Manila Standard - 2018 September 14 - Friday

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Entire Luzon now affected ‘Ompong‘ spawns threat of storm surges—Pagasa

By Rio N. Araja, Nat Mariano and Joel E. Zurbano

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VOL. XXXII • NO. 211 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

YPHOON “Ompong” gained speed while changing its direction Thursday afternoon.

“Ompong” was spotted 560 kilometers northeast of Borongan City, Eastern Samar, moving west northwest at 25 kph, the weather bureau said in its 4 pm bulletin.

Forecaster Nikos Peñaranda of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration warned that storm surges of six meters or 19 feet high could hit the coasts of Cagayan, Isabela, Aparri, Palanan and Ilocos Sur as “Ompong” approaches the Luzon landmass.

“Based on historical storm surge data, such [A strong] typhoon could trigger five- to sixmeter high storm surges,” he said.

“We will consistently issue advisories to our fisherfolk.

Right now, don’t venture out to sea, especially in areas where warning signals have been raised,” he added.

“Ompong” is forecast to become a super typhoon before making landfall. packing maximum sustained winds of 205 kms per hour and gusts of up to 255 kph.

Tropical cyclone warning Signal No. 1 was raised over Metro Manila and 37 provinces or nearly the entire Luzon.

The areas under Signal No. 1 include Batanes; Cagayan, including Babuyan Group of Islands; Apayao; Abra; Kalinga; Mountain Province; Ifugao; Isabela; Benguet; Pangasinan; La Union; Ilocos Norte; Ilocos Sur;

Signal No. 1 30-60km/h winds

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‘Don’t be fooled by sunny weather’ DISASTER officials warned the public Thursday not to be fooled by the sunny weather ahead of the entry of Typhoon “Ompong.”

“The reports earlier said the weather was sunny but let’s not be complacent,” said Edgar Posadas, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, speaking in Filipino. “Remember with Yolanda, it was hot and sunny the day before, but the next day, there was the deluge.”

“We are seeing how strong this is, with a diameter of 900 kilometers. If I’m not mistaken, Yolanda was just Next page

Economy in good shape: Jobless rate down—Palace

By Nat Mariano

DESPITE a nine-year high in the rate of inflation last month, the Palace said Thursday the economy remains in good shape, even as the Social Weather Stations reported a four-point drop in the joblessness rate in the second quarter of 2018.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the joblessness of 19.7 percent in June was four points lower than the 23.9 percent in March.

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‘Crucial period for oil’

MINDING THE STORE. President Rodrigo Duterte (center) monitors the path of Typhoon ‘Ompong’ (top photo) at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Operations Center at Camp Aguinaldo on Thursday. ‘Ompong,’ the 15th to threaten the Philippines this year, has practically placed the entire Luzon area under Signal 1, has prompted thousands to evacuate ahead of its heavy rains and fierce winds set to lash the northern Philippines before moving on to China. At right, the Taguig City skyline appears calm several hours before the typhoon makes a landfall—if it ever does. AFP with Ey Acasio

Florence weakens but threat persists DANGEROUS Hurricane Florence edged closer Thursday to delivering a powerful blow to the east coast of the United States, with forecasters warning of life-threatening rainfall and flooding even as it weakened to a Category 2 storm.

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GLOBAL oil output hit a record of 100 million barrels per day in August, but the market may tighten and prices rise as exports from Iran and Venezuela decline, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

“We are entering a very crucial period for the oil market,” the IEA said in its latest monthly report. “Things are tightening up.”

The global record came as output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose to a nine-month high of over 32 million barrels per day (mb/d). Next page

Anti-inflation EO to make more rice, fish and meat available to consumers

By Julito G. Rada and Macon Ramos-Araneta THE National Economic and Development Authority said Thursday that an executive order that will remove administrative and non-tariff barriers on the importation of food items will address the supply problems that have driven the rate of inflation to nine-year highs.

The Economic Development Cluster of the Cabinet has recommended that

President Rodrigo Duterte issue the executive order for implementation this month.

The order will zero in on fish, rice, sugar, meat and vegetables—considering that the rise in prices of these items has been the major contributor to inflation for the past two months. Fish and seafood, rice and meat, and vegetables accounted for 2.4 percentage points out of the 6.4 percent inflation rate in August.

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Trillanes chickens out, stays at Senate

By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Antonio Trillanes IV on Thursday rejected his initial plan to leave the Senate premises and opted to stay in his office there due to the alleged threats on his life and the possibility he would be arrested soon.

He told reporters his driver left the Senate premises Thursday afternoon to gas up when he and some of his men

aboard his vehicle noticed that they were being tailed by men riding in motorcycles.

He said his men were able to get photographs of the men aboard the motorcycles.

The Justice department on Thursday slammed Trillanes IV for his alleged propensity to “hole up in an enclosed building or establishment, just Next page

FOR REGION 1. Workers from the Department of Social Welfare and Development load relief goods onto a truck at a Pasay City warehouse Thursday, the goods intended for the Ilocos, projected to be on the path of incoming powerful Typhoon ‘Ompong.’ Norman Cruz

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Voters’ listup eyed for May ’19 polls

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HE Commission on Elections said Thursday it had yet to decide if it would also extend the voters’ registration period for the May 2019 midterm elections.

from Oct. 1 to 5.

“That is under consideration right now. The commission en banc will still have to decide on it,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said in a statement.

Earlier, some members of the House of Representatives, particularly the Makabayan bloc, urged the Comelec to extend the voters’ registration for the coming elections until Jan. 13, 2019.

Jimenez said they were also reviewing other events The poll body made the statement following its decision to move the period for the filing of Certificates in the Calendar of Activities in connection with the of Candidacy for next year’s elections to Oct. 11 to 17 May 2019 polls.

P40m worth of shabu dug up in Fairview, QC CONSTRUCTION workers on Thursday discovered at least six kilos of shabu worth P40.8 million buried underground near the gate of a posh village in Fairview, Quezon City.

Chief Supt. Joselito Esquivel Jr. of the Quezon City Police District said the workers were digging in front of the Geneva Garden Subdivision on Fleurdelis Street, Barangay North Fairview, for a drainage project when they made the discovery around 10 am.

Village chairman Manuel Chua immediately sought police assistance upon learning about the incident.

Esquivel ordered the Station 5 commander to conduct an investigation to identify those responsible for keeping the illegal drugs underground. Rio N. Araja

Anti-infl ation...

From A1 “The issuance of the Executive Order as well as quick implementation of immediate and short-term measures will address the supply issues that have been driving up inflation,” Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.

The proposed EO will jump off from the measures and reforms identified by the EDC to tame food inflation. Immediate to short-term measures include making rice available in the market through immediate release of stocks from National Food Authority warehouses, importation, and distribution of projected harvest; monitoring of rice transfer from ports to warehouses and retail outlets; and the speedy passage of the rice tariffication bill.

Availability of fish and chicken will be increased by allowing imports to be distributed quickly and by setting up public markets with cold storage facilities where producers can sell directly to end consumers.

Apart from importation, improving logistics, transport, distribution, and storage was also deemed crucial for curbing price inflation of sugar, vegetables, and other food items.

Medium- to long-term measures include boosting agricultural production by promoting the use of and developing resilient and high-yielding varieties of crops while reassessing the country’s planting season and crop viability in each region.

Policy measures include the review and possible amendment of the Fisheries Code and other policies governing the sector and legislation for the tariffication also of sugar, fish, meat and vegetables.

The EDC reiterated the urgency of passing the rice tariffication bill, which is currently in the Senate after approval by the House of Representatives on third and final reading.

“The rice tariffication bill must be passed with haste not only to curb inflation but also to provide farmers better access to farming technologies. This will increase productivity and supply in the medium-term,” the EDC said.

The 6.4-percent inflation in August brought the average inflation in the first eight months to 4.73 percent, well over the target range of 2 to 4 percent this year.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, who has been tasked by Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to identify counter-inflation measures, said the EO could bring the rate down to 6.1 percent in Septermber.

Speaking on the ANC news channel, Salceda said the EO would also settle the “raging contentious relations between the NFA Council and the NFA.” The NFA is the state grains procurement agency while the NFA Council sets import policies on food.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs on Thursday blamed the NFA and the Department of Agriculture for the slow issuance of permits to rice importers that has caused delays in the release of imported rice at the country’s ports.

“I would like to address the issue being reported that the spike in rice prices in the country was caused by the delays in the release of rice shipments by the Bureau of Customs,” Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said in a statement.

“If only NFA permits were submitted to the Bureau before the arrival of these shipments, then an efficient and faster Customs clearance process can be made,” the BoC chief said. With Vito Barcelo

Entire...

From A1 Quirino; Nueva Vizcaya; Aurora; Pampanga; Bataan; Zambales; Tarlac; Nueva Ecija; Bulacan; Rizal; Cavite; Batangas; Laguna; Quezon, including Polillo Island; Northern Occidental Mindoro; Northern Oriental Mindoro; Masbate; Camarines Norte; Camarines Sur; Catanduanes; Albay; Sorsogon; Burias and Ticao island, and Northern Samar.

The weather bureau said “Ompong” will make landfall in the Cagayan-Isabela area on Saturday morning if it does not change its direction.

Gener Quitlong, Pagasa forecaster, said those to be affected by the powerful typhoon and the concerned government agencies still had about 36 hours to prepare.

Pagasa forecaster Rene Paciente likened Typhoon “Ompong’s” strength to that of Super Typhoon “Lawin” (Haima), which hit northern Luzon in October 2016, leaving at least eight people dead.

The bureau previously said that “Ompong” will likely peak at 220 kph in maximum sustained winds with gusts of 270 kph, a little weaker than Lawin’s 225 kph top sustained winds.

The typhoons are also similar in diameter, Pagasa noted, with Ompong measuring 900 kilometers and Lawin 800 kilometers.

In Northern Luzon, heavy to intense rains will persist today and will peak on Saturday when “Ompong” makes landfall.

According to Pagasa, Baguio City and Tuguegarao will receive the highest rainfall on Saturday, while monsoon rains also will bring occasional heavy rains to Palawan, Zamboanga and the Visayas.

Chris Perez, forecaster, said only the “outermost periphery” of Metro Manila would be affected by “Ompong.”

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday designated presidential political adviser Francis Tolentino as his conduit for preparations and disaster response.

Duterte also tasked Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, NDRRMC executive director Ricardo Jalad, and Tolentino to closely monitor the provinces in Northern Luzon along Ompong’s expected path.

The President said he was satisfied with the typhoon preparations.

Meanwhile, 30 domestic flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday have been canceled

by Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific Air, in anticipation of bad weather.

PAL announced on Thursday it has suspended four flights—Clark to and from Basco and Tuguegarao —scheduled today (Sept.

14) and eight other domestic flights—Manila to and from Laoag, Clark to and from Basco, and Clark to and from Tuguegarao scheduled on Sept. 15.

‘Don’t...

From A1 600 kilometers,” he said.

Posadas urged people, particularly those in the typhoon’s expected path, to remain vigilant.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, the weather bureau spotted “Ompong” at 560 km northeast of Borongan City, Eastern Samar, packing maximum sustained winds of 205 kph near the center and gustiness of 255 kph.

Some 24 areas were placed under Signal No. 1 as the typhoon moved west northwest at 25 kph.

By Friday afternoon, it was expected to be 360 km east of Casiguran, Aurora, and

by Saturday afternoon, 75 kilometers west of

Florence...

From A1 Georgia joined four other coastal states issuing an emergency declaration as forecasts showed Florence dumping historic amounts of torrential rain on the southern state.

As Florence closed in, President Donald Trump and state and local officials urged residents in the path of the storm to evacuate before it was too late.

Appeals to stay safe came from as far

Trillanes...

From A1 like what he did in 2003 at Oakwood, in 2007 at the Manila Peninsula and now in the Senate in his bid to evade the processes of the law.”

The DoJ said the Makati City regional trial court that dismissed the coup d’etat case against Trillanes should “simply ignore” its own judgment dismissing the case due to Proclamation 573 revoking the amnesty granted to him.

Malacañang said Thursday an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte would not prosper after Magdalo Party-list Rep. Gary Alejano planned to

“The schedule of subsequent activities are currently being reviewed for possible adjustments should the need arise,” Jimenez said.

For now, he said, only the period for filing CoCs had been reset.

The Comelec moved the CoC filing period to a later date at the request of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The voters’ registration period for next year’s midterm polls began on July 2 and will end on Sept. 29.

PNA

“In view of the existing current path and strength of Typhoon Ompong (International Codename ‘Mangkhut’), Philippine Airlines has canceled the following flights originally scheduled on September 14 (Friday) -September 15 (Saturday),” said Maria Cielo Villaluna, PAL corporate communications department chief and spokesperson.

On the same dates, Cebu Pacific and its sister airline CebGo also canceled domestic flights affecting 18 flights in Manila to and from Tuguegarao, Virac, Basco, Naga, Cauayan.

Both airlines are closely monitoring the weather situation and assured air travelers they will provide updates should other routes be affected.

Heavy rains are expected in Northern and Central Luzon as well as the National Capital Region throughout the weekend until Monday.

PAL encouraged passengers to check the status of their flights within 48 hours to flight departure by logging on to the airline’s flight status page or by downloading the PAL Mobile App. Cebu Pacific officials, on the other hand, advised affected passengers not to proceed to the airport, but instead avail any of the options, without penalties: rebook their flights for travel within 30 days from original departure date; place the cost of the ticket in a Travel Fund for future use, or get a full refund.

Manila International Airport Authority general manager Eddie Monreal earlier asked passengers to coordinate with their respective airlines for any announcements of flight cancellations, rescheduling, or rebooking of flights in anticipation of Typhoon Ompong’s effect on flight operations.

Air Swift has also canceled four flights to and from Basco in connection with the anticipated arrival of the super typhoon.

The Civil Aviation of the Philippines has advised all airport general managers in Laoag, Tuguegarao, Basco, Legazpi, Naga and Virac to be prepared for the bad weather condition.

CAAP director general Capt. Jim Sydiongco reminded the area managers to be present and be in their respective areas before, during and after Ompong makes landfall to secure the airport especially the runway from all kinds of debris and other foreign objects that can disrupt airport operations.

Already, the typhoon has forced the cancellation of sea trips in Manila, Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Northern Samar and Negros Oriental, the Coast Guard said Thursday.

Some 2,828 passengers were stranded after their trips were canceled. The Coast Guard added that 188 rolling cargoes, 10 vessels and four motor boats were stranded in various ports.

The Palace assured the public that the government is ready for Ompong.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said several government agencies have been ordered to facilitate emergency measures to make sure that the country’s state of readiness will be at the highest level.

“The Department of the Interior and Local Government has been monitoring the preparations of the local governments, particularly their preemptive evacuation plans,” said Roque in a Palace press briefing Thursday afternoon.

Also, the Department of Social Welfare and Development has readied food packs and assistance worth P1.7 billion to aid the possible casualties of the storm. The relief goods will be distributed to the expected path of ‘Ompong’ in Northern Luzon.

“The Department of Health also prepared enough medicines, medical supplies, and deployment of medical teams to respond whenever needed,” Roque said.

“We also have deployed quick response teams in the province of Batanes and established alternative communication devices to ensure that clear line of communication as Ompong hits the country,” said Roque. “We are prepared.”

The Palace official also called on the farmers in Benguet to try harvesting the vegetables and harvest those that can be salvaged before Ompong makes its landfall in Northern Cagayan.

Typhoon Mangkhut, as Ompong is called internationally, has already blasted through the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, and was speeding across the Pacific with winds that can gust as high as 255 kilometers per hour.

Authorities said some 10 million people in the Philippines are in the storm’s path, not including millions more in heavily-populated coastal China.

Thousands began evacuating in seaside areas of the northern tip of Luzon, where the storm is expected to make landfall early Saturday.

“The pre-emptive evacuation is going on in our coastal municipalities, the villages that are prone to storm surge,” local government spokesman Rogelio Sending said. “We are going to evacuate more.”

Flooding, landslides and wind damage from the coming storm were top concerns as authorities prepared equipment for rescue and relief operations.

Schools were shuttered and some farmers took to their fields to start early harvest of corn and rice that could be ruined by flooding.

An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.

The country’s deadliest on record is Super Typhoon Yolanda, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November 2013. With Vito Barcelo, AFP

Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.

“Ompong” is expected to exit the country’s area of responsibility Sunday.

Catholic churches began reciting a prayer for deliverance from calamities Thursday as the country braced for “Ompong.”

Fr. Jerome Secillano of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Public Affairs Committee said the prayer will be recited until the threat of calamity has passed.

“Ompong” is the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, expected to peak at gusts of up to 270 kilometers per hour on Thursday before easing to still dangerous velocities as it approaches land, the state weather bureau Pagasa said.

Preparations for the typhoon have begun in different parts of the country as early as Wednesday with those residing in risk areas

fleeing to makeshift centers.

The storm is expected to make landfall in northern Cagayan on Saturday morning and bring heavy rains within its 900-km diameter.

The Metro Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council called on local government units and member-agencies to aim for zero casualties during the typhoon.

Director Romulo Cabantac Jr., MMDRMC senior vice chairman, said the goal could be achieved by carrying out the necessary disaster preparations before the typhoon hit.

“All 17 LGUs in Metro Manila, concerned agencies are all prepared. Manpower and equipment are already prepositioned ahead of the typhoon, which is likely to be felt on Friday,” said Cabantac during a pre-disaster risk assessment meeting.

away as space as German astronaut Alexander Gerst tweeted pictures of the monster storm taken from the International Space Station along with the warning: “Watch out, America!”

The National Hurricane Center said that Florence’s maximum sustained winds had eased to 110 miles per hour (175 kph) and it had been downgraded to a Category 2 storm from Category 3 on the five-level SaffirSimpson wind scale.

It was the second such drop in the space of hours, but the Miami-based NHC

stressed it remained “a life-threatening situation” due to the risks of storm surge around coastal areas.

Up to 1.7-million people are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders, and coastal residents were frantically boarding up homes and businesses and hitting the road on Wednesday as the storm approached.

“Get out of its way, don’t play games with it, it’s a big one, maybe as big as they’ve seen,” Trump said. “We’ll handle it. We’re ready, we’re able.AFP

charge the President for violating the country’s anti-wiretapping law.

“His [Trillanes] camp always files an impeachment complaint and nothing is happening, so let him file another impeachment complaint. Nothing will happen about that because it’s nonsense,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.

The DoJ on Thursday expressed confidence that the move to put Trillanes behind bars had gained ground after the Supreme Court earlier ruled on the trial court’s jurisdiction to hear and resolve the issue on the legality of President Duterte’s revocation of the amnesty granted to him for his involvement in the unsuccessful coup detat against the Arroyo administration.

Trillanes said it had been reported to his

camp that there was a PNP personnel augmentation in the Senate grounds purportedly “to stop him from going back in” once he stepped out of the Senate building.

Trillanes said they had received a warning from the military that he would be arrested once he got out of the Senate building.

He also said unidentified men also tailed his driver and staff when they went out to get something.

He said what Duterte had told the media that he would not be arrested was contrary to what he had been doing.

To ensure his safety, Trillanes said, he had found it prudent to remain in his office until he received an assurance from the military that he would not be arrested. With Rey E. Requejo and Nat Mariano

House panel pushes revival of peace talks

By Maricel V. Cruz A PANEL in the House of Representatives has adopted a resolution urging President Rodrigo Duterte to resume the government’s peace negotiations with the communist rebels and complete the comprehensive agreements of social, economic and political reforms to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace.

At a hearing conducted by the House Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity led by Rep. Ruby Sahali of Tawi-Tawi, the panel adopted House Resolution 1803.

The resolution says on Nov. 23, 2017, Duterte signed Proclamation 360 terminating the peace talks with the communist National Democratic Front. Subsequently, on Dec. 5, 2017, Duterte issued Proclamation 374, declaring the CPPNDF as terrorist organizations.

The resolution says the peace negotiations under the Duterte administration have reached remarkable and unparalleled headway after four successful rounds of negotiations.

The resolution says continuing the peace talks will benefit the Filipino people, most of whom are poor peasants and workers, as the agreement on agrarian reform and national industrialization may address their concerns and help provide relief for their economic hardships.

“It is highly imperative that Congress hears and echoes the Filipino people’s desire for the resumption of the peace negotiations and for the GRP and NDF to forge substantive agreements that will resolve the root causes of the nearly five-decadeold armed conflict. It is the cause for a just and lasting peace itself that is the very compelling reason to continue the peace negotiations,” the resolution says.

Economy...

From A1 “The result only goes to show that even though we have problems with inflation, our economy continues to strengthen as evidenced by the reduction in joblessness,” said Roque.

“This is consistent with the recently released government data from the Labor Force Survey of the Philippines Statistics Authority, which indicates that the July 2018 employment rate improved to 94.6 percent,” Roque said.

“This PSA figure, we reiterate, is the highest in the last 10 years among previous July rounds, as per the National Economic and Development Authority,” he added.

In its own survey, the SWS said the 19.7 percent joblessness rate translates to about 8.6 million adults. This compared to about 11 million in March.

“The June 2018 adult joblessness rate consisted of those who voluntarily left their old jobs at 9.5 percent [4.2 million adults], those who involuntarily lost their jobs at 6.8 percent [3 million adults], and first-time job seekers at 3.4 percent [1.5 million adults],” SWS said.

SWS also found the adult labor force participation rate experienced a 3-point decrease, at 68.3 percent or an estimated 43.8 million adults.

SWS’ adult joblessness data refers to adults in the labor force. Those with a job at present, plus those without a job at present and looking for a job, are included in the labor force.

“Adult joblessness fell by 8.8 points in Balance Luzon, from 28.1 percent in March 2018 to 19.3 percent in June 2018,” said SWS. “It also fell by 2.5 points in the Visayas, from 21.6 percent in March to 19 percent in June.”

‘Crucial...

From A1

The cartel had agreed in Vienna in June to push up production in order to put a cap on soaring prices.

In recent months, prices have wavered comfortably between the $70 and $80 per barrel on the Brent crude futures contract.

According to the IEA, a rebound in Libyan production, near-record Iraqi output and higher supply from Nigeria and Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia have so far managed to offset the impact of shrinking production from crisis-hit Venezuela and Iran.

But with the crisis in Venezuela showing no sign of abating, and with new US sanctions on Iran’s oil industry set to come into force on Nov. 4, other producers may have to ramp up production even further if they want to limit the impact on the market.

“It remains to be seen if other producers decide to increase their production. The price range for Brent of $70-$80/bbl in place since April could be tested,” the IEA said.

In May, US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and said other countries must stop buying oil from Tehran or face American sanctions.

And hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled their country since the nation became engulfed in a political crisis that has sent the economy into free fall.

