Manila Standard - 2017 September 10 - Sunday

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VOL. XXXI • NO. 208 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

CAB DRIVER IN RISE UP'S CUSTODY

VERBAL CARNAGE. President Rodrigo Duterte (right) vows Saturday to expose alleged offshore bank accounts of opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV worldwide, in his apparent retaliation against the latter for smearing on his reputation, at the same time showing he has an arm tattoo underlining his membership in the Guardians Brotherhood. Trillanes, quick on the draw, said 'Duterte is a liar. I even urge him to show all the details and I will sign a waiver so the truth will come out.'

DUTERTE TO EXPOSE TRILLANES' ASSETS P RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte vowed Saturday to expose alleged offshore bank accounts of opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV worldwide, in his apparent retaliation against the latter for smearing on his reputation.

“I’m coming up with Trillanes’ deposits all over the world. I already got them. Maybe he thought that I can’t do the same to him,” the President said in a speech before Mindanao businessmen Saturday night.

“So I am giving you, in a few days, the number of deposits that he has with Chinese joint accounts.

It’s all over—Hong Kong, Australia, America,” he added.

Several social media posts suggested the existence of Trillanes’ alleged offshore accounts and his joint accounts along with a top campaign donor to his campaign kitty in 2016.

The depositor, whose name

was covered in the photos, tried to deposit at least $50 to each of the suspected bank accounts— four accounts before the UBS Bank Switzerland (Zurich Branch), Commerz Bank A.G. Bank (Zurich Branch), Deutsche Bank S.A. (Geneve Main Branch), Nova Scotia Bank (Toronto Main Branch), Habib A.G. Bank (Zurich Main Branch), DBS Bank (Alexandra Branch in Singapore) and ANZ Bank (Auckland Main Branch).

Many turned out to be active while two were “returned deposits,” indicating the accounts could either be closed or non-existent.

Duterte said Trillanes kept on

“hoisting a lie” against him and, contrary to public perceptions, he “does not have the illusions of the presidency” or “perpetuating (myself) in power.”

Continuing his tirades against Trillanes, Duterte said he would personally fight and challenge him into a gun duel if he tried to humiliate cops and soldiers during a Senate inquiry.

“If he puts you into shame, you should stand up and get up. Tell him, ‘Son of a b—’ Come out and let’s draw [guns]. How boastful.

He’s a coward...I myself will fight him in an encounter,” Duterte said in a speech Friday night.

“If I encounter him... Why am I bringing a gun? It doesn’t have a license. You don’t need a license to kill a person,” he added, even showing what appeared to be an unlicensed gun on his side.

Duterte also told the security forces not to let Trillanes talk down on them.

“Do not allow yourselves to be bullied or be shouted at. That’s Trillanes’ style, do not agree with that,” he said.

He even recalled the time when Trillanes questioned the late Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, who later committed suicide.

“Like Angie Reyes, he said, ‘Your Honor, I would just like to protect my integrity.’ And the brazen creep told Reyes, ‘No, no. Shut up. You do not [have] dignity’” Duterte said, quoting Trillanes.

Under Article 261 of the Revised Penal Code, any person who shall challenge another, or incite another to give or accept a challenge to a duel, or shall scoff at or decry another publicly for having refused to accept a challenge to fight a duel shall be penalized with a prision correccional in its minimum period.

In a separate media interview, Duterte claimed the former mutineer had more than 200 Turn to A2

SABOTAGE PLOT BLAMED ON NARCO-POLS, DRUG LORDS

By John Paolo Bencito

‘NARCOPOLITICIANS’ and ‘deeppocketed drug lords’ are to blame for the apparent “sabotage” of President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, Malacañang said Saturday despite the killing of teenagers perpetrated by the police.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella claimed Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs had “adversely affected” the operations of narcopoliticians and drug lords, and were tahus conniving to create a negative perception against the President’s bloody drug crackdown.

“It should not come as a surprise that these malignant elements would conspire to sabotage the President’s campaign to rid the Philippines of illegal drugs and criminality, the centerpiece program of the administration, to succeed, which may include creating scenarios creating public anger against the government,” Abella said in a statement.

The recent killings apparently tar-

geting the youth “should be viewed with suspicion and urgency,” Abella said.

In related developments: • Duterte’s claim the recent string of killings victimizing teenagers was meant to “sabotage” his administration’s campaign against illegal drugs is “preposterous and absurd,” a lawmaker said in a statement on Saturday.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Tom Villarin said, “Preposterous and absurd” because Duterte “has almost absolute control over government from the legislative to executive branches including the security sector.”

Also, the lawmaker said Duterte had “tons of intelligence fund at his disposal to go after the perpetrators of EJKs (extrajudicial killings).”

“It’s the height of irony to blame others while his PNP (Philippine National Police) under [Director General Ronald] dela Rosa has done nothing to curb the EJKs nor has the DOJ (Department of Justice) prosecuted Turn to A2

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JOY TO THE WORLD. A stall owner at the Dapitan Arcade in Quezon City has started showcasing the store’s Yuletide decorations, only 98 days to the first Midnight Mass in this largely Catholic country of 106 million people, which received the Christian Cross on March 16, 1521 when Fernando Magallanes, sailing under the flag of Spain, sailed into the islands.

Manny Palmero

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AN ECUMENICAL rights group on Saturday night said they have in their custody the taxi driver who was allegedly robbed by Carl Angelo Arnaiz.

In a statement, Rise Up for Life and for Rights said taxi driver Tomas Bagcal and his family have sought the group’s protection on Monday.

“Mr. Bagcal was identified by the police as a victim of a robbery case committed allegedly by one Carl Angelo Arnaiz. Mr. Bagcal is also a potential witness in the death of the said Mr. Arnaiz,” Rise Up spokesperson Gilbert Billena said.

“Rise Up has responded in the affirmative to the request of the family for protective custody and provided sanctuary during the period of Mr. Bagcal’s serious discernment, soul searching, and firm decision-making,” he added.

The police claimed the 54-yearold Bagcal had been held up Arnaiz on Aug. 18.

Police had said they killed Arnaiz in a shootout after the robbery, but an autopsy on the teenager showed signs of torture and indicated that he was handcuffed and shot from above.

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5.6M IN FLORIDA FLEE IRMA'S ONSLAUGHT MIAMI, USA—Florida has ordered 5.6 million people to evacuate as massive Hurricane Irma menaces the southeastern US state, according to its Division of Emergeancy Management.

Irma regained strength as a Category 5 storm late Friday (Saturday in Manila) as it made landfall on the Camaguey Archipelago of Cuba, and is now swirling about 275 miles (440 kilometers) away from Miami packing maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour.

Irma is expected to strike the Florida Keys late Saturday and Sunday before moving inland, according to the National Hurricane Center, and many residents have joined a mass exodus amid increasingly dire warnings to leave.

As it roared across the Caribbean the monster storm claimed at least 19 lives, devastating a series Turn to A2

RODY TRAINS GUN ON CJ, MORALES PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday once again ganged up on Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, who are both facing impeachment charges before Congress.

In a speech before Mindanao businessmen, Duterte likewise dropped a hint that it was Sereno who was the official who was purportedly enjoying a lavish lifestyle.

“First of all, Morales is engaging in selective justice. Sereno, meanwhile, she’s running the Supreme Court as if it’s a private firm,” the President said.

“When she’s traveling abroad— as I’ve said, I’ve always led a simple life. When we enter into hotels, we’re not into suites,” he added.

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TRUCE BEFORE TALKS, RODY TELLS REDS

By John Paolo Bencito COMMUNIST rebels should first declare a ceasefire before any peace negotiations with the government would continue, President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated Friday, following the Communist Party of the Philippines’ order for its cadres to fight Duterte’s “repressive tyrannical rule.”

“There will be no talks until you declare a ceasefire. Period. You want another war?

It has been 50 years. So God.... it if you want another 50 years—I have many soldiers,’ Duterte said in a speech in Digos City.

Duterte likewise played down communist rebels calling him a dictator: “You’re all so corny.”

In a Sept. 7 editorial of its official publication, “Ang Bayan,” the CPP’s Central Committee blasted Duterte’s “repetitious, scornful and self-conceited” pronouncements which it said did not translate into actual measures.

The CPP also scored Duterte for the killing of many thousands in his war against drugs and insurgent forces and the martial law he declared in Mindanao.

“The people indict Duterte for the thousands upon thousands of lives snuffed (out) by the three wars he has launched: the Oplan Tokhang ‘war against drugs’, the Oplan Kapayapaan war of suppression and martial law in Mindanao and the anti-Moro war and destruction of Marawi,’” the communist rebels said.

“The people detest Duterte for repeatedly ensuring protection and giving incentives to police and soldiers for blindly following his kill orders,” the CPP added.

In a move to convince Duterte to return to the negotiating table, NDF chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili last August expressed willingness to sign a bilateral ceasefire deal with the government, once they agreed on agrarian reform and national industrialization.

3 AGENCIES UP FOR ABOLITION PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte threatened to abolish some government agencies next week, including the Road Board and the Sugar Regulatory Board amid allegations of corruption within their ranks.

“When I go back next week, I will abolish 1 to 3 agencies. That Road Board has to go.

The Sugar Regulatory Board, I will abolish it. Just place it in an office,” Duterte said in a speech before Mindanao businessmen in Cagayan de Oro City.

Duterte slammed government offices for hiring consultants with exorbitant fees. ''Short of identifying the official, he said the guy had three consultants, the pay 200,000 pesos each month. They even have a higher wage than the President’s,” Duterte said.

“I said, I will fire...I will abolish them, I will suggest to Congress to abolish these agencies already,” Duterte said.

Last August, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez filed a bill seeking the abolition of the Road Board of the Department of Transportation to prevent the alleged misuse of the proceeds from the road users’ tax collected by the government.

Established under RA 8794, the Road Board is mandated to ensure the efficient utilization of the Road User’s Tax, a special fund solely used for road maintenance and improvement of road drainage, installation of efficient traffic lights and road safety devices, and air pollution control.

Alvarez, however, said the Commission on Audit had noted several signs of illegal utilization of the Road Fund over the years, which amounted to a total P90.72 billion from 2001 to December 2012.

The Sugar Regulatory Board, meanwhile, is mandated to promote the growth and development of the sugar industry through greater participation of the private sector and to improve the working conditions of the laborers. John Paolo Bencito

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The Justice Department earlier ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to locate Bagcal, who could shed light on Arnaiz’s death.

Arnaiz, with 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman, had left their homes in Cainta, Rizal, for a late night snack on Aug. 17. Arnaiz was found in a morgue 10 days after he was killed by Caloocan police in the early hours of Aug. 18.

De Guzman’s body was found floating in a creek in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, Tuesday, with 30 stab wounds and his head wrapped in packaging tape.

Bagcal has submitted two sworn affidavits on the alleged robbery.

In his first affidavit, the taxi driver said he did not see the face of his supposed mugger and that he was robbed past the barangay hall of Barangay 128 in Caloocan City.

In his second affidavit filed Aug. 29, Bagcal said he was mugged along C-3 Road and that the suspect was wearing a sweat shirt with a hood, a black cap, and blue shorts.

WATCHDOG URGES UN TO PROBE KILLINGS T

By John Paolo Bencito

HE alleged extrajudicial executions of children should trigger a United Nations inquiry into President Rodrigo Duterte’s abusive “war on drugs,” the New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch said Saturday.

tion by the UN Human Rights Council to address Duterte’s abusive drug war.

“The council should press the Philippines government to accept an independent international investigation into all allegations of extrajudicial killings and to hold those responsible to account. The council should also press the government to cooperate with the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, grant unfettered and unconditional access to the rapporteur, and immediately stop all official incitement and instigation of drug war killings,” Kine said.

“A fundamental obligation of every government is to protect the lives of its children, not to empower police and their agents to murder them. Until Duterte ends his abusive drug war and allows a UN-led international probe, child-killers among the police will continue to get away with murder,” he added.

Public uproar over the killings of Delos Santos and De Guzman has prompted Duterte, the Justice Department,

“The apparent willingness of Philippine police to deliberately target children for execution marks an appalling new level of depravity in this so-called drug war,” Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.

“These killings demonstrate that Duterte’s rejection of the rule of law has made all Filipinos potential ‘drugwar’ victims, no matter how young,” he added.

The deaths of Delos Santos, Arnaiz and de Guzman brings the number of children slain in the drug war to more than 54 deaths, according to data from the Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center, all by the police and “unidentified gunmen.”

Rights group said that children had been shot while in the company of adults who were the apparent target of the shooting, but both Duterte and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre have dismissed those killings as “collateral damage.”

The group called for concerted ac-

and the Philippine National Police to vow for a thorough investigations into their deaths.

In August, the Public Attorney’s Office filed murder and torture charges against the police officers implicated in the Delos Santos killing.

Duterte, however, described the teenage slays as a deliberate act of “sabotage” to “discredit” the police.

Meanwhile, the police was again reminded of the Commission on Human Rights to open its case folders. The CHR has expressed optimism that police officials will comply with the request despite President Duterte’ refusal to do so.

CHR spokesperson Jacqueline De Guia said that it would also be “advantageous” for police authorities to open the case folders to show that the recent drugrelated killings is not a “state-policy, as claimed by the Palace.

She added that the DILG could help the commission on its investigations on the on the alleged extrajudicial killings, like participating in a “joint task force.”

Senator Panfilo Lacson earlier ordered the PNP to submit to the committee on public order and dangerous drugs all of the case folders of killings that they are investigating.

The CHR had also requested for the case folders because some questions remained unanswered despite the police giving them their matrices.

However, Interior officer-in-charge Undersecretary Catalino Cuy said on Fri-

day that Duterte did not allow the PNP to open its case folders to the CHR. Cuy said that there was no assurance that the folder of a certain case would be given to the CHR as they need to seek clearance from the President on a case to case basis.

As this developed, Malacañang welcomed the move by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle in calling for the tolling of church bells to condemn the recent spate of killings allegedly on the hands of the police.

“Cardinal Tagle’s concern with the Filipino families is noteworthy. This sentiment is something shared by the President as evidenced by his consistent pronouncements to protect the youth and future generation of this country,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement late Friday night.

“The illegal drug problem affects us all and we appreciate the initiative of His Eminence to have a multi-sectoral dialogue attended by bishops, representatives from relevant government agencies, media and the youth,” he added.

The Palace, however, maintained that they are working towards reforming the President’s drug campaign.

Abella said: “Much attention was given to the recent spate of deaths. The 1,308,078 drug personalities who voluntarily surrendered, as of July 26, 2017, belie the claim that “we cannot allow the destruction of lives to become normal and we cannot govern the nation by killing.”

LACSON STEPS UP PRESSURE ON FAELDON FORMER Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon may be detained at the New Bilibid Prison or at the Pasay City Jail if he refuses to attend the Senate hearing on Monday, according to Senator Panfilo Lacson.

Lacson said it would be up to Faeldon if he would allowed to be arrested instead of attending the Senate blue ribbon committee’s hearing on the P6.4billion shabu shipment from China on Monday at 9 a.m.

Last Friday, Faeldon said he would surrender to the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms on Monday, but insisted that he will no

longer participate in the hearings of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“I will go to [the] Senate [on] Monday and let myself [be] arrested,” Faeldon said.

“I will not attend any hearings by both house[s of Congress],” he added. “Puwede nila akong buhatin, paupuin doon but still my position is, I will not participate.”

Faeldon was cited in contempt by the Senate blue ribbon committee headed

by Senator Richard Gordon on Thursday for failing to respond to the panel’s subpoena. The committee then signed an

DUTERTE... his membership in the Guardians International movement.

Contrary to public perceptions, Duterte said he did “not have the illusions of the presidency” or “perpetuating (myself) in power.”

“He’s been at it, my son and my family since the elections. The campaign season is over, I thought all the while the campaign fever was just like that but he’s bent on destroying me,” he added.

“I will destroy him or he will destroy me.”

Responding to Duterte’s tirades, Trillanes branded as “fake news” claims he had off shore accounts.

“Duterte is a liar. I even urge him to show all the details and I will sign a waiver so the truth will come out,” the opposition senator said. John Paolo Bencito

SABOTAGE...

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people responsible for thousands of murders,” he added.

• Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Saturday hit out at policemen who supposedly resort to planting evidence in a desperate effort to come up with accomplishments in the campaign against illegal drugs.

“If they resort to planting evidence to show they are up to the score in the anti-drug campaign, that is a dangerous sign. That’s the job of the lazy,” Lacson said in a radio interview.

The senator, who was at one time PNP chief, added it was dangerous if policemen resorted to just arresting people without prior intelligence information gathering.

In a speech Friday, Duterte claimed the spate of killings involving teenagers was meant to “sabotage” his administration’s war on drugs, tell-

es Carpio’s alleged involvement on the corruption in the Bureau of Customs.

Lacson said he would ask the Senate blue ribbon committee to restore the protective custody granted to Taguba.

Taguba had apologized to President Rodrigo Duterte’s family and clarified that his knowledge on the younger Duterte and Carpio’s supposed involvement on the corruption within the BOC was just based on “hearsay.”

The vice mayor is President Duterte’s son, while Carpio is his son-in-law, being the husband of his daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

5.6M...

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consultants which were all financed through the questionable Dibursement Acceleration Program, found illegal by the Supreme Court in 2014 for improper use of savings and interbranch transfer of appropriations.

“We will show it (sic) all, and of course more than 200 consultants under DAP … he spent it all through ‘pamigay.’ He will have to answer also,” Duterte said.

Duterte vowed there would not be any “garbage” in his expose against Trillanes.

“Mine isn’t trash. I’m here at the government, why would I produce one? All I have to do is just get the goods on him,” the President said.

He also laughed off Trillanes’ attempt to link his son to an international drug triad by showing off a rose tattoo on his right shoulder, proving

order for his arrest if he would not show up in the next hearing.

The Senate sergeant-at-arms had served the contempt and arrest order at Faeldon’s residence in Taytay, Rizal on Friday.

Lacson earlier accused Faeldon and other Customs officials of receiving payola. In turn, Faeldon linked Lacson’s son to smuggling.

Meanwhile, Lacson on Saturday said he thinks Customs fixer Mark Taguba’s removal from Senate custody was to blame for his sudden “retraction” on Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and lawyer Manas-

ing Dela Rosa to examine them more closely, because the police campaign was being deliberately derailed.

