Manila Standard - 2018 January 28 - Sunday

'HEAVY RAINS, TONS OF ASH LEAD TO LAHAR' VOL. XXXI • NO. 345 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

MAYON GLOW. The gleam from Mayon Volcano’s lava flow is caught in this long exposure photograph with people sitting beside the capital city’s signage on Saturday, with authorities imposing a no-go zone around the 2,460-meter mountain, warning of a hazardous eruption within days while residents (inset) using a net try to catch recyclable materials to be sold later, along a river beside Mayon in the nearby town of Daraga, with millions of tons of ash and rocks threatening to bury surrounding communities. AFP

RODY SETS 1-YEAR CHA-CHA REVIEW

By John Paolo Bencito

P

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday ordered the consultative committee he formed to review the 1987 Constitution to wrap up its work within the year to give Congress enough time to act on the proposed amendments, including his push towards federalism and a defined territory for the Bangsamoro.

“Just enough time for Congress to act on it—I want it done this year … We do not want to hang,” Duterte told reporters in Davao City on his return from a threeday working visit in New Delhi, India.

While there is no need to procrastinate, Duterte insists he does not want to “waste time” and the next four years will present an opportunity to do something for the country.

The President said funding for

Charter change should not be an issue.

“If there’s a cost, so be it. It might result in violence, we avoid it,” he added.

On Thursday, Duterte named 19 of the 24-member consultative committee on amending the 1987 Constitution, led by former Supreme Court Chief Justice and Manila Standard’s chief Legal Adviser Reynato Puno as its chairman.

Also appointed to the commission were San Beda Law Dean and

Manila Standard columnist Fr. Ranhilio Callangan Aquino, former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., former Supreme Court Associate Justices Antonio Eduardo Nachura and Bienvenido Reyes, political scientists Julio Teehankee and Edmund Tayao, among others.

On December 2016, Duterte signed Executive Order 10 creating a consultative committee to review the 1987 Constitution—written by a Corazon Aquino-appointed Constitutional Commission in 1986—to ensure that it was “truly reflective of the needs, ideals, and aspirations of the Filipino people.”

Asked for his preference if he wanted the languishing Bangsamoro Basic Law passed first before Charter change, Duterte maintained the executive could “either figure out new regions” if he can do it administratively without violating any provision in the 1987 Constitution. “[But] if it’s only a matter of laws, then we can ask Congress for the

corresponding change.”

He also asked Moro separatist groups to avoid resorting to violence, as the government was already working towards correcting historical injustices.

“I’m pleading to the Moro people to give government a chance to work out something. That’s the last thing that I would want to happen to my country—to go again and wage war against their own people.”

“So let’s avoid violence. If the thing that we are working at now does not fit, your paradigm of what you want, we can always talk and change everything.”

Recently, the Senate and the House leadership agreed to focus on “substance” and temporarily set aside disputes on whether the two houses of Congress should vote jointly or separately if the legislature were to convene as a constituent assembly to tackle proposed amendments to the organic law.

DUTERTE TURNS THE HEAT ON REDS' BUSINESS ALLIES

By John Paolo Bencito and Vito Barcelo

WANDERING BIRDS. Migratory feathers quietly take their perch on bamboo poles in Saturday’s January celebration of ‘Zero Waste Month’ where public and private groups are leading the coastal cleanup drive under the Manila Bay Sunset Partnership Program at the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Eco-Tourism Area beside the Coastal Road. Ey Acasio twitter.com/ MlaStandard

facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday vowed to shut down banana plantations and mining firms for allegedly funding the communist New People's Army.

“My next step really is I will look into your transactions. Money laundering. I suspect everybody. I’ll be frank with you, if I catch you, I will give you hell of a time.

Also the mining firms. I’ll just cancel your permits. I will tell Secretary Cimatu to cancel your permits. You are funding an organization which is bent on destroying my country, our country,” Duterte told reporters in Davao City Saturday.

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“The order is to crush, synonym of that is destroy and a collateral of that sentence is you destroy, and if you have to kill, do it,” he added.

Duterte, who earlier endorsed the idea of paying revolutionary taxes to the communist rebels, turned back from his move, saying these were tantamount to extortion.

At the same time, Duterte vowed to crush the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed group, the New People’s Army, once the court declared the CCP a terror group, adding the government’s peace talks with the group were over.

He said the government would go Turn to A2

LEGAZPI CITY—Millions of tons of ash and rocks from the erupting Mayon Volcano in Albay could bury nearby communities due to heavy rain, authorities said Saturday, as tens of thousands flee over fears of a deadly explosion.

The official Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology issued the warning as heavy rains lashed the surroundings of Mayon, which has been emitting flaming lava and giant clouds of superheated ash for about a week.

Rainwater could combine with the volcanic ash and rock to form deadly, fast-moving mudflows— called “lahars”—that could sweep away entire settlements, authorities said.

“If there is ashfall and heavy rain, it can be converted into [a] lahar,” Phivolcs chief Renato Solidum told AFP. “The important thing is to move out in case of heavy rains... this is a precautionary measure.”

In related developments: • Daytime commercial airline operations resumed at the Legazpi Airport on Saturday, only days following the temporary closure of the facility due to Mayon’s eruption.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines officials said the facility resumed its services at 6 a.m. while the airports in Naga and Masbate remain operational “pursuant to Turn to A2

HERE'S WHY DU30 JUNKED EU AID OFFER

By John Paolo Bencito THE European Union was trying to impose its “own values” on the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte claimed Saturday, explaining why he decided to reject more than €6.1 million (P382.45 million) in trade-related aid to the country.

In another curse-laden media interview Saturday night, Duterte said he was willing to lose than accept money from the EU that comes with condition.

“EU, and the others, you never have really ceased to be imperialists.

You have always been imperialists ever since,” the President said.

He also linked EU aid to “socialists” who were sending in money to throw him out of power.

“I’m willing to lose it. They don’t understand. I said: same. The socialists are contributing money for destab(ilization) and all these things which I cannot discuss publicly,” Duterte said, without elaborating.

He also insisted the government would not be “beholden to anyone,” except to the people,” implying that the decision had something to do with sovereignty issues.

Turn to A2

CONTRACTORS TOLD: 30 DAYS TO DO JOB OR ...

By Vito Barcelo PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte warned private companies to complete their projects within 30 days or face cancellation as he lambasted private contractors for building poor quality infrastructure government projects.

The President, who had just arrived from an India summit, described that bidding anomalies had resulted in inferior quality jobs.

He said the current bidding process in government where the lowest bidder usually gets the project was very disadvantageous because it affected the quality of the jobs.

The President wants all projects in the Philippines to be bidded out through Swiss challenge.

Swiss challenge is a public procurement process wherein the government that has received an unsolicited bid for a project invites other parties to match or exceed it.

“I want buildings, highways, railroads built. I will show you open space for everybody. And if you do Turn to A2

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

I EAT DEATH THREATS FOR B'FAST—RODY

SERENO LAUGHS OFF LAWYER'S COMPLAINT

By John Paolo Bencito and Vito Barcelo PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte remains unfazed by reported threats by the Islamic State to assassinate him, saying on Saturday he will continue the fight against violent extremism.

“When my time comes, it will come. I will stick to what destiny has given me.

If it’s my time, it’s my time. So I should not be discouraged by threats,” Duterte said upon returning from a three-day official visit to India.

Despite the existing martial law in Mindanao, Duterte said Indian businessmen still expressed their interest to invest in the Phillippines.

He assured them the country is much safer to invest in compared to other countries.

Indian businessmen wanted to come here and to see for themselves the situation in the country, particularly in Mindanao, the President said.

“They didn’t even mention it but they want to come here,” he added.

Duterte spoke before a crowd of top Indian executives in New Delhi as part of his official visit.

“But I was the first to say that: Maybe just avoid that western portion of Mindanao, especially down to the archipelagic Zamboanga,” he said.

“If you have the map of the Philippines, your left is the western side, just avoid it. Visayas, Luzon, and some parts of Mindanao—Davao, maybe Butuan, there’s a less… unless there will be something coming up in the days to come,” he explained.

Citing intelligence sources, India’s “ThePrint” newspaper reported that Duterte, who recently visited New Delhi to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations—India Commemorative Summit, is “on the radar of the Islamic State” amid his repeated vows to wipe out the jihadist group’s branch in Southeast Asia.

The IS is planning “to mobilize sleeper cells based in Indonesia, which are now planning a strike” against the visiting dignitaries, including the tough-talking Duterte, who joined India’s Republic Day celebrations.

Duterte, who in the past vocally condemned the Islamic State, has also vowed he will never allow the terrorist organization to build a “wilayat” in Southeast Asia, after the southern city of Marawi was reduced to rubble following a five-month siege that started May last year.

A few days after the terrorists invaded Marawi, Duterte placed Mindanao under martial law, which state forces claim would help eradicate terror groups and communist rebels in the country’s south.

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

A

SPOKESPERSON for Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno on Saturday shrugged off a fresh complaint against the Supreme Court leader filed by lawyer Larry Gadon with the Department of Justice, calling the action “desperate and laughable.”

ARRIVAL HONORS. President Rodrigo Duterte shakes the hand of Eastern Mindanao Command Chief Lt. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr. after the President was accorded lobby honors on his arrival at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City Friday from a summit in India. Malacañang Photo

SHAW COPS HAD 'NO INTENTION TO KILL'

By John Paolo Bencito

MANDALUYONG City policemen who figured in an “overkill” shooting incident just before the New Year “had no intention to kill” their eventual victims, President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday.

The President said he was having a hard time recommending the firing of another set of rogue cops, including three star-ranked Philippine National Police officials, following the Mandaluyong shooting that left two persons dead.

Speaking to reporters in his hometown Davao City, Duterte himself came to the defense of cops who were involved in the fatal mistaken-identity shooting on the night of Dec. 28, noting that the incident was “unfortunate.”

“A little bit reckless, I would say.

But there was no intention of killing the people there,” Duterte said early Saturday in Davao, after arriving from his three-day trip to India.

Duterte insisted that the policemen merely acted based on informa-

tion relayed to them, and it was not intentional “to hurt the innocent.”

“I may reprimand them. [But] I’m not ready to condemn them,” the President said.

Ten Mandaluyong City police officers and three barangay watchmen are now facing homicide charges after mistakenly opening fire at a van along Shaw Boulevard, which carried a shooting victim on Dec. 28.

The victim, Jonalyn Ambaan, and a male passenger of the van died in the shooting, video of which was shared by witnesses and went viral on social media.

The police claimed to have been responding to reports that a gunman in a prior shooting in nearby Barangay Addition Hills escaped on board the van.

Soon after the New Year, the PNP leadership received a dressingdown from Duterte, who lectured them about procedures on “warrant and seizure” (arrest and seizure) in the wake of incidents that exposed weaknesses in police and govern-

ment’s response capabilities.

The cops who figured in the Mandaluyong shooting posted bail last Jan. 19, but still remain under custody of the National Police Commission, which has also filed administrative charges against them.

In the same interview, Duterte said he is still poised to review the recommendations to fire the cops—more than two weeks after Malacanang announced their dismissal.

“Tapos na ‘yung investigation.

It’s just a matter of looking into the charges again,” Duterte said.

“You know, when you fire people, especially tjose with high rank, you have to be very careful,” the President said during his arrival.

“But whether I will go ahead with it, I have to, personally being a lawyer, to review it,” he said.

Duterte said that he might say sorry if ever he made a wrong decision in firing certain officials, but insisted he does not need anyone’s permission to dismiss a person from government.

Lawyer Josa Deinla said Gadon’s move to ask the DOJ to investigate why Sereno did not file her statements of liability and net worth or SALN while a professor at the University of the Philippines “only reinforces and further exposed Gadon’s ignorance of the law.”

Not only is Sereno immune from suit as Chief Justice, Deinla said Gadon filed a complaint with the wrong office in the DOJ. “This is yet another desperate and laughable attempt by Atty. Gadon to push his sinister plot to remove the Chief Justice from office, fully aware that his impeachment complaint [filed with Congress previously] has no basis at all,” she said.

Gadon on Friday filed a complaint against Sereno with the Justice department for her alleged violation of Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and Republic Act 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, based on certifications submitted by the Office of the Ombudsman, UP, and the Judicial and Bar Council regarding the Chief Justice’s SALN. Gadon claimed that Sereno, who was a professor at the UP College of Law from 1986 to 2006, only filed SALNs in 1998, 2002 and 2006.

“His latest move is just another publicity stunt to attract the attention of the public whose interest in the ongoing impeachment proceedings is waning,” Deinla said.

HERE'S...

From A1

“You want us to follow a standard.

I told you I will not accept the money with conditions. They say, ‘No, we give you so many dollars to promote democracy and stop with the…,’” he said in English and Tagalog without completing his sentence.

Earlier this week, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the language used in the agreement that would have facilitated the giving of the aid was “not acceptable.”

“The draft agreement signed by EU was not signed by the Philippine side. I think there were still issues on the language…until the deadline was reached, I think end of year,” Lopez told reporters in New Delhi.

“So in effect, the EU had no choice but to return that to the budget. They returned the budget basically,” he added.

While there was an effort “to correct the language,” they were not able to do so before the deadline, Lopez said.

On Wednesday, EU Ambassador Franz Jessen confirmed the Philippines had rejected the EU-Philippine Trade Related Technical Assistance by not signing the document.

“It was formalized in the sense that we had, for example, the TRTA, a document that actually had to be signed by the end of the year. And that has been returned to us unsigned,” he told reporters in Manila.

Jessen said the Duterte administration did not like the words “rule of law,” “human rights” on the TRTA document.

Aside from the TRTA, the Duterte administration was also poised to reject some P2.4 billion in additional aid for sustainable energy projects.

Last year, Duterte accused the EU of seeking to remove the Philippines from the United Nations over alleged human rights violations and summary executions.

He went as far as asking the ambassadors of the EU member states to leave the country.

'HEAVY...

From A1 visual meteorological conditions [or VMC].”

Authorities said VMC is an aviation flight category in which visual flight rules flight is permitted—that is, conditions in which pilots have sufficient visibility to fly the aircraft maintaining visual separation from terrain and other aircraft.

CAAP chief information officer and spokesman Eric Apolonio said the volcano still caused alert Level 4, adding the agency advised pilots flying near the area to exercise extreme caution, as ash from volcanic eruption could be hazardous to the aircraft.

CAAP also urged passengers to coordinate with their respective airlines on the flight schedules that might be affected by the changing VMCs brought about by continuing volcano eruption.

• Senator Ralph Recto urged the gov-

ernment to push for the evacuation center building program to address problems on temporary shelters for families affected by calamities.

“School children are the first collateral victims when their schools are commandeered to house refugees, a practice which can be stopped by building permanent evacuation centers,” said Recto in a statement.

He said the 2016 national budget authorized funding for 32 dormitory-type buildings in 16 regions.

In addition to building more of these, Recto called on the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to consider other designs, like gymnasiums which would serve as evacuation centers during calamities.

He authored Senate Bill 805 seeking the construction in every city and municipality of a multi-use gym, which would be used not only as sports facility but also for emergency situation.

“It addresses the shortage of covered sports facilities in municipalities

DUTERTE...

From A1 after the so-called “legal fronts” of the rebel group and determined to crush the NPA which has been causing sufferings to many Filipino families and even private companies for their extortion activities.

The rebel group collects revolutionary tax from mining and banana exporting firms and even steal harvested crops and livestock of the farmers.

Duterte earlier signed a proclamation declaring the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization under the country’s Human Security Act. He also took a swipe on human rights group, referring to the Karapatan group and described as “stupid.”

“We are not clumsy. I was once also handling an organ of the Nationalist Alliance for Justice, Freedom and Democracy. That’s Karapatan

and the need for a disaster-resilient safe building people can seek shelter in during calamities,” Recto said.

Such a multi-purpose civic center can be the venue for community events on ordinary days but when calamity strikes, could take in evacuees, Recto said.

• Mayon Volcano’s eruption has so far affected 112 hectares of agricultural areas, resulting in production loss and damages to high-value crops, amounting P1.56 million.

Such loss and damage consisted of 35 metric tons of vegetables valued at P1.08 million and six metric tons of fiber crops, particularly abaca, worth P0.48 million, the Department of Agriculture reported Friday.

DA Field Programs Operational Planning Division chief Christopher Morales updated Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on this in a memorandum dated Jan. 25, 2018.

Citing reports from DA’s Region V office, Morales said among the affect-

now,” the irate Duterte said.

The Department of Justice filed a petition formally declaring the communists as terrorists before a regional trial court.

“I will crush and destroy the communist rebels. No more peace talks,” he reiterated.

“Don’t fool us...I’m waiting for the decision of the Supreme Court. Once that comes out as terrorist, which you are, really are. Imposing taxes here and there. You’re better off because you’re earning much,” Duterte added.

