Manila Standard - 2017 August 11 - Friday

CUSTOMS CHIEF SUFFERS ‘PAIN’, TAKES A LEAVE

By Vito Barcelo, Maricel V. Cruz and Macon RamosAraneta

UN ENVOY. Pia Wurtzbach, the

Philippines’ former Miss Universe and UNAIDS goodwill ambassador for Asia, makes a hand gesture in the shape of a heart while taking Wednesday an HIV test at a government office in Taguig City, after the United Nations said this nation of 106-million people had the fastest growing number of infection in Asia. AFP

EMBATTLED Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon who was hospitalized Wednesday night due to a chest pains will take a leave of absence amid controversy over how P6.5 billion worth of shabu from China slipped through Customs examiners in May. Customs Deputy Commissioner for the revenue collection and monitoring group

Natalio Ecarma III was named as officerin-charge.

Lawmakers led by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez have been calling for Faeldon to resign over the bungled shabu shipment.

Meanwhile, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service director Neil Estrella resigned from his post, two days after Customs Import Assessment Services director Milo Maestrecampo quit.

Maestrecampo had been accused by a broker of taking bribes to facilitate the

processing of shipments.

Estrella said he submitted his resignation to President Rodrigo Duterte, with a copy furnished to Faeldon and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

Estrella admitted before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing that he failed to observe protocol by informing the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency immediately about the raid on the warehouse in Valenzuela City on May 25 that yielded the large shabu shipment from China.

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VOL. XXXI • NO. 178 • 4 SECTIONS 20 PAGES • P18 • FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Convene security council, Rody urged

By John Paolo Bencito and Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

Nokor mocks Trump, targets Guam, Japan S

CONTINGENCY measures are in place in Guam to ensure the safety of some 42,800 Fiipinos living there, the Palace said Thursday, even as a party-list group urged President Rodrigo Duterte to convene the National Security Council to deal with the North Korean threat to launch nuclear missiles near the American territory.

“The embassies and consulates in general have including the one in Hagatna, Guam, contingency plans which are regularly updated to enable them to respond to emergencies,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a Palace briefing.

EOUL—Nuclear-armed North Korea announced a detailed plan Thursday to send a salvo of four missiles over Japan and towards the US territory of Guam, raising the stakes in a stand-off with President Donald Trump and mocking him as “bereft of reason.”

The scheme to target the island, a key US military stronghold, was intended to “signal a crucial warning” as “only absolute force” would have an effect on the US leader, the North said.

The declaration came after Trump boasted on Twitter that America’s nuclear arsenal was “far stronger and more powerful than ever before.”

Earlier, Trump stunned the world with a bold message to leader Kim Jong-Un that appeared to borrow from Pyongyang’s own

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Sayyaf, Marines clash: 7 die

Honasan belies graft raps; arrest order out

By Florante S. Solmerin FIVE Abu Sayyaf men and two members of the Philippine Marines were killed in fresh firefight that erupted Thursday in Kalingalan Caluang, Sulu, security authorities said.

Joint Task Force Sulu commander Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said another soldier was wounded in the morning firefight in Barangay Pang.

The names of the soldier-casualties were withheld pending notification of kin.

Sobejana said the soldiers were in combat operation to rescue some kidnap victims when more than 30 terrorists encounNext page tered them.

rhetorical arsenal, saying the North faced “fire and fury like the world has never seen”.

The war of words over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs is raising fears of a miscalculation that could lead to catastrophic consequences on the Korean peninsula and beyond.

Last month the North carried out two successful tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile, bringing much of the US mainland within its range.

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By Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta THE Sandiganbayan has ordered the arrest of Senator Gregorio Honasan, who is facing graft charges in connection with the alleged anomalous use of his P30-million Priority Development Assistance Funds in 2012.

“The court finds that there is sufficient probable cause to hold the accused in this case for trial and issue a warrant of arrest against them,” the Sandiganbayan Second Division said.

Honasan is the fourth senator to be charged for misusing his PDAF or pork barrel allocation.

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STANDING TOUGH. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, in this undated picture released by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency on April 24, 2014, announced Thursday he would send a salvo of four missiles over Japan and towards Guam, raising the stakes in a stand-off with President Donald Trump and mocking him as ‘bereft of reason.’ AFP

Narco-pols warned: Resign or die

By Rey E. Requejo LOCAL politicians involved in illegal drugs should resign if they would still want to live longer, controversial Ozamiz City Police Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido said Thursday.

Espenido, scheduled to be given new area of assignment, Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido vowed to continue to perform his

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duties and comply with the orders of his superiors.

When asked about his message to those involved in illegal drugs where he would be assigned next, Espenido replied: “They should resign if they are involved.”

Espenido conducted an operation that resulted in the death of Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo

Bautista faces more raps, clings to post

By Vito Barcelo COMMISSION on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista said Thursday he was not quitting his post, that he was open to any investigation and would let a court decide if he was guilty or not.

He made the announcement in front of hundreds of Comelec employees who

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SWEARS UP AND DOWN. Senator Gringo Honasan Thursday pro-

fesses his innocence on graff charges for alleged misuse of his P30-million Priority Development Assistance Funds in 2012. Ombudsman prosecutors have filed two graft information against him for violations of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Jansen Romero

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‘China reclamation continues’

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

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WASHINGTON-BASED think tank has rejected the claims by the foreign ministers of Manila and Beijing that China has stopped its reclamation in the disputed South China Sea.

In photos and documents published on Thursday, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative of the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that “Beijing continues to reclaim land farther north” of the South China Sea “in the Paracel Islands,” an area also claimed by Vietnam.

“China’s own reclamation work did not end in mid-2015 with the completion of its artificial islands

in the Spratlys. Beijing continues to reclaim land farther north in the Paracel Islands,” AMTI said. It said the most recent examples of its reclamation were at Tree Island and North Island in the Amphitrite Group.

AMTI made its statement even as 10 Vietnamese illegally fishing inside Philippine waters fronting the disputed West Philippine Sea were arrested by authorities on Tuesday.

‘Patriotic bond’ for Marawi rehab

By Julito G. Rada and Macon Ramos-Araneta THE Finance Department plans to issue “patriotic bonds” worth P30 billion to finance the rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi City in Mindanao, an official said Thursday.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said he had ordered the Treasury to study the possible issuance of the debt securities.

He said the bonds would appeal to those citizens who would like to help rebuild the lives of their fellow Filipinos in Marawi.

“These are what you would call patriotic bonds to help augment the funds that the government has set aside for Marawi’s rehabilitation,” Dominguez said at a recent meeting of Finance’s executive committee.

He made the statement even as the Senate on Wednesday adopted Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III’s proposed resolution calling for the creation of a special committee that will focus on rebuilding Marawi City.

“The extent of the damage sustained by Marawi City and the large number of displaced citizens caused by the rebellion requires a well-coordinated, large-scale rebuilding effort on the part of the government,” Pimentel said.

Dominguez asked National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon to study the tenor or length of ma-

Narco-pols...

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Parojinog Sr. and 14 others, including other members of Parojinog’s family.

The Parojinogs were among the local officials earlier tagged

by President Rodrigo Duterte in the country’s illegal drug operations, which started soon as Duterte took his oath as President.

In related developments: The country’s drug problem cannot be fixed by a single president in a one term, Duterte admitted Wednesday night.

Duterte said ending the country’s drug problem might not be solved entirely during his term— despite his earlier vow during the campaign to end it within “3 to 6 months” from which he later eventually backtracked.

“Look, these shabu and drugs problems...cannot be solved by one man or a president for one term,” the President said in a speech before business leaders at the “Sulong Pilipinas” Philippine Development Forum at Mandaluyong City.

Malacañang, however, in defense of Duterte, denied that it was an admission of defeat.

“It is not an admission of failure. It is an admission of the depth, the breadth and complexity of the problem especially considering the fact that he has also said that it was only after he became President that he realized the—how widespread narco-politics had become,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano

turity of the bonds, which could possibly be for 20 years.

In a separate statement, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the government would release at least P15 billion to rehabilitate Marawi in the next two years. The allocations would form part of the proposed budget of the Marawi reconstruction master plan spearheaded by the Department of Public Works and Highways.

“The initial fund of P5 billion for 2017 will be sourced from the 2016 and 2017 NDRRM [National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council] fund with a combined remaining balance of around P7.4 billion, and the 2017 contingent fund with a balance of almost P3.35 billion, both as of July 2017,” Diokno said in his statement.

For the NDRRM fund for 2018, P25.5 billion has been allocated of which P10 billion had been allotted for the Marawi recovery and rehabilitation program, according to Diokno.

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte formalized the creation of an inter-agency task force dedicated to the recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation of Marawi City.

Duterte signed Administrative Order No. 3 on June 28 to create Task Force Bangon Marawi, with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana as chairman and Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar as vice chairman.

Aguirre II said the Department of Justice might use self-confessed drug trader Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa as a state witness against alleged drug lord Peter Lim and the other respondents in the criminal case pending before it.

Aguirre stressed Espinosa might be discharged as an accused in the criminal case and instead utilize him as state witness, only if his testimony would be vital in the prosecution and conviction of the other principal accused.

“The inclusion of Kerwin Espinosa in the criminal case, in the drug offense, can be discharged before the actual trial or even during the trial of the case. It is procedural in nature that he should be charged first and be discharged later as a state witness,” Aguirre said in an interview.

In defending his bloody drug war, Duterte said even the United States was not “drug-free.”

“It [the drugs problem] has bugged nations. America is under siege because of drugs. And they are far worse than us. They do not admit it. [But] until now, I said, they’re fighting a useless war there that never ends. And the sad part of it is that most of the drugs are provided by their good neighbors,” he said.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa, however, said that since the administration had intensified its anti-drug efforts, the local drug industry had suffered losses of up to P500 billion over the past year.

With John Paolo Bencito and Joel Zurbano

Nokor...

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Captain Cherryl Tindog, spokesman of the AFP’s Western Command, said the Vietnamese were arrested after the Philippine Navy vessel BRP Gregorio del Pilar sighted a Vietnamese fishing vessel off Tapuitan Point 31 nautical miles off the Palawan shoreline.

Tindog said the Vietnamese were on board the FV Hua Houng when the vessel was interdicted and escorted to the Port of El Nido.

AMTI had previously reported on China’s work in the disputed areas from Dec. 14, 2012 until Aug. 5, 2017 as shown in the photos.

In August 2015, AMTI claimed that two months after Wang Yi claimed all Chinese reclamation had ended, there

was only a small amount of newly created land on the western end of Tree Island.

“China has since dredged a new harbor and added about 25 acres of additional land to the island,” the organization said.

AMTI also reported in February that China had recently completed a new helipad and installed wind turbines and two photovoltaic solar arrays on Tree Island.

The group also said that China began reclamation to connect North Island with the neighboring Middle Island in 2016, but the land bridge was washed out by Typhoon “Sarika” last October.

“Since then, China has undertaken additional reclamation on the Southern end of North island and built a retaining wall around the seven acres of new land to

prevent further erosion,” the organization said.

China had also constructed several new facilities, including what appeared to be a large administrative building in a newly made clearing on the island. China had left a gap in the retaining wall facing the remnants of the washed-out land bridge, suggesting it might not have abandoned plans to connect North and Middle Islands.

AMTI was reacting to the recent claims of Foreign Ministers Alan Peter Cayetano and Wang Yi that China’s reclamation activities had long ceased.

But during the Asean Regional Forum that was held in Manila, Wang insisted that they were not the one building structures but Vietnam.

Convene...

Pyongyang called “a load of nonsense” Thursday.

A party-list lawmaker urged the President to convene the NSC to evaluate the country’s options, contingencies and response mechanisms.

Rep. Salvador Belaro, Jr. of 1-Ang Edukasyon Party-list, said the Philippines could well be within striking distance of North Korean missiles.

“North Korean missiles, if they are sent to Guam, could fly over our airspace,” he said.

“If those missiles fail during flight, they could drop on part of our territory. If those missiles have nuclear warheads, what can the Philippines do in response?”

Belaro said.

Invoking the Philippines’ 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States should be among the options presented

to the President, more so if any missiles from North Korea enter the country, or fall, or strike any part of it, he said.

“Those missiles are the threat.

Keeping them from flying to us or to any direction outside of North Korea is the priority.

Making those missiles stay on the ground is primarily a diplomatic mission,” said Belaro.

“Now is a good time to stand with our Department of Foreign Affairs, our Department of National Defense, and our President and commander in chief,” he said.

“Now is a good time to rely on and harness the goodwill our country has fostered with our neighbors here in Asia and the Pacific, not just during the Duterte administration, but also under past presidents,” Belaro said.

“Now is also a good time for prayers,” he said.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed two graft charges against Honasan for violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The Ombudsman said the Department of Budget and Management released P30 million of Honasan’s PDAF, which was coursed through the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos as implementing agency in April 2012.

The funds was was intended to finance small and medium livelihood projects for Muslim Filipinos in communities in Metro Manila and Zambales.

Aside from Honasan, the the anti-graft court also ordered the arrest of Michael Benjamin, Political Affairs/Project Coordinator Chief of Honasan and former officials of the NCMF, namely

Mehol Sadain, Fedelina Aldanese, Galay Makalinggan, Aurora Aragon-Mabang, and Olga Galido and officials of Focus Development Goals Foundation Inc., namely Giovanni Manuel Gaerlan and Salvador Gaerlan.

The anti-graft court said the accused may post bail at P30,000 for their temporary liberty.

It was learned that Sadain, Mabang, Galido, and Aldanese already posted bail.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said he knows Honasan as “upright.”

“When you’re issued an arrest warrant, it doesn’t mean you’re guilty but that there is a probable cause. The court just wants you to be there to answer. I’m sure he will answer the charges in court,” Gordon said.

the hospital yet.

Estrella told lawmakers of his resignation Wednesday night during a congressional hearing, after he was identified by broker-importer Mark Ruben Taguba II of accepting bribes.

“It is with deep regret—not least because of the tremendous trust you have reposed in my position and because of the renewed support you have extended our leadership—that I write to resign as director of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service [CIIS] of

the Bureau of Customs [BOC],” Estrella said in his resignation letter to the President.

Taguba II earlier linked several Customs officials who allegedly received bribes from him to ease the shipment of goods at the bureau.

Other BoC officials named by Taguba II include Maestrecampo; Teddy Sagaral, Manila International Container Port Service district intelligence officer; Customs Deputy Commissioner Teddy Raval; and Manila International Container Port District Collector Vincent Philip Maronilla.

The region was facing “a mini Cuban Missile Crisis,” John Delury, professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University, told AFP. Trump’s “fire and fury” remarks were “a load of nonsense”, said Gen. Kim RakGyom, the commander of the North’s missile forces, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason,” he added in a statement.

The military would complete the Guam plan by mid-August and submit it to Kim Jong-Un for consideration, he said.

The distinctively precise statement said the four missiles would be launched simultaneously and overfly the Japanese prefectures of Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi.

They would have a flight time of 17 minutes 45 seconds, travel 3,356.7 kilometres (around 2,086 miles) and come down 30 to 40 kilometres away from Guam, it said—which would put the impact points just outside US territorial waters.

Japan, which has in the past warned it would shoot down any North Korean missiles that threaten its territory, responded that it could “never tolerate” provocations from the reclusive state.

The western Pacific island of Guam is home to US strategic assets including long-range bombers and military jets and submarines, which are regularly deployed for shows of force in and near the Korean peninsula, to Pyongyang’s fury.

Two supersonic US bombers took off from the island on a fly-over mission to Korea early this week.

Prof. Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies said the level of detail in Pyongyang’s declaration was unusual.

“The North appears to be saying what it is going to do is within international laws,” he told AFP. “Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the North may translate this plan into reality.”

Delury added: “In a sense they are trying to ensure that the United States and South Korea, and Japan even, don’t mistake this for a real attack.”

During the Cold War in the 1980s the Soviet Union sent unarmed missiles to come down in the Pacific within 1,000 kilometers of Hawaii.

Analysts said a North Korean launch towards Guam would put the US in a dilemma: If it did not attempt to intercept the missiles, its credibility would be damaged and the North would feel emboldened to carry out a full-range ICBM test.

But if an intercept was attempted and any of the rockets got through it would undermine the effectiveness of the United States’ ballistic missile defense.

“This is a coercive threat to halt B-1 flights,” Adam Mount, senior fellow of the Center for American Progress said on Twitter.

“Unlike Trump’s vague, incendiary threat, DPRK’s is coercive, clear, specific, and has credible escalation potential.

Response is difficult.” AFP

trated by the ASG was only last month against four laborers , all from Zamboanga City, working at a sports complex in Patikul.

Meanwhile, Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. appealed to local officials in Lanao del Sur to closely monitor and guard their own bodies of waters and land against infiltration of terrorists especially those who want themselves extricated from the battle area in Marawi City as part of their secu-

rity plan for long-term solutions to Islamic extremism in Mindanao.

“It would be best if you look after your lakes and your respective areas,” Galvez told officials during a meeting Wednesday at the provincial capitol.

Galvez made the appeal as Manila Standard reported that IS-anointed leader for South East Asia Abu Sayyaf Group leader Isnilon Hapilon and 28 followers had been dragging with them bags purportedly con-

taining more than a billion of pesos in cash, piecesa of jewelry and gold and were tunneling towards the Lanao lake and Agus river to escape.

The tunneling was being done under a mosque where the terrorists sought refuge from military assaults and air and ground bombardments.

More than 500 terrorists, 122 soldiers, and 45 civilians have been killed in the more than two months of fighting.

matters,” Bautista said. He showed a supposed letter from Patricia detailing her financial and real property demands from him.

The letter, the photos of which was tweeted by GMA News’ Tina Panganiban-Perez, was prepared by Patricia’s legal counsel Lorna Kapunan whose signature appears in the document.

According to the letter, Patricia wanted Bautista to give her

P500 million in three installments of two P200,000, and P100,000.

Kapunan on Thursday confirmed that Bautista bailed his wife Patricia Paz Bautista out of her P3.2-million credit card debt which, Patricia said, she was paying back with interest.

Kapunan read out Patricia’s text message during an interview on dzBB two days after

Bautista said he bailed his estranged wife out of her credit card debt in 2012.

“My three-million credit card debt accumulated over 12 years.

I never got a personal budget,” Kapunan quoted Patricia as saying.

“Had to pay for, among other things, my kids’ schooling until they reached prep, pre-school, nursery, kinder.”

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Foreign Affairs spokesman Robespierre Bolivar also assured all Filipinos in Guam that the consulate general is prepared and has updated its contingency plan in case North Korea launches a nuclear attack near Guam.

Neither the Palace nor the Foreign Affairs department, however, offered any details on these contingency plans.

On Thursday, North Korea’s army released a statement announcing that they are planning to launch missiles near Guam, where the United States has air and naval bases.

The statement came after US President Donald Trump warned North Korea that it would suffer “fire and fury”—a threat that

Honasan...

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The others were former senators Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, who were charged in 2014 with plunder and graft for allegedly pocketing kickbacks from the multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles.

Honasan professed his innocence.

“I am completely innocent of the charges against me,” he said in a statement.

“All my life I have fought everything I am accused of, and I will continue to do so,” said Honasan, a former army colonel who mounted several coup attempts against the administration of the late President Cory Aquino.

Customs...

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Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Richard Gordon accused Estrella of incompetence, and said his actions made the Customs bureau a laughingstock.

Estrella’s failure to follow protocol might have rendered the shabu inadmissible as evidence, the Senate hearing found.

Faeldon’s chief of staff Mandy Therese Anderson said that her boss suffered heart problems and could not be released from

Sayyaf,...

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The soldiers recovered seven high-powered firearms left by the terrorists in their escape.

“JTF Sulu forces [are] determined to continue their relentless and sustained effort in pursuing the Abu Sayyaf and other lawless elements for the safe rescue of the kidnap victims,” Sobejana said in a statement.

The latest abduction perpe-

Bautista...

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gathered at the Comelec’s main lobby to show their support for him.

Bautista described as blackmail and extortion the claim of his wife Patricia who exposed his alleged ill-gotten wealth amounting to almost P1 billion.

“Let the court decide on those

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Budget cuts eyed in 3 agencies

By Maricel V. Cruz and John Paolo Bencito THREE government agencies may suffer budget cuts to give way to the implementation of the newly-enacted Republic Act 10931 or the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act,” a House official said on Thursday.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on appropriations, said the proposed budget of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Transportation, respectively, may be slashed due to low absorptive capacity and sluggish implementation of projects and programs.

By reducing budget for next year, the three agencies could contribute P 37.5 billion in total as a standby fund once the free college education program is fully implemented in 114 State Universities and Colleges, 16 Local Universities and Colleges accredited by CHED and 122 Technical-Vocational Institutions under Tesda.

During the budget briefing of the Department of Information and Communications Technology on Thursday, Nograles’ panel discovered the agency has P2.7 billion of unused appropriations in 2016 and P2.695 Billion in unused appropriations in 2017.

“These funds will expire in December 31, 2017 and I doubt very much if DICT will be able to utilize these funds before the year ends. So instead of wasting these funds I would rather use the money to support the higher education law for free tuition and miscellaneous fees for students in SUCs, LUCs, TVIs,” Nograles said.

Nograles said that an additional P 5 billion can be sourced from the DAR and P 30 billion from the DOTr. “Another department with low utilization rate is the Department of Agrarian Reform that failed to utilize P6 billion in 2015, and failed to obligate P5 billion in 2016.

The Department of Transportation, on the other hand, failed to utilize P33 billion in 2015, and again in 2016 they have so far failed to obligate P30 billion of their budget allocation,” Nograles said.

Nograles said, however, that since some of the unused allocations were programmed under the 2015 appropriations, the funds have already expired and were reverted to the national treasury.

The unused funds for the 2016 appropriations, on the other hand, will expire in December of this year.

While it cannot be tapped for the 2018 national expenditure program, it can be programmed for spending under a supplemental budget.

“The 2016 funds are still alive and set to expire on December 31, 2017. At this point in time I am very doubtful they will be able to utilize those funds. So I am looking at considering these funds as savings and writing a supplemental budget to use as standby fund for the free higher education law,” Nograles said.

SHOW OF SUPPORT. Comelec employees show their support to Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista (middle) as they attend an afternoon Mass at the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros on Thursday. Norman Cruz

Leila will remain in her prison cell, Digong says

By John Paolo Bencito

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MBATTLED Senator Leila de Lima will remain inside her prison cell at Camp Crame, President Rodrigo Duterte said late Wednesday night as he junked calls by several European Union lawmakers for her to be detained in the comforts of her own home.

Speaking before business leaders at the ‘Sulong Pilipinas’ Philippine Development Forum in Mandaluyong City, Duterte expressed astonish-

ment that the incarcerated lady senator would play her cards to make people believe that she is a ‘‘prisoner of conscience.”

“I cannot imagine that—her capacity to… Imagine, she can even convince foreigners— ‘yung mga t— mga EU. Hijo de…Tapos magpunta dito to declare… ‘Can she be house arrested because she’s a prisoner of conscience?’ Pu… Pagka-b—talaga itong mga...

You are losing the matters there,” he said.

On July 19, a 12-member delegation of the European Parliament spoke with De Lima and later issue a statement calling for her release.

The delegation was led by Sweden’s Soraya Post and was

joined by Adam Kosa of Hungary, Rikke Karlsson of Denmark, and Josef Weidenholzer of Austria, among others.

Duterte even brought up De Lima’s alleged sex video with her lover-driver, Ronnie Dayan, to prove his point.

“With all the, you know…

Pati ‘yung pardon… ‘Yung video. Hindi niyo tinignan kung anong klaseng babae ‘yan? And they come here and say na she’s a prisoner of conscience. My God,” he said.

“Sandali lang, I’m trying to replay the video. Huwag kayong maingay, you are dis-

Palace eases rules on netizen journos TONED-DOWN policies will be accorded to so-called “social media practitioners” once they get accredited to cover Malacañang, a Palace official said Thursday—with no prohibitions set if they wanted to peddle fake news or use foul language.

In efforts to keep up with a more “populist” and “open” policy for netizens to cover Palace activities, Communications Assistant Secretary Michael Kristian Ablan said that they have loosened up some stringent requirements they’ve implemented, on the premise that they would “behave.”

“We had to delete the requirement, limitation regarding the use of profanity because it might encroach on their freedom of speech,” said Ablan.

“The presumption is those who will be accredited are law-abiding Filipino citizens who will not use profanity in their articles, who will not use fake news,” he added. “There’s

no need to expressly state that you’re not supposed to use profanity in any of your articles.”

In his Department Order No. 15, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar ordered for an interim ‘social media practitioner accreditation system’ that will be handled by the PCOO’s Social Media Office under former sex guru-turned-blogger, Assistant Secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson—with the only requirements be at least 18 years old and have more than 5,000 followers in any social media platform.

A “Social Media Practitioner” refers to “a person that maintains a publicly-accessible social media page, blog, or website, which generates content and whose principle advocacy is the regular dissemination of original new and/or opinion of interest.”

Ablan said that Uson had asked the PCOO to lower its standards to accommodate more netizens in the Palace, such as lowering requirements for “daily” original

content to “regular” original content.