It was not the style of the police to wrap victims in tape, Duterte said, as what happened in the case of 14-yearold Reynaldo de Guzman, after his body was found floating at a creek this week with his head wrapped in masking tape and bearing more than 30 stab wounds.

Duterte then insisted that someone was out to discredit him, and dared his critics to hold massive rallies against the war on drugs.

The President made these pronouncements in defense of the drug war, amid public outrage over the deaths of De Guzman, 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz and 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos, who all ended up as casualties of alleged police brutality.

of tiny islands like Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin—where 60 percent of homes were wrecked and looting broke out—before slamming into the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

In Manila, Malacanang advised members of the Filipino community in the hurricane-battered areas to stay indoors and avoid not needed travels.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the Department of Foreign Affairs, through the country’s Honorary Consulate in Miami, was closely monitoring the situation in Florida amid threats of severe damage from the storm, which already made landfall in Cuba as a Category 5 hurricane.

“Members of the Filipino community have been advised to stay indoors, avoid unnecessary travels, and check the latest weather advisories and bulletins from government websites,” Abella said in a statement.

With the storm barreling toward the United States, officials ordered a historic evacuation in Florida that has been made more difficult by clogged highways, gasoline shortages and the challenge of moving older people.

The United States has been hit by only three Category 5 storms since 1851, and Irma is far larger than the last one in 1992, Hurricane Andrew, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Warning that Irma would be worse than Hurricane Andrew—which killed 65 people in 1992—Florida’s governor Rick Scott had said all of the state’s 20.6 million inhabitants should be prepared to evacuate.

Hurricane Irma made landfall as a maximum-strength Category 5 storm late Friday, US forecasters said, after leaving a trail of death and destruction on a string of Caribbean islands.

At 0300 GMT (11 am Saturday in Manila), the monster storm had made landfall on the communist island’s Camaguey Archipelago, with the eye of the storm just 190 kilometers (120 miles) east-southeast of the Cuban city of Caibarien, and 300 miles south-southeast of Miami, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

It had maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers per hour and was moving west at 20 kilometers per hour, also posing an increasing threat to the US state of Florida.

AFP, with John Paolo Bencito

RODY...

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Morales is the older sister of lawyer Lucas Carpio, Jr. , the father-in-law of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

In a speech last August, Duterte said he was looking into reports that a top public official not belonging to the executive branch allegedly stayed in expensive hotels and traveled via first class.

While he did not divulge the name of the official, he was insinuating at Sereno’s alleged involvement, who is subject to impeachment for allegedly violating the 1987 Constitution.

Duterte also reminded Cabinet members to live frugally since it’s taxpayer’s money that they were spending.

In the same speech, Duterte slammed Morales for failing to prosecute her supposed ‘yellow’ allies.

Impeachment complaints are currently lined up against Sereno and Morales, respectively.

Another complaint was filed against Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista.

Earlier, former Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto Paras filed an impeachment complaint against Bautista for betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution over allegations of ill-gotten wealth. The complaint was endorsed by at least three lawmakers.

Lawyer Larry Gadon, meanwhile, wanted Sereno removed from her post for betrayal of public trust for the “whimsical” and “excessive” purchase of the latest model of the Toyota Land Cruiser amounting to P5.1 million, as well as her alleged failure to declare “exorbitant lawyer’s fees” allegedly amounting to P37 million. The complaint was endorsed by at least 25 lawmakers.

The VACC earlier said it would file an impeachment complaint against Morales this week. Morales has has only 10 months left in her seven-year term.

John Paolo Bencito

News

‘WINTER HAS NOT COME’ FOR MY FATHER—IMEE

“W

INTER has not come” for disgraced Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his eldest daughter defiantly declared, referencing the hit television show “Game of Thrones” as she defended her father’s legacy.

Marcos fled into exile in the US after a popular revolt that ended his 20-year rule marked by allegations of massive corruption and rampant human rights violations.

But his eldest daughter Imee Marcos, launching a lecture series on her late father’s legacy on Friday, recalled his words as the former first family landed in Hawaii aboard a US military aircraft in February 1986.

“When we were all in tears and everyone said, ‘The end is nigh, it is finished, we are dead and doomed’, he said ‘No, children. To my family and everyone, history is not done with me yet’.”

Imee Marcos, who is governor of the family’s northern domain

of Ilocos Norte, laced her speech with references to the “Game of Thrones” saga, which tells the bloodsoaked story of noble families vying for the Iron Throne.

“Indeed, if the North remembers, winter has not come yet for the legacy of FM,” she said, using her father’s initials and apparently comparing her family to the northern House Stark, whose upright and honorable head Eddard Stark was executed by the vicious young King Joffrey.

Marcos, however, was accused of embezzling billions of dollars from state coffers, with anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in 2004 naming him the sec-

ond most corrupt leader of all time, behind Indonesian dictator Suharto.

The dictator also oversaw widespread human rights abuses to maintain his control of the country and enable his plundering, with thousands of people killed and tortured, previous Philippine governments said.

However, no member of the Marcos clan has ever gone to prison.

His heirs made a stunning political comeback only a few years after the former president’s death in Honolulu in 1989.

His son and namesake, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. narrowly lost the vice presidential election last year, while his widow Imelda Marcos sits in the House of Representatives.

President Rodrigo Duterte, a family friend, says Marcos was the country’s best-ever president, and stunned the nation last November by allowing Marcos’ remains to be

buried at the national “Heroes’ Cemetery” despite a widespread outcry.

The Marcos rehabilitation continued when on Thursday Duterte declared the late dictator’s centennial anniversary on Sept. 11 a public holiday in Ilocos Norte.

Duterte has also said he was considering a Marcos family proposal to hand over some of its wealth to the government, later suggesting that they may ask for immunity from prosecution in return.

In her speech, Imee Marcos said many Filipinos were “puzzled, bereft and lost by the animosity, the diatribe, the invective and the abuse that we hear” about her father.

Video footage of the speech was uploaded on Facebook for the week-long Marcos centennial events, which continue Monday with a private Mass to be attended by family members and friends at the Marcos tomb in Manila.

DU30 BLASTS SUU KYI

IN BRIEF ‘Minda’ needs new security plan—solon A HOUSE leader on Saturday expressed optimism that the Department of National Defense and the Philippine National Police can draw up an entirely new security strategy for Mindanao to prevent a repeat of the Marawi City siege elsewhere.

“We cannot afford to expose another city or large municipality in Mindanao to a crisis akin to Marawi, or to the Zamboanga City siege in 2013,” Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, a member of the House committee on national defense and security, said.

Pimentel is supporting President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to enlist up to 20,000 new soldiers to build up the Armed Forces.

“Actually, compared to our peers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, we really have fewer active military personnel to begin with,” Pimentel said.

At present, the lawmaker said the Armed Forces have a total active troop strength of only 125,259—with 85,825 in the Army; 22,771 in the Navy; and 16,663 in the Air Force— excluding 2,693 soldiers deployed to service support units.

“We still have pockets of insurgency in other parts of the country, so we cannot just pull out large forces from Luzon or Visayas and transfer them to Mindanao,” he said.

Maricel V. Cruz

DoH proposes budget increase

By John Paolo Bencito

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday scored Myanmar’s State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi for her apparent failure to resolve the abuses against the minority Rohingya Muslim population.

Duterte, who chairs the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year—pinned at the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s apparent silence on the ongoing refugee crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that has sent 146,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh in the past two weeks.

“Look at Burma. Suu Kyi is a Nobel prize winner,” Duterte said. “But the Rohingyas, they are being brutalized and they’re without any citizenship.”

Responding to the “hullabaloo” of criticisms thrown against his human rights record—Duterte said that he won’t get cowed by any criticism as policemen were being killed by drug addicts.

“Etong mga human rights—Shut up,” he added.

Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest before her party won a 2015 election, is facing growing criticism over the treatment of the Rohingya amid a bloody military crackdown following attacks by insurgents.

Earlier this week, Myanmar’s de facto leader claimed her government had “already started defending all the people ... in the best way possible.”

“We know very well, more than most, what it means to be deprived of human rights and democratic protection,” a statement quoted Suu Kyi as saying.

“So we make sure that all the people in our country are entitled to protection of their rights as well.”

LOLA’S DAY. Two-year-old Miggy Cuevas gives his grandmother Tessie Cuevas a kiss during a family outing at the Rizal Park, in celebration of Grandparents Day this Sunday. Norman Cruz

ASEAN, HK TO SIGN TRADE AND INVESTMENTS DEALS FREE trade and investment agreements will be signed soon between the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after negotiations concluded at the sidelines of the ongoing Asean Economic Ministers meeting here in Manila.

Senior Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said that the 10-nation regional bloc and Hong Kong are scheduled to sign the FTA and investment agreements in November during the 31st Asean Summit in Pampanga.

The agreements were the “first in many years” for the Asean to conclude negotiations for a free trade agreement, Rodolfo said.

“The signing of these agreements this November bodes well for the Philippines, particularly for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs),” Rodolfo said in a news briefing, following the 2nd AEMHKC Consultations.

“These agreements would level up our already vibrant trade and investments relations as this would mean increased market access for Filipino exporters,” he added.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Hong Kong is the third largest export market for Philippine products in 2016, with merchandise export that amounted to $6.62 billion, and is the country’s sixth largest trading partner in 2016 with total merchandise trade of $93.3 billion or 4.2 percent of the bloc’s total trade.

Total foreign direct investment flows from Hong Kong to Asean reached $9.6 billion or 9.9 percent of the bloc’s total FDI in 2016.

“We are anticipating increased inflow of investments from Hong Kong, which will definitely translate to more employment opportunities for the Filipinos,” the Trade official said, adding that the move will mean new expansion opportunities for Filipino exporters.

Rodolfo likewise announced the endorsement of the Economic and Technological Work Programme under the Asean-HKC FTA, expected to provide opportunities for micro-small-medium enterprises through capacity b u i l d i n g e xercises, information sharing, and internship programs, among others.

John Paolo Bencito

COLLAPSED. Public Works and Highways Department workers repair a collapsed part of a bridge along Adriatico in Manila that was partly damaged when a garbage truck passed through the area on Friday afternoon. No one was reported hurt in the incident. Norman Cruz

THE Department of Health is proposing to have a budget of P164.8 billion next year, up by nine percent from this year’s P151.3-billion budget.

But the Health department, according to Senator Ralph Recto, cut down its budget intended for operations of government-run drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation centers from the P3.08 billion in 2017 to only P759.6 million for next year, a 75 percent reduction.

“If drug addiction is a disease, is this budgetary prescription from our health officials the right one?” asked Recto. “The word from the DOH is that private donations will make up for the difference. If that is the case, DOH should submit a listing of where the replacement funds would come from because that is too big a vacuum to fill.”

“The unofficial explanation is that the so-called ‘mega rehab centers’ will be built by private donors. Fine. But what about the manning of those centers? The training of personnel? Are the funds sought enough?” added Recto.

Reports showed that five regional drug treatment and rehabilitation centers are being constructed in Isabela, Mountain Province, Palawan, Zamboanga and Taguig City, all funded by the private sector.

Joel E. Zurbano

Finish road repairs now, DPWH urged THE Metro Manila Development Authority has urged the Department of Public Works and Highways to finish road repair projects in Metro Manila before the peak buying months when traffic is expected to be heavy.

This developed as the MMDA announced it will implement a moratorium on road repairs and diggings in the National Capital Region to provide relief to commuters and motorists during the Yuletide Season.

The MMDA want the DPWH to speed up the road repair in order to beat the deadline for the start of the moratorium to be announced before the end of the month.

On Friday, the DPWH with the permission of the MMDA resumed its road reblocking operation and other repair works in the cities of Caloocan, Pasig and Quezon City.

The MMDA also advised shoppers to do their Christmas shopping early or go shopping malls nearest to their residences to avoid the holiday rush and the expected traffic jams especially around the big shopping malls.

Joel E. Zurbano

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Opinion

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

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Adelle Chua, Editor

NEGOTIATE WITH NORTH KOREA? A RUSSIAN TRIED

EDITORIAL

By Leonid Bershidsky NEGOTIATING with North Korea about the future of its nuclear program is often mentioned as an alternative to a military intervention. Neither is a viable option, says Vitaly Mansky, one of the few people who know firsthand what it’s like to negotiate with North Koreans and achieve a measure of success.

In May 2013, Mansky’s documentary production company signed a deal with the Korea Film Export & Import Corp., a North Korean government agency, to jointly make a movie called “Under the Sun.” The Koreans probably didn’t catch on to the fact that Mansky’s company was named after Dziga Vertov, the early 20th-century filmmaker who pioneered the use of the hidden camera.

The North Koreans wrote the script for the movie, about a young girl who prepares to join the Korean Children’s Union, part of the ruling Workers’ Party. Mansky’s job was to film a carefully stage-managed version of the girl’s life with her family. True to Vertov’s methods, Mansky filmed the handlers’ instructions, kept the takes they discarded because the characters weren’t sufficiently enthusiastic and captured on camera what he could see of actual North Korean life. The official censors got a memory card with the approved footage. Mansky kept the rest of the material hidden. It is now part of the film, which has garnered attention worldwide. It’s worth watching; the film provides more insight into North Korean life than thousands of pages of news reports, memoirs and academic literature.

Arranging this, and getting the access that “Under the Sun” demonstrates, was a serious negotiating feat. According to Mansky, a Russian now living in Latvia, Russian Embassy officials who had spent years in Pyongyang asked to come along on his shoots to see things they’d never been allowed to witness. But Mansky doesn’t believe in negotiating with North Korea, he told me via Skype from Riga: I was naive. I consider myself a good negotiator, I can find the right arguments and reach compromises— but this is pointless. For hours, dozens of hours you discuss, you persuade, perhaps you even educate the other person, you create a different picture of the world in which harmony begins to emerge, and something even begins to flash in the guy’s eyes— but it’s useless to try to persuade a lamppost. All the absurd situations there arise because at some point, someone established a rule and now it can’t be changed, not just because initiative is punishable but because North Koreans don’t have such a brain function as initiative.

Instead of bending the rules, the Koreans would find surprising solutions within them. At one point, Mansky tried to film his protagonists on a subway train in Pyongyang.

Foreigners, however, were only allowed to go three stops, and Mansky needed a longer sequence. When the handlers told him to get off and

DISASTERS ALL AROUND

A

CATEGORY 5 hurricane barrels toward the United States after devastating several Caribbean islands. Irma is the strongest disturbance ever recorded on the Atlantic.

Evacuation efforts are under way, but it is almost a certainty that more people will die and more communities will be wiped out.

A magnitude-8.3 quake, the strongest in decades, jolts Mexico. As of press time, 15 have been reported dead—but the toll is expected to rise.

In August, monsoon rains and flooding wrought damage to South India. Millions were displaced – they still are, up to now.

These are just what we know from what we read about in the media. Outside of the frequently reported events in prominent places, and statements by prominent people, tragedies happen every day and we don’t even hear about them.

And as if the natural disasters were not enough to throw us off, the man-made ones make life doubly more threatening.

The North Korean leader, for instance, is provoking a nuclear war. Because the country is a hermit and Kim Jong

Un is an enigma, nobody can tell whether he realizes the consequences of his words and actions. Having Donald Trump meet fire with fire does not help.

Elsewhere in the world, terrorism and hate continue to justify killings and other acts of violence. People go hungry and suffer from prejudice—due to gender, religion, the color of their skin. Corrupt politicians plunder their nations’ coffers, living in luxury while their people starve.

Here at home, human lives are made pawns in a power play. Suspects and innocent bystanders alike are killed, with or without provocation; success is measured by the number of bodies counted in the name of the war against drugs.

It’s difficult to maintain a calm demeanor in the face of what is happening all around us.

People can protest on the streets, turn to social media, turn to religion or to some other coping device. These times occasion trepidation, and what is even scarier is the knowledge that we cannot do much about where we are and where we are going. That we are powerless is most frustrating, infuriating.

How, then, can we ensure we emerge out of these unscathed? We can’t. We can only live from one day to another and hope the worst would not happen in our, or our children’s lifetime.

Turn to A5

SHRI-BISHAYA AS SOCIAL COMMENTARY CONGRATULATIONS and the best of luck to the finalists of the 36th National Books Awards!

The shortlist was announced last Friday by the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle at the NBDB website, booksphilippines.gov.ph. (Please see the full list there.)

Among the many nominees were Dr. Jose Victor Torres for “To the People Sitting in Darkness,” (Essays in English category); Alfred Yuson for “The Music

Child and the Mahjong Queen,” (Novel in English); Dr. Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. for “Lessons from Nationalist Struggle,” (Non-Fiction Prose in English); Professor Ailil Alvarez for “Slivers of the Sky” (Literary Criticism/History in English); Dr. John Jack Wigley for “The Lait Chronicles,” (Nonfiction Prose in Filipino) and Dr. Joselito Reyes’s “Troya: 12 Kuwento,” (Short Fiction in Filipino), for which I did the book cover illustration.

University of the Philippines College

of Mass Communication professor Dr. Rolando Tolentino was nominated for three books in various categories – “Wagi/Sawi: Mga Kuwentong Luwalhati at Pighati” with Dr. Rommel Rodriguez; “Araw/Gabi: Araw: Mga Aporismo ng Pagkautal at Pagkaulol/Mga Aporismo ng Pagtanga at Pagtunganga;” and “Keywords: Essays on Philippine Media Cultures and Neocolonialisms.” *** Looking at the list of nominated books, my attention was drawn to

“Shri-Bishaya,” in the “Best Translated” category.

Written by Ramon Muzones in Hiligaynon, it was translated into English by Dr. Maria Cecilia LocsinNava, and its themes are germane in these dictatorial days.

According to New Day Publishers, Shri-Bishaya (from “Sri Vijaya,” the ancient sea-power state in what is now Sumatra), is a “masterful recasting of Pedro Monteclaro’s controversial ‘Maragtas’ (1907) that is both a

nostalgic paean addressed to Western Visayans as well as a commentary on the state of the nation under the Marcos administration.”

I am indebted to the scholar Rise Turn to A5

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THE TOTAL AWESOMENESS OF A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

From A4

take the train in the other direction if he needed to film more, the director protested that he needed the same people in the subway car. Okay, the handler said—and directed everyone in the car to disembark and go back three stops with the filmmakers. They complied without objection.