Duterte earlier signed a proclamation declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA as a terrorist organization due to its “violent acts...which sow and create a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace.”

He vowed to never resume peace negotiations with communist rebels ever again.

“This NPA, I will finish them off. The talks are over. No more talks, and I will go after the legal fronts,” Duterte said.

ed vegetables were ampalaya (bitter gourd), Baguio beans, eggplant, okra, pole sitao, sayote, chili, tomato, and upo (bottle gourd).

He said such crops were in the fruiting stage.

The loss and damages also already affected 141 farmers, noted Morales’ memorandum, which DA released to media Friday afternoon.

Phivolcs earlier said in an advisory that 25 million cubic meters of ash and other volcanic material had recently been emitted by Mayon, settling on its slopes and the surrounding area.

It warned that this could result in lahars flowing into waterways and called on officials to move residents near rivers to higher ground.

An explosion of the 2,460-meter Mayon in August 2006 did not directly kill anyone but four months later, a typhoon unleashed an avalanche of volcanic mud from Mayon’s slopes that claimed 1,000 lives. AFP, Joel Zurbano, PNA

CONTRACTORS...

From A1 it correctly, I will pay you in 15 days in accordance with what was required by government,” Duterte said.

“I am tired of the slow pace and the inferior quality of jobs in government projects. I give you 30 days, or I will give it to another contractor. Either your contract is canceled or somebody else will undertake it,” Duterte said.

The Department of Public Works and Highways is the major agency that implements, oversees and handles major infrastructure projects in the country.

Duterte also said the policy of lowest bid was dragging the government to corruption.

He disclosed that syndicates abound and were just waiting for invitations to bid from the government and participating in the process with ridiculously low bids that had excluded more competent and honest contractors.

“There are at least four or five firms pretending to be contractors [but] were actually in cahoots with each other as they try to drive down the bid to keep the legitimate contractors from winning,” he said.

Duterte gave assurances that under the new setup in bidding process, contractors would be paid within 15 days after completion of the project.

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PINOY WORKERS MAY TURN TO CHINA

By John Paolo Bencito

P

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday said he will ask China to accept overseas Filipino workers who will be displaced because of his decision to ban thousands of workers to Kuwait, amid concerns over reported exploitation and sexual abuse.

China, Duterte said, was “not really bad as the others” since Asians do not resort to such “barbaric form” of maltreatment.

“I will ask China to open its doors to us and I said to them that if you consider the Philippines, we would be glad to allow our workers to work here. All I ask is that, huwag ninyong abusuhin [don’t abuse them],” he said during his arrival speech after his trip to India.

Duterte reiterated that foreign employers should treat OFWs decently, adding that the country is ready to suffer even if it meant a re-

duced income.

“Do not destroy their dignity as a human being,” he said. “Let them sleep long enough. (One) complaint is that they’re fed with leftovers, kaya nagsu-suicide eh [that’s why they commit suicide]. Hindi na matiis [They can’t take it anymore], including rape.”

In related developments, the Commission on Human Rights lauded the government’s move to protect migrant workers in Kuwait.

“Migrant workers’ rights are human rights and we all share an obligation to make sure that our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) are treated well and fairly around the world,” CHR Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana said in a statement.

“The CHR supports the government’s efforts to promote stronger protection and enhanced welfare mechanisms for our overseas Filipino workers especially those most prone to abuse and exploitation,” she added.

Gana said the Labor Department’s policy on Kuwait would “hopefully provide all stakeholders, including Kuwaiti employers and recruitment agencies, time to reflect and adopt the necessary

reforms to strengthen and uphold the rights of migrant workers especially those working as domestic workers.”

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III last Jan. 20 suspended the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait, as authorities investigate the death of seven OFWs in the Gulf state.

In the same media interview, Duterte said he was prepared to lose friendship with countries if their governments allow violence and sexual abuse in the workplace—and warned of a pullout of other Filipinos working in Kuwait if another citizen dies due to abuse.

“I would like to address myself to all nations taking in Filipino as workers. All I ask is that you treat them decently. Do not destroy their dignity as a human being,” he said.

“As a worker of government, as one who also decides whether we go there or not. I will not hesitate to lose your friendship, not at the expense of the Filipino. Do not do it,” he said.

Latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data show cash remittances from Kuwait from January to November 2017 amount to $735 million (P37.5 billion).

LAWMAKER DOUBTS INTEGRITY OF PASSPORT CONTRACTOR

By Maricel V. Cruz A PARTY-LIST lawmaker on Saturday raised doubt on the integrity of the private firm subcontracted by the government-run printing entity APO Production Unit Inc. in addressing the passport backlog.

In a privilege speech, Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate said the United Graphic Expression Corp. guaranteed in its Nov. 27, 2014 joint venture agreement with APO that it could deliver 3.4 million passports within a year but only 1,946,703 were printed as of March 2017.

Assistant Secretary Frank Cimafranca of the DFA’s Office of Consular Affairs earlier said the backlog has reached 42,230 passports.

Zarate said based on DFA’s records, 11,852 of these come from foreign posts, 30,127 from regional offices and 251 from Manila.

“It is clear that UGEC cannot fulfill its contractual obligations and despite its backlog of more than one million passports it still handles the printing up to this day,” Zarate said.

Zarate’s House Resolution 1608 is asking the House committee on good government and public accountability look into the alleged questionable APO-UGEC contract.

Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay earlier alleged the APO-UGEC deal had no expressed approval of DFA. Zarate, a lawyer, said subcontracting is prohibited under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act, and Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. APO, the National Printing Office and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, are the only three agencies considered as RGPs or Recognized Government Printers.

In the subject JVA, APO contracted UGEC to upgrade its Lima printing facility in Bataan, which was subsequently inaugurated by then President Benigno Aquino in July 2015 in line with the new epassport program.

EARLY BIRDS. Incoming grade 7-12 students accompanied by their parents register as early as January for the upcoming school year 2018-2019 at the Araullo High School and Geronimo Santiago Elementary School in Manila on Saturday. Norman Cruz

DUTERTE DENIES HAND IN PNOY CASE

By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday vehemently denied having any hand on the move to press homicide charges against his predecessor, former President Benigno Aquino III in connection with the deaths of 44 Special Action Force troopers in a botched operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao three years ago.

Speaking to reporters in Davao City, Duterte said it was “not his style” to pursue any cases against the opposition—even in the light of his repeated threats against Ombdusman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who is now facing impeachment proceedings. “[Aquino] is already facing charges.

[Former] President Aquino, I said, it’s not my style, it’s not my system,” the President said in an interview in Davao City upon his arrival from India. “That did not come from me. Ask anyone, that’s not my style,” Duterte said.

The President also turned back on his promise to the families of the fallen SAF 44 that he would create a body similar to the Agrava Commission to investigate what really happened during the Jan. 25, 2015 tragedy in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

“Hindi na kasi I realized that once again— Tutal, naka-demanda na eh. They are facing charges. What more do you want? We can

FAMILY VALUES AWARDS TO FVR. Just recently, the LDS Church

conferred the prestigious Family Values Award to former President Fidel Ramos.

In 1992, Ramos signed Proclamation 60, which declared every last week of September of every year as the celebration of National Family Week. Then in 1996, Ramos signed Proclamation No. 847 declaring every fourth Sunday of September as Family Thanksgiving Day. Ramos recently tendered a simple birthday celebration of his 99-year-old aunt Lucila Mangapit Valdez, a reverred elderly faithful of The Church of Latter Day Saints.

Endearingly called Auntie Lucing who is a poetess, painter and a diplomat’s wife, she is shown here in a photo with FVR and author Melandrew T. Velasco who penned and published with Ramos Peace and Development Foundation the “Colors of Light” that chronicles Lucia’s journey and her destiny as a world-class Filipino artist recognized by art experts from first world countries like United Kingdom, Singapore and United States but never in her native land.

only presume that they did it in the wrong way,” the President said.

Nandiyan na, naka-demanda na si PNoy. President Aquino, ‘wag mo akong—Sabi ko, “It is not my style. It is not in my system.” Ikaw, si Sereno, si Ombudsman. Hindi galing sa akin. Magtanong ka maski sino, magtanong muna kayo. Hindi ko style ‘yan. ‘Pag magkita siguro tayo, medyo—We come to a face-to-face, ‘yun, baka you can—you know, anything can go wrong there,” he added.

On Jan. 24, 2017, the eve of the second anniversary of the tragedy— Duterte had vowed to bestow on the proposed commission the powers similarly given to the Agrava Commission, in an attempt to uncover what he then called as an “American adventure” with Aquino’s apparent blessing.

While he had nothing to do with Calida’s move, Duterte he said his only sentiment was why did the former president allow SAF members to die in the operation.

“If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. On Mamasapano, I have one regret. I have sentiment there,” the President said. “I’m not prepared to accuse personally but my only question is, why did you let our elite force to be trapped there and eventually die?”

Last Thursday, the government’s top lawyer, Solicitor-General Jose Calida led a manifestation urging the Supreme Court to direct the Office of the Ombudsman

to reverse its ruling junking the reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide cases against the former President.

Calida maintained that Aquino is accountable for the deaths of 44 SAF troopers as he had “full knowledge” with the Oplan Exodus’ operational details.

“To reiterate, respondent Aquino’s criminal negligence consists in his active participation and direct involvement in the whole process as he helped plan Oplan Exodus with gross inexcusable negligence and approved the whole operation with full knowledge,” the Solicitor General said.

“The acts of negligence of [Aquino, Purisima, and Napeñas] clearly show that probable cause exists to indict them for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and there is grave abuse of discretion on the part of the [Ombudsman],” he added.

Duterte issued Proclamation 164 on Feb. 21 last year, declaring Jan. 25 a “Day of National Remembrance” in honor of the sacrifice of the 44 SAF personnel slain in Mamasapano.

Meanwhile, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption said that as an appointee of former President Aquino, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno should not be in anyway involved herself in trying the case against the former president on the tragic Mamasapano encounter in 2015.

SUBIC PORT OFFICIALS SEIZE THREE ILLEGAL SHIPMENTS SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Bureau of Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña and SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma led on Friday the viewing of 3 shipments here seized by the Port of Subic headed by District Collector Fidel Villanueva IV for violations of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act of 2016 and related laws.

The first shipment involved the importation of 10’x20’ container van of Thailand white rice, with an estimated value of P10 million, without the required import permit from the NFA. The consignee, the Philippine International Trading Corp., the trading arm of the DTI, through its president, Dave M. Almarinez, promptly denied ownership of the confiscated items and manifested their full cooperation for the immediate disposition of the case, according to the BOC. The next shipment covered 18 units

of scooters which was part of the 112 units of brand new Vespa scooters from Italy, with an estimated value of P30 million. The said shipment was seized and eventually forfeited in favor of the government for gross underevaluation thru falsification of import documents, resulting to discrepancy of more than 70 percent of the duties and taxes due.

The third set of items viewed consisted of expensive liquors and several other spirits (Remy Martin, Martin, etc.) which were initially admitted into the Subic Bay Freeport Zone for storage and eventually re-exportation abroad. BOC said in order to avoid payment of duties and taxes, the items were boarded in a closed van, and attempted to be spirited out of the SBFZ. The 8,865 bottles of various liquors and spirits were initially estimated to be valued at around P40 million.

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I-ACT SHIFTS TO LAGUNA, CAVITE; TAGS 4O VIOLATORS

By Joel E. Zurbano MORE than 40 erring drivers and operators in the provinces of Cavite and Laguna were cited for various violations in line with the government’s campaign against dilapidated public utility vehicles.

Members of the Inter-Agency Council for Traffic flagged down and issued citation tickets against 44 PUVs for operating with defective car parts and other violations during their operation in Molino in Bacoor, Cavite, and Pacita in San Pedro, Laguna on Friday.

The I-ACT Task Force Alamid team composed of personnel from the Metro Manila Development Authority, Police-Highway Patrol Group and local government units also impounded five motorcycles with no government-registration plates and for illegal parking.

Task Force chief Manuel Gonzales said the result of the latest operation brings to 1,169 the total number of PUVs, tricycles and motorcycles apprehended since his team fully implemented the “Tanggal Bulok, Tanggal Usok” program last Jan. 8.

Gonzales admitted that more than 1,400 passengers were affected by the operations in Laguna and Cavite.

He, however, said the commuters availed the free-ride services offered by the government using military trucks plying Pacita Complex (San Pedro) and Calamba, and Alabang (Muntinlupa City)-Pacita routes.

“There is a phase we are going through and there are changes. We need to change our old ways to new ways. Convenient, safe and modernized. We are just enforcing what we need to do. We need to be firm because this is for the welfare of the majority,” said lawyer Aileen Lourdes Lizada, I-ACT spokesperson.

Apprehended PUVs are obliged to undergo Motor Vehicle Inspection System test at the Land Transportation Office main compound in Quezon City.

HOUSE OKS BILL ON ‘FULL CROP’ INSURANCE COVERAGE THE House of Representatives is expected to approve anytime soon on third and final reading a bill which seeks to provide immediate financial assistance to affected Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries in the event of natural calamities to make their losses more bearable.

House Bill 6686, or “An Act Granting Full Insurance Coverage To All Qualified Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Of The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, Amending For The Purpose Section 14 Of Republic Act No. 9700, Otherwise Known As The ‘Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension With Reforms”’ aims to mitigate the effects of natural calamities by providing crop insurance to qualified farmers.

The amendment to RA 9700 states that full insurance coverage shall be provided to all qualified agrarian reform beneficiaries as defined in RA 10000 of the “Agri-Agra Law” and who are actually tilling the land and capitalizing on crops as certified by the Department of Agrarian Reform.

One of the bill’s authors, Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, said full crop insurance coverage shall be granted to farmer-beneficiaries whose losses include those resulting from natural calamities such as typhoon, flood, drought, earthquake, volcanic eruption, frost and other destructive natural phenomena such as heat and hot wind.

He said the full crop insurance coverage shall also be provided to all qualified agrarian reform beneficiaries whose crops are destroyed due to plant diseases caused by pathogens, bacteria, fungi, viruses, viruslike pathogens, and other similar foreign bodies.

Under the measure, compensable losses include as well pest infestation caused by nematodes, symphylans, slugs and snails, sow bugs and pillbugs, parasitic higher plants and other parasites and loss of life and/or injury to the qualified agrarian reform beneficiary due to accident or any of the aforementioned causes.

Crops that are covered by full insurance are palay, corn, sugarcane, high value crops as defined in Section 4(b) of RA 7900 also known as the “HighValue Crops Development Act of 1995”, coconut, tobacco; aquaculture, livestock; and non-crop agricultural assets. Maricel V. Cruz

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Opinion

SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL

GGSS GANDANG-GANDA sa sarili (finding oneself extremely beautiful).

Gwapong-gwapo sa sarili (finding oneself extremely handsome). We know a few of these, and I am guessing we don’t hold them in esteem.

This column, however, will talk about a different GGSS—galing na galing sa sarili (finding oneself brilliant). I am also guessing we know quite a few personally (and a lot more in the news), and I will point out that this latter group poses more danger to society than just those who are simply delusional about their physical attributes.

It turns out, being GGSS is backed by hard science. Didn’t Charles Darwin say “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge?”

A pair of psychologists from Cornell University, Justin Kruger and David Dunning, conducted four studies that showed the relationship between incompetence and one’s ability to evaluate one’s competence. The research was published in 1999 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

A BLOW TO THE PROFESSION

T

HE University of Santo Tomas is in the news again, but it is not about the decision of its alumni organization to recognize some alumna who stumbled into public service.

The more consequential issue is the conclusion of two Senate committees that a student died during hazing rites at the hands of members of the Aegis Juris Fraternity.

Law student Horatio Castillo suffered muscle trauma that led to cardiac arrest, the committees said, after a string of hearings. Hazing was the direct cause of his death, not a pre-existing heart condition as the fraternity members ridiculously and cruelly argued.

The committee on public order and dangerous drugs and the committee on justice and human rights also called on the Supreme Court to disbar Nilo Divina, the law dean of the university, for mockery of the legal profession. Divina is the head of Aegis Juris.Divina, who is also managing partner of Divina Law, must urgently stop practicing law, the report recommended.

Other lawyers from Aegis Juris who participated in, knew about, and covered up Castillo’s death through the hazing were also recommended disbarred.

“The actions taken by these members constitute grossly immoral conduct that is shocking, against the decency expected from lawyers,” the report said.

“My conscience is clear,” Divina insisted. “I did not do anything wrong, illegal or unethical... it is clear that I had no knowledge of the hazing prior to its occurrence, took no part therein, and was not in any way part of the group chats purportedly plotting the cover-up of the incident.”

He added: “I have nothing but the best interest of UST, its students, faculty and alumni in my heart.”

