Manila Standard - 2018 March 27 - Tuesday

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There won’t be issues of Manila Standard from Mar. 29 to Apr. 1 VOL. XXXII • NO. 44 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

WELCOME, YOKOSO. Two of three Beechcraft TC90, parked at the tarmac after arriving from the Japan Ministry of Defense at the Naval Air Group headquarters at Sangley Point in Cavite, are in addition to the two units previously transferred to the Philippine Navy in 2017 that will complete the project involving the units. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and his Japanese counterpart Tatsuo Fukuda (inset) wave as they welcome the arrival of one of the planes. AFP

Malaysia: 10 years in jail for ‘fake news’ THE Malaysian government Monday proposed a law to combat “fake news” which could see offenders jailed for 10 years, sparking fears authorities aim to stifle criticism as elections loom.

Governments in several countries, emboldened by US President Donald Next page

Con-Com rules out Du30 term extension Mayor Osmeña drug protector, Aguirre claims

No takers for Trump legal defense team WASHINGTON— US President Donald Trump insisted Sunday there was no shortage of lawyers willing to help him fight a collusion investigation as two more lawyers decided against joining his defense team.

Days after the resignation of John Next page

Grab acquires Uber in SE Asia

‘‘ BUSINESS B1

A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.’ And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.

—porn actress Stormy Daniels, saying she was threatened to keep silent about her alleged fling with Donald Trump

By Rey E. Requejo JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday lashed out at Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña for threatening to file graft and disbarment cases against him for interfering in cases filed by the local government against SM and BDO, the mall giant and bank owned by tycoon Henry Sy. Turning the tables on Osmeña, Aguirre said he had a sworn statement from someone in the Witness Protection Program that tagged the mayor as a “protector of drug lords.”

“We have an affidavit and a witness under the WPP [who is saying that he (Osmeña)] is on the payroll of drug lords,” Aguirre told reporters.

The Justice secretary said the witness surfaced last year, but he did not make it public immediately because he wanted to first verify the information.

“I did not reveal it because I’m still

P

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will not get a term extension under the federal constitution to be proposed by the consultative committee, the group’s chairman, former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, said Monday.

The Con-Com will also push for the rights to compensation for damage to the environment and a stronger writ of kalikasan to be included in the proposed Bill of Rights, Puno said in a press briefing.

The panel currently thinks that the 1987 Constitution, including the term limits for President, will still apply during the transition to a federal government. This would force Duterte to step down in 2022 at the end of his current six-year term.

“The term limit in the 1987 Constitution holds.... The limits under the 1987 Consti-

tution will still apply,” Puno said.

The Con-Com’s subcommittee on transitory provisions, which Puno chairs, will still vote on its proposed changes to term limits, the former top magistrade added.

Duterte has said he would leave the presidency earlier if the Philippines can change to a federal system of government from its current unitary form as early as 2020.

The President’s critics fear Charter change would include a term extension for the former Davao City mayor, the same fear aroused by previous administrations.

LAW enforcers will take advantage of the dry season to attack communist rebels, Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa said Monday.

“This summer season, we are taking advantage of good weather to launch our own tactical offensive operations against the remaining guerrilla fronts in the countryside,” Dela Rosa said.

He said the intensified attacks on New People’s Army fighters will go hand in hand with the government crackdown on leftist “front organizations and support system.”

At the same time, Dela Rosa warned police commanders of possible NPA attacks during its 49th founding anniversary on Thursday.

He said the NPA may harass police posts and isolated government installations.

Nine police cadets face mauling raps

By Francisco Tuyay

Next page

Next page

PNP chief signals war on CPP/NPA

Next page

THE Philippine National Police said criminal and administrative charges would be filed against nine police academy cadets for mauling six new graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy after their graduation last week.

The National Police Commission also threatened to dismiss the mauling suspects if they are found guilty, even as two of the victims filed criminal charges against their lower classmen.

PNPA officials identified the suspects as Cadet 2nd Class Donald Ramirez Kissing, Jem Camcam Peralta, Clint John Baguidodol, Paul Christopher Macalalad, and Loreto Aquino Tulao Jr. The other four suspects were identified through their surnames as Cadet 2nd Class Delos Santos, Calamba, Coplat and Amanon.

Based on an initial investigation by the Silang police, the mauling

Meanwhile, changes to the bill of rights will allow Filipinos to hold the government accountable for damage to the environment, Puno said.

“It’s about time we constitutionalize this provision, this right of the people to a healthful environment. And we intend to do this by putting in all these self-executing provisions in the Bill of Rights,” he added.

The former chief justice said it would put the right to a healthy environment at par with the civil and political rights of the people, “meaning to say this right to a healthy environment will equally be demandable against the State and each agency.”

The Con-Com has yet to deliberate on the wording of the following rights to be proposed, including the right to clean air

RETURNEES WATCHED. Hundreds of passengers returning to their respective provinces to spend the Holy Week with their loved ones anxiously wait for their rides watched by X-rayeyed military man at the Cubao provincial terminal on Monday. Others earlier took their rides home before Palm Sunday to beat the crowds in the terminals. Manny Palmero

2 MRT trains suffer glitches, offload 1,400

By Joel Zurbano OVER 1,400 passengers were forced to get off two Metro Rail Transit trains on Monday after glitches hit the system anew.

The first train stalled at 8:29 a.m. and forced 580 passengers to get off at the Araneta Center Cubao station after a sig-

naling error, MRT-3 media relations officer Aly Narvaez said in an advisory. They boarded the next train that arrived four minutes after, she added.

The next train, headed southbound, offloaded 870 passengers at the Shaw Boulevard station due to electrical failure. MRT management said the train’s “worn-out” subcomponents caused both glitches. Next page

Drug money funding destab plot—Palace

By Vito Barcelo MALACAñANG on Monday said that drug money is funding efforts to destabilize the Duterte administration after the government has begun winning the war on illegal drugs.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, echoing Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, said some human rights groups were being used by drug lords to criticize President Rodrigo Duterte’s Next page war on drugs.

News

A2

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Penitents warned against tetanus HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday warned penitents or those having themselves nailed to a cross to ensure that the nails and other sharp objects to be used during their crucifixion are sterilized to avoid infection.

He said those allowing themselves to be crucified during Holy Week to atone for their sins could easily contract tetanus with the use of unsterilized or rusty nails.

In other developments: • The Environment department on Monday urged the public to observe an eco-friendly Holy Week when hundreds of thousands of Filipinos go back to their hometowns for the long Lenten break.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu reminded the public not to turn the beaches into dumps. He said apart from reflection and meditation, Holy Week for most people also meant long vacations and a great time to frolic on the beach.

“Let us all be reminded of the basics: Reduce, reuse and recycle,” he said.

Cimatu is tasked to look into the rehabilitation of Boracay Island and other beach destinations in the country that have pollution problems.

• There will be no number coding for city and provincial buses tomorrow, Holy Wednesday, and on April 2, Monday, in anticipation of the increase in the number of passengers going to and from the provinces this Holy Week.

The Metro Manila Development Authority also announced that the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program will automatically be lifted on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, which are regular non-working holidays.

Duque reminded the people observing Holy Week to keep themselves hydrated.

“Remember to always carry a water bottle, ready-to-eat meals and umbrellas as you visit churches, ” Duque said.

Macon Ramos-Araneta, Rio N. Araja and Joel E. Zurbano

Malaysia...

From A1

Trump’s fulminations against “fake news,” are considering such legislation. But rights groups warn that authoritarian regimes are likely to use the new laws to crack down on dissent.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has already been targeting critics in politics and the media who have attacked him over allegations huge sums were looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The proposed law, which was introduced in parliament Monday, fuelled fears the government is seeking to intensify a crackdown before elections, which must be called by August but are widely expected sooner.

Opposition MP Charles Santiago said the bill was “a powerful weapon for the government to silence dissent in the country”.

“It is timed for the elections and to silence discussions on 1MDB,” he told AFP. The proposed law said fake news was becoming a “global concern” and the new legislation was aimed at safeguarding the public, as well as ensuring the right to freedom of expression.

Any person found guilty of creating or disseminating what authorities deem to be fake news can be punished with a maximum 10 years in jail or a fine of up to 500,000 ringgit ($130,000).

The bill also allows for anyone who breaks the law outside the country with what authorities deem to be “fake news” concerning Malaysia to face punishment in Malaysia.

Despite the concerns, cabinet minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar insisted the law “will not be abused”, adding: “It is not aimed at silencing critics.” AFP

No takers...

From A1 Dowd as Trump’s lead lawyer in the handling of allegations of collusion with Russia, US media reported that Joe diGenova and his wife and colleague Victoria Toensig had reversed a decision to come on board.

“The President is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining his Special Counsel legal team,” Jay Sekulow, another of Trump’s lawyers, was quoted as saying in a statement.

The White House had announced last week that DiGenova -- who is a familiar figure on US news networks -- had been hired to bolster the legal team tasked with responding to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into last the 2016 US election.

His hiring came amid reports that another high-profile attorney Theodore B. Olson -- who served as solicitor general under former president George W. Bush -- had turned down an invitation to sign up with the Trump team.

Writing on Twitter on Sunday, Trump denounced any suggestion that he was struggling to attract top legal talent as “fake news.”

“Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case... don’t believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on,” the president wrote.

“Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted.

“Problem is that a new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed [if for no other reason than they can bill more], which is unfair to our great country—and I am very happy with my existing team.” AFP

PH condemns attack on Saudi

By Rey E. Requejo

T

HE Philippines on Monday condemned the latest missile attacks on Saudi Arabia that left one person dead and two others wounded.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said no Filipinos were reported among the casualties after the Houthi rebels in Yemen fired seven missiles towards Riyadh and several areas in Saudi Arabia late Sunday night.

“The Philippines strongly condemns the latest missile attacks against Saudi Arabia,” Cayetano said.

“These attacks targeting Riyadh and other heavily populated areas are a violation of international law and must stop.”

Cayetano praised Saudi Arabia for its successful interception of the missiles, saying that saved the lives of many Saudi citizens as well as foreign nationals including Filipinos.

There are close to a million Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia.

Ambassador to Riyadh Adnan Alonto said three missiles were launched toward Riyadh, one was launched toward Khalid Mushait, one toward Narjan and and two toward Jizan, but allwere intercepted and destroyed by the Saudi air defense system. Alonto said an Egyptian national was killed and two others were injured when missile fragments fell on their house in Riyadh.

He said the Embassy and the Consulate General in Jeddah were continuing to monitor the situation, and that these had not received any reports of Filipi-

nos having been affected by the attacks.

“We request our countrymen to remain calm but vigilant and to immediately report to the Embassy or Consulate General any Filipinos who may have been affected by the attacks,” he said.

He said Sunday’s missile attacks were the third targeting Riyadh in the past four months. In November, Houthi rebels fired a missile toward the Riyadh International Airport and another toward Riyadh in December. He said both missiles were intercepted and destroyed.

The latest attacks took place on the third anniversary of the conflict between the Houthi rebels, who are in control of most of Yemen, and a Saudiled military coalition supporting the internationally recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Three PCOO officials told: Explain boner

NewGen coins. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Monday began releasing the full set of New Generation Currency coin series composed of the 10-, 5-, 1-piso and 25-, 5-, and 1-sentimo into circulation. The coins have enhanced features that make them counterfeit-proof, BSP said.

Con-Com...

From A1 and water; right to a healthy environment and ecology; right to the preservation of ecosystems; right to be protected from activities that destroy the environment; Right to sustainable development; right to compensation for damage to environment; recourse to courts for immediate protection; and a stronger writ of kalikasan that is not subject to withdrawal or revision by the Congress or the Supreme Court.

While Congress has come up with several environmental laws, including those on sanitation and mining, the Constitution itself is “silent on this right of our people against environmental degradation,” said the former top magistrate.

What the 1987 Charter does contain, Puno said, is limited to one sentence in Article II, Section 16: “The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.”

Asked how these rights would apply to the current situation in Boracay Island, Puno said

Mayor...

From A1 building the case. But the witness with the affidavit is there and I’m having it reviewed by the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] and see if there could be some additional evidence,” Aguirre said.

He said once the case buildup concludes, the NBI would file charges against Osmeña.

Aguirre made the disclosure even as he denied the allegations hurled against him by Osmeña, saying the transfer of the cases filed by the Cebu City government against executives of SM Prime Holdings and BDO Unibank Inc. from the local prosecutor’s office to the DoJ was justified.

The Justice secretary dared Osmeña to just file the graft and disbarment cases against him.

“That is baseless. He should just file it instead of threatening me publicly,” he said.

Aguirre stressed that here was nothing irregular or anomalous in his order to transfer of the cases against SM and BDO executives from the Cebu prosecutor’s office.

“The conflict between BDO and Mayor Osmeña there in Cebu is very deep, so the respondents requested that the case be transferred because they could hardly expect fairness since the people there will favor the mayor,” he said.

“So what I did was to transfer the case here and assigned it to one of our prosecutors. But when I did that, it was within my power to transfer cases, which I always exercise,” he said.

Nine...

From A1 victims, all with the rank of police inspector, were Ylam Buaquen Lambenecio, Arjay Masangkay Divino, Mark Kevin Rellores Villares, Floyd Quinaquin Traquena, Jan Paul Dalapus Magmoyao and Arjay Marcaida Cuasay, all of the Maragtas Class of 2018.

PNPA Director Chief Supt. Joseph Adnol said witnesses said the victims sustained head injuries.

Adnol said 20 more cadets will face administrative charges for their alleged complicity in the mauling, even as PNP Chief Ronaldo dela Rosa vowed to stop the “tradition” among PNPA cadets to get even with

it was a lack of enforcing environmental laws.

“Given the situation in Boracay and in other areas as well, you can see that part of the problem is the lack of enforcement of our laws on our environment,” he said.

This lack of enforcement, Puno said, can be traced to the failure of local governments to enforce the relevant laws.

“If we constitutionalize this right to a good and healthy environment, you will be empowering the citizenry, the people to demand from the state, each agency, including the public health units to enforce these laws on the environment [and] correspondingly to hold them accountable for their failure to implement these relevant laws,” he said.

Puno expects less opposition to the environmental rights the Concom will propose, unlike those on political dynasties and term limits.

“I do not know how extensive the opposition will be, but I like to think that the intensity will be less, because at present we have had very good environmental laws coming from Congress,” he said.

The Concom will submit its proposals to the President by July and may be accepted or rejected by Congress.

Earlier, Osmeña said he would sue Aguirre for transferring the cases against BDO and SM. In January last year, the mayor sued BDO’s officers over one branch’s alleged under-declaration of its gross annual revenue and falsification of gross sales in its business permit application for 2016. He sued them separately over a similar allegation against another branch.

He also filed a separate complaint against four SM officials in November 2016 over the alleged understatement of the size of one mall branch in Cebu City to cut tax obligations.

Also on Monday, Aguirre apologized for ordering an investigation into prosecutors who dismissed the drug complaint against Cebu businessman Peter Lim and self-confessed drug trader Kerwin Espinosa.

During the flag-raising ceremony in the Department of Justice, Aguirre said his recent order for the NBI to probe Assistant State Prosecutor Michael John Humarang and Aristotle Reyes was not intended to castigate them but to give them opportunity to clear themselves of any insinuations.

“I apologize to the prosecutors for causing the investigation because extraordinary incidents called for extraordinary measures,” Aguirre said.

Humarang and Reyes were the two members of the panel that conducted a preliminary investigation on the case and dismissed the charges of sale, administration, dispensation, trading, delivery and transportation of illegal drugs under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. their upper classmen.

“My reaction is that kind of tradition is not good. It’s sad to say, it promotes cycle of violence,” Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa said underclassmen mauling their seniors after graduation has been “on and off tradition,” as he talked to Gen. Ricardo de Leon, Philippine Public Safety College director that has supervision over the PNPA and the PNPA Alumni Association to stop the practice.

The incident prompted PNPA director Adnol to offer his resignation to Dela Rosa, but he turned it down.

Napolcom Vice Chairman Rogelio Casurao said the cadets involved in the mauling incident have no reason to continue training if they would be proven guilty.

COMMUNICATIONS Secretary Martin Andanar on Monday ordered three officials under the Presidential Communications Operations Office to explain the error-filled identification cards given to the reporters covering Malacañang.

He said he issued the show-cause order on Friday against the officials whom he did not identify and gave them 72 hours, or until today, Monday, to explain why they should not be held liable for the grammatical errors in the cards.

“I’m expecting one answer today, or about two answers today,” Andanar said in a radio interview.

He said he had no hand in the issuance of the IDs, which had been recalled, and said a probe had been launched as a result of the protocols that were violated in the printing of the cards.

“I would not have signed something that had not been checked by the chief of staff,” Andanar said.

“The documents that were shown to me were not complete, I was cheated on what I should have approved and the signature of the chief of staff was missing.”

Andanar expressed hope that the error was not a form of sabotage, but said it should be investigated nonetheless.

The grammatical errors on the back of the cards were discovered by some holders who were killing time while waiting for President Rodrigo Duterte to arrive at an event on March 21 in Pasay City.

But Andanar said Friday the back of the ID to be given to reporters was not shown to him by his staff.

He also said the PCOO’s International Press Center did not return the final design for his approval, used an electronic signature without his permission and used the wrong e-signature.

2FromMRT...

A1 The MRT, which traverses Edsa, has been suffering from frequent glitches over maintenance woes as it ferries over 560,000 passengers daily. The Department of Transportation, which oversees the train system, is negotiating with Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. to return as its maintenance provider.

Meanwhile, the Metro Manila Development Authority on Monday released a traffic management plan to be enforced on Commonwealth Avenue and Elliptical Road in Quezon City, after private contractors expanded their works in connection with the construction of the P70-billion MRT System Line 7.

MMDA acting general manager Jose Arturo Garcia Jr. said the existing U-turn slot at Commonwealth Avenue-Philcoa (Philippine Coconut Authority) will be closed to motorists beginning Thursday, March 29, in preparation for the tunnel guide way for MRT 7 project.

Affected motorists must use Elliptical Road going back to Commonwealth Avenue eastbound.

“We are glad private contractors are coordinating with us to make the necessary adjustments to ease the expected traffic build-up in the area caused by the ongoing MRT 7 construction,” Garcia said in a press briefing.

The private contractors will also occupy two inner lanes in both directions of Commonwealth-Philcoa as the construction work progresses.

To make up for the occupied lanes, the MMDA and the private contractors have agreed to widen the remaining lanes by removing obstructions on the outer portions of Commonwealth Avenue.

The MMDA will also install plastic barriers on Maharlika Street, which will serve as separators to prevent vehicles going to Commonwealth Avenue from swerving into other lanes, causing traffic build-up along Elliptical Road.

Vehicles traversing Elliptical Road going to Visayas and North Avenue area should stay at the left lane while vehicles going to Commonwealth Avenue should stay at the right lane.

MMDA Traffic Engineering Center data showed that at least 2,115 vehicles are traversing Elliptical Road to Visayas and North Avenue during morning rush hours, while vehicles from Elliptical Road going to Commonwealth Avenue numbers to 4,120 on the same period.

In 2016, Commonwealth Avenue an annual average daily traffic of 272,255 vehicles.

Labor attaché in HK recalled

By Vito Barcelo LABOR Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Monday he had “temporarily” recalled the labor attaché to Hong Kong for his alleged “favoritism” with recruitment agencies and to answer other complaints against him.

He said Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre had been recalled to answer allegations he was “playing favorites” with job recruiters.

But Bello said Dela Torre “is not being recalled permanently” and that he had only been recalled to explain his side.

“We sent a team to verify the complaint that he was playing favorites when it comes to accreditation. The team that went to Hong Kong recommended that he be recalled to explain,” Bello said.

De la Torre’s expose’ on the rampant illegal recruitment of Filipino migrant workers for Russia and Turkey prompted Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to implement tougher sanctions against the agencies engaged in the practice.

Eman Villanueva, head of Bayan Hong Kong and Macau and secretary general of Unifil-Migrante HK, said the plan to recall Dela Torre sounded suspicious.

A group of recruiters had filed a complaint after failing to get a job quota for Filipino entertainers in Wan Chai.

Dela Torre is also being investigated for allegedly issuing overseas employment certificates to Filipino workers in mainland China.

Dela Torre said there was nothing wrong with the issuance of OECs to Filipino professionals working in the mainland since this was allowed by Manila.

He also said he did not approve the job quota for the Wan Chai entertainers due to concerns that they might end up in prostitution.

Drug...

From A1 Roque said attacks on the drug war “have been vicious and non-stop.”

“We therefore do not discount the possibility that some human rights groups have become unwitting tools of drug lords to hinder the strides made by the administration,” he said in a statement.

“Since the drug trade is a multi-billionpeso industry, drug lords can use their money to finance destabilization efforts against the government,” he said.

Roque said the illegal drug trade has lost billions of pesos after the government seized and destroyed drug laboratories and factories and arrested tens of thousands of suspects.

“Illegal drugs is a lucrative business and these drug lords can easily use their drug money to fund [efforts] to destabilize the government,” he said.

Human Rights Watch, which has raised the alarm over the thousands of deaths in Duterte’s war on drugs, described Cayetano and Roque’s statements as “shockingly dangerous and shameful.”

“Are they trying to have death squads target human rights activists? Cayetano and Roque provide no evidence. They should withdraw their comments immediately,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

Roque also took a shot at opposition Senator Leila de Lima, who has been detained on drug charges.

“With all due respect… Senator Leila de Lima is not fighting for her principles and was not detained because of her political beliefs,” he said.

De Lima has been accused of allowing the illegal drug trade to proliferate inside the National Bilibid Prison when she was Justice secretary.

PNP...

From A1 “While all PNP units are now… preoccupied with our public safety operations for the Holy Week, I am reminding all unit commanders to fortify community defenses and step up target-hardening measures in isolated police posts and government installations as a proactive measure against possible hostilities of the communist New People’s Army in the coming days ahead of its founding anniversary on March 29th,” Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa’s remarks drew criticism from opposition lawmaker Tom Villarin of the Akbayan party-list.

“Instead of an all-out peace regardless of weather conditions, the Duterte government has used the coercive powers of the state to wage a bloody war against a long-drawn insurgency that has taken roots because of poverty and injustice,” Villarin said.