“We tried to abide by the United Nations mininum standards but with discussions with Assistant Secretary Uson and her staff, they opted for a more populist, open accreditiaton process,” he said.

To apply for accreditation, qualified persons need to file their applications at the Social Media Office at 2nd Floor, New Executive, Building, J.P. Laurel St., Malacañang Palace, San Miguel, Manila.

Accreditation, however, is on a per event/activity only, which is valid for single use, unless expressly specified. They however, should seek clearance first from the Presidential Security Group (PSG), which handles Duterte’s security.

The PCOO may “withdraw, cancel or suspend” the accreditation, on grounds of: Abuse of rights and privileges extended by PCOO; and put his/her accreditation to improper use.

John Paolo Bencito

‘Arrest gang preying on OFWs at Naia’

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

IMPEACHMENT. Violence Against Crime and Corruption founding chairman Dante Jimenez shows to media an approved Supreme Court copy granting their request to obtain the necessary records in connection with the impeachment complaint filed against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno at the Supreme Court Office in Manila Thursday. Norman Cruz

SENATE President ProTempore Ralph Recto yesterday said the government should arrest the leaders and smash the syndicate of Naia personnel involved in stealing from the bags of passengers.

Recto made the call following the arrest of four baggage handlers for allegedly stealing the jewelry of the wife of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

If authorities had only done that a long time ago, he said the country would have been spared of this embarrassing incident.

“It took a foreign VIP to lodge a complaint before authorities

finally took action against a continuing crime routinely posted by its victims, our OFWs, in social media,” Recto said.

Recto urged the National Bureau of Investigation “and other non-Naia based agencies” to conduct the probe and lead the hunt on the perpetrators.

If there is a need to use intelligence fund, he said it will be good money worth spending.

“When you steal from OFWs, they who are returning from long and low-paying hard labor abroad, then you are an enemy of the state,” Recto said.

Recto said taxpayer-paid PR drives to lure in more tourists are negated by the bad press the country’s main gateway is getting.

turbing me. I can still see the dog na ‘yung karga-karga niya palagi sa opisina niya,” he added.

Duterte, who visited Camp Crame during the 116th Police Service Anniversary, said he took a peek at De Lima’s detention cell which has been her home since last February over alleged drug raps.

“Punta ako doon sa Crame, sinilip ko ‘yung presuhan niya. Gusto ko sabihin, malayo man. Punta ako, sabi ko, ‘Saan na ‘yun, ‘yung gaga na ‘yun?’’Doon.’ Dinala ako,” he said.

NDF’s plot claim pathetic –Palace THE alleged plot to kill Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison and later on overthrow President Rodrigo Duterte by the military establishment is simply “pathetic,” Malacañang said Thursday.

Communist rebels, meanwhile, attempted to restart the failed peace negotiations by offering to sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement if the government signs an agreement on social and economic reforms.

In a regular Palace news briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said that recent claims by the National Democratic Front simply has “no basis.”

“Rumors of attempts to overthrow the President has been around from day one,” Abella said.

“However, this latest twist where they include themselves is an insertion of themselves into the plot.

It’s rather pathetic, okay,” he added.

The NDF’s executive committee, however, insisted that it has factual basis in claiming a “two-staged plot” by alleged cohorts by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency.

“The NDFP National Executive Committee has sufficient factual basis and compelling reason to expose the two-stage military plot in order to discourage and frustrate its implementation,” it said.

John Paolo Bencito

A4

Opinion

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL

No tuition funding

T

HE free tuition law in state-run universities is one noble deed from both houses of Congress that deserves credit. But it is too early to celebrate the milestone—the free tuition regime cannot just take off, simply because of lack of funding.

President Rodrigo Duterte conceded that while he signed the law granting free tuition in state-run universities, colleges, and technical-vocational schools, Congress failed to iden-

tify the source of revenue that would fund the expense.

Duterte’s economic managers understandably opposed the early passage of the law without appropri-

ated funds or identified revenues. Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno estimates that the free tuition law will cost an additional P100 billion in next year’s budget.

The lack of an identified revenue source has ironically prompted Diokno to warn against an increase in the population of students enrolled in state schools effective by the first quarter of 2018, aware that the

government will have a real funding problem once the “mandatory” provisions of the law are carried out.

Congress, in its deliberation of the proposed 2018 budget, may have to realign some of the expenses in the appropriations bill to finance the free tuition law. That is not an easy task. Some departments and line agencies may suffer a cut and be unable to fund their equally im-

portant mandate.

Increased borrowings to finance free tuition is also not the preferred funding mode because of the impact on inflation, local interest rates and other macro-economic targets that the 2018 budget has assumed.

The only sensible option is to identify new revenue sources such as increased taxes to create a stable fiscal position.

Congress, however, may not find

the last option appealing because of the 2019 elections.

At any rate, lawmakers must find the way to fund the free tuition law because of the long-term benefits to the nation. The new law is one of the tools that will directly reduce poverty incidence in the Philippines.

Much is at stake and lawmakers should take the responsibility to attend to the plight of poor college students.

PENSEES FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN AQUINO

The university’s academic freedom

Moving forward LOWDOWN

JOJO A. ROBLES WHERE, as they used to say, is the beef? I guess we’ll all know soon enough.

Today, the story of Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista and his alleged Croesus-like wealth would have hogged the headlines for a whole workweek. It’s now time to move on from the sleazy tabloid headlines and to get down to the business of actually finding out—through real investigations based on actual documents —if the allegations of ill-gotten wealth are more than just an estranged wife’s fevered and impecunious imaginings.

I’m glad that the Department of Justice has decided to step into the case, putting special emphasis on the paper trail of Bautista’s assets and the activity of the bank accounts supposed

to be in his name. In the coming days, Congress is supposed to start its own investigations, as well, regardless of whether the end in view is impeaching Bautista or not.

So far, the case has only been probed in the media, online and otherwise. And considering the possible repercussions of the Bautista case, that is not where anyone involved (including the voting public) want it to be investigated exclusively and with finality.

Of course, the task of poring through bank statements and following the money trail is nowhere near as compelling and sensational as discussing alleged unusual sexual proclivities, “third-eye” abilities or even political conspiracy theories. But the real test of the truth of the original charges hurled by Patricia Bautista against her husband and his counter-accusations against her, in turn, will be how they hold up after the relevant documents and other evidence have

been gathered and sorted out.

The last thing anyone, including the spouses Bautista, want is to keep the charges and countercharges in the media, debated by lawyers of both parties outside of a regular courtroom or impeach-

Now the hard but supremely important job of finding the truth and punishing the guilty must start. ment tribunal and programmed by public relations specialists.

These advocates, after all, seek victory not in a long, boring legal battle but in the fast-paced kangaroo court of public opinion,

where the verdict is never final and executory and no one really gets the vindication and justice that they supposedly seek.

The PR battle was necessary, in a way, because the legal processes required to handle the case need a lot more time to get off and running. And the news cycle needs to continue, never mind if the mudslinging gets progressively more ridiculous and incredible with each passing day.

But I think the time has come to get to the heart of the matter: Proving (or disproving) the charges that Bautista illegally amassed a king’s ransom while serving in mid-level government positions and whether or not he compromised the 2016 elections that he supervised if he did. Those are the only real matters of importance to the people involved or who are not related to them by blood or by marriage, after all.

The voyeurs have had their fun. Now the hard but supremely important job of finding the

truth, punishing the guilty and exonerating the innocent must start. *** Investments in cement manufacturing plants which provide jobs are not a license to exploit consumers through price and supply manipulation in collusion with some trade officials.

That’s the position of the small cement importers and other industry stakeholders who have raised a collective howl over the Department of Trade and Industry’s issuance of an administrative order requiring cement importers to obtain an Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) on top of the requirement of a Product Safety (PS) mark.

The order, by the way, exempts the big cement manufacturers-importers from the same requirements. The industry has criticized the order for being grossly biased since it would allow the giant manufacturers-importers to dominate the cement industry by act-

JUSTICE Frankfurter’s articulation of the breadth of the academic freedom of an institution of higher learning is unbeatable: It is the right to determine who should teach, whom to teach, what to teach and how to teach. In several cases, our own Supreme Court has invoked this doctrine and has upheld the right of the university to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit to its courses of study.

Thus, it follows that appurtenant to academic freedom is the right to set admission requirements. One of these can very well be testing for the use of or habituation to dangerous drugs. In the landmark case of Garcia v. Loyola School of Theology (1975), inevitably cited in all discourses on academic freedom, our High Court said of the right of the institution to determine admission policies: “It is free from outside coercion or interference save possibly when the overriding public welfare calls for some restraint. It has a wide sphere of autonomy certainly extending to the choice of students.

This constitutional provision is not to be construed in a niggardly manner or in a grudging fashion. That would be to frustrate its purpose, nullify its intent.”

While it is true that Republic Act No. 9165 provides for “mandatory, random drug testing” in schools, there should be nothing constitutionally amiss about a university requiring all of its students submission to a drug test as a requirement for admission. This would merely be the university’s exercise of its academic freedom. Lest it be theorized that state universities, as instrumentalities of national government, do not enjoy the same latitude of freedom in regard to decisions about the admission of students, it should suffice to heed the doctrine of the Supreme Court in University of the Philippines v. Ligot-Telan (1993) where the UP’s right to refuse admission to a student on disciplinary grounds was held to be well encompassed by the scope of its academic freedom.

Turn to A5

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can be accessed at: thestandard.com.ph

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Philippine Press Institute The National Association of Philippine Newspapers

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ManilaStandard

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

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Chairman Emeritus, Editorial Board

Opinion Don’t play North Korea’s game IMMEDIATELY after a notable diplomatic win—unanimous backing at the United Nations for tougher sanctions against North Korea—President Donald Trump undid much of the benefit by exchanging useless threats of nuclear annihilation with the rogue regime. Instead of playing North Korea’s game of reckless propaganda, Trump should be quietly piling on the pressure while showing more clearly that he’s willing to talk.

The president’s threat to rain down “fire and fury” on the North doesn’t change the fact that the military options in this crisis are terrible. Any preemptive strike risks retaliation and massive civilian casualties in South Korea and possibly Japan. The chances of swiftly eliminating dictator Kim Jong Un’s nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals are slim to none. Heedlessly initiating any such conflict would be criminally irresponsible.

What’s needed instead is a direct, concerted and openended effort to engage the North Korean government, as distasteful and difficult as that may be. Rather than waiting for Kim to show contrition, or attaching unrealistic preconditions to talks, the US should be using every diplomatic lever—public and covert—to block North Korea’s progress toward a functioning, nuclear-armed ICBM, and to cap its nuclear and ballistic-missile arsenals.

The sanctions resolution offers such an opportunity.

Bolstered by the breadth of support for that initiative, the US could remind the North that the world wants it to reenter the community of nations. The US should offer talks on that basis, without insisting at the outset that they must end in the full denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. That’s the correct long-term goal, to be sure, but it’s unrealistic right now. Instead, the

Trump administration needs a staged strategy that starts with confidence-building.

The US has much to trade— from economic assistance to various forms of diplomatic recognition—and shouldn’t disdain such incentives.

None of this is sure to work: With a regime like North Korea, there are no guarantees. Skeptics say the North will pocket concessions and keep developing its weapons.

That’s possible. The case for pressure plus talks isn’t that it’s bound to work, but that the alternative is worse The pressure can be increased —not least by making the sanctions work better.

Otherwise, the new measures may not shave a third off North Korea’s export revenue, as hoped. The US also needs to deepen its intelligence-sharing and military cooperation with South Korea and Japan. The US and South Korea should keep trying to give North Koreans information from the outside world — and keep reminding the world of the regime’s human-rights violations.

To give all this the best chance of working, though, the White House will need something that doesn’t come easily to Trump: message discipline. Granted, the bewildering range of positions coming out of Washington recently may have led China to support stronger sanctions for fear of what Trump might do otherwise—but the so-called madman strategy has limits, especially when deployed to check a madman, and the US has reached them.

It’s vital to leave Kim in no doubt that any use of his weapons would be suicide.

But Trump’s careless threats actually undercut US credibility, while obscuring its tentative offers of dialogue.

Trump can hope to make real progress on North Korea— but only if he can learn that sometimes it’s best to shut up.

Bloomberg

Not even Trump believes in his wall Bloomberg editorial MOST members of Congress, including many Republicans from states adjoining Mexico, have seen President Donald Trump’s 2,000-mile wall along the southern border as a political device, not a serious proposal. Rightly so: The practical difficulties are enormous, and the benefits, supposing it could be done, minimal. The real question throughout has been how much money would be wasted pretending this project might work.

That question seems all the more pressing now we know that even the president doesn’t believe in his wall.

Last week, a leaked transcript of a phone call between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto revealed that Trump understands that the wall is really just a political prop. Imploring his Mexican counterpart to play along, Trump said that the wall is “the least important thing we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important.”

So how many billions are Republicans willing to spend on pointless construction, environmental damage, and seizure of private property to help Trump save face?

The answer may be a lot.

The House Appropriations Committee in July proposed a Homeland Security spending bill that included $1.6 billion for a border wall. That’s a lot of money for the “least important thing” on the USMexico agenda—while other, actually vital, US domestic programs face cuts. It’s also $1.6 billion more than nothing, which is what Trump promised the wall would cost US taxpayers, because he was going to make Mexico pay.

Republicans willing up to now to go along with this charade ought to stop and think. It’s right to make illegal immigration harder (even though illegal border crossings from Mexico into the US recently hit a 17-year low).

But there are much cheaper and far more effective ways to do it.

More enforcement personnel and better technology make sense — both to deter smuggling and to facilitate commerce.

Drones and ground sensors can be deployed to meet specific local conditions. In some cases, upgrades can be as simple as a paved road or an observation tower.

What can’t be justified is the wall. Trump has just acknowledged as much. Republicans need to take him at his word.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

A5

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

‘Fire and fury’ Guam the US will not sit idly by and wait for North Korea to make good on its threat. That validates the statement of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and defense department officials who earlier said “military options are on the table.”

The US has 6,800 nuclear warheads with a reach of 10,000 kilometers or approximately 6,213 miles. Fired from their silos in the US mainland, these Intercontinental Ballistics Missiles (ICBM) can reach all the way to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. It may come without prior notice or warning even as Kim Jong Un is having his usual dinner of Bulgogi and kimchee.

But despite the puny although no longer primitive nuclear capability of North Korea, it is even more dangerous than the whole arsenal of America. Why? Because you have a walking time bomb in Jong Un who has an itchy finger on the trigger to unleash his nuclear warheads.

God help us all against this lunatic. A nuclear missile unleashed by either Trump or Jong Un will have serious conse-

BACK CHANNEL ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO THE war of words between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is escalating global tension.

An outbreak of hostilities cannot be confined to the Korean peninsula alone.

A preemptive first strike by the US reacting to Kim’s threat to send long-range nuclear missiles against the US territory of Guam and even into the American heartland in the Midwest is not a remote scenario.

Guamenians are considered US citizens. So too are the thousands of Filipinos who have settled there. Once a quiet idyllic South Pacific island, many American retirees chose to spend the sunset of their lives in Guam.

People in Guam are now in panic that the madman Kim Jong Un has targeted them to show off his arsenal and newly discovered toy.

From Washington, President Trump assured the people of

quences for the Philippines. For sure, the deadly fallout of either a strike on Guam or Pyongyang will reach the Philippines.

How will other nations with nuclear capability like NoKor ally China and Russia react to a preemptive US strike? Russia has more nuclear warheads of 7,000 more than the 6,800 listed

by Jane’s military book of nuclear stockpile and other weapons of war.

Bautista vs Bautista The battle of the Bautistas for the P1 billion the Commission on Elections chairman has reportedly stashed away is turning ugly. Comelec chief Andres Bautista said his wife, who had taken on a lover, is trying to extort millions from him not to make public bankbooks, titles to real estate property, including a condo unit in Bonifacio Global City and another one in San Francisco, California, Mrs. Patricia Paz Bautista’s lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, on the other hand, was reported on MSN Philippines saying that it is the Comelec chief who is using his secret condo units as “sex

dens..”

Does the resourceful Mrs. Bautista have compromising photos of her husband? Was she able to secure the reception logbook with the names and times that her ex-husband’s female visitors came in? This, as they say, make for juicy plot in a film.

No need to write a fictional plot.

Just follow the lines in real life and make script in the style of a roman a cleft.

As we wrote on Wednesday, the messy marital split is drawing the prurient interest of those people with a vicarious appetite for scandal, especially in a situation involving a pretty woman, an important public official and money worth billions.

The saddest part of this whole Le Affair Bautista is its impact and collateral damage for the ex- couple’s four young children.

Chairman Bautista, in near tears during a live interview on TV, said that one of his children has stopped going to school because of bullying classmates who make references to his broken family and the father’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.

JJ Atencio and 8990 VIRTUAL REALITY TONY LOPEZ EFFECTIVE end of this year, Januario Jesus “JJ” Atencio retires as president and CEO of 8990 Holdings, Inc., the publicly listed leading mass housing developer.

It is not that JJ has been ousted from 8990 for so-so performance. “8990 remains a growth company,” he points out.

The more likely reasons for his self-imposed retirement are: one, burnout brought about by cumbersome red tape; two, his desire to do other things, for himself and for the country, over which he has complete control and probably, complete ownership; and three, his decision to remain as director, which means he could still help in visioning for 8990’s directions.

As CEO, JJ was a hands-on manager. He encouraged his homebuyers to text him anytime of the day. “It is part of our consumer focus,” he says. But then 8990 is on track to build 40,000 homes.

Also, building houses is not as easy and predictable as it used to be. From concept to actual delivery, mass housing now requires at least 100 signatures and at least 200 supporting documents. If you are really good, he smiles, “you can produce all that in one year, double from just six months 25 years ago.”

A large 8990 project in east of Metro Manila has been gestating for past two years and a

half, because the mayor does not want to give the go-signal “even if we are willing to share.” Of late, the Department of Agrarian Reform has stopped land conversions, restricting land available for both housing and factories.

Another trend. Every time there is a new president, the company suffers a hiccup, not necessarily a plateau. Thankfully, 8990, each time, stages a rebound—and what a rebound it always is. “We are a patient and a very resilient company,” he asserts with pride in calming fears of headwinds. “With a housing backlog, it is imperative for a business like ours to continue innovating and reading the signs to be flexible.”

Why that missionary zeal?

“Homelessness remains a major problem in the Philippines,” JJ notes. At least four million families do not have a dwelling place they can call a home.

Demand grows by half a million a year but annual production is 250,000 units at best. “8990 is blessed that God has given us an opportunity to run a good business,” says JJ, “but also to solve a great social problem— housing.” Food, clothing and shelter are man’s basic needs.

Among the 12-million Filipino expats—their needs focus on three: education, insurance, and housing.

“A company,” the Jesuit-educated JJ argues, “is more than about profits. It must have a sense of mission to change this country for the better. Otherwise, the business is not sustainable.”

JJ owns only 10.37 percent of 8990 Holdings. He has two

The university’s...

From A4 So, while there is no doubt that the CHED may, in the exercise of its regulatory authority, issue guidelines on mandatory but random drug testing, a university may not be begrudged its right to exercise its academic freedom by requiring of all of its students, as a condition for enrollment, submission to a drug test. There certainly is a right to education, and, arguably, a right to higher education, but there certainly is no such thing as a right to be admitted into a university. Determining whether a student may or may not be admitted constitutes an exercise of discretion on the part of the university—particularly its

Moving...

From A4 ing as a cartel ahead of gaining full control of the lucrative construction projects under the Duterte administration’s Build, Build, Build infrastructure program.

DTI insists that the order was issued to ensure consumer

main partners—Luis Yu, the chairman, who owns or controls 44.24 percent, and Mariano Martinez, who has 19.91 percent. The partnership has been exceedingly profitable for the three. Named after an old model of a Nokia phone, 8990 started in 2003, with 30 employees and four projects.

From barely $4 million, 8990 grew in market value (and assets) to as high as $1 billion, making JJ, Luis and Marin awesomely wealthy. It has completed 50 mass housing projects and is completing a dozen more to bring total completed houses to 41,000. The company can build a house in just eight days but lately, it has taken eight months to sell them, because of government red tape.

Share price rose to as high as P10.50 after its listing. It has fallen to as low P5.37 (valuing the company at P29.6 billion), down 33 percent from its 12-month high of P8.05 (or P44.4 billion market cap) but still above its book value per share of P3.50 (P19.3 billion in total book value).

As of end-2016, 8990 had assets of P47.77 billion, equity of P19.26 billion (P9.34 billion retained earnings), and annual revenues of more than P10.87 million. In 2015 and 2016, 8990 had revenues of P9.27 billion and P9.33 billion, respectively, with net income of P3.722 billion and P3.575 billion, respectively.

In the first half of 2017, 8990 Holdings hit 95 percent of its target registering P3 billion in revenues versus its goal of P3.2 billion. After tax net income of P1.2 billion was also on target,

instructional corps—and as such, by long settled jurisprudence, cannot be compelled by mandamus.

That a student’s privacy is intruded into by the test, there will hardly be argument, but when one seeks admission into a university, even a state university, one’s expectation of privacy, on which rests claims to the penumbral right of privacy, cannot include holding the university’s inquiry at bay into whether the applicant for admission is using or, worse, habituated, to prohibited substances. The student does not shed his rights at the university’s threshold to be sure, but neither can he insist that the university shed all of its prerogatives when he comes knocking, seeking admission.

And the claim to a violation of rights loses

protection and ensure the high quality of cement that enters the country. The small importers, however, say that there is no proliferation of substandard imported cement in the domestic market because the big manufacturers-importers aget their supply from the same sources abroad, making quality similar across the board.

Ernesto Ordoñez, president

with 94 percent of internal quota of P1.3 billion.

Still, year-on-year gross and net income figures fell 41 percent and 44 percent, respectively because of the continued delays in the delivery of its new projects’ licenses, labor shortages in the construction finishing and the momentum build-up of recently launched projects, but which are being addressed by the company.

Since the second half is usually stronger, 8990 still expects whole year revenues of P10 billion and profits of P5.4 billion, up 42 percent, boosted by the launch of 11 new projects.

Aside from the additional revenues arising from the new projects, he pointed out 8990 expects to realize revenues arising from the delay in the processing of the permits of various projects last year.

JJ says a total of 2,706 units in eight projects worth P2.4 billion in Iloilo, Cebu, Bacolod, and Davao were not realized last year due to various delays in the processing of permits.

“We wish to emphasize that these revenues are not lost, but merely delayed,” Atencio says.

He added that, “given an environment of stricter licensing and permits, coupled with the possibility of interest rates increasing in the short-term, the thrust of 2017 is generation of cash from increased takeout levels with HDMF, CTS Purchase of banks, securitization and issuance of preferred shares which will be used to pare down debts.” biznewsasia@gmail.com

even more force when the university shows that the purpose of testing is not principally to exclude those who test positive in the results, but to lead them, if found necessary, to the needed intervention—medical, psychological and spiritual.

When a university is huge, one drugcrazed student who manages to elude detection, enters the classroom and goes berserk can leave a swath of devastation in his trail.

We need not wait for this horrible prospect to become real before university’s exercise their well-enshrined rights judiciously, but resolutely! rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph rannie_aquino@outlook.com

of the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CEMAP), in a recent interview, admitted that they cannot meet the demand for cement and that it takes up to three years to put a plant online. When manufacturers also import to meet great demand, then everyone is, in effect, an importer—the same rules would apply to everyone.

The obvious ulterior motive behind the issuance of the DTI order is to pave the way for the big manufacturers-importers to monopolize cement supply and control prices. The small importers can only hope that President Rodrigo Duterte will not allow the monopolistic tendencies of a few players in the local cement industry to triumph.

A6

News

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

CF reopening benefits govt – Pagcor S TATE-RUN Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. on Thursday said it opened the Casino Filipino Manila Bay despite controversies because it is advantageous to the corporation and the government aside from preventing losses and saving jobs.

In an interview, Pagcor chairman Andrea Domingo said the move was a very hard decision and that she was just “trying to make the best out of a really bad situation” that she said she inherited.

In an official statement earlier, Pagcor said it proceeded with the opening of Casino Filipino Manila Bay after carefully weighing the odds.

“When the present Management took office in June 2016,

the contract between Pagcor and Vanderwood Management Corp.

[Vanderwood] had been signed and sealed. However, some issues were raised by the Commission on Audit in its Notice of Disallowance as to the payment of advance rental and deposit,” she said.

Lawmakers earlier scrutinized Casino Filipino Manila Bay, especially the advance lease payments to Vanderwood Management Corp.

“Vanderwood was informed of the CoA NOD and Pagcor demanded rectification of the observa-

tions, but it sued Pagcor for injunction. Since the Trial Court declined to issue a Preliminary Injunction, Pagcor deposited the P234-million security check of Vanderwood, thus, recovering the Advance Rentals and Deposits previously paid by it to Vanderwood.

As a consequence, CoA lifted the Notice of disallowance. In addition, Pagcor demanded penalty of P250,000 per day of delay and claim against Vanderwood’s P1 Billion bond,” Pagcor said.