“The situation in Venezuela could deteriorate even faster, strife could return to Libya and the 53 days to 4 November will reveal more decisions taken by countries and companies with respect to Iranian oil purchases,” the IEA said. AFP

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

‘Bora’ rehab completed in Dec. 2019 —Puyat

By Macon Ramos-Araneta WHILE Boracay will be reopened on Oct. 26, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the rehabilitation of the island will be completed by December 2019.

Speaking during the deliberations of the Department of Tourism proposed P3.39-billion budget for next year, Puyat said there will be a “soft opening” on Oct. 26 this year but “with only major roads built.”

“So by October 26, you will only have the main roads built. That’s why we also say it’s only a soft opening,” she said.

“So by October 26, we’ll have only the major roads built but definitely, we see a complete rehab maybe by December of 2019.”

Puyat added that hotels that will be opened should have already complied with the requisites put up by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the DoT. She likewise told the panel chaired

by Senator Loren Legarda that the Oct. 26 soft opening is just the first phase of the rehabilitation. She said the second phase will be on April 2019 while the third and final phase was scheduled on December 2019.

The DoT also asked airlines to reduce flights entering Boracay following the advisory of DENR on the carrying capacity of Boracay. Puyat said they wanted to limit the number of tourists in the island resort to 19,000 at any given time.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu told the same hearing on Wednesday that 180 out of the 2,000 establishments have fully complied with the required waste water sewage system as they already have their own treatment plan, drainage system and solid waste management. He said they had also secured their own permits and accreditation for tourism purposes.

Du30, US envoy Kim meeting ‘private’ —spokesman PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s meeting with United States Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Yong Kim was classified as “private,” the Palace said Thursday, as they expect closer ties with the federal state.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, who has kept mum on providing details, insisted he has yet to ask the President about the issues discussed during the “private meeting.”

“No details were released. And as you know this is a diplomatic meeting, so it was classified as a private meeting... I’ll have to get clearance from the President himself on what he’s willing to release on the meeting,” said Roque in a Palace press briefing.

“We’ve always had good relations with the United States. And I’m sure that every meeting between the President and the US Ambassador will result in closer relations,” said Roque.

Kim took to Twitter to describe his dialogue with the President. The US official tagged it as an “excellent meeting,” emphasizing that the two countries vowed to maintain its “strong and ironclad” relations.

“Excellent meeting with President Duterte to discuss shared goals, including defense priorities and economic partnership. Our alliance remains strong and ironclad,” the US Ambassador to the Philippines said.

The President’s meeting with the US’ top envoy happened three weeks after Duterte called on the US State Secretaries Michael Pompeo, Wilbur Ross, and James Mattis.

The officials cited the track record of the US in supplying defense equipment to the Philippines, even as they expressed their strongest support to modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“We know however that our nations can do even more to integrate our economic and security concerns,” the letter, which was signed by the three officials, read.

Duterte, however, urged the US’ three toughest officials to prove their “utter good faith” in helping the country’s defense through procurement of fighter jets and attack helicopters. Nat Mariano

THREAT OF ’OMPONG.’ Navotas fishermen secure their motorized bancas as Typhoon ‘Ompong’ enters the Philippine area of responsibility. Norman Cruz

House rescinds Alvarez’ bill abolishing Road Board

By Maricel V. Cruz

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HE House of Representatives on Wednesday recalled the passage of a bill authored by former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez abolishing the Road

Board.

This came after the House, in plenary session, overwhelmingly approved the motion of House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., to cancel the approval of the Road Board abolition under House Bill 7436 of Alvarez.

“With leave of the House, I move that we rescind approval of the said bill and that we will no longer pursue its passage,” said Andaya, whose motion was approved by deputy speaker and Palawan Rep. Frederick Abueg, the presiding officer, after hearing no objections from their colleagues.

Alvarez’s bill was approved on third and final reading last May and has reached the bicameral conference committee.

The bill has proposed to abolish the

Road Board and transfer its functions to the Department of Public Works and Highways and to the Department of Transportation, as the Road Board “is allegedly a source of corruption for some of its officials.”

Alvarez earlier said that over the years, the Commission on Audit has unearthed signs of alleged illegal utilization of the Road Fund, estimated to have amounted to a total of P90.72 billion from 2001 to December 2012.

The bill also noted the CoA reports that some P515.50 million of the Road Fund was used in 2004 to 2008 for payment of salaries, allowances, maintenance and other operating expenses, which were properly chargeable to the regular budget.

In 2011, P62.52 million of the Road

Fund was used for the Road Board’s engineering and administrative overhead expenses, Alvarez said, quoting the CoA findings.

In 2013, Alvarez said CoA also uncovered irregularities in the use of more than P1.66 billion of the funds.

Alvarez added that the CoA has pointed out that from 2001 to 2010, there were discrepancies amounting to P1.495 billion in the total collection of Road User’s Tax between the collections declared by the Land Transportation Office and the certification from the Bureau of Treasury.

In filing HB 6236, Alvarez said the Road Board was created under Republic Act 8794, which imposed a motor vehicle users’ charge on owners of all types of motor vehicles.

The law provides that the board is tasked to ensure prudent and efficient management and use of the special funds known as the Road User’s Tax (or Road Fund), which is earmarked solely and exclusively for road maintenance and improvement of road drainage, installation of efficient traffic lights and road safety devices, and air pollution control.

Murder case filed vs Trece Martires mayor, four others

By Rey E. Requejo THE Cavite Police Provincial Office on Thursday filed before the Department of Justice a murder and frustrated murder charges before the Department of Justice against Trece Martires Mayor Melandres de Sagun and four other persons for their alleged involvement in the killing of Vice Mayor Alex Lubigan and his driver Romulo Guillemer last July.

Aside from De Sagun, also named respondents in the complaint were

Maragondon Municipal Councilor Lawrence “Umbe” Arca, Luis Vasquez Abad Jr., Ariel Fletchetro Paiton, and Rhonel Bersamina and other still unidentified persons.

CPPO chief Sr. Supt. William Segun was accompanied by Gemma and Anabel, widows of Lubigan and Guillemer, respectively, in filing the complaint.

The 44-year-old Lubigan and the 50-year-old Guillmer and his security aide Romeo Edrinal were on board a

black Toyota Hi-lux pick up vehicle when gunmen peppered the vehicle with bullets at around 3 p.m. in front of the Korean-Philippines Friendship Hospital.

Lubigan and Guillmer died during the attack, while Edrinal managed to survive with some injuries.

The gunmen, who were on board a black sports utility vehicle, then fled towards the direction of Indang, Cavite.

Lubigan was on his third term as vice mayor.

Palace to meet with panel of prosecutors on ‘massacre’

By Nat Mariano MALACAÑANG on Thursday expressed confidence anew that the suspects in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre will be read their charges before the year ends as they arranged a meeting with the prosecution panel to discuss several issues on the matter.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, who served as lawyer to some of the victims’ families, said the Palace is currently setting up a meeting with the prosecutors assigned to the case.

“I would like to inform the public that I’m arranging a meeting with the panel prosecutors in the Palace again. I would like to invite the President to join us in our meeting so that the President can be apprised by the prosecution team on what’s happening,” said Roque, who had expressed eagerness to pursue the marching orders of Duterte on the case.

“I have noted that apparently there are some witnesses against Andal Ampatuan Jr. who have retracted their testimonies, but I have been assured by the panel of prosecutors that despite the retraction, the case against Unsay [Ampatuan Jr.] remains strong,” Roque said.

Asked whether the suspects will be sentenced within the year because of criminal charges, Roque expressed confidence on the matter.

“That is the marching orders of the President to the prosecution panel and that’s why I think that their appearance in the Palace is pursuant to the marching order of the President,” he said.

Roque made the remark when asked to comment on a report, which said that there were efforts to convince witnesses to recant their testimonies against Ampatuan.

On Sunday, the Sandiganbayan rejected Ampatuan Jr’s attempt to test the prosecution’s evidence in a graft case.

Bill on protecting power lines pushed

By Maricel V. Cruz

SHABU AT DRAINAGE. National Capital Region Police Officer Chief Police Director Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar and Quezon City Police District Director PCSupt.

Joselito Esquivel Jr. present to the media the six kilos of illegal drugs (shabu) worth around P40.8 million which was excavated by workers at a drainage of a refrigerator repair shop near Geneva Gardens Subdivision in Brgy. North Fairview, Quezon City.

Manny Palmero

ALARMED by the threat of Typhoon ‘‘Ompong’’ that was of Thursday morning was fast approaching Luzon with powerful winds exceeding 200 kph, a party-list congressman on Thursday pressed the Senate to approve a bill protecting power lines that are again under real threat.

1st Consumers Alliance for Rural Energy Party-list Rep. Carlos Roman Uybarreta said any disturbance on power lines will cause widespread blackouts.

Uybarreta, vice chairman of the House committee on energy, expressed hopes that the Senate “will take this new typhoon as another reminder to expedite the Anti Power Lines Disturbance bill.”

He said that the bill, when finally enacted, will empower electric cooperatives and the distribution and transmission utilities to clear all potential hazards to power lines and

prevent blackouts.

“Prevention is better than cure and we also get our technical crew out of harm’s way. We would be able to spare electric cooperative customers the power outages which usually follow when storms topple tall trees that grow near or under power lines,” Uybarreta said.

Uybarreta’s proposed Anti-Power Lines Disturbance provides a provision reserving only to the Court of Appeals the power to issue injunctions or temporary restraining orders against efforts to clear right-of-way areas of hazards to power lines.

The measure also requires applicants for building permits to first secure the permission of electric cooperatives before they build any structures at or near the right-of-way zone at power lines and facilities.

The bill has already been passed on third and final reading at the Lower House, and pending at the Senate.

A4

Opinion

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Junking, a.k.a. voiding

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL

should be nothing wrong with that. There was a case before them. They had to vote CROSSROADS on it, one way or the other. Otherwise, not voting at all even if by abstention would JONATHAN have been a far more serious breach than voting in accordance with their reading DE LA CRUZ of the Constitution and the law.

It will be noted that the seven justices JUNKING or its equivalence in real life (actually eight, including now Ombudseffect, voiding, has been one of the most man Samuel Martires) voted to oust Sereoften used words in public statements no based on a finding and the admission lately. Junking was how the recent ac- of the ousted chief herself that indeed she tion of the House Committee on Justice failed to comply with the requirements of was described as its members, by a 23-1 the SALN Law. That fact was never convote with no abstention, struck down the troverted by Sereno and her lawyers.

They insisted that at least she was able impeachment case filed by five House members led by Albay Representative to show some of her SALNs while teachEdcel Lagman against the seven justices ing at the UP and and serving as clerk for who voted to oust then Chief Justice Ma- Justice Florentino Feliciano, her mentor. ria Lourdes Sereno from the Supreme She and her lawyers should have stopped at that assertion. But no. They proceeded Court on quo warranto.

In rejecting the complaint as insuffi- to debate with themselves whether a quo cient in substance, the committee headed warranto case would prosper at all.

In any event,

by Oriental Mindoro Representative Sereno herself tried Salvador “Doy” to obfuscate and Leachon, noted justify this error by insisting that a) that the requireThe justices acted hers was a case of ments for such a on the case and voted simple negligence finding was not done in good faith met. Some memin accordance with and b) anyway, the bers said, for examhow they viewed the 1987 Constitution ple, that the critical clearly stated that finding of a factual law an impeachable ofand proper recital ficial like herself of facts constituting the alleged ofcan only be refense of betrayal of moved from office public trust and culpable violation of the by impeachment and no other mode.

Well, the majority found such arguConstitution were not there.

That the complaint was more of a polit- mentation of no moment. They convincical stunt than a serious effort to bring the ingly argued that, yes, impeachment justices to account for their action was was the proper mode of removal of an exposed by Reps. Rodante Marcoleta and impeachable official if the same is leHenry Oaminal who both noted that the gitimately occupying his or her position. so-called recital of facts was more opin- Otherwise, there is another mode of reionated and speculative, and more politi- moval if it can be proven that indeed the position holder was not qualified to occal than legal.

Another member, Rep. Alfredo Garb- cupy the position at all. That’s where the in, insisted that indeed the complaint quo warranto clause came in. Sereno was did not meet the standard required for ousted by her peers. Her holding of the impeachment. “At the onset,” Garbin position was void ab initio. Her staying said, “for culpable violation of the Con- there was voidable.

Which brings us the word “voiding.” stitution to prosper it should be shown that there was a deliberate and wrongful As in what President Duterte did with breach of the basic law when the justices the amnesty extended to Senator Antoacted upon and ruled on the quo warranto nio Trillanes IV by the Aquino administration in 2011. In almost the same way case versus Sereno.”

Quoting San Beda University Dean of that Sereno’s staying as Chief Justice the Graduate School of Law, Fr. Ranhilio was questioned for having been illeAquino, Garbin noted that “there is noth- gally done, Trillanes’ amnesty has now ing culpable in the actions of the justices been voided for having been illegally isin exercising their constitutionally man- sued. The back-and-forth arguments are dated responsibility to exercise original so similar one need not even look back jurisdiction over the petitions for quo to see where the divide is. But in here, warranto as stated in Section 5, Article things have become more political.

Thus, if one is a Duterte Diehard SupVIII of the Constitution.”

Indeed, it should be clear that the jus- porter, the argument is that Trillanes is tices acted on the case and voted in ac- holding the position illegally as he did cordance with how they viewed the law not comply with all the requirements on the matter at hand. They voted in for amnesty, procedural or otherwise, accordance with their best lights. There which in their view is non-negotiable

Weak peso

T

HE weak peso, next to rice, is the most significant contributor to surging inflation.

For a country that is heavily dependent on imported oil and capital goods in fueling economic growth, the Philippines has to endure the pressure on the peso and the volatilities in the global financial markets that weigh down on the local currency.

The peso on Wednesday breached the 54-per-dollar level for the first time in nearly 13 years amid reports of widening trade deficit and the worsening global trade war between the United States and China. It closed at 54.13 against the greenback the other day, the local currency’s weakest finish in nearly 13 years.

The strong US dollar, which has pummeled other Asian currencies, including the peso, is largely the cause of the local currency’s weakness. The US Federal Reserve Board has made it known to the global financial markets that it will raise the interest rate to prevent an overheating of the American economy. Previous rate hike adjustments have made the yields or returns on US dollar and other dollar-denominated debt

instruments more attractive.

Foreign fund managers naturally dumped or sold their investments in the emerging markets and fled to the US to purchase the more attractive US treasuries or bonds. The shift in investment caused the outflow of dollars from the Philippines and other Asian markets and weakened the value of the peso in the process.

Another factor leading to a weak peso is the country’s widening trade deficit following the demand created by the growing economy and the massive infrastructure program of the Duterte administration.

The trade gap widened 171 percent in July to $3.55 billion from a shortfall of $1.31 billion a year ago, as imports jumped 31.6 percent while exports barely grew 0.3 per-

cent. The July figure increased the trade deficit in the first seven months to $22.49 billion, significantly higher than $13.055 billion registered in the same period last year. The swelling deficit implies that more dollars are leaving the Philippines to finance imports of goods than those coming in by way of exports.

Adding to the selling pressure on the peso is the global market volatility stemming from the worsening trade tension between the US and China over import tariffs. Foreign fund managers in times of uncertainties will prefer the US dollar as their investment haven over other currencies.

The weak peso, meanwhile, raises the cost of manufacturing, especially those with heavy import components. It raises domestic pump prices and eventually the cost of transportation. Increased transportation cost, in turn, raises commuters’ fare and the retail prices of vegetables, meat and fish products, and other goods that must be moved from the countryside to the urban market.

The ventriloquist and his dummy BACK CHANNEL ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO THE hour-and-a-half scripted exchange between President Rodrigo Duterte and his chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo drew negative reactions from the public.

Some said it was a “moro moro” between the master and his vassal. Another called it “lokohan.” Viewers who couldn’t stand the obviously self-serving dialogue between the President and Panelo could only exclaim: “thank God for the remote control!”

From this end, I can only say—and I’m being charitable—that it was a dialogue between a ventriloquist and his dummy. Now don’t ask me who the dummy is. I leave it to the people to decide’ Too bad, it was an opportunity lost for the President who could have simply gone ahead with what was earlier announced by Malacañang as an address to the nation. This is done by some countries for the head of state to address the people and tell them what is being done by government to alleviate problems of great magnitude.

In the United States, presidents talk to the nation in a format known as a fireside chat that is informal in style. This is apart from the annual State of the Union presidential address.

The President, if he had been well advised by his Communications Office, could have had the opportunity to project himself as true leader of the land.

He could have addressed national issues such as the spiraling cost of basic commodities spawned by the P54-to-$1 plunge of the peso and the 6.4 per cent inflation.

Instead President Duterte spoke lengthily about the revocation of amnesty of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and the alleged plot of Joma Sison of the Communist Party of the Philippines in collusion with the opposition Liberal Party to oust him.

The President didn’t offer any proof except to say the intelligence report came from a friendly power.

Both the CPP and the LP have denied any conspiracy to topple the President.

Senator Trillanes also denied any ouster plot with military officials to pull a putsch.

This bit of information gave rise to suspicion that it was China, whose President Xi Jinping publicly said he will NOT allow his friend Digong to be removed from office, who fed Duterte the information. Opposition legislators claimed this is an indication of foreign meddling and possibly illegal wiretapping activity in the country.

A presidential address to the nation in light of the economic challenges and other ills plaguing Filipinos would have been dramatic if he also used the occasion to announce changes in the Cabinet.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol and Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade by public perception are not performing well.

Piñol, after three years at the DA, has yet to at least present a program of rice production to ease the present rice crisis. His solution to the problem is more importation of the basic staple. Taiwan, whose agricultural land is not Turn to A5

Chinese farmers swap sheep for skis ahead of Olympics

By Leo Ramirez and Qian Ye IT MAY be hot outside but that doesn’t stop doctors and former shepherds on skis snowploughing on giant white treadmills on the outskirts of Beijing— part of the battalions of workers learning the sport ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

China is scrambling to build enthusiasm for winter sports ahead of the Games with an ambitious goal to increase the number of fans tenfold, to 300 million, by 2022.

The doctors, nurses and former sheep

farmers are part of this mammoth effort, training for several days a week over the past year to make the cut as volunteers and workers during the Games.

The training continued through the searing summer in Yanqing district on the outskirts of Beijing, which will host several events in 2022, including Alpine skiing, bobsledding, skeleton, and luge.

Amid balmy temperatures outside, the students stood on skis on two inclined treadmills that were sprayed with water inside a gymnasium.

Lang Enge and his team of 25 farmers

and shepherds practiced their moves to be able to do “whatever the government arranges for us.” such as cable car maintenance work, snow gear repair and operating artificial snow machines.

“Almost all farmers sold their sheep in our village, there are no shepherds now in Yanqing,” says Lang, 29.

The sheepherders decided to sell their flocks after the local government told them they could keep them but could no longer take them to the mountains due to overgrazing.

Lang sold his 300 sheep and decided to Turn to A5

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Opinion

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

September 11

It’s the economy VIRTUAL REALITY TONY LOPEZ IS THERE a looming economic crisis?

Things have turned from good to bad lately.

There is a serious, if not severe, rice crisis. It is not because of the so-called rice traders. Supply is really short.

The best indicator is the sharp rise in rice prices, by 30 to 50 percent, in the first nine months of this year. The price increase is not just in absolute pesos. Rice inflation is also shown in the lower quality of rice one buys. The rice you can buy with P50 a kilo today is not the same delicious and sumptuous rice you could buy eight months ago at P50 a kilo. Even if the state-owned National Food Authority releases all its rice stocks in one blow, rice prices will remain at high levels. Why? Because the rice shortage is real and not speculative.

With the rice shortage, there is rising popular discontent. Rice, after all, is 20 percent of the consumer budget. Together, all food, rice included, is half of a household’s budget. And food items have shown the highest price increases.

The average Filipino is hurting. A battle-scarred politician, President Duterte knows and feels that. That is why when he faced Presidential Adviser Salvador Panelo for a 90-minute téte-a-téte Tuesday, he did not sport that famous buoyancy of mood and braggadocio he usually has whenever he faces tv cameras. The President looks tired and harassed. Being a true politician and leader, he feels the pulse of the nation. And he seems helpless, for now.

“The Philippines’ macro-economic fundamentals are facing some challenges,” notes Margarito Teves, a former finance secretary and who has an MA in economics. “These include a weaker peso (P54 to one dollar), a higher inflation rate of 6.4 percent in August (the highest in nearly 10 years), a larger trade deficit of $3.7 billion in May, and a balance of payments deficit of $455 million in July.”

More dollars are going out of the country than amounts coming in. A big BOP

deficit is indicative of heavy importations, heavy debt servicing, capital flight, and divestment from the Philippines.

The inflation rate is the highest in ten years (and rising); the value of the peso against the dollar is at its lowest in 12 years; the stock market index has fallen 22 percent from its January all-time high of 9078 on Jan. 29, 2018; economic growth rate has stagnated at 6 percent per year (we used to grow 7-plus percent five years ago); and President Duterte’s popularity ratings are down 10 percentage points. These are signs that Duterte’s main problem is the economy, not drugs.

“The resulting higher prices of food, particularly rice, transportation, and oth-

The average Filipino is hurting.

er goods and services are hurting businesses and consumers alike,” complained Teves, during a recent speech before the Management Association of the Philippines.

Other indicators of stress are the mixed first half revenue and profit results of the big Philippine corporations whose businesses are a proxy for Philippine growth.

Profits of Ayala Corp. disappointed in the first half of 2018. Net income rose only 7 percent to P16.1 billion on revenues of P134.52 billion which was up 21 percent.

Profits were boosted it said by the “solid performance of its real estate, telecommunications, and power businesses.”

While P16.1 billion seems big, it is not, considering Ayala Corp.’s size, scale and breadth of businesses. On a good year, P16 billion is the profit of only one Ayala Corp. subsidiary, Bank of the Philippine Islands. Usually, revenue and profit increases are in high double digits.

In the first half of 2018, Ayala Land had profits of P13.5 billion, up 18 percent; Bank of PI P11.03 billion, up 6 percent; and Globe Telecom P8.7 billion, up 25 percent, in the first half 2018.

AC shares have fallen 10 percent in

value since January this year, from P1015 on Jan. 3, 2018 to P910 as of Sept. 7, 2018.

In July 2018, AC placed 8.8 million shares for sale at P916 per share, raising P8.07 billion but at a 1.08 percent discount.

JG Summit’s first half profits also disappoint. JG net income fell 32.8 percent to P9.8 billion.

SM Investments Corp. net income grew 9 percent in the first half of 2018 to P18.1 billion. Consolidated revenues rose 12 percent to P204.9 billion in the first half from P183.2 billion in the same period last year.

