Manila Standard - 2018 January 07 - Sunday

TAIWAN SHIP EYED IN P125-M COCAINE DEAL VOL. XXXI • NO. 324 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

LEGAZPI CITY—The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency is looking into the possible involvement of a Taiwanese vessel in the dumping of 24 kilograms. of cocaine worth P125 million in Matnog, Sorsogon, its regional director said here Saturday.

Christian Frivaldo said they were investigating reports the cocaine found at the shorelines of Barangay Calintaan in Matnog could have come from the Jin Ming16 which, according to the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office, is under its watch list for engaging in illegal activities using nautical routes in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippine waters.

“At the moment, we are looking at the possibility that a nearly sunken vessel is responsible for the dumping of the recovered cocaine. Based on the Teco report, the ship was involved in illegal activities, considering that it was not detected by our naval authorities by intentionally turning off its positioning system to evade detection,” Frivaldo said.

“No local contacts of this ship were established or identified as of the moment,” he added.

Frivaldo said they had been coordinating with other foreign embassies and offices since Teco responded to their questions about the vessel on Friday.

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ON TARGET: 2 MORE JUNKET CRAZY EXECS

RELIGIOUS ARTIFACTS. Different kinds and colors of vests and tee shirts on display Saturday in the premises of the Quiapo Church in Manila (above), among the easily sold souvenir items, only three days to the feast of the revered statue of the Black Nazarene devotees claim to be miraculous. At left (below top), an unidentified devotee shows miniature images of the Nazarene sold at a religious store in Tayuman, seven blocks away from Quiapo, while a woman at right prepares statues of patron saints at her makeshift stall beside the Basilica Minor in Quiapo. Norman Cruz, Ey Acasio

JUSTICE SLAMS COURT RULING ON P6-B SHABU

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

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HE Department of Justice has appealed to the Valenzuela Regional Trial Court to reverse its ruling dismissing drug importation charges against trader Richard Tan and several others involved in the P6.4billion shabu shipment case.

NICANOR FAELDON: Detained by Senate for refusing to answer questions during a public hearing on the case

Sources at the Department of Justice said Saturday the appeal was made after Judge Maria Nena Santos of the Valenzuela RTC Branch 171 dismissed the cases for importation of dangerous drugs against Tan, also known as Chen Ju Long, who owns the warehouse

in Valenzuela where the shabu was discovered, Manny Li, Kenneth Dong Yi, Customs fixer Mark Ruben Taguba II, Eirene Mae Tatad, Teejay Marcellana, Chen I-Min, Jhu Ming Jyun, Chen Rong Huan, and three other unidentified respondents.

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THE administration’s tax reform package should have “minimal” effects on the prices of basic commodities and should not be more than 8 percent, the Trade Department assured.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told a Malacañang news briefing Friday: “In the 10-peso minimun fare, in effect the increase is less than 80 centavos...there

is no reason for anxiety since the effect is very minimal, particularly with apprehensions that every commodity price would also increase.”

On Saturday, Lopez slammed what he branded as “baseless” allegations on the possible effects of the government’s tax reform package to the prices of basic commodities, after administration critics vowed to challenge “regressive” provisions of the new law before courts.

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In a related development: • A militant farmers’ group on Saturday warned the administration’s tax reform package would have an adverse impact on the the cost of major staples and agriculture produce, as a result of increased excise taxes on petroleum products.

In a statement, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas said in the coming weeks and months, farmers “will

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CHED CHIEF TWITS SOLON OVER TRAVELS

By Maricel V. Cruz

MARK TAGUBA: Customs broker who is charged with tax evasion over the shabu shipments and other transactions

SMOOTH TRAIN RIDE SEEN AMID DIRE WARNINGS

By John Paolo Bencito

TWO more officials are being investigated on their alleged junkets, Malacañang announced Saturday.

The investigation comes after President Rodrigo Duterte fired Maritime Industry Authority administrator Marcial Quirico Amaro III for making too many trips abroad.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, in a radio interview, said complaints against the two unidentified officials were being looked into by the Presidential Management Staff.

Roque insisted the latest firing indicated Duterte’s resolve to eradicate corruption in government.

Last Wednesday, Malacanang, in a memorandum dated Jan. 3, said all heads of agencies in the Executive Department must now submit quarterly reports on government officials and employees traveling abroad.

Under the memorandum, signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, the Palace said no official foreign travel shall be allowed unless the purpose of the trip was strictly within the mandate of the official or personnel, the projected expenses for the trip “not excessive,” and the trip was expected to bring “substantial beneTurn to A2 fit to the country.”

definitely feel the brunt of TRAIN on our production” as a result of the new tax reform package.

“The additional excise tax on petroleum products ranging from P3 to P7 per liter will directly impact the agricultural production cost as farmers and agricultural producers use diesoline and gasoline in every process of production from land preparation, planting, Turn to A2

A PARTY-LIST lawmaker scored anew Commission on Higher Education chairman Patricia Licuanan for the office’s alleged failure to release living allowances of thousands of K-12 Transition Scholars as well the funds needed for their tuition.

Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles revealed this Saturday in the face of excessive travels abroad controversy faced by Licuanan whom the lawmaker described as “living the life of a jetsetter.”

Nograles also called for a congressional probe into Licuanan’s excessive foreign trips and without having asked permission from the Office of the President; as well as the CHED’s alleged failure to release the funds for the K-12 students.

CHED, attached to the Office of the President for administrative purposes, covers both public and private higher education institutions as well as degree-granting programs in all post-secondary educational institutions in the country.

Licuanan on Saturday simply laughed off Nograles’ allegations.

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JUSTICE...

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Santos issued the order on Dec. 12 deciding the dismissal of the cases for lack of jurisdiction after the respondents filed their respective motions to quash the charges.

The Judge explained the crime of importation of illegal dangerous drugs was already consummated when the drug shipment arrived at the Manila International Container Port on May 15.

On Dec. 17, the Justice department issued a 17-page motion for reconsideration appealing the court to reverse its dismissal and deny the motions filed by the respondents “being without basis and by reason of the afore-stated grounds and arguments.”

The DoJ panel of prosecutors, led

by Assistant State Prosecutor Aristotle Reyes, argued in their appeal that the regional court of Valenzuela had clear jurisdiction to hear the cases even if the drug shipment entered Manila first.

It further argued that the crime of dangerous drug importation “was not yet fully consummated” as it was unknown that time that the contents of the container van were illegal drugs.

Authorities found illegal drugs packed inside the metal cylinders at the Hongfei Warehouse in Valenzuela City last May 26.

The DoJ also pointed out that Valenzuela had acquired jurisdiction over the case when it issued an order on Nov. 24 for an ocular inspection of the drug shipment “While it may be true that the act of entry or the act of bringing into the country the dangerous drugs initially occurred at the MICP on 15 May 2017 yet the place where the contents of which was discovered, learned and confirmed to be dangerous drugs occurred in Valenzuela City,” the motion read.

“The court wherein any of the crime’s essential and material acts have been committed maintains jurisdiction to try the case; it being understood that the first court taking cognizance of the same excludes the other,” the prosecutors said, citing a ruling by the Supreme Court.

“The ingredient of discovery, which is clearly material, relevant and which consummated or accomplished the crime of illegal importation of dangerous drugs in this case occurred in Valenzuela City,” the prosecutors added.

TAIWAN...

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Jin Ming16 made a distress call when it tilted off the waters of Northern Samar province on Wednesday.

Its nine crew members—six Chinese nationals, two from Hong Kong and a Taiwanese—are in custody and are being investigated by authorities in Samar.

On Friday, an anti-narcotics official said millions of dollars of cocaine packed in a plastic drum had been washed up on a seashore in Bicol.

A local fisherman in Matnog found the drum on Wednesday and reported it to authorities, not knowing what was inside, said Frivaldo, a regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Inside the drum, anti-drug agents found about 24 kilograms of cocaine bricks wrapped in plastic, he told AFP. The source of the cocaine found in Matnog—about 610 kilometers southeast of Manila—may be a Taiwanflagged cargo vessel hit by huge waves off the eastern Philippines a day before the cocaine was found, he said.

Nine Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese crewmen are under the custody of the local government after they were rescued from their damaged ship, he added.

“They are under investigation. We are checking their vessel [to see] if there is additional evidence inside. But it is difficult because it is half-submerged,” Frivaldo said.

The seizure comes as President Rodrigo Duterte wages a bloody war on drugs that has resulted in nearly 4,000 “drug personalities” killed by police while thousands of others have been murdered under mysterious circumstances.

This has led rights groups to warn the President may be orchestrating crimes against humanity. PNA, AFP

SMOOTH...

From A1 harvesting, post-harvest and transportation. Most farm equipment used by farmers run on gas and diesel including deep-well for irrigation, hand tractors, threshers, drying facilities and milling,” Antonio Flores, KMP secretary general, said in a statement.

“The production cost of agricultural products will increase and will instantly

DUTERTE KICKS IN P1B FOR FIRE PROTECTION

By John Paolo Bencito and Francisco Tuyay

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RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has approved an additional P1 billion in funding to help modernize the Bureau of Fire Protection, days after he dressed down fire officers following big blazes in Davao City that led to scores of deaths and exposed weaknesses in the government’s fire response capabilities.

Eduardo Año, the new officerin-charge of the Department of the Interior and Local Government that oversees the BFP, said in a radio interview he was pleased that the President approved his request “about three days ago” in a meeting in Davao for more funds to buy new equipment for the bureau and “reach the niche of becoming worldclass firefighters.

“That is what we will do [improve the BFP’s services]. The President’s request is simple: serve the people

and create true governance,” Año added.

Duterte lectured fire officials on emergency response following a deadly blaze at a popular mall in Davao, the President’s hometown, which claimed 38 lives.

In Cebu City, firefighters have yet to declare the blaze that razed another popular mall under control, more than 16 hours since the fire began.

Meanwhile, Año, who was formally appointed DILG OIC on Friday,

vowed to vigorously push the various programs of the President, using the institution’s mandate “to uplift the living conditions of Filipinos, particularly the marginalized ones.”

In a statement after he assumed office, the former Armed Forces chief of staff said it is his “strong desire” to implement dramatic changes “to realize the President’s plans and programs dedicated in improving the lives of Filipinos.”

To attain such projections, Año urged his co-workers in the department “to perform cohesively and maintain a united front” toward fulfilling their tasks under Duterte’s marching orders.

Año headed the 120,000-strong military in nearly two years as AFP chief and Philippine Army commander. He retired from the service three days after the end of combat operations in Marawi City, marking the liberation of the Islamic city from a terrorist siege that left nearly a thousand bandits dead.

The defeat of the Islamic State-

inspired Maute Group terrorists prompted Duterte to appoint Año to the DILG post, initially as undersecretary, but the former general could not assume office right away as the replacement of erstwhile secretary Ismael Sueno.

Año’s immediate appointment was prohibited under Republic Act 6975 or the DILG Code of 1991, which states that no retired or resigned military officer may be appointed as a Cabinet secretary within one year from the date of his resignation or retirement.

“I enjoin all members of Team DILG to perform their task honestly and diligently towards improving the quality of the services to attain DILG’s programs for the good of our country and countrymen,” said Año, who retired from military service last Oct. 26, 2017.

He also asked the public for support and understanding while the DILG is “addressing the current challenges and working on improvements.”

PCSO: NO FURY LIKE CAM SPURNED THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office has rejected the request of its board member and alleged jueteng bagman turned whistleblower Sandra Cam for 1,700 sacks of rice and groceries for a supposed Christmas gift-giving program for voters in Metro Manila.

PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan said he rejected Cam’s request because the agency’s charger does not allow this unless areas to be aided are under a state of calamity.

“The request which she endorsed to me was not even presented for discussion in a board meeting.

Where would I get these sacks of rice and groceries to give the residents of Metro Manila?” Balutan said in a statement.

Balutan said Cam endorsed a letter dated Dec. 15, 2017 to the GM’s office after she was appointed to the PCSO board. Shortly afterward, Cam attacked the agency’s board with an allegation of a “lavish” Christmas party.

In the letter, Cam asked for 5,000 sacks at 10 kilos each for 10,500 families for the 16 cities in Metro Manila and the town of Pateros.

Meanwhile, Balutan found an ally

in his bid to strengthen the agency’s Small Town Lottery program in new Interior Department officer-incharge Eduardo Año.

In a radio interview on Saturday, Año vowed to use his military intelligence background as former Armed Forces Chief of Staff to crack down on illegal gambling such as jueteng amid continued operations of perceived “enemies” of the government’s STL in the grassroots.

“We had talked with the PCSO General Manager Balutan, and that is what we will help, the STL, because that’s the one authorized [by the government], it’s the one paying taxes and the one that pays what should be paid to our government,” Año said.

With Balutan and PCSO’s help, Ano said the DILG will intensify its intelligence operations to identify where illegal gambling operations are still rampant.

“These [illegal] numbers games, some of our local government officials are also supporting and even protecting this, even our policemen are involved. But we will show no mercy to them,” he said.

Año said the police should exert

more effort against those who tolerate and protect illegal gambling.

The GM stressed that Cam, a new government appointee, should study the PCSO Charter first before taking any step “as if she is above the law.” He said Cam was “creating havoc” within the agency with unfounded and baseless corruption allegations.

Republic Act 1169 established the PCSO as the principal government agency for raising and providing funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character.

Earlier, Balutan said the PCSO must be insulated from politics.

“As Chief Executive Officer and General Manager, I will not allow anyone to use PCSO for her or his political ambitions,” the former Marine major general warned.

Cam ran for the Senate in 2016 but lost, and reports have said she plans to run for another elective position in 2019.

For almost three weeks now, the PCSO said Cam and her close friend, gambling lord Charlie “Atong” Ang, have been “ceaselessly attacking”

the agency through the media “with unfounded and baseless corruption allegations.”

Balutan said Cam and Ang have long wanted to control the STL, which was created to rival jueteng and has produced P15.7 billion in revenues for the government in 2017, from just over P4 billion a year in previous administrations.

Thirty percent of the STL revenues help fund free medical services such as payment for hospital bills, dialysis and chemo treatments, among others, of more than 356,000 patients of indigents from far-flung areas in the country.

Balutan said the STL has been killing illegal numbers games such as jueteng, which used to collect a rough estimate of P2.37 billion a month.

“Our STL with 92 approved Authorized Agent Corporations [AACs] but only 84 operating is providing the Duterte government a whopping P2 billion a month. This is what the tandem of Ang and Cam want to break and later control the STL nationwide, as jueteng is dying a slow death,” Balutan said.

Under the new setup, no government official or personnel shall be allowed to depart for any travel abroad, even if such is for a personal or private purpose without cost to the government, unless the official has obtained the appropriate travel authorization from his or her agency.

Quarterly lists would have to be submitted to the Office of the President by agency heads, including information on those trips, the names of the concerned officials, their destination, the duration of their trip, the nature and purpose of their travel, its total cost and a brief statement on how the official complied with the criteria issued by the Palace.

“The requirement to submit quarterly lists of travel authorities issued shall also be observed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government with regard to foreign travels of local government officials,” the executive secretary said. John Paolo Bencito

In a statement, Licuanan said the documents shown by Nograles, a known ally of the President, were simply internal documents which were also sent to Malacañang for approval.

“I get a travel authority from the Office of the President for all my travel including personal trips. This is well documented. I issue travel authorities for all CHED officials but not for myself,” Licuanan said.

“It appears that what Rep. Nograles shared on his Facebook account as basis for his accusations is the internal Authority to Travel Abroad, which is routinely used to process the funds and is an attachment for securing Malacañang approval,” she added.

Nograles also dismissed claims by Licuanan that she was not the one who approved her requests for “Authority to Travel Abroad” because he was in possession of the documents that proved his allegations.

Nograles earlier made public the copies of Licuanan’s travel requests that were also approved by herself as head

of CHED. Nograles said that in Licuanan’s eight trips abroad, three took place in June where she traveled to the US and then to France and Germany. In her trip to France, she even took business class, courtesy of Filipino taxpayers.

“Our president travels economy but our CHED Chair Licuanan takes business class,” Nograles, a deputy majority leader, said.

Nograles also lamented the fact that Licuanan was splurging government resources for her globetrotting ways, thousands of CHED K-12 Transition Scholars had not received their living allowances since 2016.

Thousands of professors teaching in both public and private universities were given CHED scholarships to improve their competencies and improve the quality of education in universities and colleges in compliance with the requirement of the K-12 Law, Nograles said.

“Many of these scholars were sent abroad or in Metro Manila universities so their day-to-day expenses are really high. Delayed stipends since 1986 are really hitting them bad. Some have discontinued their studies because of the delayed stipends,” Nograles said.

translate to increase in the prices of rice, vegetable produce, poultry, livestock, dairy products and other food stuff,” he added.

They also scored false assurances made by Malacañang the new tax package would have “minimal” and “temporary” effects on the poor, most of whom do not belong to the formal sector.

“Malacañang and Duterte’s economic managers were quick to boast that TRAIN will lower the personal income tax and increase the take-home pay of employees, but what about farmers and

fisherfolks who do not depend on wage and salaries but on income from production yield?”

“The domino and inflationary effect of TRAIN will impact majority of the middle to lower income population, with the poor and jobless sectors as the most vulnerable. The agriculture and farmers’ sector are vulnerable to the pass on effects of TRAIN. The effects of TRAIN are deadly.”

“The public ought to brace for impact as Duterte’s TRAIN will hit us hard,” Flores said.

In particular, Lopez gave assurances the prices of basic goods would not move, despite provisions increasing excise taxes on fuel, which critics attribute to a possible increase in the prices of basic goods.

In a separate radio interview, Lopez said there was no need to adjust the suggested retail prices of their products even if prices of fuel products would increase.

“As far as increased oil prices are concerned, the increase is only seven to eight percent, and usually that is multi-

ON TARGET:...

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CHED...

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“The funds for our Transition scholars have been allotted to CHED. Where did the money go?” Nograles asked.

Apart from not releasing the living allowances due for CHED K-12 Transition Scholars, Nograles said CHED under Licuanan had also withheld the release of the funds needed to pay the tuition fees of CHED scholars, most of them teachers pursuing masteral and doctorate degrees in various universities and colleges.