Pagcor said the transfer from its old site to CF-Manila Bay

project provides much advantage for Pagcor and the government.

“On monthly rental alone, Pagcor would only be paying P13 million at CF Manila Bay, less than half of what it used to pay for the old site amounting to over P28 million. This translates to an annual savings of close to P200 million in rental fees,” it said.

Pagcor added that at Casino Filipino Manila Bay, the corporation would be provided a minimum of 100 secured parking slots, with 50 free slots exclusively for Pagcor’s use, a clear contrast from the 16

Southern Leyte gov sacked for graft

BFP DONATION.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte witnesses the presentation of the deed of donation of fire equipment to the Bureau of Fire Protection National Capital Region during the Philippine Development Forum: Sulong Pilipinas 2017 at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City on Aug. 9, 2017. Receiving the donation from Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president George Barcelon is BFP-NCR Director Senior Superintendent Wilberto Kwan Tiu. Also in photo are Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III. PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

By Rio N. Araja THE Office of the Ombudsman sacked on Thursday incumbent Southern Leyte Gov. Damian Mercado for grave misconduct for mishandling the procurement of secondhand vehicles in 2007.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales instructed the Department of the Interior and Local Government to implement the dismissal order.

Mercado was also meted out the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, forfeiture of retirement benefits, cancellation of eligibility and barring him from taking the civil service examinations.

The Ombudsman ordered the filing of graft raps against the governor, along with bids and awards committee chairman Crispin Arong Jr., BAC vice chairperson Feorillo Demeterio Jr., and BAC members Anecito Narit, Benjase Lumen and Consuelo Ladrera, with the Sandiganbayan.

Also charged was the vehicle supplier, Baltazar Avila Sr. of Kojac Auto Repair Shop and Auto Supply.

The five other local officials were also dismissed from the service for grave misconduct.

In 2007, Mercado, then Maasin city mayor, approved the purchase of three reconditioned vehicles at P2.3 million.

After bidding, the acquisition of the Mitsubishi Pajero, Isuzu Wizard and Toyota Grandia was awarded to Kojac Auto Repair Shop.

An in-depth investigation showed Mercado was the original owner of the Grandia which was sold to Avila in November 2006 for P390,000, and that the Wizard was acquired by Avila in 2006 for only P275,000.

‘Sitting breaks’ mulled for female workers LABOR Secretary Silvestre Bello III is championing the cause of female employess who are made to stand for long hours while wearing high-heeled shoes.

Bello said he is looking at crafting an order that would require employers to allow “sitting breaks” for the female employees.

Bello said prolonged standing while wearing high heels is

“almost inhumane,” and mulled on the possibility of short breaks for employees who endure long hours of standing in heels.

“Ang hirap kaya nakatindig ka ng four hours. Sana may side man lang ang salesgirls, like upuan, where they can take a rest. For every one hour e paupuin sila ng 10 minutes,” he said Thursday.

“Kawawa ang nga babae, ang babata pa naman may varicose na,” he added.

Bello said a technical working group is already preparing an order against the mandatory wearing of high-heels and prolonged standing at work.

Bello said the TWG has informed him that wearing high heels may only be an option to employees.

Concerns on prolonged wearing of high heels were raised after the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) proposed a ban on the mandatory wearing of high heels, saying they have received several complaints from female employees such as salesladies.

The group said the practice

A LADY lawmaker has asked the Bureau of Treasury to account for the alleged P25 billion “missing” Malampaya Fund uncovered by the Commission on Audit.

Occidental Mindoro Rep. Josephine Ramirez-Sato said the Treasury must explain the discrepancy in the current balance of the Malampaya Fund.

“What happened to this P25 billon?” Sato asked, in response to a CoA report that detected the discrepancy between the cash releases and remittances pertaining to the Malampaya Fund.

Sato, author of House Bill 4604, a measure that seeks to authorize the use of these funds for renewable energy and biodiversity programs, said the P21 billion in cash releases and P4 billion in remiitances as of December 2016 should be looked

poses danger to their safety and health.

It said that the DoLE should issue a policy prohibiting employers to compel women workers from wearing high heels and should also cover not only salesladies but promodizers in supermarkets, waitresses, hotel and restaurant receptionists and flight attendants as well.

USAID allocates aid for Asean women ‘Yolanda task force’ created

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan vestment Exchange is expected to THE United States Agency for International Development is set to allocate $8-million Livelihood Bond for estimated 385,000 women in Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In a statement on Thursday, the US Embassy in Manila said that the bond, which was structured by the Singapore-based Impact In-

be listed on the Singaporean Exchange this month and will be the first social sustainability bond with a dual focus on social and financial returns, to be listed on a major stock exchange.

“USAID is pleased to support the Women’s Livelihood Bond with this loan guarantee,” USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia in Bangkok deputy mission director Todd Sorenson said.

“The bond will benefit women living in Association of Southeast Asian Nations states, particularly Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.”

USAID is also providing a 50-percent guarantee of the loan portfolio’s principal to mitigate risk, attract investors and support development.

The Women’s Livelihood Bond will also provide capital to a group of microfinance in-

stitutions and social enterprises that will help low-income women transition from subsistence to sustainable livelihoods and build their resilience to socioeconomic stresses.

Long-term benefits, in addition to more successful women-owned businesses, include increased participation in the workforce, higher standards of living, and more education and health opportunities for women and children.

‘Explain missing Malampaya fund’

By Maricel V. Cruz

basement parking slots being paid monthly at P2,500 each.

“Moreover, Vanderwood will shoulder the maintenance cost of the leased premises every five years by way of repainting, replacement of toilet fixtures, replacement and upgrade of CCTV equipment and adjuncts, and change of theme or motif including the floor carpets,” Pagcor said.

The agency said it also considered the newly restored and upgraded facilities of CF Manila Bay, in comparison with the old site that has yet to be renovated.

into, noting that no less than CoA itself had cast doubt on the reliability of the balance of the Malampaya Fund.

CoA cited sizable discrepancies between two records of the controversial fund, which represented government royalties from the offshore natural gas project in the Camago-Malampaya Reservoir in the West Philippine Sea, Sato said citing a news report.

The report said that based on the BTr’s own report under the title “Department of Energy (DOE)-Malampaya Special Account in the General Fund 151,” Sato said total of P232 billion was remitted to the national treasury by the DoE from 2002 to 2016.

On the other hand, P42 billion was released from the fund to finance government energy projects, leaving a balance of P189 billion, the CoA said, quoting a BTr financial report.

NO TO TRAIN. Workers rally in front of the Deparment of Finance to protest the rising taxes and called on the Senate to junk TRAIN, or the Palace-sponsored tax reform program. The group said no tempering of the said bill will make it acceptable for workers. Norman Cruz

By John Paolo Bencito AN INTER-AGENCY task force tasked to implement and monitor the ongoing projects in areas hit by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” was created by President Rodrigo Duterte in his Administrative Order No. 5 issuedTuesday.

Tasked to ensure that delays in the implementation of “Yolanda” projects won’t be repeated, the new Inter-Agency Task Force for the Unified Implementation and Monitoring of Rehabilitation and Recovery Programs in the Yolanda Corridor, otherwise known as IATF-Yolanda will be led by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. as chairperson, and the Presidential Advisers for the Visayas and Special Concerns.

The new IATF shall serve as the over-all and central coordinating committee for all agencies to ensure the recovery of “Yolanda”-hit areas, and would also include mechanisms for administrative sanctions for noncompliant members.

“In case the responsible officers of the concerned agencies fail or refuse to comply with the provisions of this Order and its IRR, said officers shall be liable for administrative sanctions as may be provided in accordance with civil service laws, rules and regulations including Civil Service Commission Resolution No. 11-01502,” the AO read.

Sports

A7

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

PH joins Taipei Universiade T

HINGS are looking up for the Philippine delegation as it embarks on an ambitious 11-day sojourn to New Taipei City for the 29th Summer Universiade that features topnotch university athletes from all around the world.

Sanctioned by the privatelyfunded Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines, the country will compete in 13 events in the prestigious multi-sports festivities from Aug. 19 to 30.

These are archery, athletics, badminton, billiards, diving, judo, golf, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, lawn tennis, weightlifting and wushu.

Once called the World University Games, the Summer Universiade is a widely-publicized multi-sports event held every two years. It is considered by many as the Olympics at the uni-

versity level.

The Taipei Universiade is expected to attract more than 180 countries throughout the world, including sports powers United States, Russia, China, Japan, France, Italy, Great Britain, Canada, Ukraine, Brazil, Australia and Germany.

This year’s edition marks the fourth straight time that the FESSAP is sending athletes to the Summer Universiade.

The FESSAP is the sole national university sports organization that is recognized by the International University Sports

Federation, which is the international-governing body for university sports that organizes the Summer Universiade, Winter Universiade and the World University Championship in various sports.

The Philippines owns an overall medal tally of one gold and

one silver in its three previous participation in the Summer Universiade.

Recognized by the FISU since 2009, the FESSAP first competed in the Summer Universiade in 2011 in Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China and grabbed a silver medal through the effort of men’s taekwondo jin Samuel Thomas Harper Morrison.

Two years later in Kazan, Russian Federation, the Philippine flag was raised for the first time ever during the medal presentation as Grandmaster Wesley So romped away with the gold medal in men’s chess in a blitz match following a seven-way tie at the top of the standings.

It was the country’s first and only gold-medal finish in Universiade history. Only 39 other nations snared a gold during the 2013 Kazan Games.

In the 28th Summer Universiade in Gwangju, Republic of Korea in 2015, the Philippines went medal-less but settled for a seventh-place finish in men’s golf. The country saw action in eight events – athletics, badminton, golf, judo, lawn tennis, table tennis, swimming and taekwondo.

Host Korea topped the medal standings with a 47-32-29 gold-

silver-bronze performance, easily outdistancing Russia (3439-49), China (34-22-16), Japan (25-25-35) and the United States (20-15-19).

The Americans romped away with the gold in men’s basketball and women’s basketball.

The US men’s squad, which was represented by the University of Kansas Jayhawks, defeated Germany, 84-77, in double overtime during the finals. It knocked off 2013 titlist Russia, 78-68, during the semifinals. The Russians salvaged the bronze medal with an 80-72 thumping of Brazil.

On the distaff side, the American ladies routed their Canadian counterparts, 82-63, in the gold-medal encounter for their sixth consecutive championship. Russia, which won the women’s event in 2013 on home soil, settled for the bronze with a 71-60 trouncing of Japan.

Graham C. Lim

Trikini: Urban fitness party set MEGAWORLD Lifestyle Malls, in partnership with GEO Events Management, invites runners and cyclists across Metro Manila to gear up and party for a cause at Trikini, in McKinley West Park on Aug. 19.

Trikini is an urban fitness party that will feature three basic elements—run, bike, and party—in a safe and exclusive venue where attendees can enjoy the outdoors right in the heart of the city.

With a dress code of sports, active or breach wear, guests can participate in their activities of choice quite comfortably.

The Active Zone is conducive for everyone looking to get their weekend fitness fix! Guests are allowed entry to a friendly 5K run and 15K bike race. Cash prizes will automatically be donated to SOS Children’s Villages Philippines, with winners receiving prizes and tokens from ON Shoes and Colnago.

Guests looking for a more relaxed experience may opt for the Fest Zone. The area offers poi and hoop workshops amid the picnic grounds, where guests can enjoy the outdoor breeze, sip drinks, and be entertained by high profile acts such as SinoSiKat, Extrapolation, and Sanya Smith.

Conveniently located in McKinley West, Trikini is the first event of its nature and will raise donations for SOS Children’s Villages Philippines. For forty years, the organization has provided healthcare, housing, and education to underprivileged children and families in the country.

“The ultimate goal is to encourage more city dwellers to live active lifestyles and enjoy the outdoors, no matter what the season!” said Sam Okal of GEO Events Management. “The Trikini series shall continue in other locations and seasons, aligned with our mantra that it’s always a matter of here and now to get fit and enjoy the outdoors.”

Aldrin Mancera (right) is shown during one of his training sessions. At left, Mancera proudly shows his membership in the Team Bridge Point. Above, a grandmother and grandson duo run in the 3k event of the Milo Marathon, where Mancera placed fifth. Peter Paul Duran

Michigan U athlete boosts Olivarez net cast ERIC “Jed” Olivarez Jr. takes time out from his studies at the Western Michigan U as he joins the title hunt in the eighth Olivarez Cup Open Tennis Championship which gets going today (Friday, Aug. 11) in Sucat, Parañaque.

A member of the seven-man Broncos tennis squad, Olivarez Jr. gains the No. 13 seeding in the full-packed 64-player field headed by the country’s top players, including perennial champion Johnny Arcilla and fellow Davis Cup veteran PJ Tierro, No. 3 Jason Patrombon, Vicente Anasta and Leander Lazaro.

A two-time MAC doubles player awardee who finished 21-9 in singles in the last season, Olivarez Jr. drew an opening round bye in the lower half of the draw but will face the winner between qualifier Francis Alcantara and Kim Saraza at 4 p.m. today.

Arcilla and Tierro will also both see action in the second round with the former taking on the victor in the Raymund DiazCenon Gonzales Jr. clash and the latter clashing with the winner of the Jimmy Tangalin and qualifier Bryan Saarenas duel.

Also tipped to contend for the top P50,000 purse in the men’s singles of the event, put up by Olivarez family as part of its long-time commitment to help boost the sport and backed by Palawan Pawnshop, Stronghold Insurance, Milestone Guarantee Assurance Corp. and Sterling Insurance Company, are Ronald Joven, Fritz Verdad, Marc Reyes, Bryan Otico and Rolando Ruel Jr. Fierce action is also expected in the women’s side with Clarice Patrimonio and Khim Iglupas bracing for another title showdown and Jade Capadocia, Christine Patrimonio, Shaira Rivera, Rachelle de Guzman, Miles Vitaliano and Chloe Saraza raring to spoil their projected title clash.

Sport of running has changed this teener’s life

By Peter Paul Duran THEY say hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. And in running, no one is ever truly born with talented feet.

You reap what you sow.

Take Aldrin Mancera for example, a fifth placer at the 3k event of the 41st National MILO Marathon Manila leg. A scrawny lad with a body built for prize fighting rather than athletics, one you’d picture as a runner of another more vernacular meaning. But he can go at it with the best of ‘em. He has proven it, thanks to a stubbornness to learn and a hard head reminding him always to refine his craft.

“Walang training din po gaano para dito. Umulan po kase halos buong linggo,” said the first-time Milo Marathon sideevent winner on his 0:12:06 performance while waiting in line to get his prize at the claiming tent.

He stands a head taller than the boy in front of him. Then again he’s no physical specimen, at 16 years old he ought to be, most of his counterparts only just entered high school. But you can’t blame him,

it has been merely a year when he first learned the love of running.

The Grade 10 student from San Rafael Technological and Vocational High School in Navotas said the ‘balik-entry fee’ he’ll receive will go a long way when another week of schooling starts. The boy loves going to school, mind you, even if he lives in Malabon. Though he’s not enthused entirely because of the lessons and the books.

See that’s where he trains everyday now after having been recruited by the school as a transferee track and field player for SRTVHS. First one in, last one out.

“Pagkatapos po ng klase nagte-training ako mag-isa. Minsan po kahit hanggang alas siete o alas nueve po,” said Mancera, the youngest of five siblings. “‘Yung tatay ko po talaga pinaka-proud kapag nakakauwi ako ng medal. Pero siya din ‘yung galit na galit kapag nagte-training ako hanggang gabi (laughs).”

“Self traning lang po ginagawa ko,” he shared.

A personal dojo of sorts to hone his skills, the miniscule oval lot in their school provides what it can to Mancera. But the

dogged teen just finds ways to deepen his roots. Mancera says he tags along the training sessions of Navotas City athletic scholars who train near his school even if he’s not part of the local student-athlete program just so he could be around stronger and more serious crowd.

And his persistence paid off. One weekend, the usual stroll for him on a lazy Sunday morning, a champion runner took notice. Sandy Gabiana, an ultra-marathoner and consistent placer in various running events mentored him and took him under Team Bridge Point. And he has supported the boy’s passion since.

“Nakasabay ko lang siya (sa pagtakbo).

Nakita ko ‘yung potential niya kaya gusto ko talaga siya ma-improve,” the 35-yearold mentor said after the ceremonies.

“Ngayon worth it naman lahat ng turo ko.

Para sa inyo din ‘yan. Magagamit ninyo ‘yun hanggang tumanda kayo.”

Mancera, the son of a taxi driver and a housekeeper, prays his coach’s words ring true.

“Para po magka-tiyansa makalibre ng pagaaral,” the young boy said on his rea-

Phoenix slalom goes to Robinsons Starmills ROBINSONS Starmills in Pampanga hosts the seventh leg of the Phoenix National Slalom Series on Sunday.

The event, which marks the second half of the 2017 National Series, is powered by Phoenix Premium 98 and Phoenix Accelerate fully synthetic oil.

Registration starts at 8 a.m. There will be a free slalom clinic from 9 to 10 a.m.

Only one practice coupon is reserved for each driver. Practice Runs will resume from 11 a.m. onwards, with each driver given one official practice run regardless of how many classes or cars entered.

Each participating driver will receive four liters (one gallon) of Phoenix Accelerate Fully Synthetic Oil. To accumulate points for the Overall and Class Champions, contenders must use the specified Federal Tyres for at least nine or 75% of the series.

They must also possess the Automobile Association of the Philippines Clubman license. All drivers will be

charged an additional one-time P300 per leg for the AAP Clubman License.

The National Slalom Events are affiliated with the AAP and FIA and is the longest-running motorsport discipline in the country.

The 2017 RACE National Slalom Series is presented by Phoenix Premium 98 and Phoenix Accelerate fully synthetic oil, with major sponsors Federal Tyres, Outlast Battery and Robinsons Starmills. It is also supported by Starbright Body Kits, Auto Transporter, Aeromed, Cars Unlimited Fairview, Mark Young Racing and media partners Stoplight TV, C! Magazine, Auto Car Magazine, Power Wheels Magazine and Ride and Drive Philippines.

Winners of the slalom’s sixth leg last July 9 will be awarded their trophies. The eighth leg will be on Aug. 27 in Robinsons Novaliches.

For details, contact Bing Bang O. Dulce at tel. nos. 928-6951, 09228165344 and 0917-8119337, mail rac-

son to continue the sport. “Kung sakali po baka makakuha ng scholarship sa college.

Sana po kunin.”

And thanks to running, the marathon of his new life has now commenced.

“Naging masaya po ako dahil sa pagtakbo. Dati po kase puro tambay lang ako sa amin, puro po computer. ‘Di na rin po ako nagpupuyat,” Mancera thanks running for his 180-degree turnaround in life.

“Dati rin po kase basagulero ako. Arawaraw po may kaaway. ‘Yung pag-yoyosi din po ini-stop ko na. Kapag pinagpatuloy ko po kase hihingalin ka eh (laughs).

Nawala po talaga ‘yung mga dating bisyo nu’ng nagseryoso na po ako sa running,” explained Mancera, who tried smoking because he saw many of his peers were doing it in their community. He knows better now to keep off bad company.

But he hopes, more than finally placing in the podium in next year’s Milo Marathon, to see himself influence others, too, in living a healthy lifestyle through the sport he loves.

And that’s another race he’s determined to win.

Gonzales wins FILIPINO Grandmaster Jayson Gonzales trounced Dutch Kees Nieuwelink to move half a point off the pace and then watched his student Woman GM Janelle Mae Frayna falter against Russian GM Konstantin Landa and skid out of the Top 10 after six rounds of the 21st Hogeschool Zeeland Open 2017 in Vlissigen, The Netherlands Wednesday night.

Gonzales outlasted Nieuwelink in 50 moves of a Guioco Piano to zoom to a share of third place along with nine others with five points, or half a point behind co-leaders GMs Eduard Itturizaga Bonelli of Venezuela and Konstantin Landa of Russia with 5.5 points apiece.

LOTTO RESULTS

Nine-year-old Martina Munoz is one of the slalom’s youngest drivers.

emotorsportsclub@yahoo.com or like the event’s Facebook page.

The event can be used as a car club meet or an eyeball time for the different car clubs. The Slalom Too Class

will also be held, wherein Clubman and experienced drivers can join. This class, however, won’t have a 360-degree turn and professional drivers are not allowed.

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

Sports

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

A8

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

Gilas to build on early success

By Jeric Lopez GILAS Pilipinas aims to build on its early success in its continued quest in the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon after starting its campaign with a big bang.

Playing the underdogs once more with two of its top bigs not available, the Philippines banked on its trademark “Puso” to pull off easily the tournament’s biggest stunner in the early goings, knocking out defending champion and perennial powerhouse China, 96-87, in its initial assignment Wednesday night.

Leaving everything on the floor, Gilas Pilipinas made the country proud by surprisingly controlling most part of the game with an early doubledigit lead and by standing its ground when it mattered the most – during winning time.

Just when China thought it had the Philippines where it wanted, after a ferocious comeback to take an 87-84 edge heading into the final minute, Gilas Pilipinas stood its ground and fought back to shake off the mighty Goliaths of Asia.

Thanks to one Terrence Romeo.

Romeo scored the next eight points, two long triples and a tough fadeaway jumper, and that was the game right there.

He carried the Philippines on his broad shoulders and sent China down for the count, making millions of Filipinos go crazy back home.

Romeo wasn’t alone though.

Unsung heroes Japeth Aguilar, Gabe Norwood, Christian Standhardinger and Raymund Almazan all chipped in to make sure the huge victory was guaranteed.

Now, the team turns its attention on Iraq in their 6:30 p.m. (local time) battle tonight with a golden chance to move to 2-0 in Group B play.

Gilas Pilipinas mainstay Jayson Castro (11) beats a Chinese defender as he glides to the hoop unopposed.

Lyceum Pirates improve to 7-0 with 97-93 victory over EAC

By Reuel Vidal

T

HE Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals, spurred on by the deafening cheer of their homecourt crowd, pushed league-leading Lyceum to the limit before eventually yielding as the Pirates posted a scrambling, 97-93, victory in Season 93 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament at the Emilio Aguinaldo College Sports and Cultural Center yesterday, Thursday, August 10.

The Pirates, led by CJ Perez and JC Marcelino, displayed maturity beyond their years by holding on to preserve the victory despite the ejection of head coach Topex Robinson at the 6:41 mark of the second

quarter after he was assessed multiple technicals.

With only seconds left to play and Lyceum leading 95-93 Perez dribbled along the right baseline and attempted to score

on a layup. But he was blocked by the doubleteaming EAC defense which forced him into a jump ball. The possession arrow awarded the ball to the Generals.

With the Pirates protecting a slim two-point advantage, 95-93, the Generals had one final chance to tie the game or win it outright. But it was not to be.

Not only could the Generals not convert a basket but Marcelino even stole the ball and sprinted to the other end to score on a layup and push the Pirates beyond recall, 97-93.

The Generals’ Francis Munsayac had the ball and was looking for a teammate to pass to. But hesitated a split second too late and

lost control of the ball to the quick-stepping Marcelino.

Marcelino later said they just refused to lose.

“Ayaw ko matalo kasi nasaktan kami nung nawala si coach,” said Marcelino.

Marcelino went on to finish with 20 points and four steals.

With the victory Lyceum (7 wins, 0 loss) stayed alone at the top of the standings while the Generals (3-3) stayed at third place but now in a tie with the Letran Knights (3-3) behind the San Beda College Red Lions (5-1).

The loss also snapped the Generals’ string of back-to-back victories.

BaliPure eyes payback against Pocari Sweat

Filipino MMA fighter Kevin Belingon (right) unloads a roundhouse right which connects on the face of opponent Muin Gafurov. ONE Championship

Belingon wants decisive win over McLaren KEVIN Belingon knows the high stakes when he crosses paths with a fellow former world title challenger in Reece McLaren. The Filipino knockout artist sees a big reward if he plays his cards right against the Australian standout.

Belingon squares off with McLaren on the stacked card of ONE: Quest for Greatness, at the iconic Stadium

Negara in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on August 18.

The 29-year-old Baguio City native hopes a convincing victory over McLaren will bring him an inch closer to a rematch with Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes for the coveted ONE Bantamweight World Championship title.

“My initial goal is to continue win-

ning until I get closer to the title and become a champion,” Belingon said.

Belingon had his chance to vie for prestigious gold in January 2016 when he challenged Fernandes for the ONE Bantamweight World Championship belt. Things did not go his way as the Brazilian champion swiftly submitted him with a Kimura lock in the opening stanza.

TWO months after getting foiled at its first crack at the Premier Volleyball League championship, BaliPure is at again – better, stronger and hungrier.

And the Water Defenders find it fitting to be gunning for the elusive crown against the very team, which stymied their bid the first time out.

BaliPure took the opening set of their sudden death for the Reinforced Conference crown last June but wavered in the next three, enabling Pocari Sweat to nail the victory and seal a third straight championship in the country’s premier women’s volleyball league.

But a more mature, disciplined Water Defenders side feels they are now ripe for the picking and have the tools and experience not only to get back at the Lady Warriors but also savor the sweet taste of a championship victory.

