Manila Standard - 2017 December 04 - Monday

DEFIANT. Despite the government’s crackdown on illegal fire crackers, some workers like this woman in Bocaue, Bulacan insist on doing their illegal activity trying to cash in during the Yuletide season when demand is at its peak. Manny Palmero

VOL. XXXI • NO. 290 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

Yule truce ruled out amid NPA attacks THE Armed Forces of the Philippines will most likely not observe the traditional Christmas truce with the communist New People’s Army, a military spokesman said Sunday.

“This has been rendered moot and academic because President Rodrigo Duterte has issued Proclamation No. 360 terminating peace negotiations with the CPP-NPA-NDF,” AFP Public Affairs Office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said in Filipino on radio dzBB. Instead of the yearly truce, the military will keep up its “relentless” campaign against communist rebels, who they believe will intensify attacks on “soft” targets.

NPAattacks have been reported in Misamis Oriental, Next page

Transport groups back out of jeep strike plan

By Rio N. Araja and Bill Casas JEEPNEY groups have called off a general transport strike that was set for Monday and Tuesday.

In a press conference Sunday, the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide and the No to Jeepney Phaseout Coalition said they decided to heed the call of Senator Grace Poe to reconsider their nationwide strike.

“We welcome and appreciate the efforts of Senator Grace Poe,” said Piston Next page

Justice probes Garin role in vaccine deal conduct a fact-finding probe to determine the possible liability of officials behind the HE Justice department will project that was approved by investigate the P3.5-billion dengue former Health Secretary Javaccine acquisition by the previous nette Garin during the Aquino administration. administration after the supplier of the “I will prepare ASAP the drug, Sanofi of France, admitted last week appropriate department order. that it posed risks to those who had never Everybody who has some involvement will be included been infected by the disease. and appropriate charges will be filed against them if warranted,” Justice Secretary Vitalia- he will order the National Aguirre said in a text message. no Aguirre II said Sunday Bureau of Investigation to Aguirre said he has per-

By Rey E. Requejo

T

sonally received a number of complaints from parents of children injected with the Dengvaxia vaccine by health officers.

Reports showed that the dengue immunization program was approved by Garin and the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III despite strong objections from medical experts due to lack of certification from the World Health Organization.

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Only 4K barangays drug-free Former Health Secretary Janette Garin

PNP sets launch of ‘Know Your Rights’ App GUARDIAN ANGEL. An Army soldier guards a replica of the Maria Auxiliadora Delos Cristianos De Marawi that was destroyed by Maute-ISIS members at the Cathedral of Maria Auxiliadora during the siege of the city. Ninety-six images of the Mother Mary join the Marian Procession at the Intramuros on Sunday. Norman Cruz

House wants ‘18 budget intact

By Rio N. Araja and Macon R. Araneta MORE leaders of the House of Representatives are seeking the retention of the original 2018 national bud-

get version amid fears the budgetary cuts on the P50.7 billion for issues of rightof-way acquisitions could jeopardize the Duterte administration’s build, build, build plan.

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THE Philippine National Police will launch a mobile application dubbed “Know Your Rights” on Monday in the run-up to the observance of International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 In a statement on Sunday, the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office said the launching will highlight the kick-off ceremony of the PNP’s celebration of “National Human Rights Consciousness Week” with the theme “Stand Up for Someone’s Right Today.”

HRAO head and Chief Superintendent Dennis Siervo said the “Know Your Rights” App may be downloaded from the Google Play Store Next page

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THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency announced that 4,747 out of 42,036 barangays in the country have been cleared of drugs in line with the government’s ongoing anti-narcotics campaign.

“These barangays have reached drug-cleared status after issuance of a certification by members of Next page

Opioid crisis in US takes heavy toll

CHAMPION TEAM. Members and officials of the Ateneo De Manila University Blue Eagles celebrate after beating the defending champion De La Salle University Green Archers, 88-86 to rule the 80th UAAP Seniors Basketball Tournament. (Story on A8) Ey Acasio

manilastandard.net

WASHINGTON—The scourge of the opioid crisis in the United States kills 90 Americans every day, but beyond the human toll it also handicaps the US economy, taking millions of people out of the workforce, economists warn.

President Donald Trump has declared the epidemic a national emergency, as 2.4-million Americans are estimated to be addicted to opiates, the narcotics that Next page

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

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Complainant bares plot to ensure Sereno walks L ORENZO Gadon, the lawyer who filed an impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, claims he received information that an “oligarch” plans to bribe senators with P200 million to ensure that the top magistrate is acquitted in an impeachment trial.

He was still trying to “verify” the information, he said Sunday.

“Meron akong impormasyon na nakuha na vineverify ko pa ngayon na kaya pala malakas ang loob niya

kasi pinapangakuan siya ng isang oligarko na babayaran na lang daw niya yung mga Senador para lang iabswelto siya,” Gadon told dzBB radio.

“Malalim na itong labanan na ito at ang dinig ko

babayaran daw nila ng P200 million ang bawat Senador na boboto ng pagabswelto kay Sereno, eh ‘yan ay kinukimpirma ko pa ngayon pero naniniwala ako na hindi papayag ang mga Senador sapagkat sila ay dignified na tao at isipin naman nila yung kapakanan ng bansa.”

Gadon made his statement even as House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he believed Sereno was in serious trouble after Associate Justice Teresita de Castro’s testimony that Sereno “misled” her for the ratification of an order and other issues.

Justice...

It was also learned that the Health department was properly warned about the possible effects of the first dengue vaccine to those who have not contracted it yet, but it still approved the program.

With the Health department program, the Philippines became the first Asian country to approve this vaccine for individuals aged 9 to 45 years old in December 2015. The program was approved in just about four months when such projects usually take up to two years to approve.

The DoH also did not conduct tests to determine if those immunized already had a history of dengue, which means it has no record as to who would be affected by the risk posed by the vac-

cine.

Earlier, the watchdog group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption urged the DoJ to investigate the case.

Calling the immunization program “worse than any heinous crime,” the group called on the DoH to set up help desks to receive complaints from concerned parents and also vowed to help them seek compensation for the families whose children may have received potentially risky anti-dengue shots.

The controversy on Dengvaxia broke after an advisory from French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur said new clinical analysis has found the vaccine is effective for people who have had dengue prior to immunization, but carried a risk of a “severe” case of dengue for people who have not.

“Dengvaxia provides persistent protective benefits against dengue fever in those who had prior infection. For those not previously infected by dengue virus, however, more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection,” Sanofi Pasteur said in a statement last week.

This development puts around 10 percent of the over 700,000 school children who received the shots at risk, prompting DoH Secretary Francisco Duque III to order the suspension of the vaccination program pending recommendation on further action from experts from the World Health Organization.

Allaying fears of worried parents, Duque assured the public that the vaccine will in any case provide a 30-month protection period against dengue and assured the pub-

lic that the DoH is on top of the situation.

The Palace on Sunday warned the public not to spread misinformation about the vaccine anomaly as this would only cause undue alarm.

“On the Dengvaxia anomaly. We understand the concern of our people, especially the parents and the relatives of public elementary children residing in Regions III, IV-A, and NCR, where the dengue vaccination initiative was launched by the previous administration,” said Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque.

“However, we call on all citizens not to spread information that may cause undue alarm,” said Roque.

“We assure the public that as per the Department of Health [DoH] there is currently no reported case of severe dengue infection to

the individuals who received one dose of dengue vaccine last year,” he added.

“Our present health officials are serious in carrying out their mandate to always guard the health and physical well-being of our people, which includes intensifying surveillance and evaluation of our dengue vaccination program,” he said.

“The Department of Health [DoH] is now working in close coordination with the Department of Education [DepEd] to monitor the thousands of students who have been administered with Dengvaxia,” said Roque.

“We will leave no stone unturned in making those responsible for this shameless public health scam which puts hundreds of thousands of young lives at risk accountable,” said Roque.

With Bill Casas

Yule...

Transport...

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Camarines Norte and Cagayan, which Arevalo said were in retaliation with the killing of 14 communist rebels in Nasugbu, Batangas last week.

He said this month, the AFP has neutralized 119 NPA rebels, 21 of whom were killed, and 29 of whom were arrested. The rest surrendered.

The AFP will continue to welcome rebels who surrender, he said, and supports localized peace talks between local officials and NPA groups in their areas of jurisdiction.

Arevalo said the NPA has about 2,000 members still, most of whom are in Eastern Mindanao. But he added that the communists have been actively recruiting, particularly in universities and colleges.

In Binuangan town in Misamis Oriental, four police officers were wounded after NPA rebels attacked their station Sunday.

Police Regional Office-10 spokesman Supt. Lemuel Gonda said the policemen suffered minor injuries following the explosion of an M203 Rifle grenade.

The rebels were unable to get the firearms from the police station and retreated after the government side returned fire. PNA

president George San Mateo, speaking in Filipino.

“This is something we do not hear from the Department of Transportation, which instead of addressing our needs threaten and harass us with cases and threats.”

He said that after consulting with their members in Metro Manila and the provinces, they decided to give way to the public hearing that Poe will call on Dec. 7 to thresh out issues about the government’s public utility vehicle modernization program.

Instead of a strike, jeepney drivers and operators will

conduct a transport caravan on Monday, Dec. 4, to Don Chino Roces Bridge near the Palace.

He said they will march from Welcome Rotonda and march to the University of Santo Tomas where they will meet other groups such as Kilusang Mayo Uno and Bayan before heading to Mendiola.

On Tuesday, San Mateo said they would conduct a protest movement either at the Department of Justice or at the Metropolitan Trial Court in Quezon City to condemn the supposed “crackdown” against jeepney drivers and operators.

San Mateo said drivers and operators will also hold a

vigil at Mendiola to prepare for the Senate committee on public services hearing on Thursday.

Poe welcomed the Piston decision.

“Issues can be better discussed and resolved when sobriety and judiciousness are exercised, in pursuit of the highest public good,” she said.

Poe said she called a hearing to discuss with all stakeholders issues confronting the transport sector, including the planned jeepney modernization program with the view of addressing their concerns.

Poe, chairman of the committee on public services, said she has also invited

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to attend the Senate hearing.

“We hope he will attend the hearing because it is important to hear his side,” said Poe. The Palace also welcomed the cancellation of the transport strike.

“We remain optimistic that Piston will soon engage with the government, and support the implementation of the long-delayed PUV Modernization Program, which only aims to provide our commuters a safer, more reliable, convenient, environment-friendly, and dignified commuting experience,” said Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque.

the Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug-Clearing Program,” said PDEA Director General Aaron N. Aquino.

The Oversight Committee, which is chaired by PDEA, is composed of provincial representatives of the Philippine National Police, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Health and local government units.

“Before declaring that a barangay is free from illegal drug activities, the committee must convene and validate

the non-availability of drug supply in the area and the absence of drug transit activity, clandestine drug laboratory and chemical warehouse, marijuana cultivation site, drug den, drug pusher, and user,” the PDEA chief said.

On the other hand, a barangay is said to be drugaffected when there is a reported presence of drug users, pushers, manufacturers, marijuana cultivators and other infrastructure related to the illegal narcotics.

There are three basic parameters in determining barangay drug-affectation: slightly affected, moderately affected, and seriously affected.

Aquino said from June

2016 to November 2017, 163 drug dens and nine clandestine shabu laboratories were dismantled while different illegal drugs were seized worth P18.92 billion.

PDEA said authorities also arrested 118,287 individuals involved in illegal drugs from July 2016 to Nov. 27, 2017.

Included in the total figure are 435 government workers—185 of them elected officials, 42 uniformed personnel, and 208 government employees.

Some 79,193 anti-illegal drugs operations were conducted by by joint law enforcement agencies during the period.

As of Nov. 27, 2017, the consolidated report showed that 3,967 drug suspects have died during operations while 86 were killed in action and 226 wounded from the law enforcement agency during the anti-illegal drugs operations.

Aside from PDEA, agencies involved in the anti-illegal drugs operations are the Philippine National Police, Department of Interior and Local Government, National Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Customs.

The joint law enforcement agencies rescued 589 minors during the anti-illegal drugs operations from July 2016 to Nov. 27, 2017. PNA

lished Nov. 20.

“The problem is worsening at an alarming pace, with opioid-involved deaths doubling in the past 10 years and quadrupling in the past 16.”

And as businesses struggle to find workers to fill open positions—with the US unemployment rate down to 4.1 percent—large numbers of potential workers are being excluded from consideration or are not able to work.

“The opioid epidemic affects the US economy by disabling adult workers in their most economically productive years,” said Thomas Bollyky, an expert on health and economics at the Coun-

cil on Foreign Relations, an influential think-tank.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last week the epidemic is contributing to declining labor-force participation among “prime-age workers,” especially men aged 25-54. And Jerome Powell, who will succeed Yellen in February, echoed that analysis.

The labor force participation rate has been below 63 percent for more than three years, down from 67 percent in the 1990s and into 2000, according to government data. Some of that decline is due to the aging population, but the rate for adult men in

the workforce has fallen below 72 percent from 77 percent in 2000.

Alan Krueger, economist at Princeton University, estimated that the increase in opioid prescriptions from 1999 to 2015 “could account for about 20 percent of the observed decline in men’s labor force participation during that same period, and 25 percent of the observed decline in women’s labor force participation.”

He said the decline is most notable in areas where opiates are most prescribed.

“Many factors are at work, but I think the driving force has been the US medical

system and pharmaceutical companies,” Krueger said.

“With good intentions of relieving pain, too many doctors have been overprescribing opioid medications.”

Bollyky agreed the crisis has its origins in over-prescription of the drugs, noting that in 20 years, prescriptions have soared by 300 percent.

“In 2015, the amount of opioids prescribed was enough for every American to be medicated around the clock for three weeks.”

But drug companies also played a role, with “aggressive and arguably deceptive marketing” on these painkillers, Bollyky said. AFP

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include prescription painkillers such as morphine, as well as heroin.

Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers estimates that in 2015 the opioid crisis cost the US economy $504 billion, or 2.8 percent of gross domestic product, in increased health care costs and lost wages, far higher than previously estimated.

More than 50,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2015, more than half of which were due to opiates, the CEA said in a report pub-

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He said Sereno could resort to diversionary tactic as a remedy to her troubled defense aggravated by her continued refusal to attend the impeachment proceedings by the House committee, led by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali.

“Publicity style, [she could resort to such] to divert the real issue since she herself could not confront the real issues,” Alvarez said.

Gadon refused to name the supposed oligarch.

“Itong oligarkong ito ay palaging nananalo sa mga kaso kay Sereno,” Gadon said.

Despite his claim, Gadon said he believeD that senators could not be bought as they were “dignified” and “have their own minds.”

Gadon accuses Sereno of violating the Constitution, corruption and betrayal of public trust filed by Gadon.

The impeachment complaint against her has been determined sufficient in form and substance.

The House justice panel is set to continue its hearing on Tuesday to determine if there is probable cause to pursue the impeachment complaint against Sereno. Rio N. Araja

US pulls out of UN compact on refugees UNITED NATIONS―The administration of President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from a United Nations pact to improve the handling of migrant and refugee situations, deeming it “inconsistent” with its policies, the US mission to the global body announced Saturday.

“Today, the US Mission to the United Nations informed the UN secretary general that the United States is ending its participation in the Global Compact on Migration,” the Americans said in a statement.

In September 2016, the 193 members of the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a non-binding political declaration, the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, pledging to uphold the rights of refugees, help them resettle and ensure they have access to education and jobs.

“The New York Declaration contains numerous provisions that are inconsistent with US immigration and refugee policies and the Trump Administration’s immigration principles. As a result,

President Trump determined that the United States would end its participation in the Compact process that aims to reach international consensus at the UN in 2018,” the US statement said.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the country would continue its “generosity” in supporting migrants and refugees around the world, but that “our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone.”

“We will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter our country. The global approach in the New York Declaration is simply not compatible with US sovereignty.”

Under Trump and his “America First” policies, the United States has withdrawn from several global commitments made under the administration of President Barack Obama, including the Paris climate deal.

More recently, American pulled out of the Paris-based culture and education body, Unesco, accusing it of “antiIsrael bias.” AFP

PNP...

government units to provide body cameras for their police officers.

Dela Rosa, however, said the budget for the purchase of body cameras for the PNP was still pending in Congress. Procurement might start next year if the bill was passed.

“Underlying diyan is you cannot enforce what you cannot provide, so right now hindi pa ako nakapagprovide sa kanila ng body cam dahil nga request natin for the procurement of body cameras is still pending in Congress,” Dela Rosa said in an ambush interview at the PNP Academy in Silang, Cavite, on Saturday.

“Next year pa tayo makaka-procure, so kapag naprocure na natin then maybe that’s the time we can enforce the policy nung body cam nung operation, nung anti-drug operation, and we will do that,” he said.

Last week, Pasig City police officers started to wear body cameras during operations, with Eastern Police District director Chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula saying that would protect police officers against accusations of misdemeanor as they performed their duties.

The Eastern Police District said 48 cameras were procured by the office of the mayor, with each of the 10 Police Community Precincts in Pasig City receiving three.

The rest would go to the Special Reaction Unit and its operatives.

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by Android mobile device users.

With the App, all human rights advisories and policies that the PNP crafted, including the contents of the “New Miranda Warning Pocket Card” with antitorture reminders, could be downloaded and stored in all android smart phones, Siervo said.

Once installed in a mobile device, the App may be accessed anytime, even without internet connectivity, by the police, especially the field officers engaged in the intensified campaign against criminality, corruption and illegal drugs.

Siervo said the App equips PNP personnel with the right information and materials with which to advise citizens or people placed under police custody of their rights under the law.

Likewise, the community may also download and install the App for easy access to human rights advisories and know their fundamental rights and police operational procedures and rules of engagement.

Republic Act 9201, otherwise known as the “National Human Rights Consciousness Week Act of 2002,” declares Dec. 4 to 10 as the country’s National Human Rights Consciousness Week.

Meanwhile, Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa welcomed the initiative of some local

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Batangas Rep. Raneo Abu and Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles opposed the move of Senator Panfilo Lacson to slash the P50.7billion budget for the rightof-way provision under the Department of Public Works and Highways.

“We stand pat on our version of the national budget next year because the budgetary cuts would definitely endanger the build, build, build plan of President Rodrigo Duterte designed to usher in a golden age of infrastructure for the country,” Abu said.

He made his statement even as Senator Loren Legarda, head of the Senate committee on finance, said the 2018 General Appropriations Bill was a pro-people and needs-based budget. ‘‘In reviewing the 2018 national budget, we scrutinized every item to ensure that we are funding the needs of the people, that it

supports the infrastructure program of the government and also takes care of the human capital so that economic growth addresses the needs of the poorest sector,” Legarda said.

“When we address the basic needs of the people, we also curb crime, violence and illegal drugs.”

Nograles said the Senate version “contradicts the progress that the President’s build, build, build plan would bring to the country.”

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Congress would not give up its version of the 2018 national budget and defend it in the bicameral conference committee despite the risk of having a reenacted budget in 2018.

Abu raised concern that even projects to benefit Batangas, such as the ongoing clearing of the Batangas City-San Pascual-Bauan access road, would also be affected.

“Such is an important project in my district and province. What will happen now?” he said.

News

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

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Gains seen trickling down to poor

By Bill Casas

M

ALACAÑANG on Sunday expressed confidence that the country’s economic gains will also benefit poor Filipinos in the long run.

The Palace issued a statement following the results of the Social Weather Stations survey, which showed an increase in the number

of Filipinos who consider themselves as poor.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque expressed concern that poverty per-

ception has increased from 44 percent of Filipinos in the second quarter of this year to 47 percent in the third quarter.

Roque, however, said that the number of food poor Filipinos actually decreased based on the results of the same survey, at 32 percent of Filipino families compared to March’s 35 percent.

“We’re still very much encouraged by the fact that the

perception on food poor decreased,” Roque said.

“We take note of the Social Weather Stations September 23 to 27, 2017 survey showing 47 percent of families considered themselves poor/mahirap.

We attribute the increase to inflation which registered 3.4 percent in September, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. It is also at this time that the peso depre-

ciated which contributed to the increased prices of goods,” said Roque.

“We hope that the gains of unprecedented economic gain natin will soon translate to more economic gains for the poor,” he added.

In a report by the Philippine Statistics Authority last November, the country’s economy grew by 6.9 percent in the third quarter of this year, which is considered higher than a

market consensus of 6.6 percent.

“While we are concerned with the increase in selfrated poverty, we are encouraged by the decrease of families rating their food as mahirap /poor which stands at 32 percent in September 2017, lower than the previous administration’s average of 35 percent in 2015,” said Roque.

“It is for this reason that, while the administration is

building a strong and sustainable domestic economy, growth must be inclusive and must be translated to a more comfortable life for all. We must ensure that the economy serves everyone and leaves no one behind by improving our social services, such as providing free college education, free medicine, free irrigation, socialized housing, conditional cash transfers, among others,” said Roque.