Mansky’s negotiations were with rather senior officials in the North Korean propaganda machine but perhaps things can go better if the supreme leader himself is involved in talks? Mansky doesn’t think so.

“Paradoxically,” he says, “the man at the top doesn’t make decisions, either, because he’s dependent on the dictatorship he has created.” As Mansky tells it, the Kim dictatorship must maintain the cult that was created to sustain it, absurd rules and all; it’s a two-way street of mutual reinforcement.

The Communist regime under which Mansky and I both grew up sort of worked like that, too – but North Korea has created a “perfect, flawless” version of the game, Mansky says: The key mistake is to read them as a version of us. We walked in the same columns, carrying the same portraits of leaders, but we’d go home and tell jokes about these leaders. This is not about North Korea. In Orwell’s “1984,” the characters are always trying to escape Big Brother’s gaze to get some privacy. In North Korea, it’s the other way round. People are born with the dream of finding themselves in Big Brother’s line of sight, of being noticed.

Mansky looked for signs of the trademark late Soviet irony, the doublethink that allowed our parents, and for some time also us, to survive in an absurd system. He didn’t find any. That left him convinced that the indoctrination of North Koreans was absolute. While they realized the regime’s propaganda was fake, their belief in the necessity of that fakery was absolute.

That’s why Mansky believes war with North Korea is as pointless as negotiations.

It’s just horrible to imagine what they would do in a war. Every North Korean will be a suicide bomber with a bomb belt. There is not a person there who wouldn’t be ready to die for the system that has enslaved them. They have nothing apart from this, it’s the only meaning of their existence.

That may sound overly dramatic unless you’re familiar with Mansky’s casually deadpan work style—and unless you read other inside accounts of life in North Korea. In a recent interview, Suki Kim, a former English teacher in an elite Pyongyang school and author of the book “Without You, There Is No Us,” makes the same point, describing the country as a cult that has completely erased millions of people’s pre-cult existence. Like Mansky, she found no exceptions to the inhuman, absurd rules on which the system is based.

Sanctions against North Korea—the easy response—are ineffective for the same reasons. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recently said North Koreans would “eat grass” rather than give up their nuclear program, has been listening to the right people.

Putin, however, calls for negotiating with North Korea to guarantee its security.

Mansky’s proposal is to leave North Korea alone in its self-imposed isolation—that is, if the civilized world can stand the thought of Kim’s regime committing its endless crime against the North Korean people and bear with the constant taunting of missile launches and threats.

He doesn’t believe the regime is inherently aggressive. He describes a propaganda video he saw in North Korea, portraying South Korea as a prodigal son throwing himself on the barbed wire that separates him from his mother, the embodiment of North Korea. “They could easily change that image to a father with wire cutters slashing through that fence,” Mansky says. Kim, Mansky believes, is doing his best to drill hatred of the US into North Koreans’ heads—but also to hold back from any escalation, because it would present an existential threat to the regime.

Mansky is a filmmaker and Suki Kim a writer; policymakers don’t have to listen to them as they search noisily for a conventional solution to a unique problem: There is no other country even remotely like North Korea. But it’s a shame they aren’t listening. If a solution exists at all, it lies in the quiet realm of intelligence operations and palace intrigue at this point—and even so, it will require decades of subtle work to reclaim North Korea to the broader world. Bloomberg

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

By Pecier Decierdo LAST Aug. 21, the Moon cast its darkest shadow on a part of the Earth. Along with millions of people from around the world, my family and I went to where this shadow fell to witness a total solar eclipse.

For many who witnessed it, and certainly for me, it was an out of this world experience.

A total solar eclipse happens when the darkest part of the Moon’s shadow, the part called the umbra, touches the Earth’s surface. For those standing within the Moon’s umbra, it would appear as if the Moon is completely blocking the Sun’s disk, causing the darkness of night to fall in the middle of the day. Those within the umbra are experiencing what is known as totality.

Because of the Moon’s distance from us, the umbra is not very big when it reaches Earth. (The largest the umbra can get is about 260 km across. It’s usually smaller than this.)

Because the Moon moves around the Earth, the umbra moves across a part of the planet during a total solar eclipse. The path the umbra takes is called the path of totality. Those outside this path will not experience totality.

Last Aug. 21, the path of totality went across the continental United States, passing through parts of 14 states. My family and I went to Casper, Wyoming, which was one of the cities in the path of totality.

There, totality lasted for a mere 2 minutes and 25 seconds. But what a breathtaking 2 minutes and 25 seconds those were!

Maybe you’ve seen a partial solar eclipse and think you know what I’m talking about. A partial solar eclipse happens when the Moon only partially blocks the Sun. This kind of eclipse when the less dark part of the Moon’s shadow called the penumbra hits the Earth. The most recent partial solar eclipses visible from the Philippines happened on March 9, 2016 and May 10, 2013. The next one will happen on December 26, 2019.

However, a partial solar eclipse is very experience from totality. How different? Totally different.

During a partial solar eclipse, you need certified eclipse glasses to safely view the Sun. When you are looking at the Sun through such glasses, you will see a circular chunk taken out of its disk. That would be the part of the Moon blocking the Sun.

During a total solar eclipse, on the other hand, those along the path of the umbra can experience totality. During totality, and only then, you can take off your eclipse glasses and safety look at where the Sun should be. However, instead of seeing the disk of the Sun, you will see the Moon’s shadow. The only part of the Sun you will see is the corona. The corona is the Sun’s thin atmosphere which extends for millions of kilometers from its surface. We don’t usually see it because the photosphere, the layer just below it, is so much brighter.

When you are looking at a partial solar eclipse through eclipse glasses, you are seeing the part of the photosphere that is not blocked by the Moon. The only time you can see the solar corona is during totality.

To the naked eyes, the corona looks like the ghost-thin petals of a frail white flower or the feather, wispy extensions of a dandelion seed. The sight of it in the sky is a vision like no other.

Aside from the corona, some planets and the brightest stars can be seen during totality. Because the Solar System is relatively flat, the visible planets will approximately line up with the Sun and Moon. The

sight can transport you to a view of the Solar System from outside.

If that sounds mind boggling, you are not alone. Many observers say that animals behave strangely during totality, as if baffled by the sudden disappearance of the Sun. Total eclipses are not very rare. On average, one can be seen in a part of the Earth every 18 months. The next one will happen on July 2, 2019, followed by another one on Dec. 14, 2020. Both can be seen from South America. However, because the path of totality includes a very small part of the Earth, a given part of the world experiences totality only once every 375 years.

There is nothing quite like witnessing totality. For those reading this who could afford it, do yourself a huge favor by planning a trip to see the next ones. A trip to witness totality is not just a trip to witness a spectacle; it is a celebration of fact that the universe is governed by rules, and the astounding fact that we humans have understood these rules well enough to predict such occurrences to great precision.

Pecier Decierdo is resident physicist and astronomer of The Mind Museum.

WHEN A HURRICANE COMES BARRELING DOWN

By Jennie Matthew TEXAS—It was when the water rushed around my ankles that I knew I was in trouble.

I’d driven into a ditch overflowing with flood waters and couldn’t reverse. Rain lashed the windscreen, running down in rivulets blurring my view.

I tried to open the door. It was stuck. “F-ck!”

Minutes earlier, I had headed out of my foodless hotel. Starving, I was planning to grab a bite at a restaurant 350 yards away and then head out again, to see how the weather was progressing in what was supposed to be the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Except that it wasn’t so much an aftermath as a continuation of the worst natural disaster to hit Texas in years. And now instead of bearing witness, I had fallen foul of the storm that dumped record rainfall on the Lone Star state’s eastern coast, triggering massive flooding.

Texas might be near tropical in summer but the water was cold. My trousers clung to my legs.

The water was almost at my waist as I slipped and stumbled on the edge of the ditch onto higher ground.

Behind me, the white headlights of an enormous truck flashed through the rain.

Help. Thank God. In seconds, a swarthy Texan in overalls and waders grabbed my elbow and steered me to the back of his truck.

Shaking and in shock, for a minute I couldn’t haul myself up into the back seat. Panic set in. I thought of the indignity of him having to shove me in by the backside. But Texans are far too polite to rear end an English woman traveling alone. On second attempt I hauled myself up and collapsed onto the seat.

“Did you leave anything in the car ma’am?”

My suitcase. Shit.

I clambered back out into the rain, flung open the back door of the car and grabbed the little pink wheelie from behind the driver’s seat. Water flooded out of it, movie-style. Without a murmur, my savior swung it into his truck, drove me 30 seconds to my hotel and dropped me off.

“Thank you, thank you,” I repeated over and over again. “What about the car?” I shouted.

“It’s dead,” shot back the swarthy Texan.

So five minutes after I had headed out into

SHRI-BISHAYA...

From A4

who blogs at “in lieu of a field guide” (booktrek.blogspot.com) for the review of Shri-Bishaya, which was serialized in ‘Hiligaynon’ magazine from 1969 to 1970, two years before martial law.

According to Rise, the book is “a fictional adaptation and imaginative fusion of two famous epics from Panay Island… the Maragtas and Hinilawod.

The former was an embellished history of the origin of the Visayan people who migrated from Borneo,” and it was used as the “narrative framework of the novel, recounting how ten datus from Borneo fled to Panay Island to escape the despotic ruler Sultan Makatunaw.

“It [describes] how the datus bought the island from the Aetas, and the challenges encountered by these new

Harvey, I sloshed back into the lobby of the two-star Comfort Inn in Winnie, a farming community of little more than 3,000 people, spraying filthy water all over neatly mopped tiles.

Fellow guests barely noticed. They were either blank with boredom at being trapped in the middle of nowhere because the interstate was a river—or stricken with anguish after hazardous escapes from homes disappearing under water.

Yet another sodden guest stomping in from outside was commonplace.

Even when I sprinted downstairs wrapped only in a towel and carrying my sopping clothes, no one batted an eyelid, just pointed me in the direction of the washing machine down the hall.

In the morning, I tried to check out, determined again to make it to Houston. “Are you sure?” asked the receptionist. “Yours is the last room and if you leave you won’t be able to come back.” I rebooked as an insurance policy, fully expecting to make it out of Winnie to somewhere more interesting.

But the highway was closed. Water flooded the main drag. Everywhere I ventured, trucks in front of me stopped and turned back. I did the same.

I spent the morning in the hotel, trying and failing to interview Mexican migrant evacuees— they didn’t speak English and I don’t speak

settlers to institute a free, independent government with a new set of laws and system of leadership.”

The novel portrays a villainous ruler whose atrocities against his people mirror those of the Marcos era and the present with its extrajudicial killings. Rise says: “As a dictator novel, it described the injustices of Sultan Makatunaw in suspending due process for individuals who ‘live in fear and terror, because there is no telling who will be seized next from his home and will never see his family again.’

“Just like in the time of Marcos, the sultan also forbade people from holding peaceful assemblies that might lead to the rise of resistance movements and a revolution to bring him down from power.”

Here’s a chilling excerpt from the book: “Many residents had been seized

Spanish. Once that avenue was exhausted, I wanted to see if the rain was letting up.

Except it wasn’t. It was a one-minute drive to the only decent restaurant in Winnie. It was a risk, but I was starving. My mistake was to turn left too quickly, driving straight into the ditch obscured by the flood water rather than over the elevated lane into the parking lot.

Getting into that mess was easy. Getting out was not.

But in a natural disaster that left some 60 people feared dead, clocked up tens of billions of dollars worth of damage and left tens of thousands without homes, escaping from a flooded car was nothing.

On the fourth day Arbin, a 60-year-old Trumpsupporting, terrorist-hating, North Korea-fearing taxi driver finally made it through and drove me to Dallas, the nearest airport that could guarantee me a quick flight out. Driving north, Arbin picked his way gingerly through flooded country roads.

His boss called repeatedly to check on us. But long detours, Arbin’s need for cigarette breaks and sheer distance meant it took 7.5 hours to reach Dallas. There were no flight tickets left. So it was another night in Texas.

At least this time the hotel had room service.

AFP

unawares in the middle of the night, torn from the embrace of their families, and banished without any trace of their whereabouts.”

Doesn’t all this sound familiar right now? This novel is timely and relevant, and Muzones’s work deserves a wider audience.

As for Locsin-Nava’s translation, from what I’ve read of it so far, it is elegant and lyrical. Locsin-Nava also translated another of Muzones’s novels, ‘Margosatubig: The Story of Salagunting,’ a fantasy-adventureromance similarly set in pre-colonial times. It was serialized over 30 installments in “Yuhum” magazine in 1946, and was so popular that circulation was said to have jumped from 2,500 to 37,000.

John Barrios’s review of Locsin-Nava’s translation of Margosatubig says that she has “successfully incorporated the

linguistic and cultural dimensions of the source language into the target language. By refraining from using English idioms, for example, [she] was able to appropriate [approximate?] the syntax of the Hiligaynon language into the English language.” It’s to be expected that she did the same for Shri-Bishaya.

There is much more that is interesting in Shri-Bisaya, such as “maritime wars fought at sea, encounters with cruel pirates, and fantastical sea creatures” that give “a mythical and adventurous flavor to the novel.” I can’t wait to read the entirety in both English and Hiligaynon.

Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer. Follow her on Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @jensdecember, @ artuoste

World

A6

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor / Jimbo Gulle, Issue Editor

BODYGUARD SCHILLER TO LEAVE TRUMP WASHINGTON—Keith Schiller, Donald Trump’s longtime bodyguard and confidant, is to leave the White House, he said Friday, ending a decades-long run working at businessman-turned-president’s side.

Schiller—who is officially the Director of Oval Office Operations -- told AFP that he plans to return to Florida in the coming weeks, saying he was grateful to have had a front row seat to history, but it was time to move on.

“It will be great to look back on in 1015 years” the imposing former New York police officer said, “it’s historic,” but, he admitted, government work was maybe “not for me.”

He did not travel with the president to Camp David on Friday.

“Today is not my last day”he said, before adding that he plans to return to the Sunshine State after Hurricane Irma passes.

The New York Times and CNN earlier reported that Schiller was leaving, in part for, for financial reasons.

According to White House financial disclosures, Schiller took a roughly $130,000 pay cut to follow Trump to Washington, even though an annual salary of $165,000 makes him one of the best paid White House aides.

Schiller joined the Trump Organization in the late 1990s and has been a trusted presence at his side since, playing the role of companion and aide as well as body man. AFP

INDIA ALL-WOMAN CREW TO SAIL AROUND WORLD NEW DELHI, India—A team of six naval officers are starting a historic and grueling around-the-world mission on Sunday—the first circumnavigation of the globe by an Indian all-female crew.

Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, who is leading the voyage which will begin in the western state of Goa, told AFP the project was “revolutionary” in bringing women to the helm and would inspire others in the country.

In recent years, the Indian navy has sought to open its doors to women to take on more challenging roles, with the latest project winning the backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who urged the crew to “project India’s capabilities and strengths across the world.”

The navy commissioned a 17-meter (56-foot) yacht “Tarini” in February for the mission, with the crew kicking off preparations for the voyage in 2014.

“For me it’s a matter of conquering a feat that has been achieved by a chosen few,” Lieutenant Commander Pratibha Jamwal told AFP. “It’s not been an easy journey in terms of preparation but as they say, ‘the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war,’” she added. AFP

BRAZIL PROBES AMAZON VILLAGE TRIBAL MASSACRE

SAO PAULO, Brazil—Regional authorities confirmed Friday the alleged massacre of several indigenous people from an uncontacted Amazonian tribe by illegal miners in northwestern Brazil, according to the Amazonia Real news agency.

Prosecutors told Amazonia Real that federal police and the Public Prosecutor’s office were investigating the killings of an unspecified number of indigenous people reportedly killed in August in the Sao Paulo municipality of Olivenca, on the border with Peru and Colombia.

Although the report did not confirm the death toll, suspects or weapons used, it cited other indigenous people as saying up to 20 tribal members were killed.

Prosecutors are also investigating another complaint about the alleged killing of indigenous people from the isolated Warikama Djapar tribe. The attack would have occurred in May but has not been confirmed.

Both killings would have taken place on the Vale do Javari indigenous land that lies in an area of about 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres), about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from Manaus, capital of Amazonas state.

According to the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), there are at least 14 references to isolated indigenous peoples in the area.

Indigenous leader Adelson Kora Kanamari said in an interview with the Amazon Real portal that between 18 and 21 indigenous people “have been attacked and killed.” AFP

‘MOLES’ AT WORK. Members of the “Topos” (Moles), a specialized rescue team, search for survivors following the 8.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Mexico’s Pacific coast, in Juchitan de Zaragoza, state of Oaxaca on Friday. Mexico’s most powerful earthquake in a century killed at least 35 people, officials said, after it struck the Pacific coast, wrecking homes and sending families fleeing into the streets. AFP

RACE TO RESCUE QUAKE SURVIVORS FROM RUINS J UCHITÁN DE ZARAGOZA, Mexico—Police, soldiers and emergency workers raced Friday to rescue survivors from the ruins of Mexico’s most powerful earthquake in a century, which killed at least 61 people.

In the southern region hit hardest by the quake, emergency workers looked for survivors -- or bodies -- in the rubble of houses, churches and schools that were split down the middle, spilling their innards onto the ground.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said 45 people were killed in Oaxaca, 12 in Chiapas and four in Tabasco.

But the death toll could be over 80, according to higher figures reported by state officials.

And authorities warned another massive quake could follow within 24 hours of the first hit.

Pena Nieto was speaking from the hardest-hit city, Juchitan, Oaxaca, where at least 36 bodies were pulled from the ruins.

The city’s eerily quiet streets were a maze of ruins, with roofs, cables, insulation and concrete chunks scattered everywhere.

A crowd had formed at Juchitan’s partially collapsed town hall, a Spanish colonial building where two policemen were trapped in the rubble.

Rescuers managed to extract one and were still working to save the other 18 hours after the quake.

“God, let him come out alive!” said

a woman watching as four cranes and a fleet of trucks removed what remained of the building’s crumbled wing.

His blue uniform covered in dust, Vidal Vera, 29, was one of around 300 police officers digging through the rubble. He hadn’t slept in more than 36 hours.

“I can’t remember an earthquake this terrible,” he told AFP. “The whole city is a disaster zone right now. Lots of damages. Lots of deaths. I don’t know how you can make sense of it. It’s hard. My sisterin-law’s husband died. His house fell on top of him.”