“We are encouraged by the results of the first half, driven by the strong performance of retail and property, particularly the residential business. Our results show the strength of the economy and consumer sentiment but we remain vigilant about inflationary pressures. We are optimistic that consumption will remain resilient,” SM President Frederic DyBuncio said.

SMIC’s property business contributed the most to consolidated net income at 45 percent, this was followed by banks with 33 percent and retail with 22 percent.

Among the big companies, San Miguel Corp. seems to have bucked the trend of slowing, if not declining profitability. The beer, food, power, petroleum and infrastructure conglomerate hauled in P35.5 billion in recurring income during the first half of 2018, 27 percent up from the same period last year.

This makes San Miguel doubly more profitable than Ayala whose executives were educated at Harvard.

SMC President Ramon S. Ang finished engineering at FEU, the school of Philippine tycoons (think Henry Sy, Al Yuchengco, Lucio Tan, Andrew Gotianun). Says RSA: “FEU has competed and can compete with the brightest of graduates from UP, Ateneo, La Salle, and Harvard.”

What is the lesson from these anecdotal corporate stories?

When crunch comes, it is not what you learned from the best Ivy League schools, it is what experience and incredible guts that will carry you through hard times.

As an executive, President has substantial experience and incredible guts. I am sure he can survive the current economic thunderstorms. biznewsasia@gmail.com

No bored game: Madagascar’s enduring fanorona mania

By Tsiresena MANJAKAHERY A STONE'S throw from the presidential palace in Madagascar's capital Antananarivo, men sit for hours playing fanorona— a cross between checkers and chess—on wooden boards with black and white pieces.

"If you're not up to it, just say so, you're just slipping up and trying to bluster your way through," teased Raymond "General" Rasaminarivo, a renowned fanorona master, in the verbal jousting that typically accompanies the game.

Centuries after fanorona first appeared on the Indian Ocean island nation, it still exerts its grip on players of all ages and from all walks of life.

Men hunch over their "lakapanorona" boards in concentration, while children use playing surfaces traced into the dirt of their schoolyards, grappling with the game's nearly infinite moves.

The goal of the two-player game is to remove or block the opponent's pieces by moving one's counters towards—called "approach moves"—or away from the rival's counters—"withdrawals".

All of the opponent's pieces left in an uninterrupted line are then removed from the board, bringing the player a step closer to victory.

With eyes fixed on the next move, Rasaminarivo's rival Raphael battles to get the upper hand against "the General"—but the ensuing defeat so embarrasses Raphael that he refused to share his surname.

Avoid the traps

"This game demands concentration to identify the routes to victory and caution to avoid the traps," Raphael says.

The General uses insults and snide remarks to try to throw off his opponent but Raphael tries to not take offense.

"The opponent's provocation just adds a little spice to the game," he says with a smile.

Fanorona is an extended version of Western draughts or Go, popular in the Far East, using a rectangular board marked with lines and intersections in which each player starts with 22 pieces.

The aim is to take the opponent's pieces by moving backwards or forwards along the lines of the game board —before entirely encircling the other player's counters.

"A single piece can land multiple blows, and a single blow can remove between one and seven of the opponent's pieces," says Lantohariseta Andriamampianona, technical director of the revered fanorona association.

"A player can also decline to eject their adversary's pieces to avoid falling into traps."

Another quirk of the game is that the winner goes into a second round of play, known as the vela, with a handicap.

There are multiple theories about how the game came to enchant the island.

Some believe that fanorona was the brainchild of Indonesian settlers.

Others swear that the game traces its roots to the 17th century and the first Arab traders to reach Madagascar's shores.

But some insist that the game was born in the Malagasy royal court as a strategic tool to help military leaders plan tactics.

Make the game global For 27 years, researcher Eris Rabedaoro has been looking into the secrets of fanorona.

"I realized that it was a perfect diagram of the universe where we see all the basic laws of physics, mathematics or psychology," he says.

Rabedaoro even likens taking an opponent's pieces to nuclear fission.

Raphael and "General" Rasaminarivo have a simpler take on the game —seeing it as a means to "sharpen our minds".

"Fanorona teaches you to anticipate and persevere," says another player, Andrianasolo Mamy Riana. "It gives you the power to tackle life, it gives you courage."

The fanorona association's Andriamampianona notes: "In ancient times, fanorona was the preserve of kings and their courts...

Today it really has become a game of the people."

Such is the game's widespread appeal that an electronic version for mobile phones was launched four years ago— one of the first video games developed entirely on the island.

The free app has been downloaded 30,000 times, according to its developer Mendrika Andriantsihoarana.

"A download in Argentina, one in China, two in France, two in Germany, three in the United States—it was a pleasant surprise," he said.

"I think we're nearing the goal we set ourselves when we launched 'e-fanorona'—to make the game global." AFP

Junking,...

From A4

at all. On the other hand, those who are against the President will forever challenge his every move and every utterance.

In this instance, he is, take your pick; 1) persecuting the opposition; 2) introducing creeping authoritarianism and 3) diverting the people’s attention from their basic concerns, i.e., affordable food, moderate increases in health services, power/ water, etc.

Those arguments are, of course, par for

the course. However, as far as the amnesty of Trillanes and company, for example, those will remain debating points. That’s it.

Nothing will be solved even if the debates end and the countdown on Trillanes’ stay at the Senate starts ticking.

Only a full resolution of the cases filed before the courts—from the Supreme Court to the RTCs and even the AFP court martial—will somehow put a closure to the cases surrounding the acts of Trillanes and

his military cohorts since they took over the Oakwood Hotel in 2003.

So, let the hearings begin and let the judges and the justices at the final stretch, act with the cases with all deliberate dispatch. We just have to ensure that there will be no sword of Damocles hanging over their heads as they interpret the law and hand their ruling like the decidedly politicized one filed by Lagman and company.

down of the public rail transport system is the new normal. People who are gainfully employed are at risk of losing their jobs because of being constantly late due to the paralyzing traffic.

National Food Authority Administra-

tor Jason Aquino has already resigned from his post, unable to handle the pressing problems in his agency. Aquino, according to Malacañang, is still answerable for alleged anomalies in his office.w

The ventriloquist...

From A4

as extensive as the Philippines, is exporting rice to the country.

Tugade, on the other hand, has yet to do anything significant to fix the recurring breakdown of the Metro Rail Transit. Monstrous traffic and the daily break-

A5

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

FROM WHERE I STAND

ERIC JURADO

and do so in the name of ideology, religion, and morality. I have had the occasion to travel and speak with business, economic, and political leaders in scores of countries across the economic and political spectrum, and I find that many of them, while well-meaning and motivated by a deep love for humanity, simply do not have the faintest notion of the vital role of ethical business enterprise and entrepreneurial creativity for a flourishing economy that can lift people out of poverty. I do not say that I am surprised by this fact.

I understand how easy it is to make the fixed-pie mistake of the offering plate, which is all about transferring wealth without asking how it is created in the first place.

But it is a mistake, nonetheless, to think of wealth as if there was a static quantity of it, and redistribution were the answer to poverty. It is precisely those societies that have liberated the entrepreneur to create new wealth that have generated the reserves of wealth, along with the means of creating and delivering a host of positive goods and services, that have done the most to roll back extreme poverty and place people on the path to economic well-being.

Does the very prosperity that has lifted so many people out of extreme poverty also come with dangers? Undoubtedly.

In a sharp analysis of the free society, the economist Friedrich Hayek speculated, “It may be that a free society as we have known it carries in itself the forces of its own destruction, and that once freedom is achieved it is taken for granted and ceases to be valued.” He goes on to ask, “Does this mean that freedom is valued only when it is lost, that the world must everywhere go through a dark phase of socialist totalitarianism before the forces of freedom can gather strength anew?”

He answers, “It may be so, but I hope it need not be.”

Hayek offers what I consider a partial remedy to this threat: “We must be able to offer a new liberal program which appeals to the imagination. We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage.”

He is right, but I would add something: we must make the building of the free and virtuous society once more a moral adventure—for its construction was morally inspired in the first place. It emerged from an exalted vision of man and his inherent and transcendent destiny.

In his essay “The Weight of Glory,” C. S. Lewis offers an evocative articulation of the anthropology—the understanding of man—I have in mind. “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal,” he writes. “Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

Such an understanding of the ultimate destiny of man is crucial to a free and virtuous society. We must continue to point out the utility of economic freedom—the undeniable fact that a free economy is the way to prosperity. But if we are concerned about the end of freedom in our world, the decline and possible death of liberty and justice for all, then we would do well to remember the other “end” of freedom, the purpose and destiny of men and women called by their creator to lives of liberty and virtue. In the final analysis, very few people will go to the barricades to defend economic freedom’s utility. But a way of life that protects all that we hold dear, a civilization that elevates our spirits, a culture that is rooted in realities of eternal significance; this is a different story. For such a moral crusade, we should be able to raise a vast army.

Would you join in my crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?

I WATCHED the events of Sept. 11, 2001, from my Los Angeles home. A friend in Manhattan later told me that the ashes of those murdered that autumn morning fell across every borough of New York— ashes like the snowflakes at the close of James Joyce’s story, “The Dead,” falling all across a city I know well, with whose people and accents I am so well acquainted. After my friend related this to me, I had an image in my mind of those ashes that bright and sparkling late-summer morning making their descent on the whole of the city, ashes of corporate executives, secretaries, and janitors, of fire fighters from Brooklyn and Queens, of Filipino immigrants like Ben, who never failed to slip me a free drink at Windows on the World, of investment bankers like Greg, who called me every day to sell a treasury bond or two, or just to laugh.

I know the sort, their down-to-earth qualities and rough virtues of courage and hard work. I believe I may also know something about the ideology employed by the man who orchestrated the attacks.

In many people’s minds, Osama bin Laden was simply a holdover from a primitive form of Islam. But if you listen closely to some of the man’s own recorded messages to the world, a more complex portrait emerges. In what may have been his last recorded video message, released after he had been killed and just after the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack, bin Laden said that “the path to stop the hegemony of capitalism is to carry out a real radical change” so that the president “will be liberated, and with him, everyone else, from the hegemony of these corporations.”

Whether Bin Laden’s political ideology was deeply influenced by socialist thinking is an open question. What is undeniable is that bin Laden found it useful to tap into socialism’s anti-capitalist mentality and class-warfare vocabulary. With the fall of Soviet communism, many assumed that such thinking was in permanent retreat, but the impulse is never further away than human nature itself. It pipes a tune seductive to the darkest elements of the human heart—envy, sloth, pride—while promising speedy solutions to problems that the better angels of our nature crave to be reminded.

To build an authentically free and virtuous society is far more complicated and difficult, requiring habituations to just deeds, both visible and invisible. But as far as I have been able to discern in my circuitous odyssey across the political spectrum, economic and personal freedom is simply the best plan for human persons to seek and attain genuine goods.

The free market rewards greatness and excellence instead of trying to eradicate them. It permits men and women the space to express, pursue, and create higher things. And it leaves room for the most effective kind of charity to those in need.

Freedom is indispensable to the flourishing of a virtuous society, and virtue is the indispensable glue to maintain and make sense of freedom, calling it to the higher end of truth. Without virtues— which are more than “values,” because virtues are objective rather than a matter of subjective preference—we are susceptible to either of two temptations: to seek tyranny over others or to permit tyranny over ourselves, often because we idolize security and material comfort.

One would think that the connection between free markets and lives of virtue would be obvious in the “land of the free and home of the brave.” But there are voices in the world that dispute that connection, eric.jurado@gmail.com

Chinese...

From A4

focus on skiing instead.

The local government finances all the training, promising jobs related to the Winter Olympics. Lang and his friends hope that by learning to ski, they can land permanent jobs in ski resorts after the Olympics.

Once-in-a-lifetime chance In the meantime, Lang is working as a temporary traffic and public security employee for the local government. He said other farmers are working as taxi drivers, factory workers or car salesmen.

Doctors and nurses are also training at the same gym, but for a different challenge: working as medical volunteers who can rush down a slope to help an injured athlete.

“It’s a challenge for me. I hope to have more time to do my best,” said Jiang Wei, 30, a nurse at the local hospital, before jumping into the skiing simulator, wearing elbow and knee pads and a helmet, as an

instructor gave her advice.

The farmers appeared more confident on the slope simulator, slowly slaloming on the moving carpet while the doctors and nurses were still grabbing onto a security pole at the bottom of the treadmill.

“I think the people I trained will be suitable for these jobs,” said E Yinchun, one of the trainers.

China is not the first country to train medical staff to ski for the Olympic Games, where athletes can get injured by attempting risky jumps and making high-speed turns.

But for the farmers in Yanqing this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a betterpaying job.

Lang and his team have left the countryside for good and now they are working for the district office while they prepare for the big event in February 2022.

What will happen after the Games is still uncertain.

Especially, he said, now that “there are no sheep farmers in town.” AFP

News

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Binay seeks permission to travel

DSWD told: Review procedure A FEMALE legislator who represents senior citizens in the House of Representatives on Thursday asked the Department of Social Welfare and Development to review its procedure of distributing the social pension of the elderly in so-called “geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas” or GIDAs. Party-list Rep. Milagros Magsaysay of Senior Citizen made the call following the accident that killed 15 people, most of them senior citizens, when the passenger jeepney they were riding fell into a 200-meter ravine in Balbalan, Kalinga.

The victims were on their way home from the town center after getting their Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program allowances at an Automatic Teller Machine in the town proper.

Balbalan is one of the remotest and upland towns in Kalinga.

In House Resolution 2179, Magsaysay urged the DSWD to review its current social pension payout system, and to devise a more convenient, safe, efficient, and sustainable solution for social pension beneficiaries to receive their monthly pension of P500.

“For the convenience of the senior citizens, the distribution of the social pension should be made monthly,” the 71-year-old lawmaker said.

She added: “It has been a common practice for our elderly in the remotest parts of our countryside to rent jeepneys to collect their monthly pensions, whether from their local ATMs or through their municipal pay-out offices.

“The risk that they are taking in collecting their monthly subsistence has never been brought to the public consciousness until now.

“With the current process, we are not only exposing them to unfortunate accidents such as in Balbalan, but also in the dangers of robbery and theft.” Maricel V. Cruz

PAL tones up security fixes

By Joel E. Zurbano LEGACY carrier Philippine Airlines an-

nounced on Thursday it would strengthen security measures for all New Zealandbound flights beginning on Sunday.

The airline, according to PAL corporate communications department head and spokesperson Ma. Cielo Villaluna, came up with the new measures in line with the regulatory requirements of Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand.

Villaluna said all passengers departing on PAL’s Manila-Auckland flights would receive additional screening of their checked and carry-on baggage.

“We advise all our New Zealand-bound passengers departing on PR-218 [flight] to expect a slightly different screening setup at the airport, prior to check-in and/or at the gate. We therefore ask you to plan for an earlier arrival at the airport to allow for more time for the mandated screening,” she said.

The airline management sought understanding and cooperation from passengers “as we carry out these additional screening procedures, which are intended for your safety and security.”

Aside from New Zealand bound flights, PAL has also enhanced strict measures for its US-bound flights— from Manila to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and Guam, and from Vancouver to New York in compliance with the regulatory requirements of the US Department of Homeland Security for all flights operating from the last point of departure to the United States.

PAL imposed a measure subjecting all portable electronic devices—larger than a cellphone or smartphone, and powder-like substances (12 ounces or larger) of passengers bound for the United States to additional airport screening.

The strict screening for portable substance was enforced in July last year while the security measure involving powderlike substances is being implemented since June this year.

MANILA-BEIJING TIES. Ji Bingxua, vice chairman of China’s National People’s Congress (left), shakes hands with Deputy Speaker Arthur Yap during the former’s courtesy call on House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. They discussed how to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries.

Romualdez urges CoA to identify contractors

By Maricel V. Cruz

H

OUSE leaders led by Leyte Rep. Yedda Marie KittilstvedtRomualdez on Thursday urged the Commission on Audit to name contractors involved in the P1.5-billion alleged anomalies it discovered under the Yolanda Permanent Housing Program implemented by the National Housing Authority.

Romualdez, Reps. Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental and Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar said CoA must be able to identify the contractors involved in the irregularities for the sake of transparency and accountability.

“We appeal to CoA to identify the contractors and hold accountable the parties involved in the alleged anomalies uncovered by their auditors and even the results of a House congressional investigation conducted by the Benitez panel [House committee on housing and urban development],” Romualdez, chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on accounts, said.

“Since it involves people’s money, we really need to get to the bottom of these controversies,” said Romualdez, who represents Tacloban City or the so-called Yolanda Ground Zero, after CoA claimed it found evidence of alleged irregularities in 18 housing projects in Eastern Samar.

Benitez, for his part, broached the idea of filing appropriate plunder charges against

contractors and officials and personnel of the National Housing Authority involved in the allegedly anomalous P54.59-million housing development program for victims of the Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

Benitez, chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on housing and urban development, was mulling plunder charges against the individuals responsible for the construction of substandard houses intended for “Yolanda” victims in three municipalities of Eastern Samar.

“Contractors and government personnel involved in this con game that struck Yolanda victims twice over should be dealt with the full measure of the law,” said Benitez.

Benitez said his committee would furnish the Commission on Audit a report of its congressional inquiry conducted in 2017 on the “Yolanda” housing controversy.

He also praised CoA for the conduct of an audit examination that confirmed the House panel’s suspicions of a collusion between contractors and NHA personnel

in committing fraud in the implementation of the Yolanda housing projects.

Evardone, who earlier sought investigations into alleged anomalies in the implementation of government resettlement projects in his district, said all involved public officials and contractors should be held liable.

“I welcome the CoA report on Yolanda housing projects which showed irregularities and anomalies. However, I cannot understand why the contractors and the NHA officials involved were not named in the report,” said Evardone, chairman of the House committee on public information.

“It is really totally lamentable and unacceptable that these anomalies happened to the detriment of the typhoon victims. We can only give justice to the victims if the those responsible are put behind bars.”

In a 2017 annual audit report, Benitez said CoA recommended the filing of charges against a contractor and NHA personnel involved in the alleged contract irregularities.

CoA disclosed the unnamed contractor of eight housing projects in the towns of Balangiga, Hernani and Quinapondan had been awarded contracts beyond the firm’s capacity to implement.

State auditors there said there had been a clear violation of procurement laws and other regulations when the contracts were awarded to the unqualified infrastructure contractor.

PCSO defends new budget PHILIPPINE Charity Sweepstakes Office, through the Charity Assistance Department, has defended the new budget allocation for medical assistance after it drew mixed reactions from patients and relatives.

“In as much as we wanted to help everyone, we need to stick with our budget for this year. We are over utilizing our budget. Hopefully this is temporary. Rest assured we are doing our best to accommodate all your requests,” said PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan.

“In so far as the budget is concerned, it’s always been P4.1 million, but we recognize that there is really a volume of individuals asking for help so we went beyond. What we did is to strictly implement that budget,” said Dr. Larry Cedro, assistant general manager for Charity Sector.

Recently, PCSO has modified its budget allocation program for its medical assistance services due to overutilization of funds.

The Individual Medical Assistance Program has exceeded its utilization by more than P500 million. This is also attributed to a marked increase in the number of beneficiaries availing of financial support from the agency by 27.93 percent for the first semester of 2018 compared to its 2017 data of the same period.

But in 2016, the Commission on Audit issued an Audit Observation Memorandum cautioning the agency for overspending.

The agency was advised to review and prioritize its expenses and it should be duly supported by the supplemental budget.

Cedro said: “We explained that it’s hard to turn away clients because they rely heavily on PCSO’s role. But we have to acknowledge the fact that we cannot have a repeat on what happened in 2016.

JOMAR P. SARET, 62

ANNIVERSARY KICKOFF. The Local Water Utilities Administration rolls out a series of activities in line with its 45th founding anniversary on Sept. 18. Shown here (left half picture) is LWUA Acting Administrator Jeci Lapus (extreme left) with Quezon City 3rd District Councilor Gian Sotto during the launch of a photo exhibit at the LWUA building lobby on Sept. 3. Meanwhile, (right half picture) actress and PTV-4 anchor Diane Medina (center) also graced the exhibit with a wall of pictures of employees in the background. Posing with Medina is LWUA Acting Deputy Administrator for Administrative Services and Chairman, LWUA Anniversary Committee 2018, Alice Marie Cruz (third from right) with some members of said committee.

SSS offers calamity assistance to Typhoon ‘Karding’ victims THE Social Security System has said nearly 459,000 members and pensioners of the state-run pension fund affected by Tropical Cyclone “Karding” last August may now apply for the Calamity Assistance Program which has a fund allocation of more than P549 million.

SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Dooc said Thursday members affected by severe flooding in Central Luzon and Rizal might avail themselves of the calamity loan, direct house repair and improvement loan while affected pensioners may advance their three months worth of pension under the CAP.

FORMER Vice President Jejomar Binay has asked the Sandiganbayan to allow him to travel to Italy for a 15-day pilgrimage.

In a five-page motion, Binay said he wanted “to travel to Italy for his spiritual endeavors” from Sept. 28 to Oct. 13.

“It is very important to note that Movant [Binay] is a devout Catholic who places great importance to his spiritual health,” Binay’s motion said.

He also said he would not be a flight risk because “he is a highly-respected citizen of the country.”

Binay is facing charges at the antigraft court over alleged questionable construction of the Makati Science High School and the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall Parking Building.

The former Vice President’s wife, Elenita, earlier sought the anti-graft court’s permission to travel for the 15day pilgrimage.

Mrs. Binay faces trial at the Sandiganbayan in connection with the alleged anomalous purchase of office partitions and furniture worth P70.06 million in 1999 during her tenure as Makati mayor.

Don Bosco Philippines North Province has organized the trip, and the tour covers visits to Rome, Assisi, Padova, Venice, Turin, and Florence, Mrs. Binay said.

Mrs. Binay is also charged with graft and malversation of funds at the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division over the allegedly anomalous P45 million worth of purchase of beds and sterilizers for the Ospital ng Makati. Maricel V. Cruz

“The wet season has been affecting our members and pensioners with the large volume of rainfall experienced last August during the devastation of Tropical Cyclone Karding. We want our members to know that the SSS is ready to assist them particularly in times of contingencies,” Dooc said.

SSS members and pensioners residing in areas declared under a state of calamity by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council are qualified to avail themselves of the calamity loan, direct housing repair and improvement loan, and three-month advance pension.

NDRRMC-declared areas under a state of calamity due to tropical cyclone Karding were: Sto. Tomas, Pampanga; Sasmuan, Pampanga; Guagua, Pampanga; Bulacan province; Rodriguez, Rizal; San Mateo, Rizal; and Lacub, Abra.