“According to complaints relayed to my office, CHED has only paid the tuition fee of their scholars on the first semester of 2016 and nothing after that.

Again, the question is: where did the money go? These funds have been allotted to CHED so why can’t Chair Licuanan release the funds?” Nograles asked.

“This is demeaning and very demoralizing to our government scholars. CHED has reduced the country’s best and the brightest into beggars,” Nograles added.

Nograles said these CHED malpractices must be put to a stop especially now that Congress and President Duterte has approved the law which would provide free college education to all state and local universities and colleges and all TESDA-run schools nationwide. With John Paolo Bencito plied, and it would be very negligible,” he said.

There is also market competition, where consumers have a choice with regard to sellers or vendors, which will ensure price stability, Lopez added.

Those who will take advantage and charge excessive prices will be penalized with fines ranging from P20,000 to P1 million, Lopez warned.

He also urged TRAIN’s critics to stick to a “objective” and “numbers-based” discourse on the new tax law, and not to resort to fear-mongering.

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‘PINOY HSWS IN HONG KONG TRAFFICKED IN RUSSIA’

By Vito Barcelo

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ORE than 4,000 Filipino household service workers were trafficked to Russia and currently working illegally in that country, according to a migration and recruitment expert.

“Thousands of Filipino women are now working in Russia illegally brought there by illegal recruitment syndicates based in Hong Kong and Singapore and now struggling to pay off debts incurred with the syndicates who enticed them to work in Russia for higher pay,” migration expert Manny Geslani said.

Geslani cited a report from the South China Morning Post that Filipinas who finished or terminated their contracts with their previous employers fell victims to advertisements posted by four Hong Kong recruitment agencies claiming that wage pay are higher in Russia and they can easily enter the said country.

According to Philippine Labor Attaché lawyer Jalio de la Torre, most of the Filipino women were tricked by the syndicates who promised that they could work in Russia easily and receive a salary ranging from $HK 25,000 to 43,000 which is much higher compared to the wages they earned in Hong Kong.

Dela Torre also said the city’s 189,000 Filipino domestic helpers were easy targets for unscrupulous local agents, who would pocket handsome fees on the pretext of helping the women

achieve their aspirations of a better life.

“Most of the Filipino workers were flown to Russia and entered the country with fake visas and were brought to a house with other Filipinos still looking for employers in Russia,” Geslani said.

He said many of the OFWs were forced to find jobs in Moscow after their recruiter left them.

Geslani said the deployment of household workers in Hong Kong which surged from 29,935 in 2015 to 41,925 in 2016 is questionable.

“HongKong government has already disallowed HSWs the practice of exiting HK and enter Macau then return to HK to renew their contracts.

A law was issued that all HSWs must go back to Manila to have their contracts processed by private recruitment agencies,” Geslani said.

CEBU CITY MALL FIRE STILL RAGES; ALARM RAISED CEBU CITY—The Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office on Saturday projected it would take two days to control the fire which broke out at the toy department’s strockroom on the third floor of Metro Ayala Cebu just as the mall was about to close Friday night.

Employees and customers of the department store, which is within the Ayala Center Cebu mall, safely got out of the establishment when the fire started.

The Cebu City Fire Department said they received the alarm past 9 p.m. Friday and raised the fire alarm to Task Force Alpha as thick black smoke continued to billow from the stockroom.

Task Force Alpha calls for all fire stations in Metro Cebu to respond to the fire alarm.

The Metro Ayala Emergency Brigade Team and Ayala Center Cebu Emergency Brigade Team also helped the Bureau of Fire Protection in putting out the blaze along with volunteer firefighters.

As of 11 p.m. Friday, firefighters were still struggling to penetrate the thick black smoke engulfing the building and could not get to the third floor.

By 3 a.m. Saturday, the fourth floor of Metro Ayala eventually collapsed.

As of 12 noon Saturday, the fire had reached the second level, prompting the BFP to raise the fire alarm further to Task Force Bravo, which calls for the deployment of all BFP personnel and equipment in the entire Cebu province to the scene. PNA

COCAINE PACKS. This undated photo from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-Legazpi) released on Jan. 5, 2018 shows police officials (in blue) and PDEA local director Christian Frivaldo (second from right) sitting next to packs of cocaine during a press conference in Legazpi City, in Bicol region, south of Manila. Millions of dollars of cocaine packed in a plastic drum has washed up on a seashore in the eastern Philippines, an anti-narcotics official said. (Story on A1) AFP

REMAINS OF LAST MISSING IN DAVAO FIRE FOUND DAVAO CITY—The Bureau of Fire Protection has called off the search and retrieval operation for the last missing call center agent who perished in the fire incident on Dec. 23, 2017, at the New City Commercial Center Mall after human bones and personal belongings were positively identified by the family.

Inter-Agency Anti-Arson Task Force spokesman Supt. Jerry Candido said the charred human bones were identified by the family through a keychain and eyeglasses taken among the bones.

Alexandra Moreno Castillo was the last of the 36 missing call center agents of the Survey Sampling International reported missing.

Candido said all 38, including the NCCC Home Decor section employee, are now accounted for. In one or two weeks, the team will complete the investigation report which will be submitted to each member-agency of the task force.

The report will be completed at the soonest time possible depending on the response of the agencies or the persons who will provide the

team with documents. The team is also considering the timeline of the response from the call for assistance to the police.

Candido said the task force is also collating all documents from the building permit of the NCCC and the SSI from its original name in 2008.

Other supplementary documents as required under the Fire Code of the Philippines have already been retrieved.

Candido said the task force will now focus on the investigation of those liable for the violation of the Fire Code particularly on safety lapses such as that could include the NCCC and SSI. Earlier, the task force recommended the relief of five officials of the BFP-Davao who were signatories of the fire certificates for both the NCCC and the SSI. The team is also eyeing criminal, civil and administrative charges against officials of the BFP-Davao, the NCCC, and the SSI. Candido said the team will announce the liabilities and charges will be filed against those who had

violated the regulations. In its initial findings, the task force said the fire was caused by an electric short circuit based on the Arson Laboratory results.

“Our short circuit theory is now confirmed through a scientific proof which was conducted by our Arson Laboratory,” Candido said.

“From the physical evidence that we brought to Manila, an electrical arcing traces were found on the galvanized tray which means that there was short circuit happened on the electrical wirings placed on the tray,” he said.

Electric arc or arcing is an electrical breakdown that produces electrical discharge. Unwanted arcs in electrical circuits can cause fire.

He said the investigating team found screws and nails on the galvanized tray which the team believed caused the short circuit.

“We believe that those sharp things destroyed the insulation of the electric wires, and then the two wires stick together which became the reason of the short circuit,” he said. PNA

DFA STAFF INSPECT LEBANESE BORDER

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

BAY FISHING. A man throws his line for some fresh catch on a quiet afternoon off Manila Bay. Ey Acasio

THE Philippine government this week has conducted a site inspection in Masnaa, Lebanon’s border with Syria, to further improve the country’s repatriation efforts and readiness in times of emergencies.

DFA Office of Public Diplomacy officer-in-charge director Geronimo Suliguin said the site inspection trip is also part of the embassy’s continuing program in strengthening its contingency plan and further improve its delivery of Assistance-to-Nationals services.

“The primary reason for the site inspection trip is to keep improving our Post’s operational readiness in times of emergencies like repatriation of our nationals,” he added.

Masnaa, Lebanon serves as the primary transit point used by the Philippine Embassy in Beirut and the

Philippine Embassy in Damascus in facilitating the repatriation of Filipinos returning from Syria to the Philippines.

In 2012 to 2013, the joint repatriation operations by the two Philippine Embassies brought home almost 5,000 OFWs at the height of the Syrian conflict.

Embassy personnel were briefed by the border management officers on the daily operations at the border.

During the briefing, the Embassy team was informed that Masnaa border receives an estimated 5,000 visitors from Syria and processes the exit of some 2,000 to 3,000 visitors from Lebanon every day.

Consul General to the Lebanese government Bernardita Catalla and the Embassy officers were also given a quick tour and an opportunity to observe the operations of the border immigration facilities.

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AMNESTY ON SOCIALIZED HOUSING PUSHED

By Maricel V. Cruz A HOUSE leader on Saturday urged the National Housing Authority to revive the socialized housing loan restructuring and amnesty program that it launched 10 years ago.

Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez, chairman of the House committee on housing and urban poor development, said the law mandates the NHA to provide low- and middleincome families to own houses.

In his House Resolution 1511, Benitez recommended an amnesty on all penalties and surcharges in unpaid loan amortizations for beneficiaries of NHA socialized housing projects.

At the same time, Benitez urged NHA to institute a loan restructuring program that will guarantee effective results of the amnesty proposal.

“Many beneficiaries of NHA’s socialized housing projects have reneged on their payments citing low incomes due to lack of livelihood and employment in off-city relocation sites,” Benitez said.

Unless socialized housing beneficiaries are condoned from payment of penalties and surcharges on unpaid loans, Benitez said majority of them will only sink deeper into debt and face the danger of being evicted.

“Demonstrating leniency and generosity not only gives our financially challenged socialized housing recipients fresh hopes of keeping their units. It also helps address the worsening housing problem,” Benitez said.

He said that under Republic Act 9507, the NHA has the authority to restructure housing loans and condone all penalties and surcharges from unpaid monthly amortization on socialized housing loans.

“Sec. 4 of RA 9507 authorizes the governing boards of government financial institutionsbinvolved in housing, the NHA included, to continue the condonation and loan restructuring program beyond the period prescribed by said Act,” Benitez said.

‘NO CALLS, NO TEXT REGISTRATION BILL’ TACKLED A PANEL in the House of Representatives has submitted for plenary action a substitute bill seeking to establish a “No Calls and No Text Registration” system to protect phone subscribers from solicited calls and spam text messages.

The House committee on information and communications technology, chaired by Rep. Victor Yap of Tarlac, approved the bill which affirmed the State’s policy “to protect the interests of mobile phone subscribers and promote general welfare vis-àvis unsolicited commercial speech; establish a standard of conduct for business and industry in sending messages to subscribers; promote the fundamental rights of the subscriber to privacy; and protect subscriber from unwanted calls and texts and inducing purchase of goods or services and solicitation.”

Under the bill, the National Privacy Commission shall have the responsibility to establish a “No Calls and No Text Registration” system. The system shall ensure to keep the identity and privacy of the persons registered highly confidential. As such, only their telephone numbers may be accessed from the registry.

The bill provides that any phone subscriber may manage and limit the outbound and unsolicited calls and texts that he shall receive through registration of his telephone number in the Voice Call Register and/or No Text Massage Register of the NPC. To register, the bill mandates a subscriber to present a government identification card and proof of exclusive ownership over a particular telephone number. The subscriber must also pay a fee, to be determined by the NPC. For minors, or those below 18 years of age, registration of their mobile numbers may be done by their parents or legal guardians.

The bill states that telephone numbers registered in the “No Calls and No Text Registration” shall not be changed or removed except upon the request of the owner in writing.

Invalid or disconnected telephone numbers may be changed or removed upon adequate validation of the NPC. Maricel V. Cruz

A4

Opinion

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL

WAKING UP FROM THE AMERICAN DREAM

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA—Many of us, particularly of the generations X and older, grew up believing the USA is a paradise where dreams can come true if you work hard enough.

The proverbial land of milk, honey, and Hershey’s chocolates became a prime destination for migrants who dreamt of having a house with a white picket fence and two cars in the garage, a living situation not easily attainable for many in the Philippines.

Helping to create the dream were relatives in California or New Jersey or the other 48 states who sent home Spam, Crest toothpaste, and Milky Way bars in balikbayan boxes. Upon opening the boxes, one got a whiff of a scent associated with “Stateside goods” or the so-called “amoy Tate.”

There were also the photos they sent, of themselves posing in scarves and boots on a snowy hill in Tahoe; in swimsuits on a cruiseship; in sunglasses and shorts in Disneyland.

All these artifacts created an image of America that was attractive and desirable. We were envious of those who jetted off on family petitions or fiancée visas. We wished we too were making snowmen and posing with Mickey Mouse.

And it was possible to fulfill the American dream back in the 1960s up until the ‘80s. The 1965 Act or the Immigration and Nationality Act welcomed immigrants based on family ties and special skills; this led to huge numbers of migrants from Asia and Hispanic countries.

But by the early 1990s, economic recessions had made jobs scarce. The Great Recession of 2007-2008 dealt a significant blow to the US economy from which it is still recovering.

It is now more difficult than before for new immigrants to sustain themselves, much less become financially successful. For those 40s or over, it’s even harder. At that time, usually one has already had career experience and climbed their way up the ladder in their fields in the Philippines. They’ve made the coffee and photocopied the documents, and were perhaps managers already.

Healthcare workers such as nurses and physicians usually have a better time of it, though some nurses might start off working retail until they pass their state licensing exams or wait for positions to open up.

For those who aren’t in healthcare, coming to America to work is like pressing a reset button. No matter that you’re 50 and ran a department back in corporate Manila: for many, their first jobs in the US are in retail or administrative positions (meaning they make the coffee and photocopy the documents). You start all over from the bottom and work your way up again, something that you’ve likely done before. It can be very frustrating.

And there’s a feeling that you’re always playing catch-up. Buying a house, unless you have your own substantial savings, might not be the best decision—how can you pay off a 30year mortgage if you’re only 10 or 15 years away from retirement?

ON A WHIFF, NOT A WHIM

O

NE of the first things the Duterte administration did in 2018 was to fire the chief of the Maritime Industry Authority for taking too many trips abroad.

Marcial Amaro III was sacked for going out of the country 21 times in the past one year and six months, and only six of the trips were sponsored by other countries. The rest were paid for by taxpayers.

In a television interview, Amaro insisted the trips were all important to the job and his agency was supposed to deal with international organizations.

The ex-Marina chief also said all his travels, out of which arose two bilateral agreements and about 15 other deals, were all approved by the Department of Transportation.

The President supposedly acted on a letter from the Alliance of Marina Employees that sought Amaro’s ouster, saying he was an absentee administrator, but the ex-chief said the employees told him they never sent the Palace any.

Outside of the fact that it’s a he-said-she-

said dilemma, the weeding out of officials perceived to be corrupt is a good habit the administration could keep.

Mr. Duterte came into power promising change, and now, a year and a half later, the public keeps getting mixed signals on how the change is exactly coming about.

Sacking his own appointees “at the slightest whiff of corruption” is an encouraging mantra that will definitely count as change, especially when we think about how protective Mr. Duterte’s predecessor was of his own people.

We only hope that the mantra will be truly consistently applied, regardless of who the officials are and no matter how close to the Palace they could be.

We hope too that the “whiff ” excuse will not be selectively used to go after the President’s foes or critics—that would make it sound too much like the hypocrisy-laden old times.

Only this consistency will earn for the administration the credibility it should enjoy.

Turn to A5

I LEFT a package in the bus one morning. The sealed paper bag contained a present for an exchange gift “baby” at a Christmas party I had missed last month.

If I were in any other vehicle, I could have kissed all hopes of ever seeing the package again.

But since I was in one of these marvels called Point-to-Point Bus that has been plying the Katipunan-Makati route for just over a month, I figured I

stood a chance.

The company that operated that particular route, DNS, is on Facebook.

In its page are announcements of schedules (and, alas, this early, the end of its promotional rates). It contained a landline and an email address.

I was desperate, because the present was overdue and more importantly because the package might cause a scare. I tried all three channels: Facebook, email, phone. I described the bag in detail. I knew exactly what time which bus (yes, they have numbers!) left which terminal. I requested that it

BIG YELLOW BUS

be returned to the place where I would board again, at the same time, the following morning.

I was unsuccessful getting through the landline, but the two other channels worked like a charm. Before noon, I got a private message on Facebook and an email response—written by no less than a senior vice president of the company, Alberto Villanueva Jr.—that the package had been located. Just as I requested, it would be at my terminal.

I got the paper bag, no sweat, at the same hour on the following day. ***

To say that taking public transportation in Metro Manila is challenging would be an understatement.

Topping the list of transport modes is the Metro Rail Transit 3, traversing Edsa. It poses both inconvenience and danger to the hundreds of thousands who feel they have no other choice but to take it.

The Department of Transportation assures us that the public will begin to feel improvements this year. We know better than to cling to this hope, but we will see.

And then, anybody who has

taken taxis around here would say they provide neither comfort nor consolation. The units are illmaintained: many are grimy with poor air-conditioning. Worse, some drivers are ill-mannered, rude and opportunistic.

Revulsion at how cab drivers conduct themselves is partly the reason for the popularity of transport network vehicles like Uber and Grab. Vehicles here are relatively newer and cleaner, and a higher percentage of the drivers are polite.

Turn to A5

Rolando G. Estabillo Publisher ManilaStandard

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

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Opinion WAKING...

From A4

America is a place for starting. It’s great for young people who are fresh out of school and eager to make their mark. It’s not a great place for starting over when you’re older unless you accept that life will mostly likely be tough. If you’re alone, forget it. Retail and many office positions don’t pay very much and finances will be stretched thin unless you can live with relatives or have a working spouse to help out.

Housing is very expensive particularly in areas where the big tech companies are located, like the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle. Even if salaries are high, the high demand for housing also pushes prices up.

This has pushed many Californians to move to Las Vegas, where houses are cheaper. A fixer-upper two-bedroom home costs around $600,000 in the Bay Area, but a new five-bedroom in Las Vegas will set you back only $250,000. However, salaries are also lower in Las Vegas. So there’s always a catch.

It’s possible to earn more by taking on extra jobs or overtime or working an extra shift. But that leads to overwork, stress, and burnout.

You also might not get a job in your particular field—you might have to reinvent yourself or settle for feeling unfulfilled.

For some Filipinos here in the US, that’s the reality of life. Yes, they can buy Spam and Crest and all the chocolates they want, but they’re toiling hard. No, not all of them can afford to buy a house or car and some are living in dinky apartments and taking public transportation.

The American dream doesn’t come true for everyone, particularly these days. Can we even say there still is an American dream? It’s not like it used to be, that’s for sure.

Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer. Facebook and Twitter: @jennyortuoste

BIG...

From A4

During the just-ended holiday season, however, taking TNVs proved equally stressful. The price surges were unconscionable, and even when you did agree to pay a whole lot more than you are supposed to, in your desperation to get to your destination, you still found it difficult to get a ride.

After booking one, you had to wait many minutes for the vehicle, and on a bad day you even got canceled on.

Regular city buses, even the airconditioned ones, are not maintained properly. Their drivers violate traffic rules with impunity. They swerve in and out of lanes. You also always have to watch out for your belongings— and must never make the mistake of falling asleep. Unscrupulous souls will try to get their hands on your bag, or worse, your body parts. ***

This one leaves this terminal at this exact time.

adellechua@gmail.com

A5

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

CHINA HASN’T WON THE PACIFIC

By Hal Brands IS CHINA destined to dominate the Asia-Pacific? Among US allies and partners in the region, there seems to be a growing doubt that America can win the ongoing competition for influence with China, and that they must begin preparing for a regional order headed by Beijing.

The challenge for America, then, is to ensure that this feeling of strategic fatalism doesn’t become a selffulfilling prophecy.

It is an undeniable fact that China has been making a concerted and accelerating push for regional supremacy in recent years—and that the US has struggled to respond effectively. The military balance of power has shifted considerably over the past two decades, as Beijing has undertaken a military buildup of historic proportions and America’s efforts to counter it were undercut first by a lengthy military involvement in the Middle East and then by budgetary austerity and defense cuts.

As a RAND Corporation study published in 2015 warned, the regional balance is reaching a series of “tipping points” at which the US might find it increasingly difficult to defend allies and partners such as Taiwan from determined Chinese intervention at an acceptable price.

China has also been expanding its regional influence through incremental steps that have cumulatively had a major effect: coercing its neighbors in the East China Sea and South China Sea, building and militarizing artificial islands in contravention of international law, seeking to separate the US from its allies through a mixture of coercion and economic inducement, and so forth. Such salami-slicing tactics are inherently difficult to counter, because they shift the status quo without escalating matters to a level that might set off a US military response. During the Barack Obama presidency, US officials were often stymied by this predicament, warning against Chinese expansionism but struggling to identify measures that might thwart or even significantly penalize that expansionism absent a full-on military showdown.

The result of all this has been a dramatic shift in perceptions of power and momentum in the region, raising the question of whether the

An image released by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies shows infrastructure China has reportedly built on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratlys.

US can meet the Chinese challenge.

While much of this concern is still being expressed privately, behind closed doors in the capitals of America’s allies, it is also seeping, gradually but unmistakably, into public debates.

Case in point is a recent essay by Hugh White, a former Australian defense official who turned heads in 2013 by arguing that America should “share power” with China as part of a new great-power concert in the Asia-Pacific. White has now reentered the fray with a widely read essay arguing that it may be too late for even that type of compromise arrangement given China’s ongoing ascent.

China is determined to push the US out of the region, White argues, and it is making great progress.

Unless Washington is willing to fight a potentially catastrophic military conflict to thwart Beijing’s momentum, the long-term outcome of the competition is a foregone conclusion. The US will slowly but surely be edged out of its role as arbiter of the balance of power. China will increasingly set the rules of the road across the Asia-Pacific. The task for US allies is thus to begin adapting to a postAmerican regional order, one in which Washington can no longer protect its friends or otherwise play a decisive strategic role.

White’s essay is simultaneously essential and dangerous reading. It is essential because it offers perhaps the most bracing demonstration yet of just how adversely the climate in the Asia-Pacific has shifted over the past several years, and how

badly regional perceptions of US leadership have eroded. China is no longer the threat of tomorrow: It is reshaping the regional order today, at the expense of the US and its closest allies. And while most policymakers and elites in Australia and other allied countries are not ready to concede the outcome of that competition, their faith in Washington is increasingly being tested.

In Australia, for instance, White is hardly alone in publicly questioning his nation’s continuing reliance on the US. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has voiced similar ideas.

And in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has ostentatiously repositioned his country between Beijing and Washington on the thesis—exaggerated, no doubt, but nonetheless telling—that “America has lost” its strategic duel with China.

It would be foolish, then, for US policymakers to simply dismiss the concerns that are emanating from Australia and other Asia-Pacific countries. But it would also be dangerous for US and allied leaders to accept the thesis that China is destined to dominate the region and simply give up on countering Beijing’s ambitions.

China appears imposing today, but it is hardly 10 feet tall. As I discuss in my new book, “American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump,” Beijing is still no match for the US in aggregate national power: Its military budget is still less than half that of the Pentagon’s, and its per capita gross domestic product remains roughly a quarter of America’s, even as its overall GDP

approaches parity.

Moreover, China is almost certain to encounter serious economic and political difficulties in the coming years because of the rapidly approaching limits of its existing growth model and the inherent instability of authoritarian rule. It is a fantasy to believe, as US observers sometimes have, that China will collapse or democratize before it is able to make a serious bid for geopolitical supremacy in the AsiaPacific. But it is hardly preordained that China will be able to maintain, over a period of decades, the impressive trajectory needed to decisively overtake America as the region’s leading power.

In fact, the US and its allies can make it enormously difficult for China to accomplish that objective.

For example, the same maritime geography that complicates US efforts to project power into the areas along China’s coastline makes it hard for China to project power outward, toward its neighbors and beyond. The island chain running from Japan to the Ryukyus to Taiwan and the Philippines constitutes a series of natural barriers to Chinese expansion into the Pacific.

As Michael Beckley Of Harvard’s Belfer Center has recently written, it should therefore be possible for US allies and partners such as Japan and Taiwan to blunt Chinese expansionism by acquiring the same anti-access/area denial capabilities (anti-ship missiles and mines, for instance) that Beijing has deployed to good effect.

There is also much more the US and its partners can do to impose greater costs on China’s destabilizing behavior, such as slapping sanctions on Chinese companies involved in activities like illegal land reclamation, helping friendly countries fortify their own holdings in the South China and East China Seas, and responding to Chinese advances by deploying additional US military assets to the region.

These measures carry increased costs and risks in their own right, of course, and they offer no guarantee of success in what seems certain to be a decades-long geopolitical struggle with China. But the US and its allies can still hold their own in that contest, so long as they don’t succumb to a misplaced fatalism.

The only sure way to lose in the Asia-Pacific is to give up the game.

Bloomberg

WHY TRUMP IS PROBABLY TO BLAME FOR THE WEAK DOLLAR

By Leonid Bershidsky

As bright and sunny as the shade of yellow of its body, the P2P bus is a real game changer for those of us slaving away and who feel all other means of transportation are a practical violation of human rights.

It’s pricier than the usual bus or MRT, but you will be happy to pay the premium. There are numerous routes to serve commuters from different parts of the metro. The units are clean, the seats comfortable, the airconditioning working. You won’t feel self-conscious or even threatened if you need to take out you laptop and do some work during the ride. You can also watch shows, or movies, or read articles you’ve come across but marked “for later.”

It’s even safe enough for sleeping!

The best aspect to all this, I think, is predictability. The buses leave the terminal at a certain time, and you can plan your activities using these schedules. The vehicles are numbered.

There are channels for communicating with the operator for any concerns. If you are a creature of habit or if you need to minimize the variables in your life, then this one is for you.

Living and working in Metro Manila is harrowing enough. This additional option makes the experience just a bit more bearable. Those big yellow buses are a big, thoughtful consolation to long-suffering commuters.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018

PRESIDENT Donald Trump keeps bragging about the stock index gains since his election. He did so again on Friday, claiming he’d helped create “six trillion dollars in value.” Be that as it may, it’s also likely that Trump is at least partially responsible for the dollar’s weak performance in 2017, which, from an international perspective, wiped out much of that “value.”

Last year, the US dollar lost 10 percent against the euro and 5.5 percent against the renminbi. It was the second worst performer among major currencies after the New Zealand dollar, and its drop was the steepest in more than a decade despite three interest rate hikes and the passage of Trump’s tax reform, which could logically be expected to drive the dollar’s value upward. This happened for a complex set of reasons which may include the dollar’s popularity as a funding tool for foreign companies and governments, but Trumps’s effect on his country’s global standing must be a key driver of the dollar’s decline.

In a 2017 paper, Barry Eichengreen of the University of California, Berkeley, and Arnaud Mehl and Livia Chitu of the European Central Bank developed a “Mercury and Mars” hypothesis about the value of reserve currencies. They wrote that there are two sides to a currency’s appeal. The Mercury side is economic: It’s all about

safety, liquidity, network effects and economic connections. The Mars side is geopolitical: It reflects the issuing country’s strategic, diplomatic and military power.

The researchers attempted to quantify this duality by looking at the composition of nations’ currency reserves. They found that as long ago as between 1890 and 1913, countries were more likely to hold reserves in the currencies of their defense pact partners, even when purely economic choice would have dictated otherwise.

The same is still true, with a nuclearera twist. Nations, such as Japan and South Korea, dependent on the US for security, hold a greater share of reserves in dollars than France, Russia or China, which possess their own nuclear deterrent. Eichengreen, Mehl and Chitu developed a model to predict the composition of countries’ foreign reserves with and without the “Mars effect” and found that for America’s security dependents, the actual share of dollar holdings was always higher than the model’s highest predictions.

Eichengreen and collaborators argued that the dollar’s “security premium” accounts for a significant part of its attractiveness as a reserve currency. Losing it would mean a 30 percentage point reduction in the share of US currency in nations’ reserves. Isolationist “America First” policies would certainly seem to undermine the “security premium.”

According to the Mercury and Mars hypothesis of currency choice, ‘America First’ hurts the American currency.

Einchengreen, Mehl and Chitu wrote: “The dollar’s dominance as an international unit is buttressed by the country’s role as a global power guaranteeing the security of allied nations. If that role were seen as less sure and that security guarantee as less ironclad, because the US was disengaging from global geopolitics in favor of more standalone, inward-looking policies, the security premium enjoyed by the US dollar could diminish. Our estimates suggest, in this scenario, that $750 billion worth of official US dollardenominated assets—equivalent to 5 percent of US marketable public debt—would be liquidated and invested into other currencies such as the yen, the euro or the renminbi.”

All year, the Trump administration has blown hot and cold on its commitment to alliances, to the point that any assurances it makes today can’t be taken at face value. Trump’s

quick temper and his willingness to play the “whose nuclear button is bigger” game haven’t helped bolster the US reputation as a security guarantor. The constant leaks pointing to Trump’s incompetence, such as the new Michael Wolff book, appropriately titled “Fire and Fury,” also detract from the dollar’s reputation as a safe asset.

No wonder its share of global foreign exchange reserves, as reported to the International Monetary Fund, stood by the end of the third quarter of 2017 at the lowest level since the middle of 2014. It declined throughout the first three quarters of last year.

That share still stands at 63.5 percent, dwarfing other reserve currencies.

Central banks hold $6.13 trillion. It would take many years or even more drastic shake-ups to destroy both the “Mercury” and the “Mars” advantages of the US juggernaut. But the slight shift in favor of other currencies reflects a perception that making bigger bets on the US might be unsafe.

That’s likely one of the motives behind other reserve currencies’ exchange rate gains relative to the dollar.

Trump, of course, has spoken out in favor of a weak dollar because it helps trade competitiveness. But the US currency is not weakening because of any consistent policy.

On the contrary, it’s Trump’s loose cannon behavior that’s undermining it. An unhinged Mars is beating up Mercury in a fit of fire and fury. Bloomberg

World

A6

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com Republic of the Philippines ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION San Miguel Avenue, Pasig City

SUPPORTING DATA AND DOCUMENTS C.

In support of the foregoing computations, Applicant is submitting herewith the following documents, which are being made integral parts hereof, to wit:

Annex Markings Nature of Document

IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION FOR APPROVAL OF ADJUSTMENT IN RATES COVERING THE FIRST TO THIRD REGULATORY YEARS OF THE SECOND REGULATORY PERIOD FOR THE SECOND ENTRANT GROUP UNDER THE TARIFF GLIDE PATH (TGP) RULES, WITH MOTION FOR PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY,

A to A-2

ERC CASE NO. 2017-063 RC

NUEVA ECIJA I ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC. (NEECO I), Applicant. x-----------------------------------------------------x

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Proposed TGP Calculations and supporting documents using the prescribed templates: Index “I” Calculation Efficiency Factor “X” Calculation Performance Incentive “S” Calculation

B

MFSR - Sections B and E (2013-2016)

C

Billing Determinants Template (2013-2016 kWh Sales, No. of Customers and kW Demand)

D

Sample Bills per customer type (2013-2016)

E

Regional CPI (2013-2016)

F

RFSC Utilization (2014-2016)

G

Consumer Complaints Summary or Tracking Form (2014-2016)

H

Audited Financial Statements (2013-2016) ALLEGATIONS IN SUPPORT OF THE PRAYER FOR PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY

TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES:

Notice is hereby given that on 29 June 2017, Nueva Ecija I Electric Cooperative, Inc. (NEECO I) filed an Application dated 02 June 2017 seeking the Commission’s approval for the adjustment in its rates in accordance with the rules governing the Tariff Glide Path (TGP) pursuant to Article VII of the Rules for Setting the Rural Electric Cooperatives’ Wheeling Rates (RSEC-WR) with prayer for the issuance of provisional authority.

D.

Applicant respectfully repleads herein the foregoing allegations;

E.

Applicant respectfully prays that it be allowed to implement the proposed rate adjustment starting January 1, 2018, considering that it is expressly prescribed under the TGP Rules’ provision on Regulatory Period and Process, which provides in part, as follows: “2. Regulatory Period and Process

In its Application, NEECO I alleged the following:

2.1 On or before each Fourth month of the Third and Sixth regulatory year of their respective Regulatory Periods, the electric cooperative may file before the Commission an application for a rate adjustment reflecting the values for the “I”, “X” and “S” as determined in accordance with these rules.

The initial tariff caps of the respective ECs shall be adjusted by the “I”, “X” and “S” effective at the start of the Fourth Regulatory Year of the First Regulatory Period x x x” (Emphasis ours)

THE APPLICANT 1.

NEECO 1 is a non-stock, non-profit electric cooperative duly organized and existing under and by virtue of Philippine laws, with principal office at Brgy.

Malapit, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija;

2.

It holds an exclusive franchise from the National Electrification Commission to operate an electric light and power distribution service in the City of Gapan and certain municipalities in the province of Nueva Ecija, namely: San Isidro, Cabiao, Jaen, and San Antonio.

NATURE OF APPLICATION

3.

The instant application is being filed for the approval of Applicant’s proposed adjustment in its Distribution, Supply and Metering (DSM) Rates to be implemented on the First to Third Regulatory Years of the Second Regulatory Period for Electric Cooperatives belonging to the Second Entrant Group under the Tariff Glide Path Rules (TGP Rules) and in accordance with said Rules, as well as other pertinent laws and rules.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

4.

Sometime in 2014, Applicant filed with the Honorable Commission an application for approval of the proposed adjustment in its DSM Rates pursuant to the TGP Rules, docketed as ERC Case No. 2014-054 RC.

5.

In the said application, Applicant prayed for approval of either of the following two (2) proposed alternative DSM rates, to be implemented effective January 2015, to wit: a)

WITH PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S” CUSTOMER TYPE Low Higher Voltage Voltage

UNITS Distribution Charges: Demand Charge Distribution System Charge Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge Supply System Charge Metering Charges: Retail Customer Charge Metering System Charge b)

PhP/kW PhP/kWh

0.6341

PhP/Customer/ Mo PhP/kWh

0.6581

PhP/Meter/Mo. PhP/kWh

5.48 0.4744

Distribution Charges: Demand Charge Distribution System Charge Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge Supply System Charge Metering Charges: Retail Customer Charge Metering System Charge

7.

8.

240.91 0.8329 47.07

47.07

39.41

39.41

PhP/kW PhP/kWh

CUSTOMER TYPE Low Higher Residential Voltage Voltage

18. Further, the rising cost of materials, tools, equipment, supplies, fuel and other costs incidental to its daily operations has considerably increased these past several years and the funds being generated from the cooperative’s DSM revenues granted by the Honorable Commission way back in Year 2010 by virtue of the Rules for Setting the Electric Cooperatives’ Wheeling Rates (RSEC-WR), is no longer sufficient to cover those costs, and if not addressed accordingly with the adjustment of its rates, Applicant’s service to its consumers will be prejudiced.

19. Considering the foregoing, it is respectfully prayed that Applicant be allowed to implement the proposed DSM Rates effective January 1, 2018, even while the instant application is pending hearing or evaluation of the Honorable Commission.

20. Finally, in compliance with the pre-filing requirements for the instant application, Applicant is likewise submitting herewith the following documents, which are being made integral parts hereof, to wit: Annex Markings

Nature of Document

I

Judicial Affidavit in support of the motion for provisional authority

J and series

Proof of furnishing copies of the Application to the Sangguniang Bayan of San Isidro and Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Nueva Ecija

K and series

Publication of the Application in a newspaper of general circulation in NEECO l’s franchise area or where it principally operates, with Affidavit of Publication

233.01 0.6133

PhP/Customer/ Mo PhP/kWh

0.6365

PhP/Meter/Mo. PhP/kWh

5.30 0.4588

0.8056 45.52

45.52

38.12

38.12

Foregoing application was Applicant’s initial application for DSM rate adjustment pursuant to the TGP Rules, under which electric cooperatives are given an opportunity to adjust their rates once every three (3) years, which may occur at the start of the fourth year of the First Regulatory Period and every three years thereafter.

Applicant belongs to the Second Entrant Group under the TGP Rules, whose first regulatory period is from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2017.

Having filed its initial application for DSM rate adjustment in 2014, the third regulatory year of the First Regulatory Period, the cooperative is filing the instant application in the current year 2017, the sixth regulatory year of the First Regulatory Period, for the proposed adjustment of its DSM rates to be implemented on the first to the third regulatory years of the Second Regulatory Period for the Second Entrant Electric Cooperatives under the TGP Rules; The hearing on jurisdictional requirements, expository presentation and presentation of evidence on Applicant’s first TGP application under ERC Case No. 2014-054 RC has already been completed. Despite the pendency of ERC Case No. 2014-054 RC, Applicant is constrained to adopt and use the proposed DSM rates in said pending application as bases in computing the proposed adjustment in the instant Application.