UN rap sheet vs PH propaganda—Palace

MARAWI HOUSING. Navy Seabees buckle down to work and install temporary shelter for Marawi residents in Barangay Sagunsungan. Temporary housing of about 1,175 units in a 13-hectare lot started earlier November. Each unit measures 22 square meters and stands on a 54-square-meter lot. The government is constructing single detached houses with a personal toilet and bath upon the request of the Marawi City residents. The temporary shelters will be for the center-based evacuees but Secretary Del Rosario said it will take some time before they can accommodate all 5,000 due to land availability. Figures from the Department of Social Welfare and Development put the number of displaced families at 78,466. Most of them are staying with their relatives while around 5,000 are in evacuation centers. Mark Navales

PH hosts climate forum in Ilocos THE Philippines is hosting this week in Ilocos Norte the Urban Resilience to Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Management forum in an effort to brace for natural disasters that in the past had caused $1.7 trillion in global damage, impacting many urban populations.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau will host the forum on Dec. 4 to 8, 2017 in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, a province known to be adversely impacted by dryer weather or drought.

The forum will provide an avenue for the exchange of information and coping mechanisms and adaptation strategies on the impacts of climate change and urbanization in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region.

“With the urban population expected to increase by at least 2.5 billion by 2050 according to UN reports, pursuing urban resiliency should be an important agenda for all policy and decision makers, resource managers, and environmental scientists and researchers,” said Dr. Henry A. Adornado, ERDB-DENR executive director.

This event is consistent with the celebration of the ASEAN‟s 50th Founding Anniversary with Philippines as the ASEAN chair for 2017.

PALACE on Sunday described as mere propaganda a militant group’s submission of a letter of allegations to United Nations special rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and Michael Forst concerning 25 alleged cases of extrajudicial killings.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said he has yet to see the cases and has no idea if the group, Karapatan, filed the cases before local courts or fiscals.

“It’s useless to go to go the UN without filing cases before the fiscal’s office.

Filing directly with the UN is only for propaganda purposes because there are institutions in the Philippines that could address it. So they should file it in the fiscal’s office, they should file it with the Supreme Court for writ of Amparo if they’re concerned about upholding the right to life,” said Roque.

“We find it unfortunate that human rights group advocate Karapatan wrote two separate letters to the

United Nations, specifically to UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Agnes Callamard and UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders Michel Forst, in connection with alleged cases of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines,” said Roque.

“The State—not international bodies like the United Nations—is duty-bound to investigate alleged cases of EJKs,” said Roque.

“Karapatan knows that it can avail of all domestic remedial mechanisms,” he said.

“The pillars of the criminal justice system in the Philippines remain to be effective and our legal processes are well-functioning,” said Roque.

“We therefore hope that they will file their complaints in the proper courts not before the so-called human rights rapporteurs who have politicized views of the Philippines’ campaign against illegal drugs,” he said. Bill Casas

Ecozone may spur Marawi recovery; jobs, livelihood for residents eyed

By July Rada THE government will put up a community-based economic zone in Marawi City to help its economy recover and create jobs and livelihood for its war-displaced residents, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said over the weekend.

Dominguez detailed this plan as part of the rehabilitation program for the

war-ravaged city in his recent meeting with officials of the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. led by its group chief executive and president Takeshi Kunibe.

The Finance chief said that besides providing residents with basic necessities such as water and electricity, the government would also provide them with access to the Internet so that the small, communi-

ty-based industries set up within the ecozone could take part in e-commerce tie ups through online selling platforms such as lazada. com.ph and alibaba.com.

Dominguez said the community ecozone in Marawi would not supply large companies, but serve as a tool to help open economic opportunities for its struggling residents.

Kunibe, in turn, expressed

SMBC’s willingness to assist the Philippines in its reconstruction and rehabilitation program for Marawi, and congratulated President Rodrigo Duterte on his administration’s successful effort to liberate the city from the influence of ISISinspired extremists.

SMBC, which declared on its website non-consolidated total assets of 162.3 trillion yen, is the second

largest banking institution in Japan in terms of assets.

Besides Kunibe, the other SMBC officials at the meeting were Fumio Hoshi, senior advisor; Shosuke Mori, senior managing executive officer; and Taro Hayashi, managing executive officer.

In the meeting, SMBC officials noted that there was a healthy appetite for Samurai bonds in the Japanese market.

Dominguez earlier said that the Philippine government plans to launch Samurai bonds in the future, with the dates depending on market conditions.

Besides the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts for Marawi City, the meeting also touched on issues involving opportunities in the tourism sector and the financial markets in the Philippines.

Senators deplore Pasuc head’s slay

UP GLORY AWARDS. Dante M. Velasco receives the Glory Medal of Distinction from Dr. Neny Pernia, dean of the UP College of Mass Communication (right) and Malu Fagar, president of the UP College of Mass Communication alumni association at the Glory Awards Night held recently at the UP Bahay ng Alumni in Quezon City. Behind Velasco are other awardees like Jessica Soho of GMA 7 and Maria Montelibano, former Presidential TV head during the Cory Administration. Velasco was recognized after he garnered the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus award from the larger UP Alumni Association.

SENATORS have deplored the killing of Dr. Ricardo Rotoras, president of the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges and called on the police to leave no stone unturned and arrest the perpetrators.

“I strongly condemn this horrendous act of violence against a member of our academic community. This is clearly unacceptable and enraging,” said Senator Chiz Escudero.

“While I extend my deepest sympathies to the bereaved family as well as to the USTP [University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines] community, I join the academe in mourning the death of Dr. Rotoras, whose efforts to help improve the country’s higher education system will not be forgotten. His untimely passing is a great loss not only to his family, friends and colleagues, but to the whole higher education sector as well,“ he added.

Escudero, who chairs the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, also asked the Philippine National Police (to do their best to immediately arrest the culprits.

“I urge the PNP to act swiftly on this case and exhaust all means to bring the perpetra-

tors to justice.”

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Senator Bam Aquino denounced the killing of university president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras. “We worked closely with him for the passage of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act as president of Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges.”

His death is a great loss to the country’s push for quality education for every Filipino.

“We call on authorities to leave no stone unturned to ensure that those behind the killing be brought to justice and punished for their deplorable act,”he added.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III strongly condemned the killing of university president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras.

Cagayan de Oro City police formed a special investigation task group to look into all the possible motives for the killing and capture the suspects.

Rotoras was gunned down by unknown attackers right in front of his residence in Golden Glow North Subdivision in Barangay Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City, around 1 a.m. on Saturday.

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Opinion

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL

Reckless behavior

T

HE Health department last week suspended the use of a new vaccine for the dengue virus that has already been administered to more than 700,000 children, after its manufacturer, Sanofi, warned that it could lead to more severe symptoms for people who had not previously been infected.

The admission by the French pharmaceutical giant that its Dengvaxia vaccine is more risky for people who have not been infected is alarming, because vaccines are normally given with the expectation that they will prevent disease from infecting the vaccinated, not increase the severity of the disease once it is contracted.

The announcement also highlights the haste—some would say recklessness— with which officials from the previous administration had contracted with Sanofi to

buy P3.5 billion worth of the vaccine to prevent the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.

The vaccine was approved for sale in the Philippines a few weeks after then President Benigno Aquino III received executives from the company while he was in Paris, France, in December 2015, and just months before his term expired.

In April 2016, the Department of Health launched the dengue vaccination initiative in three highly endemic regions—including

Metro Manila—with over 700,000 individuals receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.

Certainly with what we know today, government officials from the previous administration had acted with undue haste in using an untested vaccine on so many people.

The chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, Senator Richard Gordon, certainly thinks so.

He said an official of the World Health Organization had warned that the vaccine had not been given pre-qualification approval as it had not yet been tested on at least 200 children first, at the time it was procured by the Aquino administration.

“This admission by Sanofi that the Dengvaxia poses risks shows that when the Aquino administration procured it and the DoH proceeded to inoculate 280,000 children initially, the vaccine was not yet ready for distribution. Now we have the evidence

on that,” the senator said.

“Before we conducted an investigation on the anomalous procurement of this vaccine, we talked to several health experts and they told us that they had already warned government long before about the possible adverse effect of the new drug on individuals with no prior history of dengue. With this admission by Sanofi, they have been proven right,” he added.

Gordon has filed a resolution for a congressional inquiry into what he calls a midnight deal to procure the vaccine. Health officials are now consulting with experts and the WHO on what to do about the risks facing the more than 700,000 people who have already been given the vaccine. If it becomes apparent in the upcoming probe that the health of children was recklessly put at risk, those responsible for doing so must be held accountable.

Ending the boom-and -bust cycle

Taking over the MRT

IF YOU are one of the hundreds of thousands of commuters who take Metro Rail Transit to work, you would think it’s good news if government takes over its operations.

The proposal of Rep. Ariel Casilao can only be welcome news to commuters desperate to try anything to ease their daily grief in taking the train.

It’s supposed to be a public mass transport system but the only thing it has done is to stir mass hysteria. The most recent case was that of a wagon decoupling from the rest of

the train while running.

Then again while running, a train door failed to close because a passenger pried it open with his bare hands to catch a ride.

The National Bureau of Investigation which was asked to come in to determine if there was sabotage in the car that decoupled from the rest of the train found no evidence of tampering.

Why am I not too optimistic about government taking over the MRT? Well, in the first place, trouble started when government- designated officials replaced the Japanese firm Sumitomo as maintenance provider. Former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and just as incompetent MRT

general is interma nage r e s t e d Al Viin buytangcol ing the Why am contractMRT— I not too ed a Panl o c k , optimistic? gasinan stock and company barrel. without This may a track augur an record as i nc r e a s e maintein the nance handler. train fare but I suppose Both Abaya and Vi- people would be willing tangcol are facing graft to pay the price as long charges before the Om- as they can avail of an budsman for the contract efficient mass transport disadvantageous to the system. A fare increase government. Now the new will have to be expected group of MRT manage- considering the capital exment wants to return Su- penditures a private commitomo as maintenance pany will have to pour in contractor. to overhaul a decrepit and I would personally favor ailing rail transport sysan earlier report that a pri- tem: the purchase of new vate company headed by equipment, spare parts businessman Ramon Ang and the hiring of technical

people to oversee that the system works well.

The Department of Transportation headed by Secretary Arthur Tugade will have to be phased out from the operations of a privately-run MRT. What Tugade and the DOTR can do is coordinate the flow of traffic on the ground. This is going to be an awesome task in light of the two bridges across the Pasig River being planned and funded with funds from China.

This early, the DOTr and the Department of Public Works and Highways should be planning the alternate routes to be taken from the bridge construction sites. Considering the time frame for the bridges to be finished, road traffic can only worsen as

we have seen in the still unfinished skyway from Naia’s Terminal 3 leading all the way to the nearby towns of Bulacan. The pillars supporting the skyway are there but stopped short near the Quirino Highway-Pedro Gil junction.

But let’s not forget the Light Rail Transit which runs from Baclaran along Taft Avenue to the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City. The LRT, with an equal number of commuters as the MRT, needs as much fund infusion and a review of its operations.

The Belgian -built LRT which started operating years ahead of the MRT 3 had fewer problems under the management of former manager Mel Robles.

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THERE’S good news on the economic front, and don’t take my word for it. No less than Bloomberg International, in a recent article written

by Karl Lester Yap and Myungshin Cho, said “an investment boom in the Philippines leaves neighbors in the dust.”

The article cited two main reasons for this.

“In the first nine months of the year, net physical assets in the Philippines grew 10.4 percent from a year earlier. That compared to a 6.9 percent increase in Malaysia and 5.8 percent gain in Indonesia”.

The other reason Bloomberg cited is that “President Rodrigo Duterte is building a network of railroads and highways across the archipelago in an ambitious $180-billion infrastructure program. Investment firing up adds another engine to the economy, headed for a sixth year of growth exceeding 6 percent and among the world’s best performers.”

“After lagging its neighbors for decades, the Philippines is catching up. Growth in net physical assets —or gross fixed capital formation—averaged 14.4 percent in the past five years through 2016, the fastest in Southeast Asia and almost twice as fast as Malaysia,” according to the World Bank.

President Duterte hopes to end his term in 2022 with an economic legacy—that of his country becoming an upper-middle income economy. To achieve this, he unveiled what he and his economic managers call the “Build,Build,Build” infrastructure development program. Considering how the country has lagged from decades of neglect in building public infrastructure, whether in the metropolis or the countryside, it is quite an ambitious goal.

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Opinion

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

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I’ve fallen out of love with technology

By Shira Ovide I’VE been writing about the technology industry for much of this decade, and now I have an awkward admission: I’ve fallen out of love with technology.

I’ve never been a gadget nerd, but I also remember vividly the first time I tried the original iPod and YouTube and wondered why these magical things hadn’t existed before.

And when I moved to the Bay Area about six years ago as a technology journalist, I was struck by the feeling that this was the only remaining American industry not experiencing an existential crisis. Tech folks tend to be optimistic about what they do and the future in general, and that feeling was contagious.

Now, though, I’m not so sure. This has been a year of reckoning with the extreme downsides of technology. The same qualities that made the internet and

tech so thrilling for a couple of decades—eliminating gatekeepers, making information instantaneous and connecting people with different points of view—now sometimes seem more threatening than alluring.

My personal habits have changed in response. Lately, I’ve tried to avoid going on social media in the evenings because there’s so much anger and it makes me anxious. And when I’m walking, cycling and driving, my phone stays in my pocket 100 percent of the time. There’s also zero chance I’m going to buy one of those voice-activated speakers from Amazon or other tech companies.

Too creepy. My loss of faith hasn’t spread widely, but I fear the rethinking of technology’s great promise is only beginning.

By now, the complaints about technology are familiar: The internet in 2010 seemed like an amazing place where a teenager with a rare ill-

ness, for example, might feel validated and connected to others like her thousands of miles away.

That’s still true, but now we are seeing those same qualities unite people with dangerous conspiracy theories and spread violent propaganda.

The downsides aren’t confined to social media, which has been in the eye of the storm recently.

People are talking about the pernicious effects of personal information concentrated in the hands of a few companies, about robots taking human jobs and about technology addiction.

Ten years after the release of the first iPhone, we’re over the initial wonder of it all and are beginning to grapple with how smartphones affect our communities, our personal safety and basic human interaction. One example: I was gobsmacked by a recent NPR piece about schools that are teaching smartphone-addict-

ed young people how to have loving relationships IRL (that’s “in real life” to analog readers), and coaching them to ask people out on dates face-toface. Then there’s iGen, a generation of young people who have grown up with smartphones and are on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades, according to the Atlantic.

If more people begin to focus on the drawbacks of technology, it could have lasting consequences for the economy and for tech companies’ bottom lines.

Emerging trends, including self-driving cars and digitizing health care, could be a boon to our country, but they require the trust of governments and citizens that these innovations will help more than they hurt. That trust might be in short supply in coming years.

It’s true that the tech industry is no stranger to skepticism about the harmful effects of their

products or the irresponsibility of the people and companies behind it. Just a few years ago, leaks from Edward Snowden detailed how US intelligence agencies use or abuse personal information from technology companies. I thought that would spark a sustained cri de coeur about tech companies as powerful puppet masters of personal information, but the outrage didn’t last.

This time feels different. When the unlikely trio of early Facebook backer Sean Parker, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and European bureaucrats are all talking about the harmful effects of technology or big tech companies, that is a sign of the times. Think about how much hot water the big tech companies have been in this year—and that’s when they are well liked by most Americans.

If more people fall out of love with technology like me, it’s going to get even uglier. Bloomberg

The unbearable slowness of war crimes justice

By Noah Feldman THE suicide of Croatian war criminal Slobodan Praljak in open court this week was bizarre— mostly because it felt like something out of another century. Sure, Hermann Goering famously cheated the executioner at Nuremberg by swallowing cyanide.

But Praljak wasn’t going to be executed, no matter how many innocent civilians he was found guilty of killing. In the highly civilized, highly bureaucratic world of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the worst thing that can happen is a long jail sentence—like the 20 years awarded to Praljak.

It’s precisely the oldtimey, anachronistic aspect of the public suicide that carries a lesson. There’s a reason the act seemed very 20th century: Because it was. The crimes for which Praljak was convicted took place in 1993, when he let his soldiers round up Muslims for slaughter. He was indicted in 2004, and gave himself up for trial then. He was convicted in 2013, 20 years after his crime; his suicide followed the denial

Taking...

From A4

Its deterioration is traced to years of operation and commuter use.

There are presently eight bridges spanning the

Ending...

From A4

Among the Build,Build,Build projects are the country’s first subway system to connect Quezon City to Naia, via Pasig, Mandaluyong, Makati and Taguig, a financial undertaking already signed with the Japanese government. There is also the Balintawak-to-Clark railway along the old PNR tracks and depending on resource availability, extending this further north.

There is the revival of the PNR service from Manila to the Bicol Region, long a monument to official neglect, which is to be undertaken through a Chinese loan facility. More

of his appeal four years later, in 2017.

The lesson is the unbearable slowness of international criminal justice. And it’s not only a lesson about Europe.

The trials of the Sept. 11 plotters at the US military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are going on now, and it’s unlikely any sentence will have been carried out when the 20-year mark comes a few years from now.

There are three major problems with such a super-slow judicial process. One is about justice to the particular defendant, who may claim a lack of due process.

A speedy trial is a basic constitutional right in the US and in most jurisdictions. The main reason is that no one should be detained for too long without being convicted, but it’s also true that the passage of time makes witnesses unreliable and can make it harder for a defendant to mount a credible defense.

The difficulty with this criticism as applied to the Hague trials or Guantánamo is that delay can also be the result of a careful process designed to respect all of a defendant’s rights.

If the defense has made the trial go slowly, the defendant shouldn’t be able to use that delay to impugn fairness.

The second problem with a slow process involves the cruelty of holding someone for too long before executing a sentence. On the US Supreme Court, the former Justice John Paul Stevens took the view that it becomes unconstitutional to execute someone for a crime when he has been on death row for as long as 17 years.

(Among current justices, Stephen Breyer has embraced this position, which is known as a “Lackey” argument after the 1995 case of Lackey v. Texas in which Stevens first introduced it.)

The Lackey claim might someday be relevant for the Guantánamo defendants. Assuming some or all of them are sentenced to death, there will unquestionably be a long and complex appellate process before the sentences are carried out.

In the case of the Yugoslavia tribunal, the cruelty wouldn’t stem from keeping the defendants on death row, because, like Europe

and most of the rest of the world, the tribunal doesn’t administer the death penalty. It could conceivably be argued that spending a long time awaiting the resolution of one’s case has some elements of cruelty. Once again, however, it would be hard to make this claim if the delay was attributable to a careful process of trial and appeal.

That leaves the most important problem with a slow judicial process: the extended gap between the crimes and the ultimate punishment. This may not be a problem as a matter of pure justice, because terrible wrongs deserve to be addressed even after much time has passed. But it is a significant problem when it comes to the pragmatics and the symbolism of punishing terrible wrongs like those that took place Yugoslavia.

Practically, the deterrent effect of the eventual punishment is bound to be substantially reduced when it takes so long to bring the perpetrators to justice. A potential genocidal actor might conceivably think twice based on the imminent threat of punishment.

But if that punishment is many decades in the future, that actor, like the rest of us humans, will be inclined to discount the future probability of punishment.

Symbolically, the problem with long-delayed justice lies in the slow, grinding nature of the war crimes tribunals when compared with the short, sharp shock of most war crimes. When a trial takes so long, the problem isn’t so much that the evil of the underlying crime becomes banal as that the judicial process takes on its own bureaucratic banality.

The process essentially ensures that no one, least of all the defendants or the survivors, can relate the trial to the actual events that gave rise to it.

Praljak’s suicide stands out because it seems so serious, so extreme and so urgent.

That’s in stark contrast to the dullness of the tribunal’s justice, slowly moving along a conveyor belt outside of public attention.

Soon enough, however, we’ll forget about Praljak, the way we forget about all trials that take so long. And that’s just the problem.

Bloomberg

Pasig River. These are Del Pan, Jones, MacArthur, Quezon, Ayala, Nagtahan and Makati-J.P Rizal and Guadalupe bridges.Vehicle traffic is heaviest on Guadalupe which absorbs the flow from Quezon City along Edsa to Makati

and points south.

Perhaps one of the new bridges should be built on the Mandaluyong/Pasig area that can connect direct to Bonifacio Global City . This would lighten up traffic along the EdsaGuadalupe bridge spe-

cially during morning and evening peak hours. From Shaw Boulevard, motorists bound for the Makati Central Business District use the Makati/J.P. Rizal bridge as an alternate route . But this two-lane bridge isn’t too much help

because it is narrow and gets clogged at the entrance and exit .

It would be a credit to the Duterte administration if two new bridges can be completed by the end of the President’s term in 2022.

are in the pipeline, aside from continuing, and hastening the completion of the SLEX-NLEX connector fly-over started by the Aquino administration under a PPP arrangement.

The Bloomberg report likewise quoted Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist of the country’s largest bank, BDO Unibank, who said, “Capital formation goes hand in hand with the focus on infrastructure. The private sector has always been investing, but now public spending is catching up.”

By investing heavily in public infrastructure, the economic multiplier is tremendous, not only because the construction phase creates jobs, but because woefully needed bridges, highways

and public transport are conveniences demanded by a fast-growing economy. As we keep repeating in this space, we are playing a catch-up game compared to our Asean and other Asian neighbors.