Under the CAP, the SSS offers a loan assistance program, which is a separate loan window from the regular salary loan.

Members can borrow up to P16,000 in calamity loan depending on their monthly salary credit.

The calamity loan is payable in two years in equal monthly installments with an annual interest rate of 10 percent and one percent monthly penalty for late payments.

To eliminate additional expenses on the part of member-borrowers, SSS waived the one percent service fee.

To qualify for SSS calamity loan, members should have a home address or property in the covered areas and a minimum of 36 monthly contributions, six of which should be paid within the 12-month period preceding the date of application.

Applicants who cannot file their loan applications personally such as overseas Filipino workers may assign a representative to file their application, provided an authorization letter is presented to SSS.

ENGINEER Jomar Payno Saret, proprietor of Aretas Development & Supply, passed away on Sept. 12, 2018, at the age of 62.

Saret had a dual license as mining and metallurgical engineer earned from the Mapua Institute of Technology. He belonged to the pioneering batch of metallurgical engineers in the country. As one of the first few mining and metallurgical engineers in the country, Saret did the rounds of the country’s leading mining and metal firms, including Atlas Consolidated Mining Corp., Consolidated Mining Corp. and Uni-Minerals Inc., among others. Prior to establishing his own company, he was a long-time officer of the then-Governmentowned National Steel Corp.

Saret is fondly remembered by his family, friends and relatives for his wit, sense of humor and exceptional skills in basketball, for which he earned several awards during his student and professional days.

He was married to the late Alfa Diaz, who passed away in 1997. He is survived by his mother, Zenaida Payno Saret; children Mikael, Aretas and Mokiel; and siblings Judith Sanchez, Mary Vivian Jimenez, Mary Agnes Rivera, Rosemarie Santos, Robert and Dulce Marie.

His body lies in state at Golden Haven Memorial Chapel and Crematorium, Villar Sipag, C5 Extension, Pulang Lupa, Las Piñas City.

Sports ISAA opens 10th season on Sept. 18 at MOA Arena

By Paul David Gelario INTER-SCHOLASTIC Athletic Association president Ruel Dela Rosa from Immaculate Conception College announced at the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Tapa King restaurant in Cubao Quezon City that the 10th season of their league opens on Sept. 18 at Mall of Asia Arena.

Ten schools will be participating this ISAA season, which has the theme “ISAAng Dekada sa Paghubog ng Kabataang Atleta.”

A surprise guest will also attend the event.

“Our previous guests include Eric Spoelstra and Alvin Patrimonio. But our special guest this coming season? It’s a surprise,” said ISAA Vice President Melai Florentino from FEATI University.

Due to an increase in participating schools, Florentino admitted that they are expecting a huge crowd of 10,000 to 13,000 on opening day.

“We have a new format since we have 10 teams. We have a single round robin. Top one and two will have a twice to win advantage (over the next two),” Vice President of ISAA from La Consolacion College Andy Cristobal said.

The increase of participating teams created a glimmer of hope for ISAA. “ISAA attempts to become a big league after the UAAP and NCAA,” Dela Rosa said. “We are young. But if we work together we’ll be in the right direction.”

“When we started 10 years ago, we were small. Then one day we got bigger and bigger, and the rest is history,” Florentino added.

The opening night will also include a beauty pageant from participating schools.

The opening game will be between the defending champion Philippine Air Transport and Training Services and La Consolacion College.

Streaking Pirates book win no. 12

L

YCEUM of the Philippines University put on a defensive clinic as it overpowered Emilio Aguinaldo College, 95-75, yesterday to book win No. 12 in the 94th National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

The Pirates threw a defensive clamp on the Generals whom the former forced to a season-worst 38 turnovers that resulted to 38 points, including 22 off fast breaks to keep their slate clean, while keeping a one-game distance ahead of the San Beda Lions, who remained at No. 2 with an 11-1 (win-loss) mark.

“We know that our strength is our de-

fense and we just have to keep feeding off it,” said LPU coach Topex Robinson.

CJ Perez led his team with 19 points and Mike Nzeusseu scattered 18.

Jaycee Marcelino came into game sick but overcame it by finishing with 15 points, seven assists and four steals.

EAC hang tough in the first half when they battled LPU to 10 lead changes and

FOLLOWING its highly successful event last year, PTT, Thailand’s leading oil company, is back for a grander and fun-filled Run for Clean Energy Year 2 at the CCP Grounds this coming Sunday.

The company is geared to promote the benefits of preserving the environment, using energy wisely, and living a healthy life. Running is after all a universal instinct to all kinds of people. There is no age limit in joining the event, it is mainly family oriented.

There are three kinds of runs in the Sunday event with varying kilometers. The first one is the 10k run for those hardcore runners, while the next one is the 5k run for people, who want a little strenuous challenge from the 10k. The 3k run is for fun runners.

Call time is at 4 a.m. for registration. The registration fee differs per run, covering the race shirt, race bib, a loot bag and a raffle ticket for the Gadgets Galore Grand Raffle. The 10k run registration fee costs P520 and starts at 5 a.m., the 5k run starts at 6 a.m. and costs P420 and the 3k run that costs P320 starts at 6:30 a.m.

After the run, the raffle winners will be chosen and a concert will start.

Bands such as Dotty Chan and Cahlio, fronted by Ang Probinsiyano actor Lester Llansang, are lined up to help the participants unwind from the run.

The company will then continue on to the next event which is the MotoGP Thailand Grand Race in October, a motorcycle race with all the top racers from different countries.

PTT is backed with a philosophy that values being responsible for society. It means respecting the community and the environment, and giving back to the world as much as it gave you.

four deadlocks.

A buzzer-beating Ralph Tansingco triple gave the Pirates a 41-40 edge entering the break.

LPU then kept pressing in the second half that put EAC’s offense in total disarray.

Jerome Garcia unloaded a seasonbest 30 points including six threepointers but it wasn’t enough to help EAC from absorbing a ninth defeat against two wins.

In the junior game, Jose Rizal University continued its mastery over Mapua following a 74-73 win, allowing the Light Bombers to keep fourth spot in the standings at 7-5.

JRU completed a season sweep of the

Red Robins, who dropped to 8-3.

In the first game, Lyceum leaned on a huge third quarter to turn back Emilio Aguinaldo College, 72-66.

Meanwhile, the NCAA has postponed the triple header set on Friday at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan due to the coming typhoon Ompong.

Cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorm, coupled with strong wind are expected on Thursday in Metro Manila, according to the Pagasa’s weather forecast.

The matches between San Beda and Perpetual, Letran opposite St. Benilde, and Arellano against San Sebastian will be reset.

Fil-Chinese 65s sweep group elims

Leading the Judiciary Magis in Sunday’s game against the NHA Builders is Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez.

Malacanang, AFP eye flying starts in UNTV Cup SIX more teams debut on Sunday with last season’s runner-up MalacanangPhilippine Sports Commission and twotime champion Armed Forces of the Philippines going for flying starts in the 7th UNTV Cup at the Pasig City Sports in Pasig City.

The Malacanang-PSC Kamao collide with the Ombudsman Graftbusters at 3:30 p.m. with both teams hoping to join early Group B winner Department of Agriculture, while the AFP Cavaliers take on the Department of Justice Boosters at 3:30 p.m. in the lone Group A match.

The other Group B match is set at 5 p.m. with the Judiciary Magis going up against the National Housing Authority

Games Sunday

(Pasig City Sports Center) 2 p.m. – AFP vs DOJ 3:30 p.m. – Malacanang vs Ombudsman 5 p.m. – Judiciary vs NHA

Builders in the event designed by UNTV president and CEO Dr. Daniel Razon for the country’s public servants.

The winner in the AFP-DOJ showdown will draw level with defending champion Senate, which outlasted newcomer Philippine International Trading Corporation, 73-70 Out to lead the Cavaliers are former amateur standouts Boyet Bautista and Eugene Tan, while the Justice Boosters

Run for Clean Energy slated Sunday at CCP Globe Volcanoes get boost,

By Carmela Martinez

A7

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

will be bannered by Reynold Munsayac and Jan Arnie Polican.

Special Assistant to the President Bong Go will spearhead the Kamao’s campaign, along with John Paul Yamamoto, Ian Garrido andVisnu Das Javier.

Leading the Magis are Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, Don Camaso and Warren Ybanez while the Builders will be spearheaded by Alvin Vitug, Antonio Lustestica, and Marvin Mercado.

The annual tournament is again offering P4 million to the chosen charity of the champion team with the runner-up’s charity getting P2 million. The charities of the third and fourth placers shall likewise receive substantial prizes from UNTV.

HAT YAI, Thailand—Johnny Chua, Sonny Co, and Conrad Siy delivered the key baskets down the stretch as the 65s of the Filipino-Chinese Veterans Basketball Association downed Miri, Malaysia, 42-37, to sweep their group elims in the 27th ASEAN Basketball Veterans Tournament Wednesday at the Prince Songkla University gym here.

After struggling in the first three quarters, Co found the right time to redeem himself as he buried a huge three-point shot to tie count at 37-all before Chua split his pressure-packed charities and Siy hit a putback for a 4037 lead.

Chua, who finished with 13 points, finally sealed the deal with a courageous basket down low with barely 12 ticks left.

“It was a tough win,” said Terry Que of Rain or Shine, who bankrolled FCVBA’s participation in the annual tournament, along with Freego’s Eduard Tio and Ironcon Builders boss Jimi Lim. Siy led all FCVBA scorers with 16 points, while former Crispa enforcer Bong dela Cruz and James Chua provided the intangibles.

In the semis, the 65s will face Group B second placer Sarawak—another team from Malaysia—on Thursday.

The thrilling win of the 65s overshadowed the 60s’ 58-38 thumping of Miri.

Unlike in their first two games where former Philippine team standout Elmer Reyes and ex-La Salle star Kenneth Yap dominated the show, the 65s got solid contributions this time from Danny Ching, Aries Franco, Jose Lao, Andrew Ongteco, Elmer Latotio and Ramon Mabanta.

seek 7s Asia championship THE Philippine Volcanoes Men’s 7s team prepare for the first of a threeleg series against Asia’s top 8 rugby nations in Hong Kong this Friday and Saturday at Kings Park.

The Volcanoes received a boost to their preparations as Globe Telecom’s CEO Ernest Cu gave an inspirational speech as he was elected to present to the jerseys for the 2018 Series Campaign.

Globe Telecom inked a four-year partnership with the Volcanoes in 2017, which helped the Volcanoes win a Gold Medal at the 2017 Asia Trophy Series held in Doha last year. Since their investment, the Volcanoes have been able to invest more in the national team’s preparation to ensure success as the elite level.

“Globe’s partnership for the Men’s 7s program provides a significant

boost for to help professionalize our program, competing with the likes of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and China, our athletes are expected to be in the best possible position to win. For this to have any chance, a large investment in resources, facilities and equipment will help the Volcanoes topple the top teams in Asia. We are very grateful for their support,” said Jake Letts, the General Manager for Philippine Rugby.

The funding provided from Globe Telecom is allocated to the National 7s Program and the local 7s domestic competition to help foster Philippine Rugby 7s talent. The Globe Sevens Series will see six Rugby Festivals played across 3 months within Luzon.

The Volcanoes are currently preparing in a High-Performance Training Camp in Calamba, where a squad of 16

Members of the Philippine Volcanoes are shown with Globe CEO Ernest Cu.

athletes have been vying for a position to be selected for Round 1 of the Asia Sevens Series.

“It’s been a very competitive training camp, we have 6 new potential debutants who are looking to secure a national jersey for the first time. It’s a fresh new team, an exciting time for

the Volcanoes” said Chris Everingham, Performance Manager for the Volcanoes.

The Volcanoes will face off in Pool B, the Philippines will play Hong Kong, Korea and Malaysia before being seeded for the second day of competition on Saturday.

Much-awaited Golovkin-Alvarez rematch airs on Sky Pay-Per-View SKY subscribers nationwide can get front row access to this year’s highly anticipated rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez as SKY Pay-Per-View airs the fight live from the U.S. on Sunday (Sept. 16) for only P199.

Boxing superstars Golovkin and Alvarez will square off once more in Las Vegas for their bout that is dubbed as this year’s most-awaited rematch after their 2017 controversial bout.

Golovkin, with stats of 38-0-1, 34 KOs to his name, has 20 straight defenses in the division and is tied with Bernard Hopkins for the record.

Meanwhile, Alvarez with stats of 49-1-2, 34 KOs, is on a campaign as a full-fledged 160-pound middleweight.

He has not lost a fight since dropping a majority decision

against Floyd Mayweather in 2013.

As the fight is tipped to be one of the most exciting fights of the year, the winner will be able to call himself the king of the middleweights.

SKY is also staging another promo until September 16 for Mega Manila subscribers who are interested to enjoy good savings deals as it bundles the Golovkin vs. Alvarez rematch with selected channels.

Subscribers can choose to bundle the boxing match with action and suspense movie channel Cinemax and combat sports channel Fight Sports for as low as P225.

While the boxing match will only be viewed on the day of the fight, subscription to either Cinemax or Fight Sports or both is good for 30 days. It will also automati-

cally continue the following month at a regular rate, unless the subscriber opts to discontinue.

SKYcable subscribers can avail of the pay-per-view offer by visiting mysky.com.ph/boxingppv; by calling 418-0000 (or your local SKY office); or by texting BOXING to 23662.

SKYdirect subscribers, meanwhile, can simply text PPV BOXING <BOX ID> to 23667 using ABS-CBNmobile, Globe Prepaid, TM (for Prepaid); text SKY to 23668 (for Postpaid), or call (02) 4180000 or your local SKY office.

The matches are also available via SKY On Demand on any gadget after activating their subscription so they can tune into the match anywhere. For more information, visit mysky.com.ph/boxingppv.

Sports

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

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

Ginebra, Rain or Shine to play in Guam

By Jeric Lopez FOR the league’s first overseas game this season, Barangay Ginebra and Rain or Shine were tapped by the Philippine Basketball Association to play in Guam next month.

The Gin Kings and the Elasto Painters are slated to play their Governors’ Cup elimination round encounter there this coming Oct. 13 in the lone game there at the US territory in Micronesia.

This will be the first time that the PBA will hold a game outside of the Philippines for the season.

The last time the league went to play in Guam was 12 years ago, way back in 2006, wherein Alaska battled then franchise Red Bull.

Given the sizeable number of Filipinos in the area, the PBA was enticed to conduct another one there.

As for the league’s future plans, it is looking at playing a couple of games in Dubai, United Arab Emirates next season.

In other important league matters scheduled, the Draft will be held on Dec. 16, while the Leo Awards will be conducted in January, along with the opening ceremonies of the coming 44th season.

Usually, the awarding special is held around the finals of the seasonending Governors’ Cup, but given all the breaks the league are observing, it was decided to instead hold it at the start of next season.

Storm Bell pulls away from the field to win the 1st leg of the Philippine Racing Commission (Philracom) Juvenile Fillies and Colts Stakes at the Saddle and Club Leisure Park, Naic, Cavite.

Didal to join US tourney

By Peter Atencio

A

SIAN Games gold medalist Margielyn Didal will get back on the skateboarding scene again next month.

An all-girls’ tournament in San Diego, California will serve as a prelude to Didal’s quest for an Olympic gold.

She will be joining the Olympics qualifier in January next year in Brazil to get one of the 20 slots to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Didal is also expected to take part in the Exposure competition set on Nov. 3 and 4.

The tournament serves a dual purpose to all participants, which is to create op-

portunities for professional, amateur and beginning female skaters, by helping them find sponsors.

With New Balance as her sponsor now, Didal hopes to get the needed time practice for the Olympic qualifiers that will be held in the first few months of 2019.

“Back to zero po ako sa points dito.

So, I need to get rankings,” said Didal, who won the Philippines’s fourth gold medal in the Jakarta Palembang 18th Asian Games.

Didal also goes on tour in Korea and Taiwan in an effort to stay in shape.

The qualifying tournaments for Didal will start when she joins the Street League Skateboarding tournament from Jan. 11 to 13 in Rio de Janeiro.

“Lahat puwede manalo dito. Kahit iyung mataas ang ranking puwede namang matalo,” said Didal.

The SLS tournament in Brazil is the second stop of the SLS World Tournament, with the first held in Los Angeles last July.

Last May, Didal made it to the finals of the 2018 Street League Skateboarding pro open in London.

Joining her in the finals were the world’s best, including top skateboarders Sammaria Brevard, Candy Jacobs, Lacey Baker Mariah Duran, Pamela Rosa, Alexis Sablone, and Jenn Soto.

When it was over, Soto won the crown, with Didal landing eighth place.

In the heats, Didal got her points when she managed to pull off a 50-50 late back foot heelflip trick on the ledge to earn a 7.9 point score. Baker, who is the two-time SLS Women’s World Champion, scored well to also reach the finals in her heat with Brevard and Didal.

Storm Bell fastest in Philracom stakes race STORM Bell whipped up a storm in the 1st leg of the Philippine Racing Commission (Philracom) Juvenile Fillies and Colts Stakes at the Saddle and Club Leisure Park, Naic, Cavite, where he left his rivals scrambling in his dust recently.

With multi-titled jockey JB Hernandez riding the two-year-old colt, Storm Bell made its move halfway through the short 1,200-meter distance and never let go of the lead to win pulling away with a winning time of P1:12.

Morning Girl of owner Rene Viloria burst out of the gate holding the lead, closely followed by Raymund Puyat’s Valley Cat and Storm Bell, which swiftly made its move and grabbed the lead in the 600 meters, increasing it further approaching the finish for a threelength victory in the P1-million stakes race put up by Philracom.

The win was worth P600,000 for Storm Bell owner Bell Racing Stable, with Donato S. Sordan taking the Breeder’s Purse of P30,000.

Valley Cat, ridden by OP Cortez, settled for the runner-up purse of P225,000, while the Robert Ramirezowned Inter State, with jockey RG Fernandez on the reins, bagged the third-place prize of P125,000.

Fourth placer Morning Girl, steered by Jockey RO Niu Jr., pocketed P50,000.

The Philracom’s Juvenile Fillies and Colts Stakes Race features the country’s best two-year-old horses in their biggest competition yet.

Other winners of the heavy 12-race Philippine Racing Club Inc. schedule are Flintridge (Race 2), Ingd Kantar (Race 3), Pabulong (Race 4), Sin Duda (Race 5), Skymarshal (Race 6), Lollipop (Race 7), Kapangyarihan (Race 8), Sikat (Race 9), Expensive (Race 10), Conqueror (Race 11) and Runzaprun (Race 11).

Meanwhile, the Philracom holds the 2018 Lakambini Stakes Race on Sunday at the Manila Jockey Club’s San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite.

IN BRIEF SN Aboitiz testing floating solar plant SN Aboitiz Power Corp., a joint venture of Aboitiz Power Corp. and SN Power of Norway, is pilot testing the first floating solar power project at THE Magat Dam in Isabela, an executive said Wednesday night.

“We’re testing. They’re advanced with testing. I just don’t know the capacity.

They’re on testing capacity. It’s not significant, but we’re testing floating solar in Magat,” Aboitiz Power chief operating officer Emmanuel Rubio said.

SN Aboitiz president and chief executive Joseph Yu said the testing period would determine the viability of the floating solar project. “If it works, then it’s a viable,” Yu said.

He said the pilot project would have an initial capacity of 200 kilowatts. “What we’d like to do is make sure it works. Ideally if there is a massive inflow of water, [we] test it mechanically [to check] how much it can take. [We want to] make sure by the time we scale it up and build many of these, it can survive many typhoons,” Yu said. Alena Mae S. Flores

Business

Groups oppose solar franchise bill FOUR energy groups called for the scrapping of House Bill No. 8179, which proposes to grant a nationwide franchise to Solar para sa Bayan Corp., saying this could establish a “monopoly” in the entire value chain in mini-grids across the country.

Philippine Solar and Storage Energy Alliance, along with the Organization of Socialized Housing Developers of the Philippines, Center for Renewable Energy and Science & Technology, Renewable Energy Association of the Philippines and Confederation of Solar Developers in the Philippines, issued a joint position paper against HB 8179.

“We are companies and organizations committed to sustainable development through the expanded use of renewable energy. We are deeply troubled and alarmed

by HB 8179 because it effectively grants a monopoly and exempts one private company from the rules of competition and oversight provided under Epira [Electric Power Industry Reform Act] and the Renewable Energy Act,” the groups said.

HB 8179, sponsored by Representatives Franz Alvarez, Arthur Yap and Maria Carmen Zamora, grants Solar Para Sa Bayan a franchise to construct, install, establish, operate and maintain distributable power technologies and mini-grid systems throughout the Philippines to improve access to sustainable energy. Alena Mae S. Flores

CEMEX RECOGNIZES STUDENTS. Global

building solutions leader Cemex Holdings Philippines confers the top award in Communication Management to students of Bataan Peninsula State University for their entry ‘Project Litratu: Mayhang Pamana Bilang nga Mayhang Pilipinu (Isang Pamana Bilang Isang Pilipino)’ during the 6th Philippine Student Quill Awards at the Grand Ballroom of Marriott Hotel in Pasay City.

Shown is Cemex Philippines corporate communications analyst Martin Antonio (front row, seventh from left) as he presents the award to Bataan Peninsula State University .

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

B1

By Julito G. Rada

NEW INVESTOR. Furushima Philippines Inc. general manager Ryota Niitsuma (left) receives a certificate of registration from Philippine Economic Zone Authority director-general Charito Plaza as an ecozone export enterprise to engage in providing product inspection and quality control services for Peza registered export enterprises at the Cavite Economic Zone.

Naia Consortium secures original proponent status

By Darwin G. Amojelar

A

CONSORTIUM of seven conglomerates said Thursday it obtained the original proponent status from the Transportation Department for the rehabilitation, upgrade, expansion, operation and maintenance of Ninoy Aquino International Airport for 15 years.

“We are very grateful to the DOTr and MIAA [Manila International Airport Authority] for granting the consortium the OPS as it triggers a series of steps we need to work on to make this project happen. The Naia Consortium looks forward to working closely with the DOTr and MIAA to progress this initiative.

We are committed to see this project through and to follow the proper legal

PITC offers to import 3m bags of rice PHILIPPINE International Trading Corp., an attached agency of the Trade Department, proposed to import up to 150,000 metric tons or 3 million bags of rice to augment the current stock of the National Food Authority.

The department is tapping the bulk procurement expertise of PITC, the country’s premier government-controlled trading corporation, to bring in more rice through government-to-government procurement.

Trade Undersecretary Ruth Castelo said the agency would be on standby until the NFA Council cleared the proposal.

Castelo said with PITC’s proven international trading experience, it could bring rice to the country by December and sell them to consumers at P27 to P32 per kilo.