If the last sentence were even true, Divina should no longer even be dean of the law school anymore. What best interest is he talking about when with his actions and inaction he failed utterly as a leader of, among all institutions, one that hopes to churn out lawyers with integrity?

We also wait to hear from the university about this. UST’s silence, when it has been vocal and quick to react on other issues, has been eerie. What is it trying to say by not saying anything?

This week, too, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a bill that bans hazing altogether and makes initiation rites for organizations safer. In the measure, hazing is defined as any reckless act that endangers the physical health or safety of an individual.

But even if this broader, more enlightened law were passed, discretion among those who really should know better cannot be legislated.

Divina and his frat pack may protest their innocence to the high heavens, using all the technicalities their legal minds can conjure.

The Supreme Court should get its hands on that Senate report, and act on the recommendations, fast. It’s a good message to send to those who want to practice law—in the only manner it should be done.

‘Ignorance is bliss’ has basis in fact.

The study’s title—Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Self-inflated Assessments—is pretty self-explanatory. The authors found that incompetent people fall into a double trap: they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, and their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. This is because the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills needed to evaluate competence in that domain.

Indeed, ignorance, or incompetence, is bliss!

To test their theory, Kruger and Dunning conducted four experiments.

They asked participants to take tests that measured their humor, logical reasoning and grammar. And then, they asked the same participants to rate their own performance: “I’m at the very bottom,” “I’m exactly average,” and “I’m at the very top.”

Across all four tests, the authors found that those who ranked at the bottom percentile always estimated that they did better than they actually did, saying they were generally above average.

For example, read this tweet from a prominent international figure: “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart... I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.… to [the current office he holds] on my first try. I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!”

Initials—DJT. Then again we don’t need to be geniuses to figure that out.

The reason? Less-skilled participants lack meta-cognitive skills—the ability to know how well one is performing, when one is likely to be accurate in judgment, and when one is likely to be in error.

The solution is a paradox. “One Turn to A5

REMEMBERING ED ARAULLO “HOW do you honor the dead?”

That sentence was the lead of a column I wrote five years ago. It was a tribute to lawyer Eduardo Araullo, who died in the morning of Jan. 19, 2013, after suffering a massive heart attack.

Araullo was an activist in the First Quarter Storm and jailed for his beliefs.

He later became a labor lawyer and remained involved in various social causes to which he put his keen legal mind and passion for truth and justice.

I met him in 2010 when he was corporate secretary of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. His unexpected death was a profound shock.

We weren’t particularly close, but the few times we did speak, he impressed me with his calm wisdom and unflinching logic. In July 2012, I asked to interview him about his experiences during the FQS. Here is an excerpt from my column of Jan. 24, 2013. This is how we honor the dead—by keeping their memory alive. *** [Araullo] was a student at the University of the Philippines College of Arts and Sciences, taking Political Science, and later Law, when he became involved in the student movement.

He joined the Left; he was on the UP Student Council and a member of the Kabataang Makabayan and Sandigang Demokratiko ng Kabataan. …

“I became most active around the age of 20. I went underground when martial law was declared. I was placed on the Order of Battle because I was active in school, mobilizing people and conducting rallies.

“When I was arrested by the Metrocom for acts of ‘subversion,’ I was taken to Camp Crame, where the Metrocom beat me with bats. Sinuntok ako at hinampas ng bat sa dibdib. I saw nowsenator Ping Lacson there at the Me-

trocom office. Bagong lieutenant pa lang siya noon.

“Then I was taken to Fort Bonifacio, then to the Youth Rehabilitation Center (YRC). Yung kulungan na iyon, showcase. We were well-treated there. Kasama doon mga delegates sa Con-Con. It was open to international inspection, kaya masarap ang pagkain. …

“After I was released I went underground again. Raising funds and whatever was needed sa bundok. Ang ka-grupo ko sila Nelia Sancho. Nasa Malabon kami. One day, naiwan ako sa safehouse doon. BInabantayan kami kasi ang tiyo ni Sancho na nasa Intelli-

gence.

“That night, ni-raid iyon, dalawa ang pinatay. Ang katawan nila, dinaanan ko pa, nasa munisipyo nakabalot sa banig.

“There was a time I was ready to join the New People’s Army under the name ‘Ka Glenn.’ The week after I went to southern Tagalog to join them, I was caught. The others proceeded. They were all killed by the military...

“I withstood it all because our Turn to A5

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LET’S...

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attitude at the time was willingness to sacrifice for the country. I never considered myself weak, but I had weaknesses. Those years made me stronger. Mature. I learned that I am not afraid to die for what I believe in.”

What I wanted him to tell me about during that interview were his feelings, not only his actions. What was it all for? Why did he fight against martial law?

“Because it was wrong.”

What else aside from personal freedom had he been prepared to give up?

“I was ready to die.”

Would he do it again?

“Yes.” What did he learn?

“Stand up for what you believe in.

It’s worth it.”

It was hard to elicit much from him beyond cerebral responses. I asked, “What did you feel?”

Attorney Ed replied, “It was an intellectual exercise. I don’t get emotional about these things.”

Much remained locked inside him.

I could go no farther; he would not let me in behind the barriers he had erected to keep the feelings in.

I took my leave of him and waited by the curb for a ride. He followed me and whispered a few words.

“I still grieve for them, for those who died. I always remember.”

A few days later [after that interview] I wrote a version of that conver-

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WHY IS THERE A PACIFIC RING OF FIRE?

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way to make people recognize their incompetence is to make them competent...once they gained the metacognitive skills to recognize their own incompetence, they were no longer incompetent,” said the authors. *** At the other end of the spectrum is the impostor syndrome.

Contrary to the name, those who have it are not impostors at all—they just feel that way. The term, coined in 1978, is a “feeling of phoniness in people who believe that they are not intelligent, capable or creative despite evidence of high achievement.” It is a sense of inadequacy despite evident success.

Not all high performers suffer from impostor syndrome. Most just do not have a need to flaunt how good they are. In “How Actual Smart People Talk About Themselves,” published this month in The Atlantic, James Fallows talks about having interviewed a number of brilliant people. He said these achievers know too well what they bring to the table: “A lifetime of quietly comparing their ease in handling intellectual challenges—at the chess board, in the classroom, in the debating or writing arena—with the efforts of other people gave them the message.”

Despite this awareness, none of them need to go around announcing how good they are.

Perhaps the real hallmark that sets intelligent people from the others is the acknowledgment that they don’t know everything—a disposition completely opposite to the poor performers in the Kruger-Dunning study. They know what they don’t know. “The more acute someone’s ability to perceive and assess, the more likely that person is to recognize his or her limits.

These include the unevenness of any one person’s talents; the specific areas of weakness—social awkwardness, musical tin ear, being stronger with numbers than with words, or vice versa; and the incomparable vastness of what any individual person can never know,” Fallows said.

For those who do feel inadequate despite their competence, Ashley Stahl, writing in Forbes, has some advice: Acknowledge disruptive thoughts when they emerge; you will have an easier time overcoming it. Reframe your thoughts and realize that the feelings of inadequacy are all in your head. Tell yourself that you are not perfect, and in fact, nobody is.

Take stock of your achievements, and remember you are not alone. Many other competent individuals struggle with this conflict.

Perhaps it is easier to advise those who feel inadequate despite their competence than those who feel so good about themselves despite evidence to the contrary. These are the real GGSS. Because they do not know that they do not know, it might be a challenge to find humility and a willingness to improve themselves. They could be defensive and arrogant when you criticize them or make suggestions.

As always, the middle way appears the best way. We should aim for a healthy dose of confidence in our abilities but also some humility that we do not have all the answers, that we could be fallible, and that learning does not end.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018

By Pecier Decierdo THE past few weeks have been eventful in the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire.’

Last Tuesday, a volcanic eruption in Japan caused an avalanche that killed one and injured several others. On the same day, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook parts of Indonesia, causing buildings to sway in the capital Jakarta. Not long after that, a stronger magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Alaska, which prompted tsunami warnings for nearby areas.

Here in the Philippines, the Mayon Volcano has been actively spewing lava and ash for several days this week, with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recording 15 volcanic earthquakes.

This is all normal, according to earth scientists.

After all, the Ring of Fire is a place where volcanic activity and earthquakes are to be expected.

Given the likelihood that these events will happen in the region, it should not be surprising that they sometimes happen one after the other.

What is the Pacific Ring of Fire, anyway? And why does it exist? Let us take a close look at the science.

The Pacific Ring of Fire is an arc around the Pacific Ocean where there are many active volcanoes and where earthquakes frequently happen.

It also hosts many dormant volcanoes that were very active in the past. The Ring of Fire includes New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Alaska, and nearly the entire west coast of North and South America.

It is the site of around 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes and is home to 75 percent of the

THE leaders of the ruling political party, and by extension the nation, have realized that to spur the country into progress and prosperity in the next 10 to 20 years, the Constitution had to be revised. They in fact have drawn, discussed and adopted the blueprint for a more inclusive and progressive economic growth and governance for decades to come, and adopted a name for it.

The leaders have lifted a lot of their people out of poverty, but still more remain to be saved. They recognize progress and the quality of life of residents had been uneven among urban and rural areas, especially the coastal municipalities in the south and the relatively lagging north. More industries need to be developed, more jobs for the people created. Housing, medical care and education are priority concerns, along with making the nation’s natural resources serve the majority of the people, especially the poor.

The nation’s leader, obviously a strongman, has written a whole socio-philosophical body of works that outlines the best ideas on governance that his party had adopted and is scheduled to be given an imprimatur by a constitutional assembly, the highest legislative body, in March this year.

This landmark constitutional amendment is expected to further spur economic growth and political stability in the country, leading to a peaceful and contented life for its citizens and neighbors.

The country I refer to above is not the Philippines, and it is not about President Rodrigo Duterte’s federalism.

It is China. The visionary leader is President Xi Jinping, also general

ocean basins, are thinner and heavier.

When two continental plates collide, they push each other up, forming a mountain range, such as the Himalayas.

On the other hand, when a heavier oceanic plate collides with a lighter continental plate, the oceanic plate sinks underneath the continental plate.

Most of the Pacific Ocean rests on top of an oceanic plate called the Pacific Plate. As the Pacific Plate collides with its neighbors, it generally sinks underneath them. The part that sinks gets molten by the heat from inside the Earth. This results in the production of magma, which then rises to the surface to produce volcanoes. This is why many volcanoes ring the Pacific Ocean.

The “sinking” of the Pacific Plate underneath neighboring plates is also the reason why many earthquakes occur around it. Of three kinds of plate boundaries, the third kind where plates collide usually result in the strongest earthquakes.

The Earth is the only major body in the Solar System with active plate tectonics. Other bodies such as Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Moon, do not have enough remaining heat from their interior to have plate tectonics.

Many scientists think the existence of life on Earth owes a great deal to plate tectonics. Perhaps life, or at least life as we know and live it, might not even exist without it. Hence, as destructive earthquakes and volcanoes are, they can be thought of as a byproduct of a process that made life possible in the first place.

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

CHARTER CHANGE FOR A NEW ERA

EVERYMAN

By Diego C. Cagahastian

world’s active and dormant volcanoes.

The Philippines is well within the Ring of Fire.

This is can be seen in the number of volcanoes in the region as well as the frequency of earthquakes in the country.

Why is there a Ring of Fire? Two words: plate tectonics. It is the unifying theory of the earth sciences. It helps explain nearly everything in the earth sciences, from why there are continents and oceans to why different kinds of rocks and minerals exist in different parts of the world.

According to plate tectonics, the Earth’s outermost layer is relatively thin and made of several rigid blocks or chunks called tectonic plates.

According to the theory, the tectonic plates rest on a layer of rock that constantly deforms or “flows” due to the heat coming from underneath the Earth. As a result, the tectonic plates are constantly shifting about instead of staying in place. As they shift, the tectonic plates often push against each other, causing the formation of mountains, trenches, and valleys. Their constant jostling also results in earthquakes. This is why most of the world’s earthquakes happen near the boundary between two or more tectonic plates.

Plates can have three kinds of boundaries: ones where they move away from each other, ones where they slide past each other, and ones where they move toward each other.

The third kind results in a collision between plates.

Not all tectonic plates are made equal. Some plates, like the ones making up continents, are thicker and lighter, making them “float” above the oceans. Other plates, like the ones forming the

secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China. His contribution to the still growing theory and practice of Marxism and how the democratic dictatorship of the proletariat is implemented in real-life settings is called Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. And the Constitution of China is soon to officially carry its text in its pages, when the National People’s Congress meets for the purpose of adopting the amendments in March.

The CPC has convened a key meeting in Beijing to review the details of the amendments. A communiqué issued after the meeting recognized the inclusion of major guidelines and theories to the Chinese Constitution settled after the 19th CPC National Congress last Oct. 18, 2017, especially the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The communiqué also stressed that reform in China’s national supervision body is a significant move in strengthening the Party and the country’s self-discipline.

One important thing to be learned from the Chinese experience by Duterte’s charter change is that the CPC does not tweak their Constitution just for the sake of tweaking, or to embark on the road to federalism without full and extensive study on how this will impact on Philippine society in the next few decades. China has clear and specific goals for its society—such as the eradication of poverty by 2020—and the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This is worth emulating for the Philippines.

China is specific on its national objectives. As President Xi told the 19th Party Congress in his three-hourspeech: “After adopting the policy

sation for this column. The newspaper grazed Attorney Ed’s desk as he read it in his office.

He put it down with a rustle. “I like it.”

“I’m glad you do,” I said.

“I didn’t know you heard what I said about grieving for them.”

“I did.”

He nodded, pleased. For that short sentence was his homage to the fallen, in it all the other words he could not say to honor dead comrades who gave their lives in the struggle for something they believed in, something they believed was worth dying for. *** During these times when there is so much that is wrong being said and done by those who are supposed to uphold truth and justice, may Araullo’s example of bravery and commitment give strength to those whose courage falters in the face of relentless attacks by the uncouth, unprincipled, and ignorant.

And may we all have, as he and his comrades did, the “willingness to sacrifice for the country.”

Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer.

Facebook and Twitter: @jennyortuoste

of reform and opening up, our Party laid out three strategic goals for achieving socialist modernization in China. The first two – ensuring that people’s basic needs are met and that their lives are generally decent – have been accomplished ahead of time. Building on this, our Party then developed the vision that by the time we celebrate our centenary, we will have developed our society into a moderately prosperous one with a stronger economy, greater democracy, more advanced science and education, thriving culture, greater social harmony, and a better quality of life. After this, with another 30 years of work, and by the time we celebrate the centenary of the People’s Republic of China, we will have basically achieved modernization and turned China into a modern socialist country.”

Focusing on its big dream of national rejuvenation, you have to give it to China for crafting long-range plans with specific time lines, and buckling up to work for the realization of these plans. Based on conditions of China’s development and a comprehensive analysis of the international and domestic environments, Party leaders have drawn up a two-stage development plan for the period 2020 to the middle of this century.

It is heartwarming to note that President Xi does not think only of Chinese advancement and prosperity, but also wants the CPC to strive for both “the well being of the Chinese people and human progress.”

He said China will continue to hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit and uphold its fundamental foreign policy goal of preserving world peace and promoting common development.

Towards this end, he issued a “call on the people of all countries to work together to build a community of shared future for mankind, to build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.”

Perhaps this idea of mutual benefit and prosperous, shared future was the underlying principle behind Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the ambitious global infrastructure and financing program that traces the Old Silk Road. It will build, and is in fact already constructing a huge network of highways, bridges, railways, tunnels, pipelines, ports, linking Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the Asean countries, Australia and even the Americas. The BRI will transform China and flesh out its dream of becoming the world’s top economic leader, its influence and assistance reaching out to 68 countries with 75 percent of the world’s population.

Xi’s conclusion on this topic of peaceful development and building a community of shared future has deeper meaning than just a motherhood statement. He said: “The future of the world rests in the hands of the people of all countries; the future of mankind hinges on the choices they make. We, the Chinese, are ready to work with the people of all other countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind and create a bright tomorrow for all of us.”

All these thoughts will soon be part of the Constitution of China, and inasmuch as we Filipinos will soon rewrite our very own Constitution, too, it is worthwhile to study all inputs from working blueprints of governance, from successful governments all over the world, including that of China.

AFTER THE RAINS RIVERS in France have risen higher and higher after record rainfall fell onto the northeast of the country over the past several weeks.

The Seine is expected to reach a peak of up to 6.2 meters (20.3 feet) in Paris over the weekend, four to five meters above its normal height, after the third-wettest DecemberJanuary period on record since data collection began in 1900.

The rising waters have flooded roads that run along the river, but most of the damage has hit areas outside the capital, where boats are now the only way to get around the streets. AFP

World

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor / Jimbo Gulle, Issue Editor

MATTIS WANTS TO KEEP PRESSURE ON NORTH KOREA HONOLULU—The United States and South Korea are going to keep tightening the screws on Pyongyang so that the hermit state gives up its nuclear program, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Friday.