Instead of peaceful and long-lasting solutions, the government has embarked on a “myopic, tactical and senseless war of attrition” that will result in more deaths and damage to property.

Earlier, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate welcomed efforts at the House to revive the stalled peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, with the support of 61 lawmakers. Maricel V. Cruz with PNA

News Duterte to attend Boao Forum PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will leave for a series of foreign trips after the Holy Week, starting with the annual Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, China from April 9 to 10.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier said Duterte’s visit would further enhance bilateral relations between Manila and Beijing, which he said had reached its “golden era.”

From China, Duterte will proceed to Hong Kong for a meeting with members of the Filipino community before returning to Manila on April 12, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.

The President will also attend the 42nd Leaders Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations tentatively set from April 26 to 28.

Prior to the trips, Duterte will spend the Holy Week in Davao where he will also mark his 73rd birthday on March 28, Roque said. Joyce Pangco Pañares

Aguirre to review parricide raps JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday vowed to review the dismissal of parricide charges against Bohol provincial board member Niño Rey Boniel over the killing of his mayor wife.

Aguirre said he was surprised by the withdrawal of the cases against Boniel and two other accused, Willy Hoylar and Restituto Magoncia Jr., through a petition for review resolution that reversed and set aside the earlier finding of probable cause by the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office.

Aguirre explained that while the resolution was issued by his office, it was signed by Undersecretary Reynante Orceo who was assigned to review the case.

“I’m going to meet with the Usec involved and hopefully he would be able to explain to me what happened and whether it was the correct decision,” Aguirre told reporters. Rey Requejo

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TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

SC affirms retrenchment of 1,400 flight attendants

By Rey E. Requejo

T

HE Supreme Court has reinstated the 2006 decision of the Court of Appeals affirming the legality of the retrenchment of some 1,400 flight attendants and stewards of the Philippine Airlines.

In a 55-page en banc decision, the SC voted to sustain the CA’s ruling upholding the retrenchment of PAL’s flight attendants in 1998 as part of the country’s flag carrier measure to counter financial losses worth P90.6 billion.

The SC stressed that PAL’s retrenchment was made in good faith, as evidenced by its conduct before, during and after the implementation of the retrenchment plan.

“The Court uniformly upheld the suspension of monetary claims against PAL because of the SEC’s [Securities and Exchange Commission] order placing it under receivership. The Court

emphasized the need to suspend the payment of the claims pending the rehabilitation proceedings in order to enable the management committee/ receiver to channel the efforts towards restructuring and rehabilitation,” the SC decision penned by Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin stated.

The SC said: “Through these rulings, the Court consistently recognized PAL’ s financial troubles while undergoing rehabilitation and suspension of payments.

“Considering that the ruling related to conditions and circumstances that had

occurred during the same period as those obtaining in [this case], the Court cannot take a different view.”

The tribunal has commended PAL for its candor in relaying to Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines its retrenchment program in 1998.

In its motion for reconsideration, PAL stressed that their financial constraints was never considered when in fact it could have been taken as a judicial notice as per records of the case since the early 2000.

In its recent ruling, the SC emphasized that the PAL had been placed under corporate rehabilitation, citing previous ruling that “consistently recognized PAL’s financial troubles while undergoing rehabilitation and suspension of payments.”

Some of the cases mentioned by the high court include Philippine Airlines vs.

Kurangking, Philippine Airlines vs. Court of Appeals, Philippine Airlines vs. Palea and Philippine Airlines vs. National Labor Relations Commission.

Manila judge inhibits from Atio’s hazing case

By Rey E. Requejo JUDGE Alfredo Ampuan of the Manila City Regional Trial Court, Branch 40, has recused himself from handling the criminal case against members of the Aegis Juris Fraternity implicated in the fatal hazing of University of Santo Tomas freshman law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III. In a seven page resolution, Ampuan stressed that while imputation of bias or partiality “is not enough ground for inhibition,” he will grant the motion to inhibit to remove any doubts on the minds of all the accused and their relatives.

“Mere imputations or bias is not enough ground for inhibition. Extrinsic evidence must be presented to establish bias, bad faith, malice or corrupt purpose in addition to palpable error which may

be inferred from the decision or order,” Ampuan said.

In a related development: • The parents of the 10 fraternity members charged over the death of Castillo III have asked the National Bureau of Investigation not to transfer their children to the Manila Police District.

In a letter addressed to NBI director Dante Gierran, the parents of the accused said their children would “not be safe” in the custody of the MPD, one of the complainants in the criminal case against them.

“The MPD is one of the complainants in the above-entitled case and thus, the MPD is not and can not be an objective and independent custodian of our children, thereby posing imminent danger to the lives of our children,” the

letter said.

The communication also claimed MPD operatives “forcibly entered” the house of fraternity member Ralph Trangia in Meycauayan City, Bulacan, last Thursday night to arrest him.

Ampuan was acting on the motion for inhibition filed by accused John Robin Ramos and Juan Miguel Salamat who claimed the judge was the brother-inlaw of Dante Jimenez of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption.

“Notwithstanding the foregoing, this Court finds it appropriate to grant the motion for inhibition considering that all the above-mentioned accused and/or their respective counsel already nurtured at the back of their minds the thought that the Presiding Judge of this Court has now tilted the scales of justice against them,” Ampuan’s resolution stated.

Sandigan lets Jinggoy go to US for 31 days

By Maricel V Cruz THE Sandiganbayan on Monday allowed former senator Jinggoy Estrada to go on a 31-day trip to the United States to attend a conference, undergo a medical consultation, and go on vacation with his family.

The anti-graft court’s Fifth Division approved Estrada’s plea to travel to the US in open court during the resumption of the former lawmaker’s trial in connection with his alleged involvement in the pork barrel fund scam.

Associate Justice Rafael Lagos, Fifth Division chairman, also ordered Estrada’s lawyers to provide his full itinerary “otherwise the court will not issue the separate resolution” on his motion.

The court granted Estrada’s motion to go abroad after he reduced the length of his trip by 10 days because persons accused at the Sandiganbayan are not allowed to travel abroad by more than one month.

Thus, Estrada will be abroad from April 30 to May 30 instead of from April 21 to May 31.

Estrada, currently out on bail, is scheduled to attend the US Pinoys For Good Governance as guest speaker during its annual general membership meeting this May 20 to be held at the Hibachi Buffet in the city of Sterling Heights, Michigan.

Estrada’s defense team cited the letter-invitation dated Feb. 7 of USP4GG president William Dechavez for the former senator to attend the event.

“Our members would like to know the latest developments in the Philippines, particularly those pertaining to the issues over extrajudicial killings, Dengvaxia mess and federalism plan,” said Dechavez.

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Opinion

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL HAIL TO THE CHAIR VICTOR AVECILLA

Quo warranto and the JBC’s SALN requirement THE appointment to a particular public office of one who is not qualified for that office is void ab initio, or void from the very beginning. As pointed out in this column last week, the legal recourse against a void appointment is a petition for quo warranto filed in court by the solicitor general.

An impeachment proceeding presupposes that the public officer sought to be impeached was validly appointed to the public office. If the appointment is void to begin with, quo warranto, not impeachment, is the proper legal remedy—even against an impeachable officer.

Sadly, many politicians and opinion leaders who do not understand Constitutional Law have mistakenly condemned Calida’s petition for quo warranto as an illegal shortcut in lieu of impeachment. Some of them even likened quo warranto to a disbarment suit against an impeachable official, which cannot be filed against a sitting justice of the Supreme Court.

To repeat, they are mistaken.

A disbarment suit against an incumbent justice of Supreme Court assumes that the appointment of the justice is valid. Since an impeachable official whose appointment is valid may be removed only by impeachment, a disbarment suit is, indeed, an illegal shortcut to remove the justice from office.

A time to pause

T

HE Holy Week is traditionally a time for taking a break, whatever one’s religious affiliation is.

This religious holiday is so much a part of Filipino culture not only because the country is predominantly Catholic but because even work and school grind to a halt, at least in two of five working days of the week.

The Catholic faithful try to keep religious traditions alive and hope that the younger generation will at least try to maintain them.

The more comfortable Filipinos go on vacations.

Others go back to their home

provinces to reconnect with extended family.

Many too are happy to stay home and do nothing —a respite from their punishing schedules. This in itself is a vacation. This is also the reason why the omnipresent traffic gridlock in the metro also takes a break during this period.

With the quiet comes the opportunity to take stock of one’s present situation and reflect on the healthy and unhealthy decisions one has made.

And if this can be done by individuals, this can also be certainly done by a nation reeling from the drama of everyday events and constantly losing sight of its direction.

TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO

In the next few days, it would be also good to pause and think about whether we are able to live with the changes we have seen in the past 21 months of this administration. Is this the change we bargained for?

Are the things we are preoccupied with the really important issues we must be addressing? Or are we just taking part in the noise but are equally clueless about where we are headed?

We have been known to squander many things: The opportunity to elect good leaders, fresh beginnings, promises that arise from genuinely good intentions.

This time, we must not squander the quiet.

Non-compliance with a requirement explicitly mandated by the Constitution renders any right or claim to public office unwarranted and, therefore, void.

Baguio needs help NOW that the Duterte administration has seen it fit to rehabilitate beach resorts all over the country, particularly Boracay, it should now train its sights on Baguio City, our crown jewel in tourist destinations.

I have been coming to Baguio for the past 20 years. I have seen how it has been choked to death the with neglect and indifference of its officials.

Baguio, whose population is ordinarily between 250,000 and 300,000, can be inhabited by as many as 2 million in the summer months, particularly the Holy Week.

When I say Baguio City is being choked to death, I do not exaggerate. The monstrous traffic jams have turned the well-known Session Road into one big parking lot. Haphazardly built buildings violate easement laws.

And then there are the squatters.

I wrote about these conditions many years ago but Baguio officials never paid attention to my observations.

Rehabilitating Baguio will be difficult, but with sheer political will, it can be done.

It’s sad to know Baguio is a dying city. The only remaining place where you can still smell the pine trees is in Camp John Hay. *** Oh yes, there is another place where you can still smell the pine trees. That is in Alphaland Baguio Mountain Lodges, summer homes for the affluent.

The 78-hectare enclave used to be a citrus farm of businessman Roberto Ongpin.

It is a dying city that must also be rehabilitated.

Quo warranto is not a shortcut in lieu of impeachment because the questioned appointment in a quo warranto proceeding is void. Legally speaking, a void appointment means nobody was validly appointed. Therefore, quo warranto does not oust anyone from office, precisely because when the appointment is void, there is nobody to oust from office in the first place.

Impeachment is removal from office for specific wrongdoing. Since a void appointment is not among the grounds for impeachment enumerated in the Constitution, a justice of the Supreme Court whose appointment is void cannot even be removed by impeachment.

Last week, this column discussed the petition for quo warranto filed in the Supreme Court by Solicitor General Jose Calida against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. Calida contends that the appointment of Sereno as chief justice in 2012 is void because she failed to comply with a requirement imposed by the Judicial and Bar Council—submit her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth for the ten years prior to her appointment as chief justice.

Assuming that Sereno did not comply with the JBC’s SALN submission requirement, does her non-compliance render her appointment as chief justice void?

To answer that question, it must be ascertained if the JBC may add to the qualifications imposed by the Constitution for appointment to the Supreme Court. The submission of the SALN is not among those qualifications listed in the Constitution. Can the JBC add to that list?

As pointed out in this column last week, the JBC does not have the power to add to that list. The inference is that the JBC’s requirement that Sereno submit her SALN for ten years prior to 2012 is not a constitutional mandate but one imposed by the JBC. Turn to A5

(14) Christ is laid in the tomb.

The Lord’s Seven Words, His last seven expressions on the Cross as recorded in the Scripture: THE FIRST WORD. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Gospel of Luke 23:34. According to scholars, Jesus said this first word only in the Gospel of Luke, just after he was crucified by the soldiers on Golgotha, with the criminals—one to His right and the other to His left.

The timing of this suggests that Jesus asked his Father to primarily forgive the soldiers who have whipped and scourged him, mocked him, tortured him, and who have just nailed Him to the Cross.

But, scholars have asked. Could this

But you should see it now. Ongpin has transformed the place into an opus of sorts. *** For the past week or so, I have been incapacitated. The bug also hit my wife and daughter. Aside from that, I also suffered an asthma attack and pneumonia.

I did not mind so much being confined to a hospital, with those doctors and nurses always ramming bitter pills down my throat.

I hated the hospital food, though.

Yuck!

In any case, I think it was my sacrifice for the Holy Week. I also missed the opportunity to greet my friend, ex-President Eddie Ramos, who celebrated his birthday two weeks ago. He is just a few months older than I am.

May we both live to be a hundred—or more.

I am just so happy to be pounding on my typewriter again. *** We now hear names of potential senatorial candidates for next year’s elections. There are also minions of President Duterte who vow to push his legislative agenda. I believe they are all winnable.

Among the names I would like to see are Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, and Senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Cynthia Villar and Grace Poe, I would also like to see Francis Tolentino, Imee Marcos and Jinggoy Estrada.

Still, the Senate needs independentminded members, not apologists for the President. *** There are reports that 61 members of Congress have signed a resolution urging President Duterte to resume talking peace with the communist insurgents.

What? After four rounds of talks that amounted to nothing because the

Turn to A5

Turn to A5

The seven last words of Jesus on the cross

By Honor Blanco Cabie ON MARCH 30, 2018, Christians throughout predominantly Christian Philippines will once more mark that time when the Christ Jesus died on the Cross to redeem humanity, to save mankind from the original sin and promise life with the Lord beyond this earthly life.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Holy Bible have recorded that Jesus Christ was made fun of, was not believed and tortured in the praetorium; carried His cross up the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem to Calvary, nailed to the Cross, hung between two common criminals, and suffered an indescribable wrenching end.

When religious pilgrimages to the

EVERYMAN

Holy Land ended with military occupation of Jerusalem in the Middle Ages, a popular devotion known as the Way of the Cross arose during Lent retracing the Passion, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus.

The 14 stations of the Cross are (1) Pilate condemns Jesus to death; (2) Jesus takes up his Cross; (3) He falls the first time; (4) Jesus meets his sorrowful mother Mary; (5) Simon helps carry the cross; (6) Veronica cleans his face; (7) He falls the second time; (8) Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem; (9) He falls the third time; (10) Jesus is stripped of his garments; (11) Jesus is nailed to the cross; (12) Jesus Christ dies on the cross; (13) He is taken down from the cross;

Rolando G. Estabillo Publisher ManilaStandard

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

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Opinion Quo warranto...

From A4

That inference, however, is belied

by Section 17, Article XI of the Constitution, which requires all public officers, including justices of the Supreme Court, to submit their SALN every year, and on time. This means that the SALN submission imposed by the JBC on Sereno is mandated by the Constitution itself.

Since Sereno was a professor of law in the University of the Philippines and an associate justice of the Supreme Court prior to her 2012 appointment as chief justice, then she was already covered by the constitutional mandate to submit her SALN annually even before she was appointed chief justice.

If, as alleged by Calida, Sereno failed to do so, then Sereno failed to comply with a continuing requirement imposed on her by the Constitution at the time she was appointed chief justice.

Non-compliance with a requirement explicitly mandated by the Constitution renders any right or claim to public office unwarranted and, therefore, void. Accordingly, Calida may argue that Sereno’s non-compliance with the SALN submission requirement imposed on her by the Constitution and by the JBC is enough legal basis to declare her 2012 appointment as chief justice void.

Earlier on, it was reported that Sereno was unable to submit to the JBC her SALN (covering the 10-year period prior to her appointment as chief justice) because some of her SALN for the years she was a UP professor were missing. Surprisingly, Sereno’s camp recently announced that Ser-

The seven...

From A4

eno’s SALN for that ten-year period are complete after all, and that Sereno will submit them at the “appropriate forum.”

Sereno, however, was required to submit the required SALN to the JBC in 2012. Will a belated compliance cure the alleged defects in her appointment as chief justice in 2012? The answer is in the negative.

If one who was appointed to public office did not comply with a requirement imposed upon him at the time of his appointment, then the appointment is necessarily void ab initio. Being void from the beginning, the appointment was doomed from the start, and it cannot be validated by a subsequent event. Restated, there is nothing to validate in a void appointment.

The fact that the Constitution and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act explicitly require top officials of the country, including justices of the Supreme Court, to submit their SALN on an annual basis, and considering that the Constitution itself mandates that the SALN shall be disclosed to the public, the obligation of a justice to submit his SALN should not be treated as an ordinary documentary requirement. The SALN’s explicit mention in the Constitution underscores that its submission has the character of constitutional policy.

This means that the non-submission of an appointee’s SALN at the time it is required from the appointee undoubtedly renders his appointment constitutionally infirm and defective from the start, and that belated compliance with the requirement should not be allowed to cure that constitutional infirmity.

To hold otherwise is to allow a mockery of constitutional policy. relates with a horrible sense of finality, “And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last” (Mark 15:37). One is struck by the anguished tone of this expression compared to the first three words of Jesus.

This cry is from the painful heart of the human Jesus who felt deserted

by His Father and the Holy Spirit, not to mention his earthly companions the Apostles. To underline His loneliness, Mark even Jesus’ loved ones “looking from afar,” not close to Him as in the Gospel of John. Jesus feels separated from his Father.

THE FIFTH WORD. “I thirst.”

Gospel of John 19:28. The fifth word is His only human expression of physical suffering, with Jesus now in shock.

The wounds inflicted upon Him in the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the nailing upon the Cross are now taking their toll, especially after losing blood on the three-hour walk through the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha on the Way of the Cross.

Studies on the Shroud of Turin, reported by Gerald O’Collins in Interpreting Jesus, indicate the passion of Jesus was far worse than man could imagine.

The Shroud has been exhaustively studied by every possible scientific method, and the scientific burden of proof is now on those who do not accept the Shroud as the burial cloth of Jesus.

THE SIXTH WORD. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished;” and he bowed his head and handed over the spirit. (Gospel of John 19:30).

The sixth is Jesus’ recognition that His suffering is over and his task is completed. Jesus was obedient to the Father and gave his love for mankind by redeeming mankind with His death on the Cross.It was the darkest day of mankind. But, prophetically, it also became the brightest day for humanity THE SEVENTH WORD. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

(Gospel of Luke 23:46). The seventh is from the Gospel of Luke, and is directed to the Father in heaven, just before He dies.

Jesus recalls Psalm 31:5 - “Into thy hands I commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” Luke repeatedly pleads Jesus’ innocence: with Pilate (Luke 23:4, 14-15, 22), through Dismas, the criminal (Luke23:41), and immediately after His death with the centurion” “Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent” (Luke 23:47). The innocent Lamb had been slain for our sins, so that we might be forgiven.

Jesus fulfills His mission, and as He says so clearly in John’s Gospel, He can now return: “I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father” (John 16:28).

Jesus practiced what He preached: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

not also apply to His apostles and the latter’s companions who have deserted Him, to Peter who has denied Him three times, to the fickle-minded crowd, who only days before praised Him on His entrance to Jerusalem, and then days later chose Him over Barabbas to be crucified?

When asked by Peter, how many times should we forgive someone, Jesus answers seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22). At the Last Supper, Jesus explains his crucifixion to His Apostles when he tells them to drink of the cup: “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28).

He forgives the paralytic at Capernaum (Mark 2:5), and the adulteress caught in the publicly despicable act and about to be stoned (John 8:1-11).

THE SECOND WORD. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Gospel of Luke 23:43.

Now it is not just the religious leaders or the soldiers that mock Jesus, but even one of the criminals.

But the criminal on the right speaks up for Jesus, explaining the two criminals are receiving their just due, and then pointing to Jesus, says, “this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then, turning to Jesus, he asks, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). The repentant sinner had enormous faith in Jesus—far more than the doubting Thomas, one of his own Apostles.

Jesus yet again ignores His own suffering, and responds with His second word.

THE THIRD WORD. “Jesus said to his mother: ‘Woman, this is your son.’

Then he said to the disciple: ‘This is your mother.’ Gospel of John 19:26-27.

Jesus and Mary are together again.

First, at the beginning of His ministry in Cana and, second, at the end of His public ministry at the foot of the Cross.

What sorrow must fill Mary’s heart, to see her Son mocked, tortured, and now crucified. Once again, a sword pierces Mary’s soul, the sword predicted by Simon at the Temple (Luke 2:35) .

There are four at the foot of the Cross: Mary his Mother, John, the disciple whom he loved, Mary of Cleopas, his mother’s sister, and Mary Magdalene.

St. Joseph had probably died by the time of the crucifixion, or else he would have been the one to take care of Mary. Early Christian traditions and the second-century apocryphal Protoevangelium of James held that Joseph was a widower, and his children by his former wife were the “brothers and sisters of Jesus.”

THE FOURTH WORD. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34.

This is the only expression of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.

Both Gospels relate that it was in the ninth hour, after three hours of darkness, that Jesus cried out this fourth word.

(HBC, a sodalist, is a member of St. The ninth hour was three o’clock in Benedict’s Crusade and of the CouPalestine. Just after He speaks, Mark ples for Christ, San Juan chapter).

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018

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mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Days with the Lord PASCHAL triduum refers to the liturgical rites during three days of Lenten week that starts with Holy Thursday and culminates on the evening of Easter vigil in preparation for the resurrection.

It is the period to recall the passion, death burial and resurrection of Christ.

For the believer and other interested people, I summarize the three pillars of these rites.

The mass on Holy Thursday recalls the events of the Last Supper. On this day, Christ instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which is the source and summit of Catholic ecclesiastical life. As explained by the Roman Catholic Catechism, the Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

The Last Supper teaches us about the importance of humility, selflessness and service as the true meaning of leadership. The act of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples runs counter to how the world understands leadership. The accepted norm for most of us is for a leader to be served rather than to serve. In this sense, Christ was a revolutionary.

He has shown the most extreme form of humility and love for man resulting in the ultimate sacrifice of His life on the cross. Humility is the acceptance that without Christ we can do nothing; that our abilities, skills and resources have been given by God not solely to serve our needs but to serve others.

The humble leader lacks arrogance; gives preference in serving others rather than promoting oneself. Often, we misunderstand humility as lack of aggression, ambition and resolve. This revolutionary concept of leadership is the reason why people are baffled when they encounter a humble servant-leader, a leader who personifies Christ’s humility and brand of service. Yet, history has shown us that being humble is never incompatible with achieving great things. Roosevelt, Gandhi, Einstein and other great leaders stood out not only by their exceptional accomplishments but by their humility. In the home front, people exalt Jose Rizal, President Ramon Magsaysay and Secretary Jesse Robredo for their humility and extraordinary service more than anything else.