This economic multiplier, which will generate more jobs and pump greater purchasing power to our consumers, will hopefully end the chronic boom-and-bust cycle which has characterized the Philippine economy for far too long.

But it seems there is a “fly in the ointment,” so to speak.

Public spending can only materialize if financial resources are made available. This means upping the revenues of gov-

ernment.

Even public borrowings are a function of the capability of the government to generate future revenues to be able to pay back.

Which is why all eyes are on the Tax Reform legislation which has yet to be finally hammered out by the bicameral conference committee and ultimately passed by both houses of Congress.

The news from the Senate, which adopted by a 17-1 vote its TRAIN version last week leaves us cold.

Our legislators should look at tax reform not as politicians after every vote, but as statesmen who must look after the future of this and succeeding generations.

As we keep saying, “no

pain, no gain.” *** As we rush this article for the deadline, sad news arrived.

A good friend, Osmundo Esguerra, fondly referred to as Omeng, passed away.

The owner of the Osmundo woodcraft gallery in the San Lorenzo Arcade as well as Glorietta, Omeng created furniture and fixtures out of wood salvaged from old houses.

He did not make furniture; he created works of art out of them. A polished kamagong or sendora supa table lovingly crafted by Omeng is a masterpiece to behold. His hand-crafted works grace the best homes and offices here and abroad, and some of

The imminent tax hit THE Senate approved on third and final reading its version of the Duterte government’s banner Tax Reform and Acceleration and Inclusion bill, sending it one step closer to its target implementation by January 1, 2018.

It faces a tough road in the ongoing bicameral conference committee, however, as the Senate and house versions of the bill differ quite profoundly on certain provisions. These include the tax rates on automobiles, sugar-sweetened beverages, and fuel, in which the senate version is lower, as well as taxes on mining, coal, and cosmetic procedures, which only the senate version imposes.

Congress has calendared bicam sessions until Dec. 5, with the Department of Finance eyeing the final submission of the bill to Malacañang by mid December.

It’s an tight timeline, all things considered. More so when, as Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon rightly observed, that the bicam would prove to be the “real battleground” for the passage of the contentious piece of legislation.

For his part, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the senate’s role is to “lessen the [bill’s] impact on consumers,” as the looming excise tax on coal, diesel, and bunker fuel is expected to have an impact on just about every commodity and service in the market.

According to the Department of Energy, as of 2015, 80 percent of the country’s coal consumption goes to power generation, 15 percent to cement manufacturing, with the remainder to the rest of industry.

Coal-fired power plants accounted for nearly half of the generated capacity It’s really across the country at 48 all about percent as of 2016.

This means that any raising movement in the excise government tax on coal, no matter revenue. how seemingly insignificant, would result in higher generation charge and would no doubt impact distribution utilities depending on how much they are sourcing from coal.

This is further aggravated by the corresponding increase in VAT because coal is levied 12 percent in VAT. With half of the country’s gross generation, the impact of increasing the excise tax on coal to P100/ MT will translate to an additional P0.02/kWh from around a fifth of a centavo at the current level of P10/ MT. Increasing the excise tax to P200/MT will result in an add-on of P0.04/kWh, while at P300/MT the increase will be around P0.07/kWh. This means the tax hike will be directly passed on to consumers in the form of a P4.78-hike in the electric bill of an average consumer who consume 200 kWh or less per month.

These figures don’t even constitute the most distressing scenario. Some electric utilities and cooperatives, especially those outside Metro Manila, are completely supplied by coal plants and will thus bear the full impact of the increase in excise tax.

Compared to the rest of the country, the impact to an electric utility or cooperative with a 100-percent coal supply will be an additional P0.05/kWh in 2018, P0.09/kWh in 2019 and P0.14/kWh in 2020. For a household consuming 200 kWh, this translates to an additional P10 in 2018, P18 in 2019, and P28 in 2020 on their monthly electric bill.

The scenario is even more dire in Mindanao, a region already plagued with rotating brownouts and high power rates. Compared to the Luzon and Visayas grids, which get less than 5 percent of their power from oil-fired plants, price increases may be higher in Mindanao since oil accounts for around 20 percent of power generation in the grid.

In particular, consumers of 11 electric cooperatives that participated in the Mindanao Modular Generator Sets Program may also experience price increases thanks to a deal involving an estimated 241 MW of additional capacity from modular generator sets that use diesel or bunker fuel.

Will, the public like health agenda behind the socalled sweet tax, the extra taxes disincentivize the use of coal? Environmentalists will certainly applaud but the Philippines is already a step ahead of some 124 countries in terms of environmental sustainability despite the use of coal as a major fuel source for power generation, at least according to UN-accredited global energy body World Energy Council.

Worse, these taxes are alongside higher excise tax on diesel and bunker for power generation, increases in the FIT allowance, and Universal Charge, all unduly burdening the consumer, whose welfare the TRAIN Bill supposedly had in mind. This contradiction, among others, perhaps reveals the real agenda behind this landmark legislation. It’s really all about raising government revenue.

We are always at the receiving end of government policies. I pray that the Senators and Congressmen participating in the bicam debates will be compassionate and defend the side of the millions ordinary consumers who will feel the inflationary effects of TRAIN. these have been gifted to heads of state.

And to think that he came from the humblest of origins in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, migrating to the metropolis doing odd

jobs until he discovered his true calling.

We express our profound condolences to his bereaved family. May his son continue his father’s drive for excellence.

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News

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Maguindanao seeks halal market

By Nash B. Maulana

B

ULUAN, Maguindanao— Maguindanao is bent on carrying the country’s halal seal to corner a larger share of the $1.4-trillion potential global market for Muslim meat products.

Muslim investors are developing a poultry processing plant here, seen to be completed by yearend as the country’s first halal dressed chicken facility which will engage local Muslim growers for sustained marketing contracts.

The family of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu is leading the capital interest venture which will involve ia network of farm suppliers and community poultry raisers

trained on halal production.

Maguindanao Board Member Jazzer Mangudadatu said the facility is scheduled for a grand opening during Maguindanao’s Inaul Festival in February.

He said the project is seen to bring in income-generating opportunity to families of participating communities in Maguindanao.

It will also reduce instances of armed conflict when ev-

erybody becomes involved in massive production for means of livelihood, he added.

Halal is defined as permissible or lawful products to use or consume according to the Islamic law.

According to a 2015 report by the World Halal Forum, the halal industry for food and beverages has hit a potential global market worth of around $1.4 trillion annually.

Locally processed chicken

meat would then carry the “Halal Philippines” label.

The younger Mangudadatu said the project also counts on a low-profile Malaysian interest which is being part of a continuing community advocacy on the health and economic benefits of halal food products.

Halal promotes the concept of total wellness in food processing by considering animal-raising and feeding

Graft case vs P’que treasurer dismissed

Cordillera DPWH execs face graft cases

By Dexter A. See BAGUIO CITY—Two officials of the Cordillera office of the Department of Public Works and Highways are facing graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for their alleged failure to file their Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth for several years.

In his affidavit-complaint dated Nov. 16, anti-corruption advocate Salvador Liked accused DPWH Regional Director Nerie Bueno of not filing her SALN for the years 2007, 2008 and 2012.

Liked also alleged that engineer Nestor Nicolas failed to submit his SALN in 2008 and 2012.

On May 29, the records officer of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon issued a certification stating that Bueno did not file her SALN for said years in Liked’s complaint.

A separate certification was issued in Oct. 11 on Nicolas’ failure to file his SALN. “It is crystal clear that Bueno and Nicolas violated Section 8 of RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officeials and Employees not once but several times. Thus, they must be prosecuted for the same,” Liked said.

Liked likewise accused Bueno of allegedly underdeclaring her real properties in a bid to evade paying higher taxes.

history as part of meat preparation for food, literally starting from the farm-gate and ending with the plate.

The small venture project encourages residents to put up poultry buildings with environmentally-compliant design.

The modern halal facility can process up to 30,000 heads of dressed chicken daily, but on its inaugural operation the plant will start with 1,500 heads in a day.

EARLY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING. Vendors along Carriedo in Sta. Cruz, Manila set up their tents to protect their wares against rain and sunlight. Manny Palmero

Turkey eyes expansion of development projects in PH THE international development cooperation arm of Turkey is eyeing more projects in the country next year after the success of its medical missions in partnership with the local government of Manila.

According to Rahib Abdullah, project assistant of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency Philippines, the medical mission held in Sampaloc, Manila on Saturday is the fifth of their six planned sessions in the metropolis.

“TIKA has a lot of projects, more on livelihood assistance. Right now, we are fixing a project with Gawad Kalinga to be implemented this month,” he said.

The upcoming feeding project, which is in partnership with the Department of Education, would focus on the rehabilitation efforts of conflict-torn Marawi City.

For their medical screening project aimed at delivering humanitarian assistance and other health services to

Filipinos, Abdullah said the idea was to actually start it near Manila as an initial model and at the same time see prospects of replication.

“That’s what we’re eyeing. Maybe we can replicate the project in other cities, in partnership with the local government unit,” he said.

TIKA’s medical mission covers six districts in Manila, and is poised to conclude on December 9.

In every session, Manila Vice Mayor Joney Lacuna-Pangan said five wheel-

chairs, five nebulizers, and five walking sticks are given free of charge.

Among the attendees, Yolanda Datu, daughter of 78-year-old Belen Datu, said the free medical assistance had been helpful, especially to her mother who, for six years, struggled to move around without a wheelchair.

The project also provided the appointment of doctors, dentists and necessary technical personnel, including volunteers, and supplies of needed medical supplies and medicines. PNA

THE Sandiganbayan has dismissed the criminal case filed against Parañaque City Treasurer Anthony Pulmano for allegedly illegally allowing a taxpayer to avail of the tax amnesty program implemented by the city government in 2013.

The criminal case stemmed from a complaint filed by Parañaque City Councilor Maritess de Asis and her lawyer before the Office of the Ombudsman.

They accused Pulmano of giving unwarranted benefit to Chevy Chase Corp. which resulted in the reduced tax liability of the latter and which it allegedly paid beyond the tax amnesty period.

In a 14-page decision dated Nov. 27, the antigraft court’s Fourth Division ruled that “the entitlement of Chevy Chase to the tax amnesty program cannot be ascribed to Pulmano.”

It noted the prosecution’s admission that Chevy Chase “was qualified to avail of the tax benefit... and was given a reduced assessment in tax delinquency liabilities amounting to P4,048,624.40.”

The court did not also find Pulmano criminally liable on the act of Chevy Chase’s payment beyond the deadline of the tax amnesty program since the prosecution also admitted that he even immediately notified the company of its failure to meet the amnesty period.

ASG releases six kidnap victims

TALKING HEADS. Department of the Interior and Local Government Asec. Epimaco Densing discuss the concept of revolutionary government while actress Vivian Velez, a supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, looks on during a weekly news forum in Quezon City. Manny Palmero

THE Abu Sayyaf Group has released six of its hostages over the weekend in Patikul, Sulu.

Joint Task Force Sulu chief Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana identified the released victims as Jessie Trinidad, 53; Marissa Trinidad, 54; Jimmy Trinidad, 21; Lucy Hapole, 21; Marciano Hapole, 14; and Nelson Hapole, 7—all residents of Kalimayahan Village, Barangay Latih in Patikul.

Sobejana said the victims were abducted by ASG bandits led by a certain Roger Samlahon on Nov. 14.

Last week, Abu Sayyaf member wanted for bombing a public terminal in Kidapawan City in 2007 was arrested in a joint military and police operation in Basilan.

Rahim Abdul alias Aman Kabalu was nabbed in Kampurnah village in Isabela City. He is listed under the Department of National Defense/Department of the Interior and Local Government joint order of rewards with a bounty of P1.3 million.

Joint Task Force Basilan commander Brig. Gen. Juvymax Uy said Abdul was identified by a civilian and that led to his arrest.

Sports

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Wayward Tiger 10 shots behind

M

IAMI—Tiger Woods’ hopes of a fairytale return faded on Saturday after an errorstrewn round saw him tumble down the leaderboard at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

After solid displays on his opening two rounds had left him at seven under par for the tournament, the former world number one suffered a torrid third round with a three-over-par 75.

“Anything that I did right ended up in a bad spot, and then anything

I did wrong it was really bad,” Woods said. “It was just one of those days.”

It left the 14-time major winner at four under, 10 shots off the lead held by American Charley Hoffman on the par-72 Albany Golf Club course.

Hoffman countered two bogeys and a double-

bogey with six birdies in a two-under 70 and a 14-under total of 202.

American Jordan Spieth and England’s Justin Rose were tied for second five shots back, Rose after a one-under 71 and Spieth with an even par 72.

Woods, who is playing for the first time since February, was in trouble from the opening hole, hitting his tee shot at the first into the sand bordering the fairway.

His second shot hit a rock hidden in the sand, leaving him with a difficult up and down to save

par.

He reached the green in three but missed the putt to make bogey.

A further bogey followed on the third when an attempted chip onto the green struck the bank and rolled back.

Two more bogeys on the sixth and seventh put him four over for the day as his challenge threatened to unravel, and a further bogey on the 10th further deepened the gloom.

But Woods kept battling away and finally started getting some joy from his putting, to finish with two

birdies on the 14th and 17th holes to claw back two shots.

After rolling in his putt at 14, Woods doffed his cap and gave fans a little bow.

“It’s ridiculous, it took me 14 holes to make a birdie,” he said. “At that time I’ve already played four par-fives and nothing happened. But, hey, it’s just one of those days ... tomorrow is another fight.

“You’ve got to keep fighting, and that’s one of things I’ve always done in my entire career is just

keep fighting and try to post the best number I possibly could,” Woods added. “Today it was a lot, unfortunately. It just ended that way.”

A further birdie putt on the 18th rolled agonisingly wide and Woods said he didn’t think he had major adjustments to make to improve in the final round.

“I really didn’t feel like I was that far off, that’s the crazy part,” he said.

Woods’ return this week in the 18-man tournament which benefits his charity is his first event since back surgery in April. AFP

Metro Turf hosts 45th Presidential Golf Cup THE Metro Manila Turf Club will be this year’s proud host of the 45th Presidential Gold Cup which will be held on Dec. 10 at the MetroTurf Racing Complex in Malvar-Tanauan, Batangas.

This was made official after the Signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the top officials of the sponsoring Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the Metro Manila Turf Club recently at the Manila Golf Club in Makati City.

“This is a momentous event since this is the first time in the history of the Presidential Gold Cup that the prestigious race will be held in a new racetrack, and that is the MetroTurf Racing Complex in Batangas,” said the PCSO General Manager Alexander Ferrer Balutan. “Come and join us we celebrate the 45th edition of this prestigious race that is being sponsored proudly by the

PCSO to help the horseracing industry!”

For his part, Dr. Norberto Quisumbing Jr. thanked the PCSO for choosing the MMTC as this year’s host of the blue-ribbon event.

“We really appreciate that the 45th edition of this very prestigious race in the country will be hosted for first time by the MMTCI in our MetroTurf Racing Complex in Malvar-Tanauan, Batangas. The past 44 years saw the emergence of the very best horses in the local horseracing industry,” said Quisumbing.

“From that very small total pot of P100,000 for the top four placers in 1973, the total prize now, after 44 long years, has ballooned to P6 million.

Thanks for the whole-hearted support of the PCSO through the years,” Dr. Quisumbing added.

Also those who witnessed the MOA Signing were PCSO officials such as Board Member Marlon Balite, AGM Dodie Zabel-

A facsimile check of P3 million for this year’s champion is shown by MMTC Chairman and President Dr. Norberto Quisumbing Jr. and PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan.

la, Atty. Jose Malang, Atty.

Lauro Patiag, Arnel Casas, Orlando Malaca, Rey Empremiado, and Desoto Tupaz while MMTC officials included Joy Quisumbing, Atty. Jose Alexander Carandang, Atty. Ros Nisce, Andy Sevilla, Atty.

Francis Rivera, Ann Horteza, and Jun Alano.

The Official 45th edition

Logo together with the 2017 Presidential Gold Cup that has the embossed photo of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte were unveiled during the event.

The iconic Gold Cup was conceptualized and designed by Dr. Galo B. Ocampo, the Technical Adviser on Heraldry to the Office of the President. It was then crafted by Jose J. Tu-

pas Jr. of El Oro Engravers of Manila.

The 2-feet tall original Gold Cup, which now stands at the PCSO Office in Mandaluyong, showcases various phases of the Philippine history. The names of all the 44 Champions are attached to its Roll of Winners below. A smaller replica that has the picture

Ladies PH Golf Tour goes big with China tie-up PHILIPPINE ladies golf keeps swinging to greater heights as it links up with China LPGA to go with its two-year tie-up with Taiwan LPGA for the ICTSI Philippine Ladies Masters firing off Thursday at The Country Club in Laguna.

China LPGA top players, led by Zhang Yunjie, Liu Yan and Li Xiya, and Taiwan LPGA aces Hsieh Yu-Ling, Ching Huang and Chang Hsuan-Ping banner the huge foreign challenge in the $80,000 event put up by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. From the inaugural six-leg circuit in 2013 to an eight-stage tour in 2015, the LPGT continued to grow in numbers and participation with the organizing Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. putting up 10 tournaments last year and adding another one with the season-ending ICTSI

South Forbes Ladies Invitational on Dec. 19-21.

“We’re very happy with how our tour has grown, in terms of tournaments and players as well,” said PGTI general manager Colo Ventosa. “It is our goal to help our lady pros and amateurs hone their skills in our circuit to prepare them to compete in other tours abroad and the presence of the CLPGA and TLPGA players will surely raise the level of play here.”

Rookie Pauline del Rosario, the hottest player on the LPGT today with four victories in the last six tournaments, will spearhead the locals campaign in the 54hole championship co-sanctioned by the CLPGA and TLPGA. Forty-seven players from the CLPGA and 30 TLPGA campaigners join the 22 LPGT field in the biggest, richest tourna-

La Salle coach Brodette: Lao can be an asset to any team ONE of the promising point guards out of Season 93 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association junior champion La Salle-Greenhills is Jacob Lao. A 17-year-old graduating player, who will leave high school with a memorable year after becoming part of the Baby Blazers’ first NCAA junior cinderella title run recently, Lao is preparing for his next step when he goes to college to study a businessrelated course and pursue his basketball career.

“I learned how to become a dedicated person in improving my craft. I played with a lot of heart in high school and I’m happy to be part of this championship. I think playing in college is challenging, but I’m ready to play anywhere, wherever the opportunity

comes,” said the combo guard Lao, who idolizes Jeff Chan and Kobe Bryant.

Averaging 4.5 points in 18 games, Lao came up with eight points in support to Joshua David’s 27 points and Joel Cagulangan’s 19 points as they led De La Salle Greenhills to a slim 75-74 win over Mapua last Friday in a sudden-death Game 3 finals as they captured the junior crown.

“In my junior years, I learned the importance of teamwork and perseverance,” added Lao. “I’m hoping I can use this high school experience when I play in college. Right now, I’m working very hard to improve my speed, ball handling, passing, shooting and defensive ability,” he added.

Anton “Brody” Brodette, the assistant coach of La Salle-

Jacob Lao

Greenhills, believes the 5’8” Lao has what it takes to become an effective leader on the floor because of his leadership, skills and high basketball IQ despite being small.

“The kid is a fighter.

He (Lao) doesn’t like to give up and I think he’s going to be a big asset to any team in college,” said Brodette, who was Lao’s first coach in La Salle high school. “He is also an excellent defender and very coachable. He can play the 1-2 spot for sure.”

ment in this side of the Phl circuit backed

by Custom Clubmakers, BDO, Meralco, Sharp, KZG, PLDT, Champion, Summit Mineral Water and K&G Golf.

Symetra Tour campaigners Princess Superal and Cyna Rodriguez are also expected to figure prominently in the title race, each out to re-stamp their class on the circuit which they used to dominate along with former Thai players who have notched victories on the LPGT, including Wannasiri Sirisampant, Saruttaya Ngam Usawan and Amolkan Phalajivin.

Focus will also be on a crack amateur cast, headed by multi-titled Yuka Saso and Sam Dizon, and Mikha Fortuna, Laia Barro and Mafy Singson of Team The Country Club, all raring to impress and score an upset over an elite international field.

Ono leads Bato Cup table tennis champs RIZUMU Ono, Val Stephen Jaca and the Hua Ching Foundation led all the champions in the 1st Chief Philippine National Police Bato Cup Battle of the Champions Table Tennis Championships presented by San Miguel Corporation recently at the Garden Square in Harrison Plaza in Malate, Manila.

Ono of the Jay Omila Sports Academy beat former national player and teammate Arlene Borja, 3-1, to win the women’s open singles’ title of the three-day tournament supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Table Tennis Association of the Philippines.

Ono is considered to qualify in the 2020 Tokyo, Olympics.

Jaca outlasted Zoren Mendiola of Hua Ching Foundation, 3-1, to capture the men’s singles’ event open crown of the tournament sponsored by the three-day competition is supported by PSSLAI, AMWSLAI, Emperador, Trust Trade, Armscor, PRO Regional Directors and PNP

Finance Service.