Residential

Low Voltage

.6677

.8771

Demand Charge

PhP/kW

253.68

Distribution System Charge PhP/kWh Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Customer/ Mo

Supply System Charge

PhP/kWh

Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Meter/Mo.

5.77

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

.4996

Residential

Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Customer/ Mo

The TGP calculated for each of the three years will be summed to determine the possible rate adjustment starting on the First Year of the next Regulatory Period.

Supply System Charge

PhP/kWh

.6365

Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Meter/Mo.

5.30

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

.4588

YEAR 2015

0.00%

0.00%

1.90%

1.90%

0.00%

YEAR 2016

0.00%

0.00%

1.50%

1.50%

0.00%

YEAR 2017

0.00%

0.00%

1.90%

1.90%

0.00%

TOTAL

0.00%

0.00%

5-30%

5.30%

0.00%

11. Utilizing the above values will result in adjustments in the cooperative’s DSM Rates covering the first to third years of the Second Regulatory Period for electric cooperatives belonging to the Second Entrant Group, as follows: WITH PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S” UNITS

Low Voltage

Higher Voltage

Distribution Charges: Demand Charge

PhP/kW

Distribution System Charge PhP/kWh

253.68 .6677

.8771

Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Customer/ Mo

Supply System Charge

PhP/kWh

.6930

49.56

Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Meter/Mo.

5.77

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

.4996

49.56

Metering Charges:

B)

41.50

41.50

EXCLUDING PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S UNITS

CUSTOMER TYPE Residential

Low Voltage

.6133

.8056

Higher Voltage

Distribution Charges: Demand Charge

PhP/kW

Distribution System Charge PhP/kWh

233.01

Supply Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Customer/ Mo

Supply System Charge

PhP/kWh

45.52

45.52

38.12

38.12

Low Voltage

Higher Voltage

PhP/kW

233.01 .6133

.8056 45.52

45.52

38.12

38.12

Metering Charges:

Other reliefs, just and equitable in the premises are likewise prayed for.

The Commission has set the Application for determination of compliance with the jurisdictional requirements, expository presentation, Pre-trial Conference, and presentation of evidence on 19 January 2018 (Friday) at ten o’clock in the morning (10:00 A.M.), at NEECO I’s principal office at Brgy. Malapit, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija.

All persons who have an interest in the subject matter of the instant case may become a party by filing with the Commission a verified Petition to Intervene at least five (5) days prior to the initial hearing and subject to the requirements under Rule 9 of the 2006 Rules of Practice and Procedure, indicating therein the docket number and title of the case and stating the following: 1)

The petitioner’s name and address;

2)

The nature of petitioner’s interest in the subject matter of the proceeding and the way and manner in which such interest is affected by the issues involved in the proceeding; and

3)

A statement of the relief desired.

CUSTOMER TYPE Residential

41.50

CUSTOMER TYPE

UNITS

Distribution System Charge PhP/kWh

TGP B

41.50

B. EXCLUDING PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S”

n= the fourth year of the Regulatory Period and succeeding Regulatory Periods

(excluding S)

49.56

Metering Charges:

TGPn = In - Xn + Sn

TGP B

49.56 .6930

Demand Charge

10. Applying the methodology embodied in the TGP Rules, herein Applicant calculated the values of the “I”, “X” and “S” and came up with the following results, to wit:

Higher Voltage

Distribution Charges:

Distribution Charges:

A.

All other persons who may want their views known to the Commission with respect to the subject matter of the case may file their Opposition or Comment thereon at any stage of the proceeding before Applicant concludes the presentation of its evidence, subject to the requirements under Rule 9 of the 2006 Rules of Practice and Procedure.

No particular form of Opposition or Comment is required, but the document, letter, or writing should contain the following: 1)

The name and address of such person;

2)

A concise statement of the Opposition or Comment; and

3)

The grounds relied upon.

All such persons who wish to have a copy of the Application may request from Applicant that they be furnished with the same, prior to the date of the initial hearing.

Applicant is hereby directed to furnish all those making such request with copies of the Application and its attachments, subject to the reimbursement of reasonable photocopying costs. Any such person may likewise examine the Application and other pertinent records filed with the Commission during the standard office hours.

WITNESS, the Honorable Chairperson AGNES VST DEVANADERA and the Honorable Commissioners ALFREDO J. NON, GLORIA VICTORIA C. YAP-TARUC, and GERONIMO D. STA. ANA, Energy Regulatory Commission, this 12th day of December 2017 in Pasig City.

FOR AND BY AUTHORITY OF THE COMMISSION:

.6365

Metering Charges: Retail Customer Charge

PhP/Meter/Mo.

5.30

Metering System Charge

PhP/kWh

.4588

B.

to be asked to resign in the coming year.

Tillerson was forced to mount his defense as Washington devoured a new supposed tell-all — Michael Wolff ’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” — rushed into bookstores after the White House failed to suppress it.

The book quickly sold out in shops in the US capital, with some people even lining up at midnight to get their hands on it and others circulating pirated copies. Trump has decried the instant best-seller as “phony” and “full of lies.”

Journalist Wolff, no stranger to controversy, quotes several key Trump aides expressing doubt about Trump’s ability to lead the world’s largest economy and military hegemon.

“Let me put a marker in the sand here. One hundred percent of the people around him” question Trump’s fitness for office, Wolff told NBC’s “Today” show.

“They all say he is like a child.

And what they mean by that is he has a need for immediate gratification. It’s all about him.”

The 71-year-old Republican president, approaching the first anniversary of his inauguration, has responded to the book with fury. AFP

CUSTOMER TYPE

UNITS

where

“S”(B)

In an extraordinary portion of a television interview on foreign policy challenges, Tillerson was asked about claims that Trump has a short attention span, regularly repeats himself and refuses to read briefing notes.

“I’ve never questioned his mental fitness. I’ve had no reason to question his mental fitness,” said Tillerson, whose office was last year forced to deny reports that he had referred to Trump as a “moron” after a national security meeting.

And, even in defending Trump, the former ExxonMobil chief executive admitted he has had to learn how to relay information to a president with a very different decision-making style.

“I have to learn how he takes information in, processes it and makes decisions,” Tillerson told CNN. “I’m here to serve his presidency. So, I’ve had to spend a lot of time understanding how to best communicate with him.”

But Tillerson emphasized the right decisions had been made and that the United States is in a stronger place internationally thanks to Trump’s policies.

“He is not a typical president of the past, I think that’s well recognized -- that’s also why the American people chose him,” he said, insisting that he does not expect

A. WITH PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S”

TGPB= TGPn + TGPn+1 TGPn+2

“X”(B)

W

ASHINGTON—Washington’s chief diplomat Rex Tillerson found himself obliged to defend President Donald Trump’s fitness for office Friday after a bombshell new book called into doubt his mental health.

WHEREFORE, premises considered, it is most respectfully prayed of this Honorable Commission that after due notice and hearing, Applicant NEECO I be allowed to implement either of the following two (2) alternative proposed new rates for its Distribution, Supply and Metering (DSM) Charges, effective January 2018, to wit:

Under the TGP Rules, the concerned electric cooperative shall use the following formula in determining the TGP for the fourth to sixth years of the Regulatory Period, to wit:

“I”(B)

TRUMP MENTAL STATE OKAY, SAYS TILLERSON

PRAYER

THE PROPOSED DSM RATE ADJUSTMENT 9.

17. Aside from the foregoing, Applicant further prays for provisional authority to implement the proposed rates effective January 1, 2018 and even during the pendency of the instant application, considering that the cooperative urgently needs additional funds to be able to cope with the rising costs of its operations. Among the major factors that added to its operating costs is the implementation of the Sitio Energization Program (SEP) of the government consisting of massive extension of its distribution lines up to the remotest and far-flung areas which considerably increased its operations and maintenance costs and likewise resulted to increased system losses which the cooperative is constrained to absorb;

COMPLIANCE WITH PRE-FILING REQUIREMENTS

EXCLUDING PERFORMANCE INCENTIVE “S” UNITS

6.

Residential

16. Under the TGP Rules, the regulatory period is six (6) years for each entry Group. For the Second Entrant Group, the first regulatory period is from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2017 and the start of the Fourth Regulatory Year is January 1, 2015. Applicant belongs to the Second Entrant Group, accordingly, its initial DSM Rates under the TGP Rules should be adjusted through the proposed TGP B Rates starting January 1, 2018;

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor / Jimbo Gulle, Issue Editor

JOSEFINA PATRICIA A. MAGPALE-ASIRIT Oversight Commissioner for Legal

Consequently, Applicant respectfully prays that it be allowed to implement either of the above two calculated alternative DSM rates, effective January 1, 2018 and up to December 31, 2020.

M. Standard – Dec. 31, 2017 & Jan. 7, 2018

KINGS’ CAKE. A boy receives a piece of the traditional ‘Rosca de Reyes’ (kings’ cake) at the Zocalo square in Mexico City on Epiphany’s Eve on Jan. 5. The giant cake was distributed among 200,000 people. AFP

TECH FIRMS FIGHT TO FIX SECURITY FLAW PA R I S — A m a z o n , Google and now Apple—as the list of digital giants hit by the “Spectre” and “Meltdown” computer security flaws grows longer, the race is on to limit the damage.

“All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected, but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time,” Apple -- whose devices are usually regarded as secure -- said in a post on an online support page on Thursday.

Almost all microprocessors produced over the past 10 years by Intel, AMD and ARM are affected. No PC or mobile device can function without the miniature components that are effectively nerve centers for executing computer programs and apps.

And that is what distinguishes them from previous secu-

rity alerts that have tended to involve software rather than hardware.

In theory, Spectre and Meltdown could enable a user to “access kernel level memory access, exposing critical information that would be stored there, like system passwords,” said Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra.

Luke Wagner, a software engineer at Mozilla, wrote on a security blog that it was “possible to use similar techniques from web content to read private information.”

Effectively, all electronic devices manufactured all around the world in recent years contain potentially vulnerable chips.

The biggest names in the sector, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla, are now rushing out updates and patches to eliminate the flaw. AFP

UN SECURITY COUNCIL MEETS ON IRAN UNREST NEW YORK—The United States and Russia clashed over Iran at the United Nations Security Council on Friday as a third straight day of pro-regime rallies were held following a wave of deadly protests.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley pushed for the meeting of the top UN body, arguing the unrest could escalate into full-blown conflict and drawing a comparison with Syria.

“The Iranian regime is now on notice: the world will be watching what you do,” Haley warned.

Russia opposed the US push for Iran to be discussed at the Security Council, arguing the protests pose no threat to international peace and security.

But Moscow stopped short of seeking to block the meeting. AFP

Sports

A7

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 randyproject@yahoo.com

LADIES OPEN UP NEXT FOR SASO

KRYSHANA BRAZAL AND GABY ZOLETA

RISING STARS OF PHL TENNIS

By Peter Atencio

C

ONSIDER Kryshana Brazal and Gaby Zoleta as among the fastrising female contenders in the Philippine age-group tennis circuit.

The two star ted the year on a bright note when they claimed separate titles in the 29th Andrada Cup Age Group Tennis Tournament.

A Palarong Pambansa standout, Brazal was stretched to enormous limit against a younger opponent in the 14-under girls finals.

But the 13-year-old Brazal’s efforst were not wasted after she pulled off a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over Lucena bet Angeline Alcala.

“Masaya po ako sa panalo. Pero, nakakapagod din kasi mas bata ang kalaban,” said Brazal in winning the crown at the end of their encounter at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

Brazal, who is preparing to play in the National Capital Region meet of the Palarong Pambansa, struggled past 2-all deadlock in the first set.

The 5’1 Brazal, who was part of the NCR team that won the team championship in the Palaro last year, finally got into the groove with her baseline game, taking the next four points in the first set.

The 8th grader from Pasig then played a waiting game and patiently kept the 12year old-Alcala at bay with her long baseline returns.

Kryshana’s proud grandmother Adela Brazal, a retired chief results recording official in the Palarong Pambansa, was around to watch her granddaughter fight it out some

Brazal in action at the recent 29th Andrada Cup Age Group Tennis Tournament.

Gaby Zoleta

more in the second set.

The young Brazal pulled away with a 4-0 lead and never relinquished her advantage from there.

On the other hand, a lot will be in store for Gaby Zoleta after she claimed the 16-under girls’ plum with her 6-1, 6-3 win over Patricia Lim. She is upbeat about making it to the national under-16 girls’ team that will be sent to the Junior Fed Cup from March 12 to 17 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

“It was tough playing against my opponents in the semifinals. But I’m happy I made it’ said the 15-year-old Zoleta.

Last year, she was with three young girls who proved how tough they can get when confronted by tougher opponents in the international scene.

Back then, the team of Carmencita Carlos, Alexandra Eala and Zoleta showed impeccable skills when they powered the Philippine national under-14 girls team to a four-game sweep in New Delhi, India.

KIM, HWANG NEAR PHL AM GOLF CROWNS SILANG, Cavite—Tom Kim slowed down with a 71 but hiked his lead to four over Rupert Zaragosa in men’s play while fellow Korean Hwang Min-jeong all but wrapped up the women’s crown with a 68 in the third round of the 2018 Philippine Amateur Open Championship at Riviera Golf and Country Club’s Couples course here yesterday.

Kim, out to make up for his runner-up finish to absentee Sadom Kaewkanjana of Thailand last year, actually pulled away by six with a three-under card with four holes to go but fumbled with bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17 and settled for a 36-35 for a three-day output of 212.

But that proved enough to pad his overnight three-stroke lead to four as Zaragosa struggled in the early going and needed to rebound with three birdies to get back into the thick of things. But a bogey on the par-3 17th dropped the Filipino bet farther back at 216 heading to the final 18 holes of the annual event sponsored by the MVP Sports Foundation and

Hwang Min-jeong’s 11 stroke lead put her solidly at the top of the women’s battle

backed by One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites as official hotel.

Luis Castro, who shared the

first round lead with two others at 70 Thursday, also matched par 72 and fell by five at 217 while Cebu’s Weiwei Gao sputtered with a closing 38 for a 73 and stood way behind at 219.

But while Kim wavered at the finish, Hwang came through with a fiery windup, birdying Nos. 16 and 17 to fire a four-under card that went with her earlier 67 and 69.

With a whopping 204 aggregate, the young Korean, who placed seventh here last year and a one-time winner in the country’s premier ladies pro circuit, raced away with an 11-stroke lead over Cebu’s Lois Kaye Go, who finally broke par with a 70 but lay too far behind at 215 in the event organized and conducted by the National Golf Association of the Philippines.

Lee Ji Hyeon, also of Korea, fumbled with a 73 for third at 221 while last year’s runner-up Kim Hee Ji skied with an 81 for a 223 followed by Clare Legaspi (72-227), Mikha Fortuna (78-229) and 2016 champion Harmie Constantino (79-229), Thai Tunrada

Piddon (73-232), reigning Philippine Ladies Open winner Bianca Pagdanganan (80-233) and Sofia Legaspi (74-236) in that order.

Back in men’s play of the tournament held as part of the PLDT National Amateur Golf Tour, Singapore’s Gregory Foo also struggled in hot condition with a 75 for a 222 while Japanese Gen Nagai pooled a 223 after a 74 in a tie with Thai Nopparat Panichphon (75), Carl Corpus (77), Abdul Hadi, also of Singapore, (77) and Aidric Chan (78).

Kim actually went to work early with a birdie on the first hole and after another birdie against two bogeys to close out the front at 36, the rising star scorching the backside with birdies on Nos. 10, 13 and 14 only to reel back with bogeys on the 16th and 17th.

In contrast, Zaragosa, a former winner, bogeyed two of the first three holes but rebounded with birdies on Nos. 6 and 7 before flubbing a couple of birdie chances at the back before closing out with a birdie-bogey-par for that 72.

DASMARINAS GEARS UP FOR IBO TITLE TIFF FILIPINO boxer Michael “Hot & Spicy” Dasmarinas, gears up for the biggest fight of his life as he goes for an IBO world championship title on April 20 at Ringstar Boxing’s ‘Roar of Singapore IV - The Night of Champions’, to be held at the 10,000-seater Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Dasmarinas currently

ranked 12th best boxer in the world by WBC, will go up against French boxer Karim Guerfi, who is currently ranked 4th

by WBC. The fight is also touted by the Singapore promoter as the main event of the evening and will draw much international attention to the Camarines Sur-native.

Dasmarinas had an

impressive win and KO’d his Thai opponent Phupha Por Nobnom, during the 2nd round of his match, at Ringstar’s ‘Roar of Singapore III - The Chosen Wan’, in October last year at the Suntec Convention Center, a win which gave way for this world title match.

Michael Dasmarinas says, “Nakakagalak po at

nabigyan tayo ng Ringstar ng ganitong pagkakataong mapakita ang ating galing bilang Pilipino. Ngayon po ay puspusan ang aking paghahanda. Tuloy-tuloy po ang ating ensayo dahil nais ko po makamit ang IBO world title na ito. Samahan niyo po ako magdasal na makuha natin ang panalong ito. Ang

panalo ko po ay pagkapanalo rin ng Pilipinas.” (I am happy that I am being given this opportunity by Ringstar to show my talent as a Filipino boxer. I am now training continuously, so that I can win this IBO world title bout. Please join me in praying, so that we can win. My win, will also be a win for the Philippines.)

YUKA Saso hopes to ride the momentum of her impressive victory in a pro tournament as she joins the hunt in the Champion Infinity Philippine Ladies Open 2018 unfolding Jan. 10 at the Orchard Golf and Country Club’s Palmer Course in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

Saso humbled a tough international field at the ICTSI Ayala Greenfield Ladies Classic last Friday, scoring a wire-towire triumph in a victory that all but primed up the 16-yearold shotmaker from Canlubang Golf for the country’s premier ladies championship that drew the cream of the country’s amateur crop and a host of talented players from nine countries.

