data in April to May,” DBS said.

Julito G. Rada

Japan grants P117-m for Filipino scholars THE Japan International Cooperation Agency and the National Economic and Development Authority signed a 264-million-yen grant (P117 million) to help build the capacity and skills of Filipino professionals.

“We value our relationship with the Philippines and fully support the government’s efforts to build the capacity of its people, particularly Filipino professionals working in government,” said Jica chief representative Susumu Ito. Under the grant, 20 Filipinos working in government agencies will take post-graduate courses in Japan’s leading universities such as International University of Japan, Kobe University, Meiji University, International Christian University and Nagoya University.

Among the post-graduate courses the scholars will take are infrastructure and industry development, public policy, financial reforms and small and medium enterprise promotion.

GT, Japanese partners investing P20b in BGC F

By Jenniffer B. Austria

EDERAL Land Inc., the real estate unit of GT Capital Holdings Inc., teamed up with Japanese partners Nomura Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. to develop a P20-billion mixed-use residential and retail development in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Federal Land chairman Alfred Ty said during the partnership signing ceremony that the three companies would jointly finance and develop Sunshine Fort project, which would bring Japanese tradition of excellence, innovation and artistry to the Philippines. The

whole development is expected to be completed in 2025.

“Today is a momentous occasion as we officially welcome Nomura Real Estate Development and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings to the GT Capital family. This joint venture is part of Federal Land Inc.’s commitment to bring global industry standards in the country to add value to our lifestyle,” Ty said.

Sunshine Fort will have four residential towers offering 1,395 residential units on top of a retail podium with 25,000 square meters of leasable space.

The first residential tower will be launched by the first quarter of 2018 and will be completed by 2022.

The mall will be jointly developed with Isetan Mitsukoshi, the world’s leading retail service group. It will feature new and familiar Japanese brands, authentic Japanese food and a wide-array of cosmetics.

Nomura Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. president Seiichi Miyajima said the compa-

ny’s venture into the Philippine market was a result of the strong history of friendship between the two countries.

“This project is memorable to us since this is the first time that we will integrate Japanese concepts of project planning, technology and knowledge to the Philippine market. We are strongly prepared to pursue business in the Philippines as it has shown to have the strongest growth in Southeast Asia,” said Miyajima.

Isetan Mitsukoshi’s senior advisor Kunio Ishizuka said his group would try its best to “excite and move every customer in the Philippines by helping Federal Land enhance the Filipino lifestyle through introducing Japanese style and quality.”

The Philippines is Isetan Mitsukoshi’s fourth overseas business in Southeast Asia and will be its first challenge to join the complex real estate development project.

Federal Land president Pascual Garcia III said the partnership would introduce better products to Filipinos.

THE peso fell to a new 10-year low of 50.70 against the US dollar Monday, on increased appetite for the greenback following better-than-expected US jobs report showing the world’s biggest economy is improving.

The peso lost P0.11 to close at 50.695, down from 50.58 on Friday. It was the local currency’s weakest level since it averaged 50.755 a dollar on Sept. 4, 2006.

Total volume turnover was thin at $438.8 million, down from $514.7 million Friday.

“The US dollar traded off the highs after the better–thanexpected US jobs report last Friday night Asian time,” Security Bank Corp. said in its daily market report.

Earlier reports said the US job market had a better-thanexpected 222,000 new positions created in June, more than the expected 179,000 for the month. The increase in payrolls came after a sluggish 152,000 jobs created in May. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. earlier said the weakening of the peso was “not a cause of concern” and that its movement broadly reflected prevailing market conditions and underlying economic fundamentals, in line with the BSP exchange rate policy.

Espenilla said Bangko Sentral actively managing excessive volatility.

He said a major driver was sentiment for a stronger US dollar as the Fed moved forward with steps to normalize from ultra-easy monetary policy as US economic conditions steadily improved.

University of Asia & the Pacific economist Victor Abola last week said the weakness of the peso could be traced to the expected stronger imports.

Business Monitor International, a unit of Fitch Group, said the peso might close the year at 50.50 a dollar, a downward revision of its previous estimate of 50 per greenback. It said the fragile political outlook in the Philippines and the expected additional rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve would put more pressure on the local currency.

Consumer group files case against ERC commissioners

By Othel V. Campos NON-GOVERNMENT group Laban Konsyumer Inc. filed criminal and administrative cases against the commissioners of the Energy Regulatory Commission before the Office of the Ombudsman for the agency’s alleged failure to promote consumer interest.

Laban Konsyumer president Vic Dimagiba, a former Trade undersecretary, accused the ERC commissioners of violating the

Corrupt Practices Act, the Code of Ethics of Government Officers and the Revised Penal Code.

Laban Konsyumer accused the commissioners of allegedly violating the Code of Conduct governing public officials and gross inexcusable negligence when they allowed Manila Electric Co. to collect P1.7 billion in March, April and May 2017 from Meralco consumers.

The incremental fuel cost in over three months resulted in the

increase of P0.2211 per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed in March, April and May 2017.

The consumer group filed the original complaint on March 30, 2017 but later executed a supplemental affidavit complaint to include administrative liability.

The Ombudsman will now proceed with the preliminary investigation of the criminal case and the adjudication of the administrative case.

The respondents were ERC

chairman Jose Vicente Salazar and commissioners Josefina Patricia Magpale -Asirit, Gloria VictoriaYap- Taruc and Geronimo Sta. Ana. Salazar, however, is already under preventive suspension as ordered by the Office of the President over a separate issue.

The consumers’ group challenged an ERC order dated March 6, 2017 when it granted provisional authority in favor of Meralco using the force ma-

jeure provisions of the Meralco power supply contracts where force majeure is defined as all forms of fuel supply interruptions .

The commissioners determined an announced and scheduled preventive maintenance shutdown as force majeure and allowed Meralco to pass on all added costs of fuels to the consumers, instead of ordering these added costs to be absorbed by the natural gas supplier.

Foreign investments declined 61% in April NET inflows of foreign direct investments fell 61 percent in April to $874 million from $2.244 billion a year ago, in the absence of major equity capital infusion this year, data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.

Net equity capital investments plummeted 92 percent in April to $70 million from $825 million a year ago, when the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. acquired a 20-percent equity in Security Bank Corp.

Bangko Sentral said the $70-million net equity capital investments in April resulted from gross equity infusion of $84 million and withdrawals of $14 million.

“Gross equity capital placements of $84 million, which exceeded withdrawals of $14

million in April 2017, were channeled mainly to real estate; financial and insurance; electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply; manufacturing; and human health and social work activities,” Bangko Sentral said.

The bulk of these equity capital placements came largely from the United States, Japan, Singapore, France and Hong Kong.

Net inflows of FDIs also declined 32 percent in the first four months to $2.434 billion from $3.581 billion in the same period last year.

Bangko Sentral said the sustained net inflows, although lower compared to the same period last year, showed investors’ confidence in the country’s sound macroeconomic fundamentals.

Julito G. Rada

WeatherPhilippines’ Quill award. Aboitiz Group-led weather information provider WeatherPhilippines Foundation bags the top award for communication management in the 15th Philippine Quill Awards organized the International Association of Business Communicators at Manila Marriott Hotel in Pasay City. Shown during the awarding ceremony are (from left) IABC Philippines trustee and Quill Awards chair Richard Arboleda; IABC Philippines treasurer Sherryl Yao; Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and WeatherPhilippines team members Dave Devilles, Gloidan Papas, Cristi Biyo, Franz dela Fuente, Malou Marasigan, Dave Valeriano, Jam Salazar and Thet Mesias; IABC Philippines vice president Belle Tiongco; and Manila Water head of corporate strategic affairs Jeric Sevilla.

B2

Business

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Market falls; Geri, IMI advance ICTSI set to invest P2b S in Congo port terminal TOCKS fell Monday to end a three-day advance, as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte’s state-of-thenation address later this month and after the peso fell to a new 10-year low.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, shed 51 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 7,837.47 Monday, as five of the six major sectors declined.

The heavier index, representing all shares, also tumbled 22 points, or 0.5 percent, to settle at 4,712.90, on a value turnover of P7.1 billion. Losers outnumbered gainers, 104 to 91, while 51issues were unchanged.

Eight of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by Global-Estate Resorts Inc. which jumped 13.3 percent to P1.79

and Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. which climbed 5.9 percent to P15.78. Retailer SSI Group Inc. gained 5.3 percent to P4.94.

The peso closed at 50.695 against the US dollar Monday, its lowest level in more than 10 years, as investors continued to prefer the greenback. The greenback pushed on, having been boosted by last week’s jobs numbers, which fueled expectations the Federal Reserve will lift interest rates at least once more before year’s end.

Meanwhile, Asian equities rose, rebounding from their biggest weekly drop in four months, following stronger than expected US hiring data that boosted investor confidence in a global economic recovery. A gauge of technology shares led the advance.

Asian markets mostly rose Monday and the dollar built on gains, following a rally on Wall Street that came on the back of forecastbusting jobs data out of the United States.

All three main indexes in New York surged Friday after the Labor Department said the

world’s top economy created almost 50,000 more jobs than expected in June, reinforcing the view that it is back on track.

While there was disappointment at another weak reading on wage growth, analysts said the news was greeted with open arms by dealers after a tough week on trading floors caused by geopolitical tensions following North Korea’s latest missile test.

“The non-farm payroll figures exceeded expectations and boosted risk appetite among investors,” said Milan Cutkovic, market analyst at AxiTrader.

Asian investors tracked their US counterparts. Tokyo ended 0.8 percent higher, while Sydney jumped 0.4 percent.

Hong Kong also rose 0.8 percent in the afternoon with Wanda Hotel Development soaring around 75 percent after its parent said it would sell dozens of hotels and other projects to developer Sunac China Holdings in a US$9.3 billion deal to reduce debt.

With Bloomberg, AFP

By Darwin G. Amojelar INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services Inc. said it will spend an initial 35 million euros or roughly P2.02 billion for a dredging project in Matadi Gateway Terminal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The port operator owned by businessman Enrique Razon Jr. signed a memorandum of understanding with Dredging International to cooperate in the further deepening of the Congo River.

With Democratic Republic of Congo support, Matadi Gateway Terminal―a joint venture company of

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

FINANCIALS 3.9 42,000 57.9 26,350 103.4 1,142,740 123.9 1,239,070 1.3 56,000 36.7 847,800 10 100 16.18 13,700 30.95 4,963,800 0.67 20,000 1.82 56,000 875 190 0.7 3,567,000 94.15 7,663,940 0.9 1,253,000 15.66 1,200 68.35 120,690 249 4,320 88.1 200 59 394,140 221 325,310 1,640 330 85.2 35,240 1.38 1,027,000

163,890 1,522,894.50 118,123,664 153,953,456 72,980 31,122,140 1,000 221,676 155,131,405 13,400 100,970 165,800 2,466,150 721,763,801 1,125,360 18,792 8,197,309.50 1,065,300 17,810 23,415,873.50 71,860,748 539,800 3,001,880 1,442,820

584,493.50 -57,460,320 -59,852,795 1,288,770 -49,092,525 36,000 1,380 358,925,094 -7,170 2,839,785 -9,000 11,107,120.50 22,552,286 16,920

40 8.29 0.84 1.47 32.5 0.265 116 7.14 18.72 29.35 66 73.3 95.25 1.95 5.28 11.76 12.1 15.78 9.86 8.08 5.7 1.68 18.56 69.8 15.2 13.64 14.88 1.7 206 59 3.81 3.57 25 31.6 19.92 18.3 266 0.243 7.3 3.15 6.94 9.72 6.77 10.22 1.94 9.5 67.5 6.42 305 4.39 5.03 2.4 13.8 4.48 0.144 1.39 162.1 2.07

INDUSTRIAL 40.15 932,500 8.92 3,659,200 0.87 2,662,000 1.5 1,216,000 33.3 162,400 0.265 9,990,000 116 20 7.15 1,710,500 18.88 2,084,800 30.55 468,500 68.25 42,970 73.3 230 95.25 20 1.99 176,000 5.28 99,300 11.8 7,400 12.28 4,365,400 15.8 1,395,000 10.1 1,221,900 8.25 2,389,200 5.7 30,260,600 1.68 21,000 18.6 1,724,400 69.85 408,590 15.2 15,700 13.68 60,700 15.78 9,246,500 1.79 2,982,000 208 265,520 59 1,000 3.86 254,000 3.57 11,000 25 400 31.8 360,400 21.2 5,115,200 18.36 873,400 266 423,700 0.244 510,000 7.3 100 3.15 290,000 7.05 138,900 9.74 1,912,700 7 225,700 10.22 16,300 1.94 4,315,000 9.73 5,325,600 69 170,040 6.48 58,800 308 3,200 4.4 131,000 5.2 312,400 2.74 9,974,000 14 440,500 4.5 328,000 0.144 1,310,000 1.4 89,000 162.5 1,377,140 2.09 9,714,000

37,470,575 31,273,573(1, 2,281,640 1,818,680 5,419,675 2,666,300 2,320 12,237,551 39,494,938 14,267,335 2,927,067 17,037 1,905 348,660 524,844 87,530 53,613,784 22,074,832 12,216,216 19,543,233 176,054,250 35,300 32,077,834 28,583,730.50 239,874 830,046 142,257,444 5,280,720 55,170,482 59,062 988,710 39,400 10,000 11,469,310 106,612,626 16,050,676 112,884,724 124,520 730 934,570 969,492 18,739,680 1,570,952 167,444 8,435,680 51,607,847 11,702,857 379,952 984,366 576,230 1,615,280 26,429,880 6,207,210 1,476,190 188,640 124,400 223,815,649 20,688,170

-515,275 440,493.9997) -516,000 48,200 -5,164,812 -6,937,768 330,405 -775,079 51,714,822 4,520,980 -9,915,500 6,614,254 -42,689,148 1,911,756 477,605 -3,050 -333,696 24,461,842 -105,600 10,246,752 3,810 -4,958,265 1,269,564 -9,378,022 -39,154,038 -146,670 -194,340 4,377,903 118,751 38,950 675,235 7,467,670.50 -55,756 -607,080 -30,900 164,860 1,588,710 -337,850 684,020 -73,605,103 -10,820

0.365 74.95 14 1.25 6.5 0.335 0.335 853 8.08 14.52 7.75 6.02 0.193 1,195 7.7 78.35 6 5.45 5.8 0.98 7.16 15.5 0.415 6.62 0.053 1.04 2.3 101.9 2.7 789 1.44 301 0.285 0.208 0.25

HOLDING FIRMS 0.37 1,730,000 75 1,189,830 14 3,054,900 1.27 193,000 6.5 101,900 0.335 1,920,000 0.335 360,000 855 86,100 8.1 700,200 14.52 10,048,400 7.9 17,400 6.02 400 0.201 330,000 1,195 65,815 7.7 3,000 78.35 617,830 6 115,500 5.55 700 5.8 4,000 0.98 2,124,000 7.24 678,700 15.54 574,600 0.415 120,000 6.7 18,682,900 0.054 38,810,000 1.04 121,000 2.36 2,929,000 103.3 120,290 2.72 25,000 790 517,090 1.46 634,000 303.4 13,340 0.285 30,000 0.21 40,000 0.25 40,000

633,300 89,373,196.5 ( 42,850,328 243,100 662,426 647,000 120,800 73,941,375 5,677,565 ( 146,036,866 136,845 2,504 66,090 78,972,605 23,100 48,686,415 703,021 3,835 23,200 2,081,820 4,893,137 8,975,132 49,800 124,615,727 2,099,340 126,530 6,971,960 12,370,241 67,960 408,569,990 923,900 4,038,754 8,550 8,360 10,000