Meanwhile, Hua Ching Foundation composed of Zoren Mendiola, Stephen Andrew Timson, Dannel Jay Tormis, Nikko Oliva, Joseph Cruz, Francis Bendebel and Chen Ying took home the Battle of the Champions trophy and the P100,000 cash prize after beating Table Tennis Association of North District in the finals, 3-1.

LTC Lawrence Naldoza of Philippine Air Force beat PSUPT Bonnie Chua of PNP Table Tennis Club, 3-0, to pocket the Law Enforcement event trophy, while Arnie Uy of TATAND blasted Marcus De Jesus also of TATAND, 3-0, to cop the Executive event crown.

The other champions in the tournament supported by the Philippine National Police (PNP) were University of Cebu (men’s school/ government agencies team event); University of the East (women’s school/government agencies team event) and Lube N’ Drive (Liha team event).

of the sitting President is being made by A. Suarez of Cebu and is awarded to the Winning Owner.

This year’s edition attracted 10 official participants vying for a total of P6-million – P5-million from PCSO for the top 4 four placers and P1-million bonus to the winner coming from Philracom.

3-way tie in Fil-Am tournament

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY December 03 - Three teams occupied the top spot after shooting the same output at the start of competition in Fil A at the BCC layout as teams from the Championship flights of the 68th Department of Tourism Fil-Am Invitational Golf Tournament also kicked off their respective bids at the Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay golf courses yesterday.

Host BCC, Forest Hills and Nueva Ecija all shot similar 88 points to share the top position even as another team is just three shots down.

Isaac Go shot 27 points to lead the co-host even as Ed Montenegro came in with 22, Mars Garcia with 21 and Bong de Guzman churned in 18 points to count in the five to play four to count tournament presented by San Miguel Corporation.

Boo Keon Jung, meanwhile topscored for Forest Hills with 26, Rodolfo Villa had 24, while Armando Buenaventura and Gene Lim chipped in 20 and 18, respectively for the team’s game tying 88.

Nueva Ecija, on the other hand, had 24 points from Ed Manzanares, a pair of 22s from Bobby Inigo and Butch Bakunawa and 1 20 from Doy Mercado.

Bernie Balagtas scored 26 points to lead Macquarie Links Australia to lurk behind the three squads with 85 points.

Herminio Salvio shot 29 points and opened San Miguel’s bid with a five point lead in Seniors Am A. With 28 points from Efren Alvez and a pair of 25s from Domingo Manuel and Ariel Javelalosa, San Miguel assembled 107 points to lead the six squad flight at the longer CJH course.

Manila

Standard SOCIAL HOUSING FINANCE CORPORATION TODAY Enhancing People’s Lives and Empowering Communities through FAIR Shelter Solutions

InvItatIon to BId for Project no. 2017-03: SuPPly and delIvery of fIve (5) PIck-uP truckS and one (1) PaSSenger van 1.

The Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), through the Corporate Budget for the Year 2017intends to apply the sum of Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand Pesos(Php7,200,000.00) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for Project No. 2017-03: Supply and Delivery of Five (5) Pick-up Trucks and One (1) Passenger Van. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

2.

The SHFC now invites bids for Supply and Delivery of Five (5) Pick-up Trucks and One (1) Passenger Van.Delivery of the Goods is required within 20 calendar days from the date of receipt of the Notice to Proceed. Bidders should have completed, within two (2) years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the 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.

4.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from SHFC and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below during 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M..

5.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be acquired by interested Bidders on December 4, 2017from the address belowand upon payment of the applicable fee for the Bidding Documents, pursuant to the latest Guidelines issued by the GPPB, in the amount of Ten Thousand Pesos (Php10,000.00) 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 SHFC will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on December 11, 2017, 10:00 A.M.at SHFC Board Room, 5th Floor, BDO Plaza 8737 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City, which shall beopen only to all interested parties who have purchased the Bidding Documents.

7.

Bids must be duly received by the BAC Secretariat at the address below on or before December 26, 2017, 10:00 A.M.. 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 December 26, 2017, 10:00 A.M. at SHFC Board Room, 5th Floor, BDO Plaza 8737 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City. Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below. Late bids shall not be accepted.

8.

SHFC assumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify bidders for any expenses incurred in the preparation of the bid. SHFC reserves the right to waive any or all formal requirements, so that it shall likewise not be held liable for any defects or typographical errors in all documents received by the bidder, which shall be presumed to have been read and understood by the bidders to be mere defects in form only

9.

The SHFCreserves the right toreject 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.

10.

For further information, please refer to: Ethel S. Bugho BAC Secretariat Social Housing Finance Corporation 6thFloor, BDO Plaza, 8737 Paseo De Roxas, Makati City (T) +63 2 750 6337 (loc) 732 ebugho@shfcph.com www.shfcph.com (Sgd.) ATTY. JOSE D. MELGAREJO Chairman, BAC

( M S - D E C . 4 , 2 0 17 )

Sports

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

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

NU Lady Bulldogs extend dynasty THE National University Lady Bulldogs fought off the University of the East Lady Warriors, 79-68, to post another sweep and claim the women’s crown.

After finishing the season with 16 straight wins, the four-time champions now have a 64-game winning streak which they have earned since winning the 2014 crown.

“I’m so happy with the girls. Nandun sila. Lumalaban till the end,” said Lady Bulldogs coach Patrick Aquino.

The Lady Warriors gave the Lady Bulldogs a scare when they got off to a strong start and took a 24-14 lead.

With UE ahead, 58-53, at the end of the third, Congolese cager Rhena Itesi made her presence felt, hitting seven points during a 13-3 run.

This turned the tide in favor of NU, 66-61, with 3:18 remaining.

Ruthlaine Tacula kept the Lady Warriors within range with her efforts, 6668, with under three minutes remaining.

Then Janet Sison went off for all of her seven points in the last 77 seconds, and joined with Itesi for the Lady Bulldogs’ 11-2 run in the closing minute.

Itesi tallied 15-points and 13-rebounds while Finals MVP Trixie Antiquiera and Ria Nabalan chipped in 19 and 14 markers.

Season MVP Jack Danielle Animam, who had an off game, had nine points on top of 23 rebounds in this one.

Tacula led UE with 25 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Graduating big Eunique Chan added 19 markers.

Box scores

NU 79 – Antiquiera 19, Itesi 15, Nabalan 14, Animam 9, Sison 7, Harada 7, Del Carmen 6, Anoos 2, Camelo 0, Cacho 0.

UE 68 – Tacula 25, Chan 19, Francisco 6, Sto. Domingo 5, Requiron 5, Ramos 4, Cortizano 2, Gayacao 2.

Quarter scores: 13-16, 33-35, 51-54, 79-68. Peter Atencio

Ateneo Blue Eagles officials, players and fans – led by Blue Eagles coach Tab Baldwin – rejoice at center court after the Blue Eagles beat the defending champion La Salle Green Archers, 88-86, to rule the 80th UAAP Seniors Basketball Tournament. Ey Acasio

Ateneo Blue Eagles dethrone De La Salle Green Archers SMB extends Lassiter pact T

By Peter Atencio

HREE-point bombs in the fourth period and a loose ball error forced on Ben Mbala in the dying seconds decided the outcome of the 80th University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Seniors Basketball Tournament won by the Ateneo Blue Eagles, 88-86, yesterday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Finals MVP Thirdy Ravena led with 17 points for the Blue Eagles, who went on to take their first title after a five-year drought.

It was Ravena’s layup past Mbala in the last 4:26, which gave the Blue Eagles a 78-70 cushion.

Matt Nieto had 14 points and struck with one of two consecutive triples in the last 1:03, shattering a 68-all deadlock.

“It was an epic series. I congratulate La Salle. They defended well, but we really earned this championship. It could have gone either way.

We got a great team. We got a lot

to be thankful for,” said Ateneo cohead coach Sandy Arespacochaga.

Anton Asistio delivered 11 points and unloaded the second pivotal triple in the last 6:37 off Chibueze Ikeh’s assist, widening their edge to six, 76-68.

Vince Tolentino tallied nine points, with his drive past Mbala tying the contest for the last time, 68-all, in the last 8:38, and his other drive past Mbala, with 4:09 remaining giving Ateneo an 80-70 spread.

Six-foot-eight slotman Isaac Go banged in seven points and connected with a triple off Ravena’s

pass with 26 ticks left.

Joseph Nieto, a member of the Blue Eagles squad that won Ateneo’s title 30 years ago, joined the celebration.

The elder Nieto’s sons, Matt and Mike, led their teammates to a final stand that lifted the Blue Eagles to an emotional 88-86 win over the defending champion La Salle Green Archers.

The Green Archers, who lost their second of three attempts at the crown since 2013, got 19 points and 14 rebounds from Mbala, who turned the ball over following a steal by Ikeh with 15.3 ticks left.

Aljun Melecio made 16 points and he tried to keep La Salle within range with a triple, 73-80.

The Green Archers, rallying from a 38-45 halftime deficit, managed to overtake Ateneo on baskets from Abu Tratter and Kib Montalbo, 64-61, in the final 2:10 of the third.

But a triple from Jolo Mendoza got Ateneo into the first of a series of deadlocks, 64-all, in the final 1:02 of the third.

Ravena unloaded 11 points in the first half and his efforts helped the Blue Eagles build a 45-38 lead at halftime.

Ikeh had eight points, with his split charity in the last 2:05 of the second period giving Ateneo a fivepoint cushion.

Asistio had seven, including a buzzer-beating triple at halftime.

La Salle fell into foul trouble again which found Mbala, who made seven points, with two early fouls that set Ikeh up for the a split charity, 37-32.

Caracut, coming in for a foultroubled Rivero, had five, with his two charities in the last 2:38, keeping La Salle close, 32-34.

Ateneo leaned on an early fourth quarter explosion to erect a big lead which they protected until the end.

With the game tied at 68-all, Ravena grabbed a pivotal offensive rebound. He zipped the ball out to Matt Nieto who drained a threepointer to break the deadlock.

That ignited a decisive 14-2 Ateneo blast which allowed the Blue Eagles to post a huge advantage.

By Jeric Lopez

EXPECT San Miguel Beer to remain a top contender in the Philippine Basketball Association in the coming season.

After tapping prolific big man Christian Standhardinger in the PBA Draft several weeks ago, the Beermen made sure that their championship core will remain intact.

San Miguel re-signed veteran guard Marcio Lassiter over the weekend to ensure that it can continue being a force in the league.

Lassiter, who is an integral part of San Miguel in all its championships the past few seasons, was locked up by his mother club for three more years.

Details of the contract was undisclosed but it is assumed that Lassiter was given a sweet deal by San Miguel given his value to the team.

Cavs tame Grizzlies; Celtics prevail

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James protects the basketball against the Memphis Grizzlies at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. AFP

LOS ANGELES—The Cleveland Cavaliers stretched their NBA winning streak to 11 games Saturday as LeBron James poured it on in the fourth quarter to keep the depleted but desperate Memphis Grizzlies at bay.

James, who leads the league in fourth quarter points, scored 15 of his 34 points in the final period as the Cavs held on for a 116-111 victory in Cleveland.

He scored Cleveland’s last 13 points – and delivered the final dagger with a jump shot from just inside the three-point line with five seconds remaining.

In Boston, the Celtics withstood a 38-point performance from Suns star Devin Booker – who had dropped 70 points on the Celtics in a game at the TD Garden last season.

Kyrie Irving was the lategame hero for the Celtics, scoring five of his 19 points in the final two minutes.

The Suns had trimmed a

late eight-point deficit to two when Irving drained a threepointer with 1:53 remaining to help the Celtics hang on.

Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris scored 17 points each, Jayson Tatum added 15 and Al Horford scored 14 points with 11 assists and five rebounds for the Celtics.

“We put ourselves in a bad spot after that fourth-quarter run,” Boston coach Brad Stevens said. “I thought we were doing a great job at the end of the third quarter, start of the fourth, pushing that lead out, but that’s how quickly it goes.

“Kyrie had to make some big plays. Jayson had to make some big plays. Marcus had to make free throws. I mean, we had a lot of things that we had to do to close that out. But Kyrie’s ability to make those shots with very little space is pretty impressive.”

Elsewhere, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle became the 18th coach in NBA history with

700 wins as the Mavericks cruised past the Los Angeles Clippers 108-82.

Instead, Carlisle was more concerned with a dominant performance by his team, who notched just their sixth win of a season against 17 defeats.

J.J. Barea scored 21 points and handed out 10 assists.

And the Mavericks’ talismanic German big man Dirk Nowitzki was a perfect fiveof-five from three-point range.

In Philadelphia, Joel Embiid and Robert Covington scored 25 points each as the 76ers rallied for a 108-103 victory over the Detroit Pistons.

Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 33 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to lead the Bucks to a 109-104 victory over Sacramento, their second win over the Kings in five days.

Cleveland, their rocky start to the season a more distant memory with every win, solidified their hold on second

Sotto, Belangel power Eaglets over UST Tiger Cubs THE Ateneo Blue Eaglets banked on the big games of seven foot shooting ace Kai Sotto and SJ Belangel in the first half to smother the University of Santo Tomas Tiger Cubs, 94-63, yesterday at the Blue Eagle gym in Quezon City.

The 15-year old Sotto scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Blue Eaglets went on to post their fifth straight win in the 80th

University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) juGames Saturday nior basketball tournament. (at the Arena in San Juan) Sotto, a member of the Batang 9 a.m. La Salle Zobel vs UST Gilas national team, knocked in 11 a.m. NU vs Ateneo six points in the second period, 1 p.m. UPIS vs FEU including four points during a 3 p.m. Adamson vs UE decisive 8-2 blast in the opening minutes of the second quarter.

His pair of drives in the last 35 halftime edge.

Sotto’s intimidating presence 8:13 allowed the Blue Eaglets to move away from a close 18-15 and big baskets from Belanfirst quarter edge and into a 45- gel, who struck with nine of 15

points in the second period, allowed the Blue Eagles to take a 25-point edge, 74-49, at the end of the third.

John Cansino led with 20 points, and was limited to four in the fourth as UST fell behind by 31 points at the end of the game.

“We turned up the intensity in the second period. We knew if we let UST hang around, it will be a close game,” said Blue Eaglets coach Joe Silva.

The Tiger Cubs, who got 10 points and nine boards from Bismarck Lina, and they dropped to third with their 3-2 win-loss slate.

Veterans Jose Sabandal and Andrey Doria made 19 and 17 points for the Adamson Baby Falcons as they prevailed over the University of the Philippines Integrated School Junior Maroons, 86-55.

The Baby Falcons picked up their second triumph in five outings to move to third spot. Peter Atencio

PSL Press Corps cites Anisova AFTER a string of misfortunes, Sta. Lucia Realty bounced back with a pair of crucial victories to hammer a strong finish in the Chooks to Go-Philippine Superliga (PSL) Grand Prix.

And one player should be credited for this resurgence – Bohdana Anisova.

With Anisova spewing fire at the attack zone, the Lady Realtors were unstoppable as they pulled off thrilling victories over Cocolife and Generika-Ayala to avoid an eighth-place finish in this prestigious club tourney.

A well-known competitor in the European circuit, the Ukrainian torched the Asset Managers for 29 kills, four aces and two blocks for a game-high 35 points as the Lady Realtors essayed a masterful 23-25, 22-25, 2512, 25-23, 15-7 victory.

She picked up where she left off two days later when she knocked down 23 kills for a 25-point effort to lead the Lady Realtors to a 25-27, 25-18, 25-17, 26-24 win over the Lifesavers in their final match of the eliminations.

Her impressive performance was enough for the PSL Press Corps to name her as its third Chooks to Go-Player of the Week.

Stock market may weaken; investors losing confidence

B2

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

B

Telecom offer not just for China IN BRIEF

By Andreo Calonzo and Cecilia Yap

T

HE Philippines will open up its telecommunications sector to more foreign investors, and an invitation by President Rodrigo Duterte isn’t just for Chinese companies, Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.

SteelAsia pushes iron regulation STEELASIA Manufacturing Corp. asked the government to create an iron and steel authority to serve as the regulatory body that will guide the industry.

SteelAsia president Ben Yao said the existing Industry Development Council created by the Trade Department was a good start for the government and the private sector to craft policy and set standards for the core industries. However, he said certain core industries, including steel, required more focus and attention due to the technical demands and special circumstances.

“This is why all our neighbors have special bodies to coordinate policies, monitor the industry’s development, set standards and so forth. All of them, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, China— have their own Iron and Steel Authority. It is time for the Philippines to have its own,” he said.

The industry noted the need for the government to sharpen its policy to support cutting edge manufacturing particularly in a competitive, market-driven environment. It said industrial policies must be biased in favor of the efficient, of the technologically driven and of the enterprises driven by a passion for excellence.

Yao said steel is the mother of all manufacturing. “Every emerging economy today needs core industries such as steel, petrochemicals and semi-conductors.

Around these core industries, other manufacturers could be supported. Government policy must clearly support the core industries if it wants a manufacturing base,” he said. Othel V. Campos

NGCP aims to spend P62b GRID operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines asked the Energy Regulatory Commission to allow it to implement an additional capital expenditure for 2017 and beyond 2020 amounting to P62 billion.

NGCP said in an application to ERC the capex program would consist of 23 vital grid expansion and reliability projects.

“One of the core mandates of NGCP is to improve and expand its transmission facilities and to ensure and maintain the reliability, adequacy, security, stability and integrity of the nationwide electrical grid to guarantee that the grid meets: forecast demand, system reliability, demand market requirements and capacity of new generators,” it said.

Projects in Luzon include the upgrading Bohol transmission facilities (P986.56 million), Concepcion-Sta. Ignacia 69 kV transmission line project (P667.57 million), Marilao EVH substation project (P7.392 billion), San Simon 230 kV transmission line project (P2.318 billion) and Nagsaag-Tumana 69 kV transmission line project (P683.65 million).

Other Luzon projects lined up are the Tuy 500/230 kV substation project stage 1 (P8.454 billion), Pagbilao-Tayabas 500 kV transmission line project (P3.934 billion), Pinili 230 kV substation project (P1.631 billion), San Manuel-Nagsaag transmission line project (P1.873.52 million), Taguig-Taytay 230 kV transmission line project (P3.823 billion) and Tanauan 230 kV substation project (P2.493 billion). Alena Mae Flores

Globe eyes 20m Gcash customers GLOBE Telecom Inc. said it expects to expand the number of its GCash users to 20 million over the next five to seven years as it aggressively rolls out its cashless payment technology.

“In China, it took five to seven years before things did happen. Today, we’re not even looking at revenues at the moment. We’re looking at building the active user base. We’re looking at making the experience more convenient, more relevant to people. We are looking at improving the cash in experience,” Globe president and chief executive Ernest Cu said. “ We’re looking at increasing merchant base that accepts GCash and from there, we’ll see what happens to revenue,” he said.

Cu said the company’s goal was to hit 20 million GCash users in the next five to seven years from the current five million GCash users.

Globe recently teamed up with SM Malls, Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. and with Davao’s homegrown retail chain, New City Commercial Corp. to accept payment through the use of QR scanning via smartphones to all its stores nationwide.

Among the early adopters are Mercato Central in Bonifacio Global City and Ayala Malls, particularly Glorietta. Darwin G. Amojelar

8990 PREFERRED SHARES. Property developer 8990 Holdings Inc. holds a bell ringing ceremony at the Philippine

Stock Exchange to list its series of perpetual preferred shares.The company raised P5 billion from the preferred shares issuance.

Shown during the bell-ringing ceremony are (from left) 8990 chief operating officer Willibaldo Uy, chairman Mariano Martinez Jr., chairman emeritus Luis Yu Jr., PSE chairman Jose Pardo and PSE chief operating officer Roel Refran.

SEC wants to send strong signal to listed firms

By Jenniffer B. Austria THE Securities and Exchange Commission said its decision to slap a P769.3million fine on conglomerate San Miguel Corp. for alleged late filing of reportorial requirements should send a strong signal to other listing companies about the need to make timely, accurate and complete disclosures.

SEC chairperson Teresita Herbosa said in an inter-

view the corporate regulator would be strict in applying the rules of penalties, charges and fines as provided for under the Securities Regulation Code.

“The point is we have to be transparent and strict in implementing our rules so that everyone will know that there are sanctions for violating the rules,’ Herbosa said.

“We cannot give exemptions because it does not distinguish especially of if

it is a violation of special law. It does not matter what your intentions were... with or without bad faith. The laws must be followed,” Herbosa said.

Herbosa said the SEC needed to strictly implement the disclosure rules and reportorial requirements for listed firms in order to protect investor and minimize illegal trading activities likely insider trading, price manipulation and other fraudulent acts.

Mitsubishi set to deliver 120 new LRT vehicles until 2021

By Darwin G. Amojelar THE Department of Transportation said it signed a deal with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. for the procurement of 120 new light rail vehicles for Light Rail Transit Line 1 extension from Baclaran to Bacoor in Cavite.

Transportation Assistant Secretary for railways Timothy John Batan said the final contract price for the procurement of new trains was not only within budget, but was also about 20 percent lower than the offer of the next-ranked bidder.

The agency did not provide the actual bid of Mitsubishi, but data showed the budget for the acquisition of new trains was about P30 billion.