They include the crack Thailand side bannered by Onkanok Soisuwan, Pimkwan Chookaew, Kultida Pramphun, Phannarai Meesom-us and Pinkaew Trachuentong along with Indonesian Michela Tjan, Singapore’s Shannon Tan, Callista Chen and Hailey Loh and Hong Kong’s Hei Nam Leung.

With local aces Harmie Constantino, Sam Bruce, Tomi Arejola, Nicole Abelar, Kristine Torralba, Sophia Legaspi, Felicia Medalla, Annika Cedo and Junia Gabasa also in the fold, a three -day shootout looms in the event backed

by Champion Infinity, Eva Air, San Miguel Corp., Metro Pacific, Atty. Gilberto Duavit, Inquirer, Alveo Land, G&W Clubshares, Inc. and NGAP. Other supporters of the event are Golfer’s Club Shares, Inc., Province of Cavite, Luisita Golf and Country Club, Mileage Asia, Vermogen, Golf Depot, Orchard Golf and Country Club, Alabang Ladies Chapter, Forest Hills GCC, Tagaytay Highlands, Sta. Elena Golf Club, Manila Golf Club and Canlubang GCC with TIB Taishan and The Turf Company-Texas Eagle as holein-one sponsors.

The organizing Women’s Golf Association of the Philippines said aside from the centerpiece Open category, also on tap are competitions in Classes A and B, both tipped to likewise go down-to-the-wire.

Manila

In The Name Of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful Standard

TODAY REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

AUTONOMOUS REGION IN MUSLIM MINDANAO PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF BASILAN BIDS AND AWARDSCOMMITTEE Provincial Capitol Bldg., Isabela City, Basilan Province, 7300

SUPPLY AND DELIVERY OF ONE (1) UNIT 4 WHEEL VEHICLE (2.2 MANUAL) PICK UP 4X4, COLOR: BLACK FOR THE OFFICE OF THE VICE GOVERNOR, PROVINCE OF BASILAN UNDER BAC PUBLICATION:01- 001-2018 1. The Provincial Government of Basilan intends to apply part of the sum of ONE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED PESOS (P1,700,000.00) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payment for SUPPLY AND DELIVERY OFONE (1) UNIT 4 WHEEL VEHICLE (2.2 MANUAL) PICK UP 4X4, COLOR: BLACK , procurement under the Office of the Provincial Vice Governor , Basilan chargeable against the existing appropriation of Basilan Provincial Government; Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected a bid opening.

2. The Provincial Government of Basilan now invites bids for Procurement of Goods for the Supply and Delivery of One (1) Unit 4 Wheel Vehicle (2.2 Manual) PICK UP 4x4 , COLOR :Black , under the Office of the Vice Governor. Bidders have completed within ten (10) years from the date of submission and receipts of bids, a contract similar to the project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II, Instruction to Bidders.

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

4. Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least seventy five percent (75%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines. Interested bidders may obtain further information from The Provincial Government of Basilan and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 8:00am to 5pm.

5. A complete Bidding Documents may be purchased in the amount of Five Thousand pesos (P5,000.00) for the procurement for the contract by interested Bidders from the address below and upon payment of a nonrefundable fees for the Bidding Documents and ONE THOUSAND PESOS (P1,000.00) for Letter of Intent .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 fee for the Bidding Documents not later that the submission of their bids.

6. The Provincial Government of Basilan will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on 9:00 am, Jan. 8, 2018 at BAC Office, Provincial Capitol, Isabela City, Basilan Province, which shall be open to all interested parties.

7. Bids must be delivered on Bid Opening to the address below on or before 10:00 am, January 22,2018 at BAC Office, Provincial Capitol, Isabela City, Basilan Province. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.

8. 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.

9. The Provincial Government of Basilan reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

10. For further information, please refer to: The BAC CHAIRPERSON LGU- BASILAN Bids and Award Committee C/O BAC Secretariat Ground Floor, Provincial Capitol Building, Isabela City, Basilan Province, 7300 Fax No.: 062 200 3416 & 062 200 3417 (SGD.)INTAN GORDANA A. ABUBAKAR Chairperson, Bids and Award Committee (MS-JAN. 7, 2018)

A8

By Reuel Vidal

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 Riera U. Mallari, Editor / Reuel Vidal, Issue Editor

Sports

sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

CELTICS KEEP GETTING BETTER

Serena Williams holds up the winner’s trophy following her victory at the Australian Open tennis tournament in this file photo. The defending champion pulled out of the Australian Open saying she was not at the level she needs to be after giving birth to her first child. AFP

T

HE Boston Celtics were not supposed to be this good, this early. But they already are scary good and getting better.

The team sits atop the Eastern Conference despite missing one of their best players in Gordon Hayward to injury. They have six players who are playing in the National Basketball Association for the first time. And they returned just four players from last year’s team as they continue to improve while the players become more accustomed to playing with each other.

Manila Standard was lucky enough to gain access to some of their players through a global media conference call early morning Wednesday.

One of the key players to Boston’s success is rookie Jayson Tatum who is playing really well.

“I think my rookie year has been going pretty well.

Obviously, we’re winning.

That’s what really matters, and I’m having fun doing it,” said Tatum. He confessed that he’s surprised to be shooting so well from the NBA three-point line and he’s glad to be playing well enough to be considered for the Rookie of the Year honors.

“The biggest adjustment is just we play so many more games than we do in college, so you’ve got to really take care of your body. Yeah, that’s always been one of my goals, to win that award. But I think just focusing on team goals first, and if we keep winning, the rest will take care of itself,” he said.

Tatum added that defense has been a big factor for the team’s success despite the loss of Hayward.

“Obviously, when Gordon went down, it was tough. Basically, everybody had to do more on the offensive end and defensive end. We had to come together and still find ways to be effective and win games, and we really triggered in on defense,”

SERENA TO SKIP AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving (11) tries to dribble past a pair of Cleveland Cavaliers defenders in Kevin Love (0) and Jeff Green. AFP

Boston Celtics center Al Horford smiles as he jogs down court during their game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. AFP

said Tatum who added that they didn’t expect to do so well after Hayward went down with the injury.

“We have the best record in the East, and obviously Brad (Stevens) is one of the best coaches in the league. Hopefully we keep winning, and we’ll see what happens. Obviously, when Gordon got hurt, people got more playing time and got more opportunities, and guys just had to step up. From that being the first game of the season, we had to catch on quick,” said Tatum.

One of the few veterans in the team is Al Horford

and he believes they are capable of making it all the way to the NBA Finals.

“I feel like we’ve been playing really good basketball. I feel like we have a really young group that our guys just keep getting better as the season goes along.

As a group, we’re going to keep getting better, and I do feel like we have what it takes to contend for a championship,” said Horford.

He added that the key is to concentrate on the game at hand and not think too far ahead.

“I think the focus always has to be on the night tonight, but I do sit back and look at the big picture.

We’ve had a lot of adversity as a group, a lot of guys that have never played in the NBA that have come in and had an impact. I look at all that and I do appreciate the progress and how well we’ve played,” said Horford.

“But then also at the same time, I always bring myself back down, and it’s important for us to focus on the game to game and the process and just continue to get better. And I think that’s the key for our group.”

Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens points to Kyrie Irving as one of the biggest reasons for the

team’s success.

“I think he (Irving) can get better in every area on the court, and I think the best players in the league consistently have that focus. If you look at the last few MVPs in the league, especially as you go through (Stephen) Curry and then (Russell) Westbrook, the jump they made from the year before to their MVP year was as big as anybody. I think sometimes we look at most improved players as people that come off the bench and then start or go from not playing to a sixth man role, and we miss the fact that oftentimes the best players in the league are the most improved players from year to year, and there’s a reason why they’re where they are,” said Stevens.

“Kyrie works the right way. He’s got a great attitude about it. He wants to be great. He doesn’t take for granted what he’s already achieved. He works to be great the next day.

And that’s why I think he’ll keep getting better.”

The Celtics, already one of the best teams in the league right now, continue to get better.

Boston Celtics rookie Jayson Tatum (0) handles the ball against the Cleveland Cavaliers during their game at the TD Garden. AFP

MELBOURNE, Australia—Defending champion Serena Williams pulled out of the Australian Open on Friday, saying she was “super close” but still not at the level she needs to be after giving birth to her first child.

The American 23-time Grand Slam winner made a tentative return at an Abu Dhabi exhibition late last month, losing to French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Prior to that her last competitive match was at the Australian Open final almost a year ago, which she won despite being two months pregnant, memorably beating sister Venus in the decider.

Since then, she has given birth to her first child and married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian at a starstudded wedding, where guests included Beyonce and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

“After competing in Abu Dhabi I realized that although I am super close, I’m not where I personally want to be,” the 36-year-old said in a statement.

“My coach and team always said ‘only go to tournaments when you are prepared to go all the way’.

“I can compete, but I don’t want to just compete, I want to do far better than that and to do so, I will need a little more time.

“With that being said, and even though I am disappointed about it, I’ve decided not to compete in the Australian Open this year,” she added.

Her withdrawal deprives the opening Grand Slam of the year of another major star, after former world number one Andy Murray and Japan’s Kei Nishikori both pulled out injured on Thursday.

In Abu Dhabi, Williams was clearly sluggish and had problems with her serve. She also stuck mostly to the baseline and only twice charged the net.

Despite this, she made it clear afterwards that she missed being on court and was desperate to play at Melbourne Park, where she has been crowned champion seven times.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley expressed his admiration for her efforts to return to the game she loves. AFP

CHOIR GIRL WANTS TO FULFILL HER DESTINY AS MARTIAL ARTS CHAMPION AS a young girl, Singaporean martial arts standout Tiffany “No Chill” Teo was heavily involved in choir activities, which she participated in for a decade.

“I was a nerd when I was a kid. I was not very active,” Teo said.

Today, Teo is the polar opposite as she traded in her songbooks and rehearsal rooms for a pair of four-ounce gloves and the gym. Teo went from a quiet, unassuming choir girl to becoming a renowned strawweight martial arts prospect with an impressive record of 7-0.

The winding road to ONE Championship began in the oddest of places—in front of the television screen. Teo’s interest in martial arts, Muay Thai specifically, was stoked by popular reality show The Contender Asia.

Motivated by the aforementioned television program and a brief stint in Taekwondo, Teo made her way to a Singapore gym to start training in the “art of eight limbs” nearly eight years ago.

After training for two years, she

put Muay Thai on the shelf completely as she packed her bags and headed to the United States to study Psychology at the University of Buffalo, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Teo then returned to Singapore and dove head-first into the amateur martial arts scene after just a month of training.

What was meant to be a one-time experience that she could cross off her bucket list soon turned into something more serious, all because she lost.

“I hate losing,” Teo said. “I decided to re-evaluate what I did wrong, and I wanted to continue.”

A far cry from her days in the choir, Teo’s journey to perfect her craft in martial arts progressed quickly.

After immersing herself with Muay Thai and boxing, Teo dabbled in the famous grappling discipline of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Before she knew it, the Singaporean was on the road to a full-fledged profes-

sional mixed martial arts career.

“I fell in love with martial arts. There is more to it than throwing strikes and grappling with your training partner on the mat. It empowers me every single day,” Teo said.

After having her hand raised in seven professional bouts inside the cage, Teo has received the biggest opportunity of her perfect martial arts career as she is scheduled to clash with “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan for the inaugural ONE Women’s Strawweight World Championship.

Both women are set to collide in the main event of ONE: Kings of Courage, which takes place at the Jakarta Convention Center in Indonesia on Jan. 20.

The 28-year-old Singaporean title contender can make history on that fateful night, but she knows that it will not be easy.

“It takes a lot of discipline and hard work to be a world champion. We see how people change after they become

Tiffany Teo (right) trades punches with Rebecca Heintzman at the center of the cage during their ONE Championship bout won by Teo. ONE Championship

the champion, so I feel like you need to stay humble, grounded, and continue to work hard,” she said.

Teo is 100 percent focused on be-

coming the first-ever ONE Women’s Strawweight World Champion and the second ONE World Champion to fly the Singapore flag.

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018

Business

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

COSETENG BECOMES A STALWART OF STEEL SECTOR

Former senator Nikki Coseteng

The young and dedicated iVolunteer team including (from left) Danielle Najos, Jasmine Salem, Jennilyn Redublo and Danalynne Dumaliang.

YOUNG VOLUNTEERS MAKE SUSTAINABLE SOCIAL IMPACT B

UILDING a better Philippines takes a collective effort and not just a one-man team.

But volunteering towards nation building takes a whole lot of education and understanding before one can truly grasp the whole concept of volunteerism and create a sustainable impact.

Often, there are also mismatches for demand for volunteers and availability of volunteers.

These are the pain points shared by JB Tan and Bel Padlan, the people behind iVolunteer, one of the five startups which won the Globe Future Makers social innovation competition participated in by 135 individuals and groups.

Tan noted the difficulties in finding volunteering opportunities even during the onslaught of typhoon Ondoy in 2009 which opened up the floodgates for more volunteers. People want to volunteer but they didn’t know how and where to go.

This situation prompted Tan and Padlan to come up with iVolunteer where they partnered with many non-governmental organizations to help develop volunteer engagement facilities, make a sustainable impact on the community and create a holistic program for the beneficiaries.

Ivolunteer also helps volunteers find opportunities as well as encourages people to sign up as volunteers.

It is not just a website but a venue for education on how to become a volunteer.

“There was really a mismatch when it comes to demand for volunteers and the available volunteers. But there are problems every day that necessitates the need for volunteers, so why don’t people volunteer every day? With our website, we want people to become conscious first and educated enough on how to become a volunteer, and to realize that everyone regardless of status in life can be a volunteer,” said Tan. “Volunteers are your so-called every day heroes, often unheralded, always in the background, never mentioned often, but are the ones most adamant in helping build a nation.”

With their vision about volunteering and leveraging technology in furthering their cause, Tan said the benefits they received from winning the Globe Future Makers Program could help them reach out to more people.

“With access to Globe, we have a big marketing channel through SMS, Data or Internet to promote volunteerism. Technology can really help us elevate the level of understanding and professionalism among volunteers, remind them that they signed up for this to show their commitment, and probably institute a rewards system, though we should be careful about this.

We want to delight them as well but be cautious against making it a livelihood. So that’s about using technology, facilitate volunteerism and provide Volunteer Delight.”

Chelle Gray, Globe Citizenship director said: “Globe always espouses volunteerism even among its employees so this is something dear

to our hearts. Hopefully, through Globe Future Makers, we can help iVolunteer further their cause and encourage more people to participate in this worthy undertaking.”

The Globe Future Makers program which Globe introduced early this year seeks to influence and build a whole ecosystem of social innovators with the help of technology. Globe teamed up with Ashoka, the world’s largest professional network of social innovators as well as venture capital firm Kickstart Ventures to give the winning teams an opportunity to receive coaching and mentorship from some of the best social innovators around the world as well as meet possible investors.

At present, the people that run iVolunteer are 100-percent volunteers and no one gets paid.

The organization has more 200 partners inside and outside of Metro Manila and is still looking at expanding its operations to Cebu, Davao and other regions.

Volunteer work which people may sign up with include tutorials particularly for out-ofschool youth, soup kitchens, tree planting, relief operations, medical missions, among others.

Tan said their goal is to grow non-volunteers to become one-time volunteers and eventually transform them to become committed ones.

The benefit of volunteerism is really two-fold: immediate output to the community and the intrinsic transformation to the volunteer himself in terms of perspective and maturity. “We want to move people eventually to higher levels of commitment that creates longer term impact; this is what we call ‘volunteer evolution.’”

MILLENNIALS DRIVE GROWTH OF DIGITAL LENDING PLATFORM FINTQ—the financial technology arm of PLDT and Smart’s Voyager Innovations— saw loan disbursements processed through Lendr, its digital lending platform, balloon by nearly a third in 2017 from a year ago with most of the borrowers coming from the ‘starting out’ segment, an executive said.

“Loans disbursed through Lendr for 2017 reached more than P12 billion, nearly a third higher than the volume recorded the year before, bringing our total loans disbursed to about P27 billion since we went to market in 2015,” said FINTQ managing director Lito Villanueva.

The tremendous year- on-year performance, Villanueva said, was mainly propelled by business synergies with both banks and non-bank associations sealed throughout the year and the regulatory support given to FINTQ. He noted that applications through Lendr registered the highest loan approval rate at around 40 percent last year due to “digital efficiencies.”

“Lendr’s feature of filtering of loan applicants based on the bank and non-bank partners’ credit parameters enabled them to quickly generate quality leads and approve eligible borrowers,” he said.

As of end-2017, FINTQ has signed agreements with 70 institutions. These include the Landbank of the Philippines; China Bank Savings; RCBC Savings Bank; Philippine Bank of Communications; Producers Savings Bank Corp.; Camalig Bank, Inc. (A Rural Bank); PNB Savings Bank; Maybank Philippines; EastWest Bank; CARD Bank, Inc.; CARD SME Bank, Inc.; Rizal Bank, Inc.; First Circle; Esquire Financing, Inc.; ALGO

Leasing and Finance; Cebuana Lhuillier; Atram Trust Corp.’s Seedbox Technologies; Radiowealth Finance Company; Chamber of Thrift Banks; and the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines. FINTQ will also be working with CoopHub to offer Lendr services to over 26,000 cooperatives nationwide.

“Majority of those who borrow through Lendr are single, female, employed, and

are the so-called millennials or those born from 1982 to 2004. Such borrowers are what we call the ‘Starting Out’ segment—or the young adults who are just beginning with their careers.

At this stage of their lives, they only have need for relatively simple financial products such as a transaction account and/or a credit card. From time to time, they utilize basic banking products to fund their R&R activities [e.g. travel, new gadgets, or hobby] or invest in the financial market,” Villanueva said.

“Borrowers who use Lendr are those with profiles that are targeted by banks.

This only goes to show that our platform is really beneficial for our bank and non-bank partners as we work together in providing the financial needs of consumers,” Villanueva said.