“As two peace-loving nations, the Republic of Korea and America welcome the Olympic Games talks between the ROK and DPRK while at the same time remaining steadfast with the international economic pressure campaign to denuclearize the Korean peninsula,” Mattis said in Honolulu.

The defense secretary was speaking at the start of a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Song Young-Moo at US Pacific Command, or PACOM, headquarters.

“Diplomacy should repose reason on Kim’s reckless rhetoric and dangerous provocations,” Mattis said, warning that the Winter Olympics talks and the respite in inter-Korean ties that accompany them do not solve overarching problems.

“The Kim regime is a threat to the entire world... Our response to this threat remains diplomacy-led, backed up with military options available to ensure that our diplomats are understood to be speaking from a position of strength.”

Pyongyang has agreed to send athletes and support delegations to the South for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month and form a unified women’s ice hockey team with the South.

The move followed months of entreaties from Seoul to take part in a “peace Olympics,” prompting a rare and rapid improvement in the atmosphere on the peninsula.

But the North is also preparing a massive military parade in Pyongyang on February 8, a day before the Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony. AFP

PHARMA TYCOON, WIFE’S DEATHS ‘TARGETED’ SLAYS OTTAWA, Canada—The deaths of Canadian pharmaceutical tycoon Barry Sherman and his wife were “targeted” homicides, Toronto police ruled Friday after a six-week investigation.

No suspects have yet been identified.

The 75-year-old chairman of Apotex and his 70-year-old wife Honey were found dead in their Toronto home on December 15. Apotex is the largest maker of generic drugs in Canada, and the Shermans’ fortune was estimated at Can$4.7 billion (US$3.8 billion).

“We have sufficient evidence to describe this as a double homicide investigation, and that both Honey and Barry Sherman were, in fact, targeted,” Susan Gomes, a Toronto police homicide detective leading the investigation, told reporters.

Gomes confirmed the couple were last seen alive or heard from the evening of December 13, two days before their bodies were discovered.

She said there were no signs of forced entry at their home, where they were found in a basement pool area, “hanging by belts from a poolside railing in a semi-seated position on the pool deck.”

“They were wearing their clothing,” she added.

Gomes declined to discuss suspects, except to say: “We have an extensive list of people that we’re looking forward to speaking to” about the case.

The investigation so far has included sweeps of two homes owned by the Shermans, as well as Barry’s workplace at Apotex. AFP Manila

Standard

TODAY

FIRE MEMORIAL. South Korean President Moon Jae-In (center) visits a joint memorial altar for the victims of a hospital fire at a gymnasium in Miryang on Saturday. A huge fire tore through a South Korean hospital on Friday, killing at least 37 people, the government said, in the country’s worst blaze for a decade. AFP

US ECONOMY FALLS BELOW TRUMP GOAL

W

ASHINGTON—The world’s largest economy slowed in the final quarter of 2017, bringing US GDP expansion for the year below President Donald Trump’s ambitious three percent target, according to data released Friday.

The slowdown underscored the difficulty the administration faces in making good on an emblematic pledge.

The White House believes the massive tax cuts passed last month will energize the economy and offset the $1.5 trillion cost of the tax overhaul, but economists say this is not likely and any growth bump will be modest.

After two quarters of expansion above three percent, GDP slowed to 2.6 percent in the October-December period, held down by a big jump in imports and falling business inventories, according to the first growth estimate from the Commerce Department.

That was slower than analysts

GDP, rose an even faster 13.9 percent, the largest quarterly increase in more than seven years.

Durable goods orders were another bright spot for the quarter, with sales of large, factory-made items rising by 8.2 percent, the biggest quarterly gain in 14 years.

“Given the strongest business confidence in decades and expectations of still stronger tax-cut fueled growth to come, companies are almost certain to kick production up a notch in 2018,” Chris Low of FTN Financial said in a client note.

In a separate report Friday, the Commerce Department said orders for civilian and military aircraft lifted durable goods sales in December for the second straight month while auto sales slowed.

Total orders for big-ticket USmanufactured goods rose 2.9 percent compared to November to $249.4 billion, the biggest jump in six months, leaping past economists’ predictions of a 0.9 percent gain. AFP

JAPAN CHEFS MOURN FRANCE’S BOCUSE AS ‘A GOD’ TOKYO—When Japanese cook Kazunori Nakatani talks about his mentor Paul Bocuse, the legendary French chef who died last week, he still uses the present tense: “For us he is a god!”

Bocuse is revered in France as the “pope” of the country’s treasured cuisine and gained international recognition in part for his revolutionary “Nouvelle Cuisine” in the 1970s.

But he has a special legacy in Japan, where many local chefs trained at his Institut Paul Bocuse, near Lyon.

“He’s a god, not only in the world of

Republic of the Philippines Department of Health OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE The Department of Health, in its endeavor to uphold transparency, competitiveness, streamlined procurement process, system of accountability and public monitoring, would like to invite suppliers of Goods, Consulting Services and Infrastructure Projects to attend the DIALOGUE WITH THE SUPPLIERS scheduled on February 15, 2018 from 9:00 A.M. up to 2:00 P.M. (venue to be announced).

Confirmation Form is available at the Receiving/Releasing Section, Procurement Service, DOH. Submission of Confirmation Form is on or before February 2, 2018.

For more information, please contact Ramil M. Jacinto or Pablo L. Nabong at (02) 651-7800 local 1651.

(SGD) MA. CAROLINA VIDAL-TAIÑO, CPA, MGM, CESO IV Undersecretary of Health Office for Administration, Finance, and Procurement (MS-JAN. 28, 2018)

forecast and meant growth for the year was 2.3 percent, better than the 1.5 percent gain in 2016 but well below 2015’s 2.9 percent. But the result is subject to revision as more data become available.

Analysts highlighted the positive signs within the report, including strong spending and investment, but cautioned that growth in the first quarter of this year could be below trend, as in recent years.

“In short, growth was a bit less than generally expected, disappointing hopes for a third consecutive 3 percent-or-better quarter for the first time since 2005, but the details were stronger than the headline figure,” Jim O’Sullivan of High Frequency Economics said in a research note.

Trump rose to power a year ago on a nationalist economic agenda, seeking to energize growth to three percent or even four percent by revitalizing manufacturing and attacking bilateral trade deficits while slashing taxes and regulation and limiting immigration.

Making the case for his America First vision at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday, Trump said praised “the resurgence of a strong and prosperous America.

“America is open for business, and we are competitive once again,” he said.

The GDP data showed growth in the fourth quarter was bolstered by consumer spending, home buying, and business investments.

Exports also had a good quarter as the US dollar continued to weaken, gaining 12.6 percent compared to the prior quarter, the largest jump in four years.

But imports, which subtract from

French cuisine, but in the entire world of cuisine,” said Nakatani, executive chef of the Paul Bocuse brand in Japan.

“Good produce, well-seasoned, good cooking: that is good cuisine,” he added, switching to French to reel off his mentor’s golden rules.

“These are the words that will stay with me.”

Nakatani flew to France this week to join more than 1,500 chefs from around the world paying tribute to Bocuse at his funeral in Lyon.

The French chef first visited Japan de-

cades ago and struck up a partnership that replicate Bocuse’s French delicacies. with local chef Hiroyuki Hiramatsu, who The kitchen resembles the steel intewould go on to manage Bocuse’s six rior of a spaceship, with copper pots and brasseries and two restaurants in Japan. pans hanging on all sides, and cooks in The first opened in 2007, the “Brasse- chef’s whites gliding past each other. rie Paul Bocuse Le Musee,” inside Tokyo’s They tenderly prepare slices of duck National Arts Centre, where it occupies terrine presented with mini cornicha dramatic spot atop a massive inverted ons and plump and golden portions of concrete cone that dominates the mu- chicken confit. seum’s glass atrium.

Then coarse salt is sprinkled on the A staircase runs down from the centre dishes, which are intended to transport of the dining space into the depths of diners thousands of kilometres away the cone, where cooks work silently and to the Lyon region where Bocuse lived gracefully, delicately garnishing dishes and worked. AFP CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

TURKS PREPARE FOR LONG HAUL ON SYRIA FRONT AZAZ, Syria—Only a few olive groves separate Turkish special forces and allied Syrian rebels from Kurdish militia fighters as the crash of mortar fire echoes on the frontline of Ankara’s offensive inside Syria.

“We are on alert 24 hours a day,” one Turkish special forces officer, who asked not to be named, told AFP in the Syrian town of Azaz, which is controlled

by Turkish-backed opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey on Saturday sent troops and tanks into northern Syria for its “Olive Branch” campaign against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish mi-

litia, which Ankara considers to be a terror group.

Some went directly towards the YPG enclave of Afrin from the north, but others made their way from the east via Azaz.

Turkey’s operation comes on the heels of the Euphrates Shield offensive, begun in August 2016, which targeted the extremist Islamic State group and the YPG in an area east of Afrin.

It finished in March 2017, with Ankara declaring the mission completed.

Azaz, estimated to have a population of 300,000, was liberated from IS early in the Euphrates Shield offensive. AFP

FLAG VENDOR. An

Indian child vendor waits for customers along a road to sell Indian flags ahead of India’s 69th Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on Friday. AFP

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 reuelvidal@yahoo.com

EUSTAQUIO CAPTURES ONE INTERIM TITLE

EJE “Gravity” Eustaquio of Baguio City clinched the ONE Interim Flyweight World Championship, edging Kairat “The Kazakh” Akhmetov by unanimous decision in an exciting fiveround title battle during ONE: Global Superheroes last Friday, January 26.

Akhmetov tried to showcase his wrestling but it was largely ineffective against Eustaquio, who was far superior in the striking department for the majority of the bout. Eustaquio repeatedly connected with crisp, clean combinations throughout the championship contest bringing the sellout crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena to their feet.

In the end, all three judges saw the bout in favor of

Jeron Teng

TENG IS STEAL OF PBA DRAFT Geje Eustaquio (right) of Baguio City tries to pin Kairat Akhmetov to the ground. Eustaquio clinched the ONE Interim Flyweight World Championship by beating Akhmetov by unanimous decision. ONE Championship

bout-ending maneuver.

Filipina Jomary Torres scored the most impressive win of her young career, authoring a swift 40-second knockout finish over Team Lakay atomweight ace April Osenio. Torres left a lasting impression in her third trip to the ONE Championship cage.

Osenio tried to bring the match to the ground and locked a hold on Torres who lifted her off the mat. Torres then slammed Osenio to the ground and put the final touches with ground-andpound strikes to claim the knockout victory.

Filipino featherweight standout Edward “The Ferocious” Kelly delivered a sensational first-round knock-

out of opponent Meas Meul, dropping the Cambodian with a high kick merely seconds into the bout. At the opening bell, Kelly engaged Meul at the center of the cage and connected on a quick three-punch combination before delivering the final blow that sent Meul face first into the canvas.

In other matches Featherweight Rafael Nunes defeated Eric Kelly by Submission (D’Arce Choke) at 1:31 minutes of round 2; Sam-A Gaiyanghadao defeated Joseph “The Hurricane” Lasiri

by TKO (Strikes) at 2:30 minutes of round 2; and Ma Hao Bin defeated Sotir Kichukov

by Unanimous Decision (UD) after 3 rounds.

Meanwhile, Strawweight

Hayato Suzuki defeated Yago Bryan by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:03 minutes of round 1; Featherweight bout: Emilio Urrutia defeats Bruno Pucci by Knockout (KO) at 3:33 minutes of round 1; Lightweight Rajinder Singh Meena defeats Zhang Ze Hao by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 0:42 minutes of round 1; and Strawweight bout: Adrian Matheis defeats Eddey Kalai by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:15 minutes of round 1.

For more updates on ONE Championship, please visit www.onefc.com, follow on Twitter and Instagram @ONEChampionship, and like on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ ONEChampionship.

Jomary Torres (left) pounds April Osenio after slamming her to the ground. Torres won their bout by knockout in less than a minute. ONE Championship

Eustaquio to win by unanimous decision.

“I don’t know what to say. This belt is not mine to take, it’s ours. Thank you to my family who was always there from the start, coach Mark Sangiao, and the entire Team Lakay who never doubted me and always believed that one day I would stand here holding this belt.

I am proud to represent this flag all throughout the world. Here is your world champion from the Philippines. Adriano (Moraes) I know you’re there. I got a belt! Give me one more try and I hope to give you a better challenge this time,” said

Eustaquio.

In the co-main event of the evening, 22-year-old Joshua “The Passion” Pacio unveiled an improved grappling game, submitting China’s Lan Ming Qiang via rear naked choke in the very first round.

Pacio started off with his world-class wushu, striking from distance with fast and powerful kicks. After taking the action to the mat, Pacio effortlessly took mount and pounded on his foe who soon gave up the back. With the body triangle locked in, Pacio sunk his forearm underneath Lan’s neck and secured the

Joshua Pacio (right) unloads with a leg kick at opponent Lan Ming Qiang of China. Pacio eventually prevailed via rear naked choke in the very first round. ONE Championship

WHILE the spotlight has been on star rookie Kiefer Ravena from the Ateneo Blue Eagles, another first-year player from rival school De La Salle University has been quietly making his mark in the Philippine Basketball Association.

Alaska Aces rookie Jeron Teng has been the surprise scoring leader for his team and has played a key role in their resurgence which resulted in three consecutive victories for the Fred Uytengsu owned franchise.

The Aces leaned on their fearsome full-court press to post a rousing 9783 rout of rival Barangay Ginebra San Miguel last week with Teng playing a key role.

Teng was even more impressive when Alaska posted a one-side 102-65 rout of the Kia Picanto.

Teng was unstoppable in the third as he scored from drives, jumpshots and free throws. By his lonesome Teng outscored the entire Kia team 13-5 in that fateful third.

Teng finished with a game-high 23 points, nine rebounds, two assists and one steal to win Player of the Game honors.

Teng was supposed to a top 3 pick in the past PBA Draft. Somehow he was still available when the Ace picked at fifth spot. They were only too happy to select the former La Salle player.

Teng won two University Athletic Association of the Philippines titles in 2013 and 2016. In the process he also won two UAAP Finals MVP awards for leading La Salle to the throne. Before that he won the UAAP Rookie of the Year award in 2012. He is a four-time UAAP Mythical Five selection.

Teng can play either big guard or small forward. He is best leading a fastbreak attack and finishing with either hand near the hoop. He is bullstrong and relies on his great upper body strength to convert shots even after being fouled. He is an unstoppable scorer because of his skill, athleticism and determination.

Teng is a known winner who leads teams to championships. The Aces were indeed fortunate to have picked him at fifth overall.

ALL-STAR COUSINS COULD BE OUT FOR SEASON New Orleans Pelicans center De Marcus Cousins (center) posts up against a pair of Houston Rockets players during their game won by the Pelicans, 115-113.

AFP

LOS ANGELES—Anthony Davis finished with 27 points as New Orleans edged Houston 115-113 but the Pelicans weren’t celebrating.

They learned that DeMarcus Cousins could be out for the rest of the season with a possible Achilles injury.

The Pelicans played with composure down the stretch on Friday night despite giving up a 21-point lead as the Rockets staged a furious late rally in the battle between two of the hottest teams in the NBA. But the win took a back seat to the injury suffered by Cousins who landed awkwardly on his left leg while attempting to corral his own rebound off a free throw.

Cousins, who was named a starter last week to the NBA all-star game, is expected to undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the damage but US sports broadcaster ESPN reported he suffered an Achilles tendon tear.

Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry was in a somber mood after the game.

“We’re scared about it,” Gentry said. “I feel horrible for him.”

Gentry noted “the improvements in all areas that he’s made on and off the court,” and said Cousins is “a guy that’s trying to better himself.” The coach expressed hope the injury is not severe “but when it’s an Achilles, you just never know.”

Cousins, 27, was hurt while trying to poke the ball away from Rockets Trevor Ariza. He hobbled a couple of times on his good leg then collapsed to the floor and stayed there until he was helped up and assisted to the dressing room with eight seconds to go.

He had 15 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in the win over the Rockets, recording his second triple-double in the last three games. He is averaging 25.4 points and 12.9 assists a game this season.

Elsewhere, LeBron James recorded the 63rd triple-double of his brilliant career and J.R. Smith scored 23 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers breathed some life into their offense with a 115-108 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

James finished with 26 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds as Cleveland won for just the fourth time in 11 games.

James also had 11 turnovers.

In Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 41 points and 13 rebounds to help the Milwaukee Bucks defeat the Brooklyn Nets 116-91. Antetokounmpo returned after sitting out two games because of a right knee injury.

In San Antonio, Australian Ben Simmons scored 21 points, Joel Embiid had 18 points and 14 rebounds as the Philadelphia 76ers held the San Antonio Spurs to a season-low point total with a 97-78 victory.