20,699,401.5) -11,992,928 -40,648,460 299,459.0001) 37,356,698 10,679,590 -39,706,730 -2,262,653 426,110 29,022,858 3,710 60,220 2,548,815 -53,692,960 74,240 -1,237,328 -

958,735 6,155,950 2,344,780 6,046,100 251,184,305 2,568,590 13,960,975 107,217,740 1,062,450 8,123,760 1,462,280 4,484,680 4,744,900 12,056,030 238,250 158,364,910 134,716,220 207,154,580 53,267,830 43,574,650

-673,085 -28,560 -180,330 48,140 -30,183,760 -317,390 143,238 -9,742,730 -1,080,800 -232,560 -6,522,750 59,890 17,206,970 -3,540 -12,317,700 1,105,750

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

AG FINANCE ASIA UNITED BANK PH ISLANDS BDO UNIBANK BRIGHT KINDLE CHINABANK CITYSTATE BANK COL FINANCIAL EAST WEST BANK FIRST ABACUS IREMIT MANULIFE MEDCO HLDG METROBANK NTL REINSURANCE PB BANK PHIL NATL BANK PHIL STOCK EXCH PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK SUN LIFE UNION BANK VANTAGE

3.93 57.9 103 123.9 1.32 36.7 10 16.2 32 0.67 1.79 875 0.69 92.9 0.88 15.66 67.45 252 90 60.5 220.8 1,635 85.15 1.46

3.93 57.9 103.6 124.9 1.32 36.9 10 16.2 32.1 0.67 1.84 875 0.7 94.7 0.94 15.66 68.4 252 90 60.8 222.8 1,640 85.45 1.5

3.9 57.2 103 123.9 1.3 36.7 10 16.18 30.7 0.67 1.79 865 0.69 92.9 0.86 15.66 67.4 245 88.1 59 220.6 1,635 85.15 1.34

ABOITIZ POWER AGRINURTURE ALLIANCE SELECT ALSONS CONS ASIABEST GROUP BASIC ENERGY BOGO MEDELLIN CEMEX HLDG CENTURY FOOD CIRTEK HLDG CONCEPCION CONCRETE A CONCRETE B CROWN ASIA DAVINCI CAPITAL DEL MONTE DNL INDUS EAGLE CEMENT EEI CORP EMPERADOR ENERGY DEVT EUROMED FIRST GEN FIRST PHIL HLDG GINEBRA HOLCIM INTEGRATED MICR IONICS JOLLIBEE LIBERTY FLOUR LMG CHEMICALS MABUHAY VINYL MACAY HLDG MANILA WATER MAXS GROUP MEGAWIDE MERALCO MG HLDG PANASONIC PEPSI COLA PETROENERGY PETRON PHIL H2O PHINMA PHINMA ENERGY PHX PETROLEUM PILIPINAS SHELL PRYCE CORP PUREFOODS RFM CORP ROXAS HLDG SFA SEMICON SHAKEYS PIZZA SPC POWER SWIFT FOODS TKC METALS UNIV ROBINA VITARICH

40.5 8.5 0.87 1.5 33 0.27 116 7.17 18.72 29.7 66 74.5 95.25 2 5.28 11.88 12.3 15.92 10 8.08 6 1.7 18.7 70 15.48 13.8 14.96 1.73 208 59.05 3.81 3.59 25 31.6 19.92 18.7 266.6 0.249 7.3 3.3 6.96 9.78 6.9 10.4 1.98 10.16 69.2 6.42 308.6 4.4 5.03 2.4 13.92 4.5 0.144 1.39 164.3 2.13

40.55 8.92 0.88 1.52 33.85 0.275 116 7.2 19.2 31 74.95 74.5 95.25 2 5.35 11.88 12.3 15.92 10.1 8.25 6 1.7 18.7 70 15.48 13.8 15.78 1.84 208.2 59.1 4.04 3.59 25 31.95 21.2 18.76 267.2 0.249 7.3 3.3 7.05 10.1 7 10.4 1.99 10.16 69.2 6.5 308.6 4.4 5.25 2.74 14.3 4.52 0.144 1.4 164.6 2.17

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

0.365 75.45 14.2 1.29 6.5 0.335 0.34 871 8.2 14.7 7.8 6.5 0.193 1,210 7.7 80 6.25 5.45 5.8 0.99 7.21 15.5 0.415 6.71 0.056 1.12 2.41 103.5 2.7 790.5 1.47 303.8 0.285 0.208 0.25

0.37 75.45 14.2 1.29 6.54 0.34 0.34 875 8.2 14.7 7.9 6.5 0.201 1,211 7.7 80.1 6.25 5.55 5.8 0.99 7.24 15.68 0.415 6.73 0.056 1.12 2.44 103.5 2.74 790.5 1.47 303.8 0.285 0.21 0.25

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

6.11 1.36 2.49 1.16 39.85 3.88 5.37 0.66 1.2 1.53 0.185 0.55 46.9 0.8 0.157 1.73 1.58 1.15 4.6 0.38

6.11 1.4 2.5 1.17 40.15 3.88 5.4 0.69 1.25 1.61 0.188 0.55 47.2 0.82 0.165 1.86 1.81 1.2 4.62 0.385

6.05 1.35 2.41 1.13 39.8 3.86 5.33 0.65 1.17 1.51 0.184 0.52 46.5 0.77 0.157 1.73 1.55 1.06 4.5 0.36

VOLUME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

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

0.36 0.63 4.11 34 24.5 1.77 3.28 33.3 1.07 0.99 6

0.37 0.63 4.11 34 24.75 1.79 3.29 33.3 1.08 0.99 6

0.355 0.62 4.03 30 24.1 1.77 3.28 32.9 1.06 0.94 5.9

0.36 0.62 4.04 30 24.1 1.79 3.29 32.95 1.06 0.96 5.96

1,100,000 4,044,000 532,000 2,300 1,682,700 99,000 283,000 2,341,100 6,764,000 2,311,000 8,032,100

397,750 2,511,820 2,163,360 73,420 40,915,920 175,660 930,770 77,207,170 7,224,800 2,218,730 47,779,314

4,050 -5,695,050 595,300.00 -30,018,120 -39,098,713

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

42 1.64 0.495 0.042 11 5.35 9.75 0.089 96.65 9.6 8.58 2.43 971 2,060 6.25 15.66 13.2 2.92 3.5 101 8.74 0.185 1.5 3.53 15.9 4.77 1.75 8.58 0.59 8.95 5.17 16.2 2.59 11.52 5.34 180 10.9 1,759 1.57 0.4 45.2 87.5 6.1 4.72 1.58 1.85 3.7 0.95 8.63

42.1 1.75 0.495 0.043 11.18 5.35 9.85 0.09 98 9.8 8.7 2.43 971 2,070 6.28 15.7 13.2 2.92 3.5 102 8.74 0.185 1.57 3.53 15.9 5.33 1.75 8.8 0.61 8.95 5.3 16.2 2.6 11.52 5.39 180 11.14 1,759 1.59 0.41 46.5 89.15 6.1 4.95 1.59 1.92 3.7 1.08 8.8

41.85 1.58 0.49 0.042 10.8 5.3 9.52 0.086 96.65 9.6 8.58 2.34 971 2,012 6.21 15.48 13.2 2.88 3.39 100 8.72 0.183 1.44 3.43 15.5 4.68 1.69 8.2 0.58 8.62 4.97 16.2 2.56 11.5 5.03 180 10.82 1,701 1.56 0.4 45.1 87.5 6.09 4.72 1.48 1.83 3.65 0.95 8.6

SERVICES 41.95 1.74 0.49 0.043 11.18 5.3 9.6 0.089 97.6 9.8 8.6 2.4 971 2,036 6.25 15.7 13.2 2.9 3.46 101 8.72 0.185 1.56 3.44 15.5 5.03 1.71 8.4 0.61 8.83 5.1 16.2 2.58 11.52 5.03 180 11 1,701 1.59 0.41 46.4 88 6.1 4.94 1.51 1.89 3.69 1.04 8.63

27,600 2,179,000 600,000 15,400,000 17,800 70,400 8,942,800 15,830,000 86,220 12,800 125,300 35,000 1,050 31,170 269,700 28,900 500 1,395,000 86,000 3,585,170 305,000 4,840,000 3,465,000 216,000 27,200 9,343,000 1,205,000 2,659,200 400,000 3,509,700 10,578,700 2,400 1,245,000 27,600 10,300 380 1,468,400 106,385 4,872,000 3,420,000 4,063,400 744,210 44,300 30,974,000 46,465,000 34,000 2,487,000 96,560,000 4,469,500

1,158,150 3,713,230 294,800 661,900 192,868 373,170 86,428,198 1,396,390 8,396,850 122,900 1,075,600 82,410 1,019,550 63,425,110 1,685,866 451,600 6,600 4,043,630 295,280 363,069,086 2,659,700 892,270 5,319,020 747,210 425,354 46,468,550 2,056,740 22,797,215 234,910 30,737,063(1, 54,801,032 38,880 3,207,800 317,852 52,806 68,400 16,200,156 182,626,595 7,671,360 1,383,300 186,147,805 65,521,214 270,203 151,290,140 70,859,910 63,150 9,136,680 97,980,080 38,720,934

13,760 43,000 42,321,547 -282,679.50 -111,800 -41,641,170 43,200 110,212,367 185,000 -152,640 -63,600 514,070 -208,794 082,304.0003) -3,779,812 257,000.00 -37,800 -4,093,956 -110,684,475 638,250 -8,100 89,196,265 -8,739,019.50 -555,370 -1,257,950 3,600,960 -1,356,170 2,289,326

739,700 28,676,680 653,338 52,092 6,210 4,910,220 1,084,100 343,812 7,614,500 51,500 3,057,900 305,320 137,500 14,300 527,170 13,053,302 155,180 765,660 350,980 443,300 112,800 14,091,536 ( 2,620,020 121,817,416 68,000

1,332,640 -6,129 53,500 7,072 873,920 -5,600 29,530 -2,746,330 906,334.9997) 8,990 21,381,639 -34,000

NAME

MS

PROPERTY 6.06 1.37 2.47 1.14 39.9 3.86 5.38 0.67 1.24 1.55 0.185 0.53 47.2 0.8 0.163 1.82 1.79 1.1 4.52 0.365

157,800 4,467,000 953,000 5,284,000 6,289,000 663,000 2,603,900 158,909,000 885,000 5,194,000 7,880,000 8,385,000 101,500 15,021,000 1,460,000 87,154,000 80,050,000 187,590,000 11,704,000 117,830,000

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

0.0029 1.82 5.14 14.82 2.07 1.04 0.39 8.84 2.62 0.29 0.186 0.193 0.011 0.011 2 6.3 2.03 0.61 1 0.011 0.012 9.04 3.02 160.3 0.0085

0.003 1.85 5.28 14.98 2.07 1.08 0.39 8.84 2.64 0.29 0.192 0.195 0.011 0.011 2 6.39 2.03 0.65 1.03 0.011 0.012 9.04 3.02 160.4 0.0085

0.0029 1.74 5.1 14.82 2.07 1.04 0.385 8.51 2.61 0.28 0.186 0.193 0.01 0.011 1.9 6.29 1.98 0.6 1 0.011 0.012 8.8 2.99 159.9 0.0085

MINING & OIL 0.0029 255,000,000 1.74 16,156,000 5.2 127,900 14.82 3,500 2.07 3,000 1.08 4,600,000 0.39 2,810,000 8.53 39,900 2.63 2,904,000 0.29 180,000 0.192 16,160,000 0.194 1,570,000 0.011 13,100,000 0.011 1,300,000 1.91 272,000 6.33 2,062,700 2 78,000 0.63 1,228,000 1.01 347,000 0.011 40,300,000 0.012 9,400,000 8.81 1,589,000 3 873,000 160.3 760,290 0.0085 8,000,000

DD PREF FGEN PREF F GMA HLDG PDR GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B LR PREF MWIDE PREF PCOR PREF 2A PCOR PREF 2B PF PREF 2 PNX PREF 3A SMC PREF 2B SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2H SMC PREF 2I

105 112.5 6.04 1,001 1,018 1.05 107.8 1,033 1,101 1,015 106.8 76.95 81.75 79 80.5 78.5 78

105 112.5 6.05 1,001 1,018 1.05 107.8 1,033 1,101 1,015 106.8 76.95 81.75 79 80.5 78.5 78

105 112.5 5.96 1,000 1,018 1.05 107.8 1,033 1,100 1,015 106.7 76.75 81.75 78 80.5 78.5 77

PREFERRED 105 7,040 112.5 100 6 670,500 1,000 680 1,018 1,050 1.05 19,000 107.8 15,000 1,033 1,000 1,100 80 1,015 250 106.7 600 76.75 470 81.75 87,030 79 31,000 80.5 3,680 78.5 25,420 78 9,540

739,200 11,250 4,038,685 680,050 1,068,900 19,950 1,617,000 1,033,000 88,010 253,750 64,050 36,090.50 7,114,702.50 2,438,200 296,240 1,995,470 741,295

-1,557,730 -

LR WARRANT

2.5

3.37

2.5

WARRANTS 3.07 10,394,000

30,894,100

-

1,124,460 53,540 14,239,331 22,051,889

6,760 -1,657,927

20,718,669

-

157,500

-

ITALPINAS MAKATI FINANCE PHILAB HLDG XURPAS

3.99 3.38 5.81 8.25

3.99 3.38 5.95 8.58

3.87 3.33 5.5 8.25

FIRST METRO ETF

119.3

119.3

118.6

USD DMPL A1

10.5

10.5

10.5

TRADING SUMMARY

SHARES

FINANCIAL

23,832,877

INDUSTRIAL

122,033,309

HOLDING FIRMS PROPERTY SERVICES

91,406,178 729,801,992 293,507,158

MINING & OIL

379,041,872

GRAND TOTAL

1,645,154,027

3.88 3.33 5.89 8.5

SME

289,000 16,000 2,416,900 2,634,200

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 118.6 174,400 10.5

DDS

15,000

VALUE 1,968.47 (UP) 7.57 1,418,201,999.19 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 11,068.44 (DOWN) 71.48 1,358,586,813.56 HOLDING FIRMS 7,834.44 (DOWN) 62.85 1,276,908,539.435 PROPERTY 3,631.24 (DOWN) 20.04 1,684.27 (DOWN) 17.43 1,202,090,606.82 SERVICES MINING & OIL 12,594.63 (DOWN) 15.43 1,571,651,467.45 PSEI 7,837.47 (DOWN) 51.86 201,674,126.464 All Shares Index 4,712.98 (DOWN) 22.14 7,087,302,325.12 Gainers: 91; Losers: 104; Unchanged: 51; Total: 246

ICTSI, the Ledya Group and SCTP SA―intends to deepen the Congo River, in phases, to an eventual depth of 40 feet and beyond.

This will eliminate current draught restrictions in the Divagante area near Boma, and enable direct calls by mainline vessels at the ports of Matadi and Boma.

By doing so, both ports will resume their historic roles as the preferred natural gateways to the capital city of Kinshasa and its surrounding extensive hinterland, home to a rapidly growing market of 30 million people, the single largest in Central Africa.