If all leaders are conscious of the real reason for their being, they will recognize that self is the least consideration

in holding a position but rather that the good of the majority, particularly the poor, underprivileged and the weak always takes precedence. If only . . . then there will be no corruption, arrogant leaders, and disunity but only authentic service, cooperation and harmony.

This is what Cardinal Tagle, in his Palm Sunday homily, meant when he declared: “In our world today, we have many kings filled with arrogance, lacking in humility. In our time, many of us follow kings who use violence, weapons, fear—truly lacking understanding of and solidarity with the weak.”

(Translation from the original Filipino is from the report of Rappler on the homily.)

Good Friday is the day when we commemorate the suffering and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The passion of Jesus Christ evokes images of gruesome physical and spiritual suffering.

But for Christians, the suffering of Jesus is not only a poignant and heartwrenching experience of a historic human individual. Rather Christ’s suffer-

When a man preaches the crucified Christ, he dies unto his old self, his selfish desires, greed, violence and utter sinfulness.

sion of the cross will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Quoting again from Tagle’s homily last Sunday, we must ask these questions: “In the eyes of the world, he is a king without strength and power. Where is his strength? Where is his power?” Using scripture, Tagle responds by pointing at the first two readings of the Palm Sunday mass: “In the First Reading, we saw his strength, strength that came from trust in God. Our king does not trust in violence or weapons, bullets and guns. Our king trusts in God. In the Second Reading, he is powerful as the son of God, but he chose to strip himself. He did not cling on to this power. Why? So that he may be one with us. He became humble. That is his strength, his power: Solidarity with the weak.”

Finally, Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. On this day, a vigil service is held after nightfall on Holy Saturday (with readings from salvation history and a renewal of our baptismal vows) and end on the evening of Easter Sunday with the gospel of the two disciples walking to Emmaus and encountering the risen Messiah.

That Christ is risen is the reason why Christians believe in his divinity; it is the very core of Christian faith. St. Paul proclaims to the Corinthians, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” It is in the risen Christ that all his works and teachings are confirmed and the definitive proof of his divine authority.

This faith is why Pope Francis, in his Palm Sunday homily the other day, exhorts all of us: “Do not be men and women of sadness: A Christian can never be sad! Never give way to discouragement! Ours is not a joy born of having many possessions, but from having encountered a Person: Jesus, in our midst; it is born from knowing that with him we are never alone, even at difficult moments, even when our life’s journey comes up against problems and obstacles that seem insurmountable, and there are so many of them! And in this moment the enemy, the devil, comes, often disguised as an angel, and slyly speaks his word to us. Do not listen to him! Let us follow Jesus! We accompany, we follow Jesus, but above all we know that he accompanies us and carries us on his shoulders. This is our joy, this is the hope that we must bring to this world. Please do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! Do not let hope be stolen! The hope that Jesus gives us.”

I pray that all my readers will experience silence and peace in these coming days with the Lord.

ing out of the abundance of God’s love for humanity gives meaning to the sufferings of humanity. In this modern and secular age where societies endeavor very hard to avoid any form of suffering and discomfort to the extent of sacrificing morality and rejecting the laws of God, Christ’s passion is a constant reminder that suffering is no reason for us to alienate ourselves from others nor should it separate us from God. Pope Benedict XVI once said “It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.”

When a man preaches the crucified Christ, he dies unto his old self, his selfish desires, greed, violence and utter sinfulness. He surrenders and submits his whole self to the will of God. For the death of Christ on the cross is a sacrament of God’s eternal and infinite love for humanity. Jesus himself preaches: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ThereFacebook: Professor Tony La Viña or fore, anyone who loves in the dimen- deantonylavs Twitter: tonylavs

Checkmate or knockout: Chess boxing lands a punch

By David Courbet WITH his dental guard still in his mouth and a slightly queasy feeling in his gut, a shirtless Thomas Cazeneuve was exuberant after checkmating his opponent during a chess boxing bout in Berlin, the world capital of the unusual sport.

Just as deft in the movement of his rooks as with his fists, Cazeneuve claimed victory against his Ukrainian challenger after seven alternating rounds of boxing and chess.

The match played out before a crowd of curious onlookers drawn to the spectacle of the so-called “Intellectual Fight Club.”

Chess boxing was born 16 years ago when its founder Iepe Rubingh brought to life a seemingly far-fetched idea from a French graphic novel, “Cold Equator”

by Enki Bilal.

Today, Rubingh has set his sights on introducing chess boxing to the Olympics and even looking at sending robots into battle, as the multidisciplinary sport gains popularity.

The rules of chess boxing are simple.

Three minutes of gentlemanly chess played on a board in the ring is alternated with three-minute bouts of intense boxing over 11 rounds—six of chess, five of boxing.

The winner has to earn either a boxing knockout or a checkmate on the chessboard, but either chess boxer can be disqualified for taking too long to make a chess move or by breaking the boxing rules.

We were sober “You need to be good in both disciplines, which can be quite complicated.

But it’s true that one mustn’t be afraid of being punched,” said Rubingh.

Baguio...

The biggest difficulty may be staying lucid to pull off the winning chess move despite the physical demands of boxing.

“It was my toughest fight with a rival who is a total all-rounder, and who has left me exhausted, especially in boxing,” said Cazeneuve, 24, a recruitment consultant.

“I held on thanks to my mental strength,” he added.

In fact, “60 percent of the winning moves are made on the chessboards and 40 percent in boxing,” said Rubingh, a 43-year-old Dutchman.

Recalling the sport’s gestation, chess-lover Rubingh said that it began in 2002, when, after a round of chess that ended in stalemate, he suggested to a friend that they go for a boxing bout at a bar in Amsterdam.

“The idea was born, but we were sober,” he said.

“Combined, the two sports are the amalgamation of the most beautiful capacities of human beings to create a type of supreme being,” he said.

The author of the graphic novel, Bilal, told AFP that he found it “rather amusing that the idea that was potentially absurd had become reality”.

More Kasparov than Tyson While it was considered more a curiosity than a real sport in the beginning, chess boxing has gained a strong following, including chess fans who have crossed over to the more physical realm of boxing.

Alina Rath, a 29-year-old German, has been a member of a chess club for 20 years but only began adding boxing to the mix in August.

“Chess boxing breaks down cliches of the rough guy who only knows how to beat up the weak intellectual,” said

the accountant.

Although Rath says she feels “more like Kasparov than Tyson”, she said she was tempted to sign up for the dual discipline after five years of practice in mixed martial arts.

Some 3,500 people are card-carrying members of 11 federations in countries including Britain, Iran and Russia.

And it is Berlin that is the undisputed headquarters of the sport after the World Chess Boxing Organisation was set up there in 2004.

Man versus robot?

Regular exhibition games are organised, pitting players of all nationalities.

“Our aim this year is to create a professional league financed by investors and partners,” said Rubingh, who is pushing for the sport to be included in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.

To gain publicity for the sport, Rubingh has another seemingly space-aged idea up his sleeve.

This time, he is turning to science fiction guru Isaac Asimov for inspiration.

Taking a leaf from Asimov’s series depicting man’s fight against the machine, Rubingh wants robotic companies to partner him in organising a series of matches pitting men against robots.

“I would fight against a robot with artificial intelligence and which is much stronger than us in chess but also weaker in terms of reflexes,” he said.

“Every year, I would challenge the best of the robots and it would become increasingly difficult for me to win as they improve.

“The day that I lose, the machine will have overtaken mankind,” said Rubingh, who is dreaming of a million-dollar fight in New York’s Times Square. AFP

President now bend over backward to *** accommodate them?

Metro Manila is the best place to be in From A4 Mr. Duterte has gone as far as calling during the Holy Week. The usual traffic communists were not sincere in negoti- them terrorists. How would it look like gridlocks are nowhere to be seen. ating with the government, should the for the President?

News

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TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Baguilat pleads not guilty over ‘overpricing’ case in 2003

IN BRIEF Tagle’s missive not for Du30—Panelo

By Maricel V. Cruz REP. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. of Ifugao on Monday pled “not guilty” at the Sandiganbayan's Fifth Division in connection with his graft case over the allegedly overpriced purchase of a second-hand vehicle in 2003.

Baguilat is facing one count each of alleged violation of Sections 3(e) and 3(g) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Baguilat was arraigned as a requisite to the grant of his petition to travel to Germany and to The Netherlands from April 6 to 15.

Baguilat said he is scheduled to attend a Study Visit Program organized by the Friedrich Neumann Stiftung Foundation in Berlin.

“The program aims to provide solutions on poverty elimination and social justice,” he said.

Baguilat said that he intends to go to the Netherlands for three days to visit the Filipino community.

“The Program aims to provide platforms for knowledge-sharing for party-building and political branding between the Free Democratic Party of Germany and the Liberal Party of the Philippines and the visit to Filipino communities in The Netherlands aims to enhance relations with Filipinos overseas,” he said.

The Sandiganbayan required Baguilat to post a 120,000 travel bond.

Baguilat was also ordered to report to the Division Clerk of Court within five days upon his return to the Philippines.

The Ombudsman accused Baguilat, then as serving as Ifugao governor, and two provincial officials of conspiring to purchase a second-hand Isuzu Wagon Trooper for P900,000 from a certain Jose Man Singh of JMS General Merchandise.

The Ombudsman claimed that the purchase of the vehicle was illegal as it did not undergo a public bidding and was not covered by a budget appropriation from the Provincial Council.

He earlier filed a motion to dismiss the graft charge, invoking his right to a speedy disposition of cases. He said it took almost 15 years for the Ombudsman to file the case on Feb. 9, 2018 when the alleged offense took place in 2003.

JOB AND LIVELIHOOD. OFW job applicants line up to look for a job during the ‘Trabaho Negosyo Kabuhayan, Job and Business Fair, Alay sa OFW at Kabataang Milenyo: Matatag na Kabuhayan at Disenteng Trabaho’ held at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City on Monday (March 26, 2018). A total of 13,000 local and overseas employment opportunities were offered at the job and business fair that was participated by 97 employers. PNA

QC mayor closes down Dimple Star’s terminal

By Rio N. Araja and Joel E. Zurbano

Q

UEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Monday closed down the Dimple Star Transport bus terminal located in Epifanio delos Santos Avenue in Cubao.

Bautista personally served the closure order at the bus terminal at 11 a.m.

“About a year ago today, we signed a memorandum of agreement with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board that served as a warning to bus operators to shape up or ship out. The time has come to wield the big stick,” he said.

The terminal’s closure came after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the cancellation of the franchise of the bus line when one of its buses plunged into a ravine in Mindoro Occidental.

At least 19 people were killed and 21 others were injured in the incident.

Bautista also led a composite team from the city hall to check the other terminals in Cubao.

“We don’t want another tragedy to happen.

Both the national and local governments have

been trying to implement measures to minimize the risks on the road. The public should also do its share by not patronizing colorum and non-compliant buses,” he said.

Garry Domingo, Business Permits and Licensing Office chief, said the city government issues a different business permit for bus terminals and garages.

“A terminal cannot operate as a garage and vice versa. We’ve been getting complaints against bus terminals and Mayor Bautista has ordered us not to tolerate this irregularity,” he said.

Meanwhile, authorities has the campaign against colorum buses and out of line public utility vehicles in response to the directive of President Duterte.

“The President made it clear. We need to address and finally resolve the colorum problem that is plaguing our public transport sys-

tem” said Thomas Orbos, head of the InterAgency Council on Traffic.

Orbos was referring to the order of President Duterte when he visited the victims of road accident in Occidental Mindoro involving the Dimple Star bus line.

Separate operations were conducted in various bus terminals along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, particularly in the area of Cubao in Quezon City and in the cities of Pasay and Caloocan.

During the operation, public utility bus Joanna Jesh was flagged down on Edsa for violating the close-door-policy. Upon inspection, the I-ACT team found out that the bus was operating with fake registration plate and expired official receipt and certificate of registration, and tampered its engine number.

I-ACT is a special task force of the government composed of personnel from the Metro Manila Development Authority, Department of Transportation, Police Highway Patrol Group, Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, and local government unit traffic officers.

PCSO to terminate erring STL operators, strengthens IRR PHILIPPINE Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Alexander Balutan on Monday said the Board has been revising to strengthen the Small Town Lottery’s Implementing Rules and Regulations in line with the President’s all-out war against illegal gambling and further improve the agency’s revenue collections.

Balutan said there will be a temporary slowing down of revenues from the STL because some Authorized Agent Corporations will be sanctioned and/or terminated for violations of the IRR. “The revenue collections would be definitely affected by these changes as the PCSO Board has reviewed and revised the IRR to suit up with the prevailing situation,” Balutan said.

The PCSO earned almost P4 billion from its January-February STL collections from the current 85 STL corporations.

Balutan said some delinquent AACs will be terminated for repeated violations of the STL-IRR especially various cases of under-remittance of the Presumptive Monthly Retail Receipt.

He refused to give the name of AACs that will be terminated.

“I do not want to pre-empt the collegial decision of the Board. What I can say for now is it is about time to revise the STL-IRR although it has been running only for more than a year. We’ve to strengthen the IRR to become effective in eradicating jueteng, masiao, swertres, peryahan ng bayan, and all forms of illegal numbers game,” Balutan said.

He explained though that the board will immediately open applications and to hasten the bidding process to replace the terminated AACs. He also warned of the possible resurgence of illegal numbers game in areas where there will be temporary closure of STL operations.

Balutan said he is confident that sales will immediately pick up soon after new AACs will be on board with the new IRR. “We are plugging the loopholes of the current IRR to strengthen our revenue collection. Some AACs are under declaring their PMMR and there seems to be flaws in the reporting system,” he said.

BORROWING a phrase from his martyred father, former President Benigno Aquino III reminded detained senator Senator Leila de Lima that she is not alone in her fight in her battles.

“Makikita naman natin: Si Leila, klarongklarong may prinsipyo. Sa pinagdadaanan niya, malinaw na tayo ang kaniyang ipinaglalaban. Mainam namang maipadama natin kay Leila na sa labang ito, hindi siya nag-iisa,” Aquino said as part of his message to De Lima in her first electronic book “Dispatches from Crame I.” Aquino also lauded De Lima as a “woman of principle.”

The former president also took a swipe against the Duterte administration, as he said that he was taught that a good leader has “clear convictions” and directions, and that a leader of who dilly-dallies is not good.

“Nung lumalaki ako, binigyang-diin sa akin na, ang pinuno dapat may klarong paninindigan. May direksyong patutunguhan. Kaya madali at buo natin siyang masusundan. Mahirap magkaroon ng pinuno na ang posisyon ay papalit-palit sa magkabilang-dulo,” he said.

But President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque took exception to Aquino’s message.

“With all due respect to the former President, Senator Leila de Lima is not fighting for her principle and was not detained because of her political beliefs.

Roque said the lady senator was arrested and incarcerated because of serious drug charges where she was accused of allowing the illegal drug trade to proliferate inside the New Bilibid Prison when she was the DoJ secretary.

De Lima, a fierce critic of the was arrested in February 2017 on drug charges

Oil prices increases by P1.15/l this week PUMP prices went up by as much as P1.15 per liter this week, reversing the price rollback the previous week to reflect the movement of oil prices in the world market.

The oil f ir ms raised the price of kerosene by P1.15 per liter, diesel by P0.85 per liter and gasoline by P0.65 per liter effective 6 a.m. Tuesday.

“PTT Philippines to implement the following price hikes effective 6am Tuesday, February 27, 2018: gasoline, increase of P0.65 per liter and diesel, increase of P0.85 per liter,” PTT said in its advisory.

Aside from PTT Philippines, Eastern Petroleum, Seaoil Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines also raised prices while other oil players are expected to follow suit.

World oil prices reacted to reports that the global equities market is now on a rebound and tensions in the Middle East which could affect oil production, is tempered by growing US production. Alena Mae S. Flores

Ex-Ilocos Norte Rep. Ablan dies, 85

WOMEN POWER. HARI president and CEO Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo (center) took a

brief tour of the recently inaugurated Ariel #AhonPinay Electrical and Installation Maintenance Training Room at the Tesda Complex in Taguig City. Tesda-NCR Regional Director Cenon Querubin (2nd from right) and P&G Regional Communications Manager for Fabric & Home Care, Southeast Asia Louie Morante updated the HARI chief on the developments of the Tesda-Ariel #AhonPinay campaign, which is designed to empower women in the workplace, particularly in the technical-vocation sector. Earlier, Agudo graced the ribbon cutting of said training room and was the keynote speaker at the graduation of the first batch of Tesda graduates under the #AhonPinay program. Agudo is an advocate of women empowerment through education.

You are not alone, Aquino reminds De Lima

By Vito Barcelo

THE “violent and arrogant” kings mentioned in the homily of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle during the observance of Palm Sunday was not meant for President Rodrigo Duterte but to other world leaders, according to a Malacañang official.

In defending the President, Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said he was very sure the Catholic leader was referring to world leaders not from this country who wields power to abuse the people.

“I don’t think this administration feels alluded to or the leaders in this administration. Because I think the actions of this administration speak for themselves,” Panelo said in a statement.

The Manila Cardinal on Sunday decried the “reign” of arrogant “kings” who employ violence and resort to threats and yet are followed by throngs.

In his homily during the Palm Sunday at the Manila Cathedral, Cardinla Tagle appealed to the all the Catholic faithful to reflect on their “true” king. Vito Barcelo

that she has denied and branded as “political persecution.”

De Lima launched her book last month in time for her first year in jail. The book contains over 100 handwritten letters released during her incarceration. The notes include personal musings, comments on her court cases, and statements on state affairs.

Even while in jail, De Lima has continued criticizing President Duterte and senior government officials over the administration’s policies, especially its war on drugs, and the country’s warm relations with China despite the latter’s continued aggressive acts in the South China Sea. Aside from the former president, several political figures and former officials of the Aquino administration also praised De Lima and encouraged her to continue her crusade against the present government.

FORMER Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque “Roquito” Ablan Jr. passed away Monday morning. He was 85 years old.

Ablan’s death was announced by his son, Communications Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan, through a Facebook post.

“My dad passed away peacefully this morning. Lucky to be at his bedside when he died,” said the younger Ablan in his post.

Executive Director Edith Cardenas of the House Interparliamentary Relations and Special Affairs Bureau also confirmed the death of the former congressman.

The Philippine flag at the House of Representatives has been flown at half-mast to mourn the passing away of its former member.

Ablan was a representative of the first district of Ilocos Norte from 1968 to 1998, and from 2001 to 2010.

Maricel V. Cruz

BI arrests South Korean fugitive wanted for swindling, fraud A SOUTH Korean swindler wanted in his country for defrauding a number of his compatriots of more than US$550 million was arrested after five years of hiding in the Philippines, the Bureau of Immigration said.

The Korean, identified as Choi Youngseop is now detained at the BI detention facility in Bicutan following his arrest in Resorts World Hotel and Casino along Newport Blvd., Pasay City by operatives of the bureau’s fugitive search unit.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said Choi has been on the BI’s wanted list for almost five years since the BI board of commissioners ordered his summary deportation order for being an undesirable alien.

“He is also an overstaying and undocumented alien as he never bothered to extend his stay since he arrived in Manila in July

2013,” Morente said, adding that the fugitive’s passport was already canceled by the Korean government.

The BI board said that Choi’s presence in the country is unwanted and undesirable as he poses a risk to public interest.

BI intelligence officer and FSU chief Bobby Raquepo disclosed that Choi was ordered expelled in 2014 after the Interpol in Seoul, through the Korean embassy in Manila, sought his deportation so he could stand trial in his country.

Raquepo said Choi was charged with large-scale fraud for victimizing many Koreans who were enticed to invest their money after being promised with high returns.

“Instead, he absconded with the money, amounting to more than US$550,000 and fled to the Philippines,” Raquepo said. Vito Barcelo

Sports Mighty Sports supports Xavier XAVIER School hopes to produce more great athletes in the mold of PBA players Chris Tiu and Teng brothers – Jeron and Jeric – after signing a memorandum of agreement with Mighty Sports Apparel and Accessories recently.

Under the agreement, MSAA will provide varsity uniforms to the Golden Stallions -- one of the successful high school teams in the country.

Xavier was best remembered during the era of Tiu, Joseph Yeo and TY Tang as the Golden Stallions dominated the Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association in the 90s.

The latest star to come out of Xavier is Ginebra San Miguel rookie Jett Manuel.

“I’m extremely grateful to Fr. Ari Dy and the staff of Xavier for allowing us to do our own share to help raise the school’s bar of excellence especially in basketball,” said MSAA president Dr. John Sy. “Xavier has always been close to my heart so it’s truly an honor to be connected to them in this manner.”

Aside from Sy and Fr. Ari, also present during the signing of agreement were MSAA Sports Director Caesar Wongchuking and Xavier campus operations coordinator Hope Ocampo and athletics coordinator Lardy de las Penas.

As part of the concession, Sy added that Mighty Sports will continue to be the outfitter of the school’s varsity teams aside from being the maker of the school’s PE (physical education) uniforms.

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TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Pacers advance to NBA playoffs L

OS ANGELES—Darren Collison nailed a couple of clutch late three pointers as the Indiana Pacers clinched a postseason spot on Sunday with a 113-107 overtime win over the Miami Heat.

Vittaya Viboonterawud, PTT Philippines Director for Commercial Fuels & Lubricants, is shown with his staff during the launch of the PTT Challenger Lubricants at the Inside Racing Festival. Angelica Villanueva

PTT launches lubricants for PH superbikes’ riders

By Charles Dantes PTT Philippines launched the newest addition to its lubricant products during the Inside Racing Festival at the World Trade Center last March 24.

Hundreds of riders trooped to the PTT Lubricants booth on Saturday to witness the Philippine launch of the PTT Challenger Superbike Racing, the official lubricant in this year’s Moto Grand Prix to be held October in Thailand.

“We bring the PTT Challenger Superbike Racing here in the Philippines because of the growing number of Filipino riders and the demand for motorcycle oil, from scooters to super sports bikes,” Vittaya Viboonterawud, PTT Philippines Director for Commercial Fuels & Lubricants, told reporters during the launch.