Philadelphia also snapped a 13-game losing streak in San Antonio. AFP

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Sports

SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 Riera U. Mallari, Editor / Randy Caluag, Issue Editor sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

DRAGON(BOAT) LADIES TALK, WALK AND INSPIRE

By Randy Caluag

T

HESE two dragon ladies not only breath fire but also provide inspiration to the Philippine dragonboat team.

Whether in water or on the ice, they seem to instill the right formula for success even in the most unprecedented ways.

Jonne Go, the young and dynamic president of the Philippine Canoe Kayak Dragonboat Federation (PCKDF), and coach Len Escollante, are known for doing the unconventional.

Example, they don’t get their players in places where there are waters but they explore places like the mountainous region of Benguet to find a rough diamond.

For this unique brand of leadership, they reaped major successes in international water tournaments.

So when they received a call to join the first ever World Ice Dragon Boat Championships in Dolon Nor, China recently, they had to find ways to practice and mimic the training of ice-rich regions in Europe, America and Russia.

Living in a tropical country, the Filipino paddlers have no experience in a snow sport, or even just being in a negative-zero degree weather.

“We have zero experience in skiing, especially in this kind of weather,” said Escollante, a former national volleyball player and national dragon boat athlete herself.

So what the team did was device course in the murky waters of Pasig River and train on top of water lilies.

It proved to be a successful training that the 12-man

PCKDF president Jonne Go played the drums whose every rhythm should be followed by the paddlers.

Philippine team won a pair of bronze medals in a tournament that lured 25-countries.

The team placed third in the 200-meter mixed 10-seater category behind gold winner Russia (44.99) and silver medalist Hungary as well as in the 100m event where they placed behind top winner Hungary and second-placer Russia.

“Ang training namin sa ibabaw ng water lily, inaply namin sa yelo. Parang parehas lang, kaya maraming nagtatanong taga ibang bansa, pano daw kami nanalo ng medal,” said Go who joined the team not just as federation head but also as the drummer.

Escollante, meanwhile, acted as the steersman.

These unique role-playing again did wonders for the dragonboat squad.

“It has always been an honor to join my team. Sobrang saya ko this time kasama pa ako talaga na lumaban and not just giving instructions to do things,” said Go. “Proud ako na naramda-

man ko na stage at sinasabitan ng medalya. Mas masasabi ko sa kanila ngayon na mas naiintindihan ko na kung ano nag nararamdaman nila.”

On the part of Escollante, it has been 11 years since she took part as an actual member of the team in a competition.

“Usually sumasakay ako sa training. I just proved that kaya ko pa rin pala mag-timon kahit matanda na, said Escollante laughing. “ Natutuwa naman kami sa reaction ng mga bata, lahag ng sinakyan naming, parehong nag medal.”

“We learn new things in every competition. We will keep on improving because we understand everybody’s feelings.”

Go said the event a showcase of what to expect in the 2022 Beijing Olympics where ice dragonboat will be introduced for the first time.

“We can now say that we have a chance to win a medal in the Olympics. But that’s too far from now, we are using this as a preparation for the

National dragonboat head coach Len Escollanted (center) with team members Mark Jhon Frias, Lee Robin Santos, Jonathan Ruz, John Paul Selencio, Jericho Noay, John James Pelagio, Raquel Almencion, Glaiza Liwag, Apple Jane Abitona and Chiva Angela Abanilla.

coming Asian Games.”

Dragonboat will be played in the Indonesia Asian Games set in August with competitions in the 10-seater men and women’s 200 meters and 500m categories, and the singles and sprint doubles in 200m canoe-kayak events.

“Our target is to win a medal of any color. Matinding kala-

campaign namin,” Responders’ assistant coach PO3 Artemio Marquez said.

The game marks the first time the two teams clash this season since the Responders defeated the Kamao in Game 3 of their best-of-three series in March, 2017.

Toting a 7-2 record, Malacañang-PSC Kamao, on the other hand, however, has other plans.

“Talagang paghahandaan naming itong PNP. Marami kaming adjustment nagagawin. ‘Yung run and gun game nila, kailangan naming ma-stop dahil talagang mabilis sila,” said Kamao assistant coach Raffy Gonzales.

In case the Kamao team wins, it will get the remaining automatic slot in the semifinals plus a twice-to-beat advantage, with the PNP heading to the exit.

On the other hand, if PNP wins, the cops, with a 5-4 win-loss standing, get to keep their chances alive in defending their title.

In other games, the PDEA Drug Busters face two-time champion AFP Cavaliers at 2 p.m., while the Senate Defenders and the other two-time champion Judiciary Magis face off at 3:30 p.m.

405 NETTERS DISPLAY SKILLS IN ‘BEST’TOURNEY BEST bets of table tennis clubs from Metro Manila and countryside participated in the first grand presentation of this year by Philippine Table Tennis Federation,Inc.-PTTFI Best of the Best Table Tennis Championship 2018 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium where hostilities started over the weekend at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, RMSC ,Vito Cruz, Malate, Manila.

A record 405 paddle wielders from the big city and other provinces nationwide took part in the tournament sanctioned by Philippine Olympic Committee and supported by Philippine Sports Commission, according to PTTFI President Ting Ledesma.

“I’m overwhelmed by the solid support of our ping-pong community to our national sports association.The big number only shows our program from

Hundreds of participants from Metro Manila and the countryside show their solid support to Philippine Table Tennis Federation Inc. president Ting Ledesma during the opening of the 2018 PTTFI Best of the Best Table Tennis Federation Championdhip at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.

LAST-HOLE EAGLE NETS ABABA 2ND PGTA TITLE LUBAO, Pampanga—Jhonnel Ababa nailed his second straight Philippine Golf Tour Asia in style, gunning down an eagle on the final hole for a 69 to frustrate Australian Andrew Campbell and capture the ICTSI Pradera Verde Classic crown by two here yesterday (Saturday).

Needing just a birdie on the par5 18th of the Pradera Verde Golf and Country Club to foil Campbell’s playoff bid, Ababa did the toughest thing to close out a final round, secure the victory and stake his claim as the hottest player on the region’s newest circuit put up by ICTSI. “I was so confident. I didn’t hesitate with my second shot,” said an ecstatic Ababa, who after hitting his drive to the left side of the dog-leg 18th, blasted a 3-wood from 250 yards to within five feet for that title-clinching eagle.

“I felt I was Tiger (Woods) after I made that eagle. I felt nobody could beat me,” added Ababa, who came into the $100,000 event brimming with confidence after routing the field by seven at Eagle Ridge last week. His 69 capped another four-day run of under-par cards for a 10-under 278 worth another $17,500, earning him P1.750 million in two weeks time.

In a flight ahead, Campbell worked his way from four strokes down and shot a flawless five-under 67, including a birdie on the No. 18, to tie Ababa, who had a one-under card after No. 17, at eight-under 280.

But after fending off Tony Lascuña and American Josh Salah’s charges in the championship flight, Ababa knew he had a chance to crush Campbell’s bid for sudden death.

ban ang China, Japan, Uzbekistan and Russia, plus yung host Indonesia,” added Escollante.

Meanwhile, the leadership tandem never told their opponents in the ice dragonboat their training over a long patch of water lilies.

“Secret pa rin sa kanila until now,” said Escollante, with a smile.

PNP, MALACAÑANG-KAMAO IN DO-OR-DIE TIFF AT UNTV CUP DEFENDING champion PNP Responders promise a hard-fought battle against the Malacañang-PSC Kamao today (Sunday) at 5 p.m. in the UNTV Cup at the Pasig City Sports Center as it is their last chance to grab a spot in the semifinal round.

“Ayaw naming mawala ‘yung mga sumusuporta sa amin. Ayaw naming ma-down sila, bubuhayin namin ang

Jhonnel Ababa rises with back-to-back PGTA Asia victories

grassroots to the elite is working hand in hand in developing the sport en route to fulfilling our mission of an olympic medal quest in 2020”, Ledesma said during a media interview.

Ledesma is extending his hands to all table netters and other groups for comprehensive unity for the development of the sport that is popular and Filipinos can excel.

Junior table netters boys and girls singles started hostilities in first stage group round robin where top two out of three will advance to the knockout stage followed by cadet division boys and girls and in the elite class men and women.

Medal round will feature early today going to the championship, awarding and closing ceremony. Table tennis clubs mostly came from Antique, Bacolod, Bicol, Sta Rosa, Pangasinan, Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Ilagan, Isabela, Pampanga, and Rizal.

Vince Hizon with his trophy for emerging as the Lowest Net Overall Champion in the 1st Sta. Lucia Global Invitational Golf tournament.

With him is organizing committee chairman James Aguila, EVP of SLLI Global Marketing Inc.

EX-PBA CAGER HIZON LEADS STA. LUCIA GOLF WINNERS Former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player Vince Hizon led the winners in the 1st Sta. Lucia Global Invitational Golf tournament, emerging as the Lowest Net Overall Champion on Saturday.

Hizon, a former player of Ginebra, tamed the hazard-laden layout of the Splendido Taal Golf and Country Club in Laurel, Batangas by coming up with the tournament-best nine par-finishes.

The fun tournament, participated by nearly 100 partners and friends of Sta. Lucia Land, Inc., was aimed at raising funds for its beneficiary, Tahanang Walang Hagdan, in Cainta, Rizal.

“This is one way of helping our less fortunate brothers and sisters.

This will also become one of our CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs, aside from sharing a good time with our friends and partners,” said James Aguila, EVP of SLLI Global Marketing Inc., the newest marketing group of Sta. Lucia Land Inc. and Sta. Lucia Realty Development Inc. The participants were treated to sumptuous lunch and raffle with lots of prizes.

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018

Business

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

IT GUY TRANSFORMS SARI-SARI STORES INTO PAYMENT CENTERS

A

20-YEAR veteran in information technology and his team are making possible the challenging task of bringing financial services to the barangay level by transforming sari-sari stores and other small businesses into payment centers.

“Nobody gets left behind as our country leapfrogs into the digital age,” says John Joseph Gabriel Puzon, the president and chief executive of Posible.net, a digital transaction platform that gives micro, small and medium enterprises the opportunity to serve as payment centers for more than 100 companies and institutions such as Manila Electric Co., Visayan Electric Co., PLDT, Globe, Smart, Sky, Cignal, GCash, Smart Padala, PayMaya, Manila Water, Maynilad, National Statistics Office and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

Puzon, who has 20 years of experience in building startups in technology, logistics, media and outsourcing and co-founded companies such as Action.able Inc., OksPinoy and Telepondo Inc., says Posible.net aims to empower Filipino micro and small entrepreneurs by putting technology within their reach.

“We created a platform at par or even better than those being used by big companies and make it available to small entrepreneurs,” says Puzon, who has a Master’s degree in International Corporate Strategy from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California.

Posible.net, which has no direct competition, now has 50 employees and more than 1,600 partners who recorded nearly P2 billion worth of transactions in the past two years. Its services include bills payment, government fee transactions, school tuition payment, money transfer, micro-insurance, mobile loading, online gaming credits and ticketing. The platform plans to add more services such as airline booking and credit card payments in the future.

“We intend to make this technology available in every barangay. Our end goal is to be in every barangay,” Puzon says during the formal launching of Posible.net at Holiday Inn & Suites Makati.

About 300 services are made available at sarisari stores, bakeries, laundromats, barber shops and other community-based businesses through the user-friendly Posible device, which connects to the Internet to facilitate the transactions with a confirmation receipt.

The terminal processes transactions realtime via GPRS/Wifi/LAN and eventually SMS. Transactions and credentials are performed and stored via Cloud for better accessibility and security, according to Puzon.

“It was a product of a journey that I and my team embarked over a decade ago. Our team was heavily exposed, involved and even partially responsible for the spike of technology in the m-commerce [mobile commerce] space. We were witnesses on how it radically changed the nature of payments and the movement of electronic value,” says Puzon. “ We saw firsthand how technology transformed big businesses. By big businesses, I m e a n t h e te l co s, f i n a n c i a l i n s t i t u t i o n s, online retailers, convenience stores, big chain operations and the likes,” he says. “But as the years went on, the adoption grew, technology improved even further and it became evident that a huge segment of population—the most vulnerable—got left behind. These are our small and micro entrepreneurs and the unbanked.”

“For some reason, the benefits did not trickle down to them. In fact, it worked against them. It was during this part of our journey that the team realized that technology in itself, even with the cost of devices and access to Internet significantly declining, did not solve the digital divide,” says Puzon. “ Thus we asked ourselves, why don’t we use all our learnings in this area and create a digital platform—affordable, convenient and easy enough to use so that the benefits of this

Posible.net president and CEO John Joseph Gabriel Puzon new ecosystem can go down to the micro and small entrepreneurs, specifically in the barangays. Why don’t we create a digital platform that can link the big enterprises to the small and micro entrepreneurs and ultimately to the end consumers? Why don’t we make digital services available in communities?” he says.

Puzon says they met obstacles in their quest to spread this technology across the communities. “This part of our journey proved to be challenging as we tried to address these questions. We hit one obstacle after another. At that time, mobile Internet coverage was limited and unreliable and expensive. The cost of commercial-grade devices was beyond reach.

It seemed that the prevailing wind of industry practice did not favor our business model. It was difficult to talk to big companies at that time. But we strived and persisted anyway,” he says.

In 2016, Puzon’s team which is led mostly by graduates of Ateneo de Manila University where he also obtained his MBA, finally made progress in their journey. “It was not until about two years ago that our dream of democratizing this technology saw the light of day, as we saw clearly our vision of building the biggest community-based digital network in the country. Fast forward today, with the team’s perseverance and dedication and with the help of many partners such as Grameen Foundation, we are proud to announce that our dream of creating a community-based network has grown to over 1,600 small and micro entrepreneurs spread across the country— our Ka-Posible partners, that’s what we call them—serving over a million customers and having processed close to P2 billion worth of transactions,” says Puzon.

Interested entrepreneurs can avail of the plug-and-play Posible device made by Starmobile for P35,000. It comes with online business web tool and enterprise software.

Posible.net also has a monthly maintenance fee of P125. Requirements include 2 valid IDS, an accomplished retailer agreement plan, a barangay business permit and access to internet or stable mobile data network.

Data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show that 34 percent of towns and cities in the Philippines still do not have access to banks and it takes 21 minutes on average for a consumer to go to the nearest financial access point.

Jenny Romero, a bank officer at Bangko Sentral’s Inclusive Finance Advocacy Office, says 563 or 34 percent of 1,634 towns have no banks.

She says while 43 percent of Filipino adults save money, more than half or 68 percent of them save at home. “About 47 percent of Filipino adults borrow money, but 72 percent of them borrow from informal sources. Access to finance is pretty much a challenge in the Philippines,” Romero says.

Trade Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said the government welcomes private sector effort in including a greater part of the population in economic development. “We look forward to partners like you,” she says, referring to Posible.net.

Posible.net was recognized as one of the Top 15 ventures in Asia at the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge held in Singapore in September 2017, an annual competition to determine the most innovative ideas and enterprises. It was the only entry from the Philippines in the enterprise category.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

MINING FIRM TEACHES A GENERATION TO PLANT A TREE RESPONSIBLE Mining doesn’t only mean complying with the letter and spirit of the law. It also means going out to the community and teaching kids the importance of looking after our planet.

Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. teamed up with various schools in Surigao del Sur to conduct massive tree planting activities.

MMDC recently joined hands with the girl scouts and boy scouts of Matho National High School and Matho Integrated School, in Cortes town, to plant at least a thousand Mahogany

seedlings around the vicinities of the public schools. The tree-planting activity was conducted in partnership with the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office.

MMDC also partnered with Cenro

and the pupils of the Cantilan East Central Elementary School in Cantilan municipality to plant at least 300 Narra seedlings in Barangay Magosilom. The group conducted a coastal clean-up, hauling sacks of wastes that otherwise

could have adverse effects on the town’s water bodies.

During the annual Environment Month celebration, students of Cantilan National High School also actively participated in MMDC’s treeplanting activities in Barangay Bon-ot, Carrascal town.

Marc ventures committed to continue the community-based t re e - p l a n t i n g a c t i v i t i e s i n i t s effort to connect the youth to the environment, showing them that while environmental preservation takes hard work, it can also be a fun and meaningful endeavor.

FRENCH FIRMS SHARE GOOD VISION WITH CAVITE FAMILIES AFTER the successful first run in Cebu last year, Essilor Vision Foundation Asean and Delfingen Foundation announced their second eye care initiative in Cavite province. The aim is to provide more than 300 Delfingen employees and their family members with free eye screenings and a pair of spectacles if needed.

EVF Asean and Delfingen Foundation will conduct one full day of eye screenings on Feb. 8 when more than 30 volunteers from the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will come together to bring eye care services to Delfingen’s employees and family members.