However, he said that “8 out of 10 of our borrowers are from the provinces and about 26 percent are residing in lowincome cities and municipalities. This only shows that there is really a huge untapped market by formal financial institutions in rural communities and with our digital financial platforms such as Lendr, wherein we also offer micro-loans via Pera Agad, we are able to service their financial needs,” said Villanueva.

FORMER senator Anna Dominique ‘Nikki’ Marquez-Lim Coseteng is now a stalwart of the steel sector.

Coseteng, the current chairperson of the Philippine Induction Smelting Industry Association, in a letter to Environment Secretar y Roy Cimatu, justifies the use of Induction Furnace Smelting Technology.

Coseteng heads Pisia which is composed of Melters Steel Corp., Real Steel Corp., Wan Chiong Steel Corp., Metrodragon Steel Corp. and Davao Mighty Steel Corp., all of which use IFST. Coseteng’s letter sought to address recent reports by the Clean Air Philippines Movement Inc. that IFST was a ‘bad technology’ and that it was ‘linked to high levels of air pollution’.

“Capmi must substantiate this report with actual results of studies conducted by reliable independent agencies. Otherwise, it could be taken as self-serving or with their vested interest in mind,” says Costeng.

“There appears to be a lack of appreciation in terms of this new technology, which is the Induction Furnace Smelting Technology or IFST. It is public knowledge that the more advanced technology, which in fact, minimizes air pollution and definitely lowers electricity cost,” she says.

“IFST technology was developed only over a decade ago in Germany and Italy, is now being used by smelters in the Asean Region, Middle East, Africa, China, Japan, Taiwan and some European countries. It is certainly a direct contrast to the obsolete Electric Arc Furnace, developed some 150 years ago, which causes heavy pollution and is still being used by many local smelters,” says Coseteng.

Coseteng says Pisia is confident that IFST is the better technology in the Philippines and in the world. “Today, the process is consuming less energy and generates very little pollution.

Many of the members are also ISO-9001 certified by DTI and the Philippine Standard PS-Mark, proving that the products are at par with internationally acceptable standards and manufactured in an environmentally friendly setting.”

The former senator also calls the accusations of the Clean Air Philippines Movement ridiculous, and warns that the country may be a dumping ground of the phased out Electric Arc Furnace equipment, which are considered obsolete in other countries, where smelters using this technology have been closed down.

“Perhaps what we should do is undertake a comparative study of the old technology against the new and better technology, which would of course benefit not only the environment, but the Filipino people. And as a former lawmaker, a concerned citizen and a conscientious consumer, I appeal to Secretary Cimatu to look into this matter closely, as the benefits of Induction Furnace Smelting Technology are being marred by a simple lack of appreciation of its benefits, when in fact, IFST can very well benefit the Filipino consumer and the environment,” says Coseteng.

Business

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 business@manilastandard.net

2 GROUPS EMPOWER FILIPINO FAMILIES

PAL’S FIVE-STAR JOURNEY FOCUSES ON THE PASSENGERS

Entrepreneur Elizabeth Cuya

“GIVE a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” This Chinese proverb couldn’t be any truer, for an effective way to help people live better lives is to empower them to provide for themselves.

Elizabeth Cuya, is an epitome of a hard-working mother who dreams of a bright future for her family yet restrained by poverty. The mother of three recalls her experiences when she and her husband Fernando was struggling to feed their family.

“We searched for our luck in so many places. We have been to Bicol and Manila until we transferred here in Batangas. Life is hard. It is difficult for a mother to see her children crying and hungry but you are helpless. I had no one to turn to.”

Originally from Bicol, starting anew in Batangas was a challenge for her family.

They did not know where to start until Elizabeth met a member of the San Pedro Multi-Purpose Cooperative and was convinced to join, knowing that the cooperative’s aim is to help their community. It was only when Elizabeth became a member of San Pedro MPC in 2013 that their lives started to change for the better.

Being part of the MPC, Elizabeth realized that still, there are people who are ready to help, and believe that they can succeed. “Finally, someone believed in us, and gave us seed capital,” Elizabeth said.

With P5,000 as start-up capital and armed with only a pail and a tub, Elizabeth sold fish in a talipapa or a wet market near their house. Merely a year after she became a member of San Pedro MPC, Elizabeth was able to buy a tricycle which she used to deliver fish. By 2015, she bought two motorcycles for her sons and in 2016, she bought another tricycle to help her husband earn additional income.

From a monthly income of P2,000.00, she now earns around P10,000 to P15,000. Elizabeth owns a fish stall, manages a sari-sari store and sells sandals. The family has their own house and a new jeepney, which generated a job for her brother-in-law.

Elizabeth’s story is just one of the many stories of lives changed for the better through a sustainable livelihood program. There are many other stories including those of Miraluna, a vegetable vendor, and Roxane, another fish vendor.

These stories are a testament to the success of microfinance projects in helping families become self-reliant and move out of poverty.

The Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Inc., a leading microfinance institution, plays a major role in uplifting the lives of these individuals. Under Card’s microfinance programs, the Aboitiz Foundation, the social development arm of the Aboitiz Group, is able to reach various cooperatives, even those in farflung areas, and help them earn more.

The partnership implements a wholesale program, which, already had a total loan disbursement of over P31 million as of November 2017 and benefitted 27 cooperatives nationwide.

“We take pride in working with Card for the Aboitiz Foundation’s enterprise development program. By increasing income and sustainable livelihood opportunities, our projects clearly translate our promise to advance business and communities by co-creating safe, empowered, and sustainable communities,” Aboitiz Foundation first vice president and chief operating officer Maribeth Marasigan said.

The program with Card is the kind of partnership that the Aboitiz Foundation aims to realize—a partnership that is able to transform the dreams for better lives of Filipinos into realities by creating entrepreneurs out of thousands of cooperative members.

As the Aboitiz Foundation nears its 30th anniversary, it hopes to initiate more meaningful partnerships, especially among the Aboitiz business units, and influence leveled-up projects towards advancing business and communities.

T

ransformation from world-class to five-star airline characterized year 2017 for Philippine Airlines.

The flag carrier shifted to high gear on initiatives to raise its rating by airline/airport rating company Skytrax to four stars in 2018, and eventually to five stars by 2020.

The goal is not a quick fix but a multi-year topto-bottom re-invention of the airline. Singular focus is the passenger – an unceasing effort to extend total passenger care at every customer touch-point, while managing expectations every step of the journey.

PAL maintained its three-pronged strategy of fleet upgrades, route expansion and service innovation to achieve the goal.

Seven airplanes were delivered in 2017 – five Bombardier Q400 turboprops for inter-island flights and two Boeing 777-300ERs for long-haul routes.

On June 13, the first of eight reconfigured, triclass Airbus A330s was unveiled, featuring one of the most luxurious cabins in the sky. This A330 first flew to Honolulu, followed by Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo Haneda and other routes. From July to November, five dual-class, 86-seater Q400 were delivered. Its first commercial flight was CebuCaticlan in August.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 15, a PAL 777 made the first trans-polar flight for a Philippine carrier – a 16.5hour, non-stop Toronto-Manila flight – preceded by the upgrade of several routes from one-stop to non-stop in 2017: Manila-Doha, Manila-Auckland, Manila-Kuwait and Manila-Jeddah. PAL’s complete fleet of ten 777s now fly to North America and London.

Additional airplanes enabled PAL to open new routes out of Cebu, Davao and Clark. On Jan. 2, PAL operated its first international flight to Clark with the arrival of an A321 from Seoul. Other new

routes include Seoul-Tagbilaran, Chengdu-Kalibo, Chengdu-Cebu, Manila-Kuala Lumpur, CebuBeijing and Cebu-Bangkok.

From having no Clark service in 2016, PAL vaulted to become the largest airline operator at Clark airport by the close of 2017, with flights from Clark to Bacolod, Basco, Busuanga, Calbayog, Catarman, Cagayan de Oro, Caticlan, Cebu, Davao, Masbate, Puerto Princesa, Tagbilaran, Virac and Seoul.

From Davao, PAL opened three new routes (Davao to Tagbilaran, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga) using the new Q400s.

Ten domestic routes were opened from Cebu – Siargao and Camiguin (new PAL destinations) as well as to Cagayan de Oro, Caticlan, Legazpi, Ozamiz, Puerto Princesa, Surigao, Tacloban and Tagbilaran.

PAL introduced a new Premium Economy product on its A330s (and soon A350s), offering all-new seats and amenities in a private cabin. A key service innovation is inflight connectivity – ensuring more passengers stay connected while flying, through wi-fi or mobile phone connection.

PAL also introduced new inflight menus, including signature Filipino dishes. The SwingAround Tour Packages were resumed, offering affordable travel packages.

In February, PAL introduced the first-ever nationwide crowd-sourced inflight safety video featuring nine of the best Philippine tourist destinations. PAL likewise enhanced its website and improved an array of check-in, transit, transfer and boarding procedures.

In 2017, the flag carrier proposed to build a Naia Terminal 2 Annex that can accommodate up to 17 million passengers annually, with parking for up to 15 aircraft.

Different companies took notice of PAL’s transformation. Awards were given including 4th Best Airline Worldwide for Best Cabin Service, 6th Most Improved Airline, 2017 Subic Eco-Tourism Festival Award and Best Asia-Pacific Treasury Team.

The PAL Foundation continued extending travel assistance to airlift relief goods to disaster-stricken areas. More than 15 tons of donations were flown to Cagayan de Oro for displaced Marawi residents, while seven local children flew to Manila to be resettled at an orphanage in Cavite. PAL chairman Dr. Lucio Tan donated P2 million cash intended for soldiers who fought in Marawi.

Habitat for Humanity was given 750,000 miles that were converted to tickets to support its housing advocacy for indigent communities. A total of 149 indigent-patients (and their escorts) flew PAL to get emergency medical assistance.

Recently, more than 13 tons of donations were airlifted to Davao for victims of typhoon Vinta in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte.

Filipino athletes – from tennis and table tennis players to figure skaters – competed abroad flying PAL to represent the country under the PAL Foundation’s flagship program #RPRSNT Pinoy.

In September, 132 Filipinos were repatriated on a special PAL flight from Puerto Rico just before Hurricane Maria devastated the Caribbean island.

PAL employees actively participated in ecological projects such as the International Coastal Clean-up and tree-planting in a farm in Carranglan, Nueva Ecija.

PAL looks forward to opportunities in 2018, when it introduces new Airbus A321 NEOs (February) and A350s (June) that will allow PAL to mount non-stop flights to Brisbane, India and the US East Coast (via the polar route).

The flag carrier will continue promoting its network through campaigns anchored on the “Heart of the Filipino” theme – e.g., Fly the Way You Deserve, More Heart, Experience the Heart of the Filipino, Stories from the Heart and Hugot Lines – and developing its “Buong Pusong Alaga” service philosophy.

The whole PAL organization is primed and ready to deliver a major boost in service that “comes only from the Heart of the Filipino” in a serious bid to become a five-star airline.

FILIPINOS: BUSINESSES HAVE RESPONSIBILITY TO DO GOOD A NE W YouGov Omnibus research finds that 97 percent of Filipinos think businesses have a responsibility to do social good, suggesting that corporate social responsibility remains an important consideration for Filipino brands.

Overall, six in ten (63 percent) Filipinos believe businesses have a responsibility to ensure their supply chain does not harm the environment.

Compared with the wider region, Filipinos are the most likely to believe that businesses have a responsibility to ensure their supply chain doesn’t harm the environment. Across the Asia-Pacific, half of all consumers (50 percent) believe businesses bear such a responsibility. This falls to four in ten (42 percent) in Thailand, the lowest in the region.

A majority (56 percent) of Filipino consumers also believe businesses have a responsibility to ensure that their supply chain is free from damaging practices, such as forced labor, while more than half of Filipinos feel that businesses have a responsibility to assist upskilling members of the community (64 percent) and giving to charity (62 percent).

Two thirds of Filipinos (65 percent) would be more likely to recommend a brand that gives even a small portion of its annual profits to charity.

The study also finds that if consumers were aware that a business was giving even a small portion of its annual profits to charity (up to 5 percent), three quarters (75 percent) would have a more positive

opinion of the business.

At a regional level, 62 percent of APAC consumers would be more likely to recommend a brand to their friends and family if it gave a small portion of its annual profits to charity. This rises to 75 percent in Indonesia and 70 percent in Thailand but falls to 51 percent in Singapore and 55 percent in both Australia and Hong Kong.

Overall, nearly half (49 percent) of Filipinos surveyed believe business should be doing more to help charities as a whole.

Jake Gammon, head of Omnibus, says: “The latest YouGov Omnibus research shows a considerable proportion of consumers give weight to a brand’s ethics when making purchasing decisions and would be more likely to both consider and recommend a brand that gives even a small amount to charity. Furthermore, that a majority of consumers believe that businesses have a responsibility to ensure that they have ethical supply chains suggests consumers expect ever

more from brands. In order to get ahead, brands now have to go beyond simply proving that their given product is a cut above the rest; smart business looking to distinguish themselves need to work hard to showcase their values as well.”

Data were collected online on Nov. 15 to 23 2017 using YouGov’s panel of over 5 million people worldwide. It had a sample size of 9,000 in Asia Pacific, including 1,000 in the Philippines. YouGov is an international data and analytics group.

Tech & Gadgets

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

GOOGLE OPENS AI CENTER IN CHINA

Nokia 8 users can now enjoy a truly pure and secure version of Android Oreo, packed with the latest features to make content creation and sharing even more fun.

H

NOKIA 8 TAKES A BITE OF ANDROID 8.0 OREO

MD Global, the home of Nokia phones, is excited to announce that Android™ 8.0 Oreo is now available for the Nokia 8.

Nokia 8 users can now enjoy a truly pure and secure version of Android Oreo, packed with the latest features to make content creation and sharing even more fun.

“We’re proud to deliver our pure and secure take of Android 8.0 Oreo on the Nokia 8. We always want to give our fans the best possible Android experience. That’s why we’ve taken the time to test, optimize and refine the platform,” Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer of HMD Global said. “Working together with our fans under our newly setup Nokia phones beta labs, we’ve created a pure version of this highly anticipated mobile platform, delivering all the exciting new features with none of the unnecessary clutter and paired with great

performance and even better battery life. Android 8.0 Oreo is packed with new features that make communicating, creating, gaming and exploring even more fun.”

Shannon Mead, Country Manager of HMD Global Philippines, added: “It’s our best intention in HMD Global to continue the legacy that the Nokia brand has established, which is to make sure that we offer only the most innovative mobile technology. Working hand in hand with the top operating system in the world, we are focused on giving our patrons a pure and secure Android experience. We are looking forward to our progressive development in the Philippine mobile industry because of Nokia’s strong brand affinity to the Filipinos.”

Always pure, secure and up-to-date Android experience Nokia 8 delivers a pure version of Android 8.0 Oreo with no skins and no changes in the user interface. And with no preinstalled apps you don’t need or hidden processes that eat up battery life, it guarantees a snappy experience every time you pick up your smartphone.

Monthly security updates come as standard to keep your smartphone safe, and give you real peace of mind in the palm of your hand.

Super powers that deliver the best real-life experiences

The Android 8.0 Oreo update on Nokia 8 enables fans to enjoy new features that will enhance their day-to-day experiences with none of the gimmicks: Picture-in-Picture mode gives the power to multitask while the processing power of Nokia 8 ensures the smooth operation of even the most demanding apps. Watch a You-

Tube clip while catching up with friends or check bank balance while ordering from Amazon—the Nokia 8 processor ensures smooth operation.

No unnecessary apps come pre-installed on Nokia 8 and with Android Instant Apps, de-clutter software even further. Just go to the supported link on Chrome and be able to use new apps without having to install them. Google Play Protect works to keep the device and data safe from misbehaving apps by scanning more than 50 billion apps per day, even the ones not installed yet.

Smart software helps the Nokia 8 power up even faster, letting users create content quicker than ever as moments unfold. Exclusive to Nokia smartphones, Dual-Sight™ mode means users can also stream reaction to events on social media in real-time, using both the front and back cameras simultaneously.

Android Oreo smart features

limit background activity on the apps used the least, maximizing battery life so the Nokia 8 will be ready for action anytime.

Because Nokia 8 stands for self-expression through content creation, fans can now visualise their emotions better than ever before, thanks to the fully redesigned set of emojis on Android 8.0 Oreo—more than 60 of them being brand new!

The Nokia 8 will automatically update to the Android Oreo. This latest Android version will soon be available to the other Nokia smartphones.

To make elevated smartphone experience of Nokia accessible to more Filipinos, HMD Global partnered with global consumer finance expert Home Credit. The all-new Nokia 8 with an update to Android Oreo is now available on a 12-month installment plan with 0% interest. The Nokia 3 and 5 are also under the same interest rate promo for a 6-month installment package.

HP RECALLS BATTERIES OVER FIRE RISK SAN FRANCISCO—HP on Thursday announced a recall of batteries in some of its notebook and mobile workstation computers due to the risk they could burst into flames.

“These batteries have the potential to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers,” the US computer maker said at a website with details of

the voluntary recall.

“Many of these batteries are internal to the system, which means they are not customer replaceable.”

The list of machines with the potentially problematic lithium-ion batteries included Probook, Envy, Pavilion, Zbook, Studio G3, and HP 11 models sold worldwide for the

past two years, according to the online post.

Some batteries targeted for recall were also sold as accessories or replacements through HP or authorized service providers.

HP said it is notifying customers and will replace batteries for free. In the meantime, the US-based com-

puter company advised people to only use the computers in a “safe mode” powered by plugging into outlets instead of by batteries.

HP is the consumer division created by the 2015 split of Hewlett-Packard, which spun out a separate business services unit called Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. AFP

BEIJING—Google announced Wednesday that it will open a new artificial intelligence research centre in Beijing, tapping China’s talent pool in the promising technology despite the US search giant’s exclusion from the country’s internet.

Artificial intelligence, especially machine learning, has been an area of intense focus for American tech stalwarts Google, Microsoft and Facebook, and their Chinese competitors Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu as they bid to master what many consider the future of computing.

AI research has the potential to boost developments in self-driving cars and automated factories, translation products and facial recognition software, among other innovations.