She said the DTI’s effort was a part of the government’s all-out efforts to find concrete solution by tapping various agencies to extend assistance in bringing down prices of rice.

PITC president and chief executive Dave Almarinez said the agency was

business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com

PH drew $226m worth of foreign funds in August

Voice devices seen to become big in PH PROFESSIONAL consultancy firm P&A Grant Thornton expects the growth of voice-activated services in the Philippines, as businesses and households begin to adopt the technology as a new platform of digital marketing.

“It will come in time. The Philippines is surrounded by innovative thinking countries like South Korea which has the fastest internet speed. It’s just a matter of time before the Philippines will adopt voice a futuristic technology which is now just coming out from the US,” said Grant Thornton International Ltd. associate director for digital Matt Cooksley.

P&A Grant Thornton, the Philippine unit, launched Thursday the 6th edition of the Growth Series with focus on emerging trends in digital sales and marketing and how best to adopt these technologies in the Philippine set-up.

Cooksley said that in the US, it took only two years for the American households to gain access and use voice-activated devices or “voice first assistants”, About 47 million Americans are now using voice first assistants. The second wave of expansion is seen to spread out of the US to other internet-savvy countries. Othel V. Campos

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

throwing its full support behind the government’s effort, through DTI, to address the current artificial rice shortage.

Smuggling, hoarding and ‘man-made’ price manipulation in the rice industry are pinpointed as the main reasons the lowincome families are now facing difficulties in buying affordable rice.

Almarinez said PITC was joining DTI and NFA in preventing rice hoarders from hurting the economy and lives of millions of Filipinos.

The subsidized rice―priced at P27 and P32 a kilo depending on the variant― would be considered a reprieve for poor Filipino consumers as current prices of commercial rice reached an average alltime high of P43 a kilo.

The NFA last week approved an additional importation of 250,000 metric tons of rice this year under an open tender scheme. The action will bring the agency’s rice imports for the year to 750,000 MT, including the half a million ton of imports approved earlier this year.

processes,” Naia Consortium spokesperson Jimbo Reverente said.

The consortium’s proposal will still be subject to review and approval by the National Economic and Development Authority Board and to a Swiss Challenge in accordance with the requirements of Republic Act No. 7718 or the Build-Operate-Transfer Law. The consortium’s members are Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., AEDC, Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

The declaration of the original proponent is considered the first step in the rehabilitation and expansion of Naia which currently operates beyond its rated capacity.

The unsolicited proposal, which was submitted to the DOTr and MIAA on Feb. 12, 2018, aims to transform Naia into a regional airport hub and expand its capacity to meet the anticipated growth in passenger traffic.

“We remain focused on our com-

mitment to deliver to our country a significantly improved Naia and are prepared to start work immediately after the airport is turned over to the consortium. Our fellow Filipinos can expect a better airport experience as early as the 3rd year from the time we commence rehabilitation work,” Reverente said.

The Naia project supports the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program with its plan to develop the airport into a world-class facility and a regional air transport hub by upgrading its airside, landside and air navigation support― building on the gains already achieved by the DOTr in terms of improving the traffic of aircraft movements on its runways.

The P102-billion proposal involves expanding and interconnecting the existing terminals of Naia, upgrading airside facilities, developing commercial facilities to increase airline and airpot efficiencies, enhancing passenger comfort and experience and elevating the status of Naia as the country’s premier international gateway.

F OREIGN E XCHANGE R ATE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Dominguez asks US firms to join ‘Build, Build, Build’

Thursday, September 14, 2018

Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

54.009

Japan

Yen

0.008989

0.4855

UK

Pound

1.305000

70.4817

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.127413

6.8814

Switzerland

Franc

1.030503

55.6564

Canada

Dollar

0.769527

41.5614

Singapore

Dollar

0.728969

39.3709

Australia

Dollar

0.716800

38.7137

Bahrain

Dinar

2.65421

143.3512

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266603

14.3990

Brunei

Dollar

0.726322

39.2279

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000067

0.0036

Thailand

Baht

0.030506

1.6476

UAE

Dirham

0.272264

14.7047

Euro

Euro

1.1628

62.8017

Korea

Won

0.000893

0.0482

China

Yuan

0.145656

7.8667

India

Rupee

0.013860

0.7486

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.241429

13.0393

New Zealand

Dollar

0.656200

35.4407

Taiwan

Dollar

0.032566

1.7589

Source: PDS Bridge

FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the absence of American investors in the bidding for the New Clark City development project is an indication they are not interested to take part in the country’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure program.

Dominguez, in a meeting with US State Department assistant secretary Manisha Singh, questioned the absence of American investors in the Duterte administration’s flagship infrastructure projects to develop the Clark Freeport Zone, a former United States military airbase, into the country’s next big metropolis.

Dominguez told Singh the absence of American investors in the bidding for the New Clark City development project could indicate that American investors “have no interest” in taking part in the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.

Dominguez said he had asked the same question before members of the US-Asean Business Council and the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines in separate meetings earlier this year.

Dominguez said the government, which was funding the transformation of the former US military base into New Clark City, announced the public bidding for the project before the international community, but no American companies took part in the bidding process.

“Last time I spoke with the US-Asean Business Council and the US Chamber here, I asked them one question. Why did they not bid for the project in Clark?

The refurbishment of the Clark airbase is done with our own funds. The project is around $250 million. We bid this out around this time last year,” Dominguez said. Julito G. Rada

FOREIGN fund managers retained their money in the Philippines in August, despite the volatility in global financial markets, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.

The Philippines received a net inflow of $225.85 million in foreign portfolio investments or hot money in August, a reversal of the $57.52-million net outflow a year ago, following the positive second-quarter corporate earnings results and the implementation of the government’s infrastructure projects.

The Bangko Sentral said the August net inflow was also significantly higher than the $53.29-million net inflow in July. The figure brought the total net inflows of hot money since the start of the year to $602 million, or an improvement from the $318.88-million net outflow in the same period last year.

Data showed that gross inflows in August reached $1.12 billion, up from $936 million a year earlier, while outflows hit $895 million, down from $993 million a year ago.

The Bangko Sentral said another reason for the net inflow in August was the resumption of trade talks between the US and China which lifted market sentiments.

The United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong and Luxembourg were the top five sources of foreign funds in August.

About 79.9 percent of investments registered during the month were in listed securities in the Philippine Stock Exchange such as property companies, holding firms, banks, food, beverage and tobacco firms and telecommunication companies.

About 19.4 percent went to peso government securities, while the balance went to other peso-denominated debt instruments and peso time deposits.

Foreign portfolio investments are also called “hot money” because of the ease they are invested in and taken out of the domestic financial markets.

Peso languishes at 54 per US dollar THE peso barely rose Thursday to stay at the 54-per-dollar level, the weakest in nearly 13 years, despite the strong rebound of the stock market.

The local currency gained P0.05 to close at 54.07 against the greenback Thursday on a trading volume of $658 million, after slumping at 54.14 a dollar Wednesday.

BDO Unibank Inc. chief market strategist Jonathan Ravelas noted in a social media post the strong dollar momentum.

“With close above the 54 levels, it now puts the 54.50 resistance levels [of the peso] within striking distance in the near-term. Next resistance after 54.50 is 55,” said Ravelas.

Peter Lundgreen, the chief executive of Copenhagen-based investment advisory firm Lundgreen’s Capital, said the peso would likely end 2018 at 55 per US dollar.

He said the monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve would put pressure on the peso and other emerging market currencies toward the end of the year.

The peso hit an all-time low of 56.34 against the dollar in October 2014.

Guian Dumalagan, economist of Land Bank of the Philippines, said the financial market volatility was mostly due to the “renewed trade tension as China lodged permission with the World Trade Organization to levy tariff on the US.” Dumalagan said other contributors to the weak peso were the developments in Europe after France cut its economic growth estimate for this year and next to 1.7 percent from 2 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.

The widening trade gap also contributed to the weakness of the peso that was battered by the surging dollar in the past few months.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported Tuesday that the country’s balance of trade-in-goods’ deficit widened by 171 percent in July to $3.55 billion from a shortfall of $1.31 billion a year ago, as imports jumped 31.6 percent while exports barely grew 0.3 percent.

B2

Business

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Stocks end slump; URC, BDO rise T HE stock market rose Thursday in a technical rebound to end a six-day slump, with select blue chips gaining on bargain hunting.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index advanced 68.17 points, or 0.9 percent, to 7,517.37 on a value turnover of P6.1 billion. Losers, however, beat gainers, 123 to 72, with 45 issues unchanged.

Universal Robina Corp., the biggest snack food maker, climbed 2.6 percent to P143.70, while BDO Unibank Inc., the largest lender in terms of assets, also gained 2.6 percent to P117.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., which is into power generation and distribution, banking, food, shipbuilding property and infrastructure, rose 2.9 percent to P49, while Jollibee Foods Corp., the

biggest fast-food chain, gained 3 percent to P277.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, led a rally in most Asian markets on Thursday after the US reached out to China in a fresh bid to avert a trade war, providing some much-needed respite to weary investors.

News that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had invited top Chinese officials for talks comes just under a week after Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all $500 billion worth of imports from China.

The president’s top economics adviser Larry Kudlow called the move a “positive thing” and added that “you could say that communication has picked up a notch.”

China’s commerce ministry on Thursday welcomed the offer and said the two sides were discussing details.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 2.5 percent, having fallen for

six straight days and into a bear market, which is a 20 percent drop from its January record high.

Shanghai climbed 1.2 percent, Seoul gained 0.1 percent and Tokyo ended one percent higher.

Wellington and Taipei were also higher, while Jakarta ran up 0.9 percent and Bangkok 1.6 percent.

But Sydney fell 0.8 percent and Singapore eased 0.2 percent.

“Markets should welcome the news of possible resumption of high-level trade talks between China and the US,” said Tai Hui, JP Morgan Asset Management chief market strategist for Asia-Pacific.

“This may reflect strong feedback from the US corporate sector against further expansion of the list of Chinese exports that would be subjected to higher tariffs.”

However, while he said the latest round of threatened tariffs could be

delayed, he said Beijing had already agreed to buy more American goods to reduce its gaping surplus with the US and open up the economy further, so it might not be able to offer much more.

“The road to a more sustained resolution is still challenging,” Tai added.

And Stephen Innes, head of AsiaPacific trading at OANDA, said “the playbook remains unchanged and it would be a total surprise for many market participants if the Trump administration didn’t follow through” with the next round of tariffs.

The tariffs are clearly starting to hit US and European firms based in China.

On Thursday, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said a survey found most US companies are seeing rising costs, lower profits and tighter scrutiny, and a separate poll of 200 EU companies in the country showed 17 percent are delaying investment or expansion plans. With AFP

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

ASIA UNITED BANK PH ISLANDS BDO LEASING BDO UNIBANK CHINABANK COL FINANCIAL EAST WEST BANK FERRONOUX HLDG FILIPINO FUND IREMIT MANULIFE MEDCO HLDG METROBANK NTL REINSURANCE PB BANK PHIL NATL BANK PHIL STOCK EXCH PSBANK RCBC SECURITY BANK UNION BANK

59.5 86.1 2.56 114.2 30.7 16.22 13.44 4.11 8.59 1.67 810.5 0.55 70 0.99 11.6 45.3 190 83.95 27 189.9 69.8

60 86.3 2.56 117 30.7 16.22 13.44 4.35 8.59 1.7 810.5 0.56 70.15 1 11.6 45.35 194.8 83.95 27 190.8 72.4

59.25 85.95 2.56 114.2 30.4 16.1 13.12 4.05 8.59 1.61 800 0.53 68.55 0.98 11.6 45.05 190 83.95 26.85 189 69.8

FINANCIALS 60 11,580 86.1 6,715,430 2.56 6,000 117 3,758,570 30.45 263,200 16.1 23,700 13.16 744,500 4.24 417,000 8.59 400 1.61 225,000 800 400 0.56 126,000 68.6 2,842,250 1 531,000 11.6 50,200 45.05 107,000 190 5,130 83.95 90 26.85 104,800 189.6 479,410 72.4 25,890

692,990 577,920,665.50 15,360 435,612,127 8,021,180 384,000 9,817,274 1,751,510 3,436 370,720 320,855 69,140 196,264,873 523,510 582,320 4,832,450 975,748 7,555.50 2,820,780 90,894,623 1,869,980

688,250 -34,102,755 -138,897,330 -3,544,930 -369,414.00 -2,945,192 905,110.50 0 -1,132,195 -947,315 27,272,205 1,827,059

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

37 17 1.16 1.2 0.224 3.06 13.9 33.9 18 41.75 88.3 1.76 5.01 10.18 15.46 9.1 7.26 7.06 16.34 65 29.8 7.17 12.46 2.06 270 4.85 3.11 12 24 11.94 16.84 384.8 6.55 1.96 4 9 5.36 8.2 1 10.98 54.8 4.7 2.44 1.67 12.4 95.6 5.69 0.125 1.02 144 2.52 2.13 2.23

37 17.1 1.16 1.2 0.229 3.07 13.9 34.2 19.3 41.8 88.3 1.8 5.01 10.3 15.6 9.1 7.26 7.07 16.48 65 29.95 7.18 12.46 2.06 277 4.99 3.14 13.38 24.2 12.14 17 384.8 6.55 1.96 4.14 9 5.5 8.2 1.03 10.98 54.8 4.8 2.46 1.68 12.5 96 5.69 0.125 1.05 144.9 2.52 2.17 2.3

36.25 16.72 1.07 1.18 0.219 3 13.3 32.85 17.5 41.7 88.3 1.75 5.01 10.12 15.4 8.9 7.21 7.06 16.3 64.65 28.2 7.12 11.98 1.99 270 4.85 3.11 12 23.9 11.86 16.7 378.2 6.5 1.92 3.9 8.91 5.21 8 1 10.6 52.8 4.7 2.41 1.63 12.3 94 5.61 0.125 1.02 142 2.45 2 2.12

INDUSTRIAL 36.9 793,200 17 639,600 1.1 23,208,000 1.18 2,798,000 0.219 450,000 3.01 2,604,000 13.3 458,200 33.35 1,331,100 18 5,800 41.75 95,000 88.3 110 1.75 188,000 5.01 204,300 10.24 1,443,000 15.6 71,300 8.95 141,600 7.24 516,600 7.06 6,410,200 16.42 1,182,600 64.65 21,890 28.2 297,100 7.12 290,300 12 652,600 2 2,271,000 277 550,430 4.99 23,000 3.14 7,000 13.38 4,200 23.95 1,167,900 11.92 176,300 16.7 367,400 382 185,100 6.5 5,800 1.92 380,000 3.9 3,000 9 459,000 5.38 165,500 8 23,300 1 812,000 10.98 68,900 52.9 251,460 4.8 3,749,000 2.46 129,000 1.63 717,000 12.4 556,200 96 294,390 5.65 72,200 0.125 250,000 1.05 289,000 143.7 3,397,330 2.45 21,000 2.05 11,979,000 2.19 19,255,000

29,190,205 10,849,470 25,692,910 3,304,500 100,840 7,845,600 6,120,274 44,319,225 103,678 3,963,650 9,713 329,410 1,023,543 14,722,426 1,101,450 1,269,171 3,740,130 45,280,154 19,415,774 1,415,422 8,646,170 2,077,780 7,861,096 4,567,130 150,479,674 111,790 21,830 50,676 28,015,865 2,102,782 6,167,736 70,446,270 37,728 734,480 12,040 4,109,239 870,381 188,297 826,310 754,610 13,384,448.50 17,992,300 315,080 1,187,440 6,894,072 28,098,588.50 407,790 31,250 295,120 488,096,527 51,520 24,865,070 42,278,600

-6,544,090 3,763,916 -376,210.00 13,140 1,784,540 -969,556 1,053,405 -2,114,245 6,851,192 148,188 -823,742 -279,430 -16,170,198 5,068,726 -117,596 20,650 -367,375 1,045,936 102,050.00 -49,641,532 -5,039,850 -259,932 -3,673,652 1,743,310 -649,840 -2,343,022.00 5,250 -115,830 -5,756,516.50 0 -244,100 1,389,098 -10,143,299.50 -37,740 51,649,337 24,500 -4,091,990 25,600

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

0.425 48.2 12.78 0.93 6 1.33 1.34 915.5 5.89 11.9 7.18 4.26 0.204 868 5.8 52.5 0.62 5 16.52 0.66 5.11 0.037 1.24 2.65 175.3 941 1.42 285 0.315 0.201

0.44 49.4 13.02 0.93 6.1 1.37 1.37 916 5.89 12.3 7.18 5.74 0.204 868.5 5.8 54.15 0.63 5 16.52 0.66 5.23 0.038 1.24 2.68 176 950 1.43 294 0.32 0.201

0.42 48.2 12.7 0.93 6 1.33 1.34 895 5.6 11.9 7.13 4.26 0.204 845 5.8 52.05 0.6 4.9 16.14 0.63 5.1 0.037 1.18 2.61 170.5 937 1.42 270.2 0.31 0.201

HOLDING FIRMS 0.43 31,050,000 49 3,260,100 12.76 9,686,200 0.93 1,000 6.1 138,700 1.36 7,183,000 1.35 1,590,000 900 348,570 5.7 3,125,600 12.3 994,100 7.13 21,400 5.74 400 0.204 20,000 850 109,570 5.8 1,000 54.15 1,114,970 0.62 921,000 4.95 952,000 16.2 587,600 0.64 1,465,000 5.23 13,336,200 0.038 3,500,000 1.18 235,000 2.65 362,000 172.4 427,310 948 208,180 1.43 39,000 290 8,010 0.31 5,020,000 0.201 50,000

13,350,200 158,541,755 123,743,654 930 842,857 9,770,730 2,149,920 314,456,380 17,792,515 12,111,098 153,082 2,030 4,080 93,573,320 5,800 59,734,213.50 564,220 4,707,440 9,543,218 941,540 68,941,127 129,700 280,940 953,100 73,330,708 196,789,360 55,570 2,257,058 1,574,050 10,050

25,650 17,023,060 -5,867,764 182,406 -108,748,910 -15,148,769 2,440,224 -32,710,825 -6,744,250.50 -63,000 -2,997,520 -6,747,250 -35,379,193 -76,850 -32,448,369 35,065,065 -9,450 10,050

8990 HLDG A BROWN ANCHOR LAND ARANETA PROP ARTHALAND CORP AYALA LAND BELLE CORP CEB LANDMASTERS CEBU HLDG CENTURY PROP CITYLAND DEVT CROWN EQUITIES CYBER BAY DM WENCESLAO DOUBLEDRAGON EMPIRE EAST EVER GOTESCO FILINVEST LAND GLOBAL ESTATE IRC PROP MEGAWORLD MRC ALLIED PHIL ESTATES PHIL REALTY PRIMEX CORP ROBINSONS LAND ROCKWELL SHANG PROP SM PRIME HLDG

7.41 0.94 12.58 2.05 0.71 41.65 2.93 4.44 5.4 0.46 0.93 0.218 0.415 8.75 23.9 0.56 0.115 1.48 1.17 2.65 4.35 0.7 0.455 0.475 4.31 20.5 1.97 3.19 36.9

7.58 0.95 12.6 2.05 0.72 42 3 4.48 5.42 0.465 0.94 0.22 0.415 8.81 23.95 0.58 0.118 1.49 1.19 2.72 4.42 0.71 0.475 0.475 4.34 20.95 2 3.24 37.5

7.39 0.93 12.58 2.04 0.7 41 2.91 4.35 5.4 0.45 0.93 0.216 0.41 8.7 22.95 0.56 0.113 1.45 1.17 2.5 4.21 0.68 0.44 0.46 4.03 20.05 1.93 3.19 36.4

2,035,521 2,146,220 119,646 53,290 916,990 247,805,690 796,010 4,540,190 36,278 4,812,100 66,040 636,570 66,150 1,555,192 13,812,420 215,070 71,350 2,520,050 903,770 81,866,320 104,219,400 33,523,750 5,291,550 586,650 9,062,990 11,700,700 348,190 237,800 191,040,890

648,645 88,196 -44,454,330 -661,110 -322,100 -1,027,114 -4,398,595 631,850 99,400 -58,651,360 -352,760 -220,000 -33,250 482,140 -3,493,570.00 94,840 -17,849,765

NAME

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

VALUE

STA LUCIA LAND STARMALLS SUNTRUST HOME VISTA LAND

1.14 7.12 0.76 6.3

1.14 7.15 0.76 6.3

1.09 7.07 0.76 6.23

1.14 7.1 0.76 6.3

443,000 339,800 10,000 2,073,100

491,490 2,409,612 7,600 13,033,260

2GO GROUP ABS CBN ACESITE HOTEL APC GROUP APOLLO GLOBAL ASIAN TERMINALS BERJAYA BLOOMBERRY BOULEVARD HLDG CEBU AIR CENTRO ESCOLAR CHELSEA DFNN INC 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 METROALLIANCE A METROALLIANCE B 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

12.3 21.5 1.45 0.48 0.044 13.5 2.19 9 0.062 71.95 6.78 6.05 8.55 20.8 910 2,192 5.41 306 2.94 2.25 91 12 7.81 0.119 2.97 3.67 15 3.9 0.95 18.14 5.74 6.96 2.7 1.62 1.69 8 10.5 8.79 3.51 100.3 4.84 1,428 0.91 0.405 44.55 81 8.05 2.29 0.76 0.59 5.18 0.77 10.7

12.52 21.9 1.45 0.5 0.045 13.5 2.47 9.22 0.062 71.95 6.78 6.05 8.55 21.55 910 2,206 5.43 315 2.98 2.25 93.6 12 7.81 0.12 2.97 3.68 15 3.9 0.96 18.14 5.78 6.97 2.7 1.62 1.9 8.12 10.96 8.79 3.61 103.5 4.87 1,430 0.91 0.405 45 81 8.05 2.35 0.76 0.59 5.19 0.77 10.8

12.3 21.3 1.44 0.48 0.044 13.5 2.07 8.98 0.062 71.2 6.78 5.9 8.27 20.7 910 2,192 5.4 299 2.69 2.07 90.9 12 7.81 0.115 2.86 3.45 14.8 3.69 0.92 17.4 5.55 6.95 2.65 1.52 1.68 7.6 10.5 8.79 3.37 100.3 4.75 1,406 0.87 0.385 44.55 79.5 7.7 2.26 0.72 0.57 5.1 0.75 10.64

SERVICES 12.52 21.5 1.44 0.49 0.045 13.5 2.26 9.2 0.062 71.6 6.78 5.94 8.34 20.7 910 2,200 5.42 314.8 2.75 2.07 93.5 12 7.81 0.118 2.87 3.66 14.9 3.7 0.92 17.5 5.71 6.95 2.65 1.56 1.9 7.61 10.96 8.79 3.5 102 4.8 1,430 0.87 0.4 44.9 80 7.7 2.28 0.73 0.58 5.19 0.76 10.68