Patrick Martinet, managing director of Essilor Manufacturing Philippines Inc. and M. Bernard Streit, president of Delfingen are expected to lead the event.

Essilor is a French manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses while Delfingen is a global automotive supplier.

“Healthy eyesight is not just a basic human right; it also has a considerable impact on one’s work productivity. Studies prove that workers who suffer from uncorrected vision are 34 percent less productive. Additionally, a simple pair of glasses can considerably improve one’s overall quality of life. This is why the foundation is and will remain committed to collaborating with like-minded partners like Delfingen Foundation to address uncorrected refractive error in the Philippines and around the world” said Germaine Lye of AVF Asean. “ With the great and ver y professional support of Essilor Vision Foundation, we can now extend this action of eye screening to our Filipino colleagues and their families, and contribute to Essilor objectives to improve lives by improving sight, while contributing to our own target to help individuals become more autonomous thanks to the access to health care, education,” said Bernard Streit, president of Delfingen Foundation.

COCA-COLA UNVEILS WASTE-FREE APPROACH THE Coca-Cola Company said it is fundamentally reshaping its approach to packaging, with a global goal to help collect and recycle the equivalent of 100 percent of its packaging by 2030.

This goal is the centerpiece of the company’s new packaging vision for a World Without Waste, w h i c h t h e Co c a - Co l a s ys te m intends to back with a multiyear investment that includes ongoing work to make packaging 100-percent recyclable.

This begins with the understanding that food and beverage containers are an important part of people’s modern lives but that there is much more to be done to reduce packaging waste globally.

“The world has a packaging problem – and, like all companies, we have a responsibility to help solve it,” said James Quincey, president and chief executive of The Coca-Cola Company. “Through our World Without Waste vision, we are investing in our planet and our packaging to help make this problem a thing of the past.”

“By 2030, for every bottle or can the Coca-Cola system sells globally, we aim to help take one back so it has more than one life. The company is investing its marketing dollars and skills behind this 100-percent collection goal to help people understand what, how and where to recycle,” the company said.

“We will support collection of packaging across the industry, including bottles and cans from other companies. The Coca-Cola system will work with local communities, industry partners, our customers, and consumers to help address issues like packaging litter and marine debris,” it said.

Business

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 business@manilastandard.net

PRIVATE GROUP NOW HAS OVER 800 WEATHER STATIONS IN PH PRIVATE weather information provider WeatherPhilippines Foundation Inc. ended 2017 with significant improvement in the quantity and quality of its weather reports through the help of 826 automated weather stations deployed nationwide.

The foundation intensified its “Building a #WeatherWiser Nation” campaign by regularly issuing bulletins—a total of 982 covering 16 typhoons in 2017—and providing weather trainings to close to 1,800 people.

In line with efforts to improve its forecasting capability, the foundation also shifted to a multi-model forecast from the previous global forecast system. For the July to December 2017 period, the accuracy of forecasts for a 24-hour rainfall period improved from 73 percent to 84 percent.

As part of its weather awareness campaign, WeatherPhilippines also teamed up with University of Asia & Pacific to support the latter’s freshman National Service Training Program course syllabus by offering eight weather education sessions in June and September 2017.

WeatherPhilippines was also active online in 2017, thanks to a newly-revamped website (weatherph.org) and an active Facebook page (facebook.com/weatherph. org) that reached six million users with an engagement rate of over 6 percent.

A new version of their mobile application—which in 2017 was downloaded 6,164 times on Android and 6,417 on iOS devices—offered more accurate and detailed forecasts, new weather parameters, better location tagging and a more user-friendly design.

More companies committed to support the foundation’s campaigns including Aboitiz business units Therma Marine Inc., Davao Light & Power Co. Inc. and City Savings Bank, as well as Sem-Calaca Corp. and Source Telecommunications, Inc. “The year 2017 has been very meaningful and productive, pushing WeatherPhilippines towards greater milestones. These achievements are proof that we can advance business and communities by helping build a #WeatherWiser nation,” said WeatherPhilippines general manager Dave Michael Valeriano.

WeatherPhilippines advances business and communities by helping build a #WeatherWiser nation. It is a multi-sectoral initiative that aims to provide Filipinos with a premier weather sensing and forecasting system made possible by technology, inclusive partnerships and engagement.

Founded in 2012 by the Aboitiz Foundation and UnionBank, WeatherPhilippines—through platinum sponsors Ayala Corp., ICTSI, La Filipina UyGongco, LBC, Nickel Asia, SM and Vista Land, delivers free, accurate, and localized weather information accessed through its website https:// weatherph.org and free mobile application.

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PH BANK THE WORLD’S FIRST TO USE BLOCKCHAIN SYSTEM

NION Bank of the Philippines, the finance unit of the Aboitiz Group, became the world’s first major bank to pilot test a cross-border fund transfer using the revolutionary blockchain platform, the same digital technology that created bitcoin.

“Unionbank was the first in the world among the universe of banks to actually pilot this transaction in the blockchain,” UnionBank chairman Justo Ortiz says during the announcement of partnership between the bank and global payments solutions company Visa for the testing of Visa B2B Connect, a blockchain platform designed to give financial institutions a secure, fast and predictable way to process crossborder business-to-business payments.

Blockchain, developed in 2008, is a digital technology that records blocks of information that are identical across all networks and are linked and secured using cryptography. It is known for being transparent, secure and incorruptible. This technology gave rise to bitcoin, the first virtual currency.

Visa first announced the intention to launch Visa B2B Connect in October 2016. Visa has its own network of data centers and digital infrastructure.

“We believe that we are one of the first in the world to leverage on this technology for cross border payments,” says Visa head of B2B partnership in Asia Pacific Vikram Kshettry.

Visa has built B2B Connect using features of blockchain technology and UnionBank of the Philippines was the first to test the technology in Singapore in November 2017. Visa is currently testing bank to-bank transactions with three other banks including Commerce Bank of the United States, Shinhan Bank of South Korea and United Overseas Bank of Singapore.

“There is a reason why we chose UnionBank. It is because they are forward looking and they are reinventing themselves as a technology company,” says Kshettry.

UnionBank is reinventing itself as a financial institution that heavily uses digital technology. It was the first Philippine bank to introduce an internetbased deposit account with no minimum balance called EON. It is a leader in electronic banking and it developed the first integrated web platform called OneHub.Gov for e-government initiatives.

UnionBank senior vice president and chief transformation officer Henry Aguda says the bank first discussed blockchain more than a year ago.

“So we can say we are the first bank to talk about blockchain. With our partnership with Visa, we are the first Philippine bank partner in using the blockchain. You will hear more about blockchain from us in the coming weeks or months,” says Aguda.

UnionBank has an open application programming interface or API strategy and holds hackatons to encourage students and professional programmers to develop new applications using the bank’s API. “I can’t tell you the specific projects, but we can tell you we have several Unionbank programs on the blockchain. We are working on specific projects,” says UnionBank president and chief executive Edwin Bautista. “We announced sometime ago that we can now share our APIs with partners, institutions and even fintechs [financial technology companies]. And that has speeded up our connections.”

From left: Visa head of B2B partnership in Asia Pacific Vikram Kshettry, UnionBank of the Philippines chairman Justo Ortiz, UnionBank president and CEO Edwin Bautista and Visa country manager for the Philippines and Guam Stuart Tomlinson Ortiz says that by being the first to test Visa B2B Connect, “that tells us we do have the capability at the world-class level to be able to embrace this new technology and to use it to fulfill our purpose of elevating lives.”

Ortiz says the partnership with Visa ensures that the process complies with international banking standards when it comes to governance and risk management. “We do not just want to maintain the trust, we want to enhance the trust in this new technology in this new digital environment. With this Visa B2B Connect, we have that,” he says.

Ortiz says Visa B2B Connect will allow small and medium enterprises to transact with other businesses overseas and make payments and fund transfer easier. “This one now is an opportunity for us to make a difference in the corporate space, in particular with SMEs that do not have these huge back offices and accounting departments to process all these transactions cross border,” he says.

Ortiz says by working with Visa, banks have the opportunity to take advantage of blockchain technology. “That makes this very real, very possible and very workable but enhancing the trust that we have, enhancing the productivity and efficiency of the bank, enhancing customer experience and at the same time, allowing us in UnionBank to build our capability working with a world-class organization like Visa,” he says.

Bautista says before the onset of digital technology, businesses, particularly exporters and importers, needed to open correspondent banking accounts in many countries to transact

with foreign customers, clients or partners.

“If you want to deal and move currencies around the world, you have to open correspondent banking accounts in every country that you want to deal with. That’s how tedious things were,” Bautista says.

Bautista clarifies that Visa B2B Connect will not trade cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. “We are not against bitcoin. Many of us love bitcoin.

I actually own bitcoin. But not everyone trusts bitcoin. So we now have a situation where if we can do the same thing, and in this case ride on the blockchain but have an existing infrastructure to be able to move money, in this case with Visa rails, then you actually have much better and superior solutions,” he says.

“Here you have a perfect situation because banks are already dealing with each other through Visa rails, so we have KYC [know your customer] corporates all over the world. It is very powerful,” Bautista says.

Bautista says the digital platform will also reduce the cost of moving funds across national borders. “It will also reduce our own operating cost. Our expectation is that cost will go down significantly. It is a way to empower Filipino SMEs which are a major focus for us and the economy in general,” he says.

Bautista says around 500,000 SMEs in the Philippines have the opportunity to benefit from the new digital platform. “We would like to touch the lives of every SME. It is very important that small guys grow together with the economy. It is a major commitment of the bank to the economy,” he says. Roderick T. dela Cruz

ABOITIZ GROUP HELPS JUMPSTART BAKERY BUSINESSES IN BENGUET THREE cooperatives from the humble community of La Trinidad, Benguet will soon start selling sumptuous breads and pastries after receiving a boost from the Aboitiz Group through starter kits and skills trainings necessary to start up small businesses.

The Aboitiz Foundation, the corporate foundation of the Aboitiz Group, in partnership with AboitizPower hydro unit HedcorBenguet and Aboitiz food business unit Pilmico Foods Corp. empowered these cooperatives by jumpstarting their livelihood to serve the community as a whole.

“We thank the Aboitiz Group for the assistance extended to us.

We have truly learned a lot during the training sessions. The big challenge for us now is to apply these learnings so that we can be of service to our cooperative and to the community,” said FelinaMercoles, a native of La Trinidad, Benguet and manager of the Barangay Alapang Multi-Purpose Cooperative, one of the beneficiary cooperatives.

Three cooperatives, namely Balmuco, Thanksgiving MP, and Lamut MPC, were provided with bakery starter kits after their members like

Aboitiz Group executives along with officials of Benguet province, Benguet Technical School and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority attend the graduation ceremony of newly-certified bakers in Benguet.

Felina passed the recently conducted National Certification II on Bread and Pastry Production conducted by Benguet Technical School.

The kits included ovens, stainless working tables, bread racks, dough rollers, bread showcases, and other baking accessories. These cooperatives are soon to open bakeshops in their respective communities.

Meanwhile, another group, Bineng

Women’s Association, will also be provided with bakery starter kits this year.

In addition, three more Benguet cooperatives were provided with opportunities for additional income for their members after receiving sewing kits. These starter kits were provided after they passed the National Certification II on Dressmaking.

This assistance provided by the Aboitiz Group to cooperatives in Benguet is aligned with the Benguet provincial government’s livelihood programs, specifically the Livelihood Loan Assistance Program that aims to provide additional income opportunities to more communities and budding entrepreneurs like Felina.

“We will continue to harness our resources to empower more cooperatives nationwide. Our goal is to transform these cooperative members into entrepreneurs and assist them so they can generate more income, eventually helping them lead better lives for their families.

This is part of our promise to advance business and communities by co-creating safe, empowered, and sustainable communities,” said Maribeth Marasigan, first vice president and COO of Aboitiz Foundation.

Aboitiz Foundation is the corporate foundation of the Aboitiz Group that was established in 1988. Its purpose is to drive change for a better world by advancing business and communities through programs in education, enterprise development and the environment.

Tech & Gadgets

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

SHOPEE EMPOWERS YOUTH TO BOOST PH E-COMMERCE OPPO A83 LAUNCHED

Shopee Head of Business Intelligence Martin Yu with NYBC delegates

S

HOPEE, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, partnered with the University of the Philippines Business League to co-present the recent 2018 National Youth Business Convention, as part of Shopee’s commitment to empowering youths in the Philippines.

The 3-day business convention held from Jan. 11 to 13 was themed ‘Ignite Innovation.

Change the Nation’, and saw over a thousand student delegates from the Philippines and across Asia Pacific gather for a series of activities and talks by various industry leaders.

The younger generation has been identified as key drivers of the Philippines’ digital economy, signalling a strong need to groom the next generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs in

booming digital industries, and in particular, e-commerce.

“In the Philippines, we see an increasing number of younger people turning to e-commerce to start their businesses. Shopee is committed to helping young budding entrepreneurs in the Philippines take the first step towards building their own businesses by providing them the necessary operational, knowledge, skills and financial support,” said Terence Pang, Shopee’s Chief Operating Officer.

In line with efforts to encour-

age more youths to participate in the Philippines’ growing digital economy, Shopee hosted a 1-day case competition for students during the event, which required participants to develop a strategy to solve real-world challenges in the e-commerce landscape. In preparation for the case, the student delegates had the opportunity to interact with Shopee employees to help them better understand the various aspects of the business. The winning team, made up of 6 student delegates from top universities across the region was awarded a 3-month paid internship opportunity with Shopee Philippines, after having impressed the judges with their business knowledge and skills..

In addition, Shopee sponsored three deserving student delegates

to attend the convention. The three Shopee scholars, Chelsea Agnes Haley Go from University of San Carlos in Cebu, Inad Elizabeth Lee from University of Southern Mindanao, and Ma Sheena Joshiel Olgado from De La Salle University joined 50 other delegates to participate in the case competition and a Shopee office tour.

“The e-commerce industry is booming in the Philippines and across the region, and we are pleased to see so many young Filipinos excited to be a part of it. We look forward to supporting more youth events in the future, and hope to see more Filipinos pursuing a career in e-commerce,” closed Pang.’’

Shopee is available for free download on Google Play and App Store.

To learn more about Shopee, please visit www.shopee.ph.

AXA PH INTRODUCES FINANCIAL ANALYSIS PLATFORM AXA Philippines, one of the country’s leading insurance companies, recently launched its Financial Needs Analysis platform, as part of its commitment to empower people to live the life they choose by helping them create a solid financial game plan.

The launch event was held on November 28, 2017 at the AXA Philippines head office in GT Tower International in Makati City.

The FNA is both a service and a tool that an AXA financial coach (or advisor) can use to explain to the customer in easy terms why life protection is important, especially in cases of unforeseen setbacks and emergencies. The financial coach can then help bridge the gap between where a customer is and where he wants to be, allowing the latter to set S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) goals, get a clear picture of his finances, and create a suitable financial plan towards making his dreams come true.

During the FNA session, a prospective customer will be asked to identify his current life

stage and priorities—a key step in the process as financial needs change and become more complex as people grow older. The financial coach will then explain the advantages of different types of protection, and recommend the type of financial plan to make the customer’s vision a reality.

The FNA tool is complemented by the eFNA

Lite, a page on the AXA Philippines website that offers the same functionality and benefits as the FNA tool, but with faster and easier implementation. The full-version FNA tool requires the assistance of a financial coach from AXA, while the eFNA Lite can be used by the customer by himself and within a shorter period.

The eFNALite session ends with an invitation to connect with a real financial coach, should you already decide to start crafting that winning financial game plan.

“The introduction of the FNA platform and the eFNA Lite website enables our customers to choose a plan that is suitable to their priorities in life,” says Rahul Hora, AXA Philippines president and CEO. “It creates a conversation, a connection, and a relationship with our agents, allowing them to grow with AXA.” Visit https://www.axa.com.ph/efna to get started on a session, or www.axa.com.ph/appointments to get in touch with a financial coach to get started on your journey to executing your game plan so you can live the life you choose.

OPPO Philippines welcomes 2018 with its fourth member of the A.I. Beauty and Full Screen technology smartphones, the A83.

Priced at P9,990, the A83 disrupts the entry mid-range smartphone category with the most affordable 18:9 Full Screen display, A.I. Beauty Selfies, Facial Unlock, powerful processor performance, and outstanding battery life of up to 13.5hrs.

Featuring a 5.7” HD+ Full Screen display, OPPO A83 brings out a new immersive visual experience and powerful 2.5GHz octa-core processor performance, similar with the famous OPPO F5 series. Accompanied with a 3GB RAM, the A83 is the perfect smartphone for multi-tasking. Surprisingly, the A83 fits at the palm of your hand at a 5.2” smartphone footprint, making it easy to carry around at just 143g.