Google’s move to open a Beijing office focused on fundamental research is an indication of China’s AI talent, widely seen as being neckand-neck with the United States in research capability.

“Chinese authors contributed 43 percent of all content in the top 100 AI journals in 2015,” Li Feifei, a researcher leading the new centre, wrote in a blog post on Google’s website.

“We’ve already hired some top experts, and will be working to build the team in the months ahead.”

Li noted that Chinese engineers formed the backbones of the winning teams in the past three ImageNet Challenges, an international AI competition to test which computing technology is better at recognising and categorizing pictures.

Chinese search engine Baidu’s team was banned for a year for breaking the rules during the 2015 competition.

The country’s large population and strong mathematics and sciences education has nurtured a slew of engineering talent.

Many land in Beijing’s burgeoning AI tech startup scene, suppor ted by universities and government-affiliated institutes.

Young talent

It is not hard to find AI talent in China, said Yuan Jirui of SeetaTech, one of the start-up’s core team of founders from the Institute of Computer Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“There’s a trend of AI talent in China being quite young,” she said.

“AI education is expanding to high schools and middle schools.”

SeetaTech uses deep learning to solve problems like detecting defects in factory products and finding faces in a crowd for public security organs.

“Data fuels our AI engine,”Yuan said.

AI companies in China suck up personal data from the massive population and use it to train machinelearning algorithms—but Google, locked out of the internet, has little user data to pull from in the country.

For now it is focusing on making use of Chinese talent. Roughly half of its 600 employees in China are e n gi n e e r s wo r k i n g o n g l o b a l products, said company spokesman Taj Meadows. AFP

RACE FOR 'SMART' HITS FEVER PITCH AT ELECTRONICS SHOW SAN FRANCISCO—Giving gadgets brains will be a hot theme at the Consumer Electronics Show set to open in Las Vegas, with device makers big and small touting hardware with “smarts.”

Whether it’s a doorbell or refrigerator, a TV set or a toothbrush, chances are it will be connected to digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence aiming to anticipate needs or desires.

“I think you’re going to see the year of smart,” said Jack Gold, a technology analyst with J. Gold Associates.

One of the largest trade shows in the world, the January 9-12 CES will attract about 170,000 visitors and 3,900 exhibitors from 150 countries and will showcase innovations in computers, gaming, robotics, vehicle technology, virtual and augmented reality and more.

Gold said gadgets will be increasingly tuned to glean insights about the people using them, with an aim of anticipating what might be desired at any given moment.

“Your device will learn about you and will know your preferences, and it’ll then try to get smarter about how to interact with you,” he said.

As consumer electronics evolve, an overriding theme has become voiceassisted digital assistants being integrated into more devices, said Stephen Baker of the research firm NPD. “I think you are going to be overwhelmed by smart homes and voice

—the voice speakers yelling at you in the convention center and up and down the (Las Vegas) Strip will be overwhelming,” Baker said of CES. He said gadget makers will infuse more products and services with virtual aides such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana.

“What happened is all the appliance and device guys gave up (on making their own isolated smart home systems) and instead are building an ecosystem in which pretty much everybody’s devices will talk to Google or Amazon, or eventually Siri,” Baker said.

Still, says Gartner analyst Brian Blau, large and small tech firms are locked in battle to be at the heart of smart homes and devices.

“To some degree there is still a war on for the connected home platform,” Blau said.

“Communication standards are being worked out, but the other thing is whose allegiance you will commit your home to—will it be Samsung, LG, Amazon, Google?”

Carolina Milanesi of the consultancy Creative Strategies said major electronics firms like Bosch, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung are looking to showcase how several devices can work together with a connected hub.

“I definitely see the speaker still be key to controlling the connected home,” she said.

startup led by former BMW designed Henrik Fisker whose previous venture went bankrupt—and one of several challengers to rapidly expanding Tesla.

Although CES ends just days ahead of a major Detroit auto show, O’Donnell said automakers are eager to show their new technology to a wider public.

“It’s a place to make a statement about technologies that will have resonance,” he said.

“And the vast majority of the new innovations in cars are in fact tech things.”

Empathy factor

Armoto from HumaK is a next generation smart toy for children equipped with a mechanical switch, body sensor and Ai speech engine offering a software and harware platform, displayed at the 2017 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP

Tesla wannabes

Bob O’Donnell, analyst and consultant with Technalysis Research, said artificial intelligence also opens the door to “computer vision” used in

drones, autonomous cars and robotics which will be showcased at CES. Major carmakers will be on hand as well as makers of tech platforms for self-driving vehicles such as Intel’s

Mobileye and chipmaker Nvidia, along with a dozen exhibitors in the autonomous car “marketplace.”

CES hosts the debut of a $130,000 electric car from Fisker -- a relaunched

O’Donnell said the success of these new technologies will depend on how well machines can think the way people do.

“We are looking for ways these devices have contextual intelligence,” he said.

This would enable a device or assistant to understand multipart questions and develop responses which are adapted to the individual, O’Donnell said. “ The whole idea of understanding context is a big theme in AI, and we’ll see a lot of effort to improve the empathy of devices,” he said.

O’Donnell said he expects to see “an evolution of the intelligence of those devices,” adding that “AI is going to improve the experience of the device even if it doesn’t change what they are.” AFP

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 Riera U. Mallari, Editor rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

TECH & Gadgets

ZUCKERBERG WANTS TO ‘FIX’ FACEBOOK

AN FRANCISCO —Known for annual personal goals ranging from killing his own food to learning Mandarin, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg’s stated mission for this year is to ‘fix’ the social network.

Zuckerberg began taking on New Year’s challenges in 2009, when he wore a neck tie every day as a reminder of the importance of making Facebook profitable despite global financial woes.

“Today feels a lot like that first year,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook page.

“The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do.”

His list of targets at the social network included abuse and hate; interference by nation states, and, making sure visiting Facebook was time well spent.

“My personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues,” Zuckerberg said.

“We won’t prevent all mistakes or abuse, but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools.”

He planned to gather experts to delve into topics such as politics, civics, media, and technology in pursuit of his goal.

Facebook has been striving to stymie use of its platform to spread bogus information.

Google, Twitter and Facebook have come under fire for allowing the spread of bogus news—some of which was di-

Mark Zuckerberg: The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do.

rected by Russia—ahead of the 2016 US election and in other countries.

“A lot of us got into technology because we believe it can be a decentralizing force that puts more power in people’s hands,”

Zuckerberg said in his post.

“With the rise of a small number of big tech companies—and governments using technology to watch their citizens—many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than

decentralizes it.”

He cited encryption and digital currency as important trends with the potential to put power back in people’s hands, and said he would explore how best to use them at Facebook services. AFP

XPERIA XZ PREMIUM GETS OREO UPGRADE SONY’S Xperia XZ Premium is getting an OS upgrade.

The Android 8.0 Oreo update is now available for Sony’s flagship smartphone but it also goes beyond the usual as it brings with it cool new features.

Once XZ Premium users switch to the new OS, they will now have the 3D Creator that was previously available only for the XZ1. This feature allows users to scan in four modes: face, head, food, or free-form. It renders 3D avatars or images in less than 60 seconds— making it easy to share on social media, with friends or hook it up to a 3D printer and print souvenirs.

Another enhanced feature that comes with the OS update is the Predictive Capture which detects smiles even before pressing the shutter button. It then allows users to pick the best from a selection of up to four shots. The smartphone will also have the Autofocus Burst which recognizes, tracks, and captures sequences of moving objects and ensures blur-free action shots.

Rounding out the new features that comes with the XZ Premium’s OS update includes improved sound quality with tuning improvements to the stereo speakers, and Qualcomm® aptX™ HD audio, and easy access to action menus through long pressing of the app icon.

Users will get a prompt that the upgrade is ready and can be done via Wi-Fi. The Android 8.0 Oreo update is not exclusive to XZ Premium users only. Soon, it will available for the Xperia X, Xperia XZ and XZs, XA1, XA1 Ultra, XA1 Plus, and the Xperia Touch. However, the added new features with the XZ Premium update will not be available for these other units.

Get the latest updates and promos from Sony by visiting them on their official website, www.sony.com.ph, and following them on social media by following facebook.com/SonyPhilippines, twitter.com/SonyPHinc and instagram. com/sonyPHInc.

SAMSUNG HONORED WITH 36 CES 2018 INNOVATION AWARDS SAMSUNG Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in technology, announced that 36 of its latest products have been recognized as CES®2018 Innovation Awards winners.

Products awarded in this prestigious program are honored for outstanding design and engineering in cutting-edge consumer electronics technology across 28 product categories.

The CES Innovation Awards are sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association, the owner and organizer of CES. It is an annual program that celebrates outstanding product design and engineering in brand-new consumer technology products.

Samsung’s award-winning products include two Best of Innovation and span categories across Virtual and Augmented Reality, Wearable Technologies, Video Displays, Home Appliances, and Smart Home. In addition, this marks the first year where Samsung has won in the CES Innovation Award category of Fitness, Sports and Biotech for the Gear Sport, Gear Fit2 Pro, and Gear IconX (2018).

“Innovation is in our DNA, as is our commitment to delivering transformational products that create meaningful experiences for our consumers,” said Tim Baxter, President and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America. “To be recognized by our industry peers, year over year, for our relentless pursuit of innovative design and engineering is truly an honor.”

These innovative products are a testament to why Samsung is

a favorite brand among Filipino millennials, as reported by brand perception tracker YouGov BrandIndex in October. The following are details on a selection of Samsung’s award-winning Galaxy devices, Note8 and S8, Samsung’s powerful and versatile wearables, Gear Fit2 Pro, Gear Sport, and Gear IconX (2018), which are all available for purchase at the Samsung Galaxy Studio located at 7th Avenue, Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City. The pop-up store runs until March 2018.

GalaxyNote8

Galaxy Note8—The Galaxy Note8 features a bigger 6.3-inch Infinity Display so you can view more and scroll less. The enhanced S Pen1 allows users to unlock new ways to write, draw and interact with the phone and com-

municate with others, including taking Screen off memos, creating a Live Message2 and multitasking on the go. It also offers Samsung’s bestever smartphone camera featuring two 12MP rear cameras and the world’s first smartphone with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) on both wide-angle and telephoto lenses.

Owners of the Galaxy Note8 GearVR with controller can get one free access to airport lounges at the NAIA Terminal 1 & Gear VR—This sophisticated 3 and Francisco Bangoy Interna- headset provides a front row tional Airport, Davao. You also get experience in the world of virtual a free ride courtesy of ride-sharing reality. It connects users to whole app Grab, and a free drink from The new dimensions, with a 101-deCoffee Bean & Tea Leaf. gree field of view. The Gear VR is Galaxy S8 and S8+— The Gal- designed designed for comfort axy S8 and S8+ push the bound- and ease with its compact and aries of traditional smartphones light weight form. It’s programmed and build on Samsung’s heritage to deliver smoother images, inof creating stunning designs and credibly low light leakage, and functional devices. Available in prevent reflections, allowing you 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 and 6.2-inch to completely focus and immerse Galaxy S8+, the Infinity Display yourself in whole new virtual and bezel-less design form a worlds. Control comes naturally smooth, continuous surface with convenient keys and a with no buttons or harsh touchpad that provides angles. The result is a easy access to more than truly immersive view800 available apps. ing experience withGear 360—This porout distractions and table camera comes makes multi-tasking with dual lenses that more convenient. create a 360-degree field Enjoy flexible payof view, and an easy-to-grip ment options when you body, so you can easily cappurchase your very own ture the complete world Samsung Galaxy Note8, S8, around you. What’s more or S8+ from now until the is it’s compatible with the end of the year. Visit http:// Samsung Gear VR and Galwww.samsung.com/ph/offe axy smartphones, allowing r/ to find out more about the you to conveniently imbrand’s various promos. mortalize special moments Gear 360

in high-definition. The device Fit2 Pro is available for just under lets you record in 4K, or P9,000!

Gear Sport—The latest smartlivestream and then download and store content for watch in Samsung’s industryyourself with the Samsung leading wearable technology portfolio, the Gear Sport offers a Gear 360 application.

Gear S3—This smart- stylish blend of fitness tracking watch is built to look like a and smart capabilities for people traditional timepiece, but with active lifestyles. The device is equipped with advanced transitions easily from work to features that enable the workout with swim-ready water user to take and respond to resistance (5ATM) and all-day fitcalls, read messages, and use dif- ness and calorie tracking. And with ferent built-in applications with smart features like Samsung Pay just a twist of the bezel. It comes (NFC), IOT control, and even offline in two styles: the more standard- music playback with Spotify, the looking “Classic,” and the sporty Gear Sport is ready for whatever “Frontier”. But though these vari- the day has in store.

Gear IconX (2018)—These ants complement different looks, they both come with water- and state-of-the-art earbuds empower dust-resistant technology, and a users to effortlessly listen to their long-lasting battery, so you can favorite music. Whether commuting or at the gym, these wear it anytime, anywhere. powerful cord-free headGear Fit2 Pro—This phones let users stream fitness watch combines music via Bluetooth built-in GPS tracking for up to 5-hours and with a new continuplay favorites from ous heart rate monitheir MP3 playlist for toring feature and up 7-hours. In addipowerful Under Artion to a 10-minute mour applications quick charge feature to capture every run giving one hour of or ride accurately. playtime, users can With 5ATM water use the earbuds as resistance, it allows an activity tracker and users to withstand make voice commands the pool, rain and through Samsung Bixby even a post-workout or Google Voice on your shower. For added comGear Fit 2 Pro phone without even having fortability and convenience, the Gear Fit2 Pro has a slim design it in your hand.

All these industry-recognized and lightweight band, as well as a high-resolution color touchscreen innovations can easily be yours. that makes real-time updates and Log on to http://www.samsung. notifications easy to read while on com/ph/ or visit the Galaxy Studio the move. Even better, the Gear in BGC for more information.

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sunday, january 7, 2018 Isah V. red, Editor

/

Young Life

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

Jumpstart

your 2018 goals

5 tools

to help you keep up with your

New year’s resolutioNs Here’S the thing about New Year’s resolutions: they’re easy to make but hard to maintain. The hopes of a new beginning dampen as early as halfway through January when you have already broken a commitment, or two, or all.

The challenge is to make sure you don’t revert to old routines you wish to change. How to do that? These five tools may help you be finally on top of your New Year’s resolutions.

A planner

By Bernadette Lunas

W

e Are in to the first week of the new year, which means you are either still recovering from all the feasts and festivities or are starting—or struggling to start—with your resolutions. The first step is always the hardest, it is said, so we gathered the following information that can help jumpstart some of the most popular new year’s resolutions.

BE MORE ACTIVE: Join the GoRun Virtual Race

If joining a race overwhelms you—with all the preparation and scheduling—why not join one where you can do it whenever and wherever you please? Skechers’s GoruN. PH lets you tackle a 21k, 50k, 100k, or 200k run for the entire month of January in a location suitable for you.

GoruN.PH is a virtual running event that allows runners to finish a selected distance within a period of time. runners of the event’s third edition themed “retrowave” can accomplish the challenge anytime, anywhere, and get a finisher’s shirt, medal, and trucker cap. You even have a chance to win a pair of Skechers Gorun 600 shoes if you join the 100k or 200k distance.

You have until the 15th to register online at www.skechers.com.ph/skechersgorunph. Go to www.facebook.com/gorunph or email admin@gorun.ph or contact 0998-8432997 for inquiries and more information.

BUILD A NEW WARDROBE: Shop during Zara’s End of Season Sale

If you threw or gave away bunch of clothes last year, and want to build a new wardrobe with clothes that fit and suit you, take advantage of Zara’s end of Season Sale happening now. Pick out pieces that will complete your smart casual aesthetic or those that can take you from day to night. ready your fashion game plan and restock your closet with impeccable high street selections at up to 50 percent off.

Zara has stores in Ayala Center Cebu, Glorietta 3, Greenbelt 5, SM Mega Fashion Hall, Power Plant Mall, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, SM Mall of Asia, and TriNoma.

SAVE MONEY: Start the 52-week Savings Challenge

TAKE CHARGE OF HEALTH: Get PhilCare’s unliCONSULT card

If 2018 is the year you finally want to be on top of your health, make sure you get physically checked up. Don’t be one of those who wait till the last minute before seeing a doctor. For a one-time payment P3,600, you can get PhilCare’s unli-CoNSuLT card which comes with one year unlimited medical consultations with close to 10,000 PhilCare-accredited family medicine specialists, internal medicine specialists, cardiologists, endocrinologists, nephrologists, pulmonologists, and gastroenterologists nationwide.

The card also offers dental and oral consultations and treatments. The only exceptions are maternity-related cases and cases related to all forms of behavioral disorders, developmental or psychiatric disorder, and psychosomatic illness whether acquired or congenital.

Go to shop.philcare.com.ph to know more.

Smart travelers ensure they are not only prepared, but also protected

If you want to strengthen your financial health by saving money, but don’t have the motivation to get on with it, try the 52-week Savings Challenge. This so-called challenge lets you save money by starting with small amounts and adding as the weeks pass.

For example, if you start with P50 for the first week of the year, you add another P50 next week, thus putting away P100. Add another P50 on the third week, and so on. Doing the P50 weekly increment Photo from Peso Sense Facebook page

Turn to C2

one of the best ways to stick with your 2018 resolutions is to find a planner you like, list all your goals, and track their development on a regular basis. Whether it’s those dateless ones that allow you to be creative or the pre-designed ones that can organize everything, there’s surely one kind of planner that’s right for you.

Goal setting apps

A goal setting app such as a digital planner, a health tracking app, or even a simple to-do list can also make setting your 2018 objectives a whole lot easier to follow and maintain. They also provide constant reminders to follow your new routine— whether it’s to work out twice a week, follow a specific diet during weekdays, or clean the house every other day.

Motivational playlists

Many individuals function better while listening to their Turn to C2

How to be a smart traveler Your bags are packed, itinerary is finalized, and your budget is safe in separate wallets and pockets; you’re pretty confident nothing can go wrong in your trip. But in the middle of your trip—surprise—something bad happened. unexpected setbacks can happen even to a trip planned to a T. Personal belongings get lost, accidents ensue, and safety is compromised. If you’re planning to go out of town, whether on a business trip or a well-deserved vacation, make it a part of your pre-trip checklist to get protection.