“It’s a different kind of feeling winning a championship and I will just rely on my players’ aggressiveness,” said BaliPure coach Roger Gorayeb, after disposing of an Alyssa Valdez-less Creamline in sudden death Wednesday.

Game One of the best-of-three finals is set at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow after the league, organized by Sports Vision, honors the top performers in the mid-season conference backed by Mikasa and Asics.

Air Force and Creamline also open their own series for third at 4 p.m.

Meanwhile, Cignal TV guns for the men’s crown in Game Two of their series with Mega Builders at 1 p.m.

But focus will surely be on the Pocari-BaliPure title duel with the Lady Warriors, who barely survived the Air Force Lady Jet Spikers in their side of the semis series, also out to extend their championship run.

With a new coach and sans some of the key players of their first three title victories, the Lady Warriors kept on winning titles and are two wins away from nailing a fourth straight diadem.

On the verge of elimination against the Lady Jet Spikers in their sudden death for the first finals berth last Wednesday, the Lady Warriors still found a way, battling back from two sets and saving two match points to steal the third, dominate the fourth and win the decider.

GM So salvages draw against GM Caruana

By Peter Atencio FILIPINO grandmaster Wesley So used his remaining bishop to block the path of a passed pawn, and force a draw with GM Fabiano Caruana last Wednesday.

The pair split the point in 33 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Ac-

cepted, with the draw allowing So to improve his record in the bottom of the standings.

The 23-year-old So now shares 2.5 points in eighth to 10th places after seven rounds of the the 5th Sinquefield Cup 2017 Grand Chess Tour in Saint Louis, Missouri.

His bishop to a4 kept the black-playing Caruana’s from advancing his b6 pawn.

So now shares the same record with Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura.

GM Maxine Vachier Lagrave was two pawns down, but he still held Sergey Karjakin at bay

when he captured a pawn, and threatened to take another when asked for a draw in 45 moves of a Ruy Lopez.

He has 4.5 points, and is now in a three-way tie for the lead with Armenian GM Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand.

Aronian stopped Nakamura

in 54 moves of an Uncommon Opening while Anand prevailed over Nepomniachtchi in 40 moves of a Sicilian Defense.

World no. Magnus Carlsen sits in lone second with four points.

That’s after Carlsen drew with Peter Svidler in 47 moves of a Scotch Defense.

Saguisag will run UAAP operations UNIVERSITY Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Michael Alba announced the appointment of Atty. Rene Andrei Saguisag, Jr., as the Association’s new Executive Director starting August 7, 2017.

Dr. Alba, President of Far Eastern University, the host school of UAAP Season 80, considers Atty.

Saguisag’s recruitment as one of the early, exciting developments in the ongoing reorganization of the country’s premier amateur athletic league.

“Along with the heads of the member universities now acting as the trustees, for the first time in 80 years, the Association will have an executive director to oversee its operations,” Dr. Alba said.

Rebo, as Atty. Saguisag is more familiarly called, is not new to the UAAP, having been Commissioner of Basketball in Seasons 78 and 79. He will also be serving in the same capacity in the forthcoming season, concurrent to his new appointment.

As executive director, Atty. Saguisag is charged to perform, direct, manage, and oversee a variety of assignments. These include implementing policies; providing support to the Board of Trustees, the Board of Managing Directors, and the UAAP Committees; supervising operations; and undertaking special projects.

He has a JD degree from the Ateneo Law School and is a BS in Sports Science graduate of the University of the Philippines.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Thursday, August 10, 2017

F OREIGN E XCHANGE R ATE Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

50.6210

Japan

Yen

0.009086

0.4599

UK

Pound

1.300600

65.8377

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.127956

6.4773

Switzerland

Franc

1.037990

52.5441

Canada

Dollar

0.787526

39.8654

Singapore

Dollar

0.733460

37.1285

Australia

Dollar

0.788600

39.9197

Bahrain

Dinar

2.654632

134.3801

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266660

13.4986

Brunei

Dollar

0.730780

36.9928

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000075

0.0038

Thailand

Baht

0.030084

1.5229

UAE

Dirham

0.272279

13.7830

Euro

Euro

1.176100

59.5354

Korea

Won

0.000878

0.0444

China

Yuan

0.149824

7.5842

India

Rupee

0.015660

0.7927

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.233263

11.8080

New Zealand

Dollar

0.733700

37.1406

Taiwan

Dollar

0.033107

Business

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

B1

1.6759 Source: PDS Bridge

IN BRIEF BSP keeps policy rates unchanged THE Monetary Board, the policy-making body of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, on Thursday kept the policy rates steady as it considered the benign inflation and the sustained economic growth.

Bangko Sentral Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said in his first policy meeting as MB chairman that the interest rates were left unchanged at 3.5 percent for overnight lending, 3 percent for overnight borrowing and 2.5 percent for overnight deposit facility.

The reserve requirement ratios were also retained.

“While inflation forecasts have risen slightly due to the recent increase in global oil prices, the future inflation path continues to be within the target for 2017-2019,” Espenilla said.

He said while the proposed tax reform program might exert potential transitory pressures on prices, various social safety nets and the resulting improvement in productivity would likely temper the impact on inflation over the medium term.

The board increased the inflation forecast this year to 3.2 percent from 3.1 percent. It also adjusted the forecast for 2018 to 3.2 percent from 3 percent. Julito G. Rada

PLDT’s net income soars 134% to 11.6b PLDT Inc. said Thursday net profit soared 134 percent in the second quarter, on the back of a one-time gain from the sale of Manila Electric Co. shares and the absence of impairment losses from its investment in Rocket Internet of Germany.

The country’s largest telecom company said net income hit P11.57 billion in April to June, up from P5.33 billion in the same period last year. This brought the company’s total net income in the first six months to P16.5 billion, up 33 percent from last year’s P12.46 billion.

PLDT chief financial officer Anabelle Chua said the significant increase in net income during the period was due to the sale of its stake in Meralco shareholder Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc., which resulted in a gain of P6.6 billion.

Consolidated core income in the first half amounted to P17.4 billion, or 2 percent lower than last year’s P17.7 billion. Consolidated service revenues also declined 6 percent to P75.38 billion from P80.6 billion. “Though 6 percent lower year-on-year, service revenues for the first semester indicated that the downward trend of the topline for the past six quarters had been arrested, with second quarter service revenues leveling off and equaling those of the first quarter at P35.6 billion,” PLDT said. Darwin G. Amojelar

San Miguel’s profit falls 26% to P26.1b CONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp. said it posted a net income of P26.1 billion in the first six months, down 26 percent from P35.3 billion it earned in the same period last year.

San Miguel said excluding one-off gain from the sale of its telecom business last year and foreign exchange effects, its recurring net income increased 21 percent to P27.6 billion from P22.83 billion a year ago.

Net sales in the first half jumped 20 percent to P393.4 billion from P329.1 billion in the same period in 2016. Income from operations also improved 10 percent to P53.44 billion.

San Miguel Brewery, its beer unit, posted a 14-percent growth in first-half net income to P9.3 billion, as net sales rose 12 percent to P53 billion. Ginebra San Miguel Inc. also saw its net income surge 92 percent to P265 million.

Petron Corp. posted a 56-percent hike in first-half net income to P8.2 billion, as net sales climbed 28 percent to P206.9 billion. SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. registered a 1-percent decline in net sales to P40.6 billion while income from operations dropped 15 percent to P13.3 billion.

Jenniffer B. Austria

Semirara nets P7.9b on higher coal sales SEMIRARA Mining and Power Corp. recorded a 24-percent increase in net income after tax in the first half to P7.86 billion from P6.36 billion in the same period last year, on higher coal and electricity sales.

Semirara said in a disclosure to the stock exchange that its coal business contributed P4.23 billion. Sem-Calaca Power Corp. and Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. added P2.14 billion and P1.50 billion, respectively.

“Before eliminations, coal, Sem-Calaca, and SLPGC recorded core net income after tax of of P5.32 billion, P1.15 billion, and P1.40 billion, respectively,” the company said.

Sem-Calaca owns the 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Calaca, Batangas which the Consunji Group acquired from the government in July 2009. SLGPC owns the 300-MW coal plant expansion also in Calaca.

Alena Mae S. Flores

Cebu Pacific sees earnings dip 44% CEBU Air Inc., the operator of budget carriers Cebu Pacific and Cebgo, said Thursday net income in the first half fell 43.6 percent in the first semester from a year ago, on costlier jet fuel prices and weak peso.

The airline company controlled by tycoon John Gokongwei, reported a net income of P4.33 billion in the January to June, down from P7.68 billion in the same period in 2016.

Cebu Pacific posted revenues of P35.66 billion in the first six months, up 7.7 percent from P33.09 billion last year. Passenger revenues went up 5.3 percent to P26.62 billion from last year’s P25.28 billion as average fares rose 4.6 percent to P2,637 in the six-month period this year from P2,522 in the same period last year.

Cargo revenues grew 21.9 percent to P2.07 billion from P1.7 billion last year.

Jet fuel prices averaged $62.51 per barrel in the first six months, up from $48.22 per barrel in 2016. Darwin G. Amojelar

OUTSTANDING FILIPINOS. The Metrobank Foundation names this year’s Outstanding Filipinos in a press conference in Quezon City.

Shown with Metrobank Foundation president Aniceto Sobrepeña (sixth from left) are the ten awardees, namely (from left) Philippine Army staff sergeant Narding Pascual, Philippine Army Lt. Col. Ricky Bunayog, Philippine Army Lt. Col. Elmer Suderio, master teacher Jennifer Rojo, University of the Philippines Prof. Alonzo Gabriel, De La Salle University Prof. Esperanza Cabrera, high school teacher Edgar Elago, Cebu Police Supt.

Joel Doria, Manila Police District Chief Inspector Rosalino Ibay and police officer 3 Shiela May Pansoy of Digos City, Davao del Sur. Manny Palmero

Foreign investments accelerated 57% in May

By Julito G. Rada

N

ET inflows of job-generating foreign direct investments accelerated 57 percent in May to $572 million from $364 million a year ago, amid the positive outlook on the economy, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Thursday.

“All FDI components yielded net inflows during the period. In particular, debt instruments [or lending by parent companies abroad to their local affiliates to fund existing operations and business expansion] posted net inflows of $459 million, an increase of 108.3 percent from the $220 million record-

ed in May 2016,” the Bangko Sentral said in a statement.

Equity capital investments also yielded net inflows of $43 million, as equity capital placements of $83 million offset withdrawals of $40 million. Equity capital placements came mainly from Hong Kong, the United States, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

These funds were invested largely in real estate; financial and insurance; manufacturing; electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply; and wholesale and retail trade activities.

Reinvestment of earnings amounted to $71 million in May, or 7.8 percent higher than $65 million a year ago.

FDI inflows in the first five months, however, slowed 23.8 percent to $3 billion from $3.9 billion a year ago. This was due to the completion of the P37-billion investment in Security Bank by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. for a 20-percent stake in the local

bank last year.

Net inflows in equity capital investments declined 85.4 percent in January to May to $213 million from a year earlier. The equity capital placements of $358 million came mostly from Japan, the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany.

Bangko Sentral raised the FDI target this year to $8 billion from the previous estimate of $7 billion, on sustained investors’ confidence in the Philippine economy which continues to show strong macroeconomic fundamentals.

Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the bank also considered the actual net inflow of $7.9 billion in 2016 in readjusting the 2017 target.

The FDI net inflow of $7.9 billion last year surpassed the target of $6.7 billion, following the BTMU capital infusion in Security Bank.

The 2016 figure was also 40.7 percent higher than the $5.72-billion net inflow in 2015.

Exports lose steam as factory output growth slows EXPORTS rose at the slowest pace in six months, as imports fell and the growth in local production decelerated in June, data from the Philippine Statistics Office show.

Merchandise exports grew 0.8 percent in June to $4.91 billion from $4.87 billion in the same month last year, while imports shrank 2.5 percent to $7.06 billion from $7.24 billion. Despite the decline in imports, the country still incurred a trade deficit of $2.15 billion during the month.

Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said tapping new markets for Philippine exports would be necessary to improve trade in the coming months.

“We expect Philippine trade to recover, as the global economic recovery is seen to be on firmer

footing in the second half of the year,” Pernia said.

He said the country could take advantage of its EU-Generalized System of Preferences Plus preferential status. He also recommended that the Trade Department continue its information sessions on “Doing Business with the EU using the GSP+” in key cities and towns in the country.

“This will help businesses to comply with the requirements, such as rules of origin and hurdle trade barriers, such as product standards,” Pernia said.

Data showed that despite the weak figures in June, total merchandise trade grew 11.2 percent in the first six months. Exports climbed 13.6 percent in the six-month period to $31 bil-

lion from $27.3 billion a year ago, while imports rose 9.6 percent to $44.2 billion from $40.3 billion. Trade deficit widened to $13.2 billion from $13 billion a year earlier.

Meanwhile, factory production grew slower in June from the previous year. Data showed the volume of production index grew 8.1 percent in June, slower than the 9.8-percent rise in the same month last year.

Pernia said the factory output expansion in the first half was supported by increased production of food, basic metals, transport equipment, fabricated metal products, non-metallic mineral products and export-oriented products.

Pernia said he remained optimistic of the manufacturing sec-

tor’s outlook, saying growth was expected to be sustained into the second semester.

“Looking ahead, the outlook for the manufacturing sector remains optimistic on the back of favorable domestic conditions such as stable inflation rate, robust economic demand, increased investments, and business confidence,” he said.

He cautioned against possible domestic and external risks to growth. “We need to be ready for possible disturbances in business activities during the rainy season. External risks, on the other hand, include the planned interest rate hikes of the United States and the inward-looking trade policies of major economies,” Pernia said.

Julito G. Rada

Megaworld registered P6.4-b profit in first half

By Jenniffer B. Austria OFFICE and condominium builder Megaworld Corp. saw its net profit climb 11 percent in the first half to P6.44 billion from P5.81 billion a year ago, as the company solidified its status as the country’s largest office developer and lessor.

Megaworld said in a disclosure to the stock exchange firsthalf consolidated revenues rose 5.4 percent to P24.27 billion from P23.02 billion in the same period last year.

Rental business, which includes offices, malls and commercial centers, went up 20 percent in January to June to P5.83 billion from P4.84 billion a year earlier.

Residential revenues, which continue to account for a big bulk of total revenues, was steady at P16.77 billion in the six-month period.

“It has been a strong first half for Megaworld as we continue the trajectory of our rental income while maintaining revenues for our residential business. Across businesses, there is an indication that we will continue our double-digit growth until the end of the year,” Megaworld senior vice president and treasurer Francis Canuto said.

Megaworld hit the one-million-square-meter mark in total leasable spaces, from both office and commercial/retail, in various developments last year.

Office space inventory stood at 851,000 square meters, while commercial and retail spaces reached 273,000 square meters.

“Megaworld remains to be the largest office developer and lessor in the country. We are well-positioned to retain this leadership as we are ontrack to surpass the one-million square meter mark in office space inventory alone by the end of this year,” Canuto said.

Vehicle sales sustained double-digit rise in July

By Othel V. Campos AUTOMOTIVE sales in the Philippines picked up 23.3 percent in July to 36,951 units from 29,967 units that were delivered in the same month last year, on strong demand from the expanding middle class, data from two industry groups show.

The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and Truck Manufacturers Association said in a joint report that combined sales of their members also increased 18.3 percent in the first seven months to a record 233,115 units from 197,447 units a year ago. The figures excluded those announced by other industry groups.

“We remain cautious as we enter the second half of the year.

While monthly vehicle sales appear to continue to be strong, our initial overall market outlook for the year has not changed. As the original sales target by year-end looks achievable, we will continue to be vigilant with actual vehicle sales in the coming months,” said Campi president Rommel Gutierrez.

Sales of passenger cars went up 13.1 percent in July to 12,701 units from 11,230 vehicles sold in the same month in 2016.

The commercial vehicle segment registered a 29.4-percent increase to 24,250 units from 18,737 units that left the dealerships in July last year.

BANATAO’S INCUBATOR. PhilDev Foundation and Silicon Valley-based Filipino IT pioneer Diosdado Banatao (right) teams up with the Makati City-based Asian Institute of Management to give startups in the Philippines and other Asian countries an incubator program. AIM, in partnership with PhilDev, received a P14.8-million grant in initial funding for the AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator under the Department of Science and Technology Incubator Creation Program. Shown with Banatao is AIM President Jikyeong Kang, a South Korean educator who served as a director of Manchester Business School before she accepted the position in the Philippines. Roderick T. dela Cruz

B2

Business

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Market extends losses; PLDT rises Bloomberry’s net profit S surges to a record P4.1b TOCKS fell for a third day, as concerns over tensions on the Korean peninsula kept investors in Asia on edge.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, shed 19 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 7,966.25 Thursday, as three of the six major sectors declined.

The heavier index, representing all shares, also lost 14 points, or 0.3 percent, to settle at 4,708.56, on a value turnover of P5.2 billion.

Losers outnumbered gainers, 111 to 84, while 52 issues were unchanged.

Eight of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by PLDT Inc. which jumped 4.4 percent to P1,707, after reporting that net income soared 134 percent in the second quarter from a year ago.

Property developer Cebu Landmasters Inc. gained 2.1 percent to P4.90, while Security

Bank Corp. rose 1.3 percent to P245.

Meanwhile, equity measures from Hong Kong to Tokyo to Sydney dropped and US index futures declined, as the won led emerging-market currencies lower. Stock volatility increased and the yen climbed.

Other haven assets held near levels from the close on Wednesday, when comments by US government officials helped ease concern the country was headed for armed conflict with North Korea.

South Korea’s military warned Pyongyang on Thursday that it would face a strong response if it carried through with a threat to launch a missile toward the US territory of Guam. European equity futures and the euro dropped.

“The North Korea situation is still unstable and investors are controlling risk and taking profit after recent gains,” said Sam Chi Yung, a Hong Kong-based senior strategist at South China Financial Holdings Ltd. Geopolitical tensions may be the trigger for the latest bout of risk aversion, but with

global equities trading near record highs and yield premiums on high-yield debt creeping up, some of the biggest names in the asset management industry have already been warning that it’s time to take risk off the table.

Markets had taken heart from reassuring words from the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seeking to play down the escalating war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.

European bourses also sank in early trade Thursday, after the Dow recorded its second straight negative close Wednesday.

The sabre-rattling—sparked when President Donald Trump stunned the world with an apocalyptic warning to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea—continued Thursday as Pyongyang mocked the US leader as “bereft of reason”.

The reclusive state raised the stakes further with a detailed plan to send a salvo of missiles towards the US territory of Guam.

With Bloomberg, AFP

By Jenniffer B. Austria BLOOMBERRY Resorts Corp., the owner and operator of Solaire Resort & Casino in Parañaque City, said Thursday first-half net income surged 24-fold to a record P4.1 billion from only P174 million posted in the same period last year, on the back of robust gross gaming revenues.

Bloomberry said in the second quarter alone, net income jumped 47 percent to P1.95 billion from P1.33 billion a year earlier, on 34-percent increase in profitability in Philip-

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2017

NAME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

FINANCIALS 4.15 11,000 59.8 20,440 106 334,350 3.95 4,000 130 1,262,590 1.26 39,000 35.75 194,500 9.04 100 16.14 3,000 31.95 393,200 0.65 4,000 1.72 2,000 0.7 970,000 86.6 1,526,110 0.86 1,238,000 13.2 1,800 24.35 400 64 32,240 240.8 10,450 110 210 50.5 165,160 244 561,670 1,690 85 86.4 118,550 1.35 120,000

45,160 1,218,061.50 35,187,927 15,800 164,354,118 49,180 6,919,990 904 48,228 12,530,960 2,600 3,360 670,000 131,360,846 1,068,830 23,760 9,740 2,067,184 2,518,196 23,100 8,251,989 137,229,352 143,650 10,244,277.50 162,760

-12,000 1,042,155 2,700,011 -18,955,532 2,560 1,308,350.00 6,522,385 -4,694,921 -20,010 -1,031,745 2,409,932 5,426,739 112,171,744 976,954 -

39.25 8.85 0.8 1.35 25.6 0.24 5.7 16.58 30.15 17.4 65.15 83 1.98 5.4 11.3 10.5 14.98 12.58 6.98 6.8 1.69 17.16 67 14.5 12.9 12.16 1.72 216.4 59.05 3.7 3.21 30.25 18.02 17.7 276.4 0.231 11.4 3.08 7.19 9.67 7.78 10.1 1.79 12.02 64.35 7.12 311 4.36 2.05 4.4 2.56 12.36 4.69 0.143 1.22 138.5 3.85 2.09 26.55 1.01

INDUSTRIAL 39.3 1,694,700 8.93 952,500 0.85 4,949,000 1.36 303,000 25.6 244,700 0.241 2,450,000 5.7 1,139,200 16.6 2,150,100 31.4 971,700 17.4 202,600 65.15 240 83 10 2 656,000 5.46 79,000 11.3 55,100 10.52 17,795,600 15 416,800 12.7 1,634,200 7.09 1,872,800 6.84 27,242,600 1.69 12,000 17.4 1,768,000 67 52,270 14.88 31,100 12.9 26,800 12.16 3,654,500 1.78 445,000 217 807,360 59.5 1,010 3.95 4,000 3.5 5,000 30.7 1,007,100 18.02 868,100 17.94 1,836,200 277 245,880 0.231 1,550,000 11.52 253,800 3.08 2,298,000 7.3 354,300 9.68 4,243,200 7.85 95,600 10.28 1,100 1.8 1,010,000 12.04 406,200 64.85 202,070 7.2 22,700 315 103,480 4.4 8,000 2.05 3,000 4.4 14,000 2.57 1,673,000 12.7 347,500 4.8 133,000 0.143 600,000 1.22 96,000 139.5 3,097,790 3.85 2,000 2.21 13,685,000 26.55 1,100 1.01 47,000

66,638,295 8,518,574 4,204,180 410,280 6,556,260 588,110 6,529,033 35,763,744 30,208,215 3,682,282 15,713 830 1,309,490 437,095 623,958 188,506,154 6,252,988 20,999,232 13,167,353 186,304,733 20,280 30,817,294 3,541,676 455,012 345,846 44,923,408 773,910 175,699,532 59,645 15,050 16,360 30,977,150 15,916,006 32,721,778 68,289,282 359,250 3,000,092 7,147,780 2,583,930 41,772,917 756,187 11,256 1,825,620 4,905,124 13,079,290.50 163,026 32,417,040 34,980 6,170 61,600 4,322,270 4,365,800 628,040 85,850 117,440 432,666,652 7,700 29,644,350 29,215 47,470

-21,174,455 -317,600 -3,199,197 -760,484 52,200.00 0 71,690 -28,625,422 2,341,438 -8,390,042 -7,176,876 -48,284,819 2,662,404 -1,193,495 -1,149,894 230,970 8,964,854 -6,308,490 2,188,960 18,961,506.00 2,571,356 -130,470 17,208,200 73,600 -590,634 3,075,531 -1,170,500 61,600 12,900 3,007,894 251,080 7,200.00 38,621,241 7,700 485,150 -7,965 -

0.38 74.95 14.02 1.12 6.84 0.315 0.32 888 1,011 7.59 15.8 7.84 0.215 1,200 7.95 74.2 5.3 5.4 0.97 6.9 17.8 0.43 6.74 0.045 0.93 2.07 101.6 2.63 831 1.7 303.6 0.285 0.206 0.232

0.365 73.5 13.7 1.12 6.7 0.31 0.315 880 1,011 7.41 15.52 7.52 0.202 1,165 7.93 69.4 5.01 5.4 0.94 6.82 17.5 0.425 6.54 0.042 0.93 2.05 100 2.62 825 1.65 303 0.28 0.203 0.232

HOLDING FIRMS 0.37 6,680,000 74.95 320,590 13.78 3,513,500 1.12 10,000 6.8 22,800 0.31 1,080,000 0.315 390,000 884 210,210 1,011 15 7.59 925,700 15.8 4,876,300 7.84 5,800 0.215 210,000 1,168 67,045 7.93 4,000 69.45 2,406,430 5.01 8,000 5.4 100 0.96 1,011,000 6.9 169,800 17.6 1,570,900 0.43 290,000 6.65 10,283,400 0.043 48,800,000 0.93 3,000 2.06 434,000 101.6 81,600 2.63 3,000 829 130,950 1.65 757,000 303.4 2,880 0.285 680,000 0.206 140,000 0.232 30,000

2,449,000 23,996,308 48,462,976 11,200 154,740 335,300 123,100 185,794,185 15,165 6,905,011 76,596,750 43,840 42,650 78,970,120 31,740 169,695,421 42,342 540 963,390 1,170,281 27,646,936 124,550 67,986,775 2,095,400 2,790 894,090 8,252,149 7,880 108,275,140 1,263,690 874,104 193,200 28,540 6,960

4,018,300 -6,303,538 26,829,245 -174,684 29,707,224 2,150 -27,271,645 -24,840,890.50 37,100 -332,785 -11,446,836.00 -12,887,718 4,500 386,102 -46,650,965 -701,316 -153,900.00 -

5.53 1.42 2.3 1.01 42.95 3.61 5.05 0.52 1.25 1.54 0.203 0.51 45.5 0.71 0.157 1.86 1.65 0.96