The 120 LRVs are designed with four-LRV configuration. Each train set would have a minimum of 1,388 passengers, sitting and

standing. They are expected to be energy efficient and have low maintenance cost.

The first four LRVs are expected to be delivered on Aug. 31, 2020 while the next delivery of 40 LRVs are due on Dec. 31, 2020.

Mitsubishi Corp.- Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarrile, the project subcontractor based in Spain, is expected to complete the delivery of 120 LRVs on Dec. 31, 2021.

The LRT-1 Cavite Extension project is currently on the final design stage and pre-construction activities.

Actual construction will start next year and will be completed within the term of President Duterte.

Light Rail Manila Corp. won the bidding for the 11.7-kilometer project and took over the operation of LRT Line 1 on Sept. 12, 2015.

Dominguez declines award

By Julito G. Rada FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III declined to accept another award from a publication that cited his exemplary performance as the head of the Duterte administration’s economic team, saying he is just doing his job and what the government achieved so far is a result of a team effort.

Marc Gregory Crisostomo, head executive assistant of the Office of the Secretary, said in a letter to Tony Lopez, president and chief executive of BizNewsAsia, said Dominguez declined to accept the Business and Economic Management Excellence Award from the busi-

ness publication.

“Thank you for considering Secretary Carlos Dominguez for the BizNewsAsia’s Business and Economic Management Excellence Award. We thank you for noting the efforts of the Department of Finance to pass the comprehensive tax reform program and to usher in the Golden Age of Infrastructure of the Philippines,” the letter noted.

“The secretary is not alone in this fight for a more inclusive economy. The Cabinet works hard under the directive of the President. Thus, it is with deep regret that Secretary Dominguez declines the honor of this award as he is just performing his duties as the Secretary of Finance…,” it said.

She said the penalty against San Miguel was based on the value of the transaction as provided under the SEC rules on penalties and charges.

San Miguel described as “excessive and unreasonable” the P769.3-million fine slapped by the SEC against the company for the alleged late filing of additional documents pertaining to the acquisition of shares in Manila Electric Company in 2012.

“The best offer would be picked from other offers as well,” Pernia told reporters on Saturday at a forum in Manila, when asked if only Chinese companies would be considered by the government. “China is in the frontline now because no other country has sounded out or expressed interest to come in,” he said.

Duterte, who has sought warmer ties with Beijing amid a territorial dispute between the two countries, offered China the right to operate in the Southeast Asian nation during bilateral talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last month, Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said on Nov. 20.

Duterte’s commitment to open up the sector has prompted local companies such as Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. to start talks with China’s two biggest telecommunications provider to help challenge PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc.’s dominance.

The two became the nation’s only wireless carriers when the San Miguel Corp. conglomerate sold its nascent wireless phone carrier to those companies for P70 billion ($1.4 billion).

The president’s order for government agencies to act swiftly to ease foreign-investment limits is a first step toward opening up the telecommunications sector, according to Pernia.

“There’s a lot of urgency to this,” he said, adding that better connectivity was a promise Duterte made during his election campaign.

The 1987 Constitution allows foreign companies to own a maximum 40 percent of Philippine utilities, including telecom companies.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque earlier said the president offered to the People’s Republic of China the privilege to operate the third telecoms carrier in the country.”

The government said the entry of a third player would end the telecom duopoly.

Foreign business chambers, however, want the government to expand the offer to other countries. Bloomberg

B2

Business

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Smart upgrades 4,200 3G, LTE sites across PH

By Darwin G Amojelar SMART Communications Inc. said it plans to upgrade more than 4,200 3G and LTE sites across the country as part of a network modernization effort.

“Our commitment to the National Telecommunications Commission is to meet 90 percent municipality coverage next year for 3G and 4G mobile broadband, and we are well on-track to meet this,” Joachim Horn, chief technology and information advisor for parent PLDT Inc. and Smart said.

“We are already at about 89 percent, so we will definitely meet that target early next year,” Horn added.

Smart has stepped-up its mobile data roll-out significantly this year, especially for LTE. “This year, we more than doubled the number of sites which are capable of LTE,” said Horn, citing Metro Manila where about 90 percent of sites already have LTE. Improvements are already being felt throughout Metro Manila. Recent internal tests in Parañaque recorded median LTE download speeds of 17.9 Mbps and median upload speeds of 12 Mbps, while median download and upload speeds of 27.6 Mbps and 16.1 Mbps, respectively, were posted in Caloocan.

Stock market may weaken; investors losing confidence

By Jenniffer B. Austria

T

RADING at the Philippine Stock Exchange this week is expected to remain weak as investors continue to take profits for the year.

Analysts said investors were losing confidence after the market breached the 8,200-point support level last week. The drop could encourage investors to continue with the sell-off.

BDO Unibank chief investment strategist Jonathan Ravelas said the break below the 8,150 support level put the 8,000-point

mark at risk. Analysts put the immediate support and resistance at 8,000 and 8,300 points, respectively.

Analysts are looking at the passage of the government’s comprehensive tax reform program, which is being discussed by members of the Senate and House of Representatives through the bicameral con-

ference committee.

The government wants to implement the comprehensive tax reform program next year, to enable it to raise funds to fund an aggressive infrastructure program.

The bellwether PSE Index last week lost 2.64 percent to 8,144.02, while the broader All Shares Index dipped 2.11 percent to 4,785.86.

All major counters also closed on the negative, led by mining and oil which declined by 4.85 percent following anti-mining pronouncements made by the Duterte administration.

Industrials fell 2.97 percent, while the property, holding firms, services and finical dropped 2.81 percent, 2.54 percent, 2,01 percent and 1.48 percent, respectively.

Foreign investors, however, were net buyers by P946 million. The average weekly value traded jumped to P10.9 billion from the previous week’s average of P6.6 billion.

Weekly top price gainers were Petron Corp., which rose 4.8 percent to P9.60, D&L Industries Inc. which gained 4.3 percent to P11.14, and

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS WEEKLY STOCKS REVIEW STOCKS

NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 1, 2017 Close Volume Value

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

MEDCO Holdings Metrobank Natl. Reinsurance Corp.

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

3.48 59 147.00 100.20 3.90 2.20 33.35 15.3 32.95 7.73 0.65 1.65 955.00 0.570 92.9 0.82 12.1 25.10 56.50 87.35 100 240 55.15 247 1841.00 87.00 1.24

1,972,000 65,370 11,504,080 9,403,940 161,000 27,097,000 430,900 164,400 10,751,300 4,900 147,000 4,000 560 7,143,000 11,701,390 1,914,000 119,800 854,100 636,900 9,510 1,430 7,230 3,435,450 1,913,930 995 263,620 895,000

FINANCIAL 7,320,840.00 3,875,865.50 1,679,759,520.00 959,041,453.00 627,780.00 64,250,640.00 14,370,240.00 2,549,718.00 365,554,715.00 37,877.00 95,670.00 6,840.00 532,050.00 4,070,370.00 1,111,566,729.50 1,558,580.00 1,443,898.00 20,945,090.00 36,200,983.50 849,393.50 141,675.00 1,732,446.00 37,383,760,633.00 478,165,046.00 1,845,910.00 22,939,125.50 1,119,680.00

Aboitiz Power Corp.

Agrinurture Inc. Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. Alsons Cons.

Asiabest Group Basic Energy Corp.

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

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

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

Pepsi-Cola Products Phil.

Petroenergy Res. Corp.

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

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

Swift Foods, Inc. TKC Steel Corp.

Universal Robina Victorias Milling Vitarich Corp.

Vivant Corp.

Vulcan Ind’l.

38.5 12.52 0.71 1.37 16.98 0.216 113.7 20.10 4.31 15.36 160 42.1 61.05 62 1.93 5.36 11.04 11.140 14.8 11.18 7.35 5.46 1.61 17 61.1 23.15 11.48 18.9 2.040 245.40 58.50 4.08 3.13 21.50 28.25 17.92 17.18 0.195 305.40 8.39 2.4 5.92 9.60 7.74 9.48 1.55 11.68 58.55 6.83 4.90 4.41 500 2.12 12.9 5.41 0.135 1.17 132 3.15 1.97 25.00 0.63

13,345,300 5,272,300 1,216,000 6,884,000 84,000 5,340,000 200 18,700 76,563,000 5,358,500 160 3,095,300 5,320 89,410 3,985,000 125,500 3,882,600 30,987,500 1,099,100 1,480,500 1,529,200 54,034,400 5,000 6,107,000 414,500 1,053,100 90,900 4,070,800 80,640,000 6,780,570 380 425,000 226,000 15,000 6,743,900 1,090,800 15,664,600 3,050,000 24,468,680 207,900 11,847,000 515,400 15,046,900 3,548,100 49,800 2,068,000 1,074,000 675,510 10,300 1,108,500 404,000 145,920 8,946,000 2,063,200 10,958,300 2,040,000 604,000 7,082,940 21,000 31,336,000 1,800 3,471,000

INDUSTRIAL 525,438,625.00 64,958,112.00 855,300.00 9,292,170.00 1,407,456.00 1,163,630.00 22,775.00 384,883.00 334,627,030.00 82,328,076.00 24,820.00 129,107,570.00 325,834.50 5,721,114.00 8,008,660.00 681,385.00 41,653,094.00 339,339,320.00 16,219,692.00 16,391,204.00 11,194,433.00 303,820,331.00 8,050.00 104,481,712.00 25,495,944.00 24,780,975.00 1,059,098.00 77,689,844.00 188,306,490.00 1,670,689,482.00 22,367.50 1,718,080.00 764,210.00 311,685.00 190,672,840.00 19,626,730.00 274,703,192.00 599,560.00 7,700,459,296.00 1,756,743.00 28,956,630.00 3,114,887.00 141,382,590.00 27,581,501.00 463,154.00 3,215,890.00 12,793,834.00 39,345,381.00 68,015.00 5,372,293.00 1,833,380.00 76,128,345.00 17,277,450.00 26,500,430.00 66,401,206.00 277,910.00 702,600.00 947,625,735.00 66,230.00 62,281,130.00 45,065.00 2,232,490.00

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

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

Lopez Holdings Corp.

LT Group Metro Pacific Inv. Corp.

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

0.325 68.30 15.74 0.97 7.01 0.380 0.390 1006 1490.00 7.45 14.50 5.1 7.90 0.185 1134 7.90 67.05 5.24 5.45 0.62 5.55 19.42 6.5 3.4 0.0460 1.210 2.050 2.60 110.00 2.69 963.00 1.74 0.80 286.000 183.10 0.2290 0.1820 0.185

1,790,000 8,782,640 20,420,700 11,000 114,500 25,350,000 3,070,000 1,126,665 30 13,145,900 29,254,600 4,800 407,800 310,000 704,675 148,600 10,530,260 11,900 1,600 3,348,000 3,410,200 9,688,900 74,041,000 91,000 40,800,000 3,413,000 3,562,000 2,000 1,939,330 1,032,000 1,516,340 49,102,000 116,000 14,580 120 370,000 1,190,000 790,000

HOLDING FIRMS 564,100.00 132,880,518,018.50 318,467,710.00 10,910.00 802,251.00 9,573,050.00 1,159,000.00 1,144,818,825.00 44,700.00 97,948,722.00 429,712,706.00 24,480.00 3,222,230.00 57,480.00 816,605,965.00 1,119,916.00 725,374,158.00 61,184.00 8,759.00 2,065,920.00 19,161,980.00 187,219,122.00 486,455,647.00 313,700.00 1,890,300.00 4,196,910.00 7,333,720.00 5,200.00 216,443,806.00 2,938,300.00 1,466,754,160.00 90,078,420.00 92,800.00 4,120,202.00 22,662.00 85,010.00 214,980.00 148,440.00

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

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

MRC Allied Ind. Megaworld Interport `A’ Global-Estate Filinvest Land,Inc. Ever Gotesco Empire East Land Double Dragon Cyber Bay Corp.

Crown Equities Inc. Cityland Dev. `A’

5.910 0.840 7.48 1.02 35.80 3.18 2.17 21.95 6.66 28.65 0.570 0.3700 0.355 5.19 0.74 1.39 1.80 0.144 0.670 37 0.470 0.208 1.170

16,729,100 74,000 32,000 3,907,000 41,765,600 2,364,000 47,461,000 14,780,800 14,741,800 100 55,909,000 49,830,000 1,074,540,000 131,483,300 3,009,000 64,426,000 27,571,000 420,000 945,000 1,692,000 4,410,000 104,770,000 359,000

PROPERTY 99,936,611.00 62,250.00 210,409.00 3,972,060.00 1,506,606,520.00 7,575,520.00 110,540,770.00 326,127,545.00 94,924,886.00 2,865.00 31,852,350.00 19,783,350.00 441,075,250.00 699,356,855.00 2,262,700.00 92,536,910.00 49,209,920.00 57,190.00 627,090.00 63,120,150.00 2,044,500.00 22,653,520.00 421,430.00

NOVEMBER 20-24, 2017 Close Volume Value 3.42 59.8 145.10 103.90 3.89 2.05 33.5 15.78 35.6 7.72 0.66 1.79 950.00 0.600 95.2 0.82 12.04 25.00 56.70 88 99.1 238 59.05 254.4 1880.00 86.95 1.29

1,017,000 176,740 5,111,800 8,947,570 159,000 2,926,000 1,035,800 172,600 8,680,400 12,400 84,000 176,000 10 7,388,000 6,275,840 3,434,000 297,800 37,500 422,950 1,990 1,450 8,710 6,120,620 1,308,470 995 348,110 1,614,500

3,564,670.00 10,488,062.50 752,156,306.00 894,745,759.00 598,350.00 6,017,420.00 34,637,435.00 2,663,482.00 305,530,145.00 96,442.00 56,010.00 298,950.00 9,500.00 4,409,270.00 591,062,684.00 2,744,480.00 3,636,818.00 936,880.00 24,238,498.00 173,795.00 144,340.00 2,102,118.00 340,797,715.00 329,134,448.00 1,890,325.00 30,262,534.00 2,204,470.00

40.5 12.38 0.71 1.35 17.18 0.220 114 20.20 4.11 15.32

6,012,200 8,325,500 615,000 1,546,000 206,900 9,370,000 30 33,400 43,719,000 2,749,700

241,908,495.00 102,516,898.00 442,020.00 2,065,500.00 3,541,158.00 2,122,110.00 3,420.00 640,700.00 177,595,560.00 42,719,182.00

42.35 63 64 2.05 5.46 11.1 10.680 14.7 11.20 7.23 5.77 1.75 17.1 61.5 24.00 11.80 19.2 2.050 258.40 60.00 4.03 3.6 22.70 28.8 18.12 18.38 0.200 319.00 8.49 2.49 6.40 9.16 7.59 9.66 1.58 12.00 58 6.88 5.00 4.5 534 1.95 12.9 6.82 0.138 1.18 138.9 3.17 1.97 25.10 0.65

3,409,700 4,170 259,810 4,024,000 328,100 47,700 31,067,700 2,312,500 6,281,400 1,888,800 39,373,200 2,000 6,584,400 750,550 4,526,100 219,000 13,209,800 10,057,000 3,383,600 457,980 3,177,000 1,885,000 800 9,385,900 854,200 14,002,800 6,790,000 4,015,160 165,000 2,873,000 990,600 21,979,300 403,200 70,900 5,350,000 1,716,200 3,061,110 297,800 8,307,300 376,000 352,370 2,464,000 3,685,300 6,724,700 1,660,000 603,000 4,812,420 19,000 29,752,000 700 4,078,000

147,166,965.00 267,391.00 16,665,514.50 8,022,970.00 1,750,839.00 534,178.00 327,672,258.00 33,948,640.00 71,661,920.00 13,768,912.00 226,542,641.00 3,380.00 112,831,976.00 46,151,735.00 108,496,150.00 2,606,276.00 254,134,939.00 20,407,860.00 866,045,088.00 26,819,071.50 13,223,160.00 7,035,120.00 17,380.00 270,917,060.00 15,527,536.00 253,476,398.00 1,375,180.00 1,293,827,730.00 1,352,310.00 7,016,650.00 6,145,858.00 207,326,135.00 3,014,607.00 682,385.00 8,360,250.00 20,918,010.00 178,354,413.50 2,019,266.00 41,513,497.00 1,779,810.00 191,000,775.00 4,983,760.00 47,396,812.00 42,467,661.00 228,240.00 716,130.00 666,536,287.00 60,680.00 59,747,640.00 17,570.00 2,686,390.00

0.330 71.00 15.60 1.00 7.06 0.370 0.375 1020 1150.00 7.47 15.00 5.1 7.95 0.199 1195 7.92 71.00 5 5.07 0.66 5.51 18.98 6.61 3.3 0.0470 1.100 2.060

3,680,000 5,388,000 19,230,000 750,000 45,000 38,830,000 6,790,000 1,406,470 20 6,121,400 26,064,900 100 240,100 1,200,000 455,090 131,700 6,544,830 200 3,400 4,996,000 1,323,600 8,088,200 85,374,300 139,000 44,900,000 1,699,000 2,362,000

1,207,900.00 376,779,252.00 302,395,116.00 714,980.00 313,564.00 14,650,700.00 2,590,900.00 1,433,260,950.00 23,000.00 46,138,739.00 381,765,874.00 510.00 1,904,708.00 220,930.00 534,316,530.00 1,007,446.00 469,045,387.00 961.00 17,270.00 3,275,580.00 7,343,833.00 150,745,992.00 567,936,468.00 475,700.00 2,108,200.00 1,871,180.00 4,848,210.00

112.90 2.84 983.50 1.76 0.83 286.000 190.00 0.2300 0.1840 0.190

957,320 185,000 1,530,600 43,502,000 437,000 23,120 20 4,160,000 1,210,000 5,670,000

106,352,679.00 501,910.00 1,493,409,575.00 73,675,350.00 366,070.00 6,518,488.00 3,800.00 1,012,240.00 224,290.00 1,094,410.00

6.100 0.870 7.45 1.03 36.00 3.16 2.07 21.00 6.64

38,416,700 600,000 4,000 2,686,000 32,798,200 1,778,000 15,916,000 20,641,000 9,582,400

226,039,148.00 512,760.00 29,800.00 2,769,720.00 1,171,733,520.00 5,693,660.00 31,574,570.00 470,421,745.00 64,204,628.00

0.560 0.3800 0.430 5.6 0.78 1.50 1.82 0.138 0.660 37.95 0.470 0.211 1.150

87,337,000 9,130,000 1,501,310,000 90,375,200 3,575,000 21,203,000 75,839,000 1,900,000 1,749,000 973,400 4,770,000 57,480,000 267,000

48,569,070.00 3,456,600.00 591,354,950.00 501,665,642.00 2,780,420.00 31,836,900.00 136,715,800.00 273,210.00 1,162,700.00 37,802,695.00 2,258,000.00 11,972,710.00 306,700.00

STOCKS

NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 1, 2017 Close Volume Value

City & Land Dev. Century Property Cebu Holdings CEB Landmasters Belle Corp. `A’ Ayala Land `B’ Arthaland Corp.

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

1.15 0.465 5.44 4.85 3.66 42.200 0.890 2.350 10.98 1.02 5.550

132,000 73,410,000 92,800 9,585,000 6,247,000 48,998,400 12,382,000 185,000 8,500 34,756,000 1,585,300

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

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

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

Pacific Online Sys. Corp.

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

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

SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Waterfront Phils.