The project, requiring an initial investment of 35 million euros, will deliver extensive operational efficiencies and cost savings to the western DRC supply chain and the market as a whole with these progressively realized from 2018 onwards.

“We look forward to working with Dredging International and the DRC Government to realize this important project and the diverse benefits it will deliver to the transportation sector and the economy as a whole,” said Hans-Ole Madsen, senior vice president of ICTSI for Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

“It builds on the co-operative approach taken to the development of the Matadi Gateway Terminal and will represent a key component in the modernization of DRC marine infrastructure with benefits felt along the whole supply chain,” Madsen said.

Philex boosts infra in Padcal

By Anna Leah E. Gonzales PHILEX Mining Corp. said it completed P15.84 million worth of public infrastructure projects in the first half as a part of social program for the host and neighboring communities of Padcal mine in Benguet province.

Philex said of the total amount, P3.61 million was used to rehabilitate a slope protection wall in Itogon’s Sitio Samoyao, Barangay Ampucao and P1.25 million for a slope protection wall in Sition Upper Camp, also in the same barangay.

The mining company also allotted P1.1 million for a box culvert in Tuba’s Sitio Alang in Barangay Camp 3.

Jamal Agustin, who monitors the infra projects being implemented by Philex Mining through its community relations department, said the slope protection wall in Sitio Samoyao had been destroyed by a typhoon, and had to be rehabilitated by the company, which also built the original wall.

Agustin said that between January and March, Philex Mining delivered 22 infra projects worth P9.88 million, including a 379-meter long farm-to-market road with pavement widening in Camp 3’s Sitio Bastian, that amounted to P1.49 million, and the 44-meter two-bench grouted riprap built at a cost of P1.23 million in Barangay Ampucao’s Sitio Catcatbal.

“These projects that we have so far delivered this year are part of the company’s commitment to continue helping its outlying communities through the implementation of the needed infrastructure,” said Padcal mine community relations manager Aurora Dolipas.

Business

B3

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

PH-Thai cigarette tax issue simmers

By Othel V. Campos

PRU LIFE UK AWARDS. British life insurer Pru Life UK bags four accolades at this year’s Philippine Quill Awards at the 15th Philippine Quill Awards held July 5,2017 at the Marriott Hotel Manila in Pasay City. Displaying the awards are Pru Life UK’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer Allan Tumbaga (fourth from left), assistant VP for brand and communications Anna Gizelle Camua (second from left) and AVP for segment marketing Cindy Mendoza (third from left), and the rest of the brand and communications team.

THE Philippines renewed its appeal before the World Trade Organization to compel Thailand to refund duties on cigarettes shipped from the Philippines.

This is the second request of the Philippines after a prior notice from the WTO advising Thailand to repay the taxes and duties it previously collected from Philippine Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. in a form of overtaxation nearly 15 years ago.

Philip Morris Philippines is the biggest cigarette exporter to Thailand selling popular brands like Marlboro and Philip Morris.

According to the WTO website, “a compliance panel has already been established in regards to the measures cited by the Philippines in its first request.” The request was circulated to WTO members on July 6, 2017.

The Philippines expects Thailand to respond to the request and and hold consultations within 15 days.

The WTO ordered Thailand to implement a fair valuation scheme on imported cigarettes brought in

by Philip Morris Thailand from Philip Morris Philippines in the last 14 to 16 years and refund the excess tax collected by the Thai Customs Department.

The WTO Dispute Settlement Board has found that Thailand had been inconsistent with the General Agreements on Tariff and Trade 1994 and Customs Valuation Agreement.

Among Thailand’s inconsistencies to GATT included subjecting imported cigarettes to a value added tax liability in excess of that applied to domestic cigarettes, as well non-exemption to VAT when domestic cigarettes are VAT-exempt upon resale.

PhilWeb tender offer snubbed

By Jenniffer B. Austria

A

LL minority shareholders of PhilWeb Corp. snubbed the tender offer of the company’s new majority shareholders led by businessman Gregorio Araneta III because of the steep discount.

No shares were tendered during the offering period from May 17 to June 28, according to a filing by PhilWeb with the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Gregorio Araneta Inc. made the tender offer after acquiring a majority stake in PhilWeb following the divestment of businessman and former trade minister Roberto Ongpin.

GAI offered to acquire the

remaining 663.803 million common shares of PhilWeb held by the public at P2.60 per share. The offer price was based on GAI’s acquisition price when it bought Ongpin’s shares in PhilWeb. The P2.60 per share tender offer price, however, was a steep discount to the stock’s Monday’s closing price of P11.

GAI owns 771,651 million

The key elements of an infra program THE administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has announced an infrastructure program that seeks to complete P8 trillion worth of physical facilities between now and June 30, 2022, the end of Duterte’s term. Build Build Build and other such programs depend for their success on five elements. Those are good projects preparation, adequate financing, adequacy of physical supplies, a good program monitoring system and the economy’s absorptive capacity.

Over the decades since the end of World War II this country has built up a credible project identification and preparation establishment. Supported by loans from the international financial institutions and ODA (official development assistance) from the Philippines’ economic partners, the government was the prime mover of infrastructure development. This approach put heavy pressure on the budget and the nation’s foreign exchange reserves. PPP (publicprivate partnership, in which private entities financed the installation of public facilities in exchange for the right to operate them over a long, e.g. 30-year, period) was conceptualized and rolled out in the 1980s.

The projects prepared by the capable engineers and architects of the infrastructure agencies of the government—mainly the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Transportation (DTr)—are reviewed by equally capable staff of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Like all infrastructure development programs, Build Build Build needs to be adequately financed. Most of the financing required

by Build Build Build will be domestically sourced. The Aquino administration has spoken of an 80-20 (80 percent domestic and 20 percent externally sourced) formula for the financing of Build Build Build. The Secretary of Finance stated the case perfectly when, addressing the tax-initiating House of Representatives, he declared “Without approval of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Package (CTRP), there can be no infrastructure program.” Clearly, without CTRP there will be no Golden Age of Infrastructure.

An infrastructure development program as massive as Build Build Build will require lots of physical supplies—cement, steel, glass, copper tubing etc. An P8-trillion infrastructure program will definitely pose a serious challenge to the supply of these items. Because domestic production capability is bound to be inadequate—thanks to the progressive decline of this country’s manufacturing sector— massive importation will have to be resorted to. The implications of such an import regime for the international reserve and the stability of the peso are foreseeable. This country has been there before.

Absorptive capacity is a further crucial consideration for a decision to embark on a massive infrastructure development program. One cannot embark on such a program without full consideration of its likely impact on the stability and balance of the nation’s macroeconomic fundamentals. The most important of these are macroeconomic fundamentals are a stable internal monetary policy (represented by a low inflation rate) and a stable external monetary policy (represented by a strong currency and a high level of foreign-exchange reserves).

These fundamentals must not become the collateral damage resulting from an ambitious infrastructure development program.

Finally, a program like Build Build Build needs a good monitoring system. With good monitoring, there will be no cost overruns, corruption will be minimized and the program will be executed smoothly and on schedule. Without it, Build Build Build will go the way of most of the infrastructure development programs by past administrations.

The presence of these five elements will ensure that Build Build Build turns out to be Build Fast, Build Strong and Build To Last.

E-mail: rudy.romero@gmail.com

common shares, or equivalent to a 53.76-percent stake, in PhilWeb. GAI is a company that founded in 1931 to manage the business interests of renowned lawyer Don Gregorio Araneta.

The company is headed by the founder’s grandson and namesake, Gregorio Araneta III. It is a holding company engaged in real estate, transportation, telecommunications, security and protection services, environmental protection and other businesses.

Its projects include the largest solar energy farm in the country, a 132.5-megawatt facility in Cadiz, Negros Occidental, a joint venture with the solar energy firm Soleq.

Araneta earlier said he would rebuild PhilWeb’s revenues by renewing efforts in the gaming services and increasing its focus in other areas of gaming.

Ongpin, who was tagged as a oligarch by President Rodrigo Duterte, decided to divest from PhilWeb after stateowned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. rejected all his offers in exchange for the renewal of the company’s gaming license.

PhilWeb’s gaming license expired on Aug. 10, resulting in the closure of 286 operating e-Games cafes across the country, majority of which are owned and operated by independent operators.

Ongpin last month sold 118.5 million shares in PhilWeb to GAI for P2.60 per share to complete his divestment. The transaction represented the second and final tranche of the sale of Ongpin’s full holdings to GAI. “The two transactions selling Mr. Ongpin’s shares to GAI mark the culmination of the exit of Mr. Ongpin from the company, a process started last August 4, 2016 when he resigned as chairman, continued as he negotiated a sale of his entire shareholdings in the company to Mr. Araneta, and which were concluded today with the completion of the second and final tranche of the sale,” PhilWeb said.

Govt to compensate electric co-ops

By Alena Mae S. Flores THE Energy and Public Works and Highways Departments signed on Monday a circular to guide the compensation of electric cooperatives whose power facilities will be affected by government construction.

The joint circular prescribes uniform guidelines and procedures for the proper payment of compensation or recovery of cost in the event of the need to relocate distribution or subtransmission lines of electric cooperatives.

Public Works Undersecretary Karen Jimeno, representing Secretary Mark Villar, and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi signed the circular.

“We have to address situations where the facilities of electric cooperatives need to be relocated due to government projects, such as road-widening, bridge construction, among others, and provide a unified mechanism for reasonable compensation to them for every affected facility,” Cusi said.

The circular states that the government agency implementing a public works project must coordinate during with the National Electrification Administration and electric cooperatives to address all right-of-way concerns related to the affected facility, including claims for compensation and determination of relocation sites.

“This joint initiative is in

cognizance of the need to provide continuous, adequate and reliable electricity services to consumers while government projects are underway,” Cusi said.

The circular also provides an appropriate formula in the determination of proper compensation to the electric cooperatives for the cost of the removal of affected facility.

“With this joint circular, we will be able to accelerate and expand access to electricity services by our people,” Cusi said.

The government plans to spend billions of pesos in infrastructure under the Duterte administration’s Build, Build, Build program.

CEMENT INVESTMENT. The Board of Investments lauds the various investment projects of manufacturers such as Republic Cement & Building Materials Inc.’s $300-million expansion project.

Paying a courtesy call to Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo (center) and BoI director for resource-based industries Nestor Arcansalin (right) are (from left) Peter Buckley, chief operating officer, CHR Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd; Renato Sunico, president, Republic Cement; Peter Edwards, COO, Republic Cement Services Inc.; Roman Azanza III, first vice president, Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc.; and Renier Dizon, VP, strategy and business development, Republic Cement Services.

Sugar tax gains support THE proposed taxation on sugar-sweetened beverages has gained wider support, with main proponent in Congress describing it as a pro-poor measure aimed to check the alarming rise in obesity among Filipinos.

Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing, the primary proponent of the SSB tax, said at a Senate hearing that her measure would actually protect Filipinos from the risks of serious ailments such as diabetes and “non-communicable diseases related to the excessive intake of sugar, including chronic disease, diet-related cancers, and chronic heart and cardiovascular diseases.” She said this was contrary to the misconception that her proposal would hurt poor families the most.

“These diseases pose a serious threat to public health, and should be instantly addressed by my proposed measure,” said Suansing at a recent hearing of the Senate ways and means committee on the proposed tax.

Among the government agencies that have backed Suansing’s proposal at the Senate hearing were the Health Department, National Economic and Development Authority, Food and Drug Administration, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and the Foreign Affairs Department.

Suansing originally filed House Bill No. 292 that aims to impose an excise tax equivalent to P10 for every liter for beverages sweetened with local sugar, and P20 for those with high-fructose corn syrup or imported sugar.

Her proposal was among the 54 tax-related bills incorporated into the final version of House Bill 5636, or the proposed Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, that was approved by an overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives before the Congress’ sine die adjournment.

Suansing cited the results of the National Nutrition Survey conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, which showed that the prevalence of being overweight and obesity among Filipino children aged zero to five years old has significantly risen from one percent in 1989 to 5 percent in 2013. Julito G. Rada

Cebu Pacific adding more Manila-Sydney flights

By Darwin G. Amojelar CEBU Pacific on Monday said it will be adding more flights between Manila and Sydney in Australia this year as it continued to dominate the market.

“Hopefully, we can expand as soon as possible. We have been granted allocation by Philippine government to at least seven flights a week,” JR Mantaring, vice president for corporate affairs of Cebu Pacific, told report-

ers.

Cebu Pacific currently flies four times weekly between Manila and Sydney.

The Gokongwei-led airline also keeps its lead in the ManilaSydney route, capturing the largest market share for both passenger and cargo services as of April 2017.

Data from Australia’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed that Cebu Pacific flew

16,441 passengers in April, or a 41.8-percent of the market share for the Manila-Sydney route, the highest among the three carriers flying the route.

This brings the total number of passengers flown by CEB to 59,953—representing a 41.7-percent market share. Its closest competitor Philippine Airlines, meanwhile, captured a 33.5 percent market share.

Load factor for CEB for the Manila-Sydney route was at an

average 80 percent for the first four months of 2017.

Total passenger volume in the first four months of 2017 by all three carriers plying the ManilaSydney route reached 143,765, up 12 percent from 128,352 passengers flown in the same period in 2016.

For cargo service between Manila and Sydney, Cebu Pacific captured a 43.8-percent market share of the total 789 tons carried in April 2017.

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

B4

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

Business

China’s Wanda sells assets valued at $9b SHANGHAI―Chinese conglomerate Wanda said Monday it will sell dozens of hotels and other projects to developer Sunac China Holdings in a $9.3-billion deal to reduce debt, two weeks after acknowledging it was under government financial scrutiny following heavy overseas investments.

Wanda, headed by one of China’s richest men, Wang Jianlin, had been one of the most acquisitive companies in a flood of Chinese money overseas that raised official concerns over “irrational” investments.

In a brief joint statement, the two companies said Sunac would buy 76 hotels outright, without specifying which properties. Sunac also will take a 91-percent stake in 13 other “cultural and tourism projects” within China.

Wang subsequently fleshed out the reasons in an interview with financial magazine Caixin, saying that after the sale the amount of debt held by the group’s commercial real estate arm Wanda Commercial Properties would “drop greatly.”

He did not give an overall figure for the company’s debt.

“The funds returned from this will all be used to pay back loans. Wanda Commercial plans to pay back the majority of bank loans within this year,” he was quoted saying.

The deal highlights a quandary being faced by Chinese corporations that bet big on overseas acquisitions but now face difficulty paying off debts.

Beijing began last year to roll out restrictions to curb overseas capital flight, which analysts said raises funding costs to companies like Wanda as lending to them is now viewed as more risky due to the constraints they face.

Wanda admitted two weeks ago that China’s banking regulator had ordered an inspection of potentially risky loans to major Chinese companies that have invested aggressively overseas. AFP

ALL-NEW CAMRY. President of Toyota Motor’s mid-size vehicle company, Moritaka Yoshida (second from left), and mid-size vehicle

company chief engineer Masato Katsumata pose as the company introduces the all-new Camry model during a press conference in Tokyo on July 10, 2017. Toyota released the new hybrid sedan equipped with 2.5-liter engine on July 10 across Japan. AFP

China is now Asia’s shipping leader C

HINA is the new leader of shipping trade to the Americas.

State-owned Cosco Shipping Holdings Co.’s $6.3 billion offer to buy Orient Overseas International Ltd. would create an entity that’s the biggest shipping company moving boxes to the North American continent from Asia, beating Copenhagenbased A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S and France’s CMA CGM SA. The takeover, announced Sunday in Hong Kong, would also create the biggest sea-box carrier through the Pacific Ocean.