5.42 1.37 2.2 0.94 42.1 3.58 4.87 0.5 1.18 1.5 0.195 0.5 44.7 0.69 0.15 1.8 1.59 0.94

5,339,697 3,343,540 6,700 11,690,190 118,474,605 8,155,580 60,136,860 6,134,360 1,257,340 392,650 1,873,000 120,770 5,000,635 239,630 213,780 3,486,100 22,764,190 149,230

-4,497,664 -697,400 -34,886,725 591,690 26,211,320 -567,630 -227,840 1,950 403,500 -71,400 15,050 -1,063,120 8,232,670 -

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

4 58.6 104.9 3.95 130 1.28 35.95 9.04 16.1 31.85 0.65 1.64 0.7 86.15 0.83 13.2 24.35 64.3 240.6 110 50.5 241.8 1,690 86.55 1.31

4.15 59.8 106 3.95 131 1.28 35.95 9.04 16.14 32 0.65 1.72 0.7 86.6 0.9 13.2 24.35 64.6 241 110 50.5 245.2 1,690 86.6 1.37

4 58.6 104.6 3.95 129.1 1.26 35.45 9.04 16.02 31.5 0.65 1.64 0.69 86 0.82 13.2 24.35 63.4 240 110 49 241.6 1,690 86.35 1.31

ABOITIZ POWER AGRINURTURE ALLIANCE SELECT ALSONS CONS ASIABEST GROUP BASIC ENERGY CEMEX HLDG CENTURY FOOD CIRTEK HLDG CNTRL AZUCARERA CONCEPCION 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 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 AND CO ROXAS HLDG SFA SEMICON SHAKEYS PIZZA SPC POWER SWIFT FOODS TKC METALS UNIV ROBINA VICTORIAS VITARICH VIVANT VULCAN INDL

39.5 9.04 0.8 1.35 29.45 0.24 5.72 16.62 30.35 18 69 83 2 5.4 11.4 10.68 15.06 13.4 7.03 6.86 1.69 17.8 68.9 14.5 13 12.5 1.75 217 59.05 3.7 3.21 31.5 18.92 17.8 278.6 0.233 12.4 3.13 7.19 9.96 7.81 10.1 1.85 12.2 65.7 7.4 311 4.36 2.07 4.4 2.61 12.6 4.83 0.144 1.22 146.5 3.85 2.18 26.55 1.01

39.5 9.12 0.88 1.37 29.45 0.244 5.8 17 31.45 19 69 83 2.01 5.7 11.4 10.76 15.08 13.4 7.1 6.87 1.69 17.82 68.9 14.88 13 12.7 1.78 219.8 59.5 3.95 3.5 31.5 19 17.94 279.6 0.237 12.42 3.15 7.3 9.96 8.18 10.3 1.85 12.2 65.9 7.4 317.8 4.4 2.07 4.4 2.62 12.7 4.83 0.144 1.23 146.5 3.85 2.23 26.65 1.01

ABACORE CAPITAL ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANGLO PHIL HLDG ANSCOR ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B AYALA CORP BHI HLDG COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL HOUSE OF INV JG SUMMIT JOLLIVILLE HLDG KEPPEL HLDG A 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

0.38 73.5 14 1.12 6.7 0.315 0.315 888 1,011 7.53 15.58 7.84 0.203 1,200 7.95 74.05 5.3 5.4 0.97 6.82 17.6 0.43 6.74 0.045 0.93 2.05 101.5 2.62 830 1.69 303.6 0.285 0.203 0.232

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

5.5 1.38 2.2 1 42.95 3.59 4.95 0.51 1.2 1.51 0.2 0.51 44.7 0.69 0.15 1.81 1.62 0.95

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VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

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

4.13 4.88 0.315 0.48 0.51 4.78 29.6 24.45 1.76 3.24 34.5 1.01 0.87 5.89

4.13 4.95 0.315 0.53 0.52 4.78 29.6 24.5 1.79 3.24 34.8 1.01 0.87 5.89

4.12 4.84 0.28 0.48 0.5 4.69 28.65 23.9 1.76 3.24 34.25 0.99 0.86 5.81

4.12 4.9 0.285 0.485 0.51 4.7 28.65 24 1.79 3.24 34.6 1.01 0.87 5.87

2,000 23,750,000 108,310,000 15,105,000 2,647,000 139,000 600 897,500 11,000 1,000 5,911,400 859,000 9,000 1,717,100

8,250 115,955,660 31,802,200 7,545,215 1,367,450 656,290 17,665 21,612,670 19,510 3,240 204,135,560 860,650 7,790 10,053,599

64,346,320 757,800 480 -2,459,025 63,230,825 -3,250,644

2GO GROUP ABS CBN ACESITE HOTEL APC GROUP APOLLO GLOBAL BLOOMBERRY BOULEVARD HLDG CEBU AIR CHELSEA DFNN INC FAR EASTERN U GLOBE TELECOM GMA NETWORK GOLDEN HAVEN 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 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

21.2 43.6 1.63 0.67 0.04 9.26 0.071 100.7 10.1 9.8 970 2,048 6.2 15.7 2.27 3.09 104 8.68 0.167 1.34 2.96 15.6 4.09 1.34 10.72 0.6 8.79 4.09 18 2.3 5.2 172 9.1 1,669 1.59 0.395 46.95 86.9 5.63 4.4 1.32 1.95 3.42 1.18 8.23

21.7 43.6 1.71 0.69 0.042 9.42 0.075 103 10.38 10.04 970 2,070 6.2 15.9 2.27 3.23 104.5 8.72 0.167 1.38 2.98 15.9 4.33 1.44 11.18 0.6 8.85 4.18 18 2.35 5.2 175 9.76 1,717 1.6 0.4 47 86.9 5.7 4.45 1.4 1.95 3.42 1.24 8.46

20.8 43.3 1.62 0.62 0.04 9.05 0.071 100.6 9.95 9.5 970 2,044 6.16 15.7 2.1 3.08 103 8.25 0.164 1.34 2.95 15.2 4.09 1.26 10.72 0.57 8.66 3.95 18 2.29 5.1 168 9.1 1,640 1.58 0.395 46.9 85.95 5.63 4.23 1.28 1.95 3.37 1.16 8.2

SERVICES 21.5 43.45 1.68 0.64 0.041 9.05 0.071 102 9.99 9.5 970 2,050 6.17 15.9 2.27 3.23 104.5 8.69 0.165 1.34 2.98 15.2 4.19 1.29 11 0.57 8.8 4 18 2.32 5.19 175 9.58 1,712 1.59 0.4 47 86 5.63 4.3 1.39 1.95 3.4 1.22 8.34

69,800 6,700 228,000 15,440,000 8,200,000 12,796,300 9,130,000 1,031,740 10,687,700 356,800 10 16,375 316,200 13,400 3,463,000 6,000 526,700 505,000 4,380,000 89,000 70,000 17,400 1,314,000 7,021,000 784,200 234,000 3,479,100 8,552,000 500 382,000 7,000 80,120 1,248,300 216,435 3,119,000 1,090,000 2,619,300 498,820 102,600 4,896,000 9,517,000 1,000 294,000 14,822,000 5,844,900

1,481,515 290,825 373,090 10,080,750 335,400 118,338,496 662,130 105,383,055 108,316,225 3,461,307 9,700 33,608,380 1,951,776 210,750 7,543,230 18,660 54,745,337 4,344,115 725,780 120,810 207,470 269,172 5,555,240 9,375,440 8,644,572 133,680 30,585,228 34,666,450 9,000 883,790 35,939 13,780,400 11,915,638 368,076,355 4,956,140 435,350 123,064,360 42,904,287.50 578,937 21,042,370 12,790,850 1,950 998,480 18,022,580 48,276,902

8,560 32,000 17,027,246 51,970,972 13,954,300 -147,000 -1,351,230 -17,750 -307,527 15,580 34,190.00 -160,868 3,561,923 1,077,450 23,460 -25,560 -2,747,948 -53,456,645 -177,670 -320,000 55,484,400 5,312,346 1,236,760 4,699,320 335,690 -488,000 444,052.00

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

0.0029 1.63 5.2 1.82 1.21 0.385 8.43 2.53 0.29 0.178 0.19 0.01 1.79 6.41 1.95 0.53 1.06 0.01 0.01 0.011 2.5 8.74 3.4 167.5 0.0081

0.0029 1.63 5.2 1.82 1.22 0.385 8.43 2.54 0.295 0.183 0.195 0.011 1.89 6.43 1.95 0.53 1.06 0.011 0.01 0.012 2.5 8.81 3.48 168.9 0.0081

0.0028 1.6 4.98 1.81 1.17 0.38 8.37 2.48 0.28 0.178 0.19 0.01 1.79 5.75 1.87 0.51 1.01 0.01 0.01 0.011 2.48 8.71 3.29 166.3 0.008

MINING & OIL 0.0029 482,000,000 1.61 4,128,000 5.02 826,800 1.81 28,000 1.21 1,174,000 0.38 220,000 8.37 3,900 2.48 2,066,000 0.29 1,950,000 0.183 1,940,000 0.195 180,000 0.011 24,000,000 1.84 122,000 5.75 14,117,300 1.87 11,000 0.51 108,000 1.02 139,000 0.01 7,500,000 0.01 8,500,000 0.012 26,400,000 2.48 47,000 8.77 547,300 3.34 2,260,000 166.3 704,210 0.0081 13,000,000

1,350,500 6,648,830 4,162,793 50,920 1,409,780 84,450 32,664 5,169,610 551,750 350,970 34,350 240,100 222,230 83,123,473 20,850 55,600 143,940 78,700 85,000 315,800 117,060 4,786,259 7,510,100 117,367,587 104,500

42,000 56,350 -47,221 -50,920 24,000 -592,620 16,950 1,950 -3,828,211 -84,000 1,047,901 -6,800 -42,616,491 -

ABS HLDG PDR AC PREF B2 ALCO PREF B DD PREF FGEN PREF G GMA HLDG PDR GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B LR PREF MWIDE PREF PF PREF 2 PNX PREF 3A SFI PREF SMC PREF 2B SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2D SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2G SMC PREF 2H SMC PREF 2I

43.2 520 106 105.5 114.9 5.93 1,010 1,010 1.06 106.1 1,015 105.5 2.02 77 80.5 77.05 79.95 78.9 79.1 79.5

43.3 520 106 105.5 114.9 5.93 1,010 1,010 1.06 106.1 1,015 105.6 2.02 77 81.75 77.05 79.95 79.5 79.4 80.3

43.1 520 106 105.5 112 5.9 1,010 1,010 1.06 106.1 1,015 104.5 2.02 76.5 80.5 77 79 78.9 79.1 79.5

PREFERRED 43.2 377,200 520 40 106 97,350 105.5 10,330 112 4,510 5.9 568,400 1,010 600 1,010 510 1.06 2,000 106.1 130 1,015 6,530 104.5 9,110 2.02 11,000 77 24,190 81.75 32,140 77 1,500 79 14,750 79.5 20 79.4 187,700 80.3 115,580

16,295,040 20,800 10,319,100 1,089,815 505,149 3,356,625 606,000 515,100 2,120 13,793 6,627,950 953,926 22,220 1,861,412 2,625,395 115,532.50 1,179,215 1,584 14,885,070 9,255,209.50

-475,200 -25,320 -2,462,082 65,450 -

LR WARRANT

2.37

2.47

2.37

WARRANTS 2.42 557,000

1,350,410

-

ITALPINAS MAKATI FINANCE PHILAB HLDG XURPAS

3.6 3.15 5.3 6.1

3.83 3.22 5.8 6.43

3.6 3.15 4.75 6.1

3.65 3.22 5.3 6.26

1,701,300 19,250 476,645 34,595,018

-6,692,253

FIRST METRO ETF

120.7

120.7

119.9

2,236,374

2,042,256

NAME

MS

PROPERTY 5.43 1.38 2.3 0.94 42.5 3.59 4.87 0.51 1.24 1.5 0.196 0.51 44.7 0.7 0.155 1.8 1.64 0.96

973,700 2,409,000 3,000 11,993,000 2,792,800 2,272,000 12,150,000 12,124,000 1,029,000 261,000 9,510,000 237,000 111,400 345,000 1,420,000 1,924,000 14,006,000 157,000

SME

TRADING SUMMARY

SHARES

FINANCIAL

7,013,344

INDUSTRIAL

105,860,392

HOLDING FIRMS PROPERTY

87,664,818 233,204,345

SERVICES

135,533,754

MINING & OIL

592,664,724

GRAND TOTAL

1,167,996,496

463,000 6,000 88,400 5,478,000

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 120.7 18,610

-

VALUE 1,994.42 (up) 8.45 514,176,787.17 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 10,749.66 (down) 176.19 1,573,489,683.39 HOLDING FIRMS 7,859.37 (down) 89.35 872,701,057.347 PROPERTY 3,786.66 (up) 8.93 SERVICES 1,684.46 (up) 28.64 654,299,706.71 MINING & OIL 12,608.72 (down) 102.34 1,281,823,441.07 PSEI 7,966.25 (down) 19.58 234,036,829.30 All Shares Index 4,708.56 (down) 14.57 5,169,561,180.69 Gainers: 84; Losers: 111; Unchanged: 52; Total: 247

pine operations and lower losses from Korean gaming operations under Jeju Hotel & Casino.

Bloomberry said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Solaire registered all-time high gross gaming revenues for VIP, mass table and electronic gaming machine segments.

Consolidated gross gaming revenues increased 16 percent year-on-year and 14 percent quarter-on-quarter to P12.22 billion in the second quarter– the highest since opening Solaire in March 2013.

“We are gratified to see the continuing results of our efforts to level up Solaire’s game. There will be no letup in these efforts. We are on track, and we will continue to focus on surpassing our previous achievements.”

Bloomberry chairman and chief executive Enrique Razon Jr. said.

Jeju Sun’s GGR alone grew 47 percent and contributed P173 million to the total.

The gaming firm achieved strong first-half performance despite increased competition following the opening of Okada Manila, the third integrated resort and casino to operate within the government-sponsored Pagcor Entertainment City.

Bloomberry’s non-gaming revenues in the first half also rose 40 percent to P1.57 billion, driven by new shows in The Theatre at Solaire, the opening of The Shoppes and improved hotel occupancy in both the Bay and Sky Towers.

RCBC reports P2.35-b income

By Julito G. Rada RIZAL Commercial Banking Corp., the ninth-largest lender in terms of assets, said Thursday net income in the first half reached P2.35 billion, down by 10 percent from P2.61 billion a year ago.

RCBC said in a statement this performance translated into an annualized return on equity and return on assets of 7.50 percent and 0.91 percent, respectively.

The bank said in the second quarter alone, net income jumped 67 percent to P1.34 billion from P806 million in the same period last year, on the back of 16-percent increase in net interest income, 56-percent growth in trading gains and 140-percent rise in fee-based income.

Net interest income in January to June reached P8.6 billion, and represented 70 percent of total gross income amounting to P12.4 billion.

Annualized net interest margin remained strong at 4.26 percent, a 20-basis-point improvement from 4.06 percent recorded in full year 2016.

“The growth in net interest income was driven by the bank’s vibrant lending business with the loan portfolio expanding by 16 percent to P324 billion.

All market segments sustained their growth with 15 percent growth in corporate loans, 26 percent growth in SME Loans, 14 percent growth in consumer loans and 26 percent growth in credit cards receivables,” the bank said.

Meanwhile, the microfinance arm of the bank that provides financing requirements for micro and small enterprises continued its uptrend with outstanding loan portfolio increasing 44 percent.

Motoring

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

B3

FASTLANE Suzuki opens satellite dealership in Valenzuela

Hyundai PH cited for after-sales service F OLLOWING the recent recognition for exemplary customer service in the passenger car and commercial vehicle categories given by South Korean automotive giant Hyundai Motor Company , Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc., the official distributor of Hyundai passenger and commercial vehicles in the Philippines, received the second highest ranking in the 2017 Philippines Customer Service Index Study SM conducted by J.D. Power.

The study, now on its 17th year, was fielded between February and May 2017, where a total of 1,951 new vehicle owners participated. Respondents are owners who purchased their vehicles between February 2015 and May 2016 and who brought their vehicles to

an authorized service center or dealer for maintenance or repair work between August 2016 and May 2017.

HARI bested the nine other mass market brands included in the study, registering impressive ratings in all five factors measured, namely: service

quality; service initiation; vehicle pick-up; service, facility; and service advisor.

HARI President and CEO Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo noted, “This recognition validates that we are doing something right— and that is going the extra mile to deliver service with heart. As always, we give back the honor to our customers, keeping to our ‘Gusto’ promise: kung ano ang Gusto mo, Kaya naming ibigay.

Kasama ninyo ang Hyundai sa biyahe ng buhay. Trust that the culture of service excellence at Hyundai will continue to grow and live on.”

Hyundai Philippines’ current campaign, “Gusto Ko, Kaya Ko, Sama Tayo,” transcends the standard definition of mobility. Beyond cutting edge design and technology offerings, Hyundai’s “Gusto” is driven by the Filipino customer’s dreams, needs, and values.

Team Hyundai and Accent

Club member Froilan Santiago, a proud owner of a 2016 Accent, is one of the thousands of Hyundai car owners who have been at the receiving end of the first-rate after-sales service at Hyundai dealerships. Said Santiago, “I value that the service staff are easy to talk to and very accommodating with my requests and queries. I’m also impressed by the expertise and performance of the mechanics, who are very approachable. I believe (this) is important to customers.”

This same brand of customer focus is what Team Sante Fe member Mark Pangilinan appreciates most in Hyundai dealers. “Ever since I got my 2016 Sante Fe, I always make sure to avail of service only from Hyundai. They would update me on every detail and even call me a few days after the service just to check on the car. Hyundai never disappoints.”

VW dealer raises bar in customer service Text and photo

by Genevieve Tiu VOLKSWAGEN is dubbed, “the people’s car.” True to this philosophy of designing vehicles for the daily motorist, one dealership in Quezon City has taken it a step further by making sure that each of its customers are educated in what it means to own a Volkswagen.

Sure – every buyer, new or old, is fully briefed and oriented in every aspect of his car upon pick-up, from what he can expect of the drive to the aftersales services that the dealership can offer. However, as Bob Palanca, General Manager of Volkswagen Quezon, explained, “When customers come to pick up their cars, they are excited

Bob Palanca, Volkswagen Quezon Avenue GM, hopes to instill brand loyalty with his event.

about the car and typically do not pay attention to the orientation.”

To make sure that his customers are getting the most out of their Volkswagen experience, Palanca holds special seminar events at the dealership. These seminars are focused on one VW model per event day, by-invitation only, and double as intimate get-togethers. The most recent event zeroed-in on the Golf GTS, VW’s newest hatchback. For half a day, attendees were given a recap on the vehicle, its parts, the maintenance services that can be availed at the dealership (and what they mean), insurance options that are available, and what products are best to use for DIY care.

The dealership went as far as to have an actual display car labeled with the dif-

ferent parts of the engine and an actual demo at the service bay.

To cap off the morning, attendees were treated to drinks and a buffet brunch meal as they mingled among the car displays.

It’s not everyday that one encounters this kind of unique experience from a dealership. The team behind Volkswagen Quezon Avenue has definitely raised the bar in initiating education and building relationships with its clients.

True enough, customer service is not just about what kind of warranty you can offer your customer. It’s about making sure that the customer is equipped with the necessary know-how about his purchase and what added value he can expect from his chosen dealer.

PIONEER compact car manufacturer Suzuki Philippines inaugurates its newest dealership in the city of Valenzuela. In line with its commitment to further enhance the Filipino way of life and bolstered by its 35 percent year-on-year growth achieved in the first half of 2017, the company is more determined to offer great-value products and improved services by broadening its reach in the country’s fast-growing cities.

Situated in a major economic and industrial center characterized by a rising number of industries, Suzuki Auto SM Valenzuela Satellite aims to give existing and potential customers greater access to the company’s lineup of innovative vehicles. This should likewise increase efficiency in addressing the needs of customers in the area.

“Through this newest dealership, we are optimistic of establishing a stronger foothold in Valenzuela City’s growing automotive market.

We thank our dealer partners for the trust and support that made this expansion possible. With our common goal of enhancing the Filipino driving experience, we believe we will accomplish many more milestones this year,” says Mr. Shuzo Hoshi-

kura, Suzuki Philippines General Manager for Automobile.

The Suzuki Auto SM Valenzuela Satellite is the third dealership outlet owned by the Matrix Motor Corporation under the management of Gilbert T. Dee, Jr. This is to complete the twenty-sixth satellite dealership and sixty-second Suzuki dealership in the country.

“I am most grateful to our customers for enabling us to achieve yet another feat. This would not be possible without your trust and loyalty to the brand. With a continuously expanding market, we were able to grow beyond expectations and into the company we are today.

Backed by our unwavering commitment, we will strive harder to bring you great-value vehicles and services to be able to make a significant difference in your lives,” shares Assistant General Manager for Automobile Cecil Capacete.

Suzuki Philippines’ current product lineup includes the Suzuki classics Jimny and Grand Vitara; the all-time favorites Swift, Celerio and Alto; the recently launched Euro 4-compliant Super Carry; the bestselling subcompact sedan Ciaz; and, the family favorite Ertiga.

Weather proof your car’s interior

UNLIKE basic universal floor mats which are expensive and hassle to install, Hippo techmats are designed to precisely fit specific vehicles, providing edge-to-edge coverage of the foot wells. Aside from being the most affordable 3D digital mapped floormats in the market today, Hippo also have raised edges around their perimeters to trap and contain liquid. All of this better protects your car’s carpets from water, dirt, mud and other messy things that can get trapped into the vehicle’s carpets or spilled onto the floor.

“Our products also have patterns around the techmats that channel away fluids from your feet to a reservoir at the rear edges. Our 3D digital mapped techmats are easy to install, remove and fits most cars, pick-ups and SUV’s,” explains Lance Chua of Autospecs, distributor and a popular car accessories

and parts shop in Banawe Quezon City. “Our floor mats are also designed to not move around or slip on the floor and the best thing about it is they are easy to clean,” adds Chua.

With countless hours spent on research and development, Hippo Industries 3D digital mapped techmats are the most affordable and best designed in comparison to its nearest competitor which is double the price. It is also the techmatsof choice of automotive dealers due to its competitive pricing and innovative material Thermo Plasti Vulcanisil B which is weather and scratch proof. Hippo Floormats have precise fitments for the Mitsubishi Montero, Toyota Fortuner, Ford Everest, Honda Mobilio and BRV, Chevrolet variants, and pickups such as the Toyota Hi-Lux, Mitsubishi Strada and the Ford Ranger.

Hino grows local footprint with 2nd Cebu dealership CEBU—Hino Motors Philippines , the exclusive distributor of Hino trucks and buses in the Philippines, boosts its dealer network and strengthens its commitment as a reliable transport and business partner with its newly-opened dealership in one of the fastest growing cities in the Philippines – Cebu City.

Managed by Subic GS Auto Inc., Hino Service Center in City of Naga, Cebu is a fully-equipped spare parts and service dealership which can offer complete transport and logistics service solutions. Strategically located along the Naga national road, the 5,600-square meter dealership is well-positioned to cater to the city’s trucking needs.

Hino Service Center, which is located in the heart of Naga City, is a viable destination for business and investment opportunities as the area thrives in trading, commercial, and industrial activities. As Cebu City continues its momentum of sustainable economic growth, Hino Service Center in City of Naga, is set to help further propel the business growth and improve the logis-

tics and infrastructure landscape in the area.

“We are optimistic that Cebu’s continuous economic growth will drive the success of this new dealership. As we continue to live out Hino’s corporate mission of making the world a better place to live in, we do so by helping people and goods get where they need to go safely and economically. Being a one-stop shop for all trucking and logistics needs, we always ensure the reliability, efficiency, and maximum performance of every truck and bus that we offer,” HMP President Mr. Hiroshi Aoki shared.

Subic GS Auto Inc. is a joint venture of Kilton Investment Holding Corporation and Gifu Hino Co., Inc. Subic GS Auto Inc. is the authorized dealer of (3) three Hino Dealerships in the Philippines – one located in Jose Abad Santos Manila, one in Paranaque, and this one in Cebu. Aside from these, the company still has another Cebu-based Hino showroom underway to complete the 3S (Sales, Service, Spare Parts) shop in the city.

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

B4

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

Motoring

Isuzu’s show of Force

(Joseph Bautista, Product Development and Marketing head of IPC (left), and Hajime Koso, IPC president, show off an all original old schoolIsuzu pick-up.

Text and photo by Dino Ray V. Directo III

I

N AN amazing show of dominance in its segment, Isuzu Philippines Corporation recently staged an event to celebrate two decades of doing business in the domestic market.

Held at the sprawling grounds of the Megatent in Libis, Quezon City, the “Isuzu Big Meet” eventc was the largest gathering of Isuzu vehicles and clubs. “ This was organized to promote camaraderie among Isuzu vehicle owners, as well recording the biggest gathering of Isuzu club members in one place,” said Hajime Koso, President of IPC. More than 300 Isuzu owners with their vehicles joined the grand meet, which displayed Isuzu’s current light commercial vehicle line-up, namely the Crosswind AUV, D-MAX pick-up and mu-X SUV, alongside its iconic models like the Hi-Lander, Fuego

pick-up and Alterra. In attendance were the recognized clubs of IPC such as Team Isuzu Pilipinas, Team Isuzu Car Enthusiast and mu-X Owners Philippines.