Wilcon Depot

16.4 35 1.4 0.465 0.046 11.2 4.95 10.50 0.0720 100.3 8.98 8.74 7.06 2.6 1000 1796 5.78 18.12 11.00 4.34 106.5 2.39 12 8.36 0.142 1.3600 3.17 15 3.59 1.19 21.05 15.80 0.520 4.21 7.37 3.90 2.870 11.1 4.90 3.03 7.7 145.00 8.98 1464.00 0.345 1.300 48.00 96.95 5.80 3.32 1.680 1.91 3.87 1.010 8.330

141,600 306,000 1,472,000 3,270,000 244,500,000 5,000 3,000 34,551,100 182,610,000 808,000 3,200 10,218,000 237,400 1,225,000 270 555,410 905,700 42,600 2,900 168,534,000 4,226,630 49,000 556,600 1,338,200 8,230,000 871,000 144,000 36,700 3,613,000 3,225,000 8,046,100 1,600 1,261,000 16,641,000 62,999,600 2,768,000 46,398,000 1,200 11,000 10,000 1,800 25,790 7,147,800 716,770 1,550,000 12,271,000 11,704,000 1,235,580 708,100 5,995,000 48,348,000 18,000 5,040,000 122,721,000 21,555,100

SERVICES 2,367,620.00 10,822,415.00 2,135,860.00 1,532,950.00 11,455,200.00 57,122.00 15,130.00 360,704,792.00 13,926,870.00 80,788,164.50 28,606.00 90,363,164.00 1,647,515.00 3,576,510.00 259,600.00 996,212,230.00 5,267,486.00 752,078.00 32,004.00 724,779,230.00 448,689,331.00 113,740.00 6,696,540.00 11,182,935.00 1,183,840.00 1,181,400.00 443,730.00 552,852.00 13,277,380.00 3,883,450.00 173,492,570.00 25,450.00 706,200.00 67,079,820.00 457,453,451.00 10,777,400.00 141,474,600.00 13,320.00 54,350.00 30,300.00 13,871.00 3,800,825.00 64,151,045.00 1,077,359,015.00 517,350.00 16,018,430.00 570,728,170.00 118,366,494.00 4,174,471.00 19,225,280.00 83,413,070.00 34,420.00 19,535,700.00 130,259,890.00 178,789,442.00

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

United Paragon

0.0023 1.67 4.85 15.00 1.7000 1.6500 1.62 0.300 7.37 2.800 0.235 0.152 0.151 0.011 0.0100 1.72 6.13 1.5 0.4500 0.8600 0.0120 0.0130 5.85 9.70 0.0110 2.1000 35.40 0.0070

279,000,000 17,843,000 1,601,100 12,400 185,000 199,000 11,544,000 5,880,000 54,100 34,818,000 2,850,000 20,390,000 53,690,000 71,400,000 6,200,000 2,710,000 17,715,800 139,000 670,000 3,744,000 45,900,000 857,500,000 4,352,000 44,452,500 404,900,000 151,000 11,917,400 19,000,000

MINING & OIL 641,900.00 29,713,710.00 7,849,119.00 175,480.00 314,640.00 344,310.00 18,592,840.00 1,877,450.00 384,966.00 54,883,490.00 633,500.00 3,071,040.00 8,087,050.00 719,100.00 65,000.00 4,654,090.00 110,345,309.00 207,920.00 302,800.00 3,243,550.00 551,000.00 11,583,100.00 27,049,894.00 470,555,354.00 4,661,600.00 307,890.00 427,086,095.00 133,000.00

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

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

34.75 108 522.5 531 105.5 110 115.7 521.5 5.4 1040 1030 100 1.08 106.3 1049 1005 103.7 77.5 81.25 77 79 81 79 78.4 80.1

1,345,000 20,850 20,000 1,690 22,690 100 55,420 12,400 818,100 9,715 12,000 208,550 111,000 7,950 5,000 6,600 36,130 4,470 55,330 30,040 20,000 132,290 101,210 100,050 132,100

LR Warrant

2.270

WARRANTS & BONDS 1,550,000 3,550,670.00

Makati Fin. Corp.

Italpinas Philab Holdings Xurpas

2.9 10.88 3.24 3.51

1,000 5,102,500 467,000 16,695,000

First Metro ETF

124.7 10

USD DMPL A1

147,440.00 34,473,750.00 502,196.00 45,998,300.00 22,631,430.00 2,107,547,200.00 11,102,520.00 434,970.00 88,720.00 34,227,470.00 8,713,393.00

NOVEMBER 20-24, 2017 Close Volume Value 1.13 0.475 5.46 4.72 3.69 44.500 0.930 2.400 10.34 0.95 5.500

68,000 55,150,000 8,699,600 4,163,000 2,111,000 39,315,200 13,268,000 958,000 403,900 15,885,000 2,606,500

77,190.00 26,196,150.00 47,233,621.00 19,816,500.00 7,785,170.00 1,697,634,425.00 12,436,980.00 2,333,370.00 3,957,442.00 14,974,940.00 14,335,468.00

16.9 271,800 36.15 265,100 1.36 2,545,000 0.475 2,680,000 0.047 149,400,000 11.98 670,500 4.61 32,500 10.14 41,563,500 0.0800 577,250,000 100 704,470 9 7,200 9.02 7,360,100 7.06 261,700 3.19 3,280,000 960 535 1780 314,160 5.90 2,132,700 18.00 58,400 11.50 1,900 3.93 105,794,000 106.9 2,376,940 237.00 73,000 12 27,000 8.36 1,528,100 0.144 14,340,000 1.3700 1,632,000 3.22 381,000 15.2 6,900 3.65 2,860,000 1.20 3,907,000 22.30 25,736,600 16.10 900 0.520 21,000 3.6 24,500,000 6.7 28,902,800 3.90 6,706,000 2.940 116,811,000 11.1 5,900 4.82 70,300 2.85 43,000 7.95 150,000 150.00 69,240 8.87 8,524,600 1586000.00544,005 0.335 1,940,000 1.300 14,446,000 48.05 12,995,200 96.50 1,596,130 6.00 2,814,900 3.20 27,725,000 1.720 27,619,000

4,635,482.00 9,867,035.00 3,622,680.00 1,272,850.00 6,989,300.00 7,735,012.00 148,410.00 416,934,098.00 44,637,370.00 70,989,682.50 63,396.00 66,883,017.00 1,868,349.00 9,674,420.00 513,600.00 584,725,170.00 12,511,948.00 1,041,230.00 21,872.00 367,531,950.00 247,838,835.00 173,520.00 324,000.00 12,752,126.00 2,095,640.00 2,252,240.00 1,176,820.00 108,160.00 10,612,850.00 4,768,320.00 582,856,370.00 14,850.00 11,030.00 84,631,840.00 181,159,081.00 26,362,930.00 344,957,760.00 65,080.00 346,504.00 122,960.00 1,192,500.00 11,885,451.00 73,807,762.00 882,069,685.00 643,150.00 18,767,160.00 625,539,895.00 149,609,673.00 17,208,081.00 95,132,040.00 46,434,540.00

3.75 0.960 8.140

2,836,000 41,414,000 16,519,800

10,537,260.00 40,508,520.00 133,755,705.00

0.0023 1.67 4.80 15.98 1.7000 1.6700 1.61 0.360 7.80 2.880 0.238 0.150 0.152 0.010 0.0110 1.85 6.61 1.5 0.4600 0.9000 0.0120 0.0130 6.88 10.24 0.0120 2.1100 36.50 0.0070

5,685,000,000 101,987,000 1,204,000 60,500 152,000 181,000 15,596,000 4,060,000 28,200 24,699,000 5,280,000 80,320,000 45,530,000 461,500,000 9,600,000 3,622,000 14,241,700 2,888,000 1,190,000 4,208,000 27,500,000 31,000,000 2,994,100 149,632,200 142,000,000 485,000 12,839,000 52,000,000

14,113,700.00 181,141,140.00 5,763,740.00 934,978.00 264,380.00 309,740.00 25,313,210.00 1,426,400.00 209,074.00 70,609,300.00 1,282,790.00 12,109,600.00 6,903,720.00 4,635,000.00 105,600.00 6,586,890.00 95,678,729.00 4,301,550.00 547,950.00 3,885,040.00 331,100.00 377,400.00 21,046,591.00 1,587,990,380.00 1,624,100.00 1,059,690.00 469,069,315.00 366,500.00

35.5 107.1 520 520 104.5 108 118.4 521 5.43 1050 1030

1,041,200 45,530 350 1,840 80,880 80 40,110 3,050 3,912,800 1,051,085 3,670

37,927,635.00 4,880,618.00 187,000.00 956,800.00 8,452,950.00 8,636.00 4,633,024.00 1,589,050.00 21,455,836.00 1,104,190.00 3,743,550.00

1.06 106.1 1049 1002 100.1 76.05 81.3 76.5 78.1 80.25 77.3 79.5 81.7

176,000 17,340 30,115 38,165 15,900 104,150 114,630 9,100 72,200 294,200 20,580 140,220 34,990

187,180.00 1,838,589.00 31,590,765.00 38,605,525.00 1,657,370.00 7,985,526.50 9,370,225.00 695,480.00 5,649,295.00 23,801,822.00 1,589,834.00 11,099,099.00 2,799,551.00

2.250

1,857,000

4,216,950.00

2.89 11.56 3.3 3.88

1,000 21,102,100 1,311,000 18,827,000

2,890.00 249,762,372.00 4,008,510.00 72,071,780.00

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 113,890 14,230,606.00

126

364,910

45,189,749.00

DOLLAR DENONIMATED SEC. 3,500 35,000.00

10.2

5,000

51,000.00

PREFERRED 46,681,900.00 2,255,803.00 10,450,000.00 887,300.00 2,405,085.00 11,000.00 6,406,560.00 6,525,400.00 4,436,383.00 9,822,170.00 12,300,750.00 21,146,980.00 119,880.00 859,531.00 5,249,500.00 6,617,940.00 3,725,290.00 344,658.00 4,496,183.50 2,313,080.00 1,580,000.00 10,564,135.00 7,921,277.50 7,912,795.00 10,591,260.00

SME 2,900.00 57,885,188.00 1,515,780.00 61,465,180.00

WEEKLY MOST TRADED STOCKS MRC Allied Ind. Oriental Pet. `B’ Philodrill Corp. `A’ Abra Mining Apollo Global Boulevard Holdings Harbor Star Megaworld Waterfront Phils.

Crown Equities Inc.

VOLUME 1,074,540,000 857,500,000 404,900,000 279,000,000 244,500,000 182,610,000 168,534,000 131,483,300 122,721,000 104,770,000

STOCKS Aboitiz Equity RCBC `A’ Mla. Elect. Co `A’ Ayala Land `B’ Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. Jollibee Foods Corp.

SM Prime Holdings SM Investments Inc. Ayala Corp `A’ Metrobank

VALUE 132,880,518,018.50 37,383,760,633.00 7,700,459,296.00 2,107,547,200.00 1,679,759,520.00 1,670,689,482.00 1,506,606,520.00 1,466,754,160.00 1,144,818,825.00 1,111,566,729.50

Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which climbed 3.6 percent to P10.50.

The weekly top price losers were Philex Mining Corp., which slumped 15 percent to P5.85, PLDT Inc., which retreated 7.9 percent to P1,464, and Megaworld Corp., which shed 7.3 percent to P5.19.

Wall Street, meanwhile, finished last week on a tumultuous note Friday, with stocks tumbling after a former top aide to President Donald Trump pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and then bouncing back as a massive tax cut neared passage.

All three major indices declined, but ended well above session lows, boosted by statements by Senate Republican leaders that key tax-cut holdouts were falling into line following concessions. The dollar also briefly swooned but later recovered.

The rocky session in New York came as bourses in Paris and Frankfurt dropped on worries about a strengthening euro and as oil prices gained.

US stocks opened in negative territory after record finishes on Thursday, but the losses deepened on news that Trump campaign aide and former White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty in the probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Leading news commentators said the Flynn developments bring the probe closer to Trump and his family.

With AFP

Megawide unit buying majority of AG Finance ISOC Holdings Inc., a holding company owned by Megawide Construction Corp. chairman and chief executive Michael Cosiquien and his family, has acquired a 67-percent stake in listed dormant firm AG Finance Inc., paving the way for a possible backdoor listing.

AG Finance in a tender offer said major shareholder RYM Business Management Corp. agreed to sell 175.4 million shares in the company, equivalent to 67 percent, to ISOC at P2.1662 per share, or P380 million.

ISOC will conduct a tender offer to acquire the balance of 33 percent held by minority shareholders in AG Finance.

Formed in April 2017, ISOC is considering transforming AG Finance into a real estate, energy or logistics firm either directly or indirectly operating as a holding company.

ISOC is currently building a 2,412 square-meter cold storage facility.

“However, as of date, while various options are being considered, there are neither concrete plans nor definitive agreements with regard to the said options as the bidder is still studying the structure and options best suitable for its plans,” AG Finance said.

The tender offer is set from Dec. 4, 2017 to Jan. 3, 2018.

Cosiquien is one of the major shareholders of listed construction and engineering company Megawide.

Megawide among the country’s leading contractors for residential, commercial, hotel and mixed-use projects. It has assets in construction, airport, and progressive property development.

RYM Business in 2015 acquired micro-lending AG Finance from the group of Tony King and his family, two years after it was listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange. Jenniffer B. Austria

Business/World Questions I CONSIDER it an amazing opportunity to hear the keynote speech of forREEN IGHT mer DepEd Secretary Brother Armin Luistro FSC during the recently concluded 5th National Business and Management Conference held in Avenue Hotel in Naga City. The conference was jointly organized by the Center for Business Research and Development, the Central Bicol State University of Agriculture and the Philippine Academy of Management.

Br. Armin, who is now president of the Philippine Business for Social Progress and De La Salle Philippines, spoke about the role of business and academe in helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which was crafted by member-countries of the United Nations in 2015. In a nutshell, the SDGs are focused on ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for every living person in this globe.

During his talk, Brother Armin posed several questions related to business’ and academia’s response to the 17 SDGs, questions that provoked the audience, including me. Let me share with you the questions that struck me the most. His initial questions really made me think: “If the economy grew by 6.9 percent, where is the growth going? Why is poverty still a flat line?

What does this [growth] mean to the grassroots? President Duterte boasts of an improving economy, but it seems that the ordinary Juan is still poor. Where is the ‘disconnect’?”

He also hinted at how business schools might have failed to prepare a generation of business leaders to deal with issues concerning ethics and social responsibility.

He said a lot of business schools craft vision-mission statements aimed at developing business leaders concerned with alleviating poverty, yet despite the ideals of the university, graduates are “eaten up by the system” and end up being solely concerned with money and profit. He also decried the lack of collaboration between industry and academe, the latter often stuck with ‘over-analyzing’ data rather than taking action to address pressing societal concerns.

Sadly, the lack of collaboration is not only between sectors but also among government agencies. While discussing the SDG of equal access to water, Brother Armin mentioned that there are actually 36 different agencies all over the country that have something to do with providing access to clean and safe water, yet these agencies do not collaborate to ensure that every household actually has adequate water supply. But why is it that many areas in the provinces still do not have access to water? This is unfortunate given that the average rainfall during the typhoon season, if properly collected, is actually enough for the needs of 104 million Filipinos. Given that a basic service like “providing access to water to every Filipino family” confounds our government agencies, how can we make progress in achieving the other UN SDGs? It seems that we still have a long way to go in ensuring that growth and development trickles down to the grassroots.

We can go on and on asking questions, but as I always say to my students: The quality of the answer lies not only in the question we ask. Instead of simply asking the question “What is the problem?” let us shift our mindset and ask “How can I add value in providing solution to this problem?” Let us take action because, at the end of it all, we only have one planet in which to live, one country to love, and one society in which to thrive.

G

ALVIN NEIL A. GUTIERREZ

L

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

North Koreans to leave Mongolia over sanctions Cannabis U attracts LAANBAATAR―North Koreans have toiled and slept at construction sites in Mongolia, they have operated cashmere sewing machines, and their acupuncture skills are highly prized in one of the few democracies employing them.

But the nearly 1,200 North Koreans living in the country wedged between Russia and China must now pack their bags as Mongolia enforces tough United Nations sanctions severely curbing trade with Pyongyang.

The UN estimated in September that 100,000 North Koreans work abroad and send some $500 million in wages back to the authoritarian regime each year.

But the UN Security Council ordered nations to stop providing guest worker permits to North Koreans after Pyongyang detonated its most powerful nuclear bomb.

The US is now pushing for more sanctions after the regime tested another intercontinental ballistic missile in late November.

North Koreans have to

leave Mongolia by the end of the year as their one-year work authorizations will not be renewed, the labor ministry said.

“Private entities will not be able to offer new contracts due to the UN resolution. Mongolia has been following every part of the resolution,” Shijeekhuugiin Odonbaatar, a Mongolian foreign ministry official, told AFP. The number of North Koreans working in Mongolia has dropped every year since peaking at 2,123 in 2013.

There were 1,190 North Koreans employed in the vast country of three million people as of November― often under murky work and living conditions.

Most of the North Kore-

ans who work abroad are in China and Russia, but they have also been found elsewhere in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Across the world, they work 12-hour to 16-hour days, with only one or two days off per month. The North Korean government takes between 70 and 90 percent of their monthly wages, which range from $300 to $1,000, according to the US State Department.

But their days abroad are numbered.

Some 150 North Koreans have left Angola. In Qatar, the contracts of some 650 construction workers will expire next year. Poland, where as many as 500 have labored, will not renew work permits.

The head of a Russian parliamentary delegation visiting North Korea this week said “everything” must be done to allow those who have already received work permits to finish their jobs in Russia, where an expert estimates around 30,000 live.

In Mongolia, construction companies have hired North Koreans for their reputation

for working long hours without complaint.

They live in tool sheds of construction sites or in the basements of apartment projects. They never take time off or even leave the construction sites as they are not allowed to wander in the city on their own.

In September, a 27-yearold North Korean worker died after falling from an apartment in a residential complex under construction in Ulaanbaatar.

At the fenced-off site, AFP journalists saw three tool sheds with a clothes line strung between them. The workers angrily refused to talk to the reporters and tried to grab their cameras.

A South Korean Christian activist who has sought to help North Koreans said he wished that Mongolians would do more for those who work in poor conditions.

“In winter most of them live in the basement of the building that they are building. There is no heating in that unfinished building,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. AFP

Alvin Neil Gutierrez is a Doctor of Business Administration student of the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University (DLSU). He took up his Masters in Human Resource Management as an AUSAID scholar from the University of Sydney Business School. He is also an Assistant Professor in the DLSU Marketing Management Department, where he teaches Basic Marketing, Marketing Insight, Product Management, Personal Selling and Sales Force Management, and Strategic Human Resource Management.

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

B3

VISIT. ‘Flip or Flop Vegas’ Stars Aubrey and Bristol Marunde visit with Santa at Los Cerritos Centeron December 1, 2017 in Los Angeles. AFP

tourists to Morocco

KETAMA, Morocco―It may not feature in Morocco’s official tourism brochures, but cannabis attracts thousands of visitors a year to the North African country.

At a hotel bar in the northern region of Ketama, German tourist Beatrix made no attempt to hide the joint she was rolling.

The 57-year-old said she had fallen in love with the area for “the quality of its hashish and the friendliness of its residents”.

Hassan, a 40-something sporting a conspicuous gold watch, said cannabis was “our main source of wealth”.

“The climate here is very special. Nothing grows here except kif,” he said, using a Moroccan name for the drug.

Northern Morocco is a key production center for hashish for export to Europe, but it has also seen traffic in the other direction―an influx of European visitors heading to sample the local pleasures.

While Moroccan law bans the sale and consumption of the drug, that has not stopped farmers growing vast plantations of it, providing a living for some 90,000 households, according to official figures for 2013, the most recent available.

Smoking kif is seen as part of the local culture, and is largely tolerated by the authorities.

Beatrix was among the organizers of the mid-September “Bombola Ganja” festival, essentially an evening gathering of smokers at a hotel swimming pool.

Cannabis leaves appeared prominently on the poster on Facebook for the event, alongside the names of trance DJs and a call for cannabis to be legalized for medicinal purposes.

Ketama hosts thousands of tourists a year, mostly from Europe but also from other parts of Morocco.

AFP

North Korea slams ‘dangerous’ US-South joint military drill SEOUL―North Korea on Sunday blasted the United States and South Korea as “warmongers” on the eve of their largest-ever joint air exercise, saying it could trigger a nuclear war.

The comments came as White House National Security Adviser H.R McMaster warned of the “increasing” possibility of war with the impoverished but nucleararmed North.

The five-day Vigilant Ace drill―involving some 230 aircraft including F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighters―begins Monday, five

days after the North test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile believed capable of hitting the US mainland in a fresh challenge to President Donald Trump.

The North’s ruling party Rodong newspaper slammed the coming drill.

“It is an open, all-out provocation against the DPRK, which may lead to a nuclear war any moment,” it said in an editorial Sunday, using the North’s official name.

“The US and South Korean puppet warmongers would be well advised to bear in mind that their

DPRK-targeted military drill will be as foolish as an act precipitating their self-destruction,” it said.

The commentary was published a day after Pyongyang’s foreign ministry accused the Trump administration of “begging for nuclear war” by staging what it called the reckless air drills.

McMaster said the possibility of war with the North was “increasing every day”.

“I think it’s increasing every day, which means that...we are in a race to be able to solve this problem,” he said at a forum on

Saturday.

“There are ways to address this problem short of armed conflict, but it is a race because he’s getting closer and closer, and there’s not much time left,” he said.

The North says the Hwasong-15 missile fired Wednesday can be tipped with a “super-large heavy warhead” capable of striking the whole US mainland.

But analysts remain unconvinced that it has mastered the advanced technology to allow the rocket to survive re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere. AFP

Cambodia’s strongman Hun Sen stamps his brand on the kingdom

CEREMONY. Balinese Hindu villagers carry offerings for a ceremony, at which they will pray for the Mount Agung volcano to stop erupting, in Kubu subdistrict in Karangasem Regency on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on December 3, 2017. Tens of thousands have already fled their homes around the volcano— which last erupted in 1963, killing around 1,600 people—but as many as 100,000 will likely be forced to leave in case of a full eruption, officials said. AFP

ANGKOR, Cambodia―Thousands of orange-clad monks joined Cambodian Premier Hun Sen Sunday for a prayer ceremony by the famed Angkor temple, lauding “political stability” after the main opposition party was dissolved, an act that has cemented the strongman’s grip on power.

Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia since 1985, making him one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, an accolade earned through a mix of cold political strategy, deft public relations and repression.

His rule appears virtually as-

sured after a court early this month disbanded the main opposition party ahead of next year’s elections.

As dawn rose over the tiered stone domes of Angkor Wat, Hun Sen joined prayers with 5,000 Buddhist monks, in a ceremony touted as celebrating peace and stability at the symbolic heart of Khmer power.