A local hotel mostly collapsed and many homes were badly damaged in the predominantly indigenous town of 100,000 people, which is tucked into the lush green southern mountains near the coast.

The governor said tens of thousands of rations, blankets and

cleaning kits were arriving, along with 100 federal police reinforcements with rescue dogs to search for people in the wreckage.

“The priority in Juchitan is to restore water and food supplies and provide medical attention to those affected,” Pena Nieto tweeted after touring the devastated town.

The president described the 8.2-magnitude quake as “the largest registered in our country in at least the past 100 years” -- stronger even than a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico City.

In Tabasco, two children were among the dead. One was crushed by a collapsing wall. Another, an infant on a respirator, died after the quake triggered a power outage.

Pope Francis, at an open-air mass on a visit to Colombia, said he was praying “for those who have lost their lives and their families”in the quake. AFP

PREGNANT WOMAN’S SUICIDE ROILS CHINA

SEEKING REFUGE. A Rohingya refugee girl looks next to newly arrived refugees who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar in Ukhiya on Thursday. More than 125,000 refugees have flooded across the border into Bangladesh. Most are Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority that the government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar largely does not recognize as citizens. AF

BEIJING, China—Ma Rongrong’s labor pains were unbearable. For hours, she had begged for a C-section to ease her agony. After multiple requests were refused, she jumped five floors from a hospital window in northern China to her death.

Ma’s family and her doctors have blamed each other for denying her the surgery that could have eased her suffering.

The tragedy has attracted intense attention in China, with many wondering how Ma could be denied such a common procedure.

There is no clear answer, but the incident has sparked a national discussion on everything from the high cost of health care and patients’ rights to the dangers of traditional Chinese family values.

The conversation reached fever pitch this week after leaked security footage showing Ma on her knees in front of her family in a hospital corridor went viral.

In response to the uproar, the official People’s Daily said in an editorial that no matter who is ultimately to blame, the incident should serve as a national wake-up call.

“It is necessary to pay more attention to pregnant women’s feelings, and pay greater respect to their autonomy,” it said.

“We need to have more empathetic understanding and care for them. We cannot only think about policies and interests.”

The hospital and Ma’s family have traded blame for refusing her request for a Caesarean, presumably provoking her to kill herself rather than continue suffering through an excruciating labor.

The hospital has said it recommended Ma undergo the procedure, but that she and her husband insisted on natural birth in the belief it was better for the child.

As evidence, the hospital posted Ma’s surgery log on its official social media account, showing the family had denied her requests.

Ma had signed an authorization granting her husband the right to make medical decisions on her behalf, it said, adding the hospital therefore “had no right to change the delivery method without (his) consent.”

But Ma’s husband, Yan Zhuangzhuang, told the Beijing Youth Daily that he had agreed to his wife’s surgery: it was the doctor who said it was unnecessary.

Under Chinese law, the decision should have been made by the person herself, according to Feng Lihua, an expert on medical disputes at Beijing’s Zhongdun Law Firm.

“It cannot be authorized by other people,” he told AFP. The controversy has been hotly discussed for days, and by the end of the week the hashtag “Yulin pregnant woman jumps to death” was the third highest trending topic on the Twitterlike Weibo. AFP

Sports

A7

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 reuelvidal@yahoo.com

San Miguel Beer center June Mar Fajardo (foreground) battles for ball possession against three Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings, from left: Justin Brownlee, Japeth Aguilar and Joe Devance.

I

GINEBRA, SMB TITLE SHOWDOWN LOOMS

N WHAT may well be a championship showdown in the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Governors Cup defending champion Barangay Ginebra battles Grand Slam-seeking San Miguel Beer 6:45 p.m., today, Sunday, September 10 at the Araneta Coliseum.

The rampaging Gin Kings have made odds makers take a second look after tagging the Beermen as the team to beat this third conference.

Ginebra leaned on a fourth-quarter blitz to humble the Blackwater

Elite, 98-81, last Friday.

The Gin Kings (7 wins, 1 loss) thus cemented their hold on the top spot. The other teams include the NLEX Road Warriors (7-2), the Meralco Bolts (5-2) and the TNT Katropa (5-3).

The other teams include

Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings forward Joe Devance (right) sets up a play against the Blackwater Elite.

the Star Hotshots (4-2), the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters (4-3), the Grand Slam-seeking San Miguel Beermen (43), the Blackwater Elite (4-5) and the GlobalPort Batang Pier (3-5).

Bringing up the rear are the Alaska Aces (2 wins, 6 losses), the Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters (2-7) and the last place Kia Picanto (0-8).

It wasn’t a walk in the park for the Gin Kings though.

Down by four points, 6973, at the start of the fourth Ginebra exploded a 16-2 run to grab control of the game and eventually roll to their seventh consecutive victory.

Ginebra turned a close game into a blowout as the Kings pummeled the Elite, 29-10, in the fourth quarter starring their local crew led

by LA Tenorio.

Ginebra coach Tim Cone confessed that the game could have gone either way until they took control in the fourth period.

The big winning margin didn’t reflect the close nature of the game according to Cone. He said the big turnaround came after Japeth Aguilar blocked an attempt by Walker which changed the complexion of the game.

Roi Sumang scored the first two points of the fourth on free throws to push the Elite ahead by four markers. But Ginebra outscored Blackwater, 29-8, the rest of the way to win pulling away.

This is the conference that Ginebra prepared to win starting in the second

Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings center Greg Slaughter (25) fires a jumper over Blackwater Elite defenders.

conference when they took in 6’4” import Justin Brownlee in a conference where 6’9” is the import height limit. Ginebra could afford to do this of course because they already had 6’9” Japeth Aguilar and 6’7” Joe Devance.

Brownlee filled up the stats sheet with another brilliant all around game where he finished with 17 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, four blocks and one steal as he stayed on the floor almost the entirety of the game.

LA Tenorio chipped in 16 points to go with five assists, three rebounds, two steals and a block. Devance added 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Aguilar had 10 points, six rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

The Beermen have stumbled all conference long because of an ailing June Mar Fajardo. The three-time PBA

MVP has been dragging his feet and is a shadow of his former self because of a minor leg injury.

Veterans Chris Ross, Alex Cabagnot and Arwind Santos have stepped up for the Beermen who have kept their heads above water despite the enormous handicap of a Fajardo not 100 percent.

Without Fajardo, defenders can now afford to stay at home and disrupt the perimeter shooting of SMB’s sharpshooting wings led by Marcio Lassiter. And with Greg Slaughter returning 100 percent fit to Ginebra the Beermen may not have the size to match up against the league’s most popular team.

In fact the Beermen might not even make it past the second-running Bolts in their quest to at least gain a title showdown this third conference as they gun for their second PBA Grand Slam.

Young Volcanoes team captain Dean Beeton (with ball) charges down the pitch during last year’s event in Taipei.

PH YOUNG VOLCANOES SET SIGHTS ON YOUTH OLYMPICS THE U17 Philippine Volcanoes, sponsored by First Pacific, are playing for Youth Olympic Qualification in Tainan, Taiwan this weekend.

The junior competition, which doubles as the Youth Olympic Qualifier, takes place today September 10.

This will be the second time the Philippines take on the rest of Asia at this level. Last year the First Pacific Philippine Volcanoes U18s came away with the bronze medal after beating Singapore in the final of the plate division.

The Philippines have been drawn in Pool B of the tournament and will face Uzbekistan, Japan, Lao and Thailand.

Seeded sixth going into the competition, the Volcanoes will be looking to cause some upsets.

“Going in as underdogs puts us in a better position. We have a fearless squad and can prove to the rest of Asia why we deserve a place in the Youth Olympics,” said Dean Beeton, Team Captain. The team has youth on their side, built with talent.

“Thanks to First Pacific and the MVPSF Foundation. It is brilliant that players are graduating into the Under 19s, Under 20s and even the Men’s Volcanoes squads. I am excited to see what these younger athletes have to offer on the international stage,” head coach Jovan Masalunga said of the First Pacific Philippine Volcanoes.

Masalunga has called up five players from this year’s First Pacific Philippine Volcanoes Under 16s, who won the cup division at the Bangkok International Tens Tournament earlier in the year.

“Our team has trained extremely hard. They are looking sharp and I can see they really want to make our nation proud, we look forward to this event” said Masalunga.

ARELLANO, NU, FEU, TAKE EARLY PVL LEAD

Arellano University defenders (right) Jovielyn Prado, Andrea Marzan and Rhea Ramirez try to save the ball after a quick attack by San Beda’s Yani Espiritu (left) during their PVL Collegiate Conference clash at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

THE Arellano University Lady Chiefs are showing why they are the reigning National Collegiate Athletic Association champions by vaulting to an early lead in the Premier Volleyball League Collegiate Conference.

The Lady Chiefs relied on star player Jovielyn Prado to post back-to-back straight set victories over the College of St.Benilde Lady Blazers and the San Beda Red Spikers.

The National University Lady Bulldogs started their campaign on a winning note with a similar straight set victory over Lyceum of the Philippines University. Skipper Jaja Santiaga, Risa Sato and Jorelle Singh led the team’s

scoring parade.

NU coach Babes Castillo said he appreciated the way his players worked together but added he expected more. For the moment he’s just glad that the team finally has a working system.

The Far Eastern University Lady Tamaraws swept a young San Sebastian College squad.

Power spikers Bernadeth Pons, Toni Rose Basas, Celine Domingo and Jeanette Villarel led FEU’s balanced attack.

It was George Pascua’s first outing as FEU women’s team head coach.

Pascua said his team needed a good start and got it which enabled his players to showcase their maximum potential.

Pascua has high hopes for the title-hungry Lady Tamaraws. FEU last won a championship three years ago in the V-League and nine years ago in the UAAP. The Adamson University Lady Soaring Falcons had to dig deep into their reserve of will and resolve to outlast the University of the Philippines Lady Fighting Maroons in five sets.

Elle Soyud, a former La Salle Lady Spiker, led the way for Adamson. Providing plenty of support are skipper Jema Galanza and Joy Dacoron.

Adamson coach Air Padda said she considered UP their toughest competition in their group and that she appreciated her team’s

strong start in the tournament.

Arellano may have won over San Beda but it was far from a walk in the park. Either team could have won the first two sets—won

by Arellano—before the Lady Chiefs made a romp in the third.

The key to the Arellano victory was the limited production of San Beda star player Cesca Racraquin. The former spiker who was limited to just nine points which was a far cry from her 19-point explosion during their team’s victory over Technological Institute of the Philippines in their first match.

The PVL women’s matches can be viewed live via streaming on www. sports.abs-cbn/livestream/pvl.

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Sports

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 Riera U. Mallari, Editor / Reuel Vidal, Issue Editor / Randy Caluag, Issue Editor

sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

HIDILYN LEADS PH TEAM TO BATTLE IN TURKMENISTAN

By Randy Caluag

R

IO Olympics weightlifting silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz has not seen action in a competitive environment for quite a while.

But her appetite for glory has not diminished a bit.

More than a year after saving the Philippines from shutout campaign with a silver medal output in Rio de Janeiro, Diaz will carry the country’s pride once again as she leads Team Pilipinas to do battle in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) slated on September 17-27 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

“Nakasuot ulet ng official jacket ng Philippine Team delegation going to AIMAG 2017 Turkmenistan, sobrang proud na ire-present ang Philippines sa AIMAG,” she said in her social media post.

The proud daughter of Zamboanga City will be the flag-carrier when the 108strong contingent marches in the opening-day show for the quadrennial sports conclave featuring the best athletes from 61 countries in Asia and Oceania.

After becoming the country’s only fourth silver medal in Olympic history, Diaz became the toast of this country that’s still waiting for its first athlete who will be blessed with a golden medal.

Diaz’s life made a sudden turnaround, earning her millions of pesos of cash bonuses, product endorsement contracts, and speaking engagement. Still, her feet remained on the ground and continued training in spite of the perks that greeted her Olympic victory.

Diaz won the silver medal in Rio in the women’s 53-kg category behind Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Shu-ching, the gold medal winner.

This maybe an Asian level competition but world class athletes in her event are participating, including Hsu, and China’s Li Yajun, who was the frontrunner in their event in Rio before she was scratched out of the contest for failing in her third and final attempt.

“Medyo mabigat po ang laban dito, kaya laban lang po,” she added, saying she will try to again make her best of 200kg total lift that she did in the Olympics.

“Nabuhat ko dati!

Mabubuhat ko yan sa sept 19,” said Diaz, who is scheduled to compete on the said date. “Tiwala lang kay God.” This will be a very important event for Diaz to assess

Hidilyn Diaz gets to lift the bar once again as she takes on familiar foes in the Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan (Photo from www.olympics.org)

if she can still give it another shot at the 2020 Olympics that will take place in Tokyo.

Joining Diaz in Turkmenistan are the bunch of golden heroes in the recent Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games like Eric Shawn Cray of athletics, Rubilen Amit and Carlo Viado of billiards,

The PH delegation to the AIMAG in Turkmenistan in a courtesy call to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea at the Malacañang. Standing (L to R) POC Admin. Officer Liza Ner, Atty. Jayson Mabazza, DCDM Raymund Reyes, CDM Cong Monsour del Rosario, ES Salvador Medialdea, PSC Chairman William Ramirez, Peter Cayco,POC VP Jose Romasanta, PSC Chief of Staff Raul Badilla Seated (L to R) are Kirstie Elaine Alora, Samuel Thomas Morisson, Rubilen Amit, Gerald Jamili,Kenneth Chua, Marvin Guarte, Eugene Torre, Carlo Viado, Hidilyn Diaz and Cherry Clarice Parcon

Diaz says there is no greater pride than to wear the Philippine uniform (Photo from Hidilyn Diaz Facebook)

Samuel Thomas Morrison and Kirstie Elaine Alora in the Philippine team that will compete in 27 out of the 31 sports disciplines.

Also with them are the returning power couple from Cebu, Gerald Jamili and Cherry Clarice Parcon, who will be back to defend their crown in dancesport’s jive event they won in 2013 edition in Incheon, South Korea.

The pair also bagged a bronze medal in another event while Amit took the bronze in the women’s 10 ball event. Also in the delegation is chess grandmaster Eugene Torre.

Among the events to be competed are chess, futsal, tennis, muay thai, kickboxing, sambo, kurash, jiu jitsu, bowling, cycling (track), indoor athletics, weightlifting (Powerlifting), taekwondo (WTF), dance sport, belt wrestling, wrestling (FS/Greco Roman), at cue sport (Billiards and Snooker).

Former Olympian Monsour Del Rosario, is the chef the mission.

“I will do my best to lead them to battle,” said Del Rosario, who is also the secretarygeneral of the Philippine Taekwondo Association.

But the one-time Asian taekwondo champion added they will be hard-pressed to equal if not surpass the

Philippines’ finish fours ago where it came home with a gold and two bronze medals courtesy of dancesport.

“All I’m hoping for is to equal the last National Team 4 years ago.. .except for the fact the last time they competed against 40 countries only.”

According to deputy chef de mission Raymund Lee Reyes, the compact delegation was carefully scrutinized to come up with the cream of the crop.

“Mataas po ang standard criteria na ginamit namin para mapili ang mga atletang ipadadala natin. Yung mga gold and silver medal sa world championship at sa SEA Games automatic po kasama sa team,” said Reyes, who is also secretary-general of the Philippine Karate-do Federation.

Dave Carter, president of the Judo Federation of the Philippines, said the competi-

tion is far stiffer than the SEA Games “but we are confident that our athletes will deliver.”

Among the countries participating are from Asia as well as Ocenia nations like Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, at Vanuatu.

The Philippine Sports Commission has allotted P30 million for the trip of the Philippine delegation, including their uniforms, allowances, and equipment.

“Basta laban lang para sa bayan,” said Raul Dominic ‘Dino’ Badilla, chief of staff of PSC chairman William Ramirez.

The bulk of the Phl delegation will depart on Sept.

14 via Philippine Airlines chartered flight direct to Turkmenistan.

BAYRON PULLS AWAY BY 4 AS RIVALS CRUMBLE TAGAYTAY—Rufino Bayron went on a birdie-binge midway through then pounced on Tony Lascuña and Jhonnel Ababa’s late foldup to storm to a four-stroke lead on a five-under 67 in the third round of the ICTSI Splendido Classic here yesterday.

Bayron blew an overnight one-stroke edge but fought back from two down with a four-birdie splurge in a five-hole stretch from No. 7 to regain the lead. He then pulled away as Lascuña limped with a triplebogey on the par-4 13th for a 71 and Ababa reeled back with bogeys on Nos. 13 and 15 for a 70.

He birdied the 18th to cap a 34-33 card for a four-stroke cushion over new pursuers Clyde Mondilla and Mars Pucay, moving 18 holes away from snapping a long title spell with a 12-under 204 aggregate in the $100,000 championship sponsored by ICTSI. Despite a huge lead, Bayron remains wary of his chances and a slew of rivals ready to pounce on the slightest miscue for a shot at the top $17,500 purse in the second leg of the inaugural PGT Asia Tour.

“No lead is safe here at Splendido, especially in the presence of the wind,” said Bayron, who last won at Orchard in the 2015 Philippine Golf Tour season. “But I’ll still do what I’ve been doing in the first three days—play it steady and be consistent.”

Mondilla, seeking to atone for a missed cut stint in the region’s newest circuit’s kickoff leg at Southwoods last month, eagled No. 11 and hit four birdies against a lone bogey to match Bayron’s five-under card in another scorching day at Taal Splendido. The Del Monte ace, winner of two legs on the ICTSI PGT, pooled a 208 to tie Pucay, one of the sponsors’ invitees in the 72-hole championship organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. The veteran Pucay, also out to end a long title drought, gunned down nine birdies to negate his three bogeys and turn in the day’s best 66 as he earned a spot in the championship flight for the first time in a long, long while.

Lascuña, who bounced back from a bogey opening with an eagle on No. 2 and four birdies in the next seven holes, took control with a superb 31. But as Bayron struck back with those cluster of birdies linking both nines, Lascuña lost his poise and bogeyed No. 12 then dropped three-strokes on the next on an errant drive, a poor third shot and a flawed approach. He reached the green in five and two-putted.