Enthusiasts from the different parts of Luzon participated in the grand club meet to display their custom and modified Isuzu variants. Exhibition participants competed for glory and bragging rights as club members battled it out for points in different categories such as Best AUV, Best Pickup, and Best SUV. Meanwhile for the modified categories, Isuzu clubs competed on Best Engine Set-up, Best Sound/ Entertainment System Set-up,

and Best 4x4 Vehicle Set-up.

Acting as judges were IPC executives led by Koso and media representatives.

Emerging winners in each category were the following: Victor Candelaria (Best AUV), Dr. Roman Remo (Best Pickup), JT Lerma (Best SUV), Ivan De Castro (Best Engine Set-up), Deni Von Amatorio (Best Sound/Entertainment) and Vic Makimkim (Best 4x4 Set-up). Each of them received cash prize, trophy, and premium Isuzu merchandise; as well as cash prizes and premium merchandise to the first and second runner-up winners.

Moreover, the owners of the Oldest Isuzu Model and the Highest KM Mileage in attendance, were also given recognition and prizes, Oldest Model awards was given to Alex Cabungal for his 1976 Gemini. Chito Villanueva from Team Isuzu Pilipinas took the highest mileage award for recording 998,628 kilometers on his Isuzu HiLander.

An added bonus during the Big Meet event were the sales booths of Isuzu certified parts and accessories suppliers such as Waido Corporation (MiLi, PIAA and CTEK battery chargers; Overland PH with their off road accessories; and Winterpine Corporation; who gave on-site an exclusive 20 percent discount on all parts and accessories. Event sponsor was Petron Corp.

“We are thankful for the trust that you have continually showed us over the course of the years. We value this partnership and rest assured that we will continue to provide utmost quality and topnotch service every time you would seek our service,” Koso said.“Just like car clubs, we want everyone to join hands and be united not just on meets, but also on the road,” added Koso, who expressed his elation over the success of the program, saying that the event is a true testament on the reliability and trustworthiness of the brand with Filipinos motorists.

The standard of performance IT’S been a while since I drove a stick shift. Given the punishing traffic jam that hounds urban motorists 24/7, Filipino consumers have long shifted their loyalties to the automatic transmission, due to the ease of use and convenience. The last stick shift this writer drove was the 2015 Subaru WRX STi, the famed 4WD machine of Fuji Heavy Industries that locked horns with World’s best rally cars in the WRC. Two years after that exhilarating experience behind the wheel of the STi, the marketing tandem of Uzzi Ascunsion and Tine Liwanag of Motor Image Pilipinas, the local distributor of the Subaru brand in the country, entrusted me with the keys to the latest version of its famed 4WD icon.

Not much has changed actually for this mechanized bully, except maybe for the missing massive rear wing. It takes a keen eye to point out the differences of this current model, but surely, improvements were made into its chassis which was pretty much excellent to begin with.

The 2017 Impreza STi is wider, sits lower to the ground and has a slightly longer wheelbase.

On paper, this variant is stiffer than the previous STi model.

Being a performance car, don’t expect your Grandmother to like the ride because Subaru tweaked the suspension with stiffer cross members and bushings both front and rear, as well as thicker anti-roll bars with slightly altered mounting points to increase toein at the rear and ground contact under load upfront. The hydraulic power steering has also been replaced with a stiffer column with a quicker gear fitted. Pop the hood and you’ll see the same 2.5 turbo boxer engine which is matted to a six-speed manual transmission. Driving it along EDSA, you’ll feel that the tranny has a shorter throw and thanks to an intelligent drive system, a knob just beneath the transmission stick, the driver will be able

to choose from three settings such as Intelligent, Sport and Sport Sharp. Fans of the boxer engine will not be disappointed because the car leaps on demand and power is on tap when you summon it.

All business Step inside the cockpit of the STi and visually, one will immediately see its true intent, which is to go fast at a drop of a dime.

An extra 25mm at the wheelbase means more knee and legroom for the driver, which is a plus for people like Stephen Curry.

The gauge clusters screams performance with it’s 280kph speedometer, 8,000 rpms rev counter and the STi logo emblazoned across the gauges. The meaty leather wrapped steering with hand grips is good to the touch and the bolstered seats and nice and comfortable which compensates for the rather harsh ride of the STi. The only downside of this cabin is the nineties throwback audio system which was a clearly not prioritized by design engineers at Fuji. My Blaupunkt equipped Hyundai Accent sounds better than this Subaru.

It’s also good that the audio system has USB connectivity.

Despite the drawbacks of the audio system, this car is fun to drive. The engine puts out 305 hp and 290 pound-feet of torque, and the STI is one of the only cars in the market that is still exclusively available with a manual transmission. The gearing for first and second are a bit short and you’ll hit redline in no time, plus the short throw transmission is a delight to use. Off the line acceleration is freaky fast and the torque kicks in as early as 2,000 rpms.

There is a bit of turbo lag, but the car feels light and is always ready to pounce on unsuspecting boy racers. The large brake calipers are sharp, the clutch is the right weight and feels intuitive to use and the steering is fantastic, slightly heavy, but responsive to what direction you want it to go.

Dino Directo III

SAFE

Built

ow!

Ride it N

ABS

Anti-lock Brake System

Touch Screen Multimedia Audio Unit

Highway Driving Only Sanctioned by The Department of Energy and Petron during the DOE Euro 4 Fuel Eco Run 2016

Dual Airbag

New Features Upgrade

1.0L GL - CVT

Suzuki Customer Care Hotline: (02) 462-5000 Like us @ facebook.com/SuzukiAutoPh | www.suzuki.com.ph/auto

A+ (Roomy Interior)

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Makati students reap intl medals

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

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

C1

By Joel E. Zurbano THIRTY-NINE public school students in Makati City bagged numerous awards, including three gold medals, seven silver medals, and 14 bronze medals, during the 13th International Mathematics Contest held in Singapore from Aug. 4 to 7.

The Philippines also ranked first in the competition, which included participants from China, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Hong Kong, Iran, South Korea, Australia, and India.

Mayor Abigail Binay congratulated the students and reiterated the city’s continuing commitment to providing “quality and relevant education for all.”

“My warmest congratulations to our young achievers from Makati’s public schools who have once again brought honor to our city. Thank you for reciprocating our investments in your education.

Your achievements fuel our resolve to develop globally competitive Makatizens through unlimited access to quality and relevant education,” she said.

The three students from Makati Science High School (MSHS) who won gold medals were Al Patrick Castro, Deanne Gabrielle Algenio, and Reighne Clarence Evangelista.

MSHS students reaping silver medals were Mark Andrei Elpedes, Miguel Angelo Gomez, Jan Paul Aplacador, Riana Francine Tario, Albert Timothy Go, and Shazel Catherine Policarpio, together with a student of San Antonio National High School, Rafael Oliveros.

Fourteen students from public schools in Makati brought home bronze medals, including MSHS students Joseph Benedict Gatmen, Leidovic Keth Gellang, Angelo Josh Cuaresma, John Robbie Laurio, Jarek Taberdo, Miguel Carlos Yapan, Lesmon Andres Saluta and Russell Lei Padayao.

Other bronze medalists included Leoj Phoebe Esquierdo (Bangkal High School) and five elementary students, namely, Michael Angelo Saluta (Pembo Elementary School); Laurence Hapin (Rizal ES); John Clarence Cruzado (West Rembo ES); Allainah Jade Pahunang (Comembo ES); and Jaoine Elinah Raguro (Bangkal ES Main).

Cebu BRT project put on hold

By Darwin G. Amojelar

T

HE Department of Transportation has put on the back burner the construction of the P9-billion Bus Rapid Transit project in Cebu province.

“The review must be undertaken and that concerns raised must be addressed, so as not to cast any doubt on the integrity of the project,” DOTr said in a statement Thursday.

“Rest assured that the decision to be made will be anchored on the DOTr’s aim to enhance mobility and connectivity in the coun-

try, and to put the convenience of the riding public on topmost priority,” the agency added.

DOTr’s decision came after the recent pronouncements of the National Economic Development Authority that the proposal of Michael Dino, presidential assistant for the Visayas, to build an LRT-Subway project for Cebu

is “conceptually better” than the BRT, given the narrow streets of Cebu City.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, as head of Neda, said the LRT-Subway proposal will still have to undergo “the rigorous and long processes of project proposal and approval.”

As standard practice for all big-ticket public projects, proposals are brought to the concerned line agency with a completed feasibility study.

In 2015, the Transportation department awarded the detailed engineering, design and construction supervision contract for the 23-kilometer Cebu BRT

system to Kunhwa Engineering & Consulting Co. Ltd. The design and consultancy contract would be funded by a $2.9-million loan from the World Bank, while P67.8 million would be the counterpart fund from the Philippine government.

The Philippines earlier secured a $114-million loan from the World Bank to finance the construction of the Cebu BRT. The project would have entailed building segregated BRT bus-ways from Bulacao to Ayala, with a link to the South Road Property, a feeder service between Ayala and Talamban districts with signal priority, 33

stations to service 330,000 people per day in 2015, 176 buses, an area stop light control for the entire Cebu City, and a central transport control room.

Once completed, the BRT project could field 433,000 individual trips per day, resulting in savings of 25 minutes of travel time and P7.50 in fares. Compared with a rail service, a BRT would cost five to 10 percent lower and would take less time (two years) to construct, the feasibility study added.

The Transportation department was to implement the project, which was scheduled to start commercial operations by 2018.

To mark the end of the Laguna Drug Summit 2017, government and police officials of Santa Rosa, Laguna flash their fists, led by (from left) Vice Mayor Arnold Arcillas, Santa Rosa City Mayor Dan Fernandez, Calabarzon Police Chief Supt. Ma. O Aplasca, Laguna 1st District Rep. Arlene Arcillas, Laguna Provincial Police Senior Supt. Cecilio Ison, and Santa Rosa Chief of Police Supt. Joel Estaris. Inset shows several of the 620 drug surrenderers wave the certificates they received for finishing their rehabilitation program with the support of the City Anti-Drug Abuse Council, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Roy Tomandao

Hundreds graduate at Santa Rosa Drug Summit Women

By Roy Tomandao

SANTA ROSA, Laguna—The City of Santa Rosa held the Drug Summit 2017 on Thursday at the City Auditorium as the culminating activity of the City AntiDrug Abuse Council’s campaign against illegal drugs.

Part of the program was the distribution of certificates of participation to surrenderers who participated in the 45-day Community-Based Rehabilita-

tion Program in their respective barangays and the three-day Simula ng Pag-Asa or Sipag program. A total of 620 drug surrenderers received their certificates for this.

Attendees of the Drug Summit also included the 22 patients from the Dangal ng Pagbabago Rehabilitation Center, who are also graduating from the CBRP program. Dangal is the first ever rehabilitation center in the country operated by a local govern-

ment unit.

The center was established in response to the call of President Rodrigo Duterte to address the need for a facility to help rehabilitate drug dependents, who voluntarily surrendered to the police as they conducted the “Operation Tokhang” in the city.

Police Chief Supt. Ma. O R. Aplasca, Calabarzon Regional Director, represented Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa in the pro-

gram. Laguna First District Rep. Arlene B. Arcillas also graced the program.

At the program, Mayor Dan Fernandez said: “This is it, the life that changes you, the program that changes you, to another life given by this government program. We thank our President Rodrigo Duterte for this program against drugs. We will try to continue this fight until the City of Santa Rosa will be all clear of drugs.”

Rep. Arcillas said: “This is another event that gives hope and guidance to our constituents. Santa Rosa was the first to answer the program of our President Duterte’s fight against drugs, as Santa Rosa was the first to create a drug rehabilitation center under the Dangal ng Pagbabago, with the support of City Vice Mayor Arnold Arcillas, the Sangguniang Bayan, and City Police led by Supt. Joel Estaris.”

Census of Manila Sr. citizens ordered

By Bill Casas MANILA Mayor Joseph Estrada on Thursday ordered a thorough documentation of senior citizens in the city to account for thousands more who are not registered with the city’s Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs.

Estrada said he wants all elderly in Manila registered with OSCA so they will be able to enjoy the wide range of benefits the city government is offering, such as free hospitalization, maintenance medicines, and cash gifts.

“It is important that they are all accounted for so we could reach out to them, and give them what they deserve,” Estrada said. “For all we know, there are many more senior citizens out there that need assistance.”

Estrada has directed OSCA officer-in-charge Jeff Manansala to set things in motion so the city government will be able

to set aside additional funds if needed.

Manansala said they have started searching for undocumented senior citizens in each of the city’s 896 barangays, in close coordination with the barangay officials. Even the homeless elderly are being sought out, he said.

“Most of these senior citizens do not know how to register at the city hall, or they are having difficulty going to city hall, that’s why we are the ones going to the communities to assist them,” Manansala said.

Qualified senior citizens will be issued official OSCA and Senior Citizen identification cards they can use in their everyday transactions and in availing the services and programs of the city government, Manansala said.

Presently, there are over 132,000 senior citizens registered with OSCA, he added.

MMMSFI DONATION. The Metro Manila Mayors’ Spouses Foundation Inc. led by its president Janet

Olivarez (fifth from left) turned over to Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo the foundation’s donation for Marawi siege victims at the DSWD main office in Quezon City. Present during the turnover are (from left) Eva Nono, MMMSFI PRO Maribel Eusebio, auditor Edna Malapitan, treasurer Edna Calixto, DSWD assistant secretary Marie Badoy, Foundation secretary Tates Gana, Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano, vice president Melissa Sison-Oreta, and Miziel Panis-Manalang, representing Navotas City.

prisoners trained by QC, BJMP

By Rio N. Araja THE Quezon City government will continue to work with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to conduct livelihood skills training for female detainees.

The city’s Social Services and Development Department requested the BJMP to continue their partnership in teaching female detainees to make beads, rugs, soap and candles, and provide training on massage therapy, health and wellness program, housekeeping, and bread and pastry production.

According to Quezon City Jail warden Marie Rose Laguyo, the skills training is conducted every quarter.

“We are providing skills training so that when they leave the jail facility, they are ready to go back to society and become productive. Besides, the program will help address the boredom of these female detainees. We buy their products, which we give away as tokens during our events.

Through this, we can be able to help them,” she said.

In 2012, the SSDD started its partnership with the BJMP female dormitory to integrate their livelihood programs for their inmates.

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

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Manila

Standard FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017 C2 TODAY

Didipio mine pays P92-m local tax

By Abe Almirol

B

AYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—AsiaPacific miner OceanaGold, the operator of the Didipio gold-copper mine located between Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya and Cabarroguis, Quirino, paid P92 million in 2017 business taxes to the government of Kasibu on July 24.

A tax payment certificate and mayor’s permit to operate dated Aug. 7, signed by Kasibu Mayor Alberto “Chito” Bumolo Jr., indicated the business tax plus an additional P226,450 as mayor’s permit fee.

“OceanaGold, as a good cor-

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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.

mine,” said David Way, OceanaGold Didipio’s general manager.

Way hopes the tax payments would translate to further development for Kasibu, a third-class municipality of Nueva Vizcaya.

“Delivering hope for better lives to our communities motivates us to constantly innovate and pursue excellence in all our activities. As a responsible mining firm, we strive to leave

behind a positive legacy ensuring the sustainable future of our communities,” Way said.

At present, three municipal governments—Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya and the towns of Cabarroguis and Nagtipunan in the province of Quirino—claim collaborative jurisdiction over the Didipio mine’s operating activities.

The other local tax being levied on the company, the real property

tax, has been subject of a court interpleader case filed before a Makati Regional Trial Court. The case had been filed as Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino had both assessed the tax for the Didipio mine. The court has not yet decided on the case.

Despite the pending case, OceanaGold has settled its 2015 to 2017 real property tax payment to Nueva Vizcaya amounting to P101 million.

porate citizen, has been explicit in stating its intentions to fulfill its moral, legal and ethical obligations. The tax payments are tangible results of the cumulative efforts of the dedicated men and women who work in the Didipio

Bronze for PSHS student

Notice of Loss Stock Certificate Notice is hereby given that Anthony M. Te loss his Stock Certificate Number 553 representing 350,000 common shares in Asian Appraisal Company Inc. (AACI). Please take further notice that after the expiration of one (1) year from the date of last publication, if no contest has been presented to AACI regarding said certificate of stock, the right to make such contest shall be barred and said corporation shall cancel in its books the certificate of stock which has been loss and issue in lieu thereof a new certificate of stock unless a bond for issuance of new certificate before the expiration of one (1) yearis secured.

(MS-AUG. 11,18 & 25, 2017)

Aurora due to both parties’ psychological incapacities to perform the essential obligations of marriage and furnish a copy thereof to petitioner’s counsel.

ATTY. JOSEPHINE SAPLALAADELAIDA VERDE LARDIZABAL, ABADEJOS with address at PORMENTO ABADEJOS AND Petitioner, ASSOCIATES, 111 Pasedena St., Pasay City.

-versusREPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES REGIONAL TRIAL COURT NATIONAL CAPITAL JUDICIAL REGION BRANCH 109, PASAY CITY

CIVIL CASE NO. R-PSY-17-25917-CV For: Declaration of Nullity of Marriage under Article 36 of the Family Code JEROME LARDIZABAL, Respondent. x---------------------------------------x

SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION TO : MR. JEROME LARDIZABAL Cabog, Dingalan, Aurora

If you fail to answer within the time fixed, as per the Rules of Court, the petitioner shall take judgment against you and demand from this court the relief applied in this petition.

Moreover, you are reminded of the provision of the IBPOCA Memorandum on Policy guidelines dated March 12, 2002, to observe restraint in filing a Motion to Dismiss and instead alleged the grounds thereof as defenses in the answer. If you fail to answer within the time fixed, the Court shall order the Public Prosecutor to investigate whether or not collusion exist between the parties and intervene for the state to see to it that the evidence presented is not fabricated or suppressed.

GREETINGS: Your are hereby directed to enter your appearance in the above-entitled case within thirty (30) days from the last publication hereof in a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines once a week for two (2) consecutive weeks and answer the Petition filed Witness the HON. by petitioner Adelaida Verde TINGARAAN U. GUILING, Lardizabal wherein the petitioner Presiding Judge of this Court prays that judgment be rendered this 24th day of July 2017. declaring as NULL AND VOID (Sgd.) CLEOTILDE P. PAULO the marriage entered by the Petitioner and Respondent on Officer-In-Charge November 10, 1986 at Dingalan, (MS-Aug. 4 & 11, 2017)

The contribution of the mining industry to economic development has been in the spotlight after its contribution to the national coffers has been underestimated.

In the case of Didipio, OceanaGold’s records reveal the company has so far contributed P3.2 billion in taxes and social investment expenditures since its commercial operation commenced in April 2013.

NOVELETA NEGOSYO CENTER. The Department of Trade and Industry Region 4A, represented by Regional Director Marilou Toledo (seated, right), signs a memorandum of agreement with Noveleta Mayor Dino Reyes Chua (seated, left) as the locality opened DTI’s 14th Go Negosyo center branch in the province, located at the municipal hall, on Monday. Also in photo are (from left) Vice Mayor Donnie Torres, Teresita Leabres of PCCI, DTICavite Provincial Director Noly Guevarra, and Risa Pinpin-Enero.

Number of Clark employees up

By Romeo Dizon CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga—Employees working in different companies inside the Clark economic zone reached 101,688 for the first semester of 2017, an 8.7-percent increase over the same period last year.

Noel Manankil, president of Clark Development Corp., said the

BONIFACIO DRIVE, SOUTH HARBOR, PORT AREA, MANILA 1018, PHILIPPINES, P.O. BOX 436, MANILA, PHILIPPINES TEL. NO. (0632) 527-8356, FAX NO. (0632) 527-4855 HTTP://WWW.PPA.COM.PH

increased employment inside the former American air force base was due to the sound business practices that prompted foreign and local businesses to locate here.

The freeport employed 93,467 workers in the first semester of 2016, he said.

Manankil told the fellows of the Foundation for Economic Freedom CDC’s sound business

practices allowed it to attract more investors. Its expansion program “can meet and exceed the demand of their clients, especially those from abroad,” he added.

The FEF is a non-profit organization that promotes economic and political freedom and good governance, with former prime minister Cesar Virata as head of the advisory board.

BONIFACIO DRIVE, SOUTH HARBOR, PORT AREA, MANILA 1018, PHILIPPINES, P.O. BOX 436, MANILA, PHILIPPINES TEL. NO. (0632) 527-8356, FAX NO. (0632) 527-4855 HTTP://WWW.PPA.COM.PH

INVITATION TO BID

INVITATION TO BID

DAVAO CITY—Through local student Dann Lawrence Ilabore, the Philippines won a bronze medal in the International Geography Olympiad in Belgrade, Serbia from Aug. 2 to 8, an event attended by 161 students from 41 countries.

Ilabore, 17, a Grade 12 student of the Philippine Science High School Southern Mindanao campus, eventually ranked 67th out of the 161 students who joined the yearly competition.

Ilabore excelled in the written exam, response test, field work, and multimedia test, making him the sole medalist for team Philippines.

Ilabore admitted that winning the Philippine Geography Olympiad was already a sweet victory for him, especially since he doesn’t have a strong background in geography.

“Given the circumstances, and the lack of background and formal education in geography, being here is a success, and wining bronze medal makes this success even sweeter,” he said.

According to Ilabore’s coach, Jefferson Nuṅeza, the student had a hard time preparing for the competition, and even had a joint review session with three other teammates at the PSHS main campus in Quezon City to better prepare himself.

BONIFACIO DRIVE, SOUTH HARBOR, PORT AREA, MANILA 1018, PHILIPPINES, P.O. BOX 436, MANILA, PHILIPPINES TEL. NO. (0632) 527-8356, FAX NO. (0632) 527-4855 HTTP://WWW.PPA.COM.PH

INVITATION TO BID

FOR THE ROXAS PORT EXPANSION PROJECT, PORT OF ROXAS, ORIENTAL MINDORO

FOR THE PROPOSED BAUAN PORT EXPANSION PROJECT, PORT OF BAUAN, BRGY. APLAYA, BAUAN, BATANGAS

FOR THE CLAVERIA PORT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, PORT OF CLAVERIA, TAGGAT NORTE, CAGAYAN

The Philippine Ports Authority, through the Corporate Budget of the Authority for CY 2017, intends to apply the sum of P 146,471,689.76 being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for the Roxas Port Expansion Project, Port of Roxas, Oriental Mindoro (LFP MDO No. 020-2017).

Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

The Philippine Ports Authority, through the Corporate Budget of the Authority for CY 2017, intends to apply the sum of P 84,360,918.91 being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for the Proposed Bauan Port Expansion Project, Port of Bauan, Brgy. Aplaya, Bauan, Batangas (LFP BGS No. 021-2017). Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

The Philippine Ports Authority, through the Corporate Budget of the Authority for CY 2017, intends to apply the sum of P 190,234,789.18 being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for the Claveria Port Development Project, Port of Claveria, Taggat Norte, Cagayan, (LFP NLZ NO. 022-2017). Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

The Philippine Ports Authority now invites bids for A. Construction of RC Pier (Area = 901.12 sq. m.) B. Construction of Back-up Area C. Port Lighting System. Completion of the Works is required in 360 calendar days. Bidders should have completed 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.

The Philippine Ports Authority now invites bids for A. Construction of Back-up Area and Causeway B. Construction of RC Pier C. Construction of Passenger Terminal Building. Completion of the Works is required in 450 calendar days.

Bidders should have completed a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

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

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

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, cooperatives, and partnerships or organizations with at least seventy five percent (75%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, cooperatives, and partnerships or organizations with at least seventy five percent (75%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from the Philippine Ports Authority Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) for Engineering Projects and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from the Philippine Ports Authority Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) for Engineering Projects and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be acquired by interested Bidders on 11 August 2017 from the address below and upon payment of the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents, pursuant to the latest Guidelines issued by the GPPB, in the amount of FIFTY THOUSAND PESOS (P 50,000.00).

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be acquired by interested Bidders on 11 August 2017 from the address below and upon payment of the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents, pursuant to the latest Guidelines issued by the GPPB, in the amount of FIFTY THOUSAND PESOS (P 50,000.00).

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

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

The Philippine Ports Authority’s Bids and Awards Committee for Engineering Projects will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on 22 August 2017 at 10:00 a.m. at the PPA Function Room, 7th Floor, PPA Bldg., Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila, which shall be open to all prospective bidders.

The Philippine Ports Authority’s Bids and Awards Committee for Engineering Projects will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on 22 August 2017 at 10:00 a.m. at the PPA Function Room, 7th Floor, PPA Bldg., Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila, which shall be open to all prospective bidders.

Bids must be duly received by the BAC Secretariat at the address below on or before 1:00 p.m. of 04 September 2017. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in the bidding documents.