“We find it an opportune time to bring this lubricant line for 4-stroke motorcycles because we see a potential market here in the Philippines as motorcycle are everywhere on the Philippine streets,” Viboonterawud said.

The PTT Challenger Super Bike Racing 10w-50 and 10w-60 is created for the big bikes and motorbikes with 600cc and above displacements, perfect for those who love to go for a long distance travel and riders seeking a thrill on the race track.

Challenger Super Bike Racing is a fully synthetic oil combined with special formulated with Ester Tech and modified for engine of racing motorcycle to unleash the best performance of torque, capacity and horse power as well as smooth gear shifting.

The Triple Action Formula improves clutch lock up, smooth and actuates gearing, it also provides additional lubricant film strength and extremely high thermal stability for maximum engine protection over continuously high revolutions.

Viboonterawud said that the new technology is another formulation by the Research and Technology Institute of PTT in Thailand that has Php2-billion annual budget for research alone.

PSA Forum takes a break Xavier School Director Fr. Ari Dy and Mighty Sports Director Caesar Wongchuking (center and second from right) show the signed MOA, making Mighty Sports Apparel and Accessories the outfitter of all Xavier athletes. Also shown are (from left) Xavier campus operations coordinator Hope Ocampo, Mighty Sports president Dr. John Sy and Xavier athletics coordinator Lardy de las Penas.

IN observance of Holy Week, the Philippine Sportswriters Association won’t be holding its PSA Forum on Tuesday at the Tapa King Restaurant at Farmer’s Market in Cubao.

The weekly session will resume in the first week of April.

Davao lauded for hosting of Alveo Ironman

By F. Pearl A. Gajunera DAVAO CITY—The City Government of Davao thanked all the agencies. who helped in the success of the first-ever Alveo Ironman 70.3 event here not just in the city but in the entire Mindanao.

Assistant City Administrator for Administration, lawyer Tristan Dwight Domingo said that the Ironman event will not be successful if not for the support of the participating Cities and Municipality and other agencies.

“We are very thankful to the different agencies, for the security forces for putting all their efforts in the event, our partner LGUs (Local Government Units), Panabo, Carmen and Tagum, and of course our sponsors,” Domingo said.

Almost 2,000 athletes from the different parts of the world joined the first Alveo Ironman 70.3 in the city.

Mauricio Mendez from Mexico won the championship in the professional category for men, while Radka Kahlefeldt from the Czech Republic, who gave birth 10 weeks ago, won the professional female category.

The win of Mendez and Kahfeldt ended the dominance of the Australians in the Ironman Philippines event.

Sunrise event General Manager Princess Galura also expressed their gratitude for the success of the Ironman and branded the event as a ‘perfect’ one.

“Huge congratulations to Davao City for a wonderful event! The level of organization was perfect to the smallest detail. Everyone felt safe in the course,” Galura said.

Domingo said that the success of the Alveo Ironman 70.3 2018 is a big challenge for the city to further improve the activity for the next 2 years.

From grassroots sports, to Roots for Boracay TANDUAY president Lucio “Bong” Tan, Jr. has been actively supporting grassroots sports through an initiative known as Tanduay Athletics.

Tan is the backer of Batangas Tanduay Athletics that is now the team lording over the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, founded by Senator Manny Pacquiao. The league replaced a former regional basketball league that supports grassroots basketball.

Beyond sports, Tan is also passionate about green initiatives. He himself was on top of the transformation to a zerowaste facility of Absolut Distillers, Tanduay’s alcohol distillery based in Lian, Batangas. The facility bagged numerous environmental awards, including the prestigious Green Apple Awards, an annual international campaign to recognize, reward and promote environmental best practices around the world. Absolut Distillers is the only local distillery to have received this award up to this day. The company likewise has since been a recipient of awards by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for their outstanding environment conservation practices.

“We understand the need to lessen our impact by making our operations cleaner and greener. We do not just want to make the best rhum in the Philippines, bet we want everyone to know that our rhum is made with good intentions and we hope to improve our operations year after year,” Tan continued, adding that, they have started investing in solar energy as a cleaner alternative as well. “We want our consumers to know that every bottle of Tanduay that they drink is made from green intentions and green energy.”

Lucio ‘Bong’ Tan Jr.

The Tanduay president further shared that the concern for the environment sprang from the knowledge that the distillery industry is considered as one of the dirtiest.

“Before we took over Tanduay, there have been cases filed against its practices pertaining to pollution. We said, let us clean up first. We started investing in technologies that we are using in our Absolut distillery in Batangas in order to reduce our carbon footprint. It was a long process, and we did it.”

Now, Tan would like to bring public attention to a project he started in 2011 to protect what little is left of the old Boracay. The island has been noted as one of the world’s top destinations, but it has encountered controversy lately due to the amount of pollution that has been plaguing the once-pristine paradise.

There are talks of a government shut-

Jerry Tee

down to tourists in order to rehabilitate the natural landscape.

Tan pioneered the project “Roots for Boracay” to save the last mangroves in the island.

“When we first got there, we already saw the amount of solid waste that lay among the mangroves. Before we started reforesting the area, we needed to have it cleaned up,” Tan revealed.

He noted that if the mangroves have not been cut down indiscriminately, the problems being faced by Boracay today would have been much lesser. There would be no need to set up expensive artificial waste treatment facilities for the island’s recovery, as the mangrove roots will naturally filter water waste.

According to him, Boracay is far from any of his business interests, but the need to respond to an impending crisis was what drove him to act.

“It took awhile to bring together the various people who will help us in our quest to get hold of the right to implement our project to clean up and re-plant in order to stop the continuous degradation of the mangroves in that area of Boracay,” Tan further related.

But Tan had the right man on his side to make sure his visions will be realized.

Gerry Tee is the chief operating officer of Absolut Distillers. He is the same person with whom his father Lucio Tan Sr. entrusted the green transformation of the Batangas alcohol distillery. With the help of Tee, they engaged the Tan Yan Kee Foundation led by Philip Sing to gather a 200-strong workforce that began the clean up efforts in Barangay Manoc Manoc, where the mangroves are located.

They have gathered four truckloads of garbage by the time they finish cleaning the mangroves area.

“To protect Boracay, it is important to go down to its roots. In this case, we seek the last frontier of Boracay—the mangroves. It is where the fish and other sea creatures get nutrients, it is where life starts. Without the mangroves, the island would also cease to exist, as it protects the island from typhoons. The beautiful fine white sand will go back to the sea because their roots are the ones holding the island together,” Tee explained.

“It was a directive from the Chairman, Mr. Lucio Tan to follow the concept of sustainable development, where we do not profit at the expense of the environment. We make sure that everything we do is about reducing our carbon footprint and become more independent from the environment where we do not use to dump our waste,“ Tee further shared.

Victor Oladipo tallied 23 points and five assists for the Pacers who earned their seventh playoff appearance in the last eight seasons.

Collison sank the go ahead three pointer with 2:49 left in overtime to give Indiana a 101-100 lead. Collison finished with 12 points as the Pacers scored 11 unanswered points to seal the victory.

Thaddeus Young had 22 points, nine rebounds and five steals, and Bojan Bogdanovic added 18 points and eight rebounds in the win.

“Our (job) is still not done,” Young said. “We want to get as high of a seed as possible and we’re just going to continue to play and try to win as many games as possible.

“But the monkey is off our back now that we’re actually in.”

Tyler Johnson finished with 19 points, James Johnson had 15 points and nine rebounds, and Bam Adebayo added 14 points for the Heat, who won two of the four-game season series.

The Heat were missing coach Erik Spoelstra who was back in Florida for the birth of his son. Spoelstra, who was replaced by assistant coach Dan Craig, is expected to return for Miami’s home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday.

In losing for the 11th time in their last 12 road games, the Heat fell to No. 8 in the Eastern Conference.

The Pacers win and the Heat loss had a domino effect on the postseason race as the Philadelphia 76ers clinched even though they didn’t play Sunday.

The Sixers last made the playoffs in the 2011-12 season, which was shortened to 66 games by a lockout.

Elsewhere, LeBron James scored 37 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and passed out a game-high eight assists to lead the Cavaliers over the host Brooklyn Nets 121-114.

The Nets cut a 10-point Cavs lead in half only to have James sink a stepback 30-foot three-pointer -- his only threepoint hoop of the game -- with 39 seconds remaining to put a dagger in Brooklyn’s upset bid.

James credited aggressive defensive work by the Cavaliers in the fourth quarter, when they held the Nets to 25 points.

“You’ve got to have your mind ready defensively and have our stance ready when they get the ball,” James said. AFP

PH Azkals vs Tajikistan live on Liga THE Philippine Azkals need all the support they can muster from Filipino football fans as country’s national football team play a crucial match on today (Tuesday) at the Rizal Memorial Stadium to boost its campaign for the Philippines’ first ever appearance in the AFC Asian Cup in 2019.

Those who can’t watch in the venue can watch and cheer for the Philippine Azkals live on LIGA and LIGA HD at 7:30 p.m. as the Azkals play for the final qualifier for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The Philippine side currently has nine points to top Group F, which also includes Yemen and Nepal, and will only need 1 point from a draw with Tajikistan to book its ticket to the AFC’s showcase event in 2019 at the United Arab Emirates.

The match comes after a close shave against Fiji, in an international friendly that saw the Azkals salvage a 3-2 victory thanks to a 61st minute goal by Kevin Ingreso off a failed clearance by the Fiji side.

Other scorers for the Azkals in the match, which was also aired on Liga,were Phil Younghusband, who recorded his 49th international goal, and Pika Minegishi in the 49th and 52nd minute of the match.

Team manager Dan Palami told ABS-CBN Sports that while the squad they are facing may have lower rankings than the Azkals, with Tajikistan coming in at 124th, the team still needs the support of the home crowd to boost the confidence of the Azkals.

LOTTO RESULTS

6/55 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0 M+ 6/45 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0 M 4 DIGITS 0-0-0-0 3 DIGITS 0-0-0 2 EZ2 0-0

Sports

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

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TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018

Fil-Am wows NBTC crowd; too bad he can’t play for Batang Gilas

By Peter Atencio

SMB’s Alex Bognot collars the rebound and protects it from the rushing Justin Melton and Kyle Pascual of Magnolia as his Beermen teammates Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos and Hotshots’ Andy Barroca look on in Game 2 of the PBA Philippine Cup finals. The Beermen leveled the series with a 92-77 win.

Woods at Ryder Cup a ‘massive bonus’ VAL-D’ISERE, France—European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn has said that having a rejuvenated Tiger Woods playing in September for the Americans against his team in Paris would be a “massive bonus” for golf.

Fourteen-time major champion Woods has impressed since returning to the PGA Tour after a series of injury problems, notching back-to-back topfive finishes for the first time since 2013.

Bjorn insisted that he wouldn’t be disappointed if his players have to face up against the former world number one, saying a fit and firing Tiger at the Ryder Cup would be “unbelievable for the game”.

“Tiger Woods’ involvement for the game of golf is hugely important,” Dane Bjorn told AFP. “He is the ultimate superstar in sport and that’s very important for the game that he’s involved.

“I think it’ll be great for the game if he (Woods) plays and a massive bonus for the Ryder Cup in France. If he got back to a place where he was among the best 12 players in America... I think for the game of golf that would be unbelievable.”

Woods will head into the Masters next month as one of the favourites for the green jacket, a remarkable situation given he was ranked outside of the world’s top 1,000 just last year.

The 42-year-old, a veteran of seven Ryder Cups, has only been part of one winning American side -- back in 1999.

But Bjorn warned against underestimating “the best that’s ever played”.

“Now that he’s back on the golf course and playing well, once he starts getting confident he’s the best that’s ever played and he can do incredible things,” he added.

“It will be interesting to see how the next three or four months develop in Tiger Woods’ golf life, because there seems to be the thing about him that’s a bit more humble.

“I think he’s really happy with the way things have developed and I think he’ll go and do really good things.”

Woods, who will be hoping to claim an 80th PGA Tour title in the coming months, has already been appointed as a vice-captain to US skipper Jim Furyk for the matches in France. AFP

Beermen-Hotshots’ PBA faceoff heats up

By Jeric Lopez

I

T MIGHT be the Holy Week, but there’s nothing solemn about the hostilities in the finals of the 2018 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup.

Through two games, the finale is starting to intensify further as combatants San Miguel Beer and Magnolia are starting to heat things up by taking their level of play up a notch, showing how badly each of them want the crown.

After the Hotshots pulled off a classic win in Game 1 to stun San Miguel Beer, the Beermen emphatically bounced back in Game 2 to send a strong message.

The defending champions reminded Magnolia that they are not the three-time reigning title holders for nothing.

To avoid a 0-2 hole after a huge meltdown in the series opener, San Miguel Beer flexed its championship muscles Sunday night to even the best-of-seven series at 1-1 with a dominant 92-77 victory in Game 2 over Magnolia.

The heat and intensity leveled up in Game 2 as the two teams figured in several intense spats, with neither wanting to give any ground.

Aside from the physicality, there were several instances wherein players from the rival squads got into it.

Beerman Arwind Santos and Hotshot Jio Jalalon got involved in a verbal tussle midway in the fourth period, while SMB’s Chris Ross continued doing what he does best—seek a mental edge.

Once the result is beyond doubt, Ross appeared to be taunting the Magnolia bench in a loose ball sequence.

Several possessions later, Hotshots’ big man Rodney Brondial returned the favor by dishing a hard blind pick to Ross.

With Game 3 still on Easter Sunday, the protagonists are currently enjoying ample time to cool down and rest before resuming their war.

“We’re very happy that the series is tied going into the Holy Week,” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria. “The rest will also be huge for us. We need that.”

Abigail Faye Valdez (right) delivers a side kick against Maria Laney Kaye Panahon in a recent competition. Valdez and Panahon are two of the participants in the twin Tunisia events.

16 Filipino jins to vie in 2 world junior events SIXTEEN well-trained Filipino jins will participate in the taekwondo World Junior Qualification Tournament for the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games and the World Junior Championships on April 6-13, 2018 in Hammamet, Tunisia.

According to the Philippine Taekwondo Association, 10 male and six female fighters will carry the colors of Meralco/MVP Sports Foundation in the twin events which will also feature athletes from over 70 countries such as Korea, Iran, France, Germany, the United States and Turkey.

The Filipino entries are: Male—Kian Graydon Ashe (-48kg), Dex Ian Chavez (-55kg), Russel Villanueva (-63kg), Vonn Christopherson Edillor (-45kg), Rommel Pablo Jr. (-48kg), Aljen Aynaga (-51kg), Andrew Ely Medina (-63kg), Arby Garriega (-68kg), Ramcess Bautista (-73kg) and Gabriel Teruel (-78kg).

Female—Abigail Faye Valdez (-44kg), Laize Angela I. Abucay (-49kg), Shaira Isabel Garbanzos (-55kg), Geriane Kendall Therese Pineda (-42kg), Reign Charisse Ragutana (-59kg), and Maria Laney Kaye Panahon (-46kg).

Tem Igor Mella is the team head while the coaches are Alvin Taraya, Carlos Jose Padilla V and Brix Darmo Ramos.

PTA Secretary General and Makati Congressman Monsour Del Rosario, a former international multi-titled jin, says the Tunisia-bound fighters will try to duplicate the gold triumph of countryman Paolo Borromeo in the 1996 World Junior Championships in Barcelona.

The youthful Filipino athletes are supported by Smart Communications, PLDT, Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Smart Candy eyes 2nd straight stakes race win on Easter Sunday A CRACK 10-horse field, led by second-leg winner Smart Candy, will be shooting for the top purse of P600,000 when the third leg of the Philippine Racing Commission’s 3YO Local Fillies and Colts Stakes Race blasts off on Easter Sunday at the San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite.

The SC Stockfarm-owned Smart Candy, to be ridden again by jockey Kevin Abobo, will be shooting for a second straight win in this 1,600-meter stakes race offering a total guaranteed purse of P1 million.

Out to stop Smart Candy are her fellow fillies Facing Dixie (owner Cool Summer Farm, jockey JL Lazaro), Misha (Leonardo Javier Jr., AP Asuncion), Talitha Koum (George Raquidan, CP Henson)

and Victorious Filly (Efleda Dela Cruz, JB Guce), alongside colts Goldsmith (Joseph Dyhengco, RG Fernandez), second-leg runner-up Here’s To Life (Jose Quiros, EP Nahilat), The Barrister (Daniel Tan, EG Guerra), Victorious Colt (Jose Antonio Zialcita, OP Cortez) and Wonderland (Herminio Esguerra, Pat R Dilema).

Runner-up gets P225,000, while third and fourth placers, receive P125,000 and P50,000 respectively, with P30,000 going to the breeder of the winning horse.

“The best three-year-old colts and fillies will be at it again on Easter Sunday, delivering an exciting racing experience for everyone,” said Philracom Chairman Andrew A. Sanchez.

Smart Candy scored a sweet and emphatic win in the second leg of the series,

winning by eight paces over her closest pursuer. Right of the bat, Smart Candy rushed into a swift start, leaving the field following her trail. Smart Candy’s quick burst of speed surprised no one, including her jockey Abobo, who knows the capability of his filly to sustain a good lead and he used it to the hilt as part of their game plan.

The battle for second proved to be more tense, with Here’s To Life nipping Perlas ng Silanganan in a photo finish.

Meanwhile, the Philracom,which deemed it necessary to temporarily change the weekend schedule due to the coming summer season, passed a resolution resolving the schedule of races from April 1 to June 30.

According to the resolution, Saturday

schedules must start at 4 p.m., with a maximum of only 10 races, while Sundays have a maximum of 12 races, with Race No. 1 starting at 3 p.m., instead of the usual 2 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday races’ limit include Philippine Charity Sweepstakes, Philracom and other sponsored races, unless additional race/s is/are authorized in writing by the Philracom board.

Holidays falling on a weekday will have a maximum of 12 races.

“The Philracom has a duty to protect our jockeys and horses from the sweltering heat of the summer, hence the change in schedule to the latter part of the day when temperatures are more manageable,” said Sanchez.

ONE particular 16-year-old player from Fresno, California caught the attention of many basketball fans in the recent SM-NBTC National Finals—Fil-Am Jalen Green.

“There were new faces, new talents and Jalen Green stood out,” said chief organizer Eric Altamirano inside the tournament office at the Mall of Asia Arena last Friday.

The 6’5” Green, a big shooting guard, came over as part of the FilAm USA Squad that joined the five-day, 32-team cagefest.

He was among the standouts of the squad, along with 19-year-old Kihei Clark, who hails from Los Angeles, and 17-year-old Elijah Jackson, who is set to study at Eastern Washington University.

Green, considered by ESPN as the no.

1 draft NBA prospect in the class of 2020, was one of the crowd favorites during the tournament.

His agility on the court impressed a lot.

He finished with NBTC-high averages of 33.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.5 assists.

Green, who shifted to basketball from soccer after finding inspiration in the game of Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant, almost led his team to the semifinals when he made 51 points in their Elite 8 game with eventual champion, the Nazareth School National University Bullpups.

“When I was a kid, I played baseball and soccer. But when I started playing basketball, I said, ‘I could do something with this,’ so I started practicing harder.

When I told my parents I want to concentrate on being the best possible basketball player that I can be, they pushed me to get better and perform at a higher level,” said Green in an interview.

Green’s mother, Bree Burganan and her grandfather are from the Philippines.

Green was impressive when he led FilAm Sports USA over University of Visayas, 102-68, on Tuesday in the NBTC National Finals’ Sweet 16 with his 21 points, including three crowd-pleasing dunks in the first half.

His presence sparked a short-lived interest in making him play for the Batang Gilas during his stint in the NBTC. But it was quickly dashed when it was learned that Green has previously played for Team USA’s Under-16 team, which scored a five-game sweep to win the gold medal last year in the FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Argentina.

Because of this, Green is getting ready to suit up for Team USA in the 2018 FIBA U17 World Cup, set from June 30 to July 8.

Green, who studies in San Joaquin Memorial National High School, can’t make it to Batang Gilas under Fiba rules, which disqualifies him from playing for any other nation in Fiba-sanctioned tournaments, except as a naturalized player.

“Yes of course,” said Green, in an online interview, when asked on the possibility of him on joining Team Pilipinas in the future.

“It’s always an opportunity to come play in the Philippines where my basketball can lead to,” added Green, who travelled abroad and into the Philippines for the first time.

Batang Gilas assistant coach JB Sison said that as far he knows, there are no offers for a college scholarship for the Green here in the Philippines since he is too young to be recruited.

Being part of the Philippine national youth team is also out of the question, for now.

“He has played for Team USA already,” added Sison.

Jalen Green (Facebook)

IN BRIEF

Consumer outlook turns less bullish

CONSUMERS turned less less optimistic in the first quarter, compared to the fourth quarter, amid expectations of higher prices of goods and low income, results of the latest Consumer Expectations Survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.

Results of the survey showed that while the consumer sentiment index remained in the positive territory, it dropped to 1.7 percent in the first quarter from 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017. It was also the lowest level since the third quarter of 2016.

Respondents cited the higher prices of goods, low income and rise in household expenses as major reasons. They also mentioned the increase in household debts, occurrence of typhoon and other calamities and poor harvest.

“The lower but positive consumer index indicates that the number of optimists decreased but continued to outnumber the pessimists,” Bangko Sentral assistant governor Francisco Dakila Jr. said in a news briefing.

“The less optimistic consumer sentiment in Q1 2018 was carried to the near term and the next 12 months due to anticipation of continued increase in prices of goods that, in turn, increase household spending, as well as low earnings of the family,” he said. Julito G. Rada

Business

Group warns risks of quenched steel bars

THE Consumer Union of the Philippines raised concerns over the safety of Philippine manufactured steel bars which are used in the construction of high-rise buildings.

CUP president Rodel Taton said in a forum at the Quezon City Sports Club he was shocked to hear Association of Structural Engineers chairman Emilio Morales’ warning that many buildings could collapse if a strong earthquake hit Metro Manila.

The recent earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 Richter scale that hit Hualien in Taiwan resulted in the collapse of many buildings and the death of a Filipino maid. “Condominium owners face risk of damage to their units, or possibly worse,” Taton said.