The consolidation may help raise container rates on the Americas route―the secondbusiest in the world―a critical piece in the survival of the shipping industry that has been battling slumping charges and overcapacity. Earlier this year, Maersk and Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. said that they managed to get higher fees from customers on their annual ratenegotiation talks on the transPacific routes. Moving goods to

Europe from Asia is the world’s biggest shipping trade route.

The Cosco-Orient Overseas combination would have the capacity to move a weekly average of 77,208 containers between Asia and North America, based on end-May data from Alphaliner, a shipping data provider. In the AsiaEurope trade lane, the combination will become only the third biggest.

Shares of Orient Overseas surged as much as 25 percent, the biggest intraday gain in eight years, and traded at HK$71.70 as of 11:50 a.m. in Hong Kong. Cosco shares jumped as much as 12 percent.

Cosco’s offer to buy Orient

Overseas was a 49 percent premium, based on the average 20-day trading price before the announcement. That is the biggest for a major container-shipping deal since 1997, the year Hong Kong passed from British hands to China. In the same year, Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. bought APL Ltd. for $833 million, offering a premium of 57 percent.

The controlling shareholders of Orient Overseas have accepted Cosco’s offer at HK$78.67 a share, which still needs regulatory approvals and consent from Cosco’s investors. The family of Tung Chee-hwa, the first chief executive

of Hong Kong, holds about 69 percent of the shipping line.

The deal was announced a little more than a week after China’s President Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong as the former British colony marked the 20th anniversary of the handover. Tung, currently a vice chairman of China’s top political advisory body, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was handpicked by Beijing in 1997 for the top job in the financial hub and has been advising the central leadership on foreign policies especially China-US relations.

The deal could also stoke con-

EU-Norway snow crab row could fuel oil tensions in Arctic

By Pierre-Henry Deshayes OSLO, Norway―On the face of it, a relentless battle between the European Union and Norway in a remote part of the Arctic is about snow crabs.

But the real fight may go beyond who gets to catch the modest crustaceans around Svalbard, a unique Norwegian archipelago in the Barents Sea. What is really at stake is oil, some experts say, and a coming race for the commodity of which there is a lot in the polar region.

“No country wants to give up resources without receiving anything in return. That is the principle here too,” Norwegian Fisheries Minister Per Sandberg tells AFP. Norway, which is not a member of the EU, has slammed Brussels for authorizing European vessels from mainly Baltic nations to fish for crabs in the Svalbard area, saying it violates its national sovereignty.

A Latvian ship has already paid the price. In January, a ship called “The Senator” was intercepted by Norwegian coast guards while crab fishing around Svalbard, and recently received a hefty fine.

“What happened is totally new,” says Sandberg. “The EU is unabashed to make this kind of a decision without consulting us.”

The EU and Norway’s conflicting interpretations of the 1920 Svalbard Treaty signed in Paris are at the heart of the problem.

The treaty recognizes Norway’s “full and absolute sovereignty,” but gives the signatory nations an equal right to economic activities on Svalbard and its territorial waters.

The core issue is to agree on the geographical scope of the treaty and how far all signatory states benefit from an equal ac-

This file photo taken on July 20, 2015 shows the Kongsfjorden fjord near the scientific base of Ny Alesund. AFP

cess to resources.

With a strict interpretation of the treaty, Oslo says the agreement applies only to the 12-mile limits of the territorial waters surrounding Svalbard and not any further.

But Brussels has a more loose interpretation of the treaty and says it covers 200 miles around Svalbard, in line with the concept of an economic zone that did not exist when the treaty was signed.

Oil in the line of sight The snow crab, first recorded in the Barents Sea in 1996, is an invasive, and more importantly, a sedentary species as it lives in permanent contact with the seabed.

This means that the rules that apply to snow crabs are more

similar to oil than to fishing.

The crab dispute could create a “precedent” that “would have implications for oil and gas,” warns Harald Sakarias Brovig Hansen, a researcher at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute.

“We fear a domino effect. If an actor is recognized as having the right to fish for snow crabs in accordance with the treaty, then numerous others, will probably come and claim a share of the cake,” he says, referring to oil.

The cake could prove to be very appetizing as the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in April doubled its estimates of hydrocarbon reserves in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea. A large amount of the 17.7 bil-

lion barrels in the region could be in southeastern Svalbard, according to the directorate.

Oil companies are lurking. Norway has already granted exploration licenses that extend in the contentious area and the national energy giant Statoil, always pushing further north, plans to drill in the area this summer.

This drilling in the Korpfjell prospect, considered highly promising, could irritate the other signatories of the Svalbard Treaty and lead them to claim an equal access to oil.

“I think snow crab is a trial balloon,” says Per Arne Totland, an author and expert on Svalbard issues.

“In this case, Russia, the United States, the EU and China

share a common interest in obtaining the widest access to the resources that the treaty could give them.”

In a gesture of conciliation to the EU, Oslo has proposed reserving some of its snow crab quota―500 tons out of a total of 4,000 tons―to other European countries in return for fish quotas. But the EU has refused the proposal because accepting the deal would strengthen the Norwegian take on the treaty.

Brussels wants “a practical arrangement with Norway that would allow the continuation of fishing activities for snow crab, without giving up the EU’s interpretation of the 1920 (treaty),” European Commission spokesman Enrico Brivio told AFP. AFP

cerns the city’s role as a major shipping and financial hub is diminishing amid further inroads by state-owned companies and the rise of other centers on the mainland such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

“Rather than being one shiny spot, Hong Kong is now more seen as part of the Pearl River delta,” said Yu Zhanfu, a Beijingbased principal at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. “For the companies being acquired, there’s more to gain than to lose.

They will benefit from having closer access to the broader market in the mainland. Bloomberg

Vietnam cuts rates to support economy VIETNAM’S surprise lowering of interest rates for the first time in three years may help to support economic growth, but raises credit risks in a nation still grappling with a hangover of bad debt.

The central bank reduced the refinance rate by 25 basis points to 6.25 percent late on Friday and also lowered the discount rate to 4.25 percent from 4.5 percent. The changes come into effect on Monday, the State Bank of Vietnam said on its website.

“These rate cuts will make it cheaper for businesses and individuals to borrow, so it will help spur loan demand and bolster consumption,” said Do Ngoc Quynh, head of treasury at Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam in Hanoi. “Vietnamese companies still highly rely on bank lending. We just need to be mindful about how the loans will be used to avoid increasing bad debt.”

The policy easing came a day after the International Monetary Fund said the central bank should remain on hold, stressing the need to contain rapid credit growth. Vietnam remains vulnerable because of the slow pace of its banking sector reforms, the IMF said.

The central bank said in its statement that the move was to help boost economic growth and keep inflation under control. Vietnam is among the fastest-expanding economies in the world, but growth is still below the government’s ambitious target of 6.7 percent. Annual inflation eased to 2.54 percent in June, the slowest pace in almost a year. Bloomberg

LGUs

Solon pushes disaster agency A LAWMAKER has renewed his call for Congress to create an independent disaster authority that will exclusively handle the task of risk reduction up front, and reconstruction and recovery at the back end.

Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said this body would redirect efforts and emerging “policy drifts” among agencies handling various aspects of the program.

His call relates to the current disasters brought about by the Marawi crisis entering its 50th day and the earthquake that hit communities in Leyte last week.

Salceda last year filed House Bill 1648, titled “An Act Further Strengthening the Philippines Disaster Reduction and Management System by Institutionalizing the Framework and Plan and Establishing the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA).”

The authority would be a high level institution and an independent body under the Office of the President, dedicated to pre-disaster risk reduction and post-disaster reconstruction, he said.

Speaking at a summit on disaster preparedness in Taguig City last Saturday, Salceda said the measure will be the country’s legal infrastructure in reducing the effects of catastrophic climate change, and will be “the world’s best approach to disaster risk reduction.”

The NDRRMA is envisioned to “radicalize the country’s disaster response and management system,” the solon said.

HB 1648 is a result of “action research, sharing of experiences and dynamic discussions among various stakeholders from national and local government agencies, organizations and communities.”

Salceda describes it as a “product of comparable international experiences. If we want this thing to really take off, we need this legislation,” he said.

‘Policy drifts’ and disagreements in the program of reducing the impacts of climate change “can lead to more serious consequences and expensive damages in terms of loss of lives and properties,” the solon added.

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

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

ORMOC VISIT. Former senator Bongbong Marcos (seated, second from right) joined Ormoc Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez (right) and her husband, Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez (left) in visiting several barangays affected by the 6.5-magnitude earthquake that struck Leyte last Thursday. Joining them in extending financial assistance were former Reps. Martin Romualdez (Leyte) and Anton Lagdameo (Davao del Norte).

58k Makati traffic violators M AKATI Mayor Abby Binay has warned motorists anew against disobeying traffic rules in the city, citing over 58,000 traffic violations recorded by the city Public Safety Department from January to May this year after strict enforcement of traffic rules and relentless on-street operations.

“Our traffic enforcers and other PSD personnel are under strict orders to apprehend disobedient motorists and conduct daily on-street operations against illegal parking, illegal terminals and other violations that cause traffic congestion within the city,” the mayor said.

She also urged residents

and the riding public to report abusive and reckless drivers through the city’s official social media accounts.

Concerned citizens may send their complaints through the My Makati Facebook page and Twitter accounts, @MakatiTraffic and @Mayora_Abby.

“Abusive and reckless drivers

should not be tolerated anywhere.

We urge commuters in Makati to make use of their cellphones to record abuses and report these immediately through our social media accounts. It is important to include details such as the plate number, type of vehicle and location so that our enforcers can respond promptly,” Binay said.

Based on the latest report from the Ordinance Violation Receipt Redemption Management Division of the PSD, disobedience to traffic control signs and signals topped the list of 58,753 violations during the five-month period, with 15,349 tickets issued.

Other leading violations reported include disregarding of lane markings with 10,607; illegal parking, 6,966; obstructing

roads by motor vehicles, stalled vehicles, 6,582; and non-use of seatbelt, 3,510.

Other apprehensions made by PSD from January to May include 395 for reckless driving, 391 for colorum operation of passenger vehicle, and 13 for illegal terminals.

Since Binay assumed office in July last year, the PSD has been continuously conducting its operations on major thoroughfares and streets in the different barangays to promote safe and walkable streets and improve traffic flow in the city.

From July to December last year, PSD recorded a total of 63,172 traffic violations in the city.

Teams from PSD, with assistance

QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Monday ordered additional traffic enforcers deployed on major and secondary roads to ensure the orderly movement of traffic, especially during heavy downpours.

He instructed Department of Public Order and Safety head Elmo San Diego to make sure that adequate traffic personnel are deployed, particularly in various chokepoints identified by authorities since traffic is usually snailpaced during rainy weather.

He said the city is continually hard-pressed to solve traffic, as several major road networks and metro rail projects being planned and to be implemented by the national government will traverse Quezon City.

These projects included the Metro Manila skyway stage 3, North Luzon ExpresswayCircumferential 5 segment 8.2, Visayas Avenue extension, Metro Rail Transit line 7 and Light Rail Transit line 2 expansion.

“It is important that there are traffic enforcers fielded during downpours,” Bautista said.

With additional traffic enforcers and necessary rain gear, San Diego said he sees no reason why QC enforcers should leave their posts despite heavy rains.

All enforcers are instructed to stay in their place of assignment even during a heavy downpour.

“They are supposed to direct traffic 24/7,” said San Diego.

He warned that traffic enforcers who vacate their posts during rainy days could face suspension and dismissal.

Traffic is regularly monitored by the DPOS through the Emergency Operations Center, which boasts of an integrated surveillance and emergency response system.

To ensure the city’s secondary roads remain open, San Diego said, the city government will no longer allow road closures for wakes and burials, karaoke sessions, and for barangays livelihood activities and programs to ensure smooth traffic flow, especially along areas which can be used as alternate routes.

BLOODLETTING. Officers of the Laguna Provincial Police Office line up to donate blood in a joint project with the Laguna Provincial Advisory Council headed by engineer Gomer B. Carta and the Red Cross Laguna Chapter at Camp Gen. Paciano Rizal in Sta. Cruz, Laguna. Among the officers were Deputy Provincial Director for Administration Supt. Melchor Salvadora, Public Information Office chief Sr. Insp. Gerry Sangalang, and Police Community Relations Chief Insp. Pastor Castillo. The effort was part of LPPO’s 22nd Police Community Relation Month with the Theme ‘Give Your Blood, Save Their Lives.’ Roy Tomandao

Davao opens ‘Lingap’ center across SPMC hospital

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera DAVAO CITY—Mayor Sara Duterte has spearheaded the launch of “Lingap Para sa Bayan,” a one-stop-shop featuring local and national government agencies that provide financial, medical and other support to indigent patients from the city and nearby provinces.

The facility is located across the Southern Philippines Medical Center, the same area being occupied by the Lingap Para sa Mahirap center.

It will also be where the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippine Health Insurance Corp., and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office will set up shop.

from barangay officials and city agencies, such as Makati Action Center, Department of Environmental Services and Department of Engineering and Public Works, and the Makati Police, have conducted on-street operations to clear the streets of illegally parked vehicles, illegal terminals used by public utility vehicles, sidewalk vendors, and other obstructions.

Among the barangays covered in the operations to date are Guadalupe Nuevo, Pembo, South Cembo, Carmona, Bel-Air, Valenzuela, Comembo, Cembo, Pinagkaisahan, Pitogo, Pio del Pilar, San Antonio, San Lorenzo, San Isidro, Bangkal, West Rembo, East Rembo, Palanan, Olympia, Poblacion, Tejeros, and Rizal. Joel Zurbano

QC dad sacked over 5 SALNs

‘Traffic enforcers to work in the rain’

By Rio N. Araja

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The Lingap shop across SPMC will only be temporary, as all offices under it will soon be transferred inside the hospital compound once the the construction of its P20-million office building is completed.

“The one-stop-shop will make it easier for indigent patients because they no longer need to go from one office to another to get

medical assistance,” Mayor Duterte said during the building’s launching on Friday.

The city government has provided financial and medical support to Dabawenyos for years now through the Lingap para sa Mahirap program.

Under the program, the city government provides health assistance to Davao residents, includ-

ing hospital financial assistance, funeral and burial assistance, and pharmaceutical assistance.

The SPMC, a retained Department of Health hospital, is the main provider of treatment to the Lingap patients.

Through the Lingap para sa Bayan center, even patients from outside Davao will be accommodated and referred to concerned agencies.

A QUEZON City court has ordered a city councilor imprisoned for irregularities in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth as an incorporator of an entertainment company owned by singer-actress Jessa Zaragosa.

Branch 40 Judge Josephus Asis of the Metropolitan Trial Court convicted District 2 councilor Ranulfo Ludovica, the former chairman of Barangay Batasan Hills, for falsification of public documents and five counts of violation of Section 8 of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, or Republic Act No. 6713.

Ludovica was sentenced to imprisonment of four months to two years for the falsification case, and five years for each count of violation of RA 6713, or a total of 25 years.

Asis directed Ludovica to pay a P5,000 fine for each count of violation of the Code of Conduct, or P25,000 total.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed the charges, saying Ludovica falsified his 2005 SALN when he deliberately did not disclose his business interest in Jessa Zaragoza Phenomenal Entertainment.

In an interview, Ludovica denied any wrongdoing.