Living up to its Selfie Expert handle, the A83 carries the leading A.I. Beauty Technology with an 8MP front camera that can detect more than 200 facial recognition spots for a more personalized beautification based on your facial traits. This results to natural-looking selfies without the hassle of adjusting camera settings.

It even features an auto mode for A.I. recommended beautification.

Carrying a 2.5GHz Octa-Core Processor just like the F5, the A83 can carry the latest games in the market with fluid experience such as the Arena of Valor and more. Gaming will now be more immersive because of its 18:9 ratio full screen that delivers more visuals as compared to older smartphones.

Facial Unlock for All At a portable size, the A83 fronts the Speedy Facial Unlock for snappier access to your phone. Unlock your phone the easiest and fastest way possible, using your face for security.

Dependable Battery Life Carrying the same power efficient processor as the F5, the A83 can go up to 13.5 hours of normal usage based on industry battery benchmark tests.

Despite a smaller size of 5.7”, the A83 still carries above average 3180mAh of battery for an all-day smartphone experience. Additionally, charging isn’t a problem because of its 2A charging compatibility which makes charging much faster.

“Our OPPO A83 brings the best value any smartphone user can ever have—at an affordable price of P9,990, the A83 offers the latest 18:9 Full Screen, a powerful processor, facial unlock, and the famous A.I. Beauty Technology for natural-looking selfies. For less than ten thousand pesos, we are confident that the A83 will surely make a mark in the entrymid range smartphone market”, said Eason de Guzman, OPPO Philippines’ Public Relations Manager.

For more information about the OPPO A83, customers may visit http://www.oppo.com/ph/ smartphone-A83 and follow OPPO on Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/OPPOPH/ for the store list and latest updates.

OWNING THAT SAMSUNG TV AND SOUNDBAR MADE EASY

By Peter Atencio

Listen to your favorite tunes with the Samsung Soundbars, whose highquality audio played by multiple built-in speakers will be a hit at your parties.

DESIGNING one’s home every new year makes sense. That’s because folks want a fresh start not only in their own personal lives, but in the way their homes look as well.

And what best way to redesign one’s home than by changing what’s at the centerpiece of it—the television.

Spice up your living room with the best Samsung products that are both innovative and stylish, such as TVs with bigger screens and soundbars with immersive sound.

The buying spirit of the Christmas season may be over, but with Samsung, it’s on an extended run.

Samsung TV’s Bigger and Brighter Holidays nationwide promo, which began last Oct. 18, ends on Jan. 31, giving us one final chance to grab that dream TV. Receive the gift of the best viewing ex-

Watching your favorite films with upgraded 4K picture quality on your Samsung UHD TV

perience while scoring great deals on Samsung’s state-of-the-art home entertainment devices. Get discounts of up to 40 percent on our Samsung Flat and Curved UHD TVs.

Buy a Samsung Soundbar with Dolby Atmos Technology or the Samsung Sound+ Curved Soundbar at a lowered price and get a free Wireless Audio 360 Speaker or Blu-Ray Player, respectively.

Sit back and relax while watching your favorite films with upgraded 4K picture quality on your Samsung UHD TV. The stunning 4K resolution, which is 4x better than Full HD, will give you an immensely satisfying viewing experience.

Meanwhile, the holiday cheer may be over, but not good music and sound. Listen to your favorite tunes with the Samsung Soundbars, whose high-quality audio played by multiple built-in speakers will be a hit at your parties.

With Samsung TV’s Bigger and Brighter Holidays Promo, TVs and Soundbars are just one trip to a Samsung authorized dealer near you.

Know more about this promo by visiting Samsung Electronics Philippines’ official Facebook page or samsung.com.ph.

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 Riera U. Mallari, Editor rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

TECH & Gadgets

FINTECH FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST

By Peter Paul Duran

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OU may have seen their sales people in malls, or heard about their “no credit card needed” 0% interest promos from a friend.

Or you may well be one of the two million Filipinos who are customers of Home Credit, a European finance technology (fintech) company that has grown in popularity since arriving in the country in 2013.

This was very evident last year, as Home Credit doubled its customer count in the country from one to two million in just six months while expanding its presence nationwide.

The company is now present in over 3,000 stores, including the biggest malls, throughout the country.

Addressing basic needs

The reason behind their success?

For HCPH’s CEO Annica Witschard, it’s more than just allowing more Filipinos to get the latest gadgets at 0% interest installments; it’s about using technology to address peoples’ basic needs, especially their access to financial tools.

“As exciting a time as it is for the Philippines in terms of economic growth, we also know that there are still challenges that remain especially when you talk about financial inclusion,” said Ms. Witschard, a banking and fintech expert who hails from Sweden.

“The Bangko Sentral has reported that 86% of Filipino households don’t have savings accounts. And because they are unbanked, or have no prior credit history, it’s much harder for them to avail of loans and other useful financial tools. This is where Home Credit comes in.”

Bigger demand than ever

HCPH’s chief executive explains that unlike many“traditional”financial institutions, Home Credit is able to provide consumer loans faster and with fewer requirements, for a greater number of people—including firsttime borrowers. And the demand for the service is bigger than ever.

“With Home Credit, now you can simply walk into a store, pick the item you need, apply for the loan right in

Home Credit PH’s CEO Annica Witschard: Our two million customers deserve nothing less.

the store using just two valid IDs, get the result of the application in twenty minutes, and bring home the good.

And the best part is that majority of our products are zero interest,” she says.

According to Ms. Witschard, HCPH is able to dramatically speed up and simplify the loan process through technology. “It’s all about data. As a fintech company, we gather as much information as we can from as many sources as we can. This helps us approve more loans for more people at faster speeds, while managing risk.”

leading stores and electronics brands, including the biggest smartphone companies, and we work together to help more people afford things that matter most to them,” she says.

And while smartphones and tablets—thanks to the country’s huge tech-savvy young working population—are among the bread-andbutter commodities being financed

by Home Credit, the company has already expanded its product portfolio to include furniture, e-bikes, and other goods, with plans to expand the lineup further.

“We understand that there is a Diversity is key lot of demand for this service in Ms. Witschard also cites Home a wide range of areas, so we are Credit’s massive network of partners, happy to meet this demand. For both in the retail and manufactur- us, diversity really is key. And that ing sectors, as a key driver for their means providing not just in-store success. “We are partners with all the financing, but other financial tools

such as walk-in cash loans that can help many people in times of need,” Ms. Witschard explains.

Faster, bigger, better

And while 2017 has shown to be a landmark year in the Philippines for Home Credit—which has already made its mark as a fintech giant in countries such as China, Vietnam and Indonesia—Ms. Witschard assures that the best is yet to come as the company approaches its 5th year of operations locally.

“There are many exciting things in store for Home Credit’s customers. We have grown considerably in these last few years, and now we are working hard to become even bigger, faster, and better than before,” she says.

“Our two million customers deserve nothing less.”

TECH-BASED EDUCATION A KEY IN TECHNOPRENEURSHIP TECHNOPRENEURS have taken center stage in the world of business, from when the first modern computers were made (think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs) to today when pushing boundaries has become a business norm (think Richard Branson and Elon Musk).

In the Philippines, a number of businesses are increasingly being built in and around an intensively technological environment. And the market is all too ready to patronize homegrown tech businesses, from big firms like consumer and

enterprise technology solutions company Xurpas Inc. to startups like peer-to-peer delivery marketplace Muber. The pressure is on for technopreneurs to tap this market.

“More often than not, technopreneurs are made and technopreneurship is learned.

Setting up tech enterprises require more than pouring resources into a venture; there is a learning pathway that will help ensure the success of the enterprise,” said Ambassador Amable R. Aguiluz V, considered as the father of IT education in

the Philippines and founder of AMAES. Technopreneurship requires a competent educational platform that will shape and guide students in the nuances and requirements of an increasingly tech-based environment.# Fortunately, students today have educational options that would enable them to become technopreneurs straight off college.

IT-based institutions like the schools under the AMA Education System (AMAES) offer different IT courses that not only equip students with technical

know-how, but also have tackle specific subject matters which can aid students become future technopreneurs.

Through the years, AMAES has evolved its program offerings to include business, the arts, and other science offerings, “but these are all rooted in our expertise in IT education. Our comprehensive programs are improved further by technology,” assures Amb. Aguiluz.

“Learning about the latest trends and developments in IT and technology gives students

a competitive advantage upon graduation. Our students can seek employment or be their own boss as a technopreneur.

Our curriculum ensures that our students know the field they will enter and how they can better address its growing demands.”

The first institution to offer IT education in the Philippines, AMAES continues to innovate their teaching methodologies and programs. To find out more about the different courses under AMAES, log on to www. amaes.edu.ph.

SMART/PLDT LENDS HAND TO ALBAY RESIDENTS AS OF today, the broadband internet services of PLDT and its wireless network Smart Communications remain operational in areas near Mt. Mayon.

Its engineering and technical teams are on standby to ensure that PLDT and Smart subscribers in affected areas remain connected to the network and their loved ones.

In light of possible utility issues in areas affected by volcanic activity, PLDT-Smart has set up Libreng Tawag, Charging, and Wi-Fi Stations in evacuation centers near Mt. Mayon.

Affected residents, through PLDTSmart’s robust, nationwide network, can inform loved ones of their current status and coordinate eventual assistance.

These charging and communication stations offer free services and can be found in the following locations: Guinobatan East Elementary School in Guinobatan; Bagumbayan Central School in Legazpi, San Isidro Elementary School in Sto. Domingo; San Jose Elementary School in Malilipot and Upper Malabog Elementary School and Albay Central School in Daraga.

To help guide Albay residents through these alarming times, PLDT-Smarthas compiled disaster response and safety tips in the event of volcanic eruption, summarized in the infographic below.

Make sure to keep these guidelines easily accessible, for your own safety.

For regular service updates, you can check PLDT Home’s official Facebook page (www.facebook.com/PLDTHome) or follow @SmartNewsroom on Twitter.

FEATURE-PACKED XPANDER COMING TO PH GONE are the days when a vehicle’s only purpose was just to carry people from point A to point B. These days, it must also boast of a distinctive styling and technological features to make the journey safe and fun.

The all new Mitsubishi XPANDER is that kind of vehicle.

After taking the Indonesian market by storm during its world premiere at the GAIKINDO Indonesia International Auto Show last year, Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. is pleased to announce that the Philippines will be the next country to launch this new cross multi-purpose, sport utility vehicle.

With the all-new XPANDER’s distinctive styling and features that combine both functionality and an

adventurous SUV-like character, the Philippine automotive market has been eagerly waiting for the Philippine debut of this all-new model.

Produced in Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s new factory in Indonesia, the all-new XPANDER will be introduced in the country in 4 variants—starting from GLX Manual Transmission (MT), GLX Plus AutomaticTransmission (AT), GLS AT and top of the line GLS Sport AT. To commence the year with great excitement, MMPC announces the all-new XPANDER Pre-order. The MMPC began accepting reservations for the XPANDER last Jan. 24 and will do so until April 30. Customers who want to be among the first to drive home the all-new XPANDER can already place their reservation.

To pre-order, simply visit the all-new

XPANDER special webpage at www. xpander.mmpc.ph, register to access the page and fill-out the pre-order form. A reservation fee of only ten thousand pesos P10,000 must be paid in your preferred Mitsubishi Motors dealership to complete the pre-order.

About the all-new XPANDER

The all-new XPANDER is powered by the 1.5L DOHC 16-valve with Mitsubishi Innovative Valve timing Electronic Control System (MIVEC) engine. It boasts of the best in class interior dimensions for a spacious cabin which can seat comfortably seven adults complemented by a generous luggage space. As for the safety features, the top variant GLS Sport is equipped with Hill Start Assist (HSA), Reinforced Impact Safety

Evolution (RISE) Body, Active Stability Control (ASC), Emergency Stop Signal (ESS) and Anti-Locking Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD).The exterior flaunts a unique bumper design embedded headlamps, the Mitsubishi proprietary Dynamic Shield Concept front fascia from the Montero Sport and high ground clearance that give it an SUV characteristic. The all-new XPANDER will be offered in five colors for the GLS Sport and GLS variants: Red Metallic, Titanium Gray Metallic, Sterling Silver Metallic, Quartz White Pearl and Diamond Black Mica while the GLX Plus will be available in Titanium Gray Metallic, Sterling Silver Metallic, Quartz White Pearl and Diamond Black Mica and the GLX MT will be available in Titanium Gray Metallic, Sterling Silver

Pre-order now to be the first to drive home the all-new XPANDER. To know more about the all-new XPANDER, visit www.xpander.mmpc.ph.

Metallic, Diamond Black Mica. Best value for money is what you expect from the all-new XPANDER with its indicative price tag of P900,000 for GLX MT, P990,000 GLX Plus AT, P1,050,000 for the GLS AT and

P1,100,000 for GLS Sport AT. Pre-order now to be the first to drive home the all-new XPANDER! To know more about the all-new XPANDER, visit www.xpander. mmpc.ph.

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sunday, january 28, 2018 Isah V. Red, Editor

/

Young Life

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

Poise and Power

human Nature Sunflower Beauty Oil

23

miracles

of sunflower oil

AT THE TOP OF HER GAME. Professional pole and aerial dancer and instructor Kristel de Catalina proves that there's poise in power and power in poise as she took home the top prize in the Solo Professional Pole Women's category at the 2017 AIR STARS Asian Dance Art Competition.

By Bernadette Lunas

P

ROfeSSIONAl pole and aerial dancer and instructor Kristel de Catalina had to train every day and, sometimes, sleep at her dance studio to prepare for the 2017 AIR STARS Asian Aerial Dance Art Competition, an international aerial dance event recently held in Taiwan.

She had also nourished herself with enough protein from eggs, fruits, and vegetables to achieve her “compet body.” It wasn’t easy but she wanted badly to win in the competition.

“When I found out that I got in, I began to prepare my heart, mind, body, and soul because I really wanted it more than ever,” De Catalina told MS Young Life. her determination and dedication paid off as she took home the top prize in the Solo Professional Pole Women’s Category, besting contenders from other countries.

De Catalina impressed the judges and audience with her heartfelt performance to the tune of Celine Dion’s hit “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now,” a song which she said suited her style, specialty, and skills.

With her strong body and innate grace, she dramatically spun and climbed and posed on the pole as she portrays the story of her dance piece. “I love performing contemporary pieces on the pole. I tell the story and transform it into something whenever I perform,” she shared. her choreography, flexibility, and clean and graceful execution of tricks made her victorious, but it was her artistic rendition that stood out in the competition. “All aspects fit the routine very well,” she averred.

De Catalina, who’s been pole dancing since 2012, was in high spirits after her win, and she had her “Beast fam” to thank for lending her a hand as she climbed to the top. “[I asked] my peers to help me and check out my song choice, pole moves, and combinations,” said the co-founder of Beast house Pole and Aerial Dance Studio. “I also asked God’s guidance to give me strength and courage to face another challenge.”

Aside from winning in her category, De Catalina also won Best in Choreography and ranked top 2 in the Overall Ranking of all categories among other contenders from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Mexico, and Canada. her recent triumph is the latest addition to her growing list of achievements and recognitions. from her first championship in the Vie and Vault Amateur Pole Dance Competition in 2012 to her National Commission for Culture and the Arts’s Ani ng Dangal award in 2017, De Catalina’s passion for dancing and love for aerial arts has brought her to high places.

But she doesn’t intend to rest on her laurels. She shared she plans to join in more competitions. But while she prepares for her next competitive pole performance, De Catalina teaches and inspires her students at her studio on the second floor of Pioneer Centre Supermart in Kapitolyo, Pasig City.

TheRe was a time when putting the words “face” and “oil” together made beauty lovers shudder. After all, it was widely believed that all oils caused breakouts. Not until human Nature introduced its Sunflower Beauty Oil in 2009. human Nature Sunflower Beauty Oil is made of pure premium-grade sunflower oil which contains natural nutrients like linoleic acid, Vitamin e, and Omega 6.

Since sunflower oil is noncomedogenic, it is ideal for facial application, thus taking advantage of linoleic acid’s antibacterial properties that are found to be beneficial to acneprone skin, Vitamin e’s moisturizing benefits, and Omega 6’s calming components.

Sunflower Beauty Oil has become a cult classic, a favorite among many beauty enthusiasts, since its launch. how did it achieve such a coveted status? here are 23 reasons why: 1. helps soften and lighten underarms 2. helps lighten dark under eye circles 3. helps lighten dark spots and pimple marks 4. helps lighten dark lips 5. helps lighten lesions and scars 6. helps prevent and lighten appearance of stretch marks 7. Moisturizes under eye area 8. Softens feet soles, knees, and elbows 9. Removes stubborn makeup 10. Moisturizes skin 11. helps diminish fine lines around the eyes 12. helps soften cuticles and dry skin 13. Makes skin glow and helps keep it youthful-looking 14. helps improve skin condition after sunburn 15. helps relax tired, puffy eyes 16. helps relieve itch and redness caused by insect bites 17. Nourishes and conditions eyelashes 18. Adds shine to dull hair 19. helps ease dry and itchy scalp 20. Smoothens dry, rough skin from shaving 21. helps calm skin and ease rashes 22. helps relieve symptoms of skin infections 23. helps hydrate dry patches on face This multi-tasking product is available in 50ml at P174.75 and in 100ml at P299.75. * * *

Soothing shaving cream

De Catalina with her partner Jamaica Jornacion in the Singapore Pole Challenge 2016 where they won champion in Doubles Professional category

human Nature also brings its Natural Shaving Cream and Natural Shaving Cream for Men to promote good shaving habits.