He said since more than a decade ago, the formula and process of the manufacturing of steel bars were deliberately modified by local steel factories without informing the general public and the government. Taton said they were apparently misrepresenting these lower quality quenched steel bars as a higher grade for structural application. The inferior quenched steel bars are being sold to consumers, contractors and developers, without them knowing of the great danger they are exposed to, the group said.

Quenching is the process of subjecting the hot steel bars to rapid cooling. This creates an outer layer skin that passes the tests conducted

by Bureau of Philippine Standard of the Department of Trade and Industry.

The group said tests done by the BPS did not expose the danger that could arise from the quenched steel bars which should not be welded, bended, threaded and galvanized.

BPI WINS ANVIL AWARDS. The Public

Relations Society of the Philippines, the country’s most prestigious public relations organization, gives Bank of the Philippine Islands five Anvil Awards for having demonstrated excellence in communications and public relations in five of its communications programs and projects. Shown during the 53rd Anvil Awards at ShangriLa Hotel at The Fort, Taguig City are some of the heads of various BPI groups, including BPI head of corporate affairs and communications Owen Cammayo (left) BPI Foundation managing director Maricris San Diego (fourth from left) and head of strategic marketing and decision support Cathy Santamaria (fifth from left), along with other members of the winning teams.

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018

B1

By Jenniffer B. Austria

VIRTUAL TRADING PLATFORM. First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp., the stockbrokerage arm of the Metrobank Group, signs an agreement with Manila Tytana Colleges and Ateneo de Davao University to officially launch First Flight, a virtual trading platform for the Philippine Stock Exchange to be introduced to students under their finance programs. At the signing ceremony with Manila Tytana Colleges are (from left) MTC College of Accountancy and Management dean Maria Binuya, MTC president Sergio Cao, FirstMetroSec president Gonzalo Ordoñez and FirstMetroSec first vice president Mhelvin Abajon.

Grab confirms purchase of Uber’s Asean business R

By Darwin G. Amojelar

IDESHARING service providers Grab and Uber announced Monday the merger of their operations in Southeast Asia including the Philippines, with Grab as the surviving entity, in the largest deal of its kind in the region.

Uber, a California-based company, started advising customers that it would “combine our operations with Grab to lead you in the next chapter of ridesharing in the Philippines and across Southeast Asia.”

“What this means for you: we will be transitioning our services over to the Grab platform by April 8, 2018, so all requests after that date should be made from the Grab app. However, you can still use the Uber app in more than 80 countries around the world,” Uber said in the announcement.

The value of the deal, which Grab said was the largest ever acquisition by a Southeast Asian internet company, was not disclosed. The sale is Uber’s latest withdrawal from a market where it had faced tough competition, as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi seeks to stem huge losses and move past a series of scandals.

Grab and Uber said in a joint statement the deal would integrate the ridesharing and food delivery business of Grab and Uber in the region into Grab’s existing multi-modal transportation and fintech platform.

Singapore-based Grab said with the combined business, it would drive towards becoming the number one onlineto-offline mobile platform in Southeast Asia and a major player Grab said it would extend its leadership as the most cost efficient Southeast Asian platform, as it took over Uber’s operations and assets in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5-percent stake in Grab and Khosrowshahi would join Grab’s board.

“We are humbled that a company born

LRWC’s Boracay resort to attract Asian families THE planned Boracay resort to be developed through the partnership between Macau’s Galaxy Entertainment Group and Leisure and Resorts World Corp. is not a ‘mega casino’ as detractors claim, but a top leisure destination in Boracay targeting Asian families.

LRWC said in a statement the integrated resort would redefine the standards of luxury resorts in the country with the bulk of its gross floor area allocated for premium hotel rooms and other amenities like wellness centers, bars, lounges and fine dining restaurants.

GEG and local partner LRWC received a provisional gaming license to operate Boracay Philippines Resort and

business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com

Megaworld’s net income in 2017 up by 13% to P12.8b

NGCP, DPWH set to align projects

GRID operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Public Works Department to align and expedite current and future projects.

The agreement was signed by NGCP officer-in-charge president and chief executive Anthony Almeda and the Public Works Secretary Mark Villar.

“As both NGCP and DPWH are entities which spearhead nation building and national economic growth through infrastructure projects, it is imperative that we institutionalize our coordination efforts, align, and synchronize our project planning and execution,” NGCP said in a statement.

“With the signing of the MOU, transmission projects can co-locate with national highways, bridges, and access road projects of the DPWH,” it said.

Earlier meetings between the two organizations identified an initial list of 13 projects of DPWH which could be aligned and co-located with NGCP projects.

The MOU will also pave way to exploring other possible projects according to the programs of DPWH and NGCP’s Transmission Development Plan. Alena Mae S. Flores

Ray S. Eñano, Editor Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor

Leisure Corp., a $550-million integrated resort development in the popular tourist destination.

Based on the resort’s conceptual design, the casino and gaming area’s maximum footprint will not exceed 7.5 percent of the total floor area of the resort “at all times”.

“Thus, the planned Boracay Resort is expected to churn more revenues from the hotel and other ancillary businesses vis-a-vis the gaming segment as it attracts customers all over the region looking for luxury Asian destinations,” LRWC vice president for legal Katrina Nepomuceno said.

She said GEG and LRWC were expected to leverage on Galaxy’s database

of clients across the region and the rest of Asia. She said they were targeting families and clients from Galaxy’s loyalty program to contribute approximately 50 percent of the customers, while other travelers to Boracay―Chinese tourists in particular―would account for the other half.

LRWC said to minimize the resort’s impact and preserve the area’s natural beauty, the property would be constructed following the contours of the site with lots of open spaces and lush landscaping.

The resort will be designed to provide ample space for all the comforts, luxuries and activities for each family member, it said.

in SEA has built one of the largest platforms that millions of consumers use daily and provides income opportunities to over 5 million people. Today’s acquisition marks the beginning of a new era,” Grab chief executive and co-founder Anthony Tan said.

Tan said the combined business would be the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region.

“Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfill our promise to outserve our customers. Their trust in us as a transport brand allows us to look towards the next step as a company: improving people’s lives through food, payments and financial services,” he said.

Khosrowshahi said the deal was a testament to Uber’s exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years.

“It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet.

We’re excited to take this step with Anthony and his entire team at Grab, and look forward to Grab’s future in Southeast Asia,” she said. With AFP

Old plants, rising demand threaten PH power supply

By Alena Mae S. Flores THE country’s aging power plants put the country’s power supply situation at risk, according to the Energy Department and power retailer Manila Electric Co. Energy Department director Mylene Capongcol said in a recent interview with CNN Philippines the age of the power plants, increasing demand and changes in temperature, were affecting power supply.

Capongcol said the supply was at risk because of the “aging of the power plant, increasing demand, sudden increase or decrease in the temperature that affects the ambient performance of the power plant.”

Capongcol said there was a need to put up more power plants to address the increasing demand and fill the gap of aging power plants.

“From the DoE, we need to put in place an environment conducive to private sector participation, in generation and in the supply. Of course there should be a robust and strong transmission and distribution system,” she said.

Capongcol said if there was not enough supply, the cost of power would increase.

Meralco PowerGen Corp. president Rogelio Singson said about 33 percent of current capacity came from 20-yearold plants while 60 percent of the capacity was coming from 15-year-old facilities.

He said aging or old plants tended to result in unexpected outages and needed constant maintenance.

MEGAWORLD Corp., the property unit of tycoon Andrew Tan, said net income attributable to its parent company climbed 12.7 percent in 2017 to P12.8 billion from P11.3 billion in 2017, led by the positive performance of the residential, office and commercial leasing businesses.

Megaworld said in a disclosure to the stock exchange consolidated revenues rose 7.7 percent last year to P50.4 billion from P46.8 billion in 2016.

Residential sales, which accounted for 70 percent of the group’s total revenues, expanded 4.5 percent to P11.8 billion from P10 billion.

Rental business, which covers both office and commercial space leasing, grew at a faster rate of 18.2 percent to P11.8 billion in 2017 from P10 billion a year earlier.

Megaworld earlier said it was expecting rental income to reach P20 billion by 2020 with a plan to add 1 million square meters of leasable space in its portfolio.

“We are still way beyond our targets and we see this momentum to continue until we reach our P20-billion target in annual rental income by 2020, or even beyond that. There is still so much opportunities to tap in the property market and we are ready for that,” Megaworld senior vice president Francis Canuto said.

The company said to sustain the growth momentum, it would allocate P60 billion for 2018 capital expenditures, of which 80 percent would be for the construction of mostly residential, office and commercial developments in various townships.

The remaining 20 percent would be allotted for land acquisition and other investment properties.

“The Megaworld Group is now present in more than 30 cities around the country. We will continue to be aggressive in developing more townships and integrated lifestyle communities across the country, most especially in the provinces,” Canuto said.

Cebu Pacific’s profit decreases 19% to P7.91b CEBU Air Inc., the operator of lowcost airlines Cebu Pacific and Cebgo, said net income fell 18.9 percent in 2017 from a year ago mostly because of higher jet fuel expenses.

The airline company controlled by tycoon John Gokongwei said net income went down to P7.91 billion in 2017 from P9.75 billion in 2016.

The group generated revenues of P68.02 billion in 2017, up 9.9 percent from P61.89 billion in 2016, as passenger revenues increased 7.2 percent to P49.93 billion from P46.59 billion.

The company attributed the increase in revenue to the 3.2 percent growth in passenger volume to 19.7 million in 2017 from 19.1 million in 2016, driven by the 3.6-percent increase in number of flights as the group added more aircraft to its fleet.

The number of aircraft increased from 57 in 2016 to 61 in 2017.

Cebu Air said average fares increased 3.8 percent in 2017 to P2,529 from P2,436 in 2016, contributing to the increase in revenues.

Cargo revenues went up 29.2 percent to P4.60 billion from P3.56 billion in 2016 following the increase in the cargo volume and yield in 2017.

Ancillary revenues went up 14.9 percent to P13.49 billion from P11.74 billion, driven by improved online bookings, pricing adjustments and introduction of new ancillary revenue products and services.

Operating expenses climbed 16.6 percent to P57.895 billion last year from P49.64 billion in 2016.

Cebu Air blamed the higher operating expenses to the rise in fuel prices last year coupled with the weakening of the peso against the US dollar.

The peso depreciated to an average of 50.40 per dollar last year from an average of 47.50 per dollar in 2016.

Darwin G. Amojelar

B2

Business

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Stocks decline; Now, DMCI retreat T HE stock market pared its losses in late trading Monday on lingering concerns over a possible trade war between The United States and China.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 38.42 points, or 0.5 percent, to 7,932.38 after shedding by as much 1.7 percent in early trading on a value turnover of P6.3 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 138 to 65, with 41 issues unchanged.

Now Corp., which is bidding to become country’s third biggest telecommunications company, slumped 15.6 percent to P6.85 after listed and potential rival Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. signed an agreement with state-run National Transmission Corp. over the potential use of the government’s national

fiber optic backbone facility.

DMCI Holdings Inc. of the Consunji Group lost 5.2 percent to P12.30, while port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. declined 2.9 percent to P100.

PLDT Inc., the largest telecommunications firm, dropped 2.5 percent to P1,462.

Most Asian markets, meanwhile, extended last week’s worldwide losses as investors fret that Donald Trump’s controversial tariffs on $60 billion of Chinese goods will spark a trade war that would hammer the global economy.

The US move to impose levies, claiming China is breaching intellectual property rights, sparked a rout of equities across the world, while China warned it was “not afraid of a trade war.”

Hong Kong slipped 0.1 percent in the afternoon and Shanghai finished 0.6 percent lower, while Sydney gave up 0.5 percent.

Wellington, Singapore and Jakarta were also down.

However, Tokyo bounced back in late trade to end up 0.7 percent on bargainbuying, while Seoul climbed 0.8 percent as it emerged that South Korea and the United States have reached an understanding on revising their free-trade agreement and on steel tariffs.

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said at the weekend that Trump was not ready to back down but added that he had “very productive conversations” with Chinese officials on the issue.

Trump’s announcement came weeks after he unveiled tariffs on the import of steel and aluminum products as he presses on with his “America First” protectionist program.

Beijing did not rule out cutting back its purchases of US Treasuries, which are crucial to keep the wheels of the world’s top economy greased. China is

the biggest buyer of Treasuries.

Wall Street’s three main indexes tumbled for a second successive day on Friday, and Asian investors—who fled to the hills last week—continued to sell on Monday.

“How China escalates will determine the pace of play, but Chinese retaliation so far has been more genial than initially thought, and they have made efforts for a diplomatic solution,” said Stephen Innes, head of Asia-Pacific trading at OANDA. “Although China is willing to negotiate and is likely to offer compromises, uncertainty and the fear of escalation will likely hold back market sentiment in the short run.”

Adding to the negative sentiment was news that Trump had installed a hardline hawk, John Bolton, as his national security adviser, stoking geopolitical worries. With AFP

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2018

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

FINANCIALS 59.4 7,860 109.3 673,970 3.18 47,000 138 3,896,540 1.69 76,000 34.95 119,900 7.02 1,700 15.48 7,000 18 3,687,300 3.49 2,000 1.56 57,000 0.54 461,000 83 2,996,420 1.15 1,199,000 12.3 20,500 54.1 32,270 239 580 105.1 570 45.8 48,600 244.6 197,050 90 127,570 1.2 2,000

463,198 73,304,723 144,820 537,398,307 124,470 4,210,695 13,294 108,770 68,390,654 6,980 88,920 256,100 250,341,164.50 1,374,140 250,108 1,750,661 138,554 61,106 2,167,910 48,025,552 11,482,256.50 2,400

142,035 -32,186,031 -284,559,984 -31,200 270,765 37,200 22,847,554 -2,849,096 -80,390 -1,279,649 1,678,240 -7,675,630 3,966,687 -

38.15 13.76 0.55 1.25 19.9 180 3.62 16.62 250 50 22.7 58.85 75.2 85.25 2.01 5.3 9.88 11.1 14.02 10.58 7.31 5.65 16.1 63.5 23.3 9.49 15.46 2.18 282 4.9 3.07 26 15.98 19.3 317.4 0.189 7.61 2.83 4.8 8.68 5.85 8 1.5 11.3 54.35 6 574.5 4.7 2.19 3.4 2.15 14.08 5.36 0.133 0.96 145.1 2.58 1.86 0.72

INDUSTRIAL 38.8 698,500 14 1,913,400 0.57 422,000 1.25 208,000 19.92 92,700 180 1,360 3.64 2,661,000 17 1,341,200 289 50 50.5 612,230 23.85 38,200 63 60 79.95 2,530 85.25 270 2.01 1,292,000 5.31 39,800 10 282,400 11.1 601,500 14.04 48,900 10.66 23,100 7.4 14,500 5.7 5,413,100 16.4 878,700 63.5 68,770 23.85 14,900 9.66 15,800 15.56 2,335,300 2.25 3,113,000 295 404,650 4.9 28,000 3.27 7,000 27 866,300 15.98 105,300 20.5 1,777,200 320 297,420 0.192 240,000 7.65 44,200 2.93 1,097,000 4.81 194,000 9 1,423,300 5.99 26,800 8 6,200 1.51 285,000 11.78 169,900 54.35 559,330 6 30,200 590 34,260 4.7 20,000 2.21 43,000 3.4 3,000 2.19 602,000 14.12 172,300 5.36 7,000 0.133 2,710,000 1.01 92,000 149.8 701,180 2.58 56,000 1.9 3,450,000 0.73 29,839,000

26,962,940 26,651,314 239,400 261,480 1,892,408 248,014 9,701,190 22,757,912 13,488 30,942,998 891,640 3,697 206,439 23,017.50 2,618,840 211,271 2,822,782 6,714,252 687,818 245,808 108,526 30,848,421 14,350,658 4,397,318.50 348,430 155,020 36,506,840 6,986,220 116,911,380 137,600 21,690 22,713,990 1,685,414 35,957,899 95,346,696 46,010 348,901 3,142,660 938,770 12,623,235 158,307 49,600 427,700 1,968,854 30,429,292.50 181,225 20,081,795 94,000 94,800 10,200 1,313,890 2,478,114 37,594 363,990 90,490 103,918,922 146,440 6,576,870 22,258,410

-11,857,800 -38,204 82,075 1,255,160 -8,133,110 8,498,134.50 -16,160 -1,515,000 -4,682,794 88,452 -89,502 -2,131 8,338,054 -3,766,092 -45,303 -100,440 50,490 5,749,690 962,340 -7,931,870 1,650,965 -46,420 17,202,452 -34,023,156 26,980 852,070 96,570 2,173,590 315,000 802,656 -8,556,940 6,270,765 94,000 6,540 -233,892 -8,969,623 -43,930 1,021,190

0.31 69.4 13 0.96 6.45 0.57 0.59 952 1,990 7.19 12.8 7.56 4.65 0.209 1,170 63.5 5.15 0.68 5.22 18.7 0.84 5.24 0.047 1.14 3.44 140 2.57 950.5 0.83 1.79 762 270 0.23 0.195 0.195

0.295 67.8 12.56 0.9 6.25 0.55 0.57 917 1,910 7.07 12.12 7.3 4.65 0.204 1,138 62.5 5.15 0.65 5 18.34 0.74 5.14 0.044 1.1 3.12 134.7 2.57 910.5 0.81 1.71 601 260 0.226 0.19 0.194

HOLDING FIRMS 0.305 800,000 68 684,530 12.74 20,657,300 0.92 69,000 6.4 66,600 0.56 2,505,000 0.58 547,000 950 559,020 1,950 35 7.16 929,600 12.3 6,893,400 7.55 30,400 4.65 2,000 0.207 170,000 1,147 124,595 63.5 1,335,780 5.15 2,000 0.67 215,000 5 169,000 18.6 1,319,300 0.82 64,176,000 5.17 11,838,100 0.044 5,100,000 1.13 780,000 3.2 5,267,000 138.5 195,720 2.57 17,000 940 267,950 0.81 10,000 1.74 943,000 630 8,590 269.8 104,260 0.23 450,000 0.191 690,000 0.194 40,000

238,300 46,589,301.50 261,715,018 62,890 418,458 1,403,430 316,690 523,979,410 67,700 6,652,356 84,826,524 223,408 9,300 34,860 142,960,185 84,222,874.50 10,300 144,590 847,162 24,499,766 51,392,740 61,212,579 229,800 869,470 17,277,620 26,981,852 43,690 247,850,545 8,240 1,625,990 5,920,070 28,137,264 103,420 131,950 7,770

-14,750 -39,231,478 116,196,830 53,642,440 499,600 -32,677,806 -29,757,260 -21,290,029 -558,897 5,649,042 164,480 10,519,978 82,100 16,060,295 -64,798,415 4,520 -

6.72 1.03 15.4 2.04 0.86 40.35 3.75 4.66 6 6.5 0.44 1.1 1.03 0.26 0.455 31 0.65 0.12 1.68 1.54 1

6.48 0.96 15 2.03 0.84 39.8 3.64 4.57 5.94 6.5 0.43 1.09 1 0.249 0.425 30.6 0.62 0.12 1.63 1.46 0.94

909,091 6,825,930 1,318,382 14,260 790,800 499,065,135 839,660 298,100 556,164 1,950 1,937,000 68,700 177,410 3,778,210 2,251,050 8,659,700 1,360,320 12,000 9,716,190 16,621,330 1,377,910

-107,154 -96,440 75,100 -89,885,695 256,670 -46,000 127,100 -28,400 -2,314,720 -8,153,830 5,813,250 103,900

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

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

59 108.5 3.23 139.6 1.6 35.2 8.5 15.5 20 3.49 1.62 0.57 83.8 1.18 12.24 54.2 239 111.5 44 242 90 1.2

59.4 109.3 3.23 139.8 1.7 35.6 8.5 15.6 20 3.49 1.62 0.57 84.4 1.18 12.3 54.5 239 111.5 45.8 244.8 90.4 1.2

58.5 108.5 3.05 137.2 1.55 34.95 7.02 15.48 17.88 3.49 1.55 0.54 82.75 1.13 11.8 54 238.4 105 43.8 240 89.9 1.2

ABOITIZ POWER AGRINURTURE ALLIANCE SELECT ALSONS CONS ASIABEST GROUP BOGO MEDELLIN CEMEX HLDG CENTURY FOOD CHEMPHIL CIRTEK HLDG CNTRL AZUCARERA CONCEPCION CONCRETE A CONCRETE B CROWN ASIA DAVINCI CAPITAL DEL MONTE DNL INDUS EAGLE CEMENT EEI CORP EMPERADOR ENERGY DEVT FIRST GEN FIRST PHIL HLDG GINEBRA HOLCIM INTEGRATED MICR IONICS JOLLIBEE LMG CHEMICALS MABUHAY VINYL MANILA WATER MAXS GROUP MEGAWIDE MERALCO MG HLDG PANASONIC PEPSI COLA PETROENERGY PETRON PHIL H2O PHINMA PHINMA ENERGY PHX PETROLEUM PILIPINAS SHELL PRYCE CORP PUREFOODS RFM CORP ROXAS AND CO ROXAS HLDG SFA SEMICON SHAKEYS PIZZA SPC POWER SWIFT FOODS TKC METALS UNIV ROBINA VICTORIAS VITARICH VULCAN INDL

38.5 13.8 0.59 1.26 22 182 3.64 17.28 250 50.2 23.95 58.85 85 85.25 2.07 5.3 10 11.2 14.38 10.6 7.59 5.77 16.84 64.5 23.3 9.95 16 2.25 286.6 4.95 3.07 26 16.06 19.46 325 0.189 7.9 2.85 4.94 8.68 5.88 8 1.51 11.8 55.5 6.25 579 4.7 2.2 3.4 2.18 14.78 5.43 0.137 1 149.9 2.62 1.87 0.79

38.8 14.04 0.59 1.28 23.5 185.8 3.7 17.5 289.8 50.95 23.95 63 85 85.25 2.08 5.31 10 11.22 14.38 10.7 7.59 5.77 16.84 65 23.85 9.95 16 2.31 295 4.95 3.27 27 16.42 20.5 325 0.194 7.9 2.93 4.94 9 6 8 1.51 11.8 55.5 6.25 594 4.7 2.22 3.4 2.2 14.8 5.43 0.137 1.01 150 2.62 1.92 0.79