73,800 77,100 17,000 7,750,000 11,300,000 1,600 15,478,000 3,829,500 18,650,000 220,920 100 659,800 29,100 31,000 150 113,625 62,200 4,850 5,287,000 9,000 810,400 1,000 12,300 5,340,000 2,317,000 67,000 9,700 2,265,000 336,000 2,358,700 408,200 12,929,800 292,000 159,000 77,000 3,835,800 12,500 2,400 4,000 5,840 492,000 85,165 3,633,000 5,980,000 26,700 834,640 84,400 11,915,000 9,406,000 11,063,000 1,320,100 2,161,000 3,707,300

921,742 1,662,495 24,630 3,781,650 498,200 21,600 35,136,350 34,983,685 1,156,300 15,815,322.50 678 3,938,750 245,996 646,415 136,500 250,040,020 336,587 1,492,460 14,893,530 18,820 75,413,214 12,000 96,063 623,690 6,705,300 243,450 143,940 8,554,960 311,730 41,545,838 2,324,720 89,922,153 778,280 252,090 129,950 30,265,712 136,862 21,096 13,990 601,912 2,358,930 120,633,075 3,211,730 2,358,400 1,198,295 66,758,406.50 653,598 27,464,510 6,926,010 6,435,890 6,823,680 1,632,120 39,694,034

374,330 145,500 21,600 -1,068,890.00 3,596,298 -11,651,137.50 178,992,190 -755,370 -2,362,760 37,217,442 1,266,700 -1,877,880 -31,555,206 2,709,598 -82,300 -42,250 447,993 75,412 4,780 17,620,855 -235,580 -682,620 -1,729,176.50 -1,548,550 -1,136,580 -139,780 -2,927,751.00 -3,800 -12,562,554

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

0.0025 1.55 3.2 20.3 1.21 1.93 0.3 7.42 1.94 0.255 0.122 0.127 0.0079 1.4 4.4 1.15 0.68 1.34 0.014 0.014 0.012 4.21 4 15.62 29.3 0.0075

0.0025 1.6 3.23 21 1.21 1.99 0.3 7.42 1.95 0.255 0.122 0.127 0.0079 1.4 4.8 1.15 0.68 1.36 0.014 0.014 0.012 4.27 4.01 16.6 29.3 0.0077

0.0025 1.55 3.2 18.36 1.2 1.93 0.295 7.3 1.92 0.235 0.12 0.122 0.0079 1.37 4.4 1.13 0.63 1.28 0.013 0.014 0.012 4.07 3.95 15.62 28.9 0.0074

MINING & OIL 0.0025 98,000,000 1.57 4,200,000 3.2 97,000 20.7 62,900 1.2 15,000 1.96 418,000 0.295 500,000 7.3 600 1.94 1,562,000 0.243 950,000 0.12 750,000 0.126 270,000 0.0079 10,000,000 1.37 44,000 4.79 1,144,000 1.13 2,000 0.65 1,453,000 1.31 3,278,000 0.013 26,500,000 0.014 100,000 0.012 12,000,000 4.15 186,000 3.97 1,527,000 16.16 13,068,100 29.25 1,315,900 0.0074 24,000,000

245,000 6,609,000 311,180 1,296,763 18,020 822,270 149,950 4,396 3,018,820 228,600 90,370 34,010 79,000 60,790 5,344,420 2,280 937,360 4,323,260 346,200 1,400 144,000 767,360 6,082,890 211,816,836 38,300,520 180,000

3,250 -672,090 -19,200 -6,850 454,700 15,360 -2,742,130 15,620,348 -28,459,805 -

ABS HLDG PDR AC PREF B1 AC PREF B2 FGEN PREF G GLO PREF P GMA HLDG PDR GTCAP PREF A HOUSE PREF A LR PREF PCOR PREF 2A PNX PREF 3A SFI PREF SMC FB PREF 2 SMC PREF 2B SMC PREF 2D SMC PREF 2E SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2G SMC PREF 2H SMC PREF 2I

21 490 500 104.8 495 5.25 950 99 1.02 1,012 103.5 1.91 1,000 77.4 75 75.7 75.9 75.45 75.5 75.5

21 490 502 105 495 5.29 974.5 99 1.03 1,012 103.5 1.91 1,000 77.4 75 75.7 76 75.9 77.1 76

20.2 490 500 100.7 490 5.25 950 99 1.02 1,011 103.5 1.91 1,000 77.4 75 75.7 75.25 75.45 75.5 75.5

PREFERRED 20.2 1,056,500 490 6,400 501 19,940 100.7 11,020 490 7,100 5.29 8,100 974.5 1,590 99 10,000 1.03 284,000 1,011 50 103.5 90 1.91 3,000 1,000 40 77.4 3,520 75 9,800 75.7 2,000 75.25 77,000 75.9 1,250 75.5 500 76 30,370

22,148,585 3,136,000 10,002,490 1,119,385 3,484,668 42,529 1,510,745 990,000 289,780 50,560 9,315 5,730 40,000 272,448 735,000 151,400 5,817,426.50 94,776 38,070 2,305,925

-1,407,685 24,600 1,046 495,000 -

LR WARRANT

2.4

2.46

2.37

WARRANTS 2.4 360,000

860,050

-17,010

ITALPINAS XURPAS

6.55 2.31

7.3 2.32

6.53 2.18

7.29 2.21

82,318,597 6,697,160

-279,120 -115,680

FIRST METRO ETF

112.2

112.5

111.9

1,327,611

-33,690

MS

PROPERTY 7.47 0.94 12.6 2.04 0.72 42 2.94 4.45 5.42 0.45 0.93 0.22 0.41 8.72 23 0.56 0.118 1.49 1.17 2.62 4.21 0.69 0.445 0.47 4.1 20.95 1.98 3.24 37.5

272,100 2,286,000 9,500 26,000 1,295,000 5,948,200 270,000 1,024,000 6,700 10,540,000 71,000 2,910,000 160,000 177,900 593,800 384,000 630,000 1,719,000 770,000 31,588,000 24,453,000 48,359,000 11,640,000 1,260,000 2,188,000 566,300 179,000 74,000 5,140,500

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

OPEN

TRADING SUMMARY

SHARES

FINANCIAL

16,775,212

INDUSTRIAL

91,466,323

HOLDING FIRMS

98,009,267

PROPERTY

167,828,079

SERVICES

147,355,844

MINING & OIL

202,355,985

GRAND TOTAL

738,471,454

SME

11,656,300 3,009,000

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 111.9 11,840

88,000 30,387 193,144

VALUE 1,676.9 (up) 8.06 1,357,258,715.6 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 11,123.3 (up) 92.0 1,133,058,443.44 HOLDING FIRMS 7,355.26 (up) 40.96 1,252,468,184.78 PROPERTY 3,767.51 (up) 44.89 SERVICES 1,527.16 (up) 12.23 995,239,267.3 MINING & OIL 9,773.62 (up) 188.63 957,148,024.47 PSEI 7,517.37 (up) 68.17 136,662,394.546 All Shares Index 4,602.31 (up) 25.15 281,253,211.264 Gainers: 72; Losers: 123; Unchanged: 45; Total: 240

Del Monte posted $3-m net income in first quarter

By Jenniffer B. Austria BOOSTED by one-off gain, fruit grower and canner Del Monte Pacific Ltd. posted a net income of $3 million from the May-to-July period, up from $700,000 year-on-year.

Excluding gains from the purchase of unit Del Monte Foods Inc.’s loans at a discount in the secondary market, Del Monte would have incurred a net loss of $3.7 million against a profit of $1.2 million on year.

Del Monte said revenues in the three-month period ending July 31, 2018 fell 7.7 percent to S$437.23 million mainly due to lower sales in the US and lower exports of processed pineapple.

DMFI contributed $308.3 million or 71 percent of the total group sales.

Sales, however, declined eight percent on lower volume across categories, most significantly branded tomato products and private label, as well as the lower pricing in foodservice for pineapple juice concentrate.

Sales in the Philippines domestic market were flat in peso terms and down 5.3 percent in US dollar terms due to the weak local currency.

Sales of the S&W business also declined in the first quarter period mainly due to lower sales in North Asia and Turkey.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, Del Monte said it expects to be profitable for the fiscal year 2019 on a recurring basis.

The company plans to strengthen the core business and focus on growing broadened business for the remainder of the year, while reducing non-strategic and non branded business categories.

It also pans to improve the financial performance by reviewing the manufacturing and distribution footprint in the US to increase operational efficiency, reduce cost and raise margins.

It committed to increase cash flow, strengthen the balance sheet and reduce leverage and interest expense.

Meanwhile, Del Monte said it remained keen on listing the Philippine subsidiary, Del Monte Philippines Inc., in the Philippine Stock Exchange.

“The IPO (initial public offering) was deferred in June due to volatile market conditions. The company will announce when it relaunches this as the equity markets improve,” it said.

Globe Telecom, Teleperformance create IT hotline

By Darwin G Amojelar TELEPERFORMANCE, the world’s leading provider of outsourced management services, has tapped Globe Telecom Inc. to set up the first IT-BPO recruitment hotline in the Philippines.

The #8353 hotline or #TELE ensures a faster and easier search, inquiry and application for Filipino job-seekers today.

Globe prepaid and postpaid jobseekers nationwide can call the hotline for free through their mobile phone even without load.

“Teleperformance’s always prides itself as a company that connects the biggest and most respected brands on the planet with their customers, and this is primarily due to the skilled Filipino workers. With the #TELE recruitment hotline, we make sure that Teleperformance has the competitive edge in acquiring talented Filipinos,” Teleperformance Philippines country director Travis Coates said.

“We could not have chosen a better partner in Globe. We are highly confident with their infrastructure, backend and client support capabilities— so we’re sure that we have a reliable partner to bring this service to the jobseeking market,” he added.

Teleperformance had 40,000 employees nationwide as of March this year.

“At Globe, we promote a culture of collaboration in diverse circumstances, which allows us to effectively enable our customers’ shift to a more digital lifestyle,” Globe chief commercial officer Albert de Larrazabal said.

“By drawing collectively from a wide range of ideas and experiences, we have effectively partnered with Teleperformance to help them shape a higher standard of performance delivery by providing this extremely unique service,” he added.

CYAN CYAN MAGENTA MAGENTAYELLOW YELLOW BLACK BLACK FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 CESAR BARRIOQUINTO, Editor mst.daydesk@gmail.com

World

Manila Manila

Standard Standard

TODAY TODAY

US urged to rejoin trade deal HANOI―Japan and Vietnam on Thursday urged the United States to rejoin a sprawling Pacific trade deal, almost two years after President Donald Trump’s withdrawal dealt a major blow to what would have been the world’s largest free trade pact.

Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal in one of his first post-election moves as part of his “America First” clarion call, declaring the 12-nation trade pact a “job killer”.

The 11 remaining countries have pledged to move ahead with the deal, which could go into effect by the end of this year, although in a significantly watered-down version without the US. They have kept a door open for Washington’s return, and have also not ruled out allowing other non-Pacific countries to join the deal.

Japan’s foreign minister on Thursday encouraged the US to come back to the pact, speaking at a regional World Economic Forum (WEF) where concerns over trade protectionism have dominated discussions.

“We believe TPP is still the best option for [the] United States,” Taro Kono said.

“It will be very attractive for American industries, American farmers to join it.”

Japan, the largest remaining economy in the TPP, has led the charge to keep it alive.

The newly re-branded deal, dubbed the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) and which forms a market of 500 million people, could go into effect by the end of 2018, Kono added.

Vietnam’s foreign minister Pham Binh Minh echoed Kono’s appeal, calling the deal “a very high-standard agreement”.

Vietnam stood to be the biggest winner from US involvement before Trump’s withdrawal from the pact, which would have opened access to US markets for its cheap manufactured goods—from shoes and shirts to mobile phones and computer processors.

For smaller signatories like Vietnam, unfettered access to US markets was a major draw. AFP

B3

Leaders to be at Annan funeral A

CCRA, Ghana―Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan will be buried in his native Ghana on Thursday after a state funeral attended by world leaders past and present, traditional rulers and global royalty.

READY TO EVICT. Riot police arrive in the Hambacher Forst forest in Kerpen, western Germany, on September 13, 2018. German activists living in treehouses to protect the ancient forest from being razed for a nearby coal mine were bracing for a forced eviction by police in a major escalation of the long running environmental battle. Oliver Berg, AFP

Suu Kyi defends jailing of reporters HANOI―Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday robustly defended the jailing of two Reuters journalists who were reporting on the Rohingya crisis, as she hit back at the global criticism of a trial widely seen as an attempt to muzzle the free press.

The country’s de facto leader acknowledged that the brutal crackdown on the Muslim minority―which the United Nations has cast as “genocide”―could have been “handled better”, but insisted the two reporters had been treated fairly.

“They were not jailed because they were journalists” but because “the court has decided that they had broken the Official Secrets Act”, she said.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were each imprisoned for seven years last week for breaching the country’s hard-

IN BRIEF Video of apparent harassment revealed WASHINGTON―Video footage emerged Wednesday showing disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein apparently sexually harassing a woman who subsequently accused him of rape.

Melissa Thompson, who has previously publicly complained of abusive behavior by Weinstein during a 2011 business meeting in New York, gave a tape of the encounter to Sky News.

Thompson told the station she had been offering her tech company’s video platform to the 66-year-old, and recorded the meeting as part of the pitch.

Just hours later, Weinstein allegedly raped her in his hotel room, the woman told Sky News.

AFP reached out to Weinstein’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman for comment but there was no immediate response.

He was quoted by US-based entertainment magazine People however as denying sexual misconduct by his client.

“Several respected journalists and trustworthy individuals have seen the entire video, as Ms. Thompson has been trying to promote it to for several months,” Brafman’s statement read, according to People.

“What they shared with us is that the video, when viewed in its entirety, in context and not in select excerpts, demonstrates that there is nothing forceful, but casual―if not awkward―flirting from both parties.” AFP

Gunman kills five people, then himself LOS ANGELES―A man went on a shooting rampage in California on Wednesday, killing five people including his wife, before taking his own life.

The shooting at multiple locations in Bakersfield in central California was possibly “a domestic violence incident,” said Lieutenant Mark King of the Kern County sheriff’s office.

Police received their first call at 5:19 pm before responding to the first location, a trucking company, where the rampage began.

Three people were killed there and the shooter, armed with a large caliber hand gun, fled.

Sheriff Donny Youngblood told reporters that the suspect first shot a man at the trucking company and then killed his own wife. He chased a person who had witnessed the shooting and killed that person, too.

He then fled and shot a couple at a house.

Police then received a call from a woman who said she had been carjacked, King told AFP. Officers gave chase and the suspect pulled into a business, got out of the car and shot himself, he said. AFP

Maduro looks to China for help CARACAS-Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro departed Wednesday for China in search of agreements to bolster the oil-exporting country’s collapsing economy.

Maduro said the trip was “very necessary, very opportune and full of great expectations.”

“We are leaving under better conditions, having activated a program of economic recovery, growth and prosperity. We are going to improve, broaden and deepen relations with this great world power,” he said in a televised address.

Maduro’s government has massively devalued the national currency as part of a raft of measures intended to halt the economy’s free-fall into hyperinflation.

The International Monetary Fund projects Venezuela’s inflation rate will reach 1,000,000 percent by the end of the year.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled the country, most of them into neighboring Latin American countries.

The trip to China is Maduro’s first outside the country since he was allegedly targeted by exploding drones at a military parade in Caracas August 4. AFP

line Official Secrets Act while reporting on the atrocities committed during the military crackdown in Rakhine state.

Suu Kyi, once garlanded as a global rights champion, has come under intense pressure to use her moral force inside Myanmar to defend the pair.

Challenging the critics of the verdict―including the UN, rights groups who once lionized her, and the US Vice President―to “point out” where there has been a miscarriage of justice, Suu Kyi said the case upheld the rule of law.

“The case was held in open court... I don’t think anybody has bothered to read the summary of the judge,” she said during a discussion at the World Economic Forum, adding the pair still had the right to appeal.

Her comments drew an indignant response from rights groups who have urged the

Nobel Laureate to press for a presidential pardon for the reporters.

“Open courts are designed to shed light on the justice process,” said Sean Bain of the International Commission of Jurists.

“Sadly, in this case we’ve seen both institutional and individual failings to hold up the principles of rule of law and human rights.”

Army-led “clearance operations” that started last August drove 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, carrying with them widespread accounts of atrocities―rape, murder and arson―by Myanmar police and troops.

The ferocity of that crackdown has thrust Myanmar into a firestorm of criticism as Western goodwill evaporates towards a country ruled by a ruthless junta until 2015. AFP

Department Departmentof ofEnvironment Environmentand andNatural NaturalResources Resources National NationalCapital CapitalRegion Region

The ceremony at the Accra International Conference Center, which starts at 8:30 am (0830 GMT), marks the end of three days of national mourning for the respected diplomat.

Annan led the UN from 1997 to 2006 and was the first from subSaharan Africa to do so. He died on August 18 aged 80 at his home in Switzerland after a short illness.

The current head of the world body, Antonio Guterres, is expected to attend the funeral, which will be followed by a private burial at the capital’s military ceremony.

The president of neighboring Ivory Coast and the leaders of Liberia, Namibia, Ethiopia, Niger and Zimbabwe have also confirmed their attendance at Thursday’s obsequies, according to Ghana’s information minister.

Former heads of state from Germany to Mauritius were also flying in.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo called the funeral “a major event for our country” and described Annan as “one of the most illustrious people of this generation”.

Ordinary Ghanaians and dignitaries have paid their respects to Annan since his coffin was returned from Geneva and received with full honors on Monday.

Thousands of people have filed past the coffin, which was draped in the red, green and gold national flag and guarded by the military in ceremonial uniform.

One mourner, Fritz Kitcher, who spent his career working in human rights for the UN in Geneva, said he had seen Annan rise through the ranks.

Annan had taught him “the benefit of humility, the benefit of honesty, the benefit of decisiveness, and diplomacy from the grassroots,” he told AFP. Others described Annan as a father-figure and a source of national pride.

Born in Kumasi, the capital of Ghana’s Ashanti region, Annan devoted four decades of his working life to the UN, and was known for bringing quiet charisma to the role.

He was widely credited for raising the world body’s profile in global politics during his two terms in office, facing challenges including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Annan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, as the world was reeling from the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, jointly with the UN “for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world”. AFP

InvItatIon InvItatIonto toB BIdId Procurement Procurementof ofMedicines Medicinesand andMedical MedicalSupplies Suppliesunder underthe theAutonomous Autonomous Region Regionin inMuslim MuslimMindanao Mindanao––Health, Health,Education, Education,Livelihood, Livelihood,Peace Peace Synergy Synergy (ARMM-HELPS) (ARMM-HELPS) ITB ITBNo: No:HELPS-09-2018-001 HELPS-09-2018-001 1.

1. The TheOffice Officeof ofthe theRegional RegionalGovernor Governor––Autonomous AutonomousRegion Regionin inMuslim Muslim Mindanao Mindanao (ORG-ARMM), (ORG-ARMM), through through the the General General Appropriations Appropriations Act Act of of 2018, 2018,intends intendsto toapply applythe thesum sumof ofForty FortyMillion MillionSeven SevenHundred HundredForty FortyNine Nine Thousand ThousandEight EightHundred HundredForty FortySix SixPesos Pesos(PhP40,749,846.00), (PhP40,749,846.00),subdivided subdivided into intothe thefollowing followinglots, lots,as asfollows: follows: Lot Lot Description Description

REGIONAL REGIONALBIDS BIDSAND ANDAWARDS AWARDSCOMMITTEE COMMITTEE INVITATION INVITATIONTO TOBID BID PROCUREMENT PROCUREMENTOF OFSUPPLEMENTAL SUPPLEMENTALDESIGN DESIGNAND ANDBUILD BUILDFOR FORTHE THE PHASE PHASE22OF OFTHE THEDENR-NCR DENR-NCRBUILDING BUILDING The TheDENR-NCR, DENR-NCR,through throughits itsRegional RegionalBids Bidsand andAwards AwardsCommittee Committee(RBAC), (RBAC), intends intendsto toapply applythe thesum sumof ofFIFTEEN FIFTEENMILLION MILLIONFIVE FIVEHUNDRED HUNDREDTHOUSAND THOUSAND PESOS PESOS(PhP15,500,000.00) (PhP15,500,000.00)inclusive inclusiveof ofVAT VATand andall allother otherapplicable applicablegovernment government taxes taxesto tobe becharged chargedto tothe theGAA GAACY’ CY’2017 2017--Capital CapitalOutlay Outlaybeing beingthe theApproved Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payment for the “Procurement of Supplemental Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payment for the “Procurement of Supplemental Design Designand andBuild Buildfor forthe thePhase Phase22of ofthe theDENR-NCR DENR-NCRBuilding”.

Building”.Bids Bidsreceived receivedinin excess excessof ofthe theABC ABCshall shallbe beautomatically automaticallyrejected rejectedat atbid bidopening. opening.

The TheDENR-NCR DENR-NCRnow nowinvites invitesall allinterested interestedPhilGEPS PhilGEPSregistered registeredcontractors/ contractors/ builders, builders,with withthe thenecessary necessaryPhilippines PhilippinesContractors ContractorsAccreditation AccreditationBoard Board(PCAB) (PCAB) license, license,manufactures, manufactures,suppliers, suppliers,dealers, dealers,authorized authorizedfranchised franchiseddealers dealersto tobid bid for forthe theabove abovenoted notedproject projectwith withthe thefollowing followingrequirements/output requirements/outputas asstated statedinin the theapproved approvedPurchase PurchaseRequest: Request: 1.

1. Preparation Preparation of of Supplemental Supplemental Design Design for for the the Completion Completion of of the the Interior Interior and andExterior ExteriorDesign, Design,Including IncludingBill Billof ofQuantities Quantitiesfor forthe theCompletion Completionof ofthe the DENR-NCR DENR-NCR4-Storey 4-StoreyBuilding Building(30 (30days) days) 2.

2.Construction Constructionof ofApproved ApprovedDesign DesignPhase PhaseIIII(180 (180days) days)

11 Procurement ProcurementofofMedicines Medicines––AA

PhP14,219,819.60 PhP14,219,819.60

22 Procurement ProcurementofofMedicines Medicines––BB

PhP10,780,026.40 PhP10,780,026.40

33 Procurement ProcurementofofMedical MedicalSupplies Supplies PhP15,750,000.00 PhP15,750,000.00

being being the theApproved Approved Budget Budget for for the the Contract Contract (ABC) (ABC) to to payments payments under under the the contract contractfor foreach eachlot. lot.Bids Bidsreceived receivedininexcess excessof ofthe theABC ABCfor foreach eachlot lotshall shallbe be automatically automaticallyrejected rejectedat atbid bidopening. opening.