Bids must be duly received by the BAC Secretariat at the address below on or before 1:00 p.m. of 06 September 2017. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in the bidding documents.

Bid opening shall be on 04 September 2017 at 2:00 p.m. at the 7th Floor, PPA Building, A. Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila. Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidder’s representatives who choose to attend at the address below. Late bids shall not be accepted.

Bid opening shall be on 06 September 2017 at 2:00 p.m. at the 7th Floor, PPA Building, A. Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila. Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidder’s representatives who choose to attend at the address below. Late bids shall not be accepted.

The Philippine Ports Authority now invites bids for A. Demolition and Removal Works B. Back-up Area and Rock Causeway C. R.C. Platform and RoRo Ramp D. Port Lighting System. Completion of the Works is required in 630 calendar days. Bidders should have completed a contract similar to the Project.

The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using nondiscretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9184 (RA 9184), otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act.” Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, cooperatives, and partnerships or organizations with at least seventy five percent (75%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from the Philippine Ports Authority Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) for Engineering Projects and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be acquired by interested Bidders on 11 August 2017 from the address below and upon payment of the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents, pursuant to the latest Guidelines issued by the GPPB, in the amount of FIFTY THOUSAND PESOS (P 50,000.00).

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

The Philippine Ports Authority’s Bids and Awards Committee for Engineering Projects will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on 22 August 2017 at 10:00 a.m. at the PPA Function Room, 7th Floor, PPA Bldg., Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila, which shall be open to all prospective bidders.

Bids must be duly received by the BAC Secretariat at the address below on or before 9:00 a.m. of 04 September 2017. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in the bidding documents.

Bid opening shall be on 04 September 2017 at 10:00 a.m. at the 7th Floor, PPA Building, A. Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila. Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidder’s representatives who choose to attend. Late bids shall not be accepted.

•

Required PCAB Registration: Medium B – Port, Harbor and Offshore Engineering

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

For further information, please refer to: BAC Secretariat, Philippine Ports Authority 5th Floor, PPA Bldg., A. Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila Telephone/Fax No. 527-47-35 527-83-56 to 83 loc. 539 PPA Website: www.ppa.com.ph ADRIAN FERDINAND S. SUGAY Chairperson, PPA Head Office Bids and Awards Committee for Engineering Projects (HO-BAC-EP)

•

Required PCAB Registration: Medium A – Port, Harbor and Offshore Engineering

Required PCAB Registration: Medium B – Port, Harbor and Offshore Engineering

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

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

For further information, please refer to:

For further information, please refer to:

BAC Secretariat, Philippine Ports Authority 5th Floor, PPA Bldg., A. Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila

BAC Secretariat, Philippine Ports Authority 5th Floor, PPA Bldg., A. Bonifacio Drive, South Harbor, Port Area, Manila

Telephone/Fax No. 527-47-35 527-83-56 to 83 loc. 539

Telephone/Fax No. 527-47-35 527-83-56 to 83 loc. 539

PPA Website: www.ppa.com.ph

PPA Website: www.ppa.com.ph

ADRIAN FERDINAND S. SUGAY Chairperson, PPA Head Office Bids and Awards Committee for Engineering Projects (HO-BAC-EP) Standard – Aug. 11, 2017

•

ADRIAN FERDINAND S. SUGAY Chairperson, PPA Head Office Bids and Awards Committee for Engineering Projects (HO-BAC-EP) Standard – Aug. 11, 2017

Standard – Aug. 11, 2017

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

World

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

C3

New US sanctions against Venezuela

MEETING. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, center left, and Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha attend a meeting at Government House in Bangkok on August 10. AFP

Guam ready to handle threat from N. Korea, says governor H AGATNA―Guam’s governor on Thursday said the US territory was “well-equipped” to handle any North Korean strike thanks to robust infrastructure that had survived earthquakes and typhoons, after Pyongyang released a detailed plan to launch missiles towards the island.

A drumbeat of threats by North Korea over the years has fostered a sense of resilience among the island’s 162,000 inhabitants, whose lives are deeply intertwined with the US military, which has 6,000 troops based there.

Guam Governor Eddie Calvo said the remote Pacific island was accustomed to being a target ever since Washington placed military installations there.

“We have to understand that even in a million-to-one scenario we have to be prepared with

Guam being what it has been for decades, an American territory with strategic military assets in place in a very dynamic region.

“We are prepared for any eventuality, more so than any other American community,” he said.

He did not elaborate on Guam’s defenses but the island houses two US military installations, and is also armed with a sophisticated weapons system known as THAAD, which can destroy short, medium and intermediaterange missiles in their final phase

of flight.

“The way our infrastructure is built―an 8.3 earthquake a decade ago, powerful typhoons―they are well-equipped to coordinate both pre-event and also post-event,” he said.

Hours earlier, as North Korea’s war of words with US President Donald Trump intensified, Pyongyang said it was developing a plan to launch four intermediate-range missiles towards the Pacific island.

In Guam’s capital Hagatna, residents were unruffled by Pyongyang’s rhetoric.

“If it’s going to happen it’s going to happen,” Loiue Joyce, a woman in her mid-20s, said of the North Korean threat, as she enjoyed a day of shopping.

“Scary? Yes, but what can we do? We live on a small island.

There’s really nowhere to hide if the attack were to happen.”

A key US military stronghold, Guam was the departure point for US B-52 bombers that attacked Hanoi during the 1955-1975 Vietnam war.

In addition to the military presence, Guam also relies heavily on tourism to boost its economy, attracting more than 1.5 million visitors drawn to its pristine beaches and luxury resorts in 2016.

Authorities said the regional tensions had not dampened tourists’ appetite for the island.

“It’s business as usual in paradise,” said Josh Tyquengco, marketing director at Guam Visitors Bureau, the official agency for the island.

“I am not aware of any cancellations. This is peak season for Guam. I don’t see North Korea’s story having any impact on tourism at this point.”

But the Guam Daily Post said

in an editorial that although the island’s residents were used to North Korea’s threats, the situation was more precarious today because “a feisty, not-so-coolheaded commander-in-chief lives in the White House now”.

The last time Guam feared a North Korean attack, in 2013, tensions eventually simmered down because then US President Barack Obama’s administration avoided a verbal war with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the newspaper said.

“This time, the North Korean threat is different, and more worrisome because North Korea’s Guam-specific threat was reportedly in reaction to President Trump’s statement saying: ‘North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States.

They will be met with fire and fury.’ AFP

CARACAS―The United States imposed new sanctions on crisishit Venezuela on Wednesday, targeting the members of a controversial, all-powerful, loyalist assembly installed last week to bolster what Washington calls the “dictatorship” of President Nicolas Maduro.

The measures were aimed at six members of the so-called Constituent Assembly―among them the brother of late president Hugo Chavez―as well as a military officer in charge of security for the body, and a board member of the national electoral authority.

They added to the previous US sanctions on Maduro himself―a rare step against a sitting head of state―imposed just before the assembly was elected on July 30 in a vote marred by violence, fraud allegations and an opposition boycott.

“President Maduro swore in this illegitimate Constituent Assembly to further entrench his dictatorship, and continues to tighten his grip on the country,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

“This regime’s disregard for the will of the Venezuelan people is unacceptable, and the United States will stand with them in opposition to tyranny until Venezuela is restored to a peaceful and prosperous democracy.”

The Venezuelan government reacted by saying the US was “making a fool of itself in front of the world.”

It “doesn’t respect any criterion, any basic principle of international law,” Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told state television.

“Venezuela can’t be sanctioned for anything, nor by anybody.”

The US announcement came as the Constituent Assembly and Venezuela’s supreme court took actions to limit the opposition’s ability to challenge Maduro.

The assembly has established a “truth commission” which Maduro has said should examine alleged crimes by opposition leaders―especially those in charge of the country’s legislature, which his Socialist Party lost control of two years ago.

The assembly has also fired the attorney general, Luisa Ortega, who broke ranks to become an outspoken critic of the president. AFP

At the heart of US opioid crisis CHICAGO―When 55-year-old Sheila Bartels left her doctor’s office in Oklahoma, she had a prescription for 510 painkillers.

She died the same day of an overdose.

Her doctor, Regan Nichols, is now facing five second-degree murder charges―one for each patient who overdosed after she prescribed them opioid drugs, such as Oxycontin―prescriptions that can lead to addiction.

“Doctors bear enormous responsibility for the opioid crisis,” said David Clark, a professor of anesthesiology at Stanford University who worked on a government-sponsored panel that studied the crisis, and recommended new training and guidelines for health care providers and regulators.

“We didn’t have [a crisis] until doctors became enamored with what they imagined to be the potential for opioids in controlling chronic pain,” Clark told AFP. An estimated two million Americans are addicted to opioid drugs―many forced to buy pills

illegally when prescriptions run out. Some, in desperation, resort to heroin and synthetic opioids smuggled into the US by Mexican drug cartels.

Ninety people die every day in the United States from opioid overdoses.

More than 180,000 have died since 1999, including pop icon Prince, who passed away in April 2016 at age 57 after an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid painkiller.

Doctors in the United States prescribe more opioids than in any other country―enough to medicate every American adult.

While those physicians who are prosecuted for over-prescribing make headlines, experts say they are not solely to blame, and that the US health care system as a whole must be held accountable for the country’s spiraling opioid epidemic.

“Pharmaceutical companies targeted general practitioner doctors, the ones who see most of the people who have pain,” Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine,

whose state has been hard hit by the crisis, told AFP. “I think they certainly were misled, and they were told things that were not true.”

The problem is not a new one -- it began two decades ago, as doctors were being taught to better manage their patients’ pain and drug companies were touting the efficacy of opioid painkillers.

The painkillers―meant only for patients in the most dire need―started getting into the hands of those with chronic conditions that had been treated with simple over-the-counter drugs like aspirin.

And they didn’t know they were addictive.

“You had people with a simple toothache, or knee surgery, or back surgery, that were on these opioids for too long a period of time or prescribed a higher dosage than they needed,” said Robert Ware, chief of police in the town of Portsmouth, Ohio, which became a sort of ground zero for the crisis. AFP

FESTIVAL. Lebanese

singer Nancy Ajram performs during the 53rd session of the international Festival of Carthage at the Roman Theater of Carthage in Tunis on August 9, 2017. AFP

Legal action starts against Australia’s gay marriage postal vote SYDNEY—Same-sex marriage advocates on Thursday launched legal action in Australia’s highest court against a controversial government plan for a postal vote on the issue, as the debate raged over whether the ballot should be boycotted.

Although marriage equality is supported by a majority of Australians, the country has not joined other nations in allowing homosexual couples the right to wed amid political bickering over how the issue should be addressed.

The conservative government on Wednesday chose a postal vote after a proposed national plebiscite, which it took to elections last year, was knocked back in the upper house over opposition concerns it would spark divisive debate.

But marriage equality advocates said Canberra might be exceeding its executive authority in holding the paper ballot, with the Public Interest Advocacy Center Thursday commencing proceedings in the High Court to stop it.

“We will be arguing that by going ahead without the authorization of parliament, the government is acting beyond its power,” said the advocacy group’s chief Jonathon Hunyor.

“These are important issues about the way that power is exercised by governments and the role of parliament in our democracy.”

Under the government’s plans costing A$122 million (US$96 million), ballots will be sent out by the Australian Bureau of Statistics from September 12, with

the outcome of the voluntary vote announced in mid-November.

If a majority of Australians vote “yes”, the government would hold a free vote in parliament on the issue, with MPs not bound by party policy or by the postal ballot’s result.

If there is a “no” outcome, there would be no parliamentary vote.

Supporters have called for a parliamentary vote as the best way to legalize gay marriage, with some arguing a public ballot

should be boycotted as it would open the door to hate speech against the LGBTI community.

Former High Court judge and prominent gay marriage supporter Michael Kirby added Thursday he would boycott the postal vote as it was “irregular and unscientific”.

“It’s just a complete political improvisation and it’s completely unacceptable and it should stop,” Kirby, who is gay, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“And I feel as a citizen I’m being treated in a second-class way.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who supports marriage equality but has battled rightwing members of his own Liberal Party who are against legalizing such unions, on Thursday spoke out against a boycott.

“I encourage every Australian to exercise their right to vote on this matter. It’s an important question,” he told reporters in Canberra. AFP

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

C4

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

‘Orville,’ a parody, enters the space race

World

At the cannabis crossroads J OHANNESBURG―For one South African mother, cannabis was an illegal drug to warn her son about when he became a teenager: today, she uses it to treat his rare medical condition.

Now the ban on using the drug is being challenged in the High Court, raising the possibility that it could effectively be decriminalized.

“When I first heard of medical cannabis, I thought they were smoking it because they wanted to get high,” said Susanne, who asked for her real name to be withheld.

“Then I had a kid who could actually benefit from it.”

She remembers the impact that cannabis oil appeared to have on her seven-year-old son, who suffers from Costello syndrome that causes delayed physical and mental development.

“A month after he first started taking it we had a family function and they were gobsmacked,” she told AFP. “For the first time he played on his own and didn’t need his mummy,” she said, explaining he was prone to restlessness and joint pain as a result of the condition.

Susanne was persuaded to try the oil by Gerd Bader, a South African cannabis advocate, who manufactures concentrated cannabis oil to treat his own multiple sclerosis.

Bader and Susanne are among a growing number of South Africans calling for cannabis―known locally as “dagga”―to be legalized for medical purposes.

At the moment, possessing, growing or using marijuana―even in small quantities―can lead to jail time, a fine and a criminal record.

However a court in the Western Cape region ruled in March that a ban on cannabis use by adults at home was unconstitutional, effectively decriminalizing it in the province that includes Cape Town.

Globally, the legal status of cannabis varies widely. In Portugal, for example, possession and use is largely decriminalized, while users in Saudi Arabia face the death penalty.

Bader, 49, uses a homemade blasting tube to extract the high-strength oil from cannabis buds.

“People who are dying now cannot wait until parliament makes a decision in two years―nobody has two years to wait,” he said.

“I’m branded a criminal (by society) for illegally helping people when doctors have given up on them.

“I wish we could come together and show them our expertise.”

Bader, who sells a bottle with 5.5 grams (0.2 ounces) of cannabis oil for 1,600 rand ($120, 100 euros), is also bullish about the economic benefits of legalizing marijuana.

“It could be a major revenue source for the taxman. Free the weed, give it to the people.

“We’ll have an industry like we’ve never had before. It’s like the oil in Arabia―an industry with no overheads, imagine,” he said.

Bader, who is wheelchair-bound, claims to have benefited enormously from medical marijuana, chiefly as pain relief.

“I was dying with my condition but it’s brought my life back,” he said.

The country’s Medical Research Council has already launched trials to help guarantee quality, consistency and standards, according to local media.

But Shaun Shelly, a drug policy researcher at the University of Pretoria, warned that medicinal cannabis would not benefit everyone.

“We’ve kind of swung the pendulum [so] everybody thinks that cannabis use for everybody is perfectly safe and is going to have no problems―and that’s not true,” he told AFP. “For some people who have got propensity to psychotic disorders, using high-THC (the psychoactive component of marijuana) cannabis is not good. AFP

SCREENING. WBIR TV Personality Robin Wilhoit attends ‘Logan Lucky’ Tennessee Benefit Screening For Variety-The Children’s Charity, at the Regal Pinnacle Stadium 18 on August 9, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. AFP

Vitamin seen cutting miscarriages SYDNEY—Taking a common vitamin supplement could significantly reduce the number of miscarriages and birth defects worldwide, Australian scientists said Thursday, in what they described as a major breakthrough in pregnancy research.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that deficiency in a key molecule among pregnant women stopped embryos and babies’ organs from developing correctly in the womb, but could be treated by taking the dietary supplement vitamin B3, also known as niacin.

“Now, after 12 years of research, our team has also discovered that this deficiency can be cured and miscarriages and birth defects prevented by taking a common vitamin,” said Sally Dunwoodie, a biomedical researcher at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

“The ramifications are likely to be huge. This has the potential to significantly reduce the number of miscarriages and birth defects around the world, and I do not use those words lightly.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt hailed the study as a “historic medical breakthrough”.

“Today’s announcement provides new hope to the one in four pregnant women who suffer a miscarriage,” Hunt said Thursday, citing Australian data.

“And with 7.9 million babies around the world currently being born with birth defects every year, this breakthrough is incredible news.”

The scientists used genetic sequencing on families suffering from miscarriages and birth defects and found gene mutations that affected production of the molecule, NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide).

With Vitamin B3—found in meat and vegetables—needed to make NAD, they tested the effect of taking the supplement on developing mice embryos that had similar NAD deficiencies as human ones, and found a significant change.

“Before vitamin B3 was introduced into the (mice) mother’s diet, embryos were either lost through miscarriage or the offspring were born with a range of severe birth defects,” the Victor Chang Institute said in a statement.

“After the dietary change, both the miscarriages and birth defects were completely prevented, with all the offspring born perfectly healthy.”

The researchers said the next step was to develop a test to measure NAD levels to identify which women were most at risk from having a baby with a birth defect, and to then ensure they had sufficient Vitamin B3. AFP

LOS ANGELES―As the world clamors for the first “Star Trek” series in more than a decade, a streamlined usurper with no interest in Klingons is entering the space race.

Sci-fi parody “The Orville,” from Emmy award-winning Seth MacFarlane, debuts two weeks before “Star Trek Discovery” and critics have been remarking on the striking similarities.

Squint and you might think “The Orville,” which debuts on Fox on September 10, was a rerun of “The Next Generation,” save for the blue uniforms.

When it was presented at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Los Angeles on Tuesday, journalists wondered aloud if Fox was worried about being sued.

“Seth’s intention is to do something that clearly pays homage to ‘Star Trek,’ that clearly was inspired a lot by Star Trek,” Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden said.

“He [also] talks about ‘The Twilight Zone,’ a show that examines the human condition in the future... through little morality plays.”

Walden said no one associated with “Star Trek” would think of the similarities between the two shows as “anything other than a compliment.”

Set 400 years in the future, MacFarlane’s series follows the exploits of the U.S.S. Orville, an exploratory ship with a crew facing the wonders and dangers of space, as well as more mundane problems.

Down on his luck after a bitter divorce, Planetary Union officer Ed Mercer, played by MacFarlane, finally gets the chance to command his own ship.

Determined to prove his worth, his first setback comes when the first officer assigned to his ship turns out to be his exwife Kelly (Adrianne Palicki).

As the new commander, Ed assembles a qualified but oddlooking crew, including Bortus, an alien from a single-sex species, Isaac, an artificial life-form from a machine society and Yaphit, a gelatinous creature.

It’s not just the premise of “The Orville” that has the ring of familiarity.

Many of its crew members are “Star Trek” alumni going back decades, including veteran producer Brannon Braga, an intern on “The Next Generation” in 1990 who worked his way up to becoming a key creative figure on three of the franchise’s four modern series.

Also on board are Robert Duncan McNeill, who worked on “Voyager,” and Jonathan Frakes, who played bearded first officer Will Riker in “Next Generation” and is directing an episode of “Discovery” as well.

The show has its share of jokes but plays more like a dramedy than the broad comedy of Mel Brooks’s “Spaceballs” (1987) suggested by the marketing.

“Because we’re an hour-long show, it can’t just be gag, gag, gag,” says MacFarlane, an ardent Trekkie who created hit animated show “Family Guy” and directed live action comedy “Ted” (2012). AFP

Kenya awaits election results

INTERVIEW. Actress and TV personality Carmen Carrera is interviewed during the HBO Latino x Pedro Capo: En Letra de Otro, at La Marina Restaurant Bar Beach Lounge on August 9, 2017 in New York City. AFP

NAIROBI―Kenya nervously awaited Thursday the final results of its presidential election, with the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta holding a strong lead after a vote marred by opposition claims of rigging and the death of four people.

Tensions are high in the east African nation where, a decade ago, post-poll bloodshed left 1,100 people dead.

“We find ourselves at a crossroads once again,” the Daily Nation newspaper warned grimly on Thursday.

“The nation is sitting precariously on the precipice. The dispute over poll results is creating needless anxiety.”

A longtime government adversary making what is likely his last bid for office, Raila Odinga is badly trailing Kenyatta, according to a provisional count of Tuesday’s ballot, released by the electoral commission (IEBC).

Odinga carried 44.8 percent of

the vote to Kenyatta’s 54.3 percent with 97 percent of polling stations reporting.

But Odinga charged that hackers broke into the IEBC’s systems and rigged the count―an allegation that fueled uncertainty in what was already a tight race.

“This is an attack on our democracy. The 2017 general election was a fraud,” said Odinga, alleging detailed evidence of the hackers’ movements.

The claim was denied by IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba, who said on Wednesday that the crucial electronic voting system―seen as key to avoiding fraud―had not been compromised.

“Our election management system is secure. There was no external or internal interference to the system at any point before, during or after the voting,” he told a press conference.

It remained unclear whether final results would be officially published on Thursday. Under Kenya’s electoral law, the de-

finitive results must be published within a week of polling.

On Wednesday, isolated groups of protesters chanting “No Raila, no peace” took to the streets in the western city of Kisumu and the slums of the capital Nairobi.

Clashes with protesters left two people dead in Nairobi’s Mathare slum. The capital’s police chief said officers opened fire after they were attacked by men wielding machetes.

In the southeastern Tana River region, police killed two people after a group of five stormed a vote-tallying centre and stabbed one person.

Kisumu’s flashpoint Kondele suburb was quiet on Thursday morning, a day after police fought running battles with stone-throwing protesters.

Black scars on the roads from tyre bonfires set by the protesters were still visible, while groups of men gathered on the sidewalks, watching police trucks patrolling the town. AFP

Life

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

SHOPPING

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

D1

TOP MODEL AT TOP DEPARTMENT STORE. Asia's Next Top Model Season 5

winner Maureen Wroblewitz shops stylish peices for herself and her family at The SM Store in SM Makati.

Maureen Wroblewitz shops at The SM Store

A

SIA’S Next Top Model (AsNTM) Season 5 winner Maureen Wroblewitz took a whole day shopping at SM Makati with her kin in mind. Ranging from trendy sneakers for her cousins, SM Men apparel for her dad, to SM Beauty make-up and fragrances for her aunts, the celebrity guest found everything she wanted not just for herself, but for her loved ones.

Even before winning AsNTM, the 19-year-old Filipino-German has been a frequent shopper at The SM Store.

Just like the most of us, she spends most of her allowance shopping at everyone’s favorite department store.

“Actually, I go straight to SM Beauty and Women’s shoes,” she admitted.

With such youthful candor, Maureen had a great time buying new stylish pieces for herself and her family. “My favorite part of this shopping experience is being able to buy gifts not just

for myself but for my family more importantly,” she added.

Just like Maureen’s shopping stint at The SM Store, you are sure to surprise your loved ones with every single item in their wish lists -- from shoes, bags, clothes, accessories, beauty products, and even furniture. Truly, everything’s here at The SM Store.

For more information, visit http://www. thesmstore.com/. Follow @TheSMStore on Instagram and Facebook https://www. facebook.com/TheSMStore/.

Mastercard welcomes Robinsons Bank to the credit card business

(From left) Dan Wolbert, Head of Business Development Visa PH and Guam, Kris Werner SVP, Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management and President and CEO, Wick Veloso

Gold standard in dining, shopping, travelling MEET the ultimate cash back card that gives the biggest rewards for doing the things you love most. Introducing the HSBC Gold Visa Cash Back Credit Card, a dining, shopping, and travel companion that gives you instant cash back.

“Every year we think of a product that would address the evolving needs of our consumers,” says Kris Werner, HSBC Philippines Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management. “It’s no surprise they love to dine, shop and travel. At HSBC, we found a way that would cater to these needs and provide a more satisfying reward.”

The HSBC Gold Visa Cash Back Credit Card offers the following: 5 percentcash back on dining transactions; 0.5 percent cash back on all other transactions (shopping, travelling, etc.); no minimum spend required; automatic crediting of rebates every calendar month; cash back cap of P1,200 month-

ly; three percent fuel rebate at participating Caltex stations; and acquisition incentive: first meal free (worth up to P 2,500).

HSBC is addressing the growing need and demand for a card that offers customers an immediate cash rebate through its latest product. The new HSBC Gold Visa Cash Back Credit Card allows HSBC to complete its product suite and remain competitive in the market by offering a relevant and simple rewards program in the form of a cash back credit card.

The HSBC Gold Visa Cash Back Credit Card enables you to be a practical and sensible consumer, offering the best rebate for things that matter. Dining at your favourite restaurants, shopping at your preferred retail stores and travelling to your next destination has never made it more rewarding.

Visit www.hsbc.com.ph/cashback for more details.

MASTERCARD, a global leader in payment solutions, recently welcomed their newest issuer Robinsons Bank at a culmination event held at Marco Polo Ortigas. The latest company to enter the cards business with Mastercard, Robinsons Bank is slated to launch their first credit card in October.

“Robinsons Bank is a formidable player in the market, not just in the credit card business but also in the banking industry,” says Poch Villa-Real, Mastercard Philippines country manager.

“Mastercard is glad to be a part of their efforts to expand and we hope to be able to enable many others.”

With both companies being major players in the industry, the partnership between Mastercard and Robinsons Bank aims to provide new banking options and benefits that will give every Filipino a better banking experience.