ABACORE CAPITAL ABOITIZ EQUITY ALLIANCE GLOBAL ANGLO PHIL HLDG ANSCOR ATN HLDG A ATN HLDG B AYALA CORP BHI HLDG COSCO CAPITAL DMCI HLDG FILINVEST DEV FJ PRINCE A FORUM PACIFIC GT CAPITAL JG SUMMIT JOLLIVILLE HLDG LODESTAR LOPEZ HLDG LT GROUP MABUHAY HLDG METRO PAC INV PACIFICA PRIME MEDIA PRIME ORION SAN MIGUEL CORP SEAFRONT RES SM INVESTMENTS SOC RESOURCES SOLID GROUP SYNERGY GRID TOP FRONTIER UNIOIL HLDG WELLEX INDUS ZEUS HLDG

0.31 68.6 12.98 0.92 6.4 0.56 0.57 928 1,910 7.16 12.8 7.56 4.65 0.204 1,170 63.4 5.15 0.68 5.22 18.54 0.77 5.24 0.044 1.14 3.33 135 2.57 949 0.83 1.79 630 260 0.23 0.19 0.195

8990 HLDG A BROWN ANCHOR LAND ARANETA PROP ARTHALAND CORP AYALA LAND BELLE CORP CEB LANDMASTERS CEBU HLDG CEBU PROP B CENTURY PROP CITY AND LAND CITYLAND DEVT CROWN EQUITIES CYBER BAY DOUBLEDRAGON EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO FILINVEST LAND GLOBAL ESTATE IRC PROP

6.48 1.03 15.4 2.04 0.84 39.9 3.75 4.66 6 6.5 0.435 1.1 1.01 0.26 0.455 31 0.63 0.12 1.68 1.54 0.96

VOLUME

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

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

4.68 0.61 0.38 0.51 4.09 34.05 20.45 1.95 3.26 33.8 0.98 18.1 0.83 6.44

4.7 0.61 0.405 0.53 4.1 34.05 20.45 1.97 3.3 33.85 1.01 18.1 0.88 6.47

4.53 0.54 0.38 0.51 4.01 34.05 19.8 1.93 3.01 33.05 0.98 17 0.81 6.3

4.53 0.54 0.395 0.52 4.02 34.05 19.86 1.96 3.2 33.85 1.01 17 0.81 6.35

7,600,000 125,842,000 4,670,000 2,482,000 303,000 900 951,900 156,000 344,000 5,061,400 1,513,000 150,400 643,000 4,809,100

34,803,460 71,276,210 1,833,100 1,296,340 1,221,660 30,645 18,954,207 304,210 1,095,180 169,062,915 1,502,960 2,597,794 527,950 30,549,470

-17,187,160 1,459,420 9,690 -28,280 -5,169,507 107,240 94,800 -14,928,100.00 20,422.00 -126,181

2GO GROUP ABS CBN ACESITE HOTEL APC GROUP APOLLO GLOBAL ASIAN TERMINALS BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY BOULEVARD HLDG CEBU AIR CHELSEA DFNN INC DISCOVERY WORLD EASYCALL FAR EASTERN U GLOBE TELECOM GMA NETWORK GOLDEN BRIA HARBOR STAR IMPERIAL INTL CONTAINER IPEOPLE IPM HLDG ISLAND INFO ISM COMM JACKSTONES LBC EXPRESS LEISURE AND RES LORENZO SHIPPNG MACROASIA MANILA JOCKEY MELCO RESORTS METRO RETAIL NOW CORP PACIFIC ONLINE PAL HLDG PAXYS PHIL SEVEN CORP PHILWEB PLDT PREMIUM LEISURE PRMIERE HORIZON PUREGOLD ROBINSONS RTL SBS PHIL CORP SSI GROUP STI HLDG TRANSPACIFIC BR TRAVELLERS WATERFRONT WILCON DEPOT

18 28.5 1.24 0.5 0.052 12.56 5.22 14.3 0.064 93.95 7.72 7.5 2.48 25.5 910 1,560 6.37 311 5.3 2.41 101 12.92 8.3 0.124 1.49 3.22 14.8 7 1.01 28 5.8 7.55 3.31 8 11.3 10.48 2.76 113 6.48 1,485 1.09 0.465 52.75 90 7.4 2.7 1.47 0.435 3.9 0.9 10.54

18 28.6 1.24 0.5 0.052 12.56 5.22 14.4 0.065 94.05 8.17 7.54 2.48 25.5 910 1,590 6.42 311 5.3 2.47 101.1 12.92 8.3 0.124 1.49 3.25 14.8 7.03 1.04 28.05 5.85 7.65 3.31 8 11.3 10.98 2.76 116 6.5 1,485 1.11 0.47 52.75 90 7.4 2.78 1.49 0.435 4.09 0.9 10.82

17.5 28.5 1.23 0.485 0.05 12.52 5.22 14.02 0.063 90 7.65 7.4 2.36 22 910 1,540 6.35 303.4 4.95 2.41 97.2 12.92 8.3 0.123 1.44 3.16 14.02 6.36 0.98 26.5 5.55 7.4 3.26 6.82 11.16 10.3 2.76 113 6.35 1,452 1.08 0.435 50.1 86 7 2.66 1.45 0.4 3.8 0.82 10.4

SERVICES 17.5 28.6 1.24 0.49 0.05 12.52 5.22 14.18 0.063 90 7.65 7.41 2.36 22.95 910 1,590 6.36 310 5.14 2.47 100 12.92 8.3 0.124 1.45 3.25 14.7 6.79 1.02 26.7 5.75 7.65 3.26 6.85 11.26 10.3 2.76 116 6.44 1,462 1.08 0.44 52 87 7.1 2.69 1.46 0.41 4.05 0.86 10.54

28,300 40,700 44,000 2,547,000 20,510,000 8,500 100 4,192,400 6,690,000 296,060 3,803,200 50,800 18,000 139,000 40 34,215 409,400 8,710 2,723,400 9,000 1,403,200 5,800 6,000 1,100,000 2,229,000 232,000 23,300 21,975,800 204,000 1,054,900 805,500 2,397,900 903,000 39,974,300 19,500 2,900 3,000 8,850 442,700 78,465 2,526,000 18,300,000 481,040 1,192,970 417,200 735,000 2,193,000 26,060,000 4,542,000 5,210,000 4,307,700

503,422 1,163,580 54,370 1,251,100 1,033,000 106,424 522 59,708,538 423,580 26,886,903 30,217,320 378,830 42,780 3,278,560 36,400 53,496,760 2,613,898 2,679,920 13,823,406 21,800 139,554,434.50 74,936 49,800 135,690 3,256,600 739,930 335,374 148,708,983 203,540 28,570,055 4,584,219 18,166,685 2,961,510 290,432,476 218,394 30,616 8,280 1,019,630 2,840,038 114,827,495 2,759,230 8,268,650 24,818,339 104,280,242 2,973,075 1,999,170 3,190,200 10,704,000 18,131,380 4,446,960 45,388,662

-14,850 17,748,656 -8,751,416 845,055 -33,200 69,000 6,778,980 -24,582 204,328 -79,936,617.50 29,180 -954,548 -1,016,770 -80,732 2,582,994 1,247,940 -13,983,742 2,252 914,060 -58,998 -22,057,995 -208,120 -102,700 -8,420,031.50 -43,875,821 513,890 513,690 2,214,470 310,900 10,424,530 62,250 -10,974,228

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

0.003 1.72 4.73 18.42 1.61 0.315 7.18 2.45 0.213 0.144 0.153 1.47 5.91 1.29 0.465 0.89 0.012 0.012 0.012 2.2 6.02 13 30.8

0.003 1.72 4.73 18.44 1.62 0.315 7.7 2.45 0.216 0.147 0.153 1.47 5.93 1.29 0.47 0.89 0.012 0.012 0.013 2.22 6.02 14.02 30.8

0.0028 1.65 4.6 18.4 1.57 0.31 7.11 2.39 0.212 0.143 0.153 1.47 5.87 1.18 0.465 0.84 0.011 0.012 0.012 2.2 5.9 12.02 29.65

MINING & OIL 0.0029 1,051,000,000 1.69 3,685,000 4.7 165,000 18.44 2,600 1.62 5,888,000 0.31 530,000 7.67 25,100 2.42 1,406,000 0.216 360,000 0.145 1,050,000 0.153 60,000 1.47 12,000 5.89 522,400 1.24 284,000 0.47 300,000 0.85 308,000 0.012 38,600,000 0.012 700,000 0.012 3,800,000 2.2 33,000 6.02 195,100 14.02 6,798,100 30.35 2,351,800

3,063,400 6,209,320 768,560 47,874 9,394,760 165,200 182,553 3,394,530 76,770 152,580 9,180 17,640 3,075,659 342,490 140,900 262,400 458,100 8,400 46,300 72,620 1,169,459 88,669,628 71,004,625

-120,000 -51,800 -4,600 75,450 3,150 38,490 -443,404 705,065 3,199,276 -7,085,755

LR PREF GMA HLDG PDR SMC PREF 2D SMC PREF 2B SMC PREF 2G HOUSE PREF A DD PREF PNX PREF 3A FGEN PREF F FGEN PREF G GTCAP PREF A GTCAP PREF B

1.06 6.27 75 76 76 100.7 102 102.1 102.6 110 1,002 1,002

1.06 6.27 75 76.5 76 100.8 102 102.1 102.6 110 1,002 1,002

1.04 6.27 75 75.5 76 100.2 100.4 102 102.6 109 1,001 1,002

PREFERRED 1.06 8,000 6.27 12,000 75 20,000 76.5 260 76 8,000 100.2 26,000 100.4 2,430 102 900 102.6 50 109 890 1,001 1,000 1,002 75

8,400 75,240 1,500,000 19,645 608,000 2,612,640 246,182 91,832 5,130 97,710 1,001,005 75,150

31,350 -

LR WARRANT

4.52

4.64

4.33

WARRANTS 4.36 2,785,000

12,469,900

13,500

ITALPINAS PHILAB HLDG XURPAS

5.06 3.3 3.34

5.1 3.32 3.4

4.81 3.08 3.2

4.83 3.08 3.27

6,743,230 671,300 4,352,300

280,593 79,190 857,270

FIRST METRO ETF

122.4

122.4

120.3

7,496,286

12,065

USD DMPL A2 USD TECH B2

10.26 1.02

10.26 1.02

10.26 1.02

2,565 71,400

-

MS

PROPERTY 6.71 0.99 15.02 2.03 0.85 40.1 3.66 4.6 6 6.5 0.43 1.09 1 0.25 0.45 30.6 0.62 0.12 1.63 1.5 0.97

137,000 6,952,000 87,600 7,000 939,000 12,468,900 229,000 65,000 93,200 300 4,480,000 63,000 176,000 15,090,000 5,200,000 281,500 2,181,000 100,000 5,927,000 11,114,000 1,435,000

TRADING SUMMARY FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL HOLDING FIRMS

SHARES

14,777,332 73,918,601 127,048,402

PROPERTY

225,392,385

SERVICES

186,221,952

MINING & OIL

1,118,214,881

GRAND TOTAL

1,748,552,645

SME

1,371,100 212,000 1,332,000

EXCHA NGE TRADED FUNDS 120.9 62,060 DDS 10.26 1.02

250 70,000

VALUE 2,040.64 (DOWN) 12.51 1,131,681,621.74 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 11,288.27 (UP) 38.85 1,093,423,667.01 HOLDING FIRMS 7,907.60 (DOWN) 15.81 1,624,289,872.08 PROPERTY 3,601.25 (DOWN) 27.81 SERVICES 1,653.99 (DOWN) 25.99 1,047,605,287.99 MINING & OIL 10,799.89 (DOWN) 27.14 1,230,280,906.345 PSEI 7,932.38 (DOWN) 38.42 188,746,258.7537 All Shares Index 4,796.67 (DOWN) 27.49 6,335,297,513.18 Gainers: 65; Losers: 138; Unchanged: 41; Total: 244

MacroAsia books profit of P440m

By Darwin G. Amojelar MACROASIA Corp. posted a net income of P440 million in 2017, up 146 percent from a year ago, after consolidated revenues increased 26 percent to P2.9 billion in the same year.

The company said in a statement strong operational results were driven by the growth of core aviation services businesses, namely Lufthansa Technik Philippines, MacroAsia Airport Services Corp. and MacroAsia Catering Services.

MAC’s venture into the water supply and concession business also started to pick up, after an operational startup year in 2016.

Lufthansa Technik’ revenues in 2017 stood at $255 million, up 25 percent from 2017, with $153 million representing core revenues. Its 2017 net income jumped 76 percent to $37.5 million from $21.3 million in 2016. MacroAsia owns 49 percent of Lufthansa Technik Philippines LTP’s MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) business was boosted by the gain of two new Airbus A380 customers: British Airways and Korean Air. These big planes are not being used for commercial flights in NAIA, but they are being sent solely for repair in the LTP facility within the MacroAsia Special Ecozone in Naia.

MacroAsia Catering Services (MACS) posted total revenue of P1.5 billion last year, up 7 percent from a year ago.

MACS is building a new commissary/central production facility that will be used principally for institutional accounts other than airlines. The facility will be operated by its subsidiary, MacroAsia SATS Food Industries.

The new unit is expected to expand MacroAsia’s business in the non-airline food segment starting this year. MACS has already been serving the meal requirements of some business process outsourcings, banks, casinos and even caterers who require mass production of meals.

MacroAsia Airport Services Corp., the ground handling unit of MAC, registered revenues of P1 billion, up 52 percent from P679 million in 2016.

Phinma swung to a net loss of P29m last year

By Jenniffer B. Austria PHINMA Corp. reported a net loss of P29 million in 2017, a turnaround from a profit of P277 million in 2016, due to lower income from core subsidiaries.

Phinma said in a disclosure to the stock exchange consolidated revenues in 2017 amounted to P6.4 billion in 2017, up just two percent over the previous year, as revenue from the construction materials and education groups registered slight increases.

The company said energy unit Phinma Energy Corp. faced a challenge in 2017 because of low market prices for electricity due to the competitive supply environment, while its real estate unit Phinma Properties posted a net loss in 2017 after a delay in sales recognition and increased construction costs.

Also contributing to the company’s weak performance in 2017 was higher interest and financing charges due to additional debt in connection with the increased investment in new subsidiary PhilCement Corp. and Phinma Education Holdings Inc. following the acquisition of Saint Jude College Inc. Phinma Education holds investments in six tertiary education schools in the Philippines. It also operates Phinma Training Center in Yangon, Myanmar which has started offering programs for nursing assistants.

Phinma in 2017 sold its majority stake in Fuld & Co. Inc., its US-based strategic consulting firm, to Accretio Investments Pte Ltd., a Singapore unit of a global private research and consulting company.

The sale allowed Phinma to focus efforts on its local consulting company as it develops new markets and opportunities in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The company expects its units to continue their expansion programs in 2018.

Phinma said its education unit would continue to search for schools to add to a growing network in pursuit of its goal to become the largest education group in the country.

Standard

TODAY

IN BRIEF Fire in Sibera kills 37, with more missing MOSCOW―At least 37 people were killed when a fire ripped through a busy shopping center in an industrial city in western Siberia, with scores more reported missing, including children.

“At this time, we can confirm the deaths of 37 people in the fire at the Kemerovo shopping center”, Russia’s Investigative Committee said, according to TASS news agency.

Images on Russian television showed thick black smoke pouring out of the Winter Cherry shopping center in the city of Kemerovo, which also boasts a sauna, a multiplex cinema and a bowling alley that was packed with people on a Sunday afternoon.

Investigators had initially reported five people dead including a child and another 30 people injured and taken to hospital.

As the new death toll was announced, a source in the local rescue services said 69 people including 40 children were reported missing, the RIA Novosti agency reported, while the Investigative Committee said it was “verifying information that 35 people could be missing”. AFP

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Business/ World

Manila

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO, World Editor

Puigdemont arrested in Germany Report on state B of global land ERLIN―Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is to appear in court Monday following his arrest in Germany that triggered a wave of protests in Catalonia, where thousands of separatists faced off with police.

German police arrested Puigdemont on Sunday, after he crossed the border from Denmark, under a European warrant issued by Spain.

The arrest comes five months after Puigdemont went on the run as Spanish prosecutors sought to charge him with sedition and rebellion in the wake of a vote by the Catalan parliament to declare independence.

According to his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, he was on his way to Belgium, where he fled after Spanish authorities moved to impose direct rule over Catalonia.

Puigdemont will be brought before a German judge Monday to confirm his identity and a court will then de-

cide if he is to remain in custody pending extradition proceedings.

“It will take place in the course of the day, probably in the afternoon,” a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office for Schleswig-Holstein state told AFP. Calling the situation “very delicate”, Alonso-Cuevillas told Catalonia’s Rac1 radio it was “very likely that he will not be allowed to leave Germany”.

Clashes erupted as protesters took to the streets in Catalonia on Sunday following his arrest.

Catalan police decked out in riot gear shoved and hit demonstrators with batons to keep the crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish government’s representative in Barcelona, the capital of the wealthy northeastern region.

Officers fired warning shots in the air to try to contain the demonstrators, who pushed large recycling containers towards police. Some people threw glass bottles, cans and eggs at police.

Some 90 people were slightly injured during the protests in Barcelona, including 22 police officers, emergency services said.

Another seven people were injured at a protest in Lleida, about 150 ki-

lometers west of Barcelona and one person was injured in Tarragona to the south.

It is the latest chapter in a secession saga that has bitterly divided Catalans and triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

“It angers us that they arrested Puigdemont, he is our highest representative,” 22-year-old architecture student Judit Carapena told AFP at the protest.

Spain’s central government should not “sing victory because it is not the end of separatism, far from it”, she added.

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent appealed for calm in an address broadcast on regional television.

“I have no doubt that Catalan society will act as it always has, with nonviolence,” he said.

Aside from Puigdemont, nine other Catalan separatist leaders are in jail in Spain over the region’s failed bid for independence.

His arrest comes two days after Spain’s supreme court issued international arrest warrants for 13 Catalan separatists including Puigdemont and his nominated successor Jordi Turull.

The court said they would be prosecuted for “rebellion”, a charge which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. AFP

MEDELLIN―Scientists will publish the first-ever analysis Monday of the global state of land and its ability to sustain a fast-growing human population that relies on it for 95 percent of all food.

The diagnosis is likely to be dire, providing a comprehensive overview of what other reports have already warned: unsustainable farming, mining, factory production, and climate change is pushing Earth to breaking point, leading to human conflict and mass human migration.

“Land degradation... affects many parts of the world and it affects many people in the world today,” Robert Watson, chairman of the Intergovernmental SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, told AFP. “It has adverse effects on things such as food production, such as quality of water, livelihoods are affected by land degradation, people often have to migrate as lands degrade,” he said ahead of the report’s release in Medellin, Colombia.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, 95 percent of human food comes directly or indirectly from Earth’s soil.

“With a global population that is projected to exceed nine billion by 2050, compounded by competition for land and water resources and the impact of climate change, our current and future food security hinges on our ability to increase yields and food quality using the soils that are already under production today,” it said in a 2015 report.

According to Watson, land degradation is commonly caused when humans convert natural land for extractive purposes.

“It could be the conversion of a forest into agricultural land... it could be converting a mangrove system into a shrimp farm, it could be converting natural grassland.” AFP

He’s not rude, he’s just French MONTREAL—A French waiter fired for being “aggressive, rude and disrespectful” says his behavior wasn’t out of line― he’s simply, well, French.

Guillaume Rey, who worked at a Vancouver restaurant on Canada’s Pacific coast, filed a complaint with British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal against his former employer, claiming “discrimination against my culture.”

The restaurant, operated by Cara Operations, accused Rey of violating its code of conduct and said he persisted in his behavior despite verbal and written performance reviews.

In alleging discrimination Rey said French culture just “tends to be more direct and expressive.”

He owes his sacking to his “direct, honest and professional personality,” which he acquired while training in France’s hospitality industry.

Both parties agree Rey performed well at his job despite his allegedly disagreeable demeanor. AFP

B3

Republic of the Philippines REGIONAL TRIAL COURT National Capital Judicial Region Office of the Clerk of Court & Ex-Officio Sheriff Mandaluyong City

NOTICE OF HEARING Notice is hereby given that a summary hearing on the petition for Notarial Commission of ATTY. PAOLO A. PUNSALAN will be held on April 2, 2018, at 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon at the office of the Honorable Executive Judge, Session Hall of Branch 208, 2nd Floor, New Hall of Justice Building.

Any person who has any valid reason or cause to object to the grant of the petition may file with the undersigned before the date of the summary hearing a verified written opposition thereto.

Witness the Hon. Esteban A. Tacla, Jr., Executive Judge, this 19th day of March 2018 at Mandaluyong City.

(Sgd.) ATTY. ERWIN N. BARATA Clerk of Court VI

PROTEST. Protesters hold a yellow ribbon with a picture of Catalonia’s deposed leader Carles Puigdemont while waving Catalan proindependence Estelada flags during a demonstration in Barcelona on March 25, 2018, after he was arrested by German police. AFP

Negative repercussion of a tariff increase DURING his campaign for the US Presidency Donald J. Trump promised the American people that if elected he would quickly act to correct the chronic imbalance in America’s external trade. He would do so, he said, by taking the US out of what he termed unfair trade agreements and by imposing tariff on the exports to the US of high-surplus US trade partners.

President Trump has already taken action with regard to the trade agreements to which the US is a party. Upon entering the White House he promptly took the US out of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership (TPP) that the administration of his immediate predecessor had strongly championed. Then he took aim at NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), demanding that its terms be renegotiated, though he committed a big gaffe recently when he claimed that the US has been running deficits in its trade with Canada.

Now has come the turn of tariff on the exports of countries that continually run surpluses in their trade with the US. His opening salvo was the imposition of tariff on US imports of steel and aluminum products. This has been followed by planned tariff on Chinese products with a combined export value of approximately$60 billion. Mr. Trump has indicated that many more tariff increases are in the works.

It is possible that Mr.Trump’s campaign promises concerning tariffs and his recent tariff-altering actions have been the products of his apparently mercantilist personal philosophy; but, considering that tariff actions have geopolitical as well as economic implications it is more probable that they have been the results of Mr. Trump’s having sought expert advice.