PENCAK SILAT, ARNIS TAKE SPOTLIGHT IN PSI NORTHERN CARAVAN

Philippine Sports Commissioner Celia Kiram (left) and Ilagan City mayor Evelyn Diaz (right) hand to Maria Consuelo Zipagan the certificate of participation in volleyball during the Northern Caravan of the Philippine Sports Institute Grassroots and Sports Science training program in Ilagan City.

Coaches of the six sports disciplines are at seated in the background. Photo by Dexter Enriquez

ILAGAN, Isabela—The traditional Filipino martial arts sports of pencak silat and arnis took centerstage in the Philippine Sports Commission’s Grassroots Coaching and Sports Science Series in Ilagan City, Isabela.

These two sports, which are expected to serve as gold mines when the country plays host to the Southeast Asian Games in 2019, are among the six sports disciplines that were included in the Northern Caravan of the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI) headed by Marc Velasco.

More than 300 PE teachers from Ilagan and neighboring towns participated in the of-

ficiating and organizational training which included basketball, taekwondo, swimming and volleyball. ”These are the six sports requested by the LGUs here in northern Luzon,” said the northern caravan tour spearhead Paul Ycasas, whose team of coaches and staff also held the same program in Ifugao and Kalinga. The team will also split into two for the Cabaroguis,Quirino and Dingalan, Aurora swing.

The Ilagan leg was held in cooperation with city mayor Evelyn Diaz and graced by PSC Commissioner Celia Kiram.

Pencak silat and arnis are included as regular sports in the

Palarong Pambansa and the Philippine National Games.

They are also expected to boost the country’s gold medal production in the 2019 Manila SEA Games with pencak silat offering 22 gilts and arnis 30 gold medals if all their events and weight categories are contested.

Nearly 50 teachers joined the pencal silat course under coaches Diosdado Cantomayor and Ronald Perena of the Phil Silat Sports Association while 38 participants tried arnis.

“We were not expecting too much but we were overwhelmed and happy at the turnout and active participation of the teachers who chose

the sport (arnis) in this training series,” said Ryan Gialogo of the Kali Arnis Martial Arts Organization (KAMAO), who conducted the program.

KAMAO is under the umbrella of the national association for arnis sport, Philippine Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (PEKAF) headed by senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who actively pushed for the law that made arnis the country’s national sport.

The grassroots training series also conducted lectures and seminars other aspects such as sports psychology under Ben John Montaron, sports nutrition (Ashly Villa) and sports science (Aira del Cruz) on the first day. Randy Caluag

It was time for Physical Education teachers to try the martial arts sport of Pencak Silat and they liked it.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor / Roderick dela Cruz, Issue Editor business@manilastandard.net

HOW A MOTHER HELPED TUTOR 100,000 STUDENTS Scan this icon to view the PDF

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TUTOR. Ahead Learning Systems Inc. president Rossana Llenado

WOMAN entrepreneur, who started tutorial services in Laguna province 22 years ago, has empowered more than 100,000 Filipino students to get ahead in life and is now on a mission to establish a global education company.

Rossana Llenado, who funded her studies at University of the Philippines-Los Baños by working as a student assistant and selling T-shirts and various merchandise, became one of the youngest female company owners in 1995, when she formed Ahead Learning Systems Inc. From a home-based tutorial center, Ahead has become the leading and most awarded educational services provider in the Philippines. The company caters to both students and professionals through the following brands: Ahead Tutorial & Review Center, Ahead Professional Network, Ahead Books & Things and Ahead Online.

“We were the first in the Philippines to offer UP, Ateneo, La Salle entrance test review,” Llenado says in an interview in Makati City.

She says students and parents have come to embrace tutorial services as a part of the education system. “Before, parents didn’t want anybody to know they were sending their children to tutorial centers. Now, it is a lifestyle. It is a way to be ahead,” says Llenado.

Among those who attended Ahead centers are students who graduated summa cum laude at top universities or valedictorian in high schools. “Yes, even those running for valedictorian and salutatorian approach us for tutorial services,” she says.

“Tutorial makes a lot of difference. In a typical classroom of 40 students, the teacher gets to teach the average student. If the teacher focuses on the least intelligent, other students will be bored. If she focuses on the top student, others will be left behind. So she gets to teach the average one, but the other groups of students—the most intelligent and the least intelligent—are both dissatisfied. In

our tutorial services, it is one tutor for one student for one hour,” she says.

Llenado says education is the best investment parents can make for their children. “If you love your children and want them to be ahead in life, this is the right investment. If you are a forward looking and modern parent, you would want your children to be ahead. It also gives them a head start to get into the best universities,” she says.

Before becoming an educator, Llenado studied Communication Arts at UP Los Baños and wanted to become a lawyer. Being the eldest among three children, she worked and ventured into various livelihood activities, such as T-shirt printing for UP Los Baños and UP Diliman students, mushroom growing, catering and even commercial subleasing, to supplement the earnings of her father, who is an electronics technician.

She was also active in extra-curricular activities, being a member or official of eight student organizations, a staff member of UPLB Perspective and a member of the UPLB varsity football team.

“Handling multiple tasks in school prepared me for the challenges of being an entrepreneur,” she says.

Llenado says being an educator was the furthest thing from her mind, because she thought teachers should look formal, perfect and kind at all times, while she enjoyed wearing jeans and T-shirts in school.

She says when she was 18, an uncle who was writing a graduation speech for a senator asked her to do a research on the subject. “That’s when I realized the impact of education on the lives of the people. I think education can improve the Philippines,” she says.

After graduating from UPLB in 1991, she worked as a staff writer and researcher for public relations company Corporate Image Dimensions for one year, before joining Mijadikan Properties as a real estate broker. She met her husband in the company and became its top sales manager with over 200 agents under her until she resigned in 1994 when she gave birth to twin boys, Nicolo and Paolo, followed by Darla and Megan.

She was only 25 when she established Ahead.

She recalls that she had to wear formal clothes and

eyeglasses to look older when meeting clients.

“When clients were visiting our office, they thought I was the daughter of the owner. That’s why I tried to look older,” says Llenado who still looks younger than her age of 48 today.

While taking care of her kids, she put up a tutorial center at home near a private school and hired a teacher-friend as the first tutor. This would be the start of her tutorial and review business that would reach its peak before the K to 12 program was adopted in the country. She says the business flourished because of word-ofmouth recommendation from principals, teachers, parents and students themselves.

To hone her managerial skills, Llenado pursued postgraduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila University and the Asian Institute of Management. In 2009, she received the Alumni Achiever award from UP Rural High School, the laboratory school of UP Los Baños.

The following year, she was recognized as an outstanding alumna of UPLB for her exceptional community extension service.

Llenado wants to reach out to more students by taking advantage of digital technologies. Her company has recently launched Ahead Online—an online learning arm that offers flexible and high-quality tutorial and review services to students and professionals.

It offers an interactive mode of teaching using audio, video, whiteboard and filesharing components. The one-on-one online tutorial service was launched early this year and currently has 30 students. Tutorial rates start at P1,000 per hour.

Llenado says she expects more students to enroll in the next few months as she continues to receive inquiries from parents who want the best tutorial service for their children.

“In regular tutorials, you are supposed to allow a stranger to enter your house. In online tutorials, the students enjoy the safety of their own home. It’s also more convenient than going to a tutorial center since the students will not have to drive to the center amid heavy traffic. It saves a lot of time, energy and money,” she says.

Llenado has been getting inquiries for online tutorial since 2007. But she hesitated from offering such service back then, as the country’s internet connection wasn’t very reliable.

“We had to put the online operations on hold and wait for the technology to catch up because we didn’t want to inconvenience our clients. For us, it’s either we offer the best quality of service or not offer it at all.

While waiting, we started developing the services more thoroughly. We sent teachers to Singapore to train them and we studied the market further,” she says.

Llenado says getting into the online business is the next step for the fast growing business. She says while Ahead currently has five tutorial and review centers in Metro Manila, and two outside the capital, the introduction of Ahead Online means quality tutorial and review services will be available to more students not only in the Philippines but overseas as well.

Llenado says starting Ahead Online is a way for her company to tap the lucrative international market.

“The goal is to expand internationally - first in Asia and eventually the rest of the world.

We want to be in the top 10 globally,” she says.

Llenado says her plan is to make Ahead a global company serving students and professionals around the world. “In the next five to 10 years, I hope to have transformed my company into a major player in the global education industry,” she says.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

RCBC MASTERCARD UNWRAPS LATEST PROMO

RCBC Bankard has unveiled its latest promo, where cardholders can shop their way to winning a New York City goliday or get a free SM Gift Pass when they shop at any The SM Store. New RCBC Bankard, Mastercard Premium and Mangco cardholders can also get a free Mango Gift Card.

RCBC Bank ard first vice president and marketing group head Angela Mirasol said: “We believe that cardholders should get more every time they use their RCBC Bankard Mastercard.

On top of the generous rewards points that they earn, the unparalleled flexible payment terms through Unli 0% and the peace-of-mind that they get through Spend Monitor, these exciting offers will make everyday shopping more rewarding and potentially exhilarating.”

A lucky RCBC Mastercard cardholder can spend a priceless holiday with a loved one at the Big Apple! The winning package includes a free roundtrip ticket for two to New York City, four days and three nights’ accommodation at a luxury hotel, a guided city tour, plus VIP seats to a Broadway show.

A minimum single-receipt purchase of P2,000 from Aug.18 to Oct.18, 2017 automatically earns a cardholder an electronic raffle entry.

A free SM Gift Pass worth P100 will be given to cardholders when they shop at The SM Store and make a single -receipt purchase of P5,000. Likewise, they will receive a free SM Gift Pass worth P300 for a singlereceipt installment purchase worth P15,000 also at The SM Store. This promo runs until Sept.

30, 2017.

New RCBC Bankard Gold, Mango, Black, Diamond and World Mastercard cardholders can enjoy new wardrobe at MANGO! They will be receiving a complimentary Mango Gift Card worth P2,000 if they make a P20,000 single or accumulated spend anywhere using their newly-issued premium RCBC Bankard Mastercard within 60 days from date of issuance. Offer period is from Sept.1 to Nov. 30, 2017.

GLOBE OFFERS FREE TRAINING FOR ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS ASPIRING retail and personal services entrepreneurs now get free access to business and training tools through the enhanced Globe myBusiness Academy Program. Business owners of retail brands, spas, salons, and the like will get to engage with industry experts to gain more insights that will help them stay competitive in the market.

Globe myBusiness Academy is a program for existing or new business owners to learn from more experienced colleagues and experts important tips and business advice.

In partnership with Manila Workshops, they will develop and provide free training in the arts, entrepreneurship, health and fitness, personal development, and finance, among

others to independent business owners.

Globe myBusiness senior advisor Derrick Heng said that those interested in attending future sessions can expect the same diversity in the choice of workshop topics. “There’s more than one way to provide sustainable livelihood.

E m p l oy m e nt i s o n e ave n u e, b u t empowering entrepreneurs is equally effective, and perhaps even more so,” said Heng. “This program with Manila Workshops is our way of helping those who wish to strike out on their own.

With the right training, these budding entrepreneurs can go a long way” Heng said.

Apart from the workshops, Globe

Manila Workshops chief executive Ginger Palma Arboleda talks about the reason and the beauty of their partnership with Globe myBusiness - helping entrepreneurs realize their potential.

myBusiness will introduce a number of business solutions that can be easily added as a service to its postpaid plans.

These business solutions were designed for business owners from specific industries in mind.

Personal services establishments can choose from a variety of solutions such as Queuing Solution, a service that allows business owners to better manage store traffic using an automated SMS-based queueing system. Another innovation is the Auto Appointment Reminder that automatically notifies customers of their appointments through SMS. And for those looking for a more efficient way of messaging customers, the Auto SMS

Blast Service labels text messages with the sender’s brand name.

Retail shop owners, whether online or a physical store, also have tools to choose from that will help in marketing, selling, and improving operational efficiency.

Through myWebsite, retailers can set up their brand pages where they have full control of the content, ultimately helping their brand and online presence. For those who are ready to sell products beyond their social media pages, Shopify is the ideal platform to quickly set up their online store and easily manage customer orders. Lastly, to monitor the movement of products in real-time, myShopkeeper will be a useful inventory management system.

Business

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 business@manilastandard.net

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ELECTRONICS EXECUTIVE BULLISH ON ‘BUILD’ MANTRA

HE semiconductor and electronics industry, one of the pillars of the Philippine economy, has expressed full support for the Duterte government’s plan to spend as much as P8 trillion on infrastructure over the medium term.

JDI launched biostimulant product Tytanit in Bogo City.

BIOSTIMULANT LAUNCHED TO BOOST RICE PRODUCTION JARDINE Distribution Inc. launched Tytanit Biostimulant in a bid to boost rice production in the Philippines.

The first product launch was held in March 2017 for rice farmers in Urdaneta, Pangasinan and has since covered several other areas including Mindoro, Palawan, Iloilo, Antique, Negros Occidental, North Cotabato, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Naga, Laguna, Tarlac, Pampanga, Ormoc and Dipolog.

Tytanit, JDI’s latest biostimulant product, has titanium as its key ingredient.

When used, Tytanit becomes a pivotal tool in the uniform flowering of rice plants resulting in increased number of grains per panicle that when filled brings about higher yield.

Such benefit proves to be much desired by rice farmers who are finding ways to increase their chances of recovering their investment in farming and earning more.

“The farmers are seeing the potential benefits of biostimulants on their crops. With Tytanit being the only one of its kind in the Philippines, I am not surprised that we’ve been selling out our Tytanit stocks during these events,” said Kathleen Aguilan, product manager at agro products division of JDI. “ Ty t a n i t c u r r e n t l y e n j o y s 95-percent acceptance rating in Vietnam among farmers who tried it during a two-year study involving field tests and demonstration plots.

I am confident that that statistic will carry over to the Philippines,” Aguilan said.

An industry spokesperson, however, said to sustain the projected 6 percent to 7 percent gross domestic product growth, the country would need more quality power supply, and all the more for the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program under “Dutertenomics”, which seeks to construct modern bridges and roads, mega subway systems and world-class airports and seaports in the next 10 years.

“The government is doing a good job attracting investors and doing tax reform, but in terms of other reforms, it would be nice to see incentives to promote investment in additional power generation plants,” Dan Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc., told the Manila Standard in an interview.

“It takes a long time to build power plants, and while we support the government’s P8 trillion infrastructure thrust, we have to realistically address problems like summer brownouts because we don’t have adequate power to support our GDP growth,” said Lachica.

“Maybe the DOE [Department of Energy] can provide a clear roadmap for energy supply security at low cost, and incentives for new investments in power,” he said.

Extra effort to remove obstacles SEIPI members include local electronics and semiconductor companies, as well as multinational firms, all of whom have an aggregate power consumption of about 500 megawatts.

The semiconductor and electronics industry is a top export performer with a 51.3 percent share to total exports in 2016 worth $28.8 billion. Likewise, electronics contributed 17.7 percent to the manufacturing gross value added, the second largest manufacturing sector in terms of GVA. “More importantly the Philippine electronics industry has generated about 2.6 million direct and indirect employment,” said Lachica.

The SEIPI head warned that a number of companies in the electronics industry have opted to expand their businesses outside the Philippines amid the country’s prohibitive cost of power and lack of quality supply.

Last month, SEIPI issued a statement that the sector is hampered, not only by the global slump in demand, but also by expensive power.

A heavy user of electricity, electronics account for a third of the country’s exports and employs 557,000. But growth, Lachica said, has been flat in the past two years.

Lachica said SEIPI expects a turnaround this year, as new factories start operating and shipping overseas, including makers of mobile phone chips and microprocessors for computers.

He said growth would hinge on the quality and cost of electricity in the country.

Amid the domestic economy’s expansion, SEIPI is monitoring the status of several bigticket power projects, noting that some of these projects are facing legal and policy hurdles.

“Given the uncertainty, SEIPI believes there is a need for government to exert extra effort and remove the legal and policy obstacles affecting these infrastructure projects,” he said.

Cost, quality are main power concerns Lachica said a stable and reliable power supply plays a significant operational component of SEIPI member companies. Any power interruption has a crucial effect on their output and productivity levels.

Cost and quality of power supply are the two major power concerns of their members, according to the SEIPI head.

Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. president Dan Lachica About 8 percent to 20 percent of their operating costs are spent on power supply, which Lachica said is a significant chunk of their overhead. To ensure ample power supply, these companies build redundancy by setting up backup generators, including participation in power cost management programs such as Meralco’s ILP [Unterruptible Load Program) scheme.

“For an electronics company, it’s not just the [materials] supply part that is important but obviously, they also want to efficiently plan out what the cost of power will be over a period of time, as well the utilization part of it.,” Lachica said. “This is the reason we partnered with Meralco for energy efficiency.”

A clear energy security roadmap, the SEIPI head said, “would allow the industry to effectively compete with neighboring countries for a share of the semiconductor and electronics market.”

More plants needed With recent unscheduled brown-outs due to earthquakes and breakdown of several power plants, coupled with the government’s economic gameplan to build large infrastructure, the Philippines needs modern, environmentallyfriendly baseload power plants, but these are not being built fast enough, Lachica said.

For example, the privatization of stateowned power plants under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act is hobbled by the tedious documentation of government-owned land on which the plants were built.

A number of crucial coal-fired power plant projects have been met with lawsuits slapped on them by environmentalists. These have severely crippled completion timelines.

Delays in the approval process not only cause setbacks in the development of these power projects – which takes about three to four years to build – but also pose a threat on energy security, and most importantly constitute a drag on the nation’s economic growth.

Prioritizing big plants Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committees on energy and economic affairs, recognizes that the problem which stymies the country’s economic development is the low power capacity of the Philippines in general, and some big islands, in particular.

During his first committee hearing looking into “institutionalizing energy projects as Projects of National Significance,” he noted that there are many big committed and indicative power plants lining up for investment, but they often face challenges in securing the necessary permits and licenses.

One of the papers he received complained that regulatory permit approval in Philippine electricity generation showed that on average,

“power plant operators need to secure 162 clearances and 102 permits.”

Gatchalian is currently looking into crafting a bill which will prioritize these big power plants (P3.5 billios or higher in capitalization) for faster approval process.

Gatchalian is also studying a proposal that would give agencies 30 days to check documents submitted; if they fail to act on time, it is deemed that the papers are approved and permits are automatically granted.