Rio N. Araja

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK Manila

World

Standard

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TODAY

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

Prisoner vows to continue his fight 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 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 antigovernment 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 Ortega―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. AFP

Turkey marks failed coup I

STANBUL―Turkey marks one year on July 15 since a coup attempt aiming to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that failed within hours but etched far-reaching consequences into its society and politics.

BULL RUN. Participants fall down as Fuente Ymbro’s fighting bulls run past during the fourth bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, on July 10, 2017. Each day at 8 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

Wildfires rage in sweltering California LOS ANGELES―Wildfires raged Sunday across much of California, forcing hundreds to evacuate homes as the most populous US state sweltered in record heat.

About 5,000 firefighters were battling 14 large wildfires around the state, according to Cal Fire. Among the largest was the Alamo fire near San Luis Obispo county, about midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The fire there had scorched 23,876 acres (100 square kilometers) and was just 15 percent contained, officials said.

In neighboring Santa Barbara County about 1,000 firefighters were racing to contain that fire with help from waterdropping helicopters.

“Low humidity, high heat and the winds

Republic of the Philippines Department of Health National Capital Regional Office SAN LORENZO RUIZ WOMEN’S HOSPITAL O. Reyes St., Santulan, Malabon City INVITATION TO BID PUBLIC BIDDING PROCUREMENT OF VARIOUS RADIOLOGY EQUIPMENT ( SLRWH IB 2017-015) 1.

The San Lorenzo Ruiz Women’s Hospital, through the SLRWH -HFEP intends to apply the sum ELEVEN MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED THIRTY ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX PESOS ONLY. (Php 11,831,786.00 )being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for the PROCUREMENT OF VARIOUS RADIOLOGY EQUIPMENT ( SLRWH IB 2017015) . Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

2.

The SLRWH now invites bids for the PROCUREMENT OF VARIOUS RADIOLOGY EQUIPMENT ( SLRWH IB 2017-015) Expected delivery is sixty (60) days upon receipt of Contract . Bidders should have completed, within two years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3.

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

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 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

4.

Interested Bidders may obtain further information from the San Lorenzo Ruiz Women’s Hospital Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) Secretariat c/o Mr. Allan G. Nieva, RRT ll or Ms. Juliet V. Chiquito at Telephone No. 293-9112 and inspect the Bidding Documents from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Mondays to Fridays from July 10 to July 26, 2017.

5.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders on July 10 to July 26, 2017. from the address below and upon payment of a non-refundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount of Eleven Thousand Pesos (Php 11,000.00) It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the website of the Procuring Entity, provided that Bidders shall pay the non refundable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

6.

The SLRWH will hold a Pre-Bidding Conference on July 14 ,2017 at 10 am at the SLRWH Training Room, which shall be open to prospective bidders.

7.

Bids must be delivered to the address below on or before July 26, 2017 ,10:00 AM. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.

Bid opening shall be on July 26, 2017 ,10:00 AM at SLRWH Training Room. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below. Late bids shall not be accepted.

8.

The San Lorenzo Ruiz Women’s Hospital 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, with out thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

9.

For further information, please refer to: ALLAN G. NIEVA JULIET V. CHIQUITO SLRWH-BAC Secretariat SAN LORENZO RUIZ WOMEN’S HOSPITAL O. Reyes St., Santulan, Malabon City Website: www.slrwh.doh.gov.ph Email Address: slrwh.procurement@yahoo.com.ph Telefax No.2939112 Sgd: NOEL D. VALDERRAMA, MD SLRWH- BAC Chairperson

(MS-JULY 11, 2017)

are right―and there’s just a lot of stuff to burn,” Santa Barbara County spokeswoman Gina DePinto told journalists.

Meanwhile, a fire in Butte county in the north-central part of the state destroyed 5,600 acres and 17 structures, Cal Fire said. Evacuations were in effect and four injuries have been reported.

The Whittier fire in Santa Barbara County which started on Saturday afternoon had affected 7,800 acres and was just five percent controlled.

Area resident Sarah Gustafson told the Los Angeles Times newspaper that she was getting her tires changed when she saw a pillar of smoke rising and realized her six cats were trapped at home.

She rushed back and managed to save

the animals, and described a sky painted orange and black and “flames up on the ridge.”

“It was terrifying,” she told the paper.

“When I got home it was smokey with ash.”

She then scrambled back to a Red Cross shelter parking lot where she and her cats spent the night.

Most of southern California including metropolitan Los Angeles has been in the grips of a blistering heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees (37 degrees Celsius).

California Governor Jerry Brown in April declared the official end of the state’s drought that lasted more than five years. AFP

The country is in the throes of the biggest purge in its history against alleged coup supporters while Erdogan has seen his grip on power tightened rather than weakened.

But Turkey is also facing some isolation on the diplomatic stage, experiencing tense relations with the European Union and the United States, and now trying to limit the damage from an explosive crisis over its ally Qatar in the Gulf.

“One year on from the coup bid, President Erdogan is stronger than ever,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

But he added the crackdown had “unavoidably weakened Turkey’s international standing particularly vis-a-vis Europe and the United States.”

On the night of July 15, 2016, an army faction disgruntled with Erdogan’s one-and-a-half decades of domination sought to seize power, closing the bridges in Istanbul, bombing parliament in Ankara and deploying tanks in the streets.

But the coup bid unraveled as Erdogan returned in triumph to Istanbul from holiday and tens of thousands of ordinary Turks poured into the streets to oppose the plotters.

Two hundred and forty nine innocent people died in the coup and are regarded as “sehitler” [martyrs for Islam].

The authorities see the coup bid’s defeat as a victory for democracy and have renamed the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul that was a center of the fighting the “Bridge of the 15 of July Martyrs”.

Extensive commemorations are planned for Saturday including a speech by Erdogan on the bridge, with July 15 now declared an annual holiday, the Democracy and National Unity Day. Turkey’s longest night left a litany of images engraved into the memory―the tear-stained face of the state TV presenter forced to make a statement by the coup plotters, or Erdogan peering out through the FaceTime app as he made a live appeal to supporters.

Erdogan swiftly said that the coup bid was masterminded by his one time ally turned nemesis, the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen who over decades assiduously built up influence in the judiciary, police and the army.

From his secluded base in Pennsylvania, Gulen denied the charges. But Erdogan vowed to wipe out the “virus” of Gulen from Turkish institutions.

Turkey subsequently embarked on the most extensive crackdown in its modern history, arresting over 50,000 people and sacking 100,000 more from their jobs.

Critics say the state of emergency imposed last July 20―which remains in place―has been used to go after all the opponents of Erdogan, including critical journalists, activists and pro-Kurdish politicians who opposed the putsch bid.

After landing in Istanbul in one of the turning points of the July 15 coup bid, Erdogan described the attempt as a “blessing from God” and critics have accused him of opportunistically exploiting the events.AFP

Mosul victory marks win for training plan WASHINGTON―The Iraqi military’s hard-fought victory over the Islamic State group in Mosul marks a defining moment not just for them. It is also a key win for the US doctrine behind it.

Instead of putting large numbers of American boots on the ground, the US-led strategy in Iraq and Syria has been a nonstop air campaign combined with continual training and advising for proxy local forces.

Pentagon officials say the outNOTICE OF EXTRAJUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF ESTATE Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late FELIX H. LIMON was extrajudicially settled by and among his heirs as per affidavit executed on July 10, 2017 and entered as Doc. No. 284, Page No. 58, Book No. 1 Series of 2017 of the notarial registry of Atty. Jerome L. Flojo, a notary public for and in the Cities of Pasig, San Juan and Municipality of Pateros.

(MS-JULY 11, 18 & 25, 2017)

come is clear―three years after collapsing as flag-waving jihadists swept across their country, Iraq’s security forces have become a battle-hardened army that prevailed in a brutal urban fight.

“Training works,” said one senior US military officer who was deployed to Iraq from 2015-’16.

It “has enabled the Iraqis to take back their country.”

It’s a far cry from when thenPentagon chief Ashton Carter said in May 2015 that the Iraqi military

“showed no will to fight.”

When IS attacked in 2014, the Iraqi security forces had grown weak under then-prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Troops turned and ran, often without a fight, dumping precious US-provided weaponry and vehicles as they fled.

“It was stunning,” the military official said.

“Even ISIS had to have been surprised at how rapidly the Iraqi army utterly just fell apart.”

The skills they’d learned under previous US tutelage from 2008-2011 centered on fighting an insurgency―not stopping a fastmoving jihadist army.

“We needed an army that could fight conventionally,” the official said.

The decision to use a few hundred US troops and other Western military experts to train local fighters stems partly from the Iraq War, which saw more than 4,400 US troops die. AFP

ERRORS & OMISSIONS In Classified Ads section must be brought to our attention the very day the advertisement is published. We will not be responsible for any incorrect ads not reported to us immediately.

N OTICE Notice is hereby given that ROBINSONS LAND CORPORATION, with office address at 22nd Floor Robinsons Equitable Tower, ADB Avenue corner Poveda Street, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, is applying for registration with the Board of Investments (BOI) as a New Operator of Tourist Accommodation Facility under the Special Laws - Tourism-Related Facilities (Summit Hotel Tacloban) with a capacity of 138 rooms on a non-pioneer status with project site at Robinsons Place Complex, Barangay Marasbaras, Tacloban City, Leyte.

Any person with valid objections on the abovementioned project may file his/her objection in writing, under oath, with the BOI within three (3) days from the date of this publication.

(SGD) JOY JOSETTE L. LACHICA Officer-in-Charge Infrastructure and Service Industries Service

(MS-JULY 11, 2017)

BASTILLE DAY. Can-Can dancers perform at the FIAF’s Bastille Day in New York City. AFP CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

PPA 43RD ANNIVERSARY

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017 advertise@thestandard.com.ph

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43rd Philippine Ports Authority:

Ready for global challenges W

ITH the continuing globalization and the shift in practices from best practices to next practices, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is optimistic to meet global requirements and demands.

Marking its 43rd Founding Anniversary today, 11 July 2017 with the theme “43 years of Responding to Global Challenges in Ports”, the PPA— under the new administration—pushed the reset button to align its processes and policies to these trends that are still parallel to the overall dream of the country to be one of the maritime powers of the world.

While there are several policies being pushed that threatens even its mere existence, the PPA continues to paddle hard to achieve its vision to meet global standards in its ports by 2020.

The Evolution of the PPA Prior to the establishment of the Philippine Ports Authority, all public ports, with the exception of the Port of San Fernando, which was then organized as a Port Authority, were all placed under the administrative and operational control of the Bureau of Customs.

The development and maintenance of the ports, on the other hand, was vested in the Bureau of Public Works (BPW).

The Ports and Harbor Division of the said Bureau was responsible for the planning, design, construction, maintenance of all national and municipal ports and the construction and repair of ashore protection works and lighthouses. The capital and maintenance dredging of the public ports, undertaken on its own or by contract, was the responsibility of

another BPW Division called the Harbor and Dredging Reclamation Division.

The different port development and maintenance projects implemented by the BPW were funded from the Portworks fund, the source of which came from the port charges collected by the Bureau of Customs as provided in the Tariff and Customs code. The said collections were then remitted to the National Treasury and releases of such funds for BPW to implement projects were made after the Congress of the Philippines, through the approved national budget, had appropriated the same for the year.

Evolution The evolution of the Port Authority started in the 60’s with the enactment of R.A. No. 4567 in June 1965. This act created the San Fernando Port Authority, which was only made operational in 1968. The Authority was responsible for the management and operation of the port, but the development and maintenance of its facilities were still vested in the Bureau of Public Works.

In June of 1966, another legislation was approved, R.A. 6086, creating the Cagayan de Oro Port Authority.

Although the enabling law was passed, the Authority was never organized in spite of the representations made by the late Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez, who was then a senator from Cagayan de Oro, the then Cagayan de Oro Congressman Pedro Roa and then Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Reuben Canoy.

In July 1966, the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos issued a memorandum directing the Customs commissioner to confine his activities to the collection of taxes and duties and anti-smuggling, effective 1 August 1966, while the exclusive administration of ports, government bonded warehouses, etc., would be under the direct supervision of the Special Assistant Commissioner on Port Administration,

headed at the time by Ret. Navy Commodore Santiago C. Nuval.

Acting on the Presidential Directive, the then Secretary of Finance issued Department Orders No. 49-66, dated August 1966 and No. 148-67, dated April 1967. These Orders set down the detailed functions and responsibilities of the Office of the Special Assistant Commissioner on Port Administration (OSACPA). However, after a period of 18 months some of its functions as contained in the memorandum of the President were returned to the Bureau of Customs.

OSACPA was changed to OSCOPA or Office of the Special Commissioner on Port Administration and was made responsible for Port Development and Utilization, Arrastre Supervision and Port Liaison. Development funds still came from the Portworks fund and its implementing arm for the port projects was still the BPW. Sometime in 1970, a study was undertaken by Metra/Sauti and that study strongly recommended that the Bureau of Customs be relieved of the port administration and operation responsibility and that this be transferred to a Bureau of Merchant Marine and Ports (BMMP) under the authority of an Undersecretary of Transportation.

The Bureau of Customs would then concentrate on its main responsibility of collecting taxes and duties as well as port charges. Metra/Sauti further recommended that the maintenance, technical studies, dredging and new construction works at the national ports shall be placed under a proposed Bureau of Ports and Navigational Aids (BPNA).

These recommendations were never acted upon.

In the same period, OSCOPA, for its part, submitted its own recommendation to the Reorganization Panel No. 6 proposing the creation of the Philippine Ports and Maritime Commission instead of the Bureau of Merchant Marine and Ports and making the OSCOPA the

nucleus thereof.

In 1971, the Philippine government, under the auspices of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD or World Bank) conducted a study for the development of the Ports of Cagayan de Oro, Tabaco/ Legaspi, Batangas and General Santos.

During negotiations for the loan agreement for the development of the Ports of Cagayan de Oro and General Santos, the World Bank made it a condition to the Loan that a Port Authority, a corporate body, should be created and made responsible for this loan so that the Bank would only have to talk to one government entity. This was a welcome move as the Philippine Ports then were the only ones in Southeast Asia still managed and operated by Customs.

Thus, on 11 July 1974, Presidential Decree No. 505 was promulgated by then President Marcos calling for the creation of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), under the Office of the President.

Initial funding for the development of the Port Authority’s office was contributed by the NEDA/BPW Port Feasibility Study Project.

The initial PPA organization was then formed and new officers and employees were hired. Heading the PPA then was Capt. Mariano Nicanor as the Acting General Manager, Maximo Nario was his Technical Assistant.

The first Chairman of the Board was then Secretary of Finance Cesar Virata. In 1975, PPA was attached to the Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications (MPWTC). On July 27, 1981, the MPWTC was split into the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) and Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC). The PPA was attached to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

Pilot ports The PPA initially set up the pilot ports of Cagayan de Oro and General Santos

and after selecting the employees with the assistance of Carmencita M. Tottoc, Madeleine Cataylo (later, Abada), Alice Miranda, Geronimo Cantalejo and Orlando Ancheta, The PPA officially took over the management and operation of the Ports of Cagayan de Oro and General Santos from the Bureau of Customs on October 1, 1975 and April 15, 1975, respectively.

Cognizant of the fact that Presidential Decree No. 505 did not give the Authority financial autonomy, Nicanor and Suazo, with the assistance of the SGV Consultants worked on drafting amendments to address this. On the 23rd of December 1975 Presidential Decree No. 857, the revised charter of the PPA was signed into law by then President Marcos. The promulgation of PD 857 set the pace for an aggressive approach to accomplish the task of organizing, managing and operating Philippine ports.