Graceful apsara dancers, fingers curled in the traditional art, went through their moves as thousands gathered for the event at the vast Angkor complex―the center-

piece of the Khmer empire which draws back to the 9th century.

Hun Sen, who has cast himself as a figure of stability in a country ravaged by the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, was front and centre of a morning of careful choreography.

Kneeling, hands clasped in prayer, he received blessings from monks who sang Buddhist mantras and scattered flower petals.

“We live with peace under the prime minister’s rule,” Prum Seab, 49, who was among the crowd told AFP. “I am happy.”

Tourism minister Thong Khon warmed to the theme.

“We hold this ceremony for continuous prosperity... we pray for continued peace and stability,” he told AFP, swatting away the question of a political crisis in the country.

“We have no crisis, but there are politicians who are having a crisis themselves,” he said.

Analysts had predicted a strong challenge to Hun Sen at next year’s election, after the youth vote in 2013 took the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party to its best ever electoral result. AFP

LGUs

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor editor.lgustandard@gmail.com

B4

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

‘IP’ CONGRESS. Sarangani Gov. Steve Chiongbian Solon joins indigenous people in their tribal dance during the 4th Indigenous Peoples Congress as part of the MunaTo Festival to celebrate the 25th Foundation Day of the province. Blaan, Tboli and Tagakaolo tribal peoples from the seven municipalities paraded around the Provincial Capitol Complex and showcased their cultural gems such as native games, songs, dances, food, agricultural produce, native crafts and handweaving under the Sulong Tribo program of the provincial government.

QC honors volunteers from 19 groups

By Rio N. Araja THE Quezon City government will honor 19 outstanding local volunteers who have provided their services to the people.

Mayor Herbert Bautista will spearhead the city’s Local Outstanding Volunteer Awards 2017 with this year’s theme “Bulontarismo, Daan Tungo sa Pagbabago.”

This year’s awardees are the Junior Chamber International Quezon City Capitol, Lim O Chu Foundation, Quezon City AntiCrime Advocates, Justice Cecilia Munoz Palma Foundation Inc., Legal na Ayuda para sa mga Inaapi at Dukha Inc., Children International Inc., Quezon City Library and Information Center, International Association for Volunteer Effort Philippines; International Youth Fellowship Philippines Inc., Anti-Narcotics International Assistance Group, Confederate Sentinels Group Inc., Anomalya, Mamamayang Ayaw sa Iligal na Droga under the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s Quezon City field office and International We Love U Foundation.

By Bill Casas

E

NSURING that they will have decent shelter by Christmas, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada has again distributed free construction materials to over 100 Manileños who lost their homes in two separate fires in Paco and San Miguel.

Estrada, ever the empathetic city mayor, said he cannot have any of these displaced spend Christmas in makeshift shelters or

evacuation facilities.

“Christmas is that time of the year that reminds us that we’re here for something else besides our-

selves—and that is to give help to those who are in need,” Estrada said during the ceremonial distribution of construction supplies in Barangay 645, Zone 67 in San Miguel District.

A total of 435 families were left homeless in the September 16 fire that hit a part of the depressed community situated near Malacanang and destroyed 46 houses, according to Barangay Chairman Jerry Bolante.

Each family received 35

pieces of assorted lumber, 10 pieces of plywood, 10 pieces of iron sheets, and four kilos of assorted nails.

Estrada then proceeded to Barangay 684, Zone 74 in Paco to also distribute building materials to another group of 133 families affected by a huge fire on October 29. They have been staying at the barangay covered court since then.

The Manila Department of Social Welfare and Development said an initial batch

CHRISTMAS is a time to celebrate with family and loved ones. But, residents of the Tacloban City Women Shelter do not have families to share the season with.

“I will spend time with them this Christmas, because I am their mother here in Tacloban,” said Cristina GonzalesRomualdez, the mayor of Tacloban City.

With her husband, former Mayor Alfred Romualdez, they established the shelter in 2010 to provide a home and relevant services to women and children in the city who are victims of abuse, maltreatment and violence.

In its seven years of being a second home for abused women and children, the shelter has seen 1,012 admissions and 1,374 walkins. The women and children in the facility are given extra care and protection by the employees of the City Social Welfare and Development Office.

Mayor Cristina’s promise is the answer to Jessa’s wish.

“I miss my mom, I hope Mayor can come and visit us in Christmas,” said 18-yearold Jessa when asked what she wanted for Christmas. Jessa, who has physical disability and autism, was raped when she was 9 and got pregnant at the age of 13. Her baby died at birth. She could have died, too, if not for the Women Shelter that took her in and cared for her.

of 104 families from the two barangays received free construction supplies that they can use to rebuild their destroyed houses.

“This is Mayor Erap’s early Christmas gift to them,” MDSW chief Nanet Tanyag said.

“We’re hoping that before Christmas, they have rebuilt their houses,” she added, saying the city government can even dispatch workers to help the displaced families.

Last October, Estrada visited Barangay 770, Zone 84 in San Andres Bukid and turned over P2.1 million worth of construction materials to 71 families rendered homeless by another fire on September 5.

The city mayor also visited Barangay 704, Zone 77 in Adriatico last September to personally distribute construction materials to 102 families who lost their homes in yet another fire on Aug. 18.

IN BRIEF UV driver accuses HPG cops of holdup

CHOICE DESTINATION. Quezon Gov. David C.Suarez [third from right] receives a plaque for the Destination of the Year award from the Department of Tourism. Quezon Province generated a total of 6,334,025 Same-Day Tourism Arrivals in 2016. Looking on is Alona Party-list Rep. Anna V. Suarez [center], while inset photo shows Quezon Governor’s Office Executive Chief of Staff Webster Letargo and Quezon Mayor’s League President Ferdinand Mauban Mayor Dingdong Llmas. Benjie A. Antioquia

with Smart Communications Inc. and International Care Ministries.

More than 200 cleft patients have been screened and close to 130 are slated for reconstructive surgery at QualiMed Hospital in

Iloilo, according to OSP director of programs Christine Lu. “We’ve reached our target, but since there are so many more we haven’t been able to accommodate this time around, we’re already planning for the next mis-

sion in Iloilo,” she said.

An International Care Ministries medical case coordinator takes a photo of a young cleft patient using the Operation Smile app during a medical mission at QualiMed

Hospital in Iloilo City.

Smart has initiated the development of the app, which helps Operation Smile record patient information and map patients for efficient planning of medical missions.

Munti engineering school accepts applicants today OFFERING five engineering programs for 2018, Colegio de Muntinlupa will be accepting applicants for admission on Dec. 4 and announces its first entrance examination date on Dec. 16.

CDM calls for application to its five engineering programs: BS Civil Engineering, BS Computer Engineering, BS Electrical Engineering, BS Electronics Engineering, and BS Mechanical Engineering. CDM programs will be open for Muntinlupa and non-

By Robbie Pangilinan

Fire aid for 100 Manilans

Smart, Operation Smile, ICM bring smiles to Iloilo cleft patients CLEFT patients from as far as Luzon and Mindanao traveled to Iloilo City recently for a chance at a better smile through a free medical program spearheaded by Operation Smile Philippines in partnership

Tacloban mayor staying in shelter for Christmas

Muntinlupa residents.

Processing of admission will commence on Dec. 4 to 8, 11 to 15, and January 8 - onwards at 3F Muntinlupa Plaza Central, Poblacion from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Applicants must bring the following requirements: Completely Filled-up Application Form, Photocopy of Current Grades (Grade 11 & 12) in Senior High School, and Two (2) Passport-Sized Photos (Recent Formal Attire with White Background).

FIRE TRUCK DONATION. Toyota Motor Philippines Corp., through its social and humanitarian arm Toyota Motor Philippines Foundation, recently donated a fire truck to Barangay Pulong Sta. Cruz in the City of Santa Rosa, Laguna. During the turnover ceremony, Pulong Sta. Cruz barangay captain Constancia Dones received the fire truck from TMP president Satoru Suzuki, witnessed by barangay city councilors and Toyota officials.

OFFICERS of the Highway Patrol Group allegedly held up a UV Express driver on Aug. 15 in what the complainant called an illegal operation.

Around 5 a.m. on that day, HPG officer Rekinales apprehended driver Jerry Dizon along Zabarte Road and accused him of taking passenger and collecting fare amounting to P50 as stated on an inspection summon report issued by a certain Mr. Oclares. It was later found out that Oclares was never at the Novaliches area on that day and time, and was seen inside the LTFRB compound when the summon ticket was issued.

Dizon, on the way to his UV Express terminal at Robinson’s Novaliches where he normally starts his route as stipulated on his franchise, offered a ride to five relatives and three neighbors from the same subdivision (Villa Magdalena 3) where he resides and where the UV Express van’s garage is located.

Rekinales and another HPG enforcer told Dizon they were conducting a checkpoint under the I-Act operation to catch “out of line” and “colorum” violators. According to Dizon, the officers did not even ask the passengers if they are indeed paying fare and did not give him a chance to explain that he only gave a ride to his relatives and neighbors going to the terminal free of charge.

“The UV Express driven by Jerry came from his house which is in between the Zabarte and Vicas UV terminals.

He could have fully occupied the van with 18 passengers if he intended to operate outside the allowed franchise route since many passengers are at the two terminals,” said owner and complainant Ramil Aninang, an IT expert and businessman. Robbie Pangilinan

DA to convert research land into agro-eco spot THE Davao Region Upland Agriculture Research Station will soon convert the 429 hectare land into an agro eco tourism area.

During the groundbreaking ceremony of the Multipurpose R&D Building on Friday (Nov. 29), Assistant Regional Director for Research and Regulations Dr. Angelina Pancho said the establishment of the said building will be the start of the many developments in the area.

She bared that part of the planned development includes: Sloping agricultural land technology, establishment of building for goat production and development of creeks for fish production.

“This [429 hectares] has a big potential to become an agro eco tourism area. We can conduct research about climate resilient crops here and put more buildings which can help the farmers as well as the IPs,” Pancho adds.

She also said that the more building established, the more jobs will be generated which can help the indigenous people in the area.

Meanwhile, Digna Sandoval, head of Institutional Development Division of Department of AgricultureBureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) said the donated Multipurpose R&D building is part of the Institutional Development Grant (IDG) given by their agency in support to the regional stations under BAR.

Life

Isah V. Red, Editor Bernadette Lunas, Writer isahred@gmail.com

FOOD

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

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Flavors of Christmas For the holidays, Chef Myrna suggests preparing Filipino dishes, such as this jazzed up saging turon, that evoke happy memories of Christmas past.

“L THE JOYCE OF EATING JOYCE BABE PAÑARES

AHAT tayo may hugot (we all have our mawkish moments),” said renowned Chef Myrna Segismundo as she whipped up a festive Filipino Christmas spread during a session of The Maya Kitchen Culinary Elite Series.

“We all have what I call flavor mem- including that of our childhood,” she ories – the vivid scents and flavors of added. dishes that bring back happy memories, Segismundo, who has been advocat-

ing the promotion of local dishes on the international scene, said Filipino food does not need to be made gourmet or fused with other cuisines to be good.

“Our cuisine holds a special place in our hearts. It is special because of the memories and emotions we have attached to it. It reminds us of home, of family, and of comfort. Do we need foreigners to validate this for us and tell us how wonderful our ingredients and food are?’

“We have to think of what we have and take pride in the food that we serve, particularly during the holidays,” she said.

She recalled her mother’s own Christmas showstopper, beef morcon, which

took her several years before being able to replicate it despite having followed the family recipe to the letter.

“Several Christmases ago, when my mom, Emilia, was still alive, I documented the way she cooked morcon. I followed exactly the way she does it, hoping to replicate its taste,” said Segismundo, who started helping in the kitchen at the tender age of five years old.

“Now, I have probably accomplished replicating it by 95 percent.

Hopefully, by the time the morcon and the sauce heat up, my mother would have already blessed the dish from heaven and it would taste just like her morcon,” she said.

For her holiday menu, Segismundo started with a delectable and intelligently-executed adobo pate and a fresh salad of ubod and pomelos with honeyed-patis dressing and topped with shrimp kinilaw drizzled in Balayan bagoong.

“Everybody loves adobo, and Filipinos will also claim that their adobo is the best version. I decided to tweak the dish and apply French cooking techniques to turn it into adobo pate,” she said. She also prepared pepper jelly, a wonderful sweet and spicy foil to the saltiness of the adobo pate.

Segismundo chose to up her salad game with the kinilaw, which to her is a “memorable” dish as she

Adobo pate and ubod and pomelo salad topped with shrimp kinilaw

served this in her attempt to promote Philippine food during the 2015 Madrid Fusion.

“Our kinilaw is really different from ceviche because of the vinegar that we use, which gives the dish a hint of sweetness,” she said.

For dessert, she prepared Turrones de Manila (which is really the proletarian saging turon with langka) but up-served with vanilla gelato spazzacamino (coffee powder and whiskey-spiked ice cream).

Segismundo’s holiday spread is familiar and comforting, evoking cherished memories of Filipino food favorites while revealing innovations that allow one to tweak the flavor without overly deconstructing the dishes.

“They key really is this: Don’t be afraid to taste the dish that you are cooking. Any chef who does not taste is only showing off.”

“I like to work with flavor layers, to achieve that balance of sweetness, sourness, saltiness, and spiciness that is the trademark of Filipino cuisine,” she said.

For feedback, send comments to joyce.panares@gmail.com

MORCON a la EMILIA Serves 4 - 6

2 kls. Beef Sirloin, cut into 2 portions, each measuring 8 x 5 x ½-inch slices (pound lightly if needed) Juice from 2 lemons or limes or 10 pcs calamansi 1 cup Soy Sauce 1 head Garlic, peeled and crushed 1 tsp Black Peppercorns, cracked 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter 8 -10 pcs Sweet Pickles, quartered 4- 6 pcs Spanish Sausages (Chorizo) each cut into 4 horizontal strips 200 gms Pork Fat, cut into 1/4 x 2-inch strips 1/3 kl Edam Cheese or Queso de Bola cut into 1/4 x 2-inch strips 150 gms Ham Strips 1 can Pimiento, sliced into strips 5 pcs Eggs, boiled, peeled and wedged Butcher’s Thread 2 pcs White Onions, minced, sautéed in a little oil 4 pcs Tomatoes, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped, sautéed in a little oil Enough Water to cover meat 1 cup Tomato Sauce 3 pcs Potatoes, peeled and quartered 1/3 cup Green Olives Salt and Pepper, to taste Marinate beef slices in lemon, lime or calamansi juice, soy sauce, garlic and pepper for 2 hours.

Remove beef from marinade and spread slices flat on tray.

Reserve marinade. Spread top side of each slice with butter.

Line each center of the slices horizontally with strips of pickles, sausages, pork fat, cheese, ham, pimientos and boiled eggs.

Roll each slice into a cylinder and tie with butcher’s thread to bind beef and stuffing. Rub and coat rolls with the sautéed onions and tomatoes.

Place beef rolls in a pot or casserole. Pour marinade. Add water and tomato sauce. Cook rolls covered over medium heat for about 30 minutes until sauce thickens or until beef is half-done. Add quartered potatoes and olives and continue simmering till beef is tender. Season with salt and pepper.

Cool beef rolls thoroughly. Remove string. Carefully slice the rolled beef into half-inch thick cuts making sure the stuffing is intact. Arrange slices neatly on a platter. Heat sauce with potatoes and olives. Pour sauce over slices and garnish with the potatoes and olives. Serve warm.

Life

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017 isahred@gmail.com

Keeping up with Miss Jones

R

ISING in the digital landscape as one of the most influential voices in creative media, Kim Jones shares what her work is like and how she has grown to have more conscious and refined choices in life.

The digital creative is thrilled with the infinite source of inspiration around her.

Miss Jones, whose day or week is anything but typical, juggles her studies with meetings, shoots, brainstorming sessions, and answering seemingly endless emails.

When asked how she feels about the constant travelling that comes with her work, she attests to genuinely enjoying the process saying, “I really love it. It can be laborious at times, but I revel in the fact that I never quite know what’s around the corner. The travelling for me is enjoyable too, and spending time up in the air switching off and allowing thoughts and ideas to percolate is relaxing for me.”

Kim confesses that all she needs while on board a plane is her trusty iPad for a New York Times crossword puzzle or two, a sleeping mask, and sachets of her new coffee of choice, the NESCAFÉ Gold Collection.

Working with some of the biggest names in retail like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, and her creations being featured in top magazines in the country and around the world, Kim Jones creates a unique voice that is characterized by high-quality, creative, and compelling storytelling that resonates well digitally. Although her fashion repertoire captivates a global audience, Kim Jones’ key philosophy with style is simple and local. “We have an amazing variety of Filipino designers that would benefit greatly from consumers wanting to purchase outside of high street fast fashion brands. I advocate slow fashion and think that we can afford to

For someone who works as hard as Kim Jones, a strong and delicious cup of coffee, courtesy of Nescafe Gold Collection, comes in handy.

pump the breaks and buy thoughtfully.

Today more than ever, it’s important to embrace individuality and move away from the homogenous tendencies of the digital world.”

For someone whose profession you might think requires rooms full of closets, Kim’s style choices are actually now more thoughtful and refined, investing in classic pieces she knows

will stand the test of time and rise above ever-changing trends. The same goes for the simpler necessities in her life and work, starting with coffee.

Tried and true to her style and taste, the new NESCAFÉ Gold Collection has become Miss Jones’ perfect partner to her dynamic lifestyle.

For those who work as hard as they play, and deserve to enjoy nothing short

of a coffee experience like no other, there is the new NESCAFÉ Gold Collection.

Offering the signature smooth tastes and enticing aromas skillfully fashioned by NESCAFÉ’s coffee masters, the NESCAFÉ Gold Collection introduces itself as the new icon of premium quality coffee. Indulge in a deluxe blend of the finest, handpicked Arabica and Robusta coffee beans,

perfectly roasted, finely ground, combined with exquisite milk, and layered with a rich, velvety café froth. Choose from three delicious flavors and discover which one satisfies your taste: Latte Macchiato, Cappuccino, and White Espresso.

It’s available in supermarkets, large groceries, and select convenience stores.

May Sparkling Juice’s

6-ingredient mocktail recipes

Romulo Cafe serves its take on Lola Virginia’s Chicken Relleno and Lechon Roll, favorite Christmas dishes of the late General Carlos P. Romulo.

Romulo Café Christmas Spread IN THE memoirs of the late General Carlos P Romulo, he recalled the joy of childhood Christmases, “the feasting and parties . . . midnight mass on Christmas Eve in the old church made mystical by the glow of candles and fragrance of incense . . . and the sense of being safe with all one’s family in the presence of God.” The best part was what followed the late-night mass: “Stumbling home under the midnight stars, half-asleep and clinging to my father’s hand, the ecstasy of the moment when, laughing at my

weary plight, he would stoop down and scoop me up into his strong arms and carry me home.”

Once home, the young Romulo’s drowsiness forgotten, a rich feast always greeted them and always included lechon and relleno. With such vivid and fond memories, it is no surprise that Christmas family gatherings continued to be the most important kind in the Romulo household, and that his wife’s Christmas spread grew over their 44 years of marriage, just as the

family grew to include four sons and ten grandchildren.

The Romulo Cafe replicates Virginia Llamas-Romulo’s Christmas spread in all their branches. Come have Lola Virginia’s Chicken Relleno or our Lechon Roll (allow two days’ notice) with your family and friends to celebrate the Christmas season.

For orders and reservations, please call: Romulo Café, Jupiter Street, Tel: 4786406 (Amy); Romulo Café, Quezon City Tel. 3327275 (Gilbert); Romulo Café, Alabang Tel: 5561443 (Edith)

A FANCY and family-perfect drink, serving mocktails allow a more inclusive atmosphere that are insanely satisfying but totally liquor-free. A perfect party refresher that will also put all your guests in the holiday fun and festive spirit, it’s also ideal to serve for all reason or occasion. And these almost effortless recipes will encourage you to Say Yes to May today.

Pop open a bottle and you know that it’s made of fresh and fruity flavors, with an aroma that’s like an autumn stroll through the vineyards and the alluring smell of winery during harvest.

Made of Belgium’s finest and carefully selected red and white grapes, each pour of May Sparkling Juice is a reminder of the good times and will make you more than ready to celebrate whatever life throws at you. So bring on the joy and try these recipes that will surely send a jolt of excitement in each sip.

Garnish: mint sprigs Instructions: Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over high heat.

Cook until sugar dissolves, stirring with a whisk. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.

Strain and discard solids. Working in batches, place diced watermelon and fresh lime juice in a blender. Process until smooth.

Strain watermelon mixture through a fine sieve into a pitcher; discard solids. Stir in sugar syrup and May Sparkling Juice.

Serve over ice. Garnish, if desired.

Myron’s exciting new menu “THERE are 21 new reasons to visit Myron’s at our new location in Ascott Makati,” says restaurateur Ramon Eugenio.

It was in October last year when Ramon and his wife Chef Monique made the bold move to relocate their popular Greenbelt restaurant to the centrally-located Glorietta mall. Their new address on the 6th level of Ascott Makati presented a unique opportunity to capture a wider market that not only includes mall-goers, but also providing breakfast and room service for Ascott Makati’s hotel guests, and handling banquet services for hotel functions through its Banquets by Myron’s division. That kind of forward thinking and entrepreneurial zeal led them to refresh their menu. “This past first year allowed us to look into the needs of this new market from a culinary perspective. Our sous chefs were only happy to take the challenge, and frankly, we are most excited with this latest iteration of the menu.”