Confusion over RCOA scheme Adding to the long process of securing a permit, the current situation at the Energy Regulatory Commission ( The ERC only got a P1,000 budget for 2018 from the House of Representatives last week, ostensibly for its being embroiled in corruption allegations), is causing delays in the approval of agreements between electric cooperatives and power suppliers, as well as confusion because of its less than consistent policy decisions.

More specifically, SEIPI told the Manila Standard that the semiconductor and electronics industry would be put in a disadvantageous position should the Supreme Court rule in favor of the Department of Energy and ERC omnibus motion to lift a temporary restraining order on the implementation of ‘mandatory contestability’, and the shift to the Retail Competition and Open Access scheme.

The omnibus motion seeks to clarify if the DOE/ERC can lower the threshold to 750 kilowatts on a voluntary basis and if the ERC can issue retail electricity supplier licenses.

Last February, the SC issued a TRO ruling on the mandatory migration of large power consumers to RCOA. End-users with at least one megawatt usage were scheduled to shift to RCOA last February. while users with at least 750-kw demand was supposed to migrate in June.

The ERC maintains that a mandatory transition would actually develop the market which would bring in more competition and allow more freedom of choice for consumers.

The RCOA is one of the provisions that have yet to be implemented in the 16-year-old Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (RA 9136). It aims to institutionalize competition in the supply of electricity, allowing the electricity end-users to choose their suppliers based on low price and other factors.

Industry status imperiled “We are concerned that once the TRO on RCOA is lifted, distribution utilities will no longer have their own RES,” said Lachica. “We have high load factor members with existing RES contracts with DUs. What will happen to these contracts if the TRO is lifted?”

The SEIPI head warned that companies in the fast-growing industry will be left ‘stranded’ and unable to re-negotiate for lower RES contracts in the event ERC is successful in banning DUs’ RES. SEIPI member companies will have no option but to enter into agreement with the lowest available ERC-licensed RES without any guarantee of getting reliable and efficient power supply, he said.

“We believe that we should allow the market to drive the market condition in defining electricity pricing,” Lachica said. “Power rates were pegged 4.50/kWh previously, but owing to prevailing market condition, we are now seeing it at 3.50/kWh. It shows that RCOA or voluntary competition is working. The [electronics/ semicon] industry’s position is to maintain that condition.”

Another part of the ERC petition that baffles the SEIPI head is the commission’s request to have the SC clarify if they can issue new RES licenses.

“This part is confusing. It seems that what ERC is asking is to have a prerogative to issue new licenses. But they already have that regulatory power including the ability to limit the threshold to 750kw under the voluntary, even without the clear pronouncement of the high court,” Lachica said. Joel Lacsamana

HOW THREE GRANDMAS ROCK A CAREER IN REAL ESTATE GRANDMOTHERS Imelda Mollasgo, Maritess Flores and Rosita Jarce are among the top performers of P.A. Alvarez Properties and Development Corp’s sales and marketing group.

Mollasgo, 51, has been with the 23-year-old, Laguna-based real estate company for 20 years now. Her husband, a former marine engineer, joined Mollasgo a decade ago in P.A. Properties and is now assistant vice president for sales under the Magaling (excellent) group.

A service honoree and currently the sales director of the same group, Mollasgo said that being a real estate agent has no limits in terms of income potentials. Being with P.A. Properties (a company known for their affordable housing projects not only in Laguna, but also in Bulacan, Cavite, Pampanga, and Metro Manila), she was able to purchase four house and lot packages from the company through commissions and incentives. She also got to travel abroad, and remembers fondly the Asian cruise she joined.

Forty was the age when Flores, now 51, started her career in real estate,

despite her husband’s objections and lack of support. Now assistant vice president under the Matibay (sturdy) group, Flores tearfully recalls how she rstarted from nothing when their house was burned down. They started to rebuild through her winnings in raffle prizes sponsored by the company.

Now nine years in P.A. Properties, Flores recalls that she cried when she was included in a trip to Palawan for the company’s top sales performers – her first time to ride an airplane.

“I really, really love my job, never mind if my husband didn’t like at first what I’m doing,” Flores said. Four of her five children were able to finish school because of her earnings in real estate (her youngest is still studying).

Jarce, 57, division manager from the Matatag (stable) group, has been with P.A. Properties’ sales and marketing group for 13 years now. She had a dress shop when she bought her house and lot from the company’s St. Joseph 7 project. Then, she was recruited to also sell the company’s projects, despite her husband’s objections.

From left: Rosita Jarce, Imelda Mollasgo and Maritess Flores share how they rock a career in real estate while being doting grandmas Jarce, now a widow, said nobody is Doting grandmas questioning her anymore on why she The “Golden Girls” of P.A. Properties chose to have a career in real estate, are a proof that having a thriving career, which enabled her to a buy house and raising a family – and now, raising lot each for her two children. grandchildren can be achieved.

Mollasgo, who has a son based in Malaysia, has four grandchildren (three of them live with her and her husband).

Despite working full-time, she said she is very much hands on in taking care of her apos.

She is thankful that her career affords her to provide the best care for her grandchildren – sending them to private schools and hiring a tutor and a house help for them.

Flores is also a doting granny, who enjoys bathing, taking selfies with and snapping videos of her grandchild’s antics.

Meanwhile, Jarce said for as long as she could climb the stairs of the office building, ride and alight from a jeepney, there is no stopping her from thriving in her work with P.A. Properties.

For Flores, she said her story serves as an example to those starting from scratch. She also advised the younger generation of real estate agents, brokers and sellers to leave their problem at home as their job knows no time, and they are on the beck and call of the buyers.

LGUs CAGVAL FORMS CITRUS COUNCIL

By Ben Moses Ebreo TUGUEGARAO CITY—The Department of Agriculture has recently formed the Citrus Industry Development Council in Cagayan Valley to further empower citrus growers and boost their production.

Narciso Edillo, DA regional director, said the CIDC has been organized following the conduct of the first Cagayan Valley Business Forum for citrus in this city.

The CIDC is composed of Josephine Namujhe as chairperson and the DARegional Field Office representative as vice chairperson.

Cluster members are: from Cagayan, Loren Bonifacio (chairman), William Parec (vice chairman), Reymondo Rigon, Eris Esquiero, Pepe Dumlao, Arthur Domingo, Jenelyn Yacas, Porfillo Mabborang, Teresita Edduba; Isabela’s Roberto S. Sagario (chairman), Emmelou R. Loresto (vice chairman), Honorio E. Sanchez (members), Serville Marvin S. Anahan, Edmarson Amular, Hermelita Valdez, Luvimin V. Fernandez, Ruben Mercado Jr., Marie Cecille Linoan, Lolita Poblico, Edgardo Zabala, Yvonie Guttierez, and Raul Palado; in Nueva Vizcaya, Josephine Namujhe (chairman), Bella Evelyn Bernabe (vice chairman), Arsenio Licyaco, Vicente Danao, Conchita Cumila, Perlita Manuel (Government Sector), and Dr. Elbert Sana (SUC).

Edillo led the oathtaking of the newly-elected officers of the CIDC in Tuguegarao City.

Lectures offered during the first Cagayan Valley Business Forum for Citrus are the Regional Citrus Industry Situationer including the Support Services, of DA, Malabing Valley Citrus History and Situationer, Citrus Pest and Diseases Management, Citrus Development Program of the Nueva Vizcaya State University; Updates on Postharvest Handling, Nursery and Plant Accreditation, Opportunities in Kalamansi Processing, Asean Market for Citrus Products and By-Products, Business Matching, Government Support Services for the Development of Citrus Industry in Region 02, Credit Windows for Citrus Growers, and Crop Insurance program.

Edillo said citrus is one of the high value crops in the country where Cagayan Valley is one of the major producers.

“I thank our citrus producers in Region 2. Rest assured that I will assist the industry stakeholders in terms of capacitation and other assistance,” he said.

Edillo also vowed marketing assistance, investment opportunities and processing of citrus products to reduce losses among farmers.

OCEANAGOLD SCHOLARSHIP SLOTS STILL OPEN FOR 2017 BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—Following a review of its current scholarship program, mining firm OceanaGold Philippines Inc. announced, six slots are still available for its Development of Mining Technology and Geosciences Scholarship for the first semester of school year 2017-2018.

The announcement was sent through email by the scholarship coordinator of OceanaGold’s Didipio Operations.

“Qualified applicants [should be] bonafide residents of the province of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino,” the bulletin said.

Courses covered include Mining Engineering, Geology, Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Sanitary Engineering, Civil Engineering, Geodetic Engineering, Environmental Science, Forestry, and Agricultural Engineering.

OceanaGold gave Oct. 15 as the deadline of submission of applications.

Earlier, the other operating mine in Nueva Vizcaya, FCF Minerals Corp., also announced that it has opened the review of current scholarship program to open a new search for available slots.

OceanaGold is operating the Didipio mine in Kasibu town. FCF Minerals just commenced its commercial production in Runruno, Quezon early in July.

Abe Almirol

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

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mst.daydesk@gmail.com

‘SOCIAL MATCHMAKER’ BAUTISTA BRINGS PEOPLE, CAUSES TOGETHER

By Khris Marc Ronquillo

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ROSSINGS excite us.

Crossovers delight us. From the mash-up of superheroes to fusions like stuffed crust pizza, the world of possibilities feed our imaginations. And in the world of imagination, the “What if…?” is all powerful.

For Mitch Monfort-Bautista, the power of “What if…?” leads her to possibility after possibility in her crossing paths with different people in the name of public service. Serving others though not something directly taught in their family through platitudes, it permeated daily experience. “In every gathering, the grace before meals include, ‘Bless the people who don’t have,’” recounts Mitch, “It has always been about gratitude.” From that sense of gratitude, Mitch finds different ways to pay it forward to society ever thankful for life’s blessings she shares of herself from her 3T’s, her time, talent and her treasures.

Ask her about her work and she responds, “I’m part of a lot of organizations. I love to meet people and I want to be a part of that organization and think of how I can help improve that organization how it can help improve me.”

In college, she took a course in basic education and coming to the realization that whatever she chooses to do, teaching will always be a part of her. It is the educator in Mitch in a lot of what she gets into. As an example, she got connected to an NGO called Down to Earth, an organization that teaches people the finer points of sustainable urban farming. No backyard, no problem, they also teach how to do it vertically for condo dwellers.

Mitch Monfort-Bautista’s work is more of this sort, people and groups like Down to Earth has led her to meet more people and often finds herself at the center of many networks, becoming the ultimate Social Matchmaker. The match making magic manifests in the form of fundraisers, events organizing, joining outreaches, and finding and recruiting exceptional talent. “I help to make projects sustainable and I don’t have to do that on my own. Organizations like Down to Earth, and Gawad Kalinga, already know their concept, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel.”

Her work with NGOs and other advocacies made her realize what can be done when people with the hearts and minds in the right place are properly funded. And it dawned on her that running for public office might just put her in the position to direct that money to those that would know how to it for the greatest possible good.

She got elected as board member of the 4th District of Iloilo and held office from 2014 to 2016.

In her brief stay she was committee chairperson for Health and Sanitation and of Science and Technology authored three laws during her incumbency.

Using her “social matchmaking” skills, she arranged a partnership to upgrade systems, practices, equipment, and organizational management of public hospitals not just of her district but all of Iloilo. The arrangement has been on the table since late 2016, and Makati Medical Center together with the Guevara foundation are simply waiting for Iloilo to green light the project. If partnership coalesces Iloilo will benefit from Makati Med quality service in all hospitals for the Ilonggos.

She also served as chairperson of the Council for Youth Affairs and Sports Development, which gave her the opportunity to continue a legacy of her father, the late congressman Dr. Narciso Monfort, author of the Generic Drugs law, founder of the Monfort Cup in 1992. The tournament provides a grassroots program for association football, among the youth. With no registration fees, there can be as many as 60 teams coming to compete from all over Iloilo. Many current and former national team players like Chieffy Caligdong and Ian Araneta acknowledge their

Mitch Monfort-Bautista—former Iloilo provincial board member, daughter of former Rep. Narciso Monfort, and scion of the well-known Guevarra clan of Mandaluyong —has made it her life’s work to match persons or groups with needs with organizations or philanthropists who can help them. Khris Marc Ronquillo beginnings in this humble tournament.

Mitch recalls how these events never fail to get her tears falling, “Kids from Ateneo Iloilo, Xavier Iloilo, dressed in their best gear, branded and all, get beaten by the kids with no shoes. So, I get sponsors from London, they give away old football shoes. And it’s heartwarming because these kids know that it’s their size, but when their team mate does not have a pair, you know what they do? They split it! Especially if one is a lefty kicker and the other righty.”

Her time in government has also opened her eyes to the intricacies of the law to opportunities legally available. An example of this is RA 8525 or the Adopt-a-School Act of 1997, authored by the late Chief Justice and Senator Marcelo Fernan. Through a partnership with the Department of Education and the Guevarra Foundation and her office, 10 identified public schools became beneficiaries of Information and Communications Technology packages.

She learned quickly however, that while government has more funds, it is also bound by the process of proposals and hearings whereas the private sector can act more responsively and decisively. She realized that as a private

individual, she could be of greater help. Now understanding the ins and outs government her matchmaking skills have taken on a new dimension.

Through government studies, Mitch learned that tricycles are even bigger polluters than jeepneys. Now working again with Guevarra Foundation they advocate EV Wealth, (EV meaning Electronic Vehicle). The project is about a system of Electronic Tricycles and charging stations, where in the drivers can swap their drained batteries and go on their way. The drivers work for EV Wealth on a boundary system for three years, at the end of which they gain ownership of the tricycle, while the battery and charging system remains the property of EV Wealth. Responsibility and dignity, livelihood, and conservation in one package.

Still only in her 30s, Mitch Monfort Bautista has barely started, and she is always on the lookout for matches to make between the people with needs and those able to meet them. This is her yellow brick road. Mitch says, “The family is still my priority—but life isn’t confined to just one’s home. We have to be of service to others to find true happiness.”

SURVIVORS HIGHLIGHT DISASTER READINESS TACLOBAN CITY—When Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name Haiyan) struck the Philippines in 2013, Ristel Jane A. Artiaga and Mave Rick Eraya ran for their lives as storm surge caused cargo vessels to crash into their homes.

Both are residents of Anibong village in Tacloban City, ground zero of the super typhoon that took nearly 7,000 lives and left thousands more homeless.

Almost four years have passed since that day, but college student Artiaga, 19, and faculty member Eraya, 30, will never forget the lessons they learned after surviving the typhoon. These lessons, for them, have been reinforced during the TNT Tropang Ready Disaster Preparedness Caravan held recently at their school, the Eastern Visayas State University.

PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. recently brought the caravan to the EVSU campus in Tacloban City as part of the company’s nationwide learning series on disaster preparedness geared toward the

Louie Domingo of Emergency Management Center (right) teaches Eastern Visayas State University students how to make a paracord bracelet, which doubles as a rope in times of emergencies.

youth.

“I may be a member of the school’s disaster risk management program, but Tropang Ready still reinforced my commitment to be always ready in times of calamity,” said Eraya, adding that in times of emergencies, “keep it light, bring only what you can carry.”

Nearly 1,000 students and school personnel were taught lessons on emergency preparedness by representatives from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Tacloban City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, Emergency Management Center, and Get Ready Pinas.

The speakers not only talked about the usual risks and hazards but also demonstrated the proper way to do the “duck, cover, hold” technique, and shared the contents of a “Go Bag,” a kit meant to help an individual or a family survive the next 72 hours of a calamity, such as a typhoon, an earthquake, a tsunami, or landslide: a flashlight, bottle of water, mobile phone, garbage bag, T-shirt, flashlight battery, and other essentials.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

Jimbo Gulle, Editor

Roger Garcia, Issue Editor

LGUs mslocalgov@gmail.com

STATE UNIVERSITIES CREATE CALABARZON ENTERPRISES

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HE country’s state universities are potential contributors to economic development. They are the ones who link government programs in agriculture, technology transfer and trade to the communities in the countryside.

In a study on how can state universities develop an enterprise and reforms to building viable livelihoods among poor communities,

by Rowena DT. Baconguis of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, Laguna, it was found that assistance from state universities have successfully created enterprises in the communities.

Aside from providing education to improve

people’s lives, state universities are also required to engage in extension intervention activities that enable them to help community members become more efficient in their livelihood activities.

The research investigated the extension activities of five state universities and 21 enterprises in Calabarzon.

The research was presented in the last 17th Conference of the Science Council of Asia, jointly organized by the Science Council of Asia and National Research Council of the Philippines, Department of Science and Technology (DOSTNRCP), an agency which promotes and supports basic and problem-oriented researches key to providing solutions to national issues and problems.

The innovations undertaken or promoted by the 21 enterprises were examined and among them 16 enterprises were created because

of Universities’ assistance, while four existing businesses managed to improve, and one enterprise was revived.

It is interesting to note that while most enterprises that were created are in the food industry, such as processed food, condiments, cooked food, processed milk products, food supplement, and processed fruit drink (juice and wine), the existing businesses that were improved are mostly farm-based.

However, although majority (19 out of 21) of the enterprises cited an increase in income attributed universities’ support, only eight of the 19 managed to market their products, recoup its capital and earn continuously even without the universities’ marketing and technical assistance. The rest struggle to keep afloat by deriving modest profits.

Geraldine Bulaon-Ducusin, S&T Media

‘DANCERCISING.’

Around 37 reformists perform a ‘dancercise’ during a simple ceremony, with police supervision (inset), after three months of drug rehabilitation at the Bahay Pagbabago Reformation Center in Barangay Tiaong, Baliuag, Bulacan. Manny Palmero

LOAN PROGRAM FOR FARMERS OUT SOON

By Ben Moses Ebreo BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya— The Department of Agriculture will be offering soft loans to farmers to help them cope with disasters and calamities and improve their income.

Narciso Edillo, DA regional director, said the assistance will be given through the Production Loan Easy

‘BARANGAYAN.’

Residents of six northern barangays of Tacloban City enjoyed free medical services, live birth certificate processing, employment services, veterinary services, persons with disability and senior citizens assessment, feeding program, and even salon services from the city government’s Community Outreach Program.

Pictured is Tacloban Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez personally supervising the Caring, Giving and Reaching Out Barangayan in Barangay 12-Palanog Gym on Thursday.

Robbie Pangilinan

Access program next year.

“This is a pet project of [Agriculture] Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.