“We’ve been in the industry for the past 20 years and will continue to build a sustainable bank for the Filipino customer,” said Elfren Sarte, president of Robinsons Bank. “We’re

(From left) Mike Miranda, Mastercard Philippines Vice President; Poch Villa-Real, Mastercard Philippines Country Manager; Chris Paraiso, Mastercard Philippines Vice President; Jo-Ann Camacho, Mastercard Philippines Vice President; Elfren Sarte, President and CEO of Robinsons Bank; Lance Gokongwei, Chairman of Robinsons Bank; Maire Viola, Robinsons Bank Cards Business Group Head; and Ailea Zialcita, Mastercard Philippines Vice President

happy that an organization under JG Conglomerate is finally entering the card business with Mastercard. This is the first credit card of Robinsons

Bank, and thanks to Mastercard, it’s definitely going to be something to look forward to when we launch it in October.”

SM Cherry Antipolo now open ANOTHER SM Supermall opened to serve customers in the bustling province of Rizal – SM Cherry Antipolo . It is the 63rd SM Supermall, and the fifth in the province of Rizal after SM City Taytay, SM City Masinag, SM Center

Angono, and SM City San Mateo.

The carefully redesigned 27,225 square meter complex located at 145 MarikinaInfanta Highway in Antipolo, is also the third SM Cherry mall after SM Cherry Shaw and SM Cherry Congressional. It

is an enhanced shopping environment for the surrounding community, offering expanded services beyond the traditional grocery experience with three levels of retail, including an SM Supermarket, Continued on D2 SM Cherry Antipolo will provide an enhanced shopping environment for the surrounding community, offering expanded services beyond the traditional grocery experience with three levels of retail, including an SM Supermarket, shops, and restaurants.

Life

D2

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

I

The priceless value of pawning

N TIMES of need, it pays to have a friend to turn to for help. For Gloria Fontanilla, Betty Mallon Talavera, and Lordini Yupano, help came in the form of pawning. Whether to help finance a livelihood or buy basic needs, pawning valuables for cash has proven to be a worthwhile financial solution for many Filipinos.

Education is more important

Gloria, 59, of La Union took it upon herself to help four nephews and nieces finish school. All were in college so the expenses came in lumps and there were times when her budget would fall short. It was during these instances that she would pawn her jewelry, which was worth it because she knows the value of education.

“Mahalaga ‘yung mga nai-sanla ko pero mas mahalaga ‘yung pag-aaral ng mga pamangkin ko. Ayokong mahinto sila kaya nagsanla muna ako,” Gloria said. She also pawns to fund her small piggery business and dressmaking shop.

Gloria can easily support herself, but she chose to help her loved ones. And when times are tough and she herself needs assistance, she is glad that she has someone to rely on. “Malaking tulong sa amin ang Cebuana Lhuillier. Kung walang Cebuana, wala akong ibang matatakbuhan. ‘Yun lang ang alam ko. Cebuana lang talaga,” she said.

Dream come true

In Molo, Iloilo, Betty has her own story of sacrifice and success. For years, she juggled between household chores and her salon job while her husband worked as a jeepney driver just to send

Gloria Fontanilla continues to rely on Cebuana Lhuillier for financial assistance in maintaining her small piggery business and dressmaking shop. (Inset) Lordini Yupano was able to start her own jewelry business and send her kids to school, thanks to Cebuana Lhuillier.

their eight children to school.

Eventually, the couple’s sacrifices paid off and they were able to realize their dream. All of their children finished college and became professionals; a seaman, an engineer, a nurse, an automotive specialist, a call center agent, two managers at the Dubai Duty Free office, while one holds a key position in a local telecommunications company.

Aside from getting help from relatives and friends, Betty also sought the help of Cebuana Lhuillier in their time of need.

Through pawning some jewelry, she

was able to pay her dues when she was strapped for cash. Now with five grandchildren, she realizes that giving up these items was well worth the rewards.

Investment pays off

At the age of 14, Lordini had to take on the responsibilities of her father when he passed away. As the eldest among seven kids, she had to put aside her own studies and prioritize the needs of her siblings.

From Aklan, Lordini went to Manila to work as a maid, saleslady, and street

vendor to keep her siblings in school until they finished college. Whenever she had enough money, Lordini would reward herself with some jewelry.

“Noon, nakahiligan ko mag-ipon ng alahas at nang nagipit ako, nalaman ko na lumaki na ang halaga ng mga naipundar ko. Kaya nung nalaman ko ang kalakaran sa pagsasanla, ginagawa ko na s’ya at sa Cebuana Lhuillier ako kumakapit dahil panatag ako na hindi mababawasan ang alahas ko dahil naka-seal sa plastic at pinapipirmahan sa akin kaya safe,” she said.

Lordini eventually became an alajera and now has her own jewelry business.

She still continues to pawn for the needs of her business and for the education of her two children.

With their stories of strength, compassion, and success, Gloria, Betty, and Lordini represent Filipinos who have made countless sacrifices to overcome life’s challenges and put the welfare of others first. Success comes in various forms, and for these women, its true essence is in sharing their blessings and achievements with their loved ones.

SM Cherry...

From D1

Bringing back the fun in printing photos MILLENNIALS today are experience junkies. From short out of town breathers to weekend adventures, exploring new heights and highs has become this generation’s way of living their lives to the fullest.

With the younger generation’s “fear of missing out” (FOMO) attitude where everything just has to be caught on camera for everyone to see, a lot of social media gimmicks in the form of Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter are rapidly emerging today. But beyond the likes, comments, and shares, these moments can be much more valuable once made into real, tangible keepsakes that can last for generations.

To make these memories stand out, HP Inc. introduces the Sprocket, its newest, smallest, and hippest lifestyle printer yet. No matter what the occasion is, users can instantly snap and print by simply connecting the pocket-sized device to any smartphone via Bluetooth and the accompanying app.

Revive your best moments

Aside from printing photos, this device also lets the users show their personality through well-curated images, made possible by the HP Sprocket app.

Compatible with both Android (v4.4 and later) and iOS (iOS v8.0 and later) smartphones, it is downloadable for free in the Google and App store. It also supports a variety of formats including BMP, GIF, and JPEG, as well as TIFF for iOS devices which means any photo can be printed out with ease, whether grabbed online or taken straight from a phone camera.

In just 40 seconds, users can get ahold of vibrant, high quality photos with the use of the HP ZINK® technology (zero ink) 2 x 3” photo papers that are smudge-proof and water and tearresistant1. The photo papers also come with a peel-and-stick back, perfect for crafting personalized items, gifts, or souvenirs.

Reinvent the now

“We at HP aim to encourage our users

to reinvent the way they capture their experiences. Millennials today belong to a snap-happy generation, where they can document their e n -

venient, mobile and personal way,” says Pallasena Viswanath, HP Inc. Philippines Managing Director.

The Sprocket, which comes in black and white, is now available in the Philippines through Lazada and may be purchased directly at www. lazada.com.ph/hp-sprocketofficial-store.

HP makes printing photos cool again with Sprocket that prints high quality pictures in just 40 seconds

tire lives in just a click of a button. Through the S p r o c ke t , we want them to hold onto those memories in the most con-

shops, and restaurants.

Among these are SM mainstays like Watsons, Ace Hardware, and Miniso, as well as the Penshoppe group and Bench.

Eating out options include Kuya J and Dunkin Donuts, as well as Jollibee, Giligan’s, Honeybear, and Dairy Queen.

There are the latest gadgets as well as beauty and wellness outlets on the third floor. For customer convenience, SM Cherry Antipolo has 213 parking slots.

The center’s new, modern design is sophisticated and bold, but also preserves the mid-century character and history found in the original Cherry logo with an updated version of Cherry’s retro signage and a complementary blue backdrop.

SM Cherry Antipolo’s exterior façade is re-envisioned featuring crisp surfaces, colors, and textures, in a graphic pattern which is sleek and contemporary, while simultaneously referencing back to the mid-century design flair embodied by the logo.

The interior of the retail center is similarly updated to feature modern finishes and materials, with a palette of colors to enhance and enliven the mall experience. All floors are tied together with a dramatic mural of vivid bands of color, that utilizes and contemporary palette and vintage inspired pattern.

The graphic centerpiece provides visual continuity among the various floors of the of the atrium and gives a festive, contemporary feel to the space. new Skygarden on the second level is a complement to the shopping and dining inside, and a welcome respite in the busy center. This space provides a comfortable and inviting outdoor experience with covered dining areas, walking paths, planted gardens, and a state of the art performance space.

SM Cherry Antipolo’s design team includes concept designer DSGN, Architect on Record Jose Siao Ling & Associates, and General Contractor Lorean Steel Construction Corporation.

Win cool gadgets in Phoenix’s Scratch-A-Prize Promo FUEL up at Phoenix Petroleum stations to win cool gadgets, like Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime, a JBL Clip 2 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker, a Lenovo Yoga 510 Laptop, or a trendy GoPro HERO5 Session.

Every P300 single or accumulated fuel purchase at any participating Phoenix stations nationwide entitles

customers to one scratch coupon for a chance to win the gadgets as major prizes or the minor prizes of P30, P50, or P100 worth of fuel, one liter worth of lubricant product, or a Phoenix Power Bank.

Customers must present their receipt/s to the forecourt attendant to collect their scratch coupon. Receipts

can only be used once. Any excess amount on the receipt/s shall be void and cannot be used in the next redemption. Receipts for accumulation are valid only at the branch where the transaction was made. Only receipts within the promo period are valid for redemption. Lost or damaged receipt/s will not be accepted or replaced.

Minor prizewinners may immediately claim their prize at the Phoenix station where they earned the coupon.

Major prizewinners must call the Phoenix Petroleum hotline 1-800-10-PNX FUEL (769-3835) or visit http://www. phoenixfuels.ph/ScratchAPrizePromo for details verification prior to claiming their prize.

The gadgets will be awarded within a month from the verification. The coupons may be redeemed up to 60 days from end of promo period.

The Scratch-A-Prize Promo is applicable for cash and credit card fuel transactions, and runs until Sept. 25, at participating Phoenix Petroleum stations.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

PEOPLE ...are talking about

‘The Sound of Music’ in Manila

Christian Bautista The balladeer was working on something special in past few weeks but kept it under wraps that’s why fans were surprised when his ad suddenly went live on Spotify. Christian was tapped by the music streaming service provider for an ad that was shot in Singapore. It’s good to note that Christian is the first Filipino artist to be given this rare opportunity, which says a lot of things about his popularity as a music artist in the region.

Kita Kita The Alessandra De Rossi and Empoy Marquez-starrer romcom appeals to a wide swath of moviegoers. Although its complete version had been leaked on Facebook, it didn’t stop the film from breaking the P300 million mark at the box office. This remarkable performance also happened despite the stiff competition from Hollywood releases. You see, just give it a little more time and it will become the biggest film of the year.

Barbie Forteza Fresh from the top-rated romantic drama Meant To Be, the young Kapuso star is gearing up for another project, this time on the big screen. The film will see Barbie’s tandem with one of her leading men in the series, which also helped her grow her loyal fan base. We just hope that this project would be a good one because Barbie is such an amazing and versatile talent. Who can deliver pretty well when given a good material.

...are not talking about Finally Found Someone We could hardly call this film a flop because it earned a whooping P100 million on its first week. But after its first week we have never heard anything about the rom-com that’s supposed to be a sequel to A Very Special Love series. Did the flick underperform? If it didn’t, Star Cinema and Viva Films would have been very noisy by now. It’s true that it is difficult to convince people to go see movies that are tanking at the box office, much more a flick whose stars are already losing their spark.

ONE of the world’s most beloved musical families makes its way to the Philippines for the Manila season of the London West End Production of The Sound of Music.

The production will star awardwinning performer Carmen Pretorius as the headstrong Maria von Trapp, as well as local young actors and actresses as the von Trapp children. Nissan joins in as a major sponsor to bring in the beloved musical, which will begin its run in September.

Tickets to the London West End Production of The Sound of Music are now available.

Book your tickets now at www. ticketworld.com.ph

Sharon Cuneta She’s been out on social media defending her side on the raging rumors that she snubbed the winner in first edition of The Voice Teens. It’s not surprising at all that she aired her side in a rather lengthy post. She’s notoriously known for that.

But what puzzles people is, this kind of rumor wouldn’t explode unless it really happened. Remember, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Bloody Crayons This film is so interesting. It features a set of millennial stars that can trend on social media even without doing anything spectacular.

The film did terribly at the box office, despite all the love from fans.

No wonder, critics weren’t that into it and neither were audiences. So, what had gone wrong? Well, this already convoluted film just had too many stars that gave out different levels of performance, you know, from bad to worse.

Reinvent lifestyle on FYI GET ready for a whole month of reinvention as FYI brings you fresh series and new seasons of your favorite shows that’ll inspire you to discover something different in the midst of the familiar.

Zombie House Flipping’s new season airs Wednesdays at 8:55 p.m. with house flipper Justin Stamper and his crew, known as the Robin Hoods of Real Estate, continue to “steal” foreclosed homes to help return neighborhoods to their former glory by buying and fixing up dilapidated, abandoned “zombie houses.”

Get more inspiration for fixing up your space with the premiere of Income Property, an all-new show where host Scott McGillivray helps first-time homebuyers convert a part of their house into a moneymaker to help with mortgage. Catch it starting Aug. 22, Tuesdays. at 8:55 p.m..

Tiny spaces and big ideas are back with all-new episodes of Tiny House Nation star Mondays at 8:55 p.m. Season 4 of the show that helps families design and

Justin Stamper and his crew help return neighborhoods to their former glory by buying and fixing up dilapidated, abandoned houses in “Zombie House Flipping”

construct their own mini dream homes features various ingenious small spaces across America, as well as the inventive people who live in them. It’s up to host John Weisbarth and renovation expert Zack Giffin to convince them that smart tech will help declutter their house and make room for more family adventures.

Switch things up with Seven

Year Switch: Australia on Aug. 19, where four couples at relationship crossroads after seven years of marriage join an innovative experiment of switch therapy by living with a stranger for two weeks to see if different traits and characteristics in a mate could help strengthen their marriage. See if they find what they’re looking for on Saturdays at 9:50 p.m.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Friday, August 11, 2017

ACROSS 1 Lazes around 6 Bumpkin 11 PFC superior 14 Young screecher 15 Computer command 16 But is it —?

17 Sellers or O’Toole 18 Empire builder 19 Tumbler’s pad 20 Sticker 22 Papas or Dunne 24 Thug 27 Trooper’s prey 29 Pizza topping 30 Cherry center 31 Dumpster outputs 32 Woodcarvers 36 Cat hair 37 Goes by boat 38 Sawbones 39 Alluring 42 Inner self 44 Eucalyptus eater 45 Adorned 46 Influences 49 Triangular corn chips 50 Spill over 51 Party hearty 52 Prim 53 Infuse 56 With mouth

wide open 60 Great Lakes cargo 61 Cowboy’s charge 62 Overlord 63 Pothole filler 64 Avoid 65 Criticize DOWN 1 Prune 2 IOU part 3 Neighbor of CTRL 4 Have sympathy (2 wds.)

5 Pulls a muscle 6 Aden’s country 7 — hygiene 8 Kendall or Starr 9 Spanish “that” 10 Indulgent 11 “A Streetcar — Desire” 12 Wrecking-ball swinger 13 Playful mammal 21 — -relief 23 Projection room unit 24 Chimney sites 25 Exaggerated 26 Oslo sight (var.)

27 Pasture entrance 28 Stovetop items

30 Hindu destroyer 32 Laments 33 Mandate 34 Shakespearean teen 35 Bushels 37 RBI or ERA 40 Luau instruments 41 Strong Apache leader 42 Unpaid debts 43 Carpenter’s tool (2 wds.)

45 Admin. head

46 Wide tie 47 Goddess of flowers 48 Entrance hall 49 Steel plow inventor 51 Felt sorry about 54 Used to play videos 24/7 55 Maude of TV 57 Baba of “Arabian Nights” 58 Kind of rally 59 Before

Get your fill of food adventures with new episodes of Scraps as Chef Joel Gamoran travels across America to concoct incredible feasts using out-of-thebox ingredients that most people would simply throw away as scraps. Catch him and the team Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. and cook up an outdoor Southern feast using odd ingredients.

Season 2 of Food Porn keeps the food frenzy going starting Thursdays as Michael Chernow hits the road to find the trendiest and most inventive food across the US. Join him as he explores the masters behind today’s food trailblazers and tastemakers to find out what they’re creating, starting with Ice Cream Insanity where he samples ice cream creations from trendy over-the-top cotton candy shakes and twists on the classic vanilla ice cream to innovative flavors like like strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper and flaming ice cream. Catch it Thursdays at 9 p.m..

FYI™ is available on SKYCable Ch 79; Cable Link Ch. 44; Dream Satellite Ch 21.

The cast of “The Sound of Music’s” Manila run

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

I

T’S been 100 weeks of FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano on TV, and for the Kapamilya network it’s another milestone to the show’s growing list of achievements.

It is marking its 100th week by giving back to viewers who have welcomed the show into their homes for almost two years now.

“I am happy that even if we are already on our 100th week, viewers still love and support the series. They inspire us to do our work well,” said the series’ lead star Coco Martin. “We will not stop in making scenes that are not just action-packed but also full of lessons.”

As the series enters its 100th week, viewers witness more surprises every night as Cardo (Coco) faces new challenges as a member of the Special Action Force, with new plot twists and new characters to bring action and thrill to the series.

Since September 2015, FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano has kept its spot as the most watched TV program nationwide, hitting an all-time high of 46.7 percent, according to data from Kantar Media. It has also been pitted against several rival shows, but it remained unbeaten as viewers’ support remained strong throughout its run.

The show also became an avenue for action stars, like Lito Lapid, John Regala, Jess Lapid, Victor Neri, and Efren Reyes, Jr. to be in the limelight again and showcase their skills and talent.

FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano’s success has also gone beyond television with the launch of its mobile game app, which allows users to experience the life of Cardo and save lives and has already reached about one million downloads.

The cast of “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” led by Coco Martin (fourth from right), Susan Roces (fourth from left), and Yassi Pressman (third from left)

‘FPJ’S ANG PROBINSYANO’ celebrates hundred-week ratings supremacy

Aside from the action-packed scenes on television, the series also continue to bring joy through its public service efforts.

OnAug 3, the cast led ABSCBN’s “Saludo sa Sundalong Pilipino” in which they brought happiness to the wounded soldiers

who fought in the armed conflict in Marawi and and offered them help.

The series has also received numerous praises for its lessons about love for family and for the country. Its infomercial turned informational book Ligtas Tips also educates viewers

James cools down as MYX headliner WITH his new album Palm Dreams out, James Reid showcases his R&Bflavored songs on the country’s no.1 music channel as “MYX Headliner” for August.

Imbibe chill vibes for the whole month as James leads you through his fresh, new self-produced tunes including his hit track, “Cool Down” which has reached the no.1 spot in iTunes Philippines.

Meanwhile, ASAP BFF5 member and Bloody Crayons star Maris Racal takes over your favorite MYX shows as the MYX Celebrity VJ, while R&B/ soul band Conscious & The Goodness serenades the cable channel under the “MYX Spotlight.”

Get your monthly specials of international artists in MYX Presents with Beyonce: Fierce & Fabulous on Aug.17, Everything Ariana Grande on Aug. 24, and Oasis – Familiar to

Millions on Aug. 31.

For local artists, MYX features Darren Espanto, Morissette, and Klarisse de Guzman on the new season of MYXed Lives”, which airs every Friday at 6 and 9 p.m..

Catch James on MYX all throughout the month and Maris in Pop MYX until Aug.12, Pinoy MYX on Aug. 13 to 19, Mellow MYX on Aug. 20 to 26, and My MYX on Aug. 27 to 31.

Watch MYX on Skycable channel 23.

For more information on MYX programming, log on to www.myxph. com, follow MYX on Instagram (@ myxph) and Twitter (@ MYXPhilippines).

about several modus and crimes such as budol-budol, child trafficking, and carjacking.

The action-series has also gained recognition from the House of the Representatives and different government officials, like the Department of Interior and Local

Spotlight on James Reid as Myx Channel’s featured artist this August

Mayweather vs Mcgregor fight to air on SKY Sports PPV COMING to SKY Sports Pay Per View on Aug. 27, Sunday, live and in high definition from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is the year’s most anticipated fight between the contemporary era’s greatest fighters, boxing great Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and UFC (Universal Fighting Championship) superstar Conor McGregor.

Fight fans will surely enjoy this match-up of a living boxing legend and a mixed martial arts (MMA) hotshot because it pits two strong athletes with different fighting backgrounds.

Mayweather, who stayed on the path of a boxer, goes into the ring with an undefeated professional fight record of 49-0 with 26 knockouts, 15 world titles, and the lineal championship in four different weight classes.

Mcgregor will challenge the boxing legend who ESPN has labeled as the top pound for pound fighter of the last 25

years with his own credentials of an MMA fight record standing at 24 bouts, with 21 wins—18 of which via knockout—and only three defeats.

The reigning UFC Lightweight Champion, and former UFC Featherweight Champion has competed as a featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight in the entire span of his career.

The fight will be aired at approximately 9 a.m., but fans can catch the replay at 7 p.m..

This special is available to subscribers of ONE SKY, SKYcable, Destiny Cable, SKYdirect, and SKYbroadband via SKY On Demand for P950.

Existing subscribers can catch the fight by calling 4180000 or their local SKY office, texting BOXINGPPV to 23662 or by visiting www.mysky.com.ph/ boxingppv.

SKYdirect postpaid subscribers can text SKY to 23668; SKYdirect prepaid users can also subscribe through mysky.com.ph/ boxingppv

Government Secretary Mike Sueno and Philippine National Police Chief Ronald De Rosa, who both commended the series for promoting crime awareness and prevention among audiences.

Several award-giving bodies have also recognized the series

for its story that reflects lives of Filipino families. Some of which are Catholic Mass Media Awards, KBP Golden Dove Awards, and the Box Office Entertainment Awards, where it bagged eight recognitions, setting history in the awards show.

ABS-CBN leads in national tv ratings with SONA live coverage ABS-CBN remained the country’s most preferred network not only for entertainment but also for relevant news as its news program TV Patrol and SONA live coverage drew more viewers in July.

This is based on data from Kantar Media, where the Kapamilya network recorded an average national audience share of 46 percent from both rural and urban homes or 12 points higher versus GMA’s 34 percent.

More viewers tuned in to the ABS-CBN’s special coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte’s second State of the Nation Address, which garnered a national TV rating of 16.6 percent, compared to GMA’s SONA 2017 (7.8 pecent).

TV Patrol also secured its spot as the most watched news program nationwide, bringing relevant news and information every night, with an average monthly national TV rating of 30.8 percent, compared to 24 Oras that got 19.6 percent.

Meanwhile, FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano (37.3 percent) led the list of top programs in the country after it opened its newest chapter with Cardo (Coco Martin) as part of Special Action Force. La Luna Sangre (34.8 percent) also thrilled viewers nationwide with the transformation of Malia (Kathryn Bernardo) into a man named Miyo to be able to catch the villain, Supremo.

This became a trending topic online, especially as she crossed paths with Tristan (Daniel Padilla).

The vocal battle in The Voice Teens, where Jona Soquite of Team Sarah was declared grand champion, was also a big hit among viewers and netizens alike, hitting 34.2 percent average ratings for July. MMK’s” (31.1 percent) real-life stories from letter senders also continue to inspire viewers and highlight Filipino’s resilience.

Wansapanataym captured Pinoy kids with its values-laden tales as it scored 28.3 percent. A new series premiered last month starring breakout child star Awra as a superhero equipped with love and courage in “Wansapanatyam Presents: Amazing Ving.”

Bringing laughter to viewers for the whole month of July were comedy programs Home Sweetie Home (23.3percent), which highlights the relationship of the married couple Romeo and Julie as they face challenges, and Goin’ Bulilit (20.7 percent), which showcases kids’ wit and talent in comedy.

The journey of Ivy and the intense scenes in Wildflower also thrilled viewers, as it hit an average monthly national TV rating of 23.9 percent.

Also part of the top 20 program were ABS-CBN noontime show It’s Showtime (Saturday) (18 percent).

Meanwhile, ABS-CBN also won across all time blocks in the month of July, particularly the primetime block (6 p.m. -12 midnight), where it recorded 51 percent, compared to GMA’s 32 percent. The primetime block is the most important part of the day when most Filipinos watch TV and advertisers put a larger chunk of their investment in to reach more consumers effectively.

The Kapamilya network also won in the morning block (6 a.m. – 12 noon) with 46 percent versus GMA’s 34 percent, the noontime block (12 noon-3 p.m.) with 40 percent, compared to GMA’s 33 percent, and the afternoon block (3 – 6 p.m.) with 43 percent, beating GMA’s 38 percent.

ABS-CBN also beat GMA in other areas. More viewers tuned in to the Kapamilya network in Total Luzon with 42 percent versus GMA’s 37 percent, in Total Visayas with 55 percent versus GMA’s 28 percent, and in Total Mindanao with 55 percent versus GMA’s 30 percent.