Myron’s launched their new menu on Oct.11, the restaurant’s first anniversary. The updated menu is a mix of old reliables and exciting new dishes from the collaborative culinary minds Noticeable standouts of the 21 new creations include Chipirones Fritos served with a Squid Ink Aioli; Handmade Spinach Fettuccine with Chorizo, Mussels, Shrimps and Oregano, Coriander White

May’s Mango Tropical Fizz Handmade Spinach Fettuccine with Chorizo, Mussels, Shrimp and Oregano

Herb Crusted Parrot Fish in a Green Pea Broth with a Timbale of Arugula-Walnut Pesto

Snapper with a Röesti Cannelloni filled with Spinach and Mushrooms and a number of delectable oyster recipes.

Of course, the restaurant is known for The President, a 500-gram certified Angus Beef Rib Eye steak, described on the menu as “charred on the outside and perfectly juicy on the inside, with juices collecting at the bottom of a tilted warm plate.”

A new wine list was created in careful consideration of the new recipes in the menu. For example, the Domaine Mittnacht Freres Cuvee Gyotaku pairs quite well with the Black Tiger Prawns with San Francisco Garlic Noodles.

The menu also presents an array of new desserts, curated by Monique

and Myron’s Executive Pastry Chef Al Agapay. The selection includes a luscious chocolate creation called The Magnificent Mr. C.; Songbird - a Grand Marnier mousse in a chocolate case with caramel crunch; Shine lemon curd crème brulee, and Once on this Island - a Nutella cremeux with balls of mango, kiwi and watermelon, and a quenelle of Mango Yogurt.

For inquiries and table reservations, call Myron’s at (02) 755-8898 or e-mail reservations@myronsph.com. Follow @myronsph on Facebook and @myrons_ ph on Instagram.

Myron’s is located on the 6th Floor of Ascott Makati, Glorietta 4, Makati City.

May’s Watermelon Surprise

The perfect match for a rich dish, this intensely refreshing concoction will open the palate to the wonders of watermelon. The zing of lemon also enhances its bright and juicy flavor that’s perfect for sipping on a warm day.

Ingredients: 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 10 cup diced watermelon 3/4 cup fresh lime juice 4 cups chilled May Sparkling Juice (red) Ice cubes

When life gives you lemons, serve this invigorating drink that’s both sweet and tart. Be sure to add some fresh sprig of mint leaves for that whiff of crisp and cooling f lavor.

Ingredients: 1 bottle May Sparkling Juice (white), chilled 1 cup fresh lime juice 1/2 cup cold water 1/2 cup white sugar Ice cubes Fresh mint (optional) Instructions: In a pitcher whisk together 1/2 cup water and sugar until sugar has dissolved.

Mix until well blended.

Stir in lime juice. Pour in May Sparkling Juice and stir once.

Add in ice and mint.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

Yeng, Kim in ‘Nice To Meet You’

Marvin Agustin back on TV and on GMA 7 AFTER six years, Marvin Agustin is staging a grand comeback as a Kapuso via the station’s latest prime time series titled Kambal, Karibal with Bianca Umali and Miguel Tanfelix.

“My last program on GMA was Iglot way back in 2011. From there, I did projects with rival networks but eventually had to lie low because I concentrated on my restaurant business. Now, it’s good to be back in the acting scene although it’s not what I originally planned to do upon my return.”

According to the actorbusinessman, he dreams of branching out into directing and aired this request to the Kapuso management during their negotiation period.

“Actually, Ms. Annette (Gozon) and I are constant text mates. I mentioned it to her and when I met with the network’s other top executives, they told me that for a starter under my new contract with them, I would still act for their latest show Kambal, Karibal. Ha-haha!

“I agreed. Well, of course, acting will always be a part of me. It’s something which I can’t turn my back on. Especially when your part is meaty and challenging, I see no reason why you would decline. That’s exactly my case with Kambal, Karibal. So for the meantime, I’ll be acting in front of the cameras once again!”

Interestingly, where did his desire to direct emanate?

“Not all people know that I studied Filmmaking at the New York University last year.

I also enrolled for an online workshop in scriptwriting.

It’s good that GMA is open to letting me handle some of their anthologies in the coming days.

Who knows, when the taping schedule is light, I might be allowed to shoot the scenes, so I’m excited. Our director Don Michael Perez is there to guide me.”

The be-dimpled actor feels he has already accumulated enough experience to try directing.

“I’m hitting on my 22nd year as an actor. All these times, I learned how to use the camera.

I also became friends with lots of stars. It’s a good feeling that you know you can work with anybody. At present, I’m asking around and observing as to what material I can possibly tackle in the future. But if you’ll ask me, I want to do a romancecomedy, drama and comedy as well. That will be nice.”

Does this mean he will eventually concentrate working behind the cameras and forget about acting?

“Oh, no! As I’ve mentioned earlier, acting is like second skin to me. I will always be an actor no matter what. I will always accept projects especially if I like the concept and my co-stars like here in Kambal, Karibal where I share the frame with Carmina (Villaroel), Gardo (Versoza), Ms. Jean (Garcia) and Tito Boyet (de Leon),”

ends Marvin. ******** According to Toni Gonzaga, tapings for her hit sitcom Home Sweetie Home opposite John Lloyd Cruz continues even if the latter is on an indefinite leave.

“Life goes on for us in the show,” she avers. “As long as there’s no advice from the management, we’ll continue.

So far, we’re just taking things one day at a time. If there’s a script and call time, then, we’ll report on the set.”

Any news about Lloydie?

“Honestly, nothing official as of the moment. Even the management, they’re not saying anything about what’s the latest developments on him.

They don’t even have any word either about the show so we surmise it will continue airing until John Lloyd returns.”

The TV host-actresscomedienne hopes that her leading man would be able to settle his personal issues eventually and come back.

“I wish Lloydie the best in his quest for personal peace,” says Toni. “It’s imperative for him to find himself at this point and find his mojo back. I hope he’s happy with his decision.”

It’s good she is supportive of John Lloyd’s sudden move of taking a break from show business.

“Of course! We should be for everybody’s happiness.

Wherever they find peace, joy and rest, we should respect and support it. I don’t think we have any right to block or disapprove it. Everything happens for a reason, right?”

Speaking of vacation, Toni is still ecstatic over her recent trip to Europe alongside husband Paul Soriano, son Seve and sibling Alex Gonzaga.

“It’s such a wonderful trip!

Actually, we planned said travel a long time ago. It’s been our dream to make the trip after Seve turns one and Paul celebrates his birthday. I’m just so glad that it really pushed through with my sister in tow.”

Whose idea was it to tag Alex along?

“Actually, Paul’s! At least, we have a helping hand in taking care of Seve while on vacation. Ha-ha-ha! By the way, Paul’s mother and brother were also with us so it was really an enjoyable trip. No nanny, no PA, just ourselves.”

The talented star reveals that their two-week long European vacation served as a perfect bonding opportunity for the whole family.

“It’s been one full year since I returned to work and the trip was worth it. We went to Rome, Paris and Florence, to name a few. I’m simply happy because not only was I able to spend quality time with Seve but recharged my batteries as well,” Toni states.

F

ILIPINO poprock princess Yeng Constantino and chinita princess Kim Chiu mark another milestone in their careers as they get to perform alongside popular Chinese performers in the first-ever Phil-Chi Star Concert dubbed Nice To Meet You on Jan. 17, 2018, 8 p.m. at Mall of Asia Arena.

They will join Chinese artists G.E.M., Della Wu, Chief (Chao Chuan), and Da Zhuang in the concert produced by the Philippine Dragon Media Network (PDMN).

The event, expected to draw thousands of Chinese- Filipino crowd, aims to bring in the biggest and most exciting music event at the beginning of the new year to help promote both local and Chinese music to the audience.

PDMN has partnered with Star Music

THERE’S good news for beep™ cardholders and movie fanatics as the tap-and-go smartcard and Robinsons Movieworld officially launch their partnership which will allow movie patrons to pay via beep™ card in select Robinsons Movieworld branches.

This pioneering program is available in Robinsons Movieworld Galleria Ortigas, Manila, Magnolia, Metro East, and Forum.

Moviegoers simply have to present their beep™ card at the cinema ticket

counter and tap to pay their way for a cashless and convenient transaction.

Concessionary beep™ card holders will continue to enjoy discounts, provided they present their Senior Citizen and PWD ID upon purchasing the movie tickets.

“Since we launched in 2015, the beep™ card has taken you places by train and bus, and even got you through toll ways and convenience stores. We’re thrilled to partner with Robinsons Movieworld, and offer new

a couple of Chinese songs in the past, such as “Peng Yu” and “Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo de Xin.” Aside from the two female singers, the world-renowned Loboc Children’s Choir from Loboc, Bohol will also perform at the concert.

experiences to beep™ cardholders,” said Peter Maher, president and CEO of AF Payments Inc. Robinsons Land Corporation’s Senior Vice-President and Business Unit’s General Manager Arlene G. Magtibay said, “It is our company’s thrust to continuously develop ways

Elmo Magalona and Janella Salvador otherwise known as Elnella

ElNella excites audiences

VIEWERS nationwide warmly welcomed Janella Salvador and Elmo Magalona Magalona’s return to TV. Wansapanataym Presents: Jasmin’s Flower Powers led in nationwide ratings for two Sundays.

The series starring ElNella was a hit among viewers as it scored a national TV rating of 29.4 percent on Nov. 19 versus Daig Kayo ng Lola Ko (19.4 percent), according to data from Kantar Media.

The show also premiered strongly on Nov. 12 (31.2 percent), compared to its rival program with only 19.4 percent.

Although at first they seemed to be a good match, Jasmin (Janella) and Thor (Elmo)’s love story ended abruptly and bitterly. Because of his mother’s disapproval, Jasmin had to break up with

Monday, December 4, 2017

article 55 Drink like Fluffy 57 Miss Piggy’s friend 61 Monthly expense 62 Tiant or Aparicio 64 “Hasta —!”

65 Fasten permanently 66 “— Karenina” 67 “Crocodile Rock” singer — John 68 Failing that 69 Bothers persistently 70 Tractor pioneer DOWN 1 Lacerate 2 Bath decor 3 Developed 4 Not artificial 5 Fearsome vampire 6 Puppy noise 7 Crossing the ocean 8 Bushed 9 Savings (2 wds.)

10 Shogun’s warriors 11 — — costs 12 Trite 13 Pet lovers’ grp.

21 Conger 25 “Like a Rolling

and Cornerstone Entertainment to bring in local artists to perform with the Chinese celebrity guests.

Yeng has a version of her huge hit “Ikaw” in Mandarin, while Kim, who just released her third album “Touch Of Your Love” under Star Music, has recorded

Tickets are available at all SM Tickets outlets, Lucky Chinatown Mall Ground Floor Concierge, and at smtickets.com, priced at P17,800 (VIP), P15,000 (patron), P8,500 (lower box), P4,200 (upper box) and P2,800 (general admission).

beep™ your way to Robinsons Movieworld

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Rack 6 Open wide 10 Kangaroo pouches 14 Smoker’s choice 15 Psychic’s intro (2 wds.)

16 Sleep like — — 17 Prince Val’s wife 18 Edible seeds 19 Painter — Chagall 20 Mark down 22 Technique 23 Wrist-to-elbow bone 24 Felt sorrow over 26 Annual 28 Outspokenly 31 Youth org.

32 Popular lily 33 In a listless manner 39 Between pi and sigma 40 Some parents 41 Aussie jumper 42 Replaces 45 Big house 47 Carpet 48 Couple 50 Photos 53 Luke Skywalker’s guru 54 Shorten an

Yeng Constantino and Kim Chiu join the biggest Filipino-Chinese concert happening next month at the Mall of Asia Arena

Stone” singer 27 Tempe inst.

28 Playback machines 29 Maui neighbor 30 Filly’s footfall 34 Lb. or tsp.

35 Mean 36 First 007 movie (2 wds.)

37 Weaving machine 38 Nostalgic time 40 Globe circumnavigator

43 Jabber 44 Clumsy person 45 Shaped clay 46 Usually (3 wds.)

49 Stir-fry pan 50 Having no drawbacks 51 Skimpy skirts 52 Condo luxury 54 Ocean flier 56 Metallic sound 58 Distribute 59 Borodin prince 60 Shape up 63 Eur. carrier

Thor without him knowing the real reason behind her decision.

The ex-lovers are now forced to grapple with their past after fate brought them again together when Jasmin started working for the company owned by Thor’s family.

But while Jasmin is determined to do well in her job, Thor is making it hard for her by trying to hurt her feelings and showing around a new girlfriend.

Will Jasmin and Thor ever get along again? How will they get over their past?

Catch the magical stories filled with valuable lessons in Wansapanataym Presents: Jasmin’s Flower Powers every Sunday on ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN HD (SkyCable ch 167).

to cater to our public’s ever changing needs. Having made our tickets the most available online to date, we are now gearing towards relevantly expanding our payment acceptance system, and we are happy to be the first to do this with Beep and its cardholders.”

Isah V. Red, Editor Nickie Wang, Writer isahred@gmail.com MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2017

HEART EVANGELISTA and CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN HIGH PROFILE. Kapuso actress Heart Evangelista and French fashion designer Christian Louboutin are enjoying each other's company at the Philippine Tattler Ball

F

OR a lot of shoe buff and collectors, the name Christian Louboutin is mentioned with both awe and reverence. To wear a Louboutin, for most Filipinos, is like wearing a badge of honor, after all, it’s a brand among the most expensive in the world.

Recently, our own Heart Evangelista not only wore a pair of Louboutin, she also danced in it with the designer himself at the Philippine Tattler Ball.

If that’s not b e i n g in what we call a l t a sociedad, then I don’t know what to call it.

The two were spotted at the ball like they were having a ball, so to speak.

No, Heart’s d e a r hubby, the senator (Chiz Escudero) wasn’t around to s e e h i s wife

charming the French coutourier.

Apart from Louboutin, Heart is also a friend of one of Hermes executives who never fails to invite her to Hermes ISAH V. RED events in Paris. That’s not all, she has recently been signed

by Carolina Herrera to be the Philippine brand ambassador of the Venezuelanborn American fashion designer whose store was recently opened at Greenbelt 5.

Heart in a recent interview said, “I feel na, well I’m gonna do something, I have to go back to Paris, once. I have a few meetings and to attend certain events.”

She is leaving anytime this month or January.

“The last time I was there, katabi ko was the President of the Couture Federation. So, ‘di ko siya ano, kasi wala naman akong kilala and then,’Hi I’m..’ ganyan. It’s so overwhelming.

Minsan nga, naiiyak ako eh. Kasi you only see it in the magazines. And some of the gowns there are outrageously expensive that you cannot buy, it’s impossible to buy. But you can touch it, you can go to the showrooms after and you get to meet the designers. You get to be friends with certain people.”

Heart added, “Actually, the last time I was there, I was invited to a show. It’s the couture line of Dolce and Gabbana and they invited me to their show. And they were so nice, and then naging kaibigan ko ‘yung isang guy dun na head, and he’s like, ‘come with me.’ Gumanon siya.

‘Tas sabi ko, ‘Why?’ He made me try on, I think it was like, more than three million na gown. Couture.”

So, guys, that’s Heart for you… *** GMA Network’s Senior News Producer and news anchor Raffy Tima was one of the resource speakers at the 10th Global Investigative Journalism Conference on Nov. 16 to 19 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Tima shared his experiences in the field of drone journalism during the “Drones, Sensors, and Satellites” session on the first day of the conference.

Considered one of the pioneers in drone journalism in the country, Tima’s presentation focused on how he used drones in the coverage of the Marawi siege. He also discussed general rules on flying drones and shared valuable tips on

using drones in investigative journalism.

More than 1,200 investigative journalists from 130 countries attended the 10th Global Investigative Journalism Conference. *** Wish Ko Lang with Vicky Morales is celebrating its 15th year this month.

For its initial anniversary episode last Saturday, Wish Ko Lang! featured the touching story of Rolly (Carlos Agassi). What seemed to be a happy gathering turned out to be the start of Rolly’s nightmare. Rolly and his father-in-law were then drinking with some friends. But things got heated and Rolly, who was then trying to stop the fight, accidentally stabbed his father in law.

Rolly tried to ask for his wife’s forgiveness but she still sued him and Rolly was sent to jail. His children were also prohibited to visit him. Despite this, Rolly did his best to keep his record clean in order to secure an early release. An unfortunate surprise, however, was waiting for him upon his release from prison: his wife is now with another man while his children are nowhere to be found.

Joining Carlos in the episode were Lovely Abella, Kristoffer King, and Lharby Policarpio.

Wish Ko Lang! airs every Saturday afternoon, after Tadhana, on GMA 7.

Actor Carlos Agassi stars in a "Wish Kong Lang!" anniversary presentation

Christmas has never been this bad IT’S the most wonderful time of the year- Christmas! It only happens once a year that’s why we always want to make it a very memorable occasion, especially for our family. And behind every memorable Christmas, is a stressed mom wrapping every gift, decorating the tree, baking the cookies, and making sure everything is Christmas perfect.

But this year, the resident Bad Moms are not having any of these perfect Christmas stuff. Amy (Mila Kunis), Kiki (Kristen Bell), and Carla (Kathryn Hahn) are going to celebrate Christmas the way they know how: Fun and Crazy!

After the box office success of Bad Moms in 2016, Writers/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, and producer Suzanne Todd reunite this holiday season to bring you A Bad Moms The film tells the story of how Amy, Kiki and Carla rebel against the challenges, expectations and pressure of creating a perfect Christmas for their families.

And to add to the holiday chaos, the Bad Moms’ mommas are paying them a visit! Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines

Bad Moms having some good time with Santa in the Christmas episode of the top-rating series

and Susan Sarandon join the crazy cast as Amy, Kiki and Carla’s moms respectively.

Christine Baranski (Ruth) plays as Amy’s perfectionist mom, who loves Christmas and go all out on the yuletide spirit. Cheryl Hines (Sandy) is Kiki’s clingy and overbearing mom.

After losing her husband, she focused all her love and adoration on Kiki, which crosses the healthy and normal boundaries. Susan Sarandon (Isis) plays Carla’s carefree-spirited mom. Pretty much like how Carla is.

Christmas, family, and moms. Amy, Kiki and Carla have to juggle all these during the most wonderful and at the same time stressful time of the year.

But knowing these Bad Moms, they will surely create the most fun and memorable Christmas for their family in their own way. And at the same time discover a closer relationship with their own mothers.

A Bad Moms Christmas kicks off the holiday season in theaters nationwide, from VIVA International Pictures.

Apple's flagship handset iPhone X is now available for local consumers

Smart opens registration for iPhone X

GEARING up for the official launch of the iPhone X in the Philippines, Smart has started accepting pre-orders for the iPhone X at the Smart Online Store and at all Smart Stores nationwide, offering the device at only P3,199 per month for 24 months.

With P3,199 per month, this includes your monthly device amortization of P1,700 and Plan 1499, which includes 9GB data, unlimited texts to all networks, 60 minutes of calls to all networks, and free access to the app of your choice every month, plus 1 month Gadget Shield.

To check Smart’s iPhone X offers, head to smart.com.ph/iPhoneX. With its featurepacked plans for the iPhone X, Smart is your best bet when it comes to finally getting iPhone’s premium 10th anniversary phone.

Here are top reasons you should consider signing up with Smart for your iPhone X this Christmas: 1. Enjoy lower monthly cash-out at P3,199 per month, charged to your monthly bill. Smart makes it easier for you to own the iPhone X at only P3,199 per month, inclusive of data, calls and text services.

Moreover, you can have your monthly device fee charged to your monthly bill at the get-go for greater convenience. As such, you don’t need to worry about coughing up a huge initial cash-out payment, or produce select credit cards.

2. Get a better value plan with P3,499 per month. Want to get more bang for your buck?

With P3,499 per month, Smart gives you a much lower total device cost as well as bigger data volume. Broken down, Smart’s P3,499 per month offer includes your monthly device amortization of P1,400 and Plan 1999, which comes with which includes 12 GB data, unlimited texts to all networks, 70 minutes of calls to all networks, and free access to the app of your choice every month, plus 1 month Gadget Shield.

3. Connect to the country’s fastest LTE. Smart lets you optimize the iPhone X by delivering the country’s fastest LTE connection, according to the latest study of independent tech firm OpenSignal.

4. Enjoy up to 15 percent discount on select iPhone X accessories at Power Mac. Signing up with Smart gives you up to 15 percent discount on select official iPhone X accessories, such as cases and screen protectors, at Power Mac Center. You can avail of this offer if you order from Smart from Nov. 24 until Dec. 31. And you can redeem your discount until March 1, 2018.

5. Get a FREE Belkin Wireless Charger for all approved pre-orders at the Smart Online Store or at select Smart Stores.

What are you waiting for? Sign up now at store.smart.com.ph and be among the first to get the iPhone X from Smart!