The Offices within the Bureau of Customs, which include the Office of the Special Commissioner on Port Administration (OSCOPA), the San Fernando Port Authority and the offices of the Bureau of Public Works, were abolished.

With the appointment of Col. Eustaquio S. Baclig, Jr. as the new General Manager in mid-1976, the management of PPA experienced some changes. Capt. Nicanor was appointed Special Assistant and other new officers were likewise appointed. Retired Navy Captain Maximo S. Dumlao, Jr. was appointed Assistant General Manager for Operations, Engineer Benedicto S. Selirio as Assistant General Manager for Engineering and Col. Guillermo A. Cruz as Assistant General Manager for Finance and Administration.

With adequate coordination with the Bureau of Customs, P.D. 857 was finally implemented and more ports were taken over by PPA, including Cagayan de Oro,

Sailing to success: How the PPA did it

By Giana Anella G. Atienza and Meryll Isis F. Rocha IN THE Philippines, shipping is considered one of the most vital modes of transportation. To cope with the distance set by nature, the citizens built ports to keep the rich economy of the country going. To keep these ports in check, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) has been managing ports all over the country.

For 43 years, the PPA has been serving its local and global clients using the best practices and the state-of-the-art technologies. As its 2016 gross revenue of P14.227 billion is 7.08% higher than its P13.287 billion gross revenue in 2015, the PPA has no way but up in exceeding their targets in the industry.

In 2016, the PPA’s ship and trade performance surpassed its target economic growth and the previous year’s achievements.

Sustained growth momentum in port operation statistics was exhibited by PPA with registered improvements in volume of transactions in shipping and trade as well as in key port performance metrics. Cargo amount and containers handled at the ports for the year were higher by 8.16% and 10.17%, respectively, where both foreign traffic components took the biggest share in the overall positive deviation.

In addition, passenger traffic and vessel service during the period posted growth due to increased reliance on waterborne transport for domestic inter-island connectivity, and increased demand for prime commodities and construction materials resulted in higher vessel calls.

The Ports of Manila continue to remain free from congestion as a result of the measures set in place to ensure the smooth sailing movement of containers. The faster and efficient flow of movement of commodities resulting from the anti-port congestion programs implemented yielded rates well within internationally accepted standards.

Staying afloat in the modern tides The PPA has continued to improve and develop its facilities in the country to meet global standards. The association has formed bonds with national organizations to conduct stricter monitoring vessel movements and navigation and maritime incidents.

In line with this, PPA and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) agreed to implement the Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) which controlled port traffic. By

the end of 2015, congestion in the ports of the country is solved.

As a developing country, the PPA adapted on 2013 its junior and senior managers TrainforTrade training program devised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to implement efficient and competitive port management.

The Port of General Santos City passed the external audit conducted by the Partnership in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) on the end of 2015 and has met international standards of port safety, health and environment management, and port security.

The Manila North Harbor Port, Inc. (MNHPI) formally launched its new passenger terminal building, the first installment of its P14 billion committed investment to modernize the country’s premier domestic port, the North Harbor.

The 11,600 square meters passenger terminal complex inside the North Harbor, now known as the North Port can seat 1,875 passengers at any time and is equipped with five X-ray scanning machines as well as a dedicated area for check-in baggage.

Embarking on International waters In 2011, PPA and the Incheon Port of Korea forged a sister port affiliation to promote trade and maritime transport between the Philippines and Korea.

This agreement helps in undertaking exchange programs on port technology and management.

In 2013, the German Cooperation (GIZ) reviewed and upgraded the policies, rules and regulations of the Safety, Health, and Environment (SHE) of the PPA in order to meet global standards of service.

PPA also successfully hosted in 2015 two major global events, namely, the 8th Philippine Ports and Shipping Conference and the APEC Port Services Network (APSN) Workshop.

The Philippines placed 36th in the 2016 Top 100 Container Ports by Lloyd’s List of Containerization International. While in 2015, the PPA placed 35th amongst the Top 50 World Container Ports listed by the World Shipping Council.

Aside from these achievements, the country has strong ties with other international ports. Recently, the country hosted the first ever ASEAN Training Network for Sustainable Port Development meeting in 2016 and discussed the future of improving the quality of Safety, Health, and Environment management of the ASEAN ports.

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TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

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PPA 43RD ANNIVERSARY

43rd...

From C3 General Santos, San Fernando, La Union, Batangas, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legaspi, Puerto Princesa, Zamboanga, Iligan, Tacloban, Dumaguete, Aparri, Nasipit, Jolo, Surigao, Manila, and Polloc.

Edsa Revolution shakeup The EDSA Revolution in 1986 triggered another organizational change in PPA. In 1988, PPA Management introduced a major revamp in the organization. Part of the PPA Head Office functions was delegated to the newly organized five Port District Offices.

These offices provided jurisdiction over ports in Manila and parts of Bataan, Luzon, Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Southern Mindanao.

In the same year the PPA was granted more fiscal autonomy, bringing about the faster development of ports, and the subsequent adoption of a more competitive salary structure, etc.

Also in the same year the PPA privatization program was aggressively pursued through the initial implementation of the privatization of the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and the subsequent awarding of the contract to operate the MICP for a period of 25 years to the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. Currently, the PPA is undergoing another major facelift after the Governance Commission for GOCCs approved the agency’s Rationalization Plan during the term of General Manager Atty. Juan C. Sta. Ana. The approved Rat Plan abolished the five Port District Offices put into place in 1988 and distributed its powers to the newly refurbished list of Port Management Offices from 24 PMOs to 26, which include: PMO Northern Luzon, PMO Bataan/ Aurora, PMO NCR-North, PMO NCRSouth, PMO Batangas, PMO Marinduque/ Quezon, PMO Mindoro, PMO Puerto Princesa, PMO Bicol, PMO Masbate, PMO Negros/Siquijor, PMO Panay/Guimaras, PMO Western / Southern Leyte/Biliran, PMO Eastern Leyte/Samar, PMO Bohol, PMO Negros Occidental/Bacolod/Banago/ Bredco, PMO Misamis Occidental/Ozamiz, PMO Misamis Oriental/Cagayan de Oro, PMO Agusan, PMO Davao, PMO Cotabato, PMO Socsargen, PMO Zamboanga Del Norte, PMO Zamboanga, PMO Surigao, and PMO Lanao Del Norte/Iligan.

The PPA is now maintaining 115 ports nationwide, 10 of whom are considered major gateways and 16 dubbed as hub ports.

These ports handle majority of domestic and foreign passage traffic as well as the country’s foreign and local trade.

Billionaires Club PPA is also a constant member of the ‘Billionaires Club’ in terms of dividends remitted to the National Government by GOCCs. This 2017, the PPA is in its third tranche of filling up another 25 percent of existing vacant positions based on its approved Rat Plan as they also continue to complete processing the positions approved in 2016 within the first quarter.

PPA has really continued to move on and is still moving forward towards a bright future.

In 2016, the PPA was able to handle a total cargo throughput of 249.567 mmt or some 25.895 mmt higher than the 2015 volume of 223.672 mmt. Foreign cargoes accounted for 151.604 mmt or an increase of 12.62% versus the 134.620 mmt handled in 2015 while domestic cargoes contributed 97.963 mmt from 89.051 mmt or an improvement of 10%.

Container volume also posted positive figures rising 12% to 6.574 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 5.861 million TEUs handled in 2015. Foreign containers inch-up 14.11% to 3.973 million TEUs while domestic boxes rose 9.28% to 2.6 million TEUs for the period in review. Total import boxes is at 2.005 million TEUs while Export containers is at 1.968 million TEUs wherein both posted increases of 15.4% and 12.8%, respectively.

Among the ports, which registered strong performance, include the Manila International Container Terminal and Manila South Harbor for international cargoes, North Harbor for domestic cargoes as well as Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and Iloilo.

Philippine exports sustained its strong performance in 2016, propelling the country’s cargo volume higher by 12% compared to its yearago level. Export cargoes comprise 49% of the total cargo volume handled by the different ports nationwide. It increased by 23% for the entire 2016 period from 60.855 million metric tons (mmt) to 74.822 mmt registered a year earlier. Import volume, on the other hand, contributed 51% to the total after posting a 4% increase to 76.781 mmt from 73.765 mmt in 2015.

From 2010 up to the end of the first semester of 2016, the PPA was able to provide adequate facilities and services to accommodate sustained increases in cargo throughput, vessels and passengers with an annual average increase of 6.11%, 2.74% and 3.74%, respectively.

Sailing...

From C3 Outside of Southeast Asia, the PPA, together with Japan Overseas Port Cooperation Association (JOPCA), held the second Ph-Jap Port Seminar for Disaster Prevention in early 2016 and made deals in constructing disasterresilient ports in light of the 7.3 magnitude Bohol earthquake in October of 2013 and the devastation of Cyclone Haiyan in November of the same year.

To tackle common regional and global endeavors, to ensure the quality, integrity and adherence to standards of port equipment

THE FILIPINO, SETTING A GLOBAL STANDARD IN PORT MANAGEMENT. The Manila International Container Terminal combines leading-edge technologies and decades of port management expertise to provide the country with port services at par with the world’s best.

The MICT is one of the best examples of Public-Private Partnerships, offering the best value for the government and the Filipino people.

MICT is the flagship operation of ICTSI, the Philippines’ leading port operator with a portfolio of 29 terminals in 19 countries.

MICT

PHILIPPINES

www.ictsi.com The agency was also able to complete 251 projects which have, among others, increased berth, back-up areas, passenger seating capacity and Ro-Ro berths throughout the country at a combined cost of P9.8 billion. Specifically, Ro-Ro projects facilitated the carriage of goods and people, promoted domestic tourism, reduced cargo slippage by at least 50% and cost by 30%.

PPA has likewise maintained the ports under its control in optimal operating condition at all times resulting in sustained safety and revenue growth with an average annual increase of 10%.

Port of Manila, 36th among top 100 container ports The Port of Manila jumps two notches higher to number 36 in the raking of the top 100 Container Ports, according to a report released by Lloyd’s List and Containerization International for 2016.

The report showed that the Philippines was able to increase their ranking after the country was shielded from the slowdown in China that has hurt other emerging nations in 2015, as government stepped up efforts to unlock bottlenecks in state spending and entice investment.

It added that the growth in the country’s Gross Domestic Product exceeded expectations anchored on the 6.1% pace posted in the third quarter for the period in review. Philippine GDP in the three months through to December for the period increased 6.3%. Manila’s economy, for the whole

of the period, grew 5.8%.

“Port of Manila registered a 4.3% hike in container throughput, with principal facility the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) posting a 4.4% increase in containers handled,” the report showed.

Among the reasons that Manila posted the favorable growth include the inauguration of Berth 7 at the MICT, which included the commissioning of four rubber-tired gantries as well as the rollout of the terminal appointment booking system (TABS) ahead of the anticipated increase in container movements prior to the Christmas holiday season as well as the revival of ICTSI’s inland container depot in Laguna.

TABS is an electronic platform for booking containers in the two international ports of Manila.

The system was developed in response to restrictive road policies that were introduced to combat heave congestion of Manila ports in 2014 as a result of the truck ban imposed by the Manila City Government.

2017 and onwards The PPA anticipates trade volume will continue to rise as the population growth and trade barriers continue to collapse, especially within the context of the ongoing Asean integration.

The agency is also aware that once volume increases, marketing of secondary ports strengthen and shipping lines become willing to divert goods

major ports.

PPA also recognizes the need to integrate and align all the various port developments throughout the archipelago in order to serve the decentralization of the country. The current plan is to identify certain ports, and ensure that they are aligned in terms of standards of cargo handling.

The modernization and development of the ports of Davao-Sasa, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos and Zamboanga are within the medium-term plans of the PPA, and the route to their privatization will be a public-private partnership arrangement, although different modalities are being evaluated.

These five ports have been identified as both strategic and commercially important, with DavaoSasa being the priority target for development although, on a more conservative and cost-efficient level than originally planned.

PPA is also in the process of procuring vessel traffic management solutions (VTMS) equipment to cover five additional locations in addition to the ports of Batangas and Manila. However, the long-term intention is to install appropriate VTMS facilities in most of the major ports to ensure offshore safety is addressed.

In addition to fostering safety, it is best practice to use VTMS in berthing management, environmental protection and planning for cargo-handling operations.

acquisition, and to keep abreast with global maritime trends and developments, the PPA is an active member of various international maritime associations.

The PPA has been a loyal and active member of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH), International Maritime Organization (IMO), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), ASEAN Port Authorities (APA), APEC Port Services Network (APSN), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses (PIANC), and the BruneiIndonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asia Growth Association (BIMP-EAGA).

It has closely engaged with its global and regional counterparts through meetings, conferences,

policy-making, capacity building, and dialogues on common endeavors related to port facility standards, antiterrorism, anti-human trafficking, environmental protection, port security and safety, and a host of other common areas of concern.

Satisfactory Performance In 2016, the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) conducted a comprehensive survey on Port Users’ Annual Satisfaction Survey (PASS). The survey focuses on the port users’ perception of the services and administration of PPA, thus, the respondents were limited only to Passengers and Shipping Lines at targeted base ports with high passenger volume such as, North Harbor, Bohol, Ozamiz, Cagayan de Oro, Siquijor, Bicol, and Batangas.

The PASS Draft Final Report which was

submitted by the DAP in December that year, showed that the overall Service Quality Index (SQI) stood at 3.79%, representative of the satisfactory perception of the port users with PPA’s services and administration. This rate shows that the overall SQI improved with progression equivalent to 5.45% on passenger satisfaction and 0.65% on shipping lines.

PPA also recognizes the need to integrate and align all the various port developments throughout the archipelago in order to serve the decentralization of the country. The current plan is to identify certain ports, and ensure that they are aligned in terms of standards of cargo handling.

With this in mind, the PPA continues to paddle hard to achieve its vision to meet global standards in its ports by 2020.

By Pablo A. Tariman

F

ILM actor and TV director Bibeth Orteza is headed for critical acclaim as the first two reviews of Singapore critics hailed her portrayal of a Filipino maid “masterful” in the comedy play Boeing Boeing at Victoria Theater on its June 23 opening.

Life

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

CULTURE & MEDIA

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

The critic in Arts Lifestyle noted, “Even in a smaller role, Bibeth Orteza is a constant presence throughout the play, and her humour extends beyond her stereotype as a Filipino domestic worker when she reveals her sassy attitude towards the other characters and exasperatedly airs her grievances.”

The Strait Times of Singapore wrote:, “Bibeth Orteza stole every scene she was in, leading the audience to yell out her punchline, “It’s not eeeea-sy!”, with her whenever Bernard (a lead character) demanded she cover for him for the nth time.”

The critic further noted that under director Pam Oei’s sure, deft and brassy ministrations, the fourth outing of this play in Singapore is as refreshing as a hot face towel, with the cast’s slick repartee rife with zip and zing.

Produced by Wild Rice Theater Company, Boeing Boeing saw Orteza as the Filipino maid Rosa in the comedy with multi-racial characters.