Smart Traveller from Charter Ping An

is a travel insurance package that comes with a wide range of benefits, including 24-hour medical assistance, personal accident coverage, liability and personal safety coverage, protection of personal belongings, and even refunds for travel inconveniences. Being prepared and protected will let you concentrate on having fun and living the life you choose.

To apply, visit the AXA website (www. axa.com.ph/charterpingan/smart-traveller) and choose the ideal coverage for your trip.

Visit www.axa.com.ph for more information.

Clothes?

Check.

Gadgets?

Check.

Protection from travel mishaps?

Make it a part of your checklist to get a travel insurance

young Life

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sunday, january 7, 2018 isahred@gmail.com

jumpstart...

From C1

will make you P68,900 richer by the end of 2018. you may also opt to start with P20 (save P27,560) or P100 (save P137,800). Blogger rhea Mocorro introduced this method to Filipinos in 2014. Facebook page Peso sense shared several variations of this saving challenge for 2018.

Because you start with small amount, putting away money won’t feel taxing and by the latter weeks of the year, you would have gotten into the habit of saving.

5Fromtools...

C1 preferred music. Take advantage of streaming services to create playlists that will motivate you to get work done, be it an upbeat song that gets you up in the morning for that refreshing jog, or a chill instrumental that helps you focus on all the workload you have lined up.

How to look like a

glowing bride

Dream board

a dream board is another fun and artistic way to keep up with your growth this 2018. Like a planner, you can easily write down your goals or play with images and illustrations to help you visualize everything collectively and creatively. use colorful pens and cut outs. It doesn’t matter if you lack in the creative department because you can make it any way you want—it’s your dream board, anyway.

W

EddInGs provide the most picture perfect scenarios, so it pays to look our best when attending an occasion as important as this. Whether you’re a bridesmaid, a member of the bridal entourage, or an invited guest, make sure you look your best on this special day.

Here’s how you can achieve that glowing bride look using Ever Bilena advance, the premium product line under Ever Bilena Cosmetics.

Ever Bilena advance offers a wide range of products that help you achieve that 'glowing bride' look

Morning weddings

Eye drops

yes, you read that right. a bottle of eye drops helps protect your overworked eyes as you fulfill those resolutions you set out to do. systane ultra Lubricating Eye drops gives our eyes instant relief from the symptoms of dry Eye syndrome (dEs). systane instantly combats the eye irritation and discomfort we may feel after a long day. now, whether it’s starting to bike daily, watching more TV series, reading more books, or finally enjoying the waves of Baler, there’s no stopping you from unlocking all your 2018 goals.

Go for a dramatic look when attending evening weddings

Keep your makeup light and as naturallooking as possible. use makeup to enhance your features and just add a bit of color to your face.

• Start by applying EB Advance all over the face and neck using a damp beauty blender or blending brush.

• Cover dark spots, eye bags, and other blemishes with EB Liquid Concealer • Finish your base with a sweep of EB Advance Two-way Cake all over face to avoid oily skin • Fill your eyebrows using EB Advance Eyebrow Kit, which comes in three different shades to perfectly match every brow color • Apply light and rosy tints on your eye lids using EB advance uncover, a palette of 12 eye shadow shades that range from rosy neutrals to dark gray in shimmery and matte finishes • Define your eyes using waterproof EB advance Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner on your lash line and EB advance Lash define Waterproof Mascara on your lashes to prevent tear stains or blotchy makeup • Get that “blushing bride” look with a few

swipes of EB Blush duo, a complementing blush and bronzer compact • Bring the whole look together with the EB advance LTd Liquid Lipstick in either Cashmere Blush or Private Beach

Evening weddings

If the wedding, or any event for that matter, is happening at night, go for a dramatic look.

• Cover your bases using the same procedure and products for a morning wedding • Shape your eyebrows more precisely and make your eyes dark and smoky using cocoa, bronze, and blackish-purple shades of EB advance uncover • Apply a winged line on your upper lash line using EB advance Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner • Opt for a dark-hued lipstick like EB Advance LTd Liquid Lipstick in Pink Pearl, skinny dip, or soft Cinnamon To learn more about Ever Bilena Advance and its products, visit www.everbilena.com. ph and follow EBAdvance on Facebook.

TECO OffErs sChOlarships fOr filipinOs

do you wish to pursue further studies or learn Mandarin? Good news, because the Taipei Economic and Cultural office (TECo) in the Philippines has once again opened various scholarship programs for qualified Filipino students. due to popular demand and positive response from Filipino students in the previous years, Taiwan‘s Ministry of Education (MoE) has decided to offer more scholarship slots to give more chances for Filipinos to study in Taiwan, learn the traditional Mandarin language through a different approach, experience the rich and vibrant Taiwanese culture, and broaden their international perspectives through their day-to-day experiences.

Interested applications may apply to the following scholarship programs beginning Feb. 1: Ministry of Education (MOE) Scholarship offers 2-year scholarship for Master’s and four years for Doctoral Degree. MoE will shoulder

nT$40,000 (new Taiwan dollar) of the tuition, the remaining costs will be shouldered by the scholar. an additional nT$20,000 will be given every month as the scholar’s stipend. application is until apr. 30. Go to taiwanscholarship.moe.gov.tw Huayu (Mandarin) Enrichment Scholarship allows applicants to choose to pursue either two months or three months intensive Mandarin courses subject to TECo’s approval. a monthly stipend of nT$25,000 will be provided to cover all expenses. application is until Mar. 31. Go to taiwanscholarship.moe.gov.tw International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) covers full tuition, living expenses, economy class airfare tickets, and textbook costs. scholars pursuing Master’s will receive a monthly stipend of nT$15,000 and nT$20,000 for those pursuing doctoral degrees. application is until Mar. 31. Go to www.icdf.org.tw

Interested applicants may only choose one scholarship program among these offerings and must process first their university admission to their preferred university in Taiwan. They also have to comply and submit necessary documents to TECo for review and recommendation based on the indicated deadlines of each program.

It is important to note that a student is ineligible to apply if he or she is currently enrolled in another program in Taiwan. scholarship guidelines and additional requirements prescribed by TECo can be found at the official website of TECo in the Philippines at www. roc-taiwan.org/ph. dr. Gary Song-Huann Lin, representative of Taiwan/roC to the Philippines is hoping that more Filipinos will seize these opportunities to study and experience Taiwan, as the two countries share a lot of commonalities and could The Taipei Economic and Cultural office opens various scholarship programs for Filipinos really work together.

Showbiz

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018

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

MAYWARD PAYS IT FORWARD

Indie singer Vanerie Rosales

By Nickie Wang

B

EFORE flying to Germany for the holidays, former Pinoy Big Brother housemates Maymay Entrata and Edward Barber spread cheers in a small community in Old Balara. They were warmly welcomed by a marching band and by the children that reside in this barangay in Quezon City.

Rising onscreen tandem Maymay Entrata and Edward Barber otherwise known as MayWard

“We’ve been coming here since October,” Edward started, “Actually I can already recognize some of the children here.”

The screen couple has collaborated with the creation of the ELM Tree Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to provide safe shelter, emotional support and education to underprivileged and vulnerable children.

“ELM stands for Edward, Laura, my sister’s name, and Maymay. Our goal is to teach underprivileged kids to read and write before they go to formal school,” Edward told Manila Standard in an exclusive interview.

For Maymay, this initiative is very close to her heart since she grew up in a humble province. Seeing the children in Old Balara reminds her so much of her childhood.

“Everybody knows my story, I’m not from a welloff family that’s why it really warms my heart helping young children and giving them the opportunity to learn basic values that can prepare them for formal school,” Maymay said in vernacular.

The love team, known to their fans as MayWard, partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC ) to turn over a Bahay Bulilit center. A banner initiative of RMHC, Ronald McDonald Bahay Bulilit aims to provide lowcost day care centers for young children of low-income families around the Philippines.

With assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and local government units, RMHC equips each center with books and other educational materials to help kids aged 2 to 5 years old learn basic values and skills in preparation for formal schooling. Accredited social workers and community volunteers facilitate the lessons and regular group sessions for the center’s young beneficiaries.

From left: RMHC Executive Director Marie Angeles, Maymay Entrata, Edward Barber, and McDonald’s Owner Operator Norkie Go by the newly-established Ronald McDonald Bahay Bulilit, which was built in partnership with the ELM Tree Foundation.

“There are numerous Bahay Bulilit centers around the country, but this one is our first. We collaborated with McDonald’s because we see that their mission is also aligned with our foundation’s mission and vision as well,” Edward shared.

Maymay and Edward personally donated and oversaw the construction of the center and made sure that they were both present during the turnover ceremony. During the event, Kevin Barber, Edward’s father shared, that it wasn’t the first time his son did something that made him really proud.

“He donated the entire prize he won from PBB to charity. So it no longer surprises me when he does something like this.

Even before he became a celebrity, we had visited the Philippines and Edward took time to do something for the community,” the older Barber said.

The duo plans to help build more Bahay Bulilit centers and expand the reach of their foundation. And perhaps inspire others to pay it forward by helping small communities and young children to have better lives.

YOUNG SINGER’S DREAM HAVING a solid goal as a teenager is one thing. But to actually work hard and be dedicated towards achieving that goal is another matter altogether.

For teen singer Vanerie Rosales, no goal or dream is ever too big for someone who is focused and diligent. Though relatively new in the business, having started singing professionally barely two years ago, she is very optimistic in promoting her debut song “This Man I Know” released in digital format.

“I believe that my constant effort will pay off one day. So, right now, I do whatever I can to introduce my music,” said Vanerie when we saw her perform in Saguijo Bar in Makati a few weeks ago.

Just like any other independent artists, the young singer hopes that one day she could release her own album, a catalogue of her own music. In the meantime, she dabbles between school and performing in small venues during weekends.

“I’m doing this because of my dream. I believe, through constant hard work, I’d be able to realize my dream to get a recording contract and sing songs for a bigger audience,” she beamed with optimism.

Singing a la Amy Winehouse, Vanerie’s knowledge of interpreting music and text is manifested by her cleverly artistic use of voice production, harmony and melody. She has the ability to sing with distinctive emotional depth by generating engaging styles to present her repertoire even at her young age.

She is exciting, entertaining and a dynamic performer. The promising 17-year-old singersongwriter plays ukulele, her top instrument of choice to interpret stuff she writes and covers.

BIG MUST-SEE CONCERTS IN 2018 THIS year’s lineup is something to look forward to with big names on the international music scene heading to Manila to stage their shows.

As we anticipate these live performances, we have come up with a list of the biggest must-see concerts that will surely enliven Manila’s concert circuit this 2018:

James Reid and Nadine Lustre Power couple JaDine is set to hold their second major concert on Feb. 9 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Titled Revolution: The JaDine Concert is one of the biggest and most anticipated local concerts happening next month. Will they spread the same onstage kilig that happened during their first major concert together?

That’s what we need to find out.

Paramore The American rock band from Franklin, Tennessee is bringing its Tour Four to Manila on Feb. 18. The trio will be performing at the Mall of Asia Arena according to the concert’s local promoter. According to the venue’s management, tickets to the concert were sold out in 48 minutes when they went on sale on Nov. 22 last year. This is the third time that Paramore will perform in Manila.

John Legend The ten-time Grammy Award winner and multi-platinum selling singer-songwriter will be returning to Manila for his highly anticipated Darkness And Light World Tour on March 21. Happening at the Araneta Coliseum, the show will feature the singer’s well-loved singles including “All Of Me,”“Ordinary People,”“Green Light,”“Used To Love U,”“Save Room,” and “Tonight (Best You Ever Had),” to name a few.

Katy Perry The American singer-songwriter is set to return to Manila to stage a one-night only concert on April 2. The concert is part of the Asian leg of her Witness tour, which has been described as “an imaginative trip from outer-space to inner-space, from the planets to the bottom of our oceans, and a musical journey through Katy Perry’s biggest milestones and mega-hits right up to her latest album.”

Ed Sheeran English singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer is resuming his Divide World Tour. He will be performing in Manila on April 8 at the Mall of Asia Concert Grounds.

The singer had to reschedule his concert dates in Osaka, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Manila to undergo therapy for his arms which he injured in a biking accident in October.

Bruno Mars The award winning singer is heading back to the Philippines for a two-night concert at the Mall of Asia Arena on May 3 and 4. Billed 24K Magic World Tour, the show marks the 3rd time Bruno will perform in the country. His last concert in the Philippines was in 2014, during his “Moonshine Jungle Tour.”

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sunday, january 7, 2018

Desiree Carlos, Editor

daycarlos28@yahoo.com

Pets

A depArted dog leAds couple to A home for unwAnted dogs

L

OSIng a dog is one of the most painful experiences for an animal lover.

It is like losing a human loved one. The grieving process is as long, the moving on part is as elusive, seemingly impossible.

Rhea Joyce Abat and husband Job lost their rott Conan two months ago.

They refused to let go of the beautiful memories that tug at their hearts and instead, decided to help less fortunate dogs to thank their dog Conan for making their lives colorful and more meaningful when he was still alive.

RHEA JOYCE ABAT describes a part of her journey to healing below: Last October 29, our dog, Conan, died.

To say that we were devastated is an understatement.

Conan was no ordinary dog. He was a gentle giant, a clown, sociable, and went against the stereotypical notions people had about his breed (rottweiler). He was part of our family.

People encouraged us to get another dog as a replacement for Conan. They said it would help us with the healing process.

At that time, my husband, Job, and I were not open to the idea.

Instead, we thought of celebrating Conan’s life. We also wanted to celebrate how Conan has touched our lives and taught us to be more compassionate and empathetic.

That is why on December 29, I decided to celebrate my birthday at the care homes for rescued dogs and cats of Save Animals of Love and Light (Save ALL). We wanted to honor the organizers, volunteers and caretakers. These silent heroes selflessly gave their time, efforts and meager resources to the care of rescued animals. We brought some healthcare and food

Rhea talking to some of the rescued dogs before giving them a treat.

supplies for the rescues and enjoyed a simple breakfast with the caretakers.

Job and I were treated with a tour of the place.

Walking around, we were in awe with the dedication of Save ALL in rehabilitating the rescues. The dogs and cats were in top health. They were clean and their fur were so soft! Job and I kept on repeating, “Ang linis linis nila!”

We got a glimpse of the food that the caretakers were preparing. The menu consisted of organic vegetables, which we think are mixed with the dog food. It smelled so good that I lingered for a while in the kitchen.

Sanitation of the place is a priority. The living areas were well maintained. There was no foul odor.

Each rescue had its own cage equipped with a sleeping mat and food bowl.

The cats even had hammocks and climbing posts. I remember saying, “Ang sosyal ng mga pusa ha. Parang nasa resort lang.”

What also fascinated us was how organized their system is.

Apart from the names of the rescues posted on the cages, it also contained vital information such as healthcare needs and special feeding instructions.

It was easy to fall in love with the rescues. Most were not wary of strangers and it was easy to pet them. They looked at us with loving eyes.

After that visit, Job and I have expressed our interest in adopting two rescued dogs. no, not as a replacement for Conan. We realized that we had so much love to give and we have the heart to care for these once abandoned animals. We realized that we also share their advocacy.

It was a meaningful experience for us.

We were again reminded that in a world where indifference and hate prevail, there are individuals who take the time to make the world a better place. Save ALL’s advocacy for animal welfare is truly moving.

We are sure Conan is nodding in approval in Heaven.

Conan, the beloved dog of Rhea and Job

Rhea with the caretakers of Save ALL for whom she cooked breakfast. Save ALL had only ensaymada for a cake but Rhea was so grateful and made a wish.

Job, Rhea’s husband, is a natural with dogs. He instantly made friends with rescued dog Sunshine who has one undeveloped kidney and is on a prescription diet and maintenance meds.

dog owners Are heAlthier people,

studies showed

pet tales

By desiree carlos (Part 2) 5. Dogs can help you during seizures A seizure dog is like a seeing-eye dog who helps an owner navigate day-to-day activities, and keep them away from harmful situations.

“There are many organizations in the United States that train seizure dogs. In most cases, these dogs are trained to recognize subtle behavior or body language changes during seizure events,” Tse says.

But some believe that the dogs can perceive an oncoming attack even without training. They warn their owners who are able to take seizureblocking medication and get to a safe place or call for assistance.

“However, there are very few scientific studies supporting the idea that dogs can detect epileptic seizures ahead of time,” Tse says.

But Tse says at the very least, most researchers agree that a dog can provide the important support and companionship needed by patients with epilepsy.

Thea Ifurung enjoys a walk with adopted dog Marshall

6. Dogs can keep you away from food that you are allergic to While some dogs can sniff out illegal drugs and bombs, there appear to be other dogs who can detect allergens.

“For people whose peanut allergies are so se-

vere that even miniscule residues in the air can trigger an allergic reaction, a peanut detection dog can come in handy, according to training facilities such as the Florida Canine Academy.

These dogs, after going through vigorous training, can detect the trace presence of peanuts in a room, such as a cookie left on the table or a candy bar hidden in a lunch bag,“Tse says.

But Tse add, ”Owners with peanut allergies still have to be vigilant about peanut contaminations in food, and should always carry an epinephrine pen in case of emergencies. However, peanutdetecting dogs can help ease their minds.”

7. Dogs can help you rehabilitate from illnesses This is the reason behind pet visitation programs in hospitals and rehabilitation centers.

Therapy dogs can help encourage mobility, interpersonal contact and socialization among patients.

“According to a 2005 review in the British Medical Journal, dogs act as ‘social catalysts,’ leading to greater interaction between people and alleviating feelings of loneliness, especially among elderly patients with physical disabilities,” Tse says.

Dog owners can also handle stressful events better, and can thus avoid anxiety-related illnesses, the study showed, Tse says.

While some studies have suggested that dog owners are “significantly less likely to die within one year of a heart attack than those who did not own dogs, those studies were based on a small sample and weren't population-based, “ Tse says.