2.

2. The TheOffice Officeof ofthe theRegional RegionalGovernor Governor––Autonomous AutonomousRegion Regionin inMuslim Muslim Mindanao Mindanao (ORG-ARMM)now (ORG-ARMM)now invites invites bids bids for for medicines medicines and and medical medical supplies. supplies.11Delivery Delivery of of the the Goods Goods isis required required within within thirty thirty (30) (30) calendar calendar days. days. Bidders Bidders should should have have completed, completed, within within five five (5) (5) years years from from the the date date of of submission submission and and receipt receipt of of bids, bids, aa contract contract similar similar to to the the Project.

Project. The The description description of of an an eligible eligible bidder bidder isis contained contained inin the the Bidding Bidding Documents, Documents, particularly, particularly,ininSection SectionII. II.Instructions Instructionsto toBidders.

Bidders.

3.

3. Bidding Bidding will will be be conducted conducted through through open open competitive competitive bidding bidding procedures procedures using using aa non-discretionary non-discretionary “pass/fail” “pass/fail” criterion criterion as as specified specified inin the the 2016 2016 Revised Revised Implementing Implementing Rules Rules and and Regulations Regulations (IRR) (IRR) of of Republic Republic Act Act (RA) (RA) 9184, 9184,otherwise otherwiseknown knownas asthe the“Government “GovernmentProcurement ProcurementReform ReformAct”.

Act”.

Bidding Biddingisisrestricted restrictedto toFilipino Filipinocitizens/sole citizens/soleproprietorships, proprietorships,partnerships, partnerships,or or organizations organizationswith withat atleast leastsixty sixtypercent percent(60%) (60%)interest interestor oroutstanding outstandingcapital capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of ofaacountry countrythe thelaws lawsor orregulations regulationsof ofwhich whichgrant grantsimilar similarrights rightsor orprivileges privileges to toFilipino Filipinocitizens, citizens,pursuant pursuantto toRA RA5183.

5183.

Delivery Deliveryof ofthe theaforementioned aforementionedproject projectisisrequired requiredwithin withinTwo TwoHundred HundredTen Ten (210) (210) calendar calendar days days upon upon issuance issuance of of the the Notice Notice to to Proceed.

Proceed. Bidders Bidders should should have havecompleted completedaacontract contractsimilar similarto tothe theproject projectininthe thelast lastfive five(5) (5)years. years.

The Thedescription descriptionof ofan aneligible eligiblebidder bidderisiscontained containedininthe theBidding BiddingDocuments, Documents, particularly, particularly,ininSection SectionII. II.Instruction Instructionto toBidders.

Bidders.

Bidding Bidding will will be beconducted conducted through through an anopen open competitive competitive bidding bidding procedure procedure using using non-discretionary non-discretionary “pass/fail” “pass/fail” criteria criteria as as specified specified inin the the Implementing Implementing Rules Rulesand andRegulations Regulations(IRR) (IRR)of ofRepublic RepublicAct Act(RA) (RA)9184, 9184,otherwise otherwiseknown knownas asthe the “Government “GovernmentProcurement ProcurementReform ReformAct”.

Act”.

Bidding Bidding isis restricted restricted to to Filipino Filipino citizens/sole citizens/sole proprietorships, proprietorships, cooperatives, cooperatives, and and partnerships partnerships or or organizations organizations with with at at least least seventy seventy five five percent percent (75%) (75%) interest interestor oroutstanding outstandingcapital capitalstock stockbelonging belongingto tocitizens citizensof ofthe thePhilippines.

Philippines.

Interested Interestedbidders biddersmust mustsubmit submittheir theirbid bidproposal proposalfrom fromSeptember September12, 12,2018 2018 to to October October 02, 02, 2018 2018 and and may may obtain obtain further further information information from from and and inspect inspect the the Bidding BiddingDocuments Documentsat atthe theaddress addressgiven givenbelow belowduring during8:00 8:00A.M. A.M.to to4:00 4:00P.M. P.M. AA complete complete set set of of Bidding Bidding Documents Documents may may be be purchased purchased by by interested interested bidders biddersfrom fromSeptember September12, 12,2018 2018to toOctober October02, 02,2018 2018from fromthe theaddress addressbelow below and and upon upon payment payment of of aa non-refundable non-refundable fee fee for for the the Bidding Bidding Documents Documents inin the the amount amountof ofTwenty-five Twenty-fiveThousand ThousandPesos Pesos(Php25,000.00).

(Php25,000.00).

4.

4. Interested Interested bidders bidders may may obtain obtain further further information information from from Office Office of of the the Regional RegionalGovernor Governor––Autonomous AutonomousRegion Regionin inMuslim MuslimMindanao Mindanao(ORG(ORGARMM) ARMM) and and inspect inspect the the Bidding Bidding Documents Documents at at the the address address given given below below during during9:00AM 9:00AMto to5:00PM, 5:00PM,Mondays Mondaysto toFridays.

Fridays.

5.

5. AAcomplete completeset setof ofBidding BiddingDocuments Documentsmay maybe beacquired acquiredby byinterested interestedBidders Bidders on on September September 14, 14, 2018 2018 to to October October 09, 09, 2018 2018 (9:59AM) (9:59AM) from from the the address address below below and and uponpayment uponpayment ofthe ofthe non-refundable non-refundable fee, fee, which which pertains pertains to to the the applicable applicable fee fee for for the the Bidding Bidding Documents, Documents, inin accordance accordance with with the the latest latest Guidelines Guidelinesissued issuedby bythe theGPPB, GPPB,as asfollows: follows: Lot Lot 11 22 33

ItItmay mayalso alsobe bedownloaded downloadedfree freeof ofcharge chargefrom fromthe thewebsite websiteof ofthe thePhilippine Philippine Government GovernmentElectronic ElectronicProcurement ProcurementSystem System(PhilGEPS) (PhilGEPS)and andthe thewebsite websiteof ofthe the procuring procuringentity, entity,provided providedthat thatthe thebidders biddersshall shallpay paythe thenon-refundable non-refundablefee feefor for the thebidding biddingdocuments documentsnot notlater laterthan thanthe thesubmission submissionof oftheir theirbids. bids.

The The DENR-NCR DENR-NCR will will hold hold aa Pre-bid Pre-bid Conference Conference on on September September 20, 20, 2018 2018 at at 2:00 2:00 P.M. P.M. at at the the Conference Conference Room, Room, 4th 4th floor, floor, DENR-NCR DENR-NCR Bldg., Bldg., National National Ecology EcologyCenter, Center,East EastAvenue, Avenue,Quezon QuezonCity Citywhich whichshall shallbe beopen opento toall allinterested interested parties. parties.

Bids Bids must must be be delivered delivered to to the the address address below below on on or or before before 10:00 10:00A.M. A.M. of of October October02, 02,2018.

2018.All Allbids bidsmust mustbe beaccompanied accompaniedby byaabid bidsecurity securityininany anyof ofthe the acceptable acceptableforms formsininthe theamount amountstated statedininthe thebidding biddingdocuments. documents.

Bid Bid opening opening shall shall be be at at 10:30 10:30 A.M. A.M. on on wards wards on on October October 02, 02, 2018 2018 at at the the Conference Conference Room, Room, 4th 4th floor, floor, DENR-NCR DENR-NCR Bldg., Bldg., National National Ecology Ecology Center, Center, East East Ave., Ave., Quezon Quezon City.

City. Bids Bids will will be be opened opened inin the the presence presence of of the the bidders’ bidders’ representatives representativeswho whochoose chooseto toattend attendat atthe theaddress addressbelow. below.Late Latebids bidsshall shallnot not be beaccepted. accepted.

The The DENR-NCR DENR-NCR assumes assumes no no responsibility responsibility whatsoever whatsoever to to compensate compensate or or indemnify indemnify bidders bidders for for any any expenses expenses incurred incurred inin the the preparation preparation of of the the bid. bid. Moreover, Moreover, the the DENR-NCR DENR-NCR reserves reserves the the right right to to accept accept or or reject reject any any bid bid proposals at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any proposals at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability liability to to the the affected affected bidder/s, bidder/s, waive waive any any formality formality inin the the bid bid requirements, requirements, declare declare the the bidding bidding aa failure, failure, or or award award the the contract contract to to the the bidder bidder whose whose offer offer isis the the most most responsive, responsive, lowest lowest calculated calculated bid, bid, and and most most advantageous advantageous to to the the government. government.

For Forfurther furtherinformation, information,please pleaserefer referto: to: RBAC RBACSecretariat Secretariat Procurement Section, 3rd floor, DENR-NCR Procurement Section, 3rd floor, DENR-NCRBldg.

Bldg.

National NationalEcology EcologyCenter Center East EastAvenue, Avenue,Diliman, Diliman,Quezon QuezonCity City Tel. Tel.No. No.932.1371 932.1371 September September10, 10,2018.

2018.

(SGD) (SGD)EDUARDO EDUARDOC. C.CALZETA, CALZETA,Ph.D, Ph.D, Vice-Chairperson Vice-Chairperson Regional RegionalBids Bidsand andAwards AwardsCommittee Committee (MS-SEPT. (MS-SEPT.14, 14,2018) 2018)

Approved ApprovedBudget Budgetof ofthe theContract Contract(ABC) (ABC)

Approved ApprovedBudget Budgetof of Amount Amountof ofBidding Bidding Description Description the Documents theContract Contract(ABC) (ABC) Documents Procurement PhP14,219,819.60 PhP10,000.00 ProcurementofofMedicines Medicines––AA PhP14,219,819.60 PhP10,000.00 Procurement PhP10,780,026.40 PhP5,000.00 ProcurementofofMedicines Medicines––BB PhP10,780,026.40 PhP5,000.00 Procurement PhP10,000.00 ProcurementofofMedical MedicalSupplies Supplies PhP15,750,000.00 PhP15,750,000.00 PhP10,000.00

ItItmay mayalso alsobe bedownloaded downloadedfree freeof ofcharge chargefrom fromthe thewebsite websiteof ofthe thePhilippine Philippine Government GovernmentElectronic ElectronicProcurement ProcurementSystem System(PhilGEPS) (PhilGEPS)and andthe thewebsite websiteof of the the Procuring Procuring Entity, Entity, provided provided that that Bidders Bidders shall shall pay pay the the applicable applicable fee fee for for the theBidding BiddingDocuments Documentsnot notlater laterthan thanthe thesubmission submissionof oftheir theirbids. bids.

6.

6. The TheORG-ARMM ORG-ARMMwill willhold holdaaPre-Bid Pre-BidConference Conferenceon onSeptember September25, 25,2018 2018at at 10:00AM 10:00AM at at BajauHall, BajauHall, 2F 2F Office Office of of the the Regional Regional Governor-ARMM, Governor-ARMM, Office Office of ofthe theBangsamoro BangsamoroPeople, People,Gov. Gov.Gutierrez GutierrezAve., Ave.,Cotabato CotabatoCity, City,which whichshall shall beopen beopento toprospective prospectivebidders. bidders.

7.

7. Bids Bidsmust mustbe beduly dulyreceived receivedby bythe theBAC BACSecretariat Secretariatat atthe theaddress addressbelow belowon on or or beforeOctober beforeOctober 09, 09, 2018, 2018, 9:59AM. 9:59AM. All All Bids Bids must must be be accompanied accompanied by by aa bid bidsecurity securityininany anyof ofthe theacceptable acceptableforms formsand andininthe theamount amountstated statedininITB ITB Clause Clause18.

18.

Bid Bidopening openingshall shallbe beon onOctober October09, 09,2018 2018at at10:00AM 10:00AMatBajauHall, atBajauHall,2F 2FOffice Office of of the the Regional Regional Governor-ARMM, Governor-ARMM, Office Office of of the the Bangsamoro Bangsamoro People, People, Gov. Gov. Gutierrez GutierrezAve., Ave., Cotabato Cotabato City.

City. Bids Bids will will be be opened opened inin the the presence presence of of the the bidders’ bidders’representatives representatives who who choose choose to to attend attend at at the the address address below. below. Late Late bids bidsshall shallnot notbe beaccepted. accepted.

8.

8. The The ORG-ARMM ORG-ARMM reserves reserves the the right right to to reject reject any any and and all all bids, bids, declare declare aa failure failure of of bidding, bidding, or or not not award award the the contract contract at at any any time time prior prior to to contract contract award awardininaccordance accordancewith withSection Section41 41of ofRA RA9184 9184and andits itsIRR, IRR,without withoutthereby thereby incurring incurringany anyliability liabilityto tothe theaffected affectedbidder bidderor orbidders. bidders.

9.

9. For Forfurther furtherinformation, information,please pleaserefer referto: to: The TheBids Bidsand andAwards AwardsCommittee CommitteeSecretariat Secretariat C/o C/oOffice Officeof ofthe theBids Bidsand andAwards AwardsCommittee, Committee,ORG-ARMM ORG-ARMM 2F 2FOffice Officeof ofthe theBangsamoro BangsamoroPeople People Gov. Gov.Gutierrez GutierrezAve., Ave.,Cotabato CotabatoCity City Tel. Tel.Nos. Nos.(064) (064)552-1053 552-1053 (SGD) (SGD)ATTY. ATTY.SAHARA SAHARAALIA ALIAJ. J.SILONGAN SILONGAN Chairperson Chairperson 1.1.

AAbrief briefdescription descriptionofofthe thetype(s) type(s)ofofGoods Goodsshould shouldbe beprovided, provided,including includingquantities, quantities,location locationofofproject, project,and andother other information informationnecessary necessarytotoenable enablepotential potentialbidders bidderstotodecide decidewhether whetherorornot nottotorespond respondtotothe theinvitation. invitation.

(MS-SEPT. (MS-SEPT.14, 14,2018) 2018)

CYAN CYAN MAGENTA MAGENTAYELLOW YELLOW BLACK BLACK

LGUs

Manila

Standard

TODAY

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

B4

Makati wrecks 282 structures encroaching on city streets

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

By Joel E. Zurbano THE Makati City government has demolished 282 structures encroaching sidewalks and streets in various villages in line with its continuing clearing operations aimed to maintain its reputation as a “walkable streets” city and environmentally-progressive community in Metro Manila.

Personnel of the city’s Department of Engineering and Public Works made the demolitions upon the directive of Mayor Abigail Binay, whose main objective is to ensure the convenience and safety of both pedestrians and motorists in the community.

Binay said as early as October last year, the DEPW had issued notices of violation to concerned residents asking them to remove objects and structures extending beyond the property line.

“We have given the concerned residents more than enough time to comply with the notices of violation issued to them. We have made it clear to them that we intend to enforce the law for the common good,” said Binay.

The city chief executive also said her administration remains firm in its commitment to public welfare and safety, especially for ordinary citizens who have the right to walk on clean and unobstructed passageways.

SWEET TREATS.

Sixty students from different public schools across Rizal Province recently came together to give San Mateo’s famous rice cakes a twist, making it a feast for both the tummy and the eyes. SM City San Mateo brought food art to the fore as it joined the town’s annual celebration of the Kakanin Festival by holding a culinary battle for the best art using ‘kakanin’ (rice cakes).

Manny Palmero

Ceza’s 50-man quick response team on standby for huge storm AS TYPHOON “Ompong” intensified with winds of over 200 kph on a path directly toward the country’s northeastern seaboard, Secretary Raul L. Lambino activated Wednesday a 50-man quickresponse team in Sta. Ana, heartland of the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport.

“Our order is for the quick-response team to identify the hazard areas and inhabited areas that are prone to landslide and flooding,” said Lambino, administrator and CEO of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority based in Sta. Ana. Lambino said he has put on standby Ceza’s earth-moving equipment such as backhoes and bulldozers and other vehicles like ambulances and dump trucks for possible evacuation and rescue operations.

He said he gave orders to the Ceza team to coordinate closely with local authorities “because disaster preparedness is a total team effort.”

“As we anticipate mass evacuation because of the typhoon’s intensity, we have prepared relief goods that will be released to evacuees in coordination with the LGUs and local disaster management authorities,” Lambino added.

LGUs marshal forces for ‘Ompong’ assault L

OCAL governments in Metro Manila and its environs are preparing for the worst against Super Typhoon “Ompong” and have marshaled their resources to protect their citizens ahead of the storm’s expected landfall on Saturday.

In the City of Manila, the city government’s frontline services have been deployed in strategic parts of the capital.

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada met with officials of Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, Manila Health Department, Engineering Department of Public Services, Manila Police District, Bureau of Fire Protection, barangay officials, and non-government organizations as they formed contingency units to assist affected families.

Estrada underscored that “readiness and preparation” are the most important things to do to lessen damage and loss of lives.

The city chief executive directed all Manila department officials to take an inventory of the equipment available in case they are needed and identify areas to be affected, among others.

AFFIDAVIT OF LOSS I, RICARDO N. FERNANDEZ, JR., of legal age, Filipino citizen and with residence address at B3 Lot 13-A Town & Country Estates, Sumulong, Antipolo City, do hereby depose and declare that: 1. I am the Corporate Secretary of AIRLIFT ASIA, INC., a registered stockholder of theVALLEY GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB, INC. share of stock covered by the following stock certificate: CERT. STOCKHOLDER NAME STOCK NO. AIRLIFT ASIA, INC.

NO. OF SHARES

DATE ISSUED

1

4/11/2005

3928

2. That the above-mentioned certificate was lost and despite diligent search the same could not be found.

3. The said certificate has not been sold, pledged or in any way encumberedto any third party in any manner whatsoever and as of this request, Airlift Asia, Inc. remain to be the absolute owner of the share of stock covered, free from all liens and encumbrances.

5. In the event that the missing stock certificates is recovered, I shall immediately notifythe Corporation and/or the Issuer thereof and surrender the same to the latter.

6. I am executing this Affidavit to attest to the truth of the foregoing statements and torequest the Corporation and/or the Issuer to replace the subject stock certificate at our expense.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this _____ day of _____________ at _____________.

AIRLIFT ASIA, INC. Stockholder By:

RICARDO N. FERNANDEZ,JR. Corporate Secretary BEFORE ME, a Notary Public for and in the City of Makati, this ____ day of_____________, personally appeared affiant exhibiting his government issued ID: Name

Government Issued I.D.

Date/Place Issued

17 January 2018 and Ricardo N. Fernandez, Jr. Passport No. P5645377A expiring on 16 January 2028 at DFA Manila

The mayor also instructed city government officials that will be tasked to man the operations center.

“All the necessary equipment, including food and water. have been stored at the evacuation centers in Baseco, Delpan, and Delpan Sports Complex,” Estrada said.

Other evacuation centers are the Corazon Aquino High School in Baseco, Vicente Lim Elementary School, Almario Elementary School, Villegas High School in Vitas, and the covered court in Brgy 105, as well as health centers stocked with medicines.

The mayor is targeting zero casualties for the city, since Manila is a low area and floods are expected to hit low-lying areas.

“Always listen to the news. We must be ready with our first aid kits and flashlights,

and pray for protection,” Estrada said.

The Taguig City government has also stepped up preparations as “Ompong” entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Wednesday.

The city government also ordered all building owners and locators in the city to secure all billboards, advertising signages and heavy equipment like cranes, as these could pose dangers to the public with strong winds and heavy rains anticipated for the weather disturbance.

“We want to encourage everyone to please remain calm and to continue praying for everyone’s safety. Rest assured that the city is doing its best to keep every Taguigeño safe in times of calamities,” said Mayor Laarni Cayetano.

Erwin Palima, head of the city’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said boats, trucks and other rescue vehicles have already been prepositioned for the rescue, and preemptive and forced evacuations of affected residents.

Vests, ropes, cutters, shovels, megaphones and other pertinent items are also ready, he added. Joel Zurbano and Romeo Dizon

SM Foundation-DA KSK pact expands to Tagbilaran TAGBILARAN CITY—The partnership between SM Foundation and the Department of Agriculture has been strengthened with the launching of the Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers’ Training Program at the Bohol Agricultural Center here, coinciding with the launching of the Bohol Fish Market and Tienda.

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol came to the city as part of his Biyaheng Bukid, an initiative that takes him to different places in the country, enables him to interact with farmers and fishermen and consult with local government executives on issues related to agriculture Republic of the Philippines Department of Finance Securities and Exchange Commission IN THE MATTER OF CITY & LAND DEVELOPERS, INCORPORATED x----------------------------------------x

: : REGISTRATION OF COMMERCIAL PAPERS : :

NOTICE Notice is hereby given that on 5 September 2018 a sworn Registration Statement was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of CITY & LAND DEVELOPERS, INCORPORATED for the registration of Three Hundred Fifty Million Pesos (Php350,000,000.00) worth of Commercial Papers.

According to the papers presented, the following persons are the officers/directors of the corporation: Name Atty. Sabino R. Padilla, Jr. Stephen C. Roxas Andrew I. Liuson Grace C. Liuson Josef C. Gohoc Peter S. Dee Cesar E.A. Virata Alice C. Gohoc Helen C. Roxas Emma A. Choa Rudy Go Melita M. Revuelta Romeo E. Ng Melita L. Tan Rosario D. Perez Winefreda R. Go Atty. Emma G. Jularbal Dorothy U. So Jocelyn C. De Asis

and fisheries.

At a press conference, Piñol stressed on making Bohol a “food-secured” province through the initiative of local leaders and the local government units in collaboration with the national government and private organizations.

One of the programs that would help make farmers self-reliant in food and empower them to become entrepreneurs is the KSK Farmers’ Training Program.

The program launch and orientation was attended by Cristie S. Angeles, the SMFI AVP of Outreach and Livelihood Programs, and Harbest Agribusiness Corp. president Arsenio “Toto” Barcelona, who briefed the guests and participants on the season-long dual tech program.

The Department of Agriculture is one of the program partners in the training program. At the launch, DA Region 7 coordinator Susan Kintanar helped organized the farmers and LGUs in support of KSK.

IN BRIEF ARMM’s pivotal role in Asean barter trade COTABATO CITY―The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao would be a significant economic factor to reviving the old barter trading with neighboring members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, officials said.

On Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte said his meeting with the administration’s economic managers would also delve on revival of barter trading, and enhance trade link with Sabah where rice price is comparatively low.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said inter-regional maritime trading in the south is an old tradition traced back from ancient barter trading, but which is viewed in modern times as a form of smuggling. Nash B. Maulana

‘Landmark’ housing code passed in QC THE 37-member Quezon City council has passed a landmark housing code to increase the availability of socialized housing for the city’s 190,000 informal settler families.

“The housing code is a comprehensive piece of legislation meant to address all the issues concerning housing and to provide for provisions that will allow for various schemes and partnerships that will address the need for adequate and affordable housing for all low-income sectors in our city,” Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte said.

“This ordinance took years and years in the making and, once it is passed, this for me will be one of our greatest achievements as a council,” she added.

Rio N. Araja

DENR Bataan backs 1 million trees tack BALANGA CITY―The Department of Environment and Natural Resources Bataan is full support to the 1 Million Trees for 1Bataan Challenge launched by the provincial government on Monday.

“We will be fully supporting the challenge, there must be coordinated effort for the success of the project,” Penro officer Raul Mamac earlier said during the tree-planting activity in Barangay Mabayo, Morong in celebration of the Civil Service Commission 118th year anniversary.

“The media can also help in the information dissemination,” he told as he urged this writer to cover the launching of the 1M41B. Butch Gunio

Position Director/Chairman of the Board Director/Chairman of the Executive Committee Director/Vice Chairman of the Board Director/Deputy Vice-Chairman of the Board Director/President Independent Director Independent Director Director Director Executive Vice President/Treasurer Senior Vice President/Chief Financial Officer/ Compliance & Corporate Information Officer/Data Protection Officer/Investors Relations Officer Vice President/Alternate Compliance Officer and Corporate Information Officer Vice President Vice President Vice President-Executive Affairs Vice President Vice President-Legal Affairs/Corporate Secretary Assistant Vice President-Head of Internal Audit Department Assistant Corporate Secretary

Said registration statement and other papers/documents attached thereto (collectively known as “RS”) are open to inspection by interested parties during business hours, and copies thereof, photostatic or otherwise, shall be furnished to any party, upon request, at such fees as the Commission may prescribe. The RS and the Prospectus dated 05 September 2018 and the corresponding updated version may be downloaded from www.cityland.net.

(MS-SEPT. 7,14 & 21, 2018)

(MS-SEPT. 14 & 17, 2018)

VICENTE GRACIANO P. FELIZMENIO, JR. Director Markets and Securities Regulation Department

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol (center, seated) talks to the media in Tagbilaran City as part of his Biyaheng Bukid and to usher in the Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers’ Training Program at the Bohol Agricultural Center, to coincide with the launching of the Bohol Fish Market and Tienda.

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

V

isual arts and design competition Metrobank art & Design Excellence or MaDE continues its mission of discovering the country’s new promising artists as it announces this year’s winners.

Life

bernadette Lunas, Issue Editor manilastandardlife@gmail.com @manilastandardlife @mstandardLife

culture and media

MaDE Painting Recognition Program has named two grand winners, namely Noel Elicana for the oil/acrylic on canvas category with his piece “Kanya-kanyang Tinik, Kanya-kanyang landas, iisa ang Ginagalawan,” and alex Ordoyo for watermedia on paper category with his monochromatic piece entitled “Destroyed.”

Elicana, through representational surrealism, portrayed both creation and destruction in his award-winning piece. a tree rooted in the artist’s deep familiarity of his hometown in Oton, iloilo, serves as the center of the composition where otherworldly figures and f lowers spring. Death and destruction are represented through bones and vultures.

Meanwhile, Ordoyo portrayed the devastation that enveloped Marawi City in his artwork. The painting stitches the various features of the capital city of lanao del sur through the presentation of the destroyed urban landscape—ruined houses, establishments, mosques, and fleeing figures. in the spirit of representational cubism, the work frustrates perspective or any point of entry to sensibly navigate the piece, so much so that the viewer is confronted by the full intensity of a wreckage.

friday, september 14, 2018

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‘Interconnected,’ the winning sculpture by Maria Ronna Lara-Bes

2018 Metrobank Art & Design Excellence

recognizes new talents Maria Ronna lara-Bes, on the other hand, has been named MaDE’s grand awardee for the sculpture Recognition Program, for her work “interconnected,” a medley of spheres and lines symbolizing binding ties.

With three equidistant spheres representing luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao as a base, the indoor sculpture is interconnected by “stems” inspired by different indigenous fabrics and stainless spheres of varying sizes that serve as vital connecting nodes of the composition. “interconnected” is a visual representation of how the disparate islands of our archipelago are bridged together by its people. Whether the connection may be that of “familiar bonds, regional ties, or social media.”

Elicana, Ordoyo, and lara-Bes will each receive a financial assistance worth P500,000 and the “Mula” glass trophy designed by 2009 Metrobank Prize for achievement in sculpture awardee Noell El Farol.

MaDE has also announced two special Citation awardees for the oil/acrylic on canvas category, namely Francis Eugene andrade for his piece entitled “The sacrifice” and Roland llarena for “The Diminishing Memories of Home.”

Hans Eckstein as Sir Roderick

'Destroyed' by Alex Ordoyo

The awardees with be formally recognized at the 2018 MaDE awarding Ceremony and Exhibit Opening as part of the 56th anniversary celebration of the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Com-

'Kanya-kanyang Tinik, Kanya-kanyang Landas, Iisa ang Ginagalawan' by Noel Elicana

pany on sept. 20.

The awardees are also set to become members of the MaDE-Network of Winners, the alumni organization of past MaDE awardees implementing pay-it-forward pro-

jects that benefit marginalized sectors.

Now on its 34th year, MaDE has set the benchmark among the country’s art competitions and has long served as the career launch pad of the country’s

most admired contemporary artists and sculptors. among its past awardees are Elmer Borlongan, Mark Justiniani, Jan leeroy New, salvador “Buddy” Ching, and andres Barrioquinto.

REP presents ‘Rapunzel! Rapunzel! A Very Hairy Tale’ ClassiC fairytale gets a quirky twist in REP’s Theater for Young audiences’ latest production, which follows the whimsical adventure of Princess Rapunzel.

The Rapunzel! Rapunzel! A Very Hairy Fairy Tale, which premieres on sept.

15 and will run until Jan. 27, 2019 at the Onstage Theater in Greenbelt 1, Makati, is based on the story,

Cara Barredo as Princess Rapunzel

music, and lyrics by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman.

The play opens with the beautiful, extremely long-haired Princess Rapunzel (played by Cara Barredo, Mikkie Bradshaw, Justine Narciso, and alyssa Rosa) being kidnapped and trapped inside a tower as the evil lady Za Za (Carla Guevara-laforteza and liesl Batucan) tries to seize the entire kingdom and place it under her rule.

While on the quest to find the perfect head of hair, sir Roderick (Hans Eckstein, andres Borromeo, and Brendon Banares) and his hairstylist friend Edgar (steven Hotchkiss, Chino

Carla Guevara-Laforteza as Lady Za Za

Veguillas, and Kenny isidro) find their way to the tower in the middle of the dark forest to rescue Rapunzel with the help of a slightly neurotic Gypsy Woman (Bituin Escalante and Naths Everett) and witty, old dragon socrates (arnel Carrion, Raymund Concepcion, and Jamie Wilson).

Joy Virata directs the cast of this magical retelling of a classic fairytale.

For show dates and tickets, call REP at (02) 843-3570 or Ticketworld at 891-9999, or log on to www.ticketworld.com.ph.

Steven Hotchkiss as Edgar

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

nickie.standard@gmail.com

After ‘Ika-6 na Utos, GMA launches

‘IKA-5 UTOS’

K A P U S O followers can’t seem to get enough of intrigues in love and life, TV series that delve on those two subjects are surefire ratings magnet.

Last Monday, love turns deadly in GMA Network’s newest Afternoon Prime series, Ika-5 Utos.

Ika-5 Utos delves on a harrowing hazing incident that led to the death of a dear son, uncovering old wounds between three mothers and their respective families. Its story is one of deep passion, lust, and heartbreak— all of which could poison a soul, evidently killing someone.

Starring in the new afternoon series threatening to break ratings figures as what Ika-6 na Utos did are Jean Garcia as Eloisa, a devoted wife and a doting mother; versatile actor Neil Ryan Sese as Randy, Eloisa’s philandering husband; multi-talented Kapuso star Jeric Gonzales as Brix, Eloisa’s loving son and a law student who is also a frat member, they make up the Lorenzo family.

Meanwhile, the Buenaventura family is composed of Tonton Gutierrez as Emil, a humble college professor and a loving husband.

Before he got married to Clarisse (Valerie Concepcion), he was in love with Eloisa. Clarisse, Emil’s selfish and ambitious wife works as an interior designer and secretly jealous of Eloisa. Migo Adecer is Francis, Emil and Clarisse’s middle child who is kind and obedient; Klea Pineda is Candy, the youngest daughter of Clarisse and Emil who falls for Brix (Jeric).

The third family, the Manupils, is made up returning Kapuso Gelli de Belen as Kelly, a social climber who in turn is envious of Clarisse’s upscale lifestyle; son Carlo (Jake Vargas), a spoiled and natural player with violent tendencies whose girlfriend Joanna (Inah de Belen) Carlo’s girlfriend, a nursing student but is from a poor family. Antonio Aquitania is Benjie, Kelly’s laidback husband and a happy-golucky office employee.

Ika-5 Utos will intrigue viewers with its varied degrees of emotions— how lust can kill lovers, how passion can ruin friendships, and how love can turn from deep to deadly.

The series is under the helm of notable Kapuso director and seasoned actress Laurice Guillen, the same brilliant mind behind GMA’s highest-rating daytime drama, Ika-6 Na Utos.

Kapuso viewers from across the globe can also catch their favorite Kapuso shows via GMA’s international channels GMA Pinoy TV, GMA Life TV, and GMA News TV International. For the program guide, visit www.gmapinoytv.com.

‘Folklore’ on HBO HBO Asia’s very first horror anthology original series, Folklore (#FolkloreHBO), is a six-episode hour-long horror series that takes place across six Asian countries Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – with each episode based on each country’s deeply-rooted myths and folklore, featuring supernatural beings and occult beliefs. Helmed by different directors from various countries in Asia, each episode was filmed in the local language of the country that the episode is based in. Folklore seeks to modernize or update Asian horror, showcasing the brand of horror that each country is characteristic of and exploring societal dysfunctions in a manner that is specific to the country but possessing themes that will resonate across the continent.

Folklore premieres on Oct. 7 at 10 p.m. exclusively on HBO. New episodes will debut at the same time every Sunday.

The series will also be streaming on HBO GO. Folklore is an HBO Asia Original series produced and created by awardwinning Singaporean film maker, Eric Khoo.. The six directors involved in FOLKLORE are Joko Anwar (HBO Asia’s Halfworlds, Satan’s Slave) from Indonesia, Takumi Saitoh (Blank Blank 13,

‘Ika-5 Utos’ star Valerie Concepcion and Tonton Gutierrez

Ramen Teh) from Japan, Lee SangWoo (Barbie, Fire In Hell, Dirty Romance) from Korea, Ho Yuhang (Rain D o g s , Mrs. K) from Malaysia, Eric Khoo (“Ramen Teh”, “12 Storeys”) from Singapore and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (Samui Song, Last Life in the Universe) from Thailand.

Folklore also features an ensemble cast from all over Asia. Most notably, Japanese actor, Kazuki Kitamura (Godzilla: Final Wars, Kill Bill: Volumes 1 & 2), Malaysian actor, Bront Palarae (HBO Asia’s Halfworlds Seasons 1 & 2, Satan’s Slave) and Korean actress, Lee Chae-Yeon (Running Man, Please Find Her, Blow Breeze) will each star as lead roles in their respective episodes.

Voting for E!’s People’s Choice Awards ends today E! announced the end of nomination voting for the The E! People’s Choice Awards, celebrating all forms of entertainment, chosen entirely by the fans, today.

With its tremendous multiplatform reach, E! is engaging fans worldwide to select their choice from the 12 nominees along with a write in option in each category and help determine the five finalists who will move forward to the next phase of voting.

As part of E!’s commitment to evolve and super-charge People’s Choice Awards for the next generation, the network has unveiled 13 brand new categories, including “The Bingeworthy Show of 2018,” “The Game Changer of 2018,” “The Revival Show of 2018,” “The Style Star of 2018,” and more.

Nomination voting for the 43 categories across movies, television, music, and pop culture at 11:59 pm ET today.

Fans can either vote online or through Facebook and Twitter with the opportunity to submit write-in nominees when voting online at www.pca.eonline.com. After the voting window closes, the top five nominees based on fan votes in each category will become the official finalists. The finalist-voting window will begin Sept. 24 and runs through Oct. 19.

Voting Methods: Online—www. pca.eonline.com ; ability to submit a write in vote as well Facebook —Fans can post either publicly or privately and include: one category hashtag, one corresponding nominee hashtag, and #PCAs Twitter—Fans can send a public tweet or retweet and include one category hashtag, one corresponding nominee hashtag, and #PCAs Votes will be aggregated and counted through our third party vendor Telescope.

Complete rules can be found at: https://www.eonline.com/peoples_ choice_awards/rules Complete list of category and nominee hashtags can be found at: https://www.eonline. com/peoples_choice_awards/faq The E! People’s Choice Awards will be broadcast live from Barker Hanger in Santa Monica on Nov.12, starting at 8 a.m. with E! Live From The Red Carpet: The E! People’s Choice Awards kicking off at 10 a.m.

Entertainment

Nickie Wang, Issue Editor

TEEN FILIPINA

impresses ‘X Factor’ judges, gets standing ovation

By Nickie Wang

S

EVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Maria Laroco wowed all four judges of The X Factor UK with her rendition of Prince’s classic “Purple Rain” on the second week of the popular reality singing competition.

Maria flew to the UK all the way from the Philippines, sharing it was just her third time to get on a plane.

Before her performance, judge Simon Cowell asked Maria what gives her the strength to come all the way from where she lives to perform in front of them.

The young lady immediately answered, “Since I was a little girl, I’ve always wanted to be an international superstar and I want to be big. That’s why I’m doing this because I love to do this, and this is my dream.”

Deep into Maria’s performance, as she hit on the high notes, the crowd started cheering loudly and were on their feet, the judges then followed one by one started by Robbie Williams, Ayda Williams and Louis Tomlinson. Simon was also on his feet at the end of her song.

Host Dermot O’leary expressed his awe by asking Maria’s companions, “Is there anyone in the Philippines who can’t sing?”

After her impressive audition, Simon asked, “Was there ever one moment where you doubted this?”

Teary eyed Maria respond-

ed, “No, I never gave up on my dreams, a lot of times people tell me that I can’t do it, that I’m not good enough.”

“Look what you did to the audience, that hasn’t happened a lot,” commented Robbie.

“You’re amazing. I’m going to kick this off, and I’m going to give you a massive yes.”

“So you are 17 years old, and you’ve flown all the way [from the Philippines], which is a long trip, you’ve taken on probably one of the biggest songs in the world, I’m gonna go beyond the billion yeses, I’m gonna give you infinity yeses,” Simon expressed.

Maria now moves on to the next round of The X Factor UK. The reality talent show airs first and exclusive, same day as the UK on Blue Ant Entertainment every Sunday and Monday at 7:55 p.m..

X FACTOR. Teen

singer Maria Loroco flew all the way from the Philippines to wow The X Factor UK judges.

Celebrating OPM, showcasing love songs

‘All Out Of Love the Musical,’ headlined by Mig Ayesa, Rachel Alejandro, Tanya Manalang, Raymund Concepcion, and Jamie Wilson, features the classic songs of Air Supply.

FRESH from the success of its 9th theater production, the all-Filipino musical Ang Huling El Bimbo, Resorts World Manila (RWM) along with its producing partner Musical Management Asia Pacific, once again gives the country pride by setting the stage for the world premiere of All Out Of Love: The Musical at the Newport Performing Arts Theater (NPAT) on Oct. 18.

All Out Of Love is a musical told through the timeless songs of Australian pop rock duo Air Supply, with script courtesy of award-winning Canadian playwright Jim Millan.

An Australian creative team will be behind the musical that tells the story of a struggling rock star, his embattled promoter and the loves of their lives.

Headlined by theater stars Mig Ayesa, Rachel Alejandro, Tanya Ayesa Manalang, Raymund Concepcion, Manalang and Jamie Wilson, Wilson All Out of Love will feature 17 hits from Air Supply including “Lost in Love”; “All Out of Love”; “The One That You Love”; and “You are the Reason” among others. Graham Russell, one half of the legendary duo of Air Supply, also wrote a song entitled “I Was In Love With You” for the musical which fans will hear for the first time onstage when the show opens.

“Having grown up in the ‘80s and hearing

Air Supply love songs on the radio, I am excited to see these songs realized in a theatrical context,” said director Darren Yap who has made the rounds directing musicals all over Asia for Cameron Mackintosh.

“The story is a modern fairy tale, set in New York in the music business. It’s a love story for all ages, beautifully woven together with the hit songs of Air Supply,” he added.

The musical is six years in the making according to producer Naomi Toohey who assembled a team of prominent stage masters which includes musical arranger and orchestrator Stephen Amos, choreographer Yvette Lee, co-director Jacinta John, local musical director Joe Tolentino and set designer Bob Brunton.

All Out Of Love the musical will have a limited run at the NPAT. Tickets are now available at the RWM Box Office and all TicketWorld outlets. Visit www.rwmanila. com or download the RWM Mobile App for more upcoming entertainment events at Resorts World Manila

GMA recording artists win big at PMPC Star Awards VARIOUS Kapuso stars led

by Alden Richards were recognized by the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Star Awards for Music held Sept.

10 at Resorts World Manila.

Dubbed as “A Decade of OPM Excellence,” the event included awardees for both the 9th (2017) and 10th (2018) Star Awards for Music.

Alden was one of the night’s biggest winners walking home bagged the 2017 Male Pop Artist of the Year award as well as the Pop Album of the Year and Album of the Year awards for his second album under GMA Records, Say It Again.

Romantic balladeer and The Clash judge Christian Bautista was named 2018 Male Recording Artist of the Year for his song “Kapit,” while pop sweetheart Julie Anne San Jose won 2017 Female Pop Artist of the Year.

Breakthrough star Kyline Alcantara was recognized as the 2018 New Female Recording Artist of the Year for her performance in “Sundo,” a single also produced by GMA Records.

Other Kapuso stars recognized at the Star Awards for Music were The Clash judge and Asia’s Nightingale Lani Misalucha (2017 Female Concert Performer of the Year for her Masquerade Concert); Pepito Manaloto mainstay Jessa Zaragoza (2017 Revival Album of the Year award for her commemorative album with her husband Dingdong Avanzado); Unang Hirit’s Regine Tolentino (2018 Dance Album of the Year for her Moving To The Music album); and Ex Battalion (2018 Song of the Year for “Hayaan Mo Sila,” 2018 Music Video of the Year for “Follow My Lead,” and 2018 Rap Artist of the Year).

Alden Richards is the most decorated Kapuso artist at the 10th anniversary of PMPC Star Awards for Music.

Motoring

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

C3

Prices of second-hand

commercial vehicles soar amid TRAIN

P

RICES of second-hand commercial vehicles have risen by as much as Php150,000, a result of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN).

This was revealed by top buy-and-sell website OLX based on second-hand commercial vehicles ad postings on the portal, from January 2017 to April 2018. Speculations on the TRAIN Law fuelled the price increase on the 3rd quarter of 2017 and continue long after it was implemented early this year.

The TRAIN Law has influenced the resale value of one to two-year old cars with an average increase of P90,000. Among these are units with original retail price of P1million and above such as Toyota Innova, Honda CR-V, Toyota Fortuner, Mitsubishi Montero and Ford Everest.

The first tax reform package of the present administration, the TRAIN Law provides for the increase in take-home pay of Filipino workers by reducing income tax rates while increasing and rationalizing tax rates in other goods and services. For automobiles, TRAIN simplifies excise tax but lower-priced cars

continue to be taxed at a lower rate while more expensive cars are taxed at a higher rate.

“The data we released is our way of guiding buyers in determining which second-hand vehicles have significantly increased in price,” says OLX Head of Cars Xervin Maulanin. “This will also help them evaluate the difference in buying pre-owned versus brand new cars.”

Meanwhile, no significant effect can be seen on prices of entry level passenger cars like Toyota Vios, Honda City and Hyundai Accent.

Additionally, Maulanin also notes, “Despite talks about the TRAIN Law in the third quarter of 2017, the demand for second-hand cars continued to increase.”

Even with the price hike, OLX’s data indicates a steady market for pre-owned vehicles, from high-value to entry level, as the ad posting for second-hand vehicles continues to be on the upswing.

BM: New X3 M in the pipeline THE BMW X3 crossover SUV is a very popular model for the Bavarian automaker and it’s been with us for a while now.

It therefore shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that BMW has now confirmed that a hot X3 M performance variant is in the pipeline. Seen as a direct rival to the Porsche Macan Turbo, the X3 M will be joined by a new X4 M, which the German auto giant has also confirmed as being in its ongoing plans.

It’s been confirmed that this perfor-

mance-focused version of the mid-size X3 SUV will feature a six-cylinder twinturbocharged engine and four-wheel drive, and as the manufacturer has released teaser images of the new model, we already have an idea of how it will look. Although the X-range is rapidly expanding and is already fairly sizable, the performance variant of the X3 will represent the first time BMW has produced a mid-sized SUV of this type.

A pretty aggressive looking style for

the X3 M can be gleaned from the teaser images, and of course, there are also plenty of unofficial spy shots doing the rounds on the internet showing test mules being put through their paces covered in the usual camouflage wraps. The bumpers look to be extended and more sculptured than with the regular X3, and there are also some extended side skirts and an aggressive rear spoiler to complete the sporty look.

BMW hasn’t gone as far as releasing the actual performance figures for the new model, but it’s likely the six-cylinder twin-turbo will develop somewhere north of 425 horsepower when it finally breaks cover. That power will be harnessed by an eight-speed automatic transmission and the manufacturer’s selectable xDrive all-wheel drive system first introduced with the M5 sedan.

Perhaps a little surprisingly in the current climate, it’s also believed a new diesel-powered M Performance X3 is under consideration too. If that one does manage to make it to the production line, which isn’t a certainty at this point, it would probably be powered by the 3.0-liter V-6 tri-turbodiesel currently found in the extremely impressive M50d.

Nissan sets December debut in electric street racing tilt The Kawasaki Ninja 125 and Z125

Kawasaki unveils new bikes THE Japanese manufacturer Kawasaki will unveil its new 125cc Ninja and Z motorcycles—largely inspired by the brand’s famous sports bikes—at the Intermot international motorcycle fair in Cologne, Germany, October 3-7, 2018.

Kawasaki is giving riders a taste of what’s to come from two new 125cc models—the Ninja 125 and the Z125—available to holders of A1-category licenses for small motorcycles. As well as their names, the new bikes inherit the signature looks of some of Kawasaki’s sportiest bikes.

The cycles’ most immediately striking feature is their design, with the 125cc Ninja notably referencing the Ninja