A cancer survivor, Orteza said her last theater appearance was in the Mrs. B series, a monologue based on Edith Bur- Bibeth Orteza in a scene from ‘Boeing Boeing’ wherein she plays a Filipino maid critics described as ‘masterful’ (Photo by Wild Rice) gos’s search for missing son Jonas, at the Filipinos and they know the Filipino Bantayog ng mga Bayani Theater in Quesoul having been to Manila many times zon City, in Naga, UP Baguio in both Engbefore. “It was Pam’s interaction with lish and Pilipino. “I alternated with Gina Michael de Mesa with whom she apAlajar, and Malou de Guzman. There peared in Rent that got him to recomare talks of bringing the monologue to key mend me for my role.” cities in the US and Europe.”

In this theater debut in Singapore, she Orteza said it helped that her direcdiscovered an active theater life. “Wild tor, Pam Oei has played various Filipino Rice just finished mounting La Cage characters herself. First order of the day aux Folles. Rodney Oliveiro directed was to get into her character and look Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano, staged in like a household helper in Singapore, not the first week of our rehearsals. The in Manila. “It just got harder and harder Singaporeans take to theater very well to pass off as Filipino here in Singapore, I think. Monique Wilson and Sheila where there are Filipinos all over. I am Francisco are here to do plays, as well. portraying my character as a maternal My director and I were in a restaurant, housekeeper. Director Pam created a and the proprietor told her he remembackstory for me as one who took care bered her performance in a play.” of the lead character Bernard since he For this Singapore engagement, was a young boy. He sort of inherited me Orteza had to advance her TV episodes from his parents. So I tend to tolerate all for two months. “I was able to advance his misadventures.” episodes of my TV show because I had The director’s husband, Ken Kwek, is a boss like Vic Sotto who understood a filmmaker who directed Epy Quizon why I wanted to do theater. Part of in Unlucky Plaza, a film that played at bucket list was all I had to say.” the Toronto International Film Festival So what does she enjoy in theater and in 2014. “They are very familiar with Bibeth Orteza at Victoria Theater in Singapore. (Photo by Ang Ter Shien)

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THEATER

Bibeth Orteza earns nods in Singapore

ON POINTE

Dance on social issues to debut in Manila

THE rights of indigenous people to use their ancestral land and the issues of mining and its harmful effects on the natural environment are at the center of Mulat: Ang Hindi Sinukuan sa Arayat, a dance directed and choreographed by Justin Ray Diolazo.

Written by Nicko de Guzman, with music by Paulo Estero, the team behind the scene includes Jay Lorenz Conanan for set design, Sandro De la Pena for costume design, while the duo of Kyle Dionisio and James Stephen Lavariaz collaborated on graphic design.

Mulat stars Angela Sison, Alyana Tolentino, Cheska Vasallo, Christian Cusi, Doori Chin, Gianina David, Inah Abrasaldo, Khylle Paulino, Kyle Confessor, Neil John Casagan, Ruthame Hurtado, Yella Carlos, and

the one thousand and one chores that go with it?

Said she, “Audience reaction is fast.

You don’t get that in film. It’s toughest part? Everything. I’m 63 and my memory is kind of scary already. I’m hoping to get to appear in more plays before I really lose the ability to do lines. And blocking. My approach? I suppose it’s the same as acting on film and that is playing it out as truthful as I can. Future roles I am dreaming of? This question just made me confront fact: I can’t sing or dance to save my skin, so musicals are out. I am blessed to do this as I also enter my 14th year as breast cancer survivor. I can’t thank the Lord enough.”

Boeing Boeing runs at Victoria Theatre until July 22. Ticket at S$50 – S$75 (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m.) S$55 – S$80 (Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 3 p.m.

For bookings of 20 or more tickets, please contact Ross Toh at 6292-2685 or sales@wildrice.com.sg.)

The nymphs Alyana Tolentino and Gianina David showing off their best dance to the director

Zyra Verastique.

The ballet follows Liway and her spirit guardian, Maria Sinukuan, the divinity of Mt. Arayat, as they act to protect their community from the encroachment of mining companies.

Born to a family of musicians, director and choreographer Diolazo studied at the Agoo School of Ballet in 2006, before transferring to the Philippine High School for the Arts in Mt. Makiling on a full scholarship.

He was likewise a scholar of the CCP Dance School (now known as Ballet Philippines Dance School) from 2011 to 2014, and was part of its various productions, such as Starzan Gubatman, A Forest Tale, A Christmas Carol, Cinderella, and Giselle, among others.

He is in his last term as a student of the Bachelor of Performing Arts in Dance program at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB), with this production being his theater thesis.

He is at present a company artist of Saint Benilde Romançon Dance Company, the college’s resident dance company.

Mulat is a production by the DLSCSB Bachelor of Performing Arts in Dance program in collaboration with the Benilde Arts Management Program, the Office of Culture and Arts-Saint Benilde Romançon

Dance Company, and spot.ph.

For inquiries and ticket reservation, contact Patricia Bautista at 09178425013, Chesca Bernardo at 09176656339, or visit the Mulat booth at the ninth floor hallway of the School of Design and Art Campus.

Performances will be on July 28, 7 p.m., and July 29, 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., at the Black Box Theater, Sixth Floor, of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts Campus, located at 950 Pablo Ocampo Street, Malate, Manila.

Cheska Vasallo (Liway) and director Justin Diolazo

A fair celebrating the arts

‘Mulat’ is a ballet production that tackles the rights of indigenous people and other issues

HUE And Me: Embracing Art In Life, an art fair that celebrated art in all its forms was held last weekend at SM Aura Premier.

Hue And Me upholds the philosophy of incorporating art in everyday life for entertainment, aesthetics, personal development, business, or even to effect social change. The fair aims to provide opportunities for learning new art skills and crafts, appreciation for art, and discovering its therapeutic benefits that im-

prove quality of life, as well as empowering the youth with applicable knowledge and entrepreneurial artistry.

Artists and entrepreneurs exhibited their unique creations while engaging visitors to interesting and profitable workshops like how to make dream catchers, nail art, terrariums, charm bracelets, and pottery; cupcake designing; face painting; tattooing; food carving; make-up application; T-shirt printing; slippers painting; and rags/

fabric weaving.

Visitors participated in informative talks like Make-up Application, Photography, Art Therapy, Art Entrepreneurship, Doodling, Calligraphy, Nude Sketching Session, Painting, Latter Art and Digital Art in Character Development.

Hue And Me: Embracing Art In Life was produced and organized by ArtisteSpace in collaboration with SM Aura Premier.

Life

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TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

Kultura art and music event at Ka Freddie’s K A FREDDIE’S Music Restaurant on Tomas Morato corner Kamuning Road, Quezon City will hold a very special art and music event on July 28.

The event entitled Kultura will showcase 12 original and specially selected watercolor and acrylic paintings by artists Roland Santos and Nik Masangcay. The works of Santos and Masangcay have been featured in the coffee table books, Nostalgia and Philippines. These hardbound publications are the creations of award-winning publisher and author Marlene Aguilar also the curator for the said event.

There will be cocktails at 5 p.m. to open the exhibit.

Later that same evening, legendary singer and composer Freddie Aguilar will perform live with the Watawat Band. Aguilar is currently President Rodrigo Duterte’s adviser on Philippine art and culture.

The event’s guests of honor are Frederick M. Alegre, Assistant

Secretary, Department of Tourism, Office of Public Affairs, Communications and Special Projects; Rafael M. Alunan III, former DILG Chief; Rhodora “Dodod” Cadiao, Governor of Antique; Arthur P. Tugade, Secretary, Department of Transportation; and art patrons Dolores Encabo Barrion-Palacios and Ma. Teresita Herrera.

Kultura is a nationwide art and music affair sponsored by the Department of Tourism. It is a travelling show that will be presented in eight cities in the Philippines in the provinces of Antique, Cavite, Davao, Iloilo, Aklan, Mountain Province, Palawan and Pangasinan.

The Kultura art and music event will promote tourism through PhilipNik Masangcay’s painting of Pagsanjan, Laguna pine music, art and culture.

Best cookbook award for Chef Tatung Sarthou CHEF Tatung Sarthou’s ode to Philippine cuisine, Philippine Cookery: From Heart to Platter (ABS-CBN Publishing), was named “Best TV Chef Book Outside Europe” by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Yantai, China.

“This is the first book, and certainly not the last of the celebrity chef. It is really good, interesting, useful and practical,” Edouard Cointreau, president of the jury for the Gourmand Awards, said of Chef Tatung’s book in a 2016 press release.

As one of the Philippines’ most sought after chefs, well known for his passion for Philippine cuisine and his many social and culinary advocacies, Chef Tatung also appears on the cook-

ing segment of the ABS-CBN morning show Umagang Kay Ganda and was the host of the Lifestyle TV special The Food That We Are. Chef Tatung delves into the heart of his native cuisine by showing how to cook Filipino through 10 fascinating chapters of the book. He teaches basic cooking methods—steaming, grilling, sautéing, frying, curing, among many techniques—as a way for readers to understand Philippine cuisine’s historical roots, and as a way to learn to cook it at home.

Featured are 71 recipes perfected from Chef Tatung’s many years of research around the country. These include basics like tinolang manok, kare-kare, adobong pusit, as well as more

unusual fare like bulanglang, piyanggang, and pinaupong manok sa asin.

Throughout, he explores important ingredients like vinegar, coconut, rice, as well as traditional kitchen tools like palayok or claypot, and bamboo tubes used for boiling. Chef Tatung frames his book with his own memories of cooking with his mother and grandmother, including a touching anecdote about how adobo saved his family during World War II. Chef Tatung believes that in order to cook Filipino, one must cook out of love, honestly and simply, without pretension.

Philippine Cookery: From Heart to Platter is available at National Bookstore and FullyBooked branches for P595.

Chef Tatung Sarthou’s ‘Philippine Cookery’ wins Best TV Chef Book Outside Europe

GADGETS

Be a star student ‘The Library of Unread Books’ is a traveling collection featuring unwanted publications

Exhibition of unwanted books in Manila THE Library of Unread Books is a traveling collection of unwanted publications, where guests are welcome to browse as much as they want, returning the books into any random pile.

The exhibit is open to the public at the Fifth Floor of First United Building, 413 Escolta Street, Binondo, Manila.

This is the first off-site show by the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Singapore in Manila.

MCAD has committed to operate

this presentation for the next 10 years, accumulating more unread books during that time, and sparking conversations among visitors to the library. It hopes that the entire lot of tomes will be received by an institution after being toured for a decade to serve as a final repository for the entire set.

MCAD Commons is an exhibition program of the MCAD, conceptualized as a project that is held away from the main museum, to reach a larger audience that allows for the engagement with creative development, ideas exchange, and support of the artistic

process across the areas of research, art practice, and curatorial discourse.

The installation is a collaborative project by Malaysian-born Heman Chong, an artist, curator, and writer, and Netherlands-based Renée Staal, a creative archive manager and researcher.

When the show ends on Aug. 26, the entire collection of books will move to a future location that has yet to be determined.

For details ad inquiries, visit www. mcadmanila.org.ph, or follow its Facebook and Twitter accounts at MCADManila.

Filipino artists honored in Madrid DULAANG Filipino’s rendition of Oedipus, a one-hour reduction of Sophocles’ Theban trilogy, in Filipino translations by Rolando Tinio and Onofre Pagsanjan, was awarded Best International Show by the International University of La Rioja during the gala night of IV Premios Escenamateur “Juan Mayorga” de las Artes Escénicas.

The entry bested nominees from Algeria, Colombia, France, Israel and Ukraine.

On behalf of the performers Consul and Cultural Section Head Mary Luck Hicarte and Vice Consul Ralf Roldan of the Philippine Embassy in Madrid, Spain received the honor.

Virgilio A. Castillo Jr., head of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s Office of Culture and Arts, recently received the laurel for the college’s resident theater company during a simple ceremony at the Embassy.

The Premios Escenamateur is organized

by Spanish Amateur Theater Federation (Escenamateur), with the support of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture Virgilio A. Castillo Jr. (left) receives the Best International Show award from Vice Consul and Sport and the SGAE Foundation.

Ralf Roldan (center) and Consul Mary Luck Hicarte (right)

SMARTPHONES and tables are great for playing games, watching movies, and keeping in touch with your family and friends, but did you know that you could also use them to help you rock good grades in school?

Here are three tips on how you can make the most out of these devices so you can be a star student.

Join classes from the world’s top universities—for free

Get a feel of what it’s like to study in an Ivy League school without spending anything. Simply visit websites offering massive open online courses (MOOCs), you can gain access to lectures on management basics from Harvard University, digital media from Columbia University, or Silicon Valley trends from Stanford University, among others.

You can even choose to download special exercises to sharpen your learning.

Enjoy these online classes wherever you are using a light but powerful laptop such as the Starmobile ENGAGE Aura (P9,990), a slim and light 14-inch Windows 10 computer that lets you be productive wherever you hang out.

ing a phone with a smart battery such as the dual-SIM Android 6.0 Marshmallow Starmobile PLAY Dash (Php 2,490) would help a lot, so you don’t run out of juice as you get the latest insights, life hacks, tips, tricks, and tools of the trade from the top experts in your field.

Learn a new language

Even if you’re not a language or tourism major, it would always be good to know how to speak in another language.

After all, traveling to new countries, whether for vacation, study, or work, is always more fun when you know the basics of how the local converse. There are a lot of cool apps on Google Play that will help you get a grasp of useful phrases that will make your trips easier. Smartphones that can multi-task, such as the Starmobile UP Prime (P4,290), will allow you to browse the Internet, chat with friends, and take notes while learning.

What’s more, the UP Prime is dual-SIM, runs on Android™ 7.0 Nougat, and is 700MHz LTE-compatible, so you get to enjoy the last smart-

phone technology at an affordable price.

With the right intenListen to the world’s smartest tion and planning, minds during your commute Make your you can defidaily commute nitely make less of a hassle technology a by turning them great friend into opportunithat will help ties for learning! you achieve With a little bit of your full poonline searching, tential this you can downyear! Learn load awesome more by visaudio books and iting Starmosubscribe to fun bile’s official podcasts related online accounts, facebook.com/starto your current mobilephones, instagram.com/happylessons in school. manph, twitter.com/happymanph, and If you always get stuck in traffic, hav- www.starmobile.com.ph.

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

Short but sweet film depicts ‘finding’ first love, new beginnings Zac Efron (left) and Hugh Jackman in "The Greatest Showman," an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business

‘Greatest Showman’ trailer now in cinemas PREP up for the most wonderful time at the movies as 20th Century Fox teases with the initial trailer of The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams and Zendaya.

(Teaser trailer link - https:// youtu.be/Wm311a3jUBw).

The Greatest Showman is a bold and original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and the sense of wonder we feel when dreams come to life.

Inspired by the ambition and imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman tells the story of a visionary who rose from nothing

to create a mesmerizing spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

Barnum rose from nothing to create the Greatest Show on Earth, the movie celebrates of his larger-thanlife imagination that captivated audiences around the globe.

The Greatest Showman is directed by exciting new filmmaker, Michael Gracey, with powerful original music and songs

by Academy Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

Opening on Jan. 24, 2018, The Greatest Showman is from 20th Century Fox to be distributed

by Warner Bros. (in Phils.).

BASTE AND ELLEN A friendship like no other CAN exes really be friends? This is one of the classic questions that make everyone wonder. For most people, it doesn’t seem probable given the romantic history that the couple shared and even if they try to be friends, it may lead to different levels of awkwardness. But some people prove that exes, in fact, can still be friends. These are the people who have accepted the fact that they are not meant to be a couple, but meant to be great friends, “Bes-tiny” as we call it.