Whoever has been advising Donald Trump on Tariff-related issues apparently has not but should have— warned him about three major negative repercussions of the raised-tariffs approach to the correction of chronic trade imbalances. Two of the repercussions are internaleconomic in nature; the third is significant geopolitically.

The geopolitical repercussion of a tariff-increasing exercise can be summed up in one word—retaliation.

Tariff increases are directed at countries; and countries do not take offensive moves lying down. They retaliate.

Retaliation may take the form of increases in tariffs on the products of the offending country, or it could come in other ways. Tariff hikes lead to increases in the prices of goods and services, which in turn are bound to lead to reductions in the volumes of trade between the feuding countries. The tariff increases that the European Union has said it will impose on selected US exports in retaliation for the announced increases in US tariffs on EU steel

and aluminum exports are going to hurt world trade; so are the retaliatory tariff increases that China has said it is readying for 3 US exports to China.

When they plan retaliating tariff increases, countries do not act in unthinking fashion. They plan with maximum impact in mind. The bad news for Donald Trump is that the EU and China are targetting for tariff increases products that are important for Mr. Trump’s politicalbase states, particularly the Midwest states that are leading exporters of agricultural products. Sensing this prospect, Senators and Representatives from those states have been urging the White House to exercise caution in its tariff-raising campaign.

A second major negative repercussion of the tariffraising exercises relates to consumer welfare. When the tariffs on them are increased, the prices of foreign consumer products affected by Mr. Trump’s tariff increases are correspondingly raised—if the increases are totally passed on, as they usually are—reducing sales of such imported products where the demand for them is elastic.

After the tariff increases; there will be no more affordable products bearing the tags “Made in Bangladesh” or Made in Guatemala.” In the end most everybody is hurt—the American consumer, the exporting country and the producers (usually medium-size or small) of that country.

The third major negative repercussion of a tariff-raising exercises is something that decision—makers like Donald Trump tend to not give enough thought to. I’m referring to the impact of a tariff increase on the cost structures of the companies that use the now-more-expensive foreign product in their manufacturing operations. The tariff increase may end up raising the costs of the products of some American industries, in the process making their outputs even more uncompetitive than they already were. That would be a truly unkind cut for those industries, whose leaders may have helped Donald Trump get elected.

Increasing tariff makes little sense from both the economic and the geopolitical standpoint. Not only does it create discord and enmity among nations but it almost always ends up causing all sorts of collateral damage in the tariff-increasing country as well as in the penalized countries.

E-mail: romero.business.class@gmail.com

(MS-March 27, 2018)

A. SORIANO CORPORATION Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the regular Annual Meeting of Stockholders of A. Soriano Corporation (“ANSCOR” or the “Company”) will be held on Wednesday, 18 April 2018 at 10:00 a.m. at the Rigodon Ballroom, Manila Peninsula Hotel, Ayala Avenue corner Makati Avenue, 1226 Makati City, Philippines.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows: 1. Approval of the minutes of previous meeting.

2. Presentation of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer’s Message to Stockholders.

3. Election of members of the Board of Directors.

4. Appointment of external auditors.

5. Ratification of all acts, contracts, investments and resolutions of the Board of Directors and Management since the last annual meeting.

6. Such other business as may properly come before the meeting.

Only stockholders of record in the books of the Company at the close of business on 16 March 2018 will be entitled to vote at the meeting. The list of stockholders entitled to vote will be available for inspection at the office of A. Soriano Corporation, 7th Floor, Pacific Star Building, Makati Avenue corner Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City, ten (10) days prior to the Annual Meeting.

Stockholders are requested to complete, date, sign, and return the enclosed proxy form to reach the Company as promptly as possible not less than ten (10) working days prior to the Annual Meeting or not later than 2 April 2018. The giving of such proxy will not affect your right to vote in person should you decide to attend the Annual Meeting.

Proxy validation will be held at A. Soriano Corporation, 7th Floor, Pacific Star Bldg., Makati Avenue corner Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City on 10 April 2018 from 11 :00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

Makati City, Philippines, 21 March 2018.

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS By:

LORNA PATAJO-KAPUNAN Corporate Secretary REGISTRATION OF STOCKHOLDERS WILL START AT 9:00 a.m.

Please bring identification, such as valid passport, driver’s license or Company I. D. NOTICE TO STOCKHOLDERS: HARD COPIES OF THE DEFINITIVE INFORMATION STATEMENT AND 2017 ANNUAL REPORT ARE AVAILABLE UPON YOUR REQUEST BY EMAIL, CALL OR MAIL TO MS. ROSE REYES OF A. SORIANO CORPORATION AT ROSE.REYES@ANSCOR.COM.PH, TELEPHONE NUMBER 8190251 AND OFFICE ADDRESS AT 7TH FLR PACIFIC STAR BUILDING, MAKATI AVENUE, MAKATI CITY, RESPECTIVELY. (MS-MAR. 27, 2018)

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

LGUs

Jimbo Owen Gulle, Editor lgu@manilastandard.net editor.lgustandard@gmail.com

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018

Makati touts Lenten traditions

By Joel E. Zurbano

M

AKATI City Mayor Abigail Binay is inviting individuals and families to “staycation” in Metro Manila, to come and experience the city’s unique Lenten traditions that started on Holy Monday.

“Despite its cosmopolitan image, Makati has retained religious traditions that form an indelible part of its history. We welcome visitors to come join us in various activities scheduled this Holy Week,” said Binay.

A total of 48 “Kalbaryos” (Calvary points) have been put up around the city, mostly in Poblacion during the period. These are temporary chapels erected around the streets where the faithful may chant the traditional “Pasiong Mahal,” popularly known as “Pabasa,” that reflect on tableaus of Jesus’ passion and death.

On Holy Monday, a Senakulo Hesus Nazareno was held at Plaza Cristo Rey at 7 p.m., while a procession of the Black Nazarene will be held at 7 p.m. on Holy Tuesday.

At 9 a.m. on Holy Wednesday, there will be a Celebration of Anointing of the Sick and the Elderly and on Good Friday, the Procession of the Lord’s Burial will start at 6 p.m., while the traditional re-enactment of the “Salubong” on Saturday Midnight will happen along Poblacion Plaza.

The Holy Week celebration will close with an Easter Parade at the same Plaza on Sunday, 3 p.m.

During the entire week, both St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church will hold masses at 6 a.m., 7 a.m., and 6:30 p.m., except for Holy Thursday; the Lord’s Supper Mass at 5 p.m. on Good Friday; and the Easter Vigil Mass at 8 p.m. on Black Saturday.

St. Peter and Paul Parish Church was completed in 1620, the 398-year old church is Makati’s oldest church and mother parish. It was built by the Jesuits in Baroque style using adobe stones, various Philippine hardwood, and sea shells. It is home to the images of Virgen dela Rosa and Sto. Niño de Pasion, both unique to the locality.

Meanwhile, Museo ng Makati also opens its doors from March 23 to 27 for the exhibit entitled “Primera Salida: New Infusions for Old Traditions” where Makati Lenten Practices are being showcased for free public viewing.

EARTH HOUR TRIBUTES.

Zumba dancers perform in front of the Quezon Memorial Shrine before the switching off of the lights for the Earth Hour environmental campaign in Manila on March 24. Meanwhile, SM City San Mateo dimmed its mall lights for an hour in observance of the global effort (inset), led by assistant mall manager Raymond Bonifacio, San Mateo Councilor Norbie Rivera, SM City San Mateo mall manager and Rizal Board Member Rommel Ayuson. At SM City Taytay, dancers wear LED lights to form a Wi-Fi signal after the switch off. The mall participated by switching off half its lights for 60 minutes. AFP with Manny Palmero and Norman Cruz

RDC deputizes LGUs to arrest overloading trucks, trailers

By Romeo Dizon

Estrada: This Taguig teaches youth to save via ATM cards Lent, choose to be a person for others EVERY Lenten season to Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada is not only a time for worship services, festivals, fellowships, and deep reflection, but a time for renewal of faith in God, “our constant companion and loving savior.”

In his Easter message released Monday, Estrada said people are reminded of the good news of the love of God in Jesus Christ, in response to the realities and demands of our times.

“Our God gave His Only Begotten Son for the forgiveness of our sins, and His resurrection gives us hope, new strength in confronting our many trials and helplessness. His death on the Cross creates in us a strong resolve to overcome the many problems before us,” Estrada said.

“In the same way we have been forgiven of our sins by God, we should forgive those who have sinned against us,” he added.

The mayor reminded everyone to hope for a better tomorrow and wished all people of diverse political beliefs “to close ranks to face together the difficult challenges that still daunt the Filipino nation.”

“Let us all be bearers of hope and spend the Holy Week in thanksgiving and joy. Let us all discover the joy of serving. Let us choose to be persons for others. For in this season of Lent, ‘The greatest love a person can have for others is to give his life for them!” he said, quoting John 15:13.

“I am reminded of what our Dear Lord Jesus said: ‘I tell you, whatever you did to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it for me’ (Matthew 25:10),” Estrada added.

He said that this season of Lent, “we must choose to be persons for others.”

THE Taguig City government has started distributing automated teller machine cards to high school students in line with its program to teach the youth how to manage their finances at an early age.

More than 2,000 students from the Taguig Science High School and Senator Renato Cayetano Memorial Science and Technology High School started receiving their ATM cards for their very own savings accounts on March 21.

The project includes a two-day Financial Literacy Seminar led by Landbank of the Philippines’ Vice President/Relationship Officer Rossana Coronel at the Taguig City University Auditorium on March 15 and 16. Among the topics discussed were the importance of saving and the dos and don’ts when saving.

Under the program, the monthly P1,000 allowance provided by the city government to each TSHS and SRCCMSTHS student will be deposited di-

rectly to their savings accounts.

The P1,000 allowance per student every month is an increase from the P500 that was previously granted to them. The money can be spent for books, school projects and other schoolrelated items.

“We want them to discipline themselves when they receive their allowances. Through their savings account, the children will have the choice to withdraw or deposit their money so that they can use them for more important transactions,” Policy and Scholarship head Rene Lopos said.

“We wanted to create a culture where students have the proper skills that enable them to make effective and efficient decisions in handling all their financial resources,” he added.

Moreover, students did not have to worry if they can still use their savings account even after graduating from high school since they can continue us-

ing the ATM account if they become recipients of the various scholarship programs of the city.

The city government offers nine scholarship programs—Taguig Learners’ Certificate scholarship program and the Lifeline Assistance for Neighbors In-need scholarship which has eight types—Premier, Full, Priority, Basic, State Colleges and University/Local College and University, Basic Plus, Leadership and Educators Advancement and Development or Review.

All scholarship programs were presented and explained to the students during the financial literacy seminar.

“Through the presentation, we are hopeful that we can encourage students to continue to excel and aim for high honors. Rest assured that the city government of Taguig would be there every step of the way to help them achieve their dreams,” Lopos explained. Joel E. Zurbano

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—The Regional Development Council has deputized local government units in the region to arrest drivers of overloading trucks, trailers, tricycles and pedicabs traversing key arterial roads in the region.

The move was approved during a meeting Friday of the RDC, the highest policymaking body in the region.

Agustin Mendoza, regional director of the National Economic Development Authority and secretariat head of the RDC, said about 130 local government units can now arrest drivers of overloading vehicles.

Mendoza said the council empowered the LGUs through a resolution because of the high cost of maintaining and repairing provincial and national roads, and to avoid the potential deaths and destruction brought about by tricycle and pedicabs traversing national highways.

The authority to apprehend overloading vehicles formally belongs to Land Transportation Office, but due to budgetary constraints and lack of personnel, it has been transferred to the LGUs, Mendoza said.

“Given the insufficient budget and shortage of personnel of the LTO to monitor and enforce the law against erring tricycles and pedicabs plying along the national, we deem it necessary that the local government units be given the power to enforce the law in their respective jurisdiction,” he added.

Gabriela presents Joy with leadership award

By Rio N. Araja

CEZA-CONVERGE PACT. Secretary Raul L. Lambino (second from left), Administrator and CEO of the Cagayan

Economic Zone Authority, shows the Memorandum of Understanding he signed last March 20 that paves the way for Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions Inc., represented by its president and CEO Dennis Anthony Uy (second from right), to install, operate and maintain a cutting-edge broadband service in the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport in Sta. Ana town, and the Cagayan North International Airport in Lal-lo town. They are joined

by Ceza Senior Deputy Administrator Raymundo T. Roquero (left) and Converge ICT Special Consultant Benedicto Bulatao.

A WOMEN’S group on Monday honored Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte for championing women’s rights and welfare.

Nere Guerrero, Gabriela-Quezon City Alliance of Filipino Women chairperson, presented Belmonte with “Dangal ng Kababaihang Lider sa Serbisyo Publiko” award as part of the celebration of the National Women’s Month.

“This is a great honor, something that will further inspire me to fight for the rights of every woman,” Belmonte said during the group’s general assembly held at the Quezon City Museum.

“We know we have a lot more to do because there are still many women out there who are in difficult situations and we have to help them,” she added.

Guerrero cited the vice mayor’s “valuable contribution in the advancement of women’s welfare and in the advocacy of women empowerment in Quezon City.”

Wellness spots in Waikato A TYPiCAl Filipino faces the lethal combination of traffic and stress every day. Reason why many want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, and head over to sanctuaries that rejuvenate the soul and body.

New Zealand is a country known for its rolling hills and verdant landscapes, offering a rejuvenating sight. But for those searching for wellness and peace of mind, the Waikato region, flanked by the mighty Waikato River, is a place that serves as a transformational retreat in NZ. here are the wellness spots in Waikato region in New Zealand.

Life

Bernadette Lunas, Issue Editor manilastandardlife@gmail.com @manilastandardlife

health and environment

@mstandardLIFe tuesday, march 27, 2018

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Bask in a Accommodation at Te Atawhai

Te Atawhai

Nestled in the foothills of Mount Te Aroha and Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park, Te Atawhai traces its origins to one Kiwi fashion designer’s realization that modern life is taking a toll on everyone’s health. With a gathering of wellness experts, guests will be treated to wholefood diets and the area’s natural hot springs. Soothe the soul with three Ms: mindful practice, meditation, and massage.

Sakura

trash-free, toxic-free summer Waste and pollution watch group EcoWaste Coalition shares tips on making sure our summer vacation is trash-free and toxic-free

W

in the quaint equestrian town of Cambridge, the wellness retreat hub Sakura, which bears the name of cherry blossom trees, was designed based on ancient hindu vastu shastra architecture principles. The place offers a wellness regimen coupled with functional fitness workouts. local celebrity chefs facilitate workshops on nutrition and food foraging. Aside from life coaching and journaling seminars, there are plenty of outdoor adventures.

hile many of us are busy planning our getaways this summer, a waste and pollution watch group reminds everyone to make our vacation plans healthy and green.

Sakura wellness retreat hub

“Your summer plans need not worsen the garbage situation in your chosen destinations,” says Daniel Alejandre, Zero Waste campaigner of ecoWaste Coalition.

“Whether you are aiming to go cycling, mountain trekking, swimming, or simply going back to your hometowns, you can have a pleasant vacation without harming local environments.”

The ecoWaste Coalition lists down ecofriendly tips—ways to care for yourself and the environment—for individuals taking advantage of the summer break.

When traveling

Family tipi at Solscape

Solscape

Near the sandy, black coasts of Raglan, lies the award-winning resort Solscape. it fronts the area’s famous surf beaches, considered as surfing mecca by enthusiasts. There is an accommodation fit for any kind of traveler, such as tents, tipis, earth domes, and self-contained eco baches (small holiday homes). One can also stay in an upcycled caboose. They have workshops on permaculture, home gardening, and self-development for those who choose to stay indoors. For more adventurous types, there is a surf school nearby, and other activities like kayaking, horse riding, and rock climbing.

ecoWaste Coalition urges everyone to select a destination nearer to home and one that is accessible via non-plane transportation to cut on greenhouse gas emissions. The group also suggests taking the public transportation or share the ride to reduce the number of cars on the streets, reduce road congestion, and reduce vehicular emissions.

When going on a relatively long vacation, unplug household appliances, particularly the refrigerator, to save on electricity. however, make sure not leave behind items inside the fridge that may go stale.

When choosing accommodation

The green group strongly recommends patronizing eco-friendly hotels and recreational facilities that demonstrate care and respect for the environment. Reuse towels, bed sheets, and pillow cases to cut down on laundry and conserve water and energy. it is also best to bring your own toiletries; refrain from bringing home those complimentary personal care items in sachet or tiny plastic bottle to lessen their production, use, and disposal. Don’t forget to bring your own slippers instead of using those short-lived, thin slippers that are immediately disposed after a few uses.

When dining, drinking, and shopping

Learn how to ride the waves at Surf Dames

Surf Dames

For a ladies’ night with no boys allowed, the women-only Whale Bay retreat Surf Dames is a hideaway fit for a queen. Tucked between Mount Karioi and the ocean, the resort has trained instructors and lifeguards that will guide anyone to cruise the waves in no time.

After hours of frolicking in the water, ease off the tiredness of the body with self-indulgent manis, pedis, body wraps, massages, and facials. At the deck of the lava lounge, happy hour cocktails are available. To cap the night, tune the body with end-day yoga, or avail surf-fitness day packages the day after, if one wants to extend stay.

The Narrows Retreat

The Narrows Retreat

Overlooking the Waikato River, ananda, which means “joy that lives within and found through regular deep meditation,” will surely be found in one’s stay at The Narrows Retreat. Meditation is proven to reduce anxiety, improve cognitive abilities, and ward off depression.

Patronize restaurants that serve beverage and food in reusable containers or bring your own reusable utensils. Check the menu for healthy options. To lessen consumption of bottled water and sugar-laden drinks, bring water in a reusable jug or mug every time you go out. Bring a bayong, cloth bag, or other reusable bags when doing any kind of shopping. Shun single-use carry bags: paper and plastic. lastly, don’t buy and bring home souvenir products made of endangered species; opt for locallymade handicrafts instead. Refrain from buying painted souvenir items unless guaranteed as lead-safe.

When going out

When visiting beaches, mountains, resorts, and parks, be sure to take back everything you bring in. Don’t leave cigarette butts, leftover foods, plastics, and other discards behind. Never burn or dump your trash.

Enjoy a pleasant summer vacation without harming the environment

For a waste-free outing, go for reusable packaging materials and products that can be cleaned and reused many times such as bayong and cloth carry bags, reusable dinnerware and cutlery, and washable cloth napkins, among others.

Refrain from smoking or, better still, quit to avoid generating toxic cigarette smoke and butt litter.

When playing and buying toys

Shun aquatic toys such as inflatable balls, floaters, and rings that are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic that may contain banned phthalates. instead, opt for non-PVC swimming toys that are age-appropriate and do not pose drowning hazard.

So as not to waste water, refrain from using water-based toys such as water guns, soakers, and blasters. Moreover, beware of playground equipment that pose chemical hazards such as those decorated with lead-containing paints.

Most importantly, ecoWaste Coalition advises to use recreational products responsibly. Balloons, beach balls, kickboards, and swimming floaters that have gone astray, as well as misplaced lines, nets, and other fishing gear can injure and kill marine animals.

When using sun protection skin care products

Protect yourself from harsh ultraviolet rays by staying in the shade, slipping on a shirt, wearing a hat and sunglasses, and applying sunscreen on your skin. however, make sure your sunscreen product does not contain any of these banned ingredients: isopropylparaben, isobutylparaben, Benzylparaben, Phenylparaben, and Pentylparaben.

Should you use powder to help you cool down, make sure to pick a talc-free version. Keep it away from children’s nose and mouth, as well as in the female genital area.

Life

C2

tuesday, march 27, 2018 manilastandardlife@gmail.com

What happens when employees

actively volunteer

7 things that make women

feel empowered

We All admire strong and confident women who can take charge of their lives. And while we may think that only a certain few can achieve this, any woman can feel and be empowered.

As a strong supporter of women, Solane, the country’s top LPG solutions company, shares these simple tips to help women—from young ladies to professionals to mothers—gain self-confidence:

Volunteers planted 200 saplings in Cavite as part of City of Dreams Manila’s contributions to the environment

A

compAny’s csR, or corporate social responsibility, initiative only achieves its objectives when, first and foremost, its employees actively participate in its implementation.

City of Dreams Manila sets the bar for CSR initiative participation as more than 4,000 of its employees or approximately 80 percent of its workforce engaged in the luxury resort’s long-term and sustainable programs in 2017.

City of Dreams Manila’s year-round outreach program last year included provisions for basic needs, social and learning activities for orphans and the elderly; refurbishing classrooms through the Department of Education’s “Brigada Eskwela” campaign; annual blood donations for Red Cross; relief goods for those affected by disasters; and mangrove and tree-planting and coastal clean-up drives.

“Volunteerism is ingrained in our employees’ commitment to give back to the community in meaningful and creative ways,” states senior vice president and chief operating officer Kevin Benning.

He continues, “Various CSR activities are held at least twice a month and during these undertakings, employees throughout the ranks in different departments work together to help the less fortunate and conserve the environment.”

Exercise more

They say it’s easy to feel confident when you have an active lifestyle. Regular workouts will not just improve your physique but also improve your mood and decrease feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress.

Embrace your imperfections

Nobody is perfect. Accept your imperfections. View your qualities in a positive way so you can gain more self-confidence and become one of those strong women you admire. Keep striving for personal growth and work hard to improve yourself. List down all your unique characteristics, strengths, and abilities and enhance them.

My Father’s House orphans were treated to a fun morning of arts and crafts activities

Last year, employee-volunteers visited the integrated resort’s adopted orphanage in Parañaque, Bahay Aruga, monthly, providing the children with meals and creative learning activities.

They also brought them to DreamPlay during the Christmas season.

Employees also contributed their time to visit the elders, orphans, sick, and abandoned children at the Missionaries of Charity in Tondo, Manila. They did general cleaning and laundry services to help provide the residents a more comfortable living space, as well as prepared and cooked meals for the residents.

In addition, to support the Department

DreamPlay character Puss in Boots brought gifts and cheer to patients at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center

of Education’s Brigada Eskwela campaign with the Parañaque City government, volunteers cleaned and refurbished 12 classrooms in San Dionisio Elementary School.