The guidelines will be released very soon,” he said.

Under the loan program, farmers can avail of a P15,000 loan per hectare, or depending on their need for capital, at only six percent interest per year.

Edillo said the PLEA will only re-

quire a few documentary requirements from farmers, which can be accessed through cooperative banks in the country as conduits.

“One of the major problems of farmers is their insufficient capital, and this is the solution offered by Secretary Piñol,” Edillo added.

The PLEA will have enough funds —P9.5 billion—because this has been included in the DA national

Local Gov’t Units

budget for 2018, he added.

Edillo also said he will recommend Cagayan Valley as a pilot area for the PLEA to benefit farmers in the region.

“Secretary Piñol announced during his visit to Cauayan City in May this year that Isabela province will be a pilot area with an initial budget of P100 million under the PLEA,” he said.

STRICTER, EXPANDED ANTI-SMOKING LAWS IN MUNTI THE Muntinlupa City government has vowed to go all out in enforcing a stricter anti-smoking measure with stiffer fines and penalties to violators and an expanded coverage of the anti-smoking drive starting next month.

Under City Ordinance 17-072, known as the comprehensive antismoking ordinance, tobacco products and electronic nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarette (vapes) or e-shisha is prohibited in places that are accessible to the public regardless of ownership, workplaces, government facilities, outdoor areas where people gather, except for Designated Smoking Areas compliant with LGU standards.

About 100 business establishment owners and representatives attended a forum and orientation seminar conducted by the SFTF last September 5 at the City Health Office regarding the rules and regulation of the said measure.

Mayor Jaime Fresnedi encourages locals to quit smoking as it imposes risk to one’s and others’ health. The local exec also invited locals to report incidences of persons smoking in public places to authorities.

Starting Sept. 12, members of the Smoke-Free Task Force and authorized enforcers will be reprimanding any person within the jurisdiction of the city smoking in public places with no penalties under the Oplan Sita.

After the “leeway period,” violators will be penalized with citation tickets and fines of up to P2,500 or 8 hours community service for smoking and up to P5,000 or 14 hours community service for violation of sales restriction and advertising ban.

MMDA Legal Researcher Adrian Santos discussed the provisional requirements for Designated Smoking Areas. He said that DSA should be an outdoor space with no roof or walls and should not have an area larger than 10 square meters.

Santos added that the local government will be assisting members of the private sector in terms of capacity building and authorizing their security officers to reprimand violators in their premises.

Meanwhile, Muntinlupa seeks to build integrity on its implementation of campaign against illegal drugs and it starts with “cleansing” of government offices. Poblacion Barangay Hall is now a drug-free workplace after adhering in the Dangerous Drugs Board regulations.

Dangerous Drugs Board Chairman Secretary Dionisio Santiago, together with PDEA execs, led the unveiling ceremony of “DrugFree” Barangay Hall Billboard in Poblacion last Aug. 22.

Santiago lauded Barangay Poblacion officials and the Drugs Abuse Prevention and Control Office in ensuring that government employees are drug-free and halting of illegal drugs proliferation in the offices.

Mayor Jaime Fresnedi extended his gratitude to DDB and PDEA for their unwavering support in the local government’s thrust to foster drug-free workplaces and communities.

PANGASINAN CULTURAL MAPPING PROGRAM OKAYED

By Dexter A. See LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Pangasinan’s local cultural heritage will further be identified, protected and preserved with the implementation of the cultural mapping program.

Center for Pangasinan Studies executive director Perla E. Legaspi said the program is of utmost importance as it will enable the province to identify combined cultural assets and resources of different communities.

Legaspi likewise said the CPS initially came up with a short list of five areas to include Bayambang, Man-

gatarem, San Carlos City, Lingayen and Calasiao.

For its pilot project, the last two towns were considered. The project will be undertaken for six months per municipality.

By cultural mapping, a range of perspectives are used such as mode of inquiry and a methodological tool in urban planning, cultural sustainability, and community development that makes visible the ways local stories, practices, relationships, memories, and rituals constitute places as meaningful locations.

The Provincial Board recently

approved Provincial Resolution No. 952-2017 which authorized Gov. Amado I. Espino III to enter an agreement among the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and two local government units, Lingayen and Calasiao, as pilot LGUs. With Vice Gov. Jose Ferdinand Z. Calimlim Jr. as main proponent, the resolution noted that MOA is needed to serve as a vehicle for collaborative effort between and among the Province of Pangasinan, the NCCA, the LGUs of Lingayen and Calasiao as well as the CPS.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 Isah V. Red, Editor

/

Young Life

Bernadette Lunas, Issue Editor isahred@gmail.com.ph

By Daniel Reyes

T

HEY say the way you look at the office translates to your performance, but in today’s workplace that is not the case anymore. Business attire has significantly changed over the past years.

Decades ago, male employees typically wore longsleeve shirts and slacks at the office. Some companies today, however, are now allowing their personnel to dress casually—Friday or otherwise—to the extent that men can get away with wearing shorts to work.

“There has been a shift in terms of office policies since most of the companies are young, if not, business owners are very adaptive to the emerging trend of wearing casual clothing to work,” opined Guam Partosa, a 25-year-old retail executive at a multinational fast fashion retail company.

In Partosa’s workplace, there is no restrictions as long as their outfit is fashionforward because they have to introduce new trends to the market.

“We are not only selling items, we are also educating customers how western trends can be adopted in the country,” he explained.

Paolo Reyes, 26, a marketing associate at a retail company who wears shorts at work twice a week, said they are allowed to wear shorts and even slippers as long as those are the brands that they carry in their company.

“In one of the multi-branded concept stores that I handle, we carry brands that cater to the youth. Thus, the way I wear my outfits are aligned with the lifestyle that we have in our store,” he shared.

And wearing casual outfits happen to be the same for Keith Clemente (not his real name) who works at a start-up company.

Clemente, a 20-year-old associate, said, “Our work attire policy is dress as decent and comfortable as you can. In fact, you can even go to work wearing slippers.”

While some would think that shorts are too casual for work, there are ways to make them presentable. Partosa, who also handles the visual merchandising in one of their stores, said, “Having a ‘sophisticated casual’ look is one way to be presentable to your clients.”

He explained that a “sophisticated casual” look can be achieved “through layering or by mixing classic apparel pieces with one’s go-to casual look.”

MILLENNIAL DRESS CODE:

MEN WEAR SHORTS TO WORK SHORTS STORY. Men wearing shorts to work

is now a thing, thanks (or no thanks?) to young male employees and start-up companies. (Photos from @davidguison and @iamgalle on Instagram)

Partosa, however, pointed out that it is still important for them to wear a more defined and professional outfit when they have meetings.

“Whenever we are going to meet with our clients that is the time we wear trousers,” he said.

Moreover, Reyes said that “the phenomenon of wearing shorts at work depends on the industry in which a person is working. But since there are several millennials starting up their companies, wearing shorts wouldn’t be as unusual as before— especially in the retail industry.”

As for Clemente he believes that this can become a norm in the Philippines in the future as companies are becoming more flexible when it comes to office attire since several studies prove that comfort affects an employee’s productivity.

Partosa argues, “We have to thank the millennials because what this generation is teaching us is to be practical; since we are living in a tropical country why would one force himself to wear something like a trouser pants made out of wool?”

AHLEI trainer Dr. Michael Terry with the executives of Seda Hotels, El Nido Resorts, and Hotel Benilde

RAISING THE BAR

IN PHILIPPINE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY THE American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute, through the Asia World Hospitality, organized two separate sessions on hospitality education and training as part of its commitment to modernize the hospitality and tourism industry in the Philippines.

Recently at Seda Nuvali, AWH convened hotel general managers and hospitality executives from Seda Hotels, El Nido Resorts, and Hotel Benilde to conduct a review workshop and administer examinations on the Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) professional credential.

Seda BGC, on the other hand, played host for the recently concluded Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE) workshop facilitated by Dr. Michael Terry, an AHLEI inter-

national trainer who is also a certified hotel administrator, educator, and food and beverage executive.

The CHE workshop was designed for the faculty members of several universities in the Philippines, namely Our Lady of Fatima University, Far Eastern University, Academy of Pastry and Bakery Arts Philippines, Centro Escolar University, Nueva Vizcaya State University, Tarlac State University, Philippine Maritime School, PHINMA Education-Araullo University, and PHINMA Education-Southwestern University.

For more information on upcoming workshop sessions, visit asiaworldhospitality. com, email info@asiaworldhospitality.com, or call (02) 556-7994 or 0917-5232128.

Scan this icon to view the PDF

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Isah V. Red, Editor / Nickie Wang, Issue Editor isahred@gmail.com

Showbiz

South Korea's K-Pop supergroup BTS

Kiko Estrada Or Jason Joseph Francis Carlos Diaz Ejercito in real life, came from a big family of actors and actresses. He is the son of actor-turnedpolitician Gary Estrada and former actress Cheska Diaz.

He’s also the grandson of Filipino movie icons Paquito Diaz and George Estregan.

Kiko was introduced in the industry as Kevin Del Mundo in the youth-oriented series Reel Love: Tween Hearts. He then transferred to ABSCBN where he did cameo appearance in Kapamilya shows Angelito: Ang Bagong Yugto and Annaliza. In 2014, he moved back to the Kapuso network where he was welcomed with numerous projects including Strawberry Lane and Yagit. Kiko currently part of a primetime series playing Rafael, Derrick Monasterio’s friend and rival in the fantasy Mulawin vs Ravena.

By Sundy Locus

T

HE entertainment industry would not be complete without celebrity families that glam up the business.

Some may have strayed away from the limelight but it has become more of a culture for celebrity parents to pass on their legacy to their children, creating a lineage of talented actors and actresses. The Manzanos, Sottos, and Gutierrezes exemplify this perfectly, as pool of artists carrying their surnames had etched their marks in the industry.

Meanwhile, today’s generation paved the way for new breed of celebrity families to dominate the spotlight as their young springs take over both the social media and show business. For your eyes’ consumption, here’s a rundown of the five hottest showbiz scions .

Bruno Gabriel He is a man of talent.

Before entering show business, he dedicated his time as a sportsman.

He trained with the Philippine Football team Azkals and participated in Tennis and Football competitions in California. His experience as an actor, on the other hand, stretches in theater arts. He seasoned his talent with Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), where he also honed his skills and versatility as an actor. Though he is studying Business Management in Ateneo De Manila University, Bruno shared that he has an innate flair for acting and directing. One of his directed works even won best cinematography in one of the local film fests in his school. He now works alongside Benedict Campos, Jazz Ocampo, and Ayra Mariano in GMA’s youth-oriented show G.R.I.N.D., where he sparked controversies after going naked in one of the show’s episode.

Santino Rosales He has the look and stature of his father. At a glance, Jericho Rosales and Santino could pass as brothers. The 17-year-old stole the attention of local TV scene after his appearance in Candy Teen Con as a Candy cutie back in 2016. Unlike the usual celebrity kids, Santino is not keen on entering the industry. His focus is on fashion and modeling instead as he struts the runway for Ayala Style Origins together with the fresh batch of Filipino models Tricia Santos, Marcos Suarez, and Shermaine de Ramos. Aside from modeling, football is also something that keeps him going. He plays for two different professional football clubs and wishes to be a part of his favorite international team, Real Madrid.

Donny Pangilinan The Instagram star turned recording artist proves that he is more than just a pretty face as he finally dropped his highly-anticipated single “Did You.” Growing up, the newest Myx VJ had been musically-inclined as he flaunted his talent in playing the piano at an early age. He also admitted that being in show business is something that he had always considered but kept it a secret mainly because he fears that his parents would not take him seriously. He was first seen in 2016 in the morning talk show Magandang Buhay where he guested alongside his mom Maricel Laxa. More than the popularity, Donny aspires to be an inspiration for the youth and an icon whom his fans can look up to.

Tony Labrusca Popularly known as ‘Jake’ in La Luna Sangre, the hunky 22-yearold showbiz scion continues to hook the hearts of his fangirls with his head-turning physique and commendable acting. Starting out as a commercial model, he first appeared in McDonald’s viral commercial where he acted as Elisse Joson’s ex-boyfriend.

Tony is the offspring of ‘90s singer Angel Jones and actor Boom Labrusca. Apart from being an actor, he is also a gymnast, model and singer. He made his debut appearance in the small screen upon joining ABS-CBN’s Pinoy Band Superstar in 2016.

MILLENNIAL ROMANCE RULES THE CINEMA LOVE You to the Stars and Back is a road trip filled with adventures and misadventures. It revolves around a boy and a girl who serendipitously meet each other under embarrassing circumstance. The film is their story of love and compassion.

Starring Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto,

Antoinette Jadaone’s latest directorial assignment is making a killing at the box office. As announced by Star Cinema on Tuesday, the movie has already earned more than P60 million at the tills, a week after it premiered in local cinemas.

In the movie, Garcia plays Caloy, a cancer patient who falls in love with a girl named Mika (Barretto) who believes in aliens. The two embark on a roadtrip filled with adventures and misadventures, not knowing that it will lead them to experiencing their most memorable romance at such a young age.

They unexpectedly teach each other an important lesson on love and life – one that takes most people a lifetime to learn.

The movie has been screening in the US and Canada since Friday, and will have another international screening in

Australia and New Zealand on Sept. 14.

Meanwhile, another millennial themed romantic film premiered on the big screen on Wednesday.

Dance duo Ella Cruz and Julian Trono took their tandem to a higher level with Fanboy/Fangirl , a coming-of-age flick produced by Joyce Bernal Production for Viva Films and N2 Productions.

Heavily influenced by K-Pop, the film is directed by Barry Gonzalez and is about a wannabe actor and a talented teleserye dubber who agrees to help him improve his acting. Her coaching helps him achieve his dream of becoming a star only to find herself heartbroken when he becomes successful.

K-POP GROUP BTS SETS A GUINNESS WORLD RECORD SOUTH Korean boy band BTS recently received the honor of being featured in the 2018 edition of “The Guinness World Records,” which was released on Aug. 29.

The seven-member boy band, also known as Bangtan Boys and Bulletproof Boy Scouts, had the second most Twitter engagements just below former One Direction member, Harry Styles. As for group acts, BTS topped the list, according to the popular K-Pop breaking news site, AllKPop. The section is based on the average number of retweets per tweet they receive in which the count was calculated back in May (an average of 152,112 retweets per tweet). Since then, BTS’ average retweets has gone even higher to reach the highest rank and surpass Harry Styles’.

According to socialblade, which tracks social media statistics and engagements, BTS now averages 217,283

BTS member Jimin in the group's latest music video entitled "Serendipity"

retweets per tweet making the band one of top influencers on the microblogging platform.

Meanwhile, following the news of their Guinness feature, BTS’s record label, Big Hit Entertainment, released the teaser music video for one of the songs included in the group’s upcoming record Love Yourself.

The music video, entitled “Serendipity” is a two-and-ahalf minute-long music video focusing on a BTS member as he sings a contemplative alternative R&B love songs amidst a variety of light and airy sets. The song contained lyrics written by Rap Monster and has gained more than 14 million views since it was uploaded on YouTube on Sept. 4.

In the Philippines, BTS had a two-day concert back in May. It was the group’s third visit in the country in support of its 2016 album, “Wings.” It was also a historical concert as it was the first time that BTS staged a twoday concert outside Korea.

Pets

Manila

Standard

TODAY

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

URGENT HIRING : (VALENZUELA CITY / PAPER INDUSTRY) MALE MAINTENANCE SPVR. KNOWLEDGEABLE IN ELECTRICAL /MECHANICAL MACHINE & VEHICLE MAINTENANCE MALE : INDUSTRIAL ELECTRICIAN FEMALE Q.A. ANALYST W/ EXPERIENCE IN PAPER INDUSTRY DRIVER: RESTRICTION 123 FAMILIAR IN MLA / NORTH & SOUTH CONTACT# 4323466-9849069 LOOK FOR TINA PASCUAL EMAIL:hr@coreasiapaper.com (SEPT. 8 & 10, 2017) Republic of the Philippines Department of Health CENTRAL OFFICE BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE for the

InvItatIon to BId Procurement of fIrewall devIce/aPPlIance IB no. 2017-300

1.

The Department of Health (DOH), through the General Appropriations Act of 2017 intends to apply the sum of Fourteen Million Philippine Pesos (PhP14,000,000.00) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for the Procurement of Firewall Device/Appliance under IB No. 2017-300. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

2.

The DOH now invites bids for the procurement of the above-captioned project.

Delivery of the Goods is required within the period specified under SECTION VI. Schedule of Requirements. Bidders should have completed, within three (3) years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project, equivalent to at least fifty percent (50%) of the ABC. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3.

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

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

FAMILY. Dog Milky, guinea pig Flippy, and cat Whisky sleep, eat, and play together.

LIVING IN HARMONY

By Yumi Burgos

I

WAS in grade 4 when I got my fourth pet. My first three have all been gone a long time ago. It was a guinea pig. My cousin, Kuya Migs gave it to me as a birthday present.

Once again, Mama reminded me that “pets are not things or properties like toys that you would acquire and you can just leave lying around, not bothering to think if it is hungry or if it is comfortable enough or if it is happy with its life with you; they are family members just like myself and that meant that I would need to give them the same things that I need for them to be healthy and happy just as I am.” I named her Flippy.

At first, we didn’t have money yet to buy a bigger cage for her so we put Flippy in a box and I made box tunnels and caves for her. Sometimes, I took her out of the box and I played with her in the living room of our small apartment. When we fed her, we went out looking for grass instead of buying pellets.

There were times that I brought Flippy to school. Then my friends and I would play with her.

There was a time also that we nearly lost her. That was when we brought Flippy to the farm. We put her on the grass outside the house. As she roamed around, she got lost because she went under the tree where there were a lot of plants and she got hidden from our sight. But we found her under the tree and never brought her out to the grassy part again outside the house. I loved Flippy and I enjoyed having her with me.

In March, 2015, while in Quezon City, Mama and I saw on Facebook a post that Tita Desiree put up about dogs that need to be adopted. Tita Desiree is a close friend of our family. She and her friends put up

this shelter for dogs and cats (Save Animals of Love and Light or Save ALL shelter) that they save from the streets, and take care of them until they find good homes for them.

I asked Mama if we could adopt a dog.