If you want proof of “Bestiny,” just see how Ellen Adarna and Baste Duterte have moved on from rumors of romance to becoming best friends. The real relationship status of the two has been the target of gossip sites and social media. Both have strongly expressed that they are nothing more than great friends.

Ellen Adarna was the featured guest in the “Cebu Getaway” episode of Baste Duterte’s reality-adventure show, Lakbai.

The episode explored Adarna’s hometown, the beautiful city of Cebu and at the same time her wonderful friendship with Baste.

Nothing makes an adventure more memorable than experiencing it with your closest and best friends, right?

For the Lakbai gang’s adventure in Cebu, they had an authentic experience firsthand as Cebu-born and raised Adarna gave them a tour of the Queen City of South.

They tried the famous lechon Cebu and for a fun twist, the group became lechoneros for a day.

For a local experience, Ellen toured them around the city and even took them to her favorite nightspot where ate, danced and jammed with the band.

For the ultimate Cebu adventure, the crew went on a thrilling sky diving experience. Beyond the usual Cebu stops, Ellen shared a personal moment with Baste and the group when they at the Temple of Leah. This shrine is owned by Ellen’s grandfather as a tribute of love to her grandmother.

This episode, Baste and Ellen proved once again that exes could be great friends and go on a funfilled adventure.

The “Cebu Getaway” episode of Lakbai was aired on Sunday on TV5.

DRIVING AROUND TOWN. Ellen Adarna is Baste Duterte's tour guide during the later's trip to Cebu

Find true love and new beginnings in Amaia’s quality and affordable homes.

D

O YOU still remember the first time that you fell in love?

In a short film titled First Love, Maya (portrayed by Elia Ilano), the bubbly and charming daughter of young couple Jericho and Janine (played by Wilson Clemente and Kristina Bascon), quite unexpectedly meets the ‘love of her life’ when they move into their new home in Amaia Scapes Capas.

“I remember that time. I was helping Mom and Dad arrange our things. Then I saw him . . . ,” Maya tenderly recalls.

The two-minute film then depicts how Maya develops affection for, and a strong connection with, her ‘new friend’ as they share precious moments together in the sprawling residential community in Tarlac.

Maya wistfully relates how he would comfort her “pag napagalitan ako ni nanay,” and how they would make up after wrangling over stuff as petty as marshmallows, which her friend hates.

“I love him even if he doesn’t like marshmallows,” Maya declares. “And the best part is, my mom and dad like him.”

But just when things are going well for the two of them, Maya finds herself desperately unhappy after the love of her life leaves without saying goodbye.

Feeling lost and forlorn, Maya seeks the company of people she loves, whose support encourages her to embrace her pain as part of

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Tuesday, July 11, 2017

ACROSS 1 Look out —!

6 Meager 11 I love (Lat.) 14 Sherlock’s lady friend 15 Comfortable 16 Edge 17 Roll with a hole 18 Plead irksomely 20 RR terminal 21 “Stormy Weather” singer 23 Knight’s gear 24 Small cities 26 1950s card game 28 Play postscript (var.)

30 Foals 31 Dove or pigeon 32 Family man 33 Get wind of 37 Ely of “Tarzan” 38 Tidies up 41 Farrow of “Zelig” 42 Big Dipper bear 44 Road map info 45 Selflessly 47 Farm machine 49 Bog 50 Musical intervals 53 Less common 54 Hearth 55 International

agreement 56 Chafe 59 Wagner opus 62 Angry 64 “The Name of the Rose” author 65 Departing 66 Sense organs 67 Get a load of 68 Summon 69 Mural undercoat DOWN 1 Apron tops 2 Latin 101 word 3 Diplomatic missions 4 Individual 5 Showing signs of much use (hyph.)

6 Knee neighbors 7 Robin Cook book 8 Elec. unit 9 Prefix for classic 10 Despot 11 Grads 12 North Dakota city 13 “Tosca,” e.g.

19 Litter 22 MIT grad 25 Pamplona cheer 26 Rises to the

occasion 27 Mr. Greenspan 28 Linen color 29 Broke 30 Provide eats 32 Liver pastes 34 Make blush 35 Has a fever 36 Sunbeams 39 Perry’s penner 40 Huffing 43 Slacken off 46 Crude metal 48 Get even for 49 Big burger 50 Leers

51 “I’ve Got a Name” singer 52 Lake near Reno 53 Target-practice area 55 Healthy hue 57 Navajo foes 58 Baja kiss 60 Admin. head 61 John Wayne’s “— Lobo” 63 Unhatched fish

her journey. It’s when she eventually moves on that she finally finds healing and the courage to start over.

Toward the end of the story, it is revealed that Maya’s love interest was an adorable neighborhood dog, and that her parents have given her a new one to call her own.

Still, Maya only has fond memories of her ‘first love’. “I’ll always remember him even if our time together was too short.

I’m thankful that I met him,” she says.

Stories of love and new beginnings such as Maya’s inspire Amaia Land Corp. to continue fulfilling its goal of bringing quality homes and a rich and rewarding living experience to Filipino families.

As of this writing, “First Love” has garnered more than 700,000 views, 6,000 reactions, and 905 shares.

Watch it here: https://www. facebook.com/AmaiaLand/ videos/1510067649017651/ Located at MacArthur Highway in Brgy. Estrada, the 21-hectare residential development Amaia Scapes Capas offers six variants of smartly designed units sold at prices made affordable for hardworking Filipinos. It boasts of conveniences and recreational amenities that cater to their growing families’ needs, such as a village pavilion, a swimming pool, a basketball court, and a kids’ playground.

Before 2016 ended, Amaia Land successfully turned over no less than 2,000 units to its aspiring homeowners.

Prospective buyers will find it easy to own

an Amaia home as Amaia Land offers flexible payment schemes: cash payment, deferred, PAGIBIG and bank financing.

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

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com TUESDAY, JULY 1 1, 2017

Kapuso wins at US International Film & Video Festival

A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN. In "My Love from the Star," Jennylyn Mercado is a movie star while Gil Cuerva is a 300-year-old alien living ordinarily among humans.

Fans rave about

‘MY LOVE FROM THE STAR’ G

MA Network’s local adaptation of the hit Korean series, My Love From The Star, continues to make waves on social media as the kilig Steffi (Jennylyn Mercado) and Matteo (Gil Cuerva) exude when they’re onscreen together levels up in each episode.

Jackson (Gabby Eigenmann) wants Steffi dead after seeing that she watched the videos on Rachel’s (Rhian Ramos) USB and has sent his men out to take care of her. But Matteo, who’s already falling for Steffi, won’t let anything or anyone hurt her. Viewers are quick to point out that the two are already acting like a couple—holding

hands, eating together, going on dates, and even frequenting each other’s places.

A Twitter user with the handle @edvanrachemarie tweeted “Simple lang yung istorya ng MLTFS pero kumpleto, may love story, drama, comedy, suspense, fantasy kaya kaabang-abang#MLFTSRachelsUSB”.

Another user said, “@MCph1125 : I really enjoy the chemistry between Jen and Gil! For me, it’s as natural as the sun rising and setting each day!

Saya pa! #MLFTSRachelsUSB” Meanwhile, Steffi is finding herself dependent on Matteo more than ever and constantly wants to have him around. Could it be that she’s falling for him, too? But Jackson isn’t stopping anytime soon on trying to hurt her. How long can Matteo protect her when he only has a few months left on Earth?

Watch the kilig-filled episodes of My Love From The Star weeknights after Mulawin Vs. Ravena on GMA Telebabad.

Jojo Mendrez’s ‘Magkabilang Mundo’ gets heavy radio airplay THE heartwarming rendition of Jireh Lim’s “Magkabilang Mundo” by businessmanturned-singer Jojo Mendre, has been a most requested and heavily played on all major FM radio stations in the country. The song, arranged

by Manuel Cruz, is the promotional track of Mendrez’s debut album.

The music video of “Magkabilang Mundo,” meanwhile, has enjoyed more than 1.5 million views on YouTube and Facebook combined, after only two weeks’ time. Everywhere you go, people are familiar with the song. Even the original singer, Jireh Lim, cannot be happier with the success that the song has enjoyed to date.

When Mendrez pursued his long-time passion, he undoubtedly found a different kind of fulfillment and great joy. Even when he’s neck-deep in business work, he manages to find time for his music.

He sings not for the money, but for the soul.

Music is his first love, in which he discovered his inner self. He has given his heart into singing.

So whenever an opportunity for his music comes his way, he never passes it up.

A talent of Star Power Entertainment, Jojo Mendrez started singing at the young age of eight. He joined a singing contest in Pitogo, Quezon, where his winning song was “Mr. DJ,”

by Sharon Cuneta, one of his singing idols. His other favorites are Patti Austin, Robby Rosa of Menudo and singer-songwriter Jose Mari Chan.

He took up voice lessons at the Ryan Cayabyab Music Studio. Jolina Magdangal and Roselle Nava were his classmates. He recorded a remake of “Tuyo Na’ng Damdamin” of the Apo Hiking Society. Because of the success of the song, Eat Bulaga later produced a music video of the said song for him.

Mendrez is now wrapping up his first solo album which includes cuts like “Basta Ikaw” and the Christmas ditty, “Diwa ng Pasko,” a duet with Tawag ng Tanghalan Kids third placer, Mackie Empuerto, written by award-winning composer Andrei Dionisio.

He also displayed his songwriting skills in “Ayoko ng Magmahal,” a powerful ballad that will also highlight his debut album. Also in the album are “Points of View,” a revival of the Pops Fernandez and Joey Albert’s “Diwa ng Pasko” and “Ayoko ng Magmahal,” (arranged

by Marvin Querido).

This early, two big producers have expressed their interest in mounting a major solo concert for Mendrez, possibly within the year, who keeps his faith that he could continue with his music and use the instrument God has blessed him with for a long time.

THE most internationally awarded broadcast network on Philippine television has brought honors to the country, again, winning seven medals and five certificates at the prestigious 2017 US International Film & Video Festival, including a Gold Camera award and “Best of Festivals” nomination for topnotch documentary program IWitness.

I-Witness’ winning episode, “Busal,” earned a Gold Camera award in the Documentary: News Programming-Public Affairs Programs category.

The documentary produced by the team of Howie Severino showed members of the urban poor airing grievances and hopes amid the present administration’s anti-drug campaign. It gave a face on the direct consequences of the anti-drug campaign through the eyes of those who belong to this marginalized sector of society.

“Busal” was also in the running for the Best of Festival Award, a recognition presented to an outstanding entry from among the Gold Camera winners in each production type.

Meanwhile, another GMA Public Affairs program, Front Row, took home two Silver Screen awards for documentaries “Bata sa Bintana” and “Mga Barya ni Lola Maria”.

“Bata sa Bintana”, which won in the Documentary: Health/Medical category, featured the story of 13-year-old boy Zoren whose health conditions rendered him so weak that his contact with the outside world was only through a window. After the airing, the government sent regional representatives to check on the child’s situation. A group of doctors and other individuals have also committed to extend help for Zoren.

“Mga Barya ni Lola Maria”, meanwhile, won in the Documentary: Biography category. The documentary showed how a 74-year-old woman from the Badjao tribe worked at the port in Lucena City by waiting for boat passengers to toss her coins, which she would dive for. She did this to feed and send her grandchildren to school.

Another I-Witness documentary, “Body Collector,” won a Silver Screen award in the Documentary-Current Affairs category.

The documentary by Cesar Apolinario was produced at the time when the issue on extrajudicial killings was already gaining traction in the local and international media. “Body Collector” aimed to give viewers an insight on the

bloody drug war through different perspectives.

Motorcycle Diaries’ “Lason sa Paraiso” gave GMA Public Affairs its fourth Silver Camera award, winning in the Documentary-Environment, Ecology category. The episode visited Boac, Marinduque and its residents still trying to recover from the 1996 mine disaster.

GMA News TV’s Reel Time, meanwhile, won a Silver Screen award for its “Maling Akala” episode in the Documentary: Political, Government category. The winning piece tackled the deaths amid the anti-narcotics drive since President Rodrigo Duterte took power in 2016. Several deaths resulted from what many are believed to be vigilante murders, which Duterte has refused to condemn. Reel Time gathered accounts from the victims’ relatives and reporters who cover the police beat.

GMA Entertainment group also

took home a Silver Screen award for I Bilib in the Entertainment: Children’s category. The weekly infotainment show hosted by Chris Tiu features scientific experiments and explores different scientific facts and theories surrounding everyday events presented in magical manner.

In addition to the abovementioned awards, GMA Network also took home Certificates for Creative Excellence for Alamat (Entertainment: Children category); the episode “PasanPasang Pangarap” in Reporter’s Notebook (Public Affairs Programs category); GMA News TV programs Brigada for “Abo at Buhangin” (Magazine Format category) and Reel Time for “Isinulat sa Tubig” (Social Issues category); and GMA Entertainment TV’s Idol sa Kusina (Cooking category).

Now on its 50th year, the US International Film & Video Festivals has been recognizing outstanding corporate, education, entertainment, documentary, and student productions all over the world.

Instituto Cervantes commemorates 80th year of Picasso’s Guernica INSTITUTO Cervantes, the cultural center of the Embassy of Spain, in collaboration with the Film Development Council of the Philippines and Ayala Museum, has programmed a film series and an art lecture associated with Picasso‘s famous painting Guernica and the historical period when it was created.

This is to celebrate the 80th year the masterpiece was first unveiled

to the public – July 12, 1937 to be exact.

On April 26, 1937, the German aviation bombarded the Basque town of Guernica. Moved by the tragic event that caused many civilian casualties, Picasso, who had been commissioned by the government of the Republic to produce a painting for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exposition, decided to name his work after the

Basque town.

The film series Spain in the times of Picasso’s Guernica aims to offer a cinematic vision of the turbulent history of that decade.

On July 15, 6 p.m., the documentary Raza, el espíritu de Franco (Race, the Spirit of Franco) will be featured. Directed

by Gonzalo Herralde in 1977, this documentary produced after the dictator Francisco Franco‘s

Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan (1933) or Land Without Bread is a 27-minute-long documentary portrait of the region of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilization has barely developed

Guernica, a muralsized oil painting on canvas

by Pablo Picasso completed in 1937, at his home in Paris.

death, includes interviews with the dictator’s sister and the actor who played the leading role in the Franco-inspired film Raza.

On July 22, 6 p.m., the audience will have the opportunity to see a short documentary that has become a classic – Luis Buñuel’s Tierra sin pan (Land Without Bread).

Produced in 1933, the film recounts Buñuel’s journey to Las Hurdes, a remote region in Extremadura, which was connected to the outside world only in 1922 with the completion of a road. The residents of the area – spread across several

villages – had to endure miserable lives in poverty and isolation from the outside world.

The program for the day will be completed with the feature film Alsasua 1936, directed by Helena Taberna in 1994. Directed

by Pilar Pérez in 2013, the documentary Las maestras de la República will conclude the movie series on July 29 at 6 p.m. This film, awarded with the Goya for Best Documentary in 2014, reflects the role of several female teachers, their effort to establish democracy in the country, and how they were

key in the years between 1931 and 1936. All films will be shown in their original versions in Spanish with subtitles in English.

The screenings will take place at the FDCP’s Cinematheque Centre Manila, 855 T.M. Kalaw, Ermita, Manila.

Entrance is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

For further information on the film series and the lecture please log on to: Instituto Cervantes’ website http://www.manila.cervantes. es or http://www.facebook.com/ InstitutoCervantesManila, or call 526-1482.