Volunteers from DreamPlay and other departments, together with DreamPlay character Puss in Boots, brought gifts and cheer to children confined at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, upon the invitation of blogger Jane Go. Through the Purple Center Foundation, one of the resort’s beneficiary institutions, volunteers also gave immediate assistance and relief in the aftermath of a typhoon and fire in two separate incidents in Tondo, Manila. Canned goods, bottled water, and medical supplies were provided to 1,500 families affected by the typhoon. Linens, bed sheets, cutlery, plates, glasses, and other basic items were given to 700 families whose homes were gutted by the fire.

City of Dreams Manila’s team members also reached out to various nongovernment institutions. Employees also participated in the integrated resort’s semi-annual voluntary blood donation drive. Finally, the Security team spearheaded various CSR activities such as coastal cleanup along Manila Bay, treeplanting in Cavite, thanksgiving tribute to the war veterans in Parañaque’s 16th district, and their own “Drop of Hope” campaign wherein they periodically provide bags of food, water, and basic necessities to street children and families living along the coastline of Metro Manila.

The long-term volunteering efforts of City of Dreams Manila’s employees demonstrate the staff’s commitment to be good corporate citizens and their growing awareness and contributions towards the social and economic needs of local communities—an advocacy they are determined to uphold.

Care for your bleeding gums Is youR gum bleeding when you brush your teeth? If yes, then you probably have gum disease.

Unknown to many, healthy gums should never bleed when you brush your teeth. Healthy gums, or those that are properly taken care of should look pink and firm, not red and swollen.

It is vital to take care of your gums to avoid gum problems, such as gingivitis and periodontitis. Gums with gingivitis appear tender and swollen, and may sometimes bleed. Periodontitis, on the other hand, is an irreversible, serious gum infection that damages soft tissue and destroys the bone supporting your teeth, thus leading to tooth loss.

Aside from tooth loss, periodontitis may also weaken your bodily defenses and may lead to other more serious diseases and infections, including heart disease, arthritis, and gastrointestinal disease.

The bad news is according to the Department of Health, 78 percent of Filipinos have periodontitis or other gum disease, and many do not even know they have it. But the good news is gum diseases can be prevented and treated in their early stages.

Healthy lifestyle, regular exercise, good oral hygiene, and regular visits to the dentist can help prevent gum disease.

Taking a gum supplement, such as Sensedol, promises to help in maintaining the health of your gums.

Made in Korea, Sensedol is a 100 percent natural supplement made from Zea mays L., an extract from a specific variety of corn native to North and South America. Its active ingredient comes from a concentrated form of the plant and can only be extracted using a specific, stringent process.

Sensedol helps not only to promote the faster healing of

Dream big

Don’t be afraid to go after your dreams. Make a vision board to illustrate your goals and remind you of all the goals you want to accomplish. An empowered woman knows that, with courage, perseverance, and belief in herself, she can achieve anything on which she sets her mind and heart.

Be independent

When was the last time you did something without the help of others? Have you ever tried dining out alone?

While others think it is a sad sight, there is actually nothing wrong with it. Being able to do things on your own is truly empowering because it helps you know yourself better. It also shows that you are strong enough to face any situation.

So, go ahead and travel or watch a movie alone. Don’t keep yourself from doing things you want to do just because there’s no one to go with you.

Help out

Join or volunteer for a charitable cause or a program you believe in.

Giving back to the community and helping others will make you feel good about yourself.

Pursue your passion

Bleeding gums could be a sign of gum disease

One of the most rewarding things you can do is to pursue your passions.

Whether it’s traveling, building your own business, or applying for the job you really want, don’t be afraid to go after it.

Never give up. Surround yourself with positive people who will encourage you.

Keep learning

the gums in cases of gingivitis and periodontitis but also to prevent these diseases. According to studies, improved gum health can be seen in as early as 5.6 days upon taking the supplement once a day.

“It is easier to treat patients who are in the earlier stages of gum disease,” posits Dr. Arvin B. Laguna, DMD, PhD, Professor of Periodontology. “Taking the right food supplement can help maintain the health of your gums. It can also prevent the early symptoms of gum disease from worsening.”

Sensedol is available in leading drugstores nationwide.

An empowered woman doesn’t stop learning. Not only will it keep your brain healthy and active but learning something new will strengthen your bond with family and friends. Discover new skills together, like writing or cooking. Let Solane help you develop your cooking skills with simple and easy-to-do recipes available at www.solane.com.ph/recipes.

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018

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nickie.standard@gmail.com

Alden now a better actor

“ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya sa DZMM” anchors Julius Babao and Bernadette Sembrano-Aguinaldo left the radio booth once again to bond with Filipino families.

‘DZMM Kapamilya Day’ in Pampanga

A

BS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya sa DZMM anchors Julius Babao and Bernadette Sembrano-Aguinaldo left the radio booth once again to bond with Filipino families and deliver public service at the “DZMM Kapamilya Day” held last March 16 in Angeles City, Pampanga.

The duo led the DZMM contingent at Sapang Bato Elementary School that traveled all the way from Manila to conduct medical and dental missions, free legal consultations, livelihood workshop, feeding program, free haircuts and massage, and distribution of reading glasses with partners led by the Office of the Provincial Governor of Pampanga, Local Government of Angeles City, Philippine National Police – Angeles, medical societies, and private companies.

More than a thousand people benefitted from the services offered, while birthday celebrants for March got even more as

Simply Red...

From C4

We chanced upon Joshua Garcia at the set visit Dreamscape arranged for members of the media at Tivoli Royale Homes where The Good Son was taping an episode for the remaining days the series would be on the air.

I asked him how he felt being with more experienced actors nominated for the 2nd Eddys, the awards handed out by members of the Society of Entertainment Editors (which, by the way I led as president in the last two years).

The actor merely said, “I am honored to be among the nominees and glad that the members of SPEEd noticed my work.

Garcia is nominated for his role in Love You To The Stars And Back (Star Cinema) along with Abra (Respeto), Edgar Allan Guzman (Deadma Walking), Aga Muhlach (Seven Sundays), and Ronaldo Valdez (Seven Sundays).

Meanwhile, some people (actually writers close to the manager of an actress) asked an actress why she wasn’t among the nominees in this year’s Eddys. The actress won an award for her role in a film exhibited in a foreign film festival.

This year’s Eddys Best Actress nominees include Joanna Ampil (Ang Larawan), Mary Joy Apostol

they received gift packs and cakes. Around 200 attendees also learned how to do chocolate-molding courtesy of the Carl Balita Livelihood & Culinary Training Center, to enable them to earn more income even from their households. Attendees also enjoyed the games, raffle, and free meals and snacks, while kids participated in a storytelling session with the DZMM team aboard DZMM’s Teaching, Learning, Caring classroom-on-wheels.

DZMM launched its “Kapamilya Day” event last year to bring its program and anchors closer to the people, and to give communities a platform to voice out their needs and concerns. Moreover, it is also another way for the station to serve Filipinos, especially those who do not have the means to avail of social services.

This year, ABS-CBN’s flagship AM radio station hopes to reach more Filipinos as it extends its destinations beyond Metro Manila to nearby provinces. Before Pampanga, “DZMM Kapamilya Day” also went to Antipolo last January with Good Vibes hosts Nina Corpuz, Marc Leviste, and Dr. Luisa, and in Mandaluyong City with Magpayo Nga Kayo anchors May Valle-Ceniza and Joey Lina.

For more information visit www.dzmm.com.ph.

(Birdshot), Sharon Cuneta (Unexpectedly Yours), Bela Padilla (100 Tula), and Alessandra de Rossi (Kita Kita).

The actress, whether in jest or not, said, “Bakit nga hindi?”

Does that need an answer? And why would the scribes ask her that?

She wasn’t nominated and clearly the answer could be her performance was not Eddy worthy! *** SKY subscribers now have new reasons to stay glued on TV as it adds new channels across the sports, news, and lifestyle genres to its line-up including LIGA, Fight Sports HD, EDGEsport HD, TLC HD, and Euronews.

Select SKYcable and SKYdirect subscribers will get access to three new sports channels including Liga, which airs the ASEAN Basketball League, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, among others.

Other channels include Fight Sports HD, a 24/7 live sports network that airs epic boxing bouts on “MEGA Fights;” and EDGEsport HD, the home of the Festival International Des Sports Extremes (FISE) World Series, which brings together top athletes in the most popular action sports such as skateboarding, BMX, mountain biking, wakeboarding and inline skating among others.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Tuesday, March 27, 2018

ACROSS 1 Pantry containers 5 Impolite looker 10 Sheik or sultan 14 Pork selection 15 Fling 16 Ali — 17 Willy or Shamu 18 Big chip maker 19 Seals a deal 20 Music source 22 Parent’s armful 24 Scruggs and Hines 25 Kitchen whistler 26 “X Games” airer 28 Ridiculous 32 — the lily 35 Oater answer 37 Zoo employee 38 Capt.’s heading 39 Cringed at 41 — Lanka 42 Sneezer’s need 44 Limit 45 Went by bus 46 Storage area 47 Flaky mineral 49 Dirndls 53 Courtroom word 57 Conversation starter (2 wds.)

60 Flammable gas 61 Faucet hookup

62 Deception 64 Cow-headed goddess 65 Omani title 66 Wishing undone 67 Ricky Ricardo 68 Hot drinks 69 Vex 70 Delightful place DOWN 1 Stuffy 2 Heart outlet 3 More friendly 4 Tangled 5 Cincinnati river 6 Pentagon VIP 7 Starbucks order 8 Goolagong rival 9 Fixed the pilot 10 Early Texas cattle town 11 Sports event 12 Foster a felon 13 Low voice 21 Curve shape 23 Wielded 25 Type of sock 27 Fiery heap 29 Lhasa — 30 Socially inept one 31 Canal of song 32 Japanese clog 33 No future — —

34 In case 36 Snow boot 37 French Legion headgear 39 Lovely weather for — 40 Beavers’ projects 43 Family members 45 Old Clint Eastwood serial 48 Neb. time 50 Opposite of

“supra” 51 TV fare 52 Tom Sawyer creator 54 Assuaged 55 Biscotto flavoring 56 Pine tree product 57 Sharpen 58 Headquarters 59 China’s locale 60 Nervous 63 Famous numero

The Eddys Best Actor nominee Joshua Gracia

ALDEN Richards is both happy and grateful to have recently attended an acting workshop under the helm of Anthony Vincent Bova, a renowned acting coach from New York.

“I’m thankful that GMA organized this workshop. It made me love my craft more,” says the Pambansang Bae. It’s been three years since Alden attended an acting workshop. Now, he sees acting in a much deeper and different perspective.

“I thought I could act based on what I heard from fans. I felt there’s no need to attend workshops anymore. But upon attending Mr. Bova’s workshop, my views changed,” Alden admitted.

Also, Alden realized he has got a long way to go. It dawned upon him that what he knew about acting was just a speck, so to speak.

“Truth is, there’s still a lot to learn on how to become a more effective performer on screen. You know, because of this acting workshop, I’m more excited to work and apply what I’ve learned. It’s just fulfilling,” he says.

So, he’s more than prepared for his next big prime time project.

“Yes, if ever it pushes through!” Alden states. “But of course, it’s not enough still. As they say, acting is a never-ending learning process. Practice makes perfect, right?”

That’s the reason why he is taking the opportunity to attend a two-day workshop when he flies to the ‘Sikat Ka, Kapuso’ show in America and Canada on April 7 and 8 with other GMA stars like Dingdong Dantes, Jennylyn Mercado, Lovi Poe and Dennis Trillo. He will enroll under Eric Morris, a Los Angeles based actor and teacher.

Interestingly, what’s his dream role?

“I’m not particular about it. What would matter is how I’ll interpret it.

It’s like when you’re given ingredients to cook spaghetti, it would depend on your technique on how to make it taste better. Now, I’m more after the impact

my acting will have on the viewers. It’s up to me to make the variations and not make my acting one-dimensional.

I’ve learned many techniques in the workshop and I feel challenged to apply them soon,” ends Alden. *** According to Katrina Halili, she and Kris Lawrence are presently in good terms especially when talking about their parental responsibilities to their daughter, Katrence.

“Past is past,” she avers. “It’s been four years since we broke up. But we remained civil with each other as we have both moved on. We have our own lives to live now.”

Does Kris have a new love?

“I guess so. It’s just fine with me. He can find his own happiness. We should’ve learned from our past mistakes and make them a strong motivation to go on living,” she says.

On her part, the Stepdaughters mainstay admits she is not in a hurry to jump into a new relationship.

“I enjoy my being single at the moment. No complications. I believe that love will come to me at the right time,” ends Katrina.

Meanwhile, the popular lifestyle channel TLC HD that houses hit shows like Cake Boss, Say Yes to the Dress, and The Kings will also be added to the lineup of select plans, as well as worldwide news channel, Euronews, that offers a comprehensive perspective on current events by putting to light diverse viewpoints on issues.

Meanwhile, Liga is available nationwide in standard and high definition in selected SKYcable plans, in One SKY Premium and Lite plans, and all SKYdirect plans.

For more details, visit mysky.com.ph. *** To combat the rampant piracy happening online, Globe undertook “Piracy vs. Piracy,” a unique approach to strengthen #PlayItRight, the company’s h o m e g r o w n advocacy to encourage Filipinos to download or stream content from legitimate sources.

The idea behind “Piracy vs. Piracy” is to use channels where piracy happens to reach effectively and deliver

the message to the target audience.

Thus, during the 2017 Metro Manila Film Festival, Globe uploaded copies of the participating films and other blockbuster Filipino movies on torrent and streaming websites.

“Piracy Against Piracy sends a strong message to everyone on the effects and realities of piracy in the industry and the people who work hard to keep it alive,” says Globe Studios Director Quark Henares.

“Pirating local films robs fellow Filipinos of livelihood and the possibility of making more films.

This campaign has forced people who illegally stream or download to meet the people they rob from,” continues Marielle Nones, art director of Publicis JimenezBasic.

“This campaign allows us to connect with Filipinos who are in the act of trying to look for content from illegitimate sources and share with them the effects of their actions,” says Globe Senior Vice President for Content Business Nikko Acosta.

Globe launched #PlayItRight in 2017 to highlight the impact of piracy to the people in the industry and their families. The advocacy encourages customers and the public to play content from legal sources and protect the copyright of its content partners, while ensuring that its network, products and services are not used in illegal activities.

Pambansang Bae Alden Richards

Nickie Wang, Issue Editor nickie.standard@gmail.com

C4

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018

“Journeyman Finds Home: The Simone Rota Story,” chronicles the fascinating life of Simone Rota, the Davao Aguilas and Philippine Azkals defender.

Cesar Montano delivers his speech before local filmmakers recognized for their works that promote Philippine tourism.

Cine Turismo recognizes films promoting the islands

SIMONE

ROTA in a heartwarming docufilm

By Nickie Wang

A

ISAH V. RED

Academy Award-winning producer Peter Guber (left) speaks in the ANC Leadership Series moderated by TJ Manotoc.

PETER GUBER

LOT of people may agree that the harder you look for something, the more elusive it proves to be. This unwritten rule of the universe holds true even for the most optimistic souls like Simone Rota.

shares the power of storytelling

The 33-year-old defender of Davao Aguilas FC and a member the Azkals – the Philippine Men’s National Football Team -- has given the public a glimpse of his private life via Journeyman Finds Home: The Simone Rota Story, a fulllength documentary film that chronicles his struggles when he came back to his homeland.

“When I was growing up I always thought I was at the wrong place. But then when I came here, I realized that everybody has a destiny,” Simone Rota told Manila Standard in an interview during the docufilm’s screening at Uptown Cienma in Taguig City.

The idea of this 60-minute masterpiece, is to show the life of Simone, his journey from the time he was adopted in an orphanage in the Philippines, then raised in Italy, up to the time he started playing for an Italian professional football club and then coming back to the Philippines after thirty years to play football for the national team. It also focuses on the challenges he faced looking for his biological mother.

“His main reason for playing football in the Philippines is to search for his biological mother, who left him and his sister in an orphanage some 30 years ago,” director Albert Almendralejo said.

Simone, upon his return to the Philippines, instead of staying in a condominium just like the other players,

MANDALAY Entertainment Group chairman and CEO Peter Guber moved and engaged 400 business, political, media, and sports leaders as he talked about his leadership story and the importance of storytelling in a business forum held by ANC on March 20 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila.

His audience included Sen. Sonny Angara, US ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, South Africa ambassador to the Philippines Martinus Nicolass Slabber, and ABS-CBN’s Eugenio Lopez III, Carlo Katigak, Cory Vidanes, and Ging Reyes.

At the ANC Leadership Series: Telling Stories Winning Games, Guber captured his audience right away, as he talked about the big role of failure in his success. He shared how he was turned down many times before finally being able to acquire a team in the NBA, a move that TJ Manotoc – who hosted and moderated the forum – thought was also a big risk in itself as the Warriors team then was not doing very well in the league.

Guber said they focused first on building a winning culture in the organization, where every member – from players, to coaches, employees, and even fans – believed in their goal and knew their role in achieving the goal.

“When you create that culture,

chose to live in the orphanage that cared for him when he was an infant. Hence, the docu serves as a fundraiser for the orphanage so they can help generate more interest in the sport while at the same time caring for the homeless children.

“Initially, the documentary was about football and the players but when we learned about the story of Simone, we decided to focus on his journey, which is something that is so interesting to share with the audience,” Almendralejo stated.

It took the production team more than three years to complete the documentary.

In the process, Almendralejo, and his co-director Maricel Cariaga, got to discover how humble and down to earth Simone is and why he should be emulated by young football players and ordinary millenials alike.

Since the its debut at Sinag Maynila, Journeyman…has earned numerous accolades. First, it received a grade of “A” from the Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB), it won the Audience Prize at the 2018 European Philippine International Film Festival held in Florence, then a Special Jury Prize at Sinag Maynila.

“We wanted to create more docu like this which speaks to the audience and at the same time leave them valuable lessons in life. I’m also hoping it will help out in the search [of Simone’s mom].

Maybe after all the buzz there might be new leads,” Almendralejo ended.

people bring in things. Everybody in the organization feel their participation. Culture is the best business plan for any company,” he emphasized.

Guber uses the same approach in dealing with customers, who he prefers to call “audiences.”

“You must move your audience to the action you want them to take.

People are not moved by features but the benefits the features render to them,” he explained.

This is why, he said, storytelling is crucial for businesses. “When entrepreneurs and executives emotionalize their message, they give meaning that people can hold on to,” said Guber, who formerly served as chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, chairman and CEO of Polygram Entertainment, Co-Founder of Casablanca Record & Filmworks and President of Columbia Pictures.

The ANC Leadership Series is part of the country’s premier allEnglish cable news channel’s efforts to raise the level of discourse on global affairs and business issues in the country by bringing renowned international speakers for a oneday speaking engagement. Former featured speakers were Virgin Group founder Richard Branson (2016), followed by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright in 2017.

Snapshot

GMA Network shows to be seen in OWWA branches KAPUSO programs can now be enjoyed in all branches of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) nationwide as GMA Network recently inked an exclusive partnership with the agency.

Under the partnership, GMA will provide LED TVs at the waiting areas of OWWA offices across all regions.

The contract signing on March 21 at the GMA Network Center was led by GMA Chairman and CEO Felipe L. Gozon, GMA President and COO Gilberto R. Duavit, Jr., and GMA First Vice President for Corporate Strategic Planning and Concurrent Head for Program Support Regie C. Bautista with Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac, Deputy Administrators Brigido Dulay and Arnaldo Ignacio, and Advocacy and Marketing Division Chief Cynthia Erum.

Duavit said that the partnership with OWWA will enable GMA to help disseminate information to the OFWs.

AT A luncheon at the ballroom of Diamond Hotel on March 15, actorturned-public servant, now Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Chief Operating Officer Cesar D. Montano awarded plaques of recognition to eight films released in 2016 and 2017 for highlighting tourism destinations.

Among the films honored were Sakaling Hindi Makarating (Ice Adahan) shot in Ilocos, Siquijor, Batanes and Zamboanga; Lakabay2Love (Ellen OngkekoMarfil) showcases Timberland Heights and Benguet; Camp Sawi (Irene Villamor) set in Bantayan Island in Cebu; Patay na si Hesus (Victor Villanueva) shot in Cebu and Bohol; Apocalypse Child (Mario Cornejo) shot in Baler; Siargao (Paul Soriano) showcasing the island of the same name; Requited (Nerissa Picadizo) features Mt. Pinatubo; and Kiko Boksingero (Thop Nazareno) filmed in Baguio.

In his speech before the plaques were given to the filmmakers Montano said, “Sa mga nakaraang taon, nakita natin kung paano napupunuan at natutulungan ng pelikula ang industriya ng turismo. Film provides viewers with real-life touchpoints, by showcasing a destination and its breathtaking views that (sic) attracts people from all walks of life, the warmth of its people, and the rich history and culture it has to offer.

“Kapansin-pansin ito sa kaso ng Baguio, Benguet, Sagada, na setting ng pelikulang That Thing Called Tadhana. It took viewers on a pilgrimage to sites such as Session Road, the Bencab Museum, Banaue Rice Terraces, Kiltepan Peak, and Gaia Cafe.

“We at the Tourism Promotions Board are closely watching this wonderful development. Kami na po sa TPB ang unang kikilala sa mga benepisyong kayang anihin from film tourism: increased revenues for tourist attractions; jobs for locals; patronage of local food and handicrafts.”

Cine Turismo also honored the South Korean film Mango Tree by Lee Soo-sung that was shot in Cebu and Romantic Island by Cheol-woo Kang that was filmed in Boracay.

While this honor given by TPB was merely honorific (at this time), Montano hopes that in the following years such recognitions are awarded, they will be with some monetary considerations. In fact, the actor is also thinking of mounting a tourismrelated film festival in the future.

There is a pending bill at the Senate sponsored by Sen. Grace Poe and introduced by Sen. Sonny Angara (Film Tourism Bill or SB 1330) that aims to recognize the “potential of international and local motion picture production to create jobs, grow the economy and raise the nation’s profile.”

It also seeks to offer incentives to production companies (sic) that choose to showcase Philippine destinations and the nation’s historical and cultural heritage or champion Filipino film practitioners and artists in foreign productions. Montano is urging the Senate to pass the bill.

The Tourism Promotions Board is an attached agency of the Department of Tourism. Continued on C3