Mama said we couldn’t. Not yet, at least, because the income that Mama was earning at that time was not enough even for ourselves. Nonetheless, we contacted Tita Des and inquired on how to adopt a dog from the shelter. She offered us a pair of pups the first time. She said they couldn’t take the two pups apart that is why we had to take both. That made Mama’s mind up not to adopt anymore. So, I thought I wouldn’t have the chance to have a dog of my own.

After a few days, I was so surprised and overjoyed when Mama came home carrying a puppy! And Tita Des was with her.

They told me that the puppy’s name is “Milky” and that I can change it if I wanted to. I told them, “Nope. I won’t change it anymore. I like Milky.” That was one of the unforgettable moments in my life.

Since Milky became part of our family, I often hear Mama say that it’s as if she has three children—me, Flippy, and Milky.

I was the ate, Flippy was the diche, and Milky was the bunso.

How we had a lot of fun together! Although, time and again, I had to remind Milky not to play too rough with Flippy because she was a little too big compared to a guinea pig. In time, she learned. Whenever we played together, it’s as if she always knew she had to be gentle with Flippy.

Summer came and went.

When the new school year was to start, we had to go back to Bulacan. This time, it wasn’t just me and Mama traveling. There were four of us now. We had Flippy and Milky with us. It was little harder to commute but I felt happier than ever.

Then, just as I thought our family couldn’t get any bigger, Mama and I saw this almost newly born kitten along the highway. She was nearly hit by a car. I told Mama we should get it and take care of it. But she told me that it might not survive long without its mother.

Still, we took it off the street and we tried our best to take care of it. Mama said it’s as if she had a newborn baby. I named it “Whisky.” After a few weeks, she grew up to be a pretty kitten. And much later on, a gorgeous cat of ours. We taught her the same way we taught Milky about how to live in harmony with all the members of our family.

Mama is still not earning enough at present. But we do everything we can to survive and keep each other healthy and happy. It didn’t matter to us that Flippy, Milky, and Whisky are what others describe as “natural enemies”. They do not consider each other as such. Instead, they see each other as sisters as we taught them.

Mama and I barely even noticed at first just how funny our family members are in the eyes of those who are not used to a setup like ours.

But Flippy, Milky, and Whisky clearly see that they are one and the same—a part of one family. The guinea pig, dog, cat and two humans consider themselves as one family and love each other so much that it is easy for them to live in harmony. To us, our family will always be our greatest treasure.

(Yumi is a 12-year-old animal lover who rescues kittens from the streets. She plans to put up an animal shelter when she grows up.)

4.

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

5.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be acquired by interested Bidders on 11 September – 02 October 2017 from the address above and upon payment of the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents, pursuant to the latest Guidelines issued by the GPPB, in the amount of Twenty Five Thousand Philippine Pesos (PhP25,000.00) It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the website of the Procuring Entity, provided that Bidders shall pay the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

6.

The DOH will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on 18 September 2017, 10:00 AM at the COBAC Conference Room, Ground Floor, Building 6, Department of Health, San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila, which shall be open to prospective bidders.

7.

Bids must be duly received by the COBAC-B Secretariat at the address below on or before 02 October 2017, 9:00 AM. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.

Bid opening shall be on 02 October 2017, 9:00 AM at the COBAC Conference Room, Ground Floor, Building 6, Department of Health, San Lazaro Compound, Rizal Avenue, Sta. Cruz, Manila. Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address above. Late bids shall not be accepted.

8.

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

9.

For further information, please refer to: COBAC-B Secretariat Department of Health San Lazaro Compound Sta. Cruz, Manila Tel. Nos. 651-7800 local 1625 to 1627; 1650 to 52 Facsimile No.: 741-9775; 740-6830 (SGD) MA. CAROLINA V. TAIÑO, CPA, MGM, CESO IV Assistant Secretary of Health COBAC – B Chairperson

(MS-SEPT. 10, 2017)

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES National Capital Region REGIONAL BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE INVITATION TO BID CONCRETING OF ROAD ACCESS 1. The DENR-NCR, through the GAA-CY 20171 intends to apply the sum of TWO MILLION SIXTY FOUR THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED FORTY PESOS (PhP2,064,140.00) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for “Procurement of Infrastructure Project – Concreting of Access Road.” Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

2.

The DENR-NCR now invites for the Concreting of Access Road located in DENR-NCR, Mechanized Nursery, DOST Compound, Bicutan, Taguig City. Completion of the Works is required within One Hundred Twenty (120) calendar days. Bidders should have completed, within five (5) years, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3.

Bidding will be conducted in accordance with relevant procedures for open competitive bidding as specified in the IRR of RA 9184 (R.A. 9184), with some amendments, as stated in these bidding documents and is open to all bidders from eligible source countries as defined in the applicable procurement guidelines of the World Bank. The contract shall be awarded to the Lowest Calculated Responsive Bidder (LCRB) who was determined as such during post-qualification. The Estimated Project Cost for this project is Two Million Sixty Four Thousand One Hundred Forty Pesos only, PhP2,064,140.00

4.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from the Regional Bids and Awards Committee of the DENR-NCR and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 8:00am to 5:00pm, Mondays to Fridays.

5.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders from September 05 to September 22, 2017 from the address below and upon payment of a non-refundable fee for the bidding documents in the amount of Five Thousand Pesos (Php5,000.00).

MY FURRY BESTIE THIS corner will feature pets of animal lovers every week. We hope also hope more people will be moved to be kind to animals when new owners and those thinking of getting a pet will be encour- they read about the great relationship that can be created beaged to be responsible “furparents” through these features. We tween humans and animals.

MALING was abandoned in Singalong.

Manila and was rescued by CARA Welfare Philippines. Bea Salazar of Indang, Cavite adopted him and now enjoys the company of this playful, intelligent cat.

BROLLY and his two siblings were found on the street in Manila by the nephew of Mayanne Naguit Dee when he was only three days old. He was the only one who survived. Dee and his nephew took turns giving kitten milk to this cute furball every two hours. Now here he is, a rather spoiled but very sweet cat, Dee says.

It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the DENRNCR website (http://www.ncr.denr.gov.ph) provided that bidders shall pay the non-refundable fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids.

6.

The DENR-NCR will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on September 13, 2017 at 10:00 AM at the DENR-NCR Conference Room, 4th Floor, National Ecology Center, East Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City, which shall be open to all interested parties.

7.

Bids must be delivered on or before September 25, 2017 at 10:00 AM at the DENR-NCR BAC Secretariat/Procurement Unit, 3rd Floor, National Ecology Center, East Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City. All bids must be accompanied by a Bid Security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18 or in a form of Bid Securing Declaration.

Opening of Bids will immediately follow in the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below. Late bids shall not be accepted.

8.

The DENR-NCR reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

9.

The DENR-NCR likewise assumes no obligation whatsoever to compensate or indemnify any bidder or winning bidders as the case may be from any expenses or loss that said party(ie) may incur in its participation in the prebidding and bidding process nor does it guarantee that an award will be made.

10. All bids must be accompanied by a Certification of Site Inspection issued by the implementing office (end-user), 11. For further information, please refer to:

His name is KOMANG, 3 months old. He was born this way but his physical challenge did not lessen one bit his zest for life. He plays with other cats all the time.

Axl Yonson says he always waits in front of the door in the morning for his food. But his taste is quite different from other cats: HE WANTS DOG FOOD! Handsome and unique, this guy is indeed.

BAC Secretariat Procurement Section, 3rd Flr, DENR-NCR Bldg.

National Ecology Center East Avenue, Quezon City Tel. 373-43-99 August 30, 2017.

(SGD) ATTY. ALVIN JOSEPH G. CONSTANTINO Chairperson, Regional Bids and Awards Committee DENR-NCR National Ecology Center, East Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City Telephone No. (078) 304-1800 1. In the case of National Government Agencies, the General Appropriations Act and/or continuing appropriations; in the case of GOCCs, GFIs, and SUCs, the Corporate Budget for the contract approved by the governing Boards; in the case of (LGUs, the Budget for the contract approved by the respective Sanggunian. (Section 5(a), R.A. 9184) (MS-APR. 18, 2017)

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017 Riera U. Mallari, Editor rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

Gadgets & Games

OPPO A71: SPEEDY TRENDY, ENJOYABLE

HE Philippines’ Top 2 international smartphone brand OPPO proudly announced the new OPPO A71 smartphone, equipped with the company’s latest trendy design and Color OS 3.1 UI that gives the best experience for an affordable price of P8,990.

The A71 is a 5.2” smartphone with OPPO’s latest sleek uni-body design and luster edge for a more compact, enjoyable and ergonomic grip at just 7.6mm thickness and 137g of weight, finished with a nano-silver technology for a more elegant overall premium feel.

Fill up your heart’s desire with the A71’s immersive IPS HD display.

Watch movies or play games with confidence because of the great screen color reproduction and protected with scratch-resistant glass.

and HDR mode for the best output.

Additionally, you can have more dramatic effect with preset filters, selfie panorama, or bokeh for a richer selfie experience. All these with OPPO’s famous Beautify technology, to give the best selfie experience through natural enhancements.

Shooting more complex photos is also easier with OPPO’s expert photography mode. Settings such as white balance, exposure level, ISO, Shutter speed and focus can all be manually adjusted for the most ideal setting in any scenario. More details Improved Photography can also be captured with the A71’s Ultra HD mode to take Ultra highExperience Alongside the strong perfor- definition 52MP photos. mance of the A71 is the improved camera optics of a 13-Megapixel Fluid User Experience camera with a 1/3.06 sensor size for Experience speedy operation with better sensitivity. It even includes the A71’s latest Color OS 3.1 based on multi-frame de-noising technology Android version 7.1. User experience for an overall clearer performance is enhanced with fluid launching even in dark conditions. time of apps, more intuitive controls The 5MP front camera with a and even more caring with OPPO’s bigger 1.4 µm pixel size will give night shield mode to reduce eyebetter selfies with more detail, light strain in scheduled times. Users can

also take advantage of the splitscreen feature to use two apps simultaneously like watching videos while browsing the web.

All these are possible with the A71’s 3GB RAM and Octa-Core processor that is built for multi-tasking when needed.

Designed to last all-day too with its bigger 3000mAh battery.

F5 NETWORKS BAT FOR MORE SECURE IT LANDSCAPE

Value like no other

As with any OPPO smartphone, the A71 comes with a pre-installed screen protector and included soft-transparent case for complete protection against everyday elements.

The OPPO A71 is now available, both in-stores or via online at all OPPO authorized resellers nationwide.

Experience speedy operation and trendy design with the new OPPO A71

FIND HIDDEN SPOTIFY EMPOWERING STUDENTS CODES IN CALL OF DUTY WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

WITH the Call of Duty: WWII Private Beta Weekends coming to a close, you might have noticed the ‘top secret’ Spotify codes hidden in various game maps.

For those who missed these video game Easter Eggs, Activision partnered with Spotify for the first time to hide a set of cryptic audio messages for players to decipher, featuring the voices of the Call of Duty: WWII campaign cast.

Stepping into new territory, this activation is the first brand execution that leverages Spotify Codes in an alternate reality gaming capacity by incorporating an in and out-ofgame code-breaking puzzle. Now there’s something that’s never been done by other brands!

Using the Spotify mobile app, some players were able to uncover a five-letter code that can be entered into the Call of Duty: WWII Classified site for an exclusive in-game Calling Card that can be used once the full game launches on Nov. 3.

Now that the beta has concluded, there are Spotify Codes found in the game for players to decipher and uncover the secret in the files.

Think you can crack the code?

Experts in Morse code need not reply…

Spotify is an award-winning digital music service that gives you on-demand access to over 30 million tracks.

DIGITAL transformation is coming to all industries, including education.

In the recent Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study done across 13 markets in Asia, 87% of business leaders from the education sector agreed that every organization, including educational institutions, needs to transform into a digital business to enable future growth.

While the study has been done in Asia, it is now more paramount to the Philippines, a country with 25.4 million K-12 learners and a fast growing economy, to ensure that technology is used to engage all learners and prepare them for the future.

To engage all

M LHUILLIER BRINGING TELEMEDICINE TO PH M LHUILLIER, one of the most trusted providers of financial service in the Philippines, takes its business to another level as it ventures on a new partnership that puts emphasis on an important issue: our health.

With the goal of always finding new ways to make the lives of the Filipino people easier, M Lhuillier goes beyond its familiar territory and partners with Mediaxes A.S. from Denmark to bring telemedicine in the country, through the app MyPocketDoctor.

Established in 2006, MyPocketDoctor aims to provide medical consultations in the easiest, most convenient way possible, with topnotch

doctors from Europe and the Philippines using European telemedicine standards to give the best consult to patients.

A service that can be enjoyed via a subscription, MyPocketDoctor can easily be accessed 24/7 in three different ways: through the app which can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play, the website (www. mypocketdoctor.com), and through a simple SMS (which can be sent to the service hotline, free to all networks). Anyone can get a medical consultation anytime, anywhere, from medical doctors who will give their diagnosis, prescription, and other instructions either through a phone call, or

a video call for cases that require visual assessment.

Patients even have the option to have their medicines delivered to them.

MyPocketDoctor subscriptions, which are available as scratch cards, with codes that are then entered into the app or website upon prompt, or given to an actual nurse on call, can be purchased at different M Lhuillier branches around the country, 15 of which are open 24 hours.

Patients can choose from four different packages: a one-time consultation at P450; three consultations valid for six months at P499; unlimited consultations valid for one year at P900; and unlimited consultations with two dependents at P1,995.

learners including those with special needs our government needs to be able to harness the power of technology.

Last year, the Department of Education had 250,000 enrollees at the elementary level and 100,000 at the high school level, with a continuing thrust to provide quality and inclusive education for all.

Bertrand Launay, Managing Director, Microsoft Philippines, reiterates Microsoft’s firm commitment to the digital transformation of education in the Philippines.

“We at Microsoft create technology that recognizes the diversity in learning and we have created tools that empower all students,”he said.

Today, Microsoft

F5 Networks Country Manager Oscar Visaya (center) is shown during the NICT Summit.

Launay

has launched a video that shows one example of Microsoft’s commitment to inclusive learning, wherein the video focuses on technology for the visually impaired. The video shows students from the Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Im-

paired (ATRIEV), and shows how visually impaired learners can gain important computer science skills that will help increase their employability opportunities. Accessibility tools and assistive technology tools such as audio Narrator were utilized in order for the students to use basic office productivity tools and even computer programing and coding.

In addition, the video shows how visually impaired trainers teach other students. This shows how fundamental concepts can be better explained in the context of the students’ special learning needs and how assistive technology can truly transform a classroom to be 100% inclusive.

THE attack surface created by app-driven transformation is expanding rapidly, with 72 percent of the total number of attacks focused on user identities and applications, the gateway to personal data. This was one of the key topics discussed during the recently concluded 2017 National Information Communications Technology Summit.

This year’s theme, “Revving Up Information Infrastructures for Development,” highlights the vital role of telecommunication and information systems, also known as infostructures, in the 10-point Philippine Socioeconomic Agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte. The annual conference, which brings together more than 300 participants from the government, education sector and various industries, aims to help stakeholders understand the value of leveraging technology to improve public service delivery and ensure transparency and accountability within government.

Leading application delivery and application security solutions provider F5 Networks, represented by its Country Manager Oscar Visaya, participated in the summit and underscored its thrust of building a more secure IT landscape to help support the connectivity improvement and aggressive infrastructure expansion plans of the president.

Visaya, one of the event’s key resource speakers, shared his insights about transformations in the Philippine ICT landscape and the security required to thrive in an app-driven digital economy. He emphasized the need for a paradigm shift in how businesses and enterprises look at cybersecurity. According to him, security budgets today emphasize in less-grave risks such as protecting the network, which accounts for 90 percent of budget, with only 10 percent allocated for the most serious and common risks today which are user identities and applications.

“We cannot focus on the historical approach of incrementing forward as the application landscape is already changing the world one industry at a time. The growing number of applications, where most user data are stored, has tremendously increased the surface area of attack vectors and more apps directly mean that there are more opportunities and choices for attackers.

Given this, a larger portion of IT budgets should be allocated for the re-orientation of security around the applications,” Visaya shared. He further explained how and why existing approaches fail, stating that insufficient visibility and application awareness post serious security risks.

ACER UNVEILS NEW MODELS AT BERLIN GIG

By Nathanielle Punay

ACER has unveiled a number of new models and products that have been made to be more convenient for all kinds of work-related activities and hobbies in a global press conference held in Berlin, Germany last Aug. 30.

Their new iterations includes laptops, PC parts for gaming, Projectors, 360˚ cameras, projectors and Pet Care devices in which most of them are powered by Intel’s latest innovations: the 8th Generation Intel Core processor and Intel Core i9 Extreme Edition processors for gaming.

To give a more enjoyable viewing experience, Acer also had speakers installed that are powered by Acer TrueHarmony and Dolby Audio Premium as well as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 and 1080Ti graphics for the display.

Most of their new models

are laptops that are convertible and detachable to tablet mode or tent mode. These are the Swift 5, Switch 7, Spin 5 and Nitro 5 Spin.

Swift 5 is the lightest laptop Acer has ever made, weighing less than one kilogram and comes with a backlit keyboard to make sure that its user can also work at night.

Switch 7 is also one of Acer’s firsts as this detachable notebook has a fanless structure made possible by Acer Liquidloop cooling technology. It is the first of their products to have a kickstand installed for better adjustment of display angle.

The Spin 5 and Nitro 5 Spin Notebook both have better graphics and front-facing speakers. However, the Nitro 5 is designed for all kinds of PC games whether it uses a keyboard or a touchscreen for the controls.

Acer also showed their Chromebook 15 laptop that has a 15.6-inch display, two upward

speakers and a 12-hour battery life. The laptop also has a fanless structure that creates less noise from the device and can access apps from the Google Play Store.

The company revealed their Desktop PC lines as they introduced Aspire 24 and the latest PC Gaming set for the Predator series.

Aspire 24 is an all-ino n e desktop that is only 5.97 mm thin with only a 2.7 mm bezel that brings a 90-percent screento body ratio. The PC can also provide a wireless charging system for smartphones as it comes with a charging base for Qi-enabled mobile devices.

Acer Aspire 24

The new Predator gaming set includes Cestus 500 (Gaming Mouse), Galea 500 (Gaming Headset), Orion 9000 (Gaming Desktop), and X35 (Gaming Monitor).