The shaving cream variants for men and women are both Turn to C2

young Life

C2

sunday, january 28, 2018 isahred@gmail.com

Plan your financial future

using smartPhone

The Financial needs analysis of aXa philippines allows you to learn about the various steps you can take in order to gain financial security that will allow you to live the life you choose

O

ur smart mobile devices serve a variety of purpose in our lives. We use it to get in touch with someone across the sea, to hail a ride, to order a meal, and to buy movie tickets, among several more others.

There’s no denying how technology and gadgets have made our lives easier in ways never before possible. now, you can even plan your financial future using your smartphone. aXa philippines, one of the country’s leading insurance companies, recently introduced its Financial needs analysis (Fna) platform in a bid to empower customers to live the life they choose by helping them create a solid financial game plan.

The Fna, which can be taken via the aXa website or the MyaXa app (available in the app store), is a five-minute online assessment that allows you to learn about the various steps you can take in order to gain financial security down the road.

But for a more in-depth analysis of your financial needs, a full version may also be taken with the as-

sistance of an aXa financial coach. just fill out the online form at www.axa.com.ph/appointments to get in touch with a representative.

From the data gathered, your financial coach can help you plot the proper path to take by giving you a clear picture of your current financial situation and where you want to be. armed with appropriate financial plan, you can be on your way towards living the life you choose, whether it’s starting your own business, raising a family, owning your first car, or even going on trips abroad.

Visit www.axa.com.ph/efna, or download the MyAXA app, or contact an AXA financial coach to know more.

23 miracles... from c1 infused with skin-soothing aloe extract and sunflower oil. The creamy and glycerin-rich formulation allows for a close and comfortable shave. aloe extract, meanwhile, cushions the skin from razor burns while sunflower oil moisturizes the skin.

Human Nature Natural Shaving Cream and Natural Shaving Cream for Men are priced at P149.75 each for 100ml tube. * * *

Baby products for playtime and bedtime

Genuinely mild and safe skin care for babies is offered by Human nature’s Baby Care line composed of products made of natural ingredients.

To make bath time play time, the homegrown brand introduces its natural Baby Wash with a playful Tangerine dream scent that mildly cleanses without drying baby’s skin and scalp. slathering natural Baby Lotion in Tangerine dream after bath helps moisturize baby’s delicate skin, while natural Baby Wonder Oil in Tangerine dream soothes skin from itchiness and skin discomforts.

For bedtime, products made with the calming blend of lavender and chamomile are suitable to ease babies into dreamland. Human nature offers natural Baby Wash in Classic Lavender and Chamomile, Baby Lotion in Classic Lavender and Chamomile, and Baby Wonder Oil in Classic Lavender and Chamomile.

Visit www.humanheartnature.com.

Knowing your current financial status is the best way to properly plan your future

ConferenCe for women entrepreneurs nOnprOFiT organization network of Enterprising Women or n. E. W. is calling all “wonder women” to its upcoming conference at dusit Thani Hotel on March 3.

The 11th n. E. W. annual Women Entrepreneurs Conference focuses on the tagline “We are all Wonder Women: Know them. Be them. raise them.” it aims to recognize entrep-women, encourage others to achieve and be unstoppable, and raise young girls to have strength, compassion, and determination.

The event will feature three professional women who are considered super heroes in their fields of expertise, namely Audrey Tanco-Uy, managing director of Bizu Catering studio and chief executive and founder of serveHappy jobs; Arlene Padua, president of philippine Marketing association and president and managing director of post10 Worldwide, inc.; and Toni Miranda, corporate consultant and image branding coach of radiance image Consultancy.

“The conference is our way of giving back to the women entrepreneur community,” said Myren Garcia, founder and president of n.E.W. “We want to give hope and share opportunities to other women who brave the challenging world of business and entrepreneurship.”

For more information, visit www. new.com.ph or follow their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/newphils.

To reserve tickets, call (02) 400-4038 / (0917) 540-8697.

The network of Entreprising Women stages its 11th annual conference for women entrepreneurs

Showbiz

SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018

C3

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

HOW DARING CAN

MCCOY DE LEON GET?

By Nickie Wang

T

Erich Gonzales covers Rogue's Night Life Issue

ERICH

HE future of intelligence and thought takes center stage with Instalado which started screening in Cine Lokal yesterday.

The sci-fi film, which was entry to the ToFarm Film Festival last year, is top billed by Kapamilya heartthrob and Hashtags member McCoy De Leon in his first ever leading role together with Junjun Quintana, Barbara Miguel and Francis Magundayao. It is helmed by Jason Paul Laxamana.

The movie tells the story of Viktor (McCoy) who lives in a time when the dominant form of education is through installation, a process wherein bodies of knowledge can be installed directly on people’s brains using technology owned by big corporation.

Though science fiction prevails as the dominant genre of the movie, many ideals are projected throughout the film; making it a great thought-simulator while maintaining a wholesome essence.

In one of the scenes, McCoy takes off his shirt and exposes his upper body. But don’t get us wrong, the film is not just all about his halfnakedness.

“In the movie, I play the character of a provincial boy named Victor. Yes, there was this scene that I had to remove my shirt,” McCoy said in vernacular.

Does this mean he is ready for bolder and more daring roles after his first big screen outing?

“It will still depend on the material that they will offer me. I guess that’s the farthest I could go. Not that I am uncomfortable, I just don’t see myself doing another indie film where I would expose more skin,” he explained.

According to the 22-year-old actor, he prefers portraying wholesome yet interesting characters just like the role he plays in the primetime drama, The Good Son. He also appreciates that people are affected by the way his character develops in the series.

“I’ve heard that some people are beginning to hate my role. I take that as a positive feedback. It means we are doing something effective. That’s how we measure our performance

as an actor,” he said.

In speaking of his performance, the Instalado director had nothing but good words for McCoy. “Normally, we look for more experienced actors because we can already test if the character would suit them basing on their previous works, “ Laxamana said.

“But the lead character in the film requires a certain degree of innocence, which I think we can only get from someone who doesn’t have much experience acting in film, just l i k e Mc-

TOPLESS ON MAGAZINE COVER

Coy.” Laxamana shared that they were not expecting that McCoy would accept the project given that the film is an in-

die and had a limited budget.

“He’s a rising star.

That’s why we’re thankful he accepted the project.

Here, he is able to showcase a different range in terms of acting,” Laxamana added.

Instalado is currently screening in SM Mall of Asia, Megamall, North Edsa, Fairview, Southmall, Bacoor, Sta. Mesa and Bacoor at 1:00 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.. During the ToFarm Fil Festival, it was recognized with six awards, including Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

RISING STAR. Young Kapamilya actor McCoy de Leon in a scene from 'Instalado,' his first big screen project.

NADINE LUSTRE

RELEASES NEW MUSIC VIDEO, DOMINATES MUSIC CHARTS

From the theme, color and vibe, Nadine Lustre's music video for 'Stay Up' is very millennial.

A FEW weeks before Nadine Lustre’s big concert at the Big Dome with real-life partner James Reid, the official music video of her newest single “Stay Up” has finally been released.

Nadine, who wears the hat as the single’s executive producer, admitted that she had “nothing but doubt” when they were still working on the song. That’s why she feels elated that a lot of people are appreciating her work now that it’s out.

The music video trended on Twitter as soon as the music video was uploaded on YouTube on Wednesday. It amassed more than 300,000 views and is currently part of the trending videos on YouTube Philippines.

Meanwhile, the single hit the viral top 50 list on Spotify. Likewise, the track, produced by beat maker CRWN, went straight to number 1 on iTunes Philippines on the first

day of its release.

Also written by Nadine, the song is EDM and R&B inspired making it more appealing to younger music consumers.

The 24-year-old Viva artist had been teasing her fans about the song since October last year, but the release caught fans off guard since it wasn’t hyped the way previous tracks were marketed. The hashtag #St4yUpByNadineLustre is currently trending on Twitter due to the craze the single has produced.

“Thank you JaDines, for always having our backs.

Thank you friends for pushing me and keeping me inspired during my dark days. Thank you family for keeping me strong because Mama didn’t raise no quitter [sic],” she wrote on social media.

AFTER showing off her sensational curves as calendar girl for a popular liquor brand, Siargao lead star Erich Gonzales stunned her online followers when she shared a photo of her latest magazine cover where she went topless.

Rouge Magazine wrote on its official Instagram page, “Erich Gonzales covers Rogue’s Night Life Issue, fresh off of starring in the Metro Manila Film Festival hit Siargao.”

Looking radiant as she flashed a smile toward the camera, while wearing nothing but trousers, “This next phase of her life symbolizes a moving on from her own personal crossroads, a journey back to self-discovery and self-love,” Rogue continue with the caption accompanying the photo.

Meanwhile, Erich is currently working on a new TV series entitled the Blood Sisters. In suspense drama, which is set to replace Wildflower starring Maja Salvador, Erich will be portraying three different roles.

Based on the trailer for the new program, the actress will portray the role of a stripper who witnesses a murder, a rich woman, and a delinquent.

According to ABS-CBN news, the clip hints that they may be triplets separated at birth, similar to the plot for Claudine Barretto’s 1999 series, Saan Ka Man Naroroon.

Blood Sisters also stars Patrick Garcia, Ejay Falcon and Enchong Dee and is set to premiere on Feb 12.

Erich shows her bold and tougher yet carefree side.

C4

SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018

Desiree Carlos, Editor

Pets

daycarlos28@yahoo.com

PET TALES

BY DESIREE CARLOS

A

BLACK dog is “malas,” or unlucky, some people would say.

True or false? False, of course!

The color of the dog has nothing to do with luck. Please stop blaming the dog or its color if life is not easy for you.

Only you can create the best life there is based on your choices. Not a dog, not a cat, not even another person.

Sad to say, however, there are numerous false stories going around about dogs, some of which can create unnecessary stress for pet owners.

Let us discuss them one by one. The following information from Jenna Stregowski in her article “What are the biggest dog myths (Common Misconceptions About Dogs)” will hopefully stop making you anxious.

MYTHS ABOUT DOGS

Myth #1: A dog is sick if his nose is warm or dry.

False!

Stregowski said this myth is probably rooted in a FACT because of the deadly virus canine distemper.

“One symptom of advanced distemper is hyperkeratosis (thickening) of the nose and footpads. Basically, the nose and pads of the feet become hard and dry. Back when distemper was more widespread, a cool, wet nose was considered a good sign that the dog did not have distemper. While canine distemper still occurs, it is far less common today due to vaccinations,“ Stregowski said.

FACT: Stregowski stressed that the dryness, moisture or temperature of a dog’s nose can not be used to measure a dog’s health.

For example, a dog's nose is often dry and/ or warm after he has just woken up. This is normal, Stregowski said.

But a nose that is “persistently dry and crusted might be a sign of a health problem. If you notice an abnormal appearance to your dog's nose or any other signs of illness, contact your vet right away,” Stregowski said.

Henry and Sophie love to run around the garden and sometimes eat grass. But these two rescued dogs of Save Animals of Love and Light (Save ALL) are two of the healthiest among the rescues in the care home for dogs.

blue side of the spectrum. Canine color vision is thought to be similar to red-green colorblindness in humans, though not exactly the same.

It is believed that dogs see primarily in blue, greenish-yellow, yellow and various shades of gray, “ Stregowski said.

Myth #2: A dog’s mouth is cleaner than that of a human.

False!

This myth probably started when people observed years ago that sometimes, the wound of a dog heal faster after a dog licked it.

But Stregowski explained ”that's because his rough tongue has been removing dead tissue and stimulating circulation, much like a surgeon would debride a wound. On the other hand, licking wounds can sometimes cause more harm than good by introducing bacteria and/or irritating the wound. Guess the people who came up with this myth did not consider the dog wounds that did not heal properly.”

FACT: A lot of germs “reside” in your dog's mouth, aside from other "icky" things, said Stregowski.

“Think about the stuff your dog eats off the ground and out of the trash or the things he licks off of himself, “ Stregowski noted.

She added, “Plus, many dogs do not get their teeth brushed as regularly as people, so there is the dental tartar and bacteria to consider (as if doggie breath didn't give this away).”

Thus, Stregowski said, “Overall, a dog's mouth contains more germs than anyone wants to think about.”

The good news is that these germs are not likely to cause harm to humans as they are specific to dogs only, she added.

“Basically, if you keep your dog healthy, dewormed and up-to-date on vaccines, there is little to worry over. Better yet, take care of your dog’s teeth and there's even less going

Myth #4: A dog eats grass to induce vomiting.

Dogs will lick or "eat" anything. Rescued dog Sunny loves to bite and lick stuff toys. Thus, Save ALL caretakers clean their teeth and tongue with cloth soaked in clean water and all rescued dogs are vaccinated and dewormed.

“It could be that scientists came to the conon in that mouth. So, a little “kiss’ from your dog is nothing to fret about, but I wouldn't go clusion that dogs see in black and white besharing water bowls or letting your dog lick fore they fully understood the canine eye (or even the human eye for that matter) and the your wounds, “ Stregowski said. functions of cones,” she said.

FACT: Myth #3: A dog sees only in black Dogs see colors but not in the way most huand white.

False! mans do.

This myth could have come from old sci“Based on the types of cones in the canine ence, Stregowski said. retina, dogs probably see colors best on the

False!

While it is true that a dog throws up after eating grass, it does not mean the dog wants to induce vomiting or is sick, Stregowski said.

“The origin of this myth is most likely due to an incorrect assumption by dog owners. People observed their dogs vomiting after eating grass.They assumed that dogs intentionally ate grass when feeling sick to their stomachs in order to make them vomit. When you consider the real reason, this conclusion seems like the long way around, “ Stregowski said.

FACT: So why does a dog eat grass?

They simply like it. Stregowski said some dogs like to roam around while others want to chomp.

Stregowski said,”Enough grass in the stomach can create minor irritation and cause the dog to vomit. Some experts believe that a dog's taste for grass goes back to the days when a wild canid would eat the stomach contents of its prey (usually plants like grass and leaves).”

“Regardless of the reason, it's relatively harmless as long as the grass is not chemically treated. That being said, if grass-eating has led to chronic vomiting in your dog, you should probably keep him away from the grass and visit your vet just in case, “ she stressed.

(To be continued next Sunday.)

Lucky 10

By Eleanor Agulto (Part 2) SO DID Cat #10 make an impact in the life of this almost-Crazy Cat Lady?

My involvement in Utak at Pusa, FOCA’s awareness and support building campaign for TrapNeuter-Release (TNR) efforts for UP cats, sprang from my adoption of Lucky. This unwanted feline was at risk of being eliminated because there were too many cats roaming around the campus; too many possible sources of disease, noise, bother and irritation. Cats can multiply amazingly quickly, and the more they increase, they more unwanted they become.

I will not engage in a heated argument defending the importance of cats in maintaining ecological balance. Many who consider them pests won’t listen anyway. FOCA’s solution of TNR for feline overpopulation resonated with me because it’s humane and if done consistently, effective. As a communicator, I felt that I owed it to my dear, sweet Lucky to make people aware

that cats like her deserve a chance to live. Manage the cat population in the campus through TNR, and reasonable souls might give them that opportunity. I gave Lucky that chance, and look how much joy she’s giving back to me.

I wish I could say that under my care, it was always smooth sailing for Lucky. But there had been a few bumps along the way, and it was to Lucky’s credit that she got over them.

Her little kitten suddenly got sick and died, and for a while she missed her baby. She was listless and pined for her, but she moved on.

When I put her in my modest cattery, she found herself surrounded by unwelcoming cats. They considered her an upstart and a stranger, and I was sure she got bullied a lot.

But it wasn’t long before she won the others, and now they’d huddle together, especially in cold or rainy nights.

I brought her to a fundraising cat picnic in UP Diliman, and for a few anxious moments, I was afraid she would remember where she came from and bolt away in that wide open campus, never to return. But she kept her cool and was in

Lucky, the rescued cat, is now a beloved pet of author Prof. Eleanor Agulto.

her best behavior. She even donned pretty pet Her biggest pet peeves, it would seem, are clothes and like a professional cat model, posed dogs, and I have 10 of them. regally for pictures.

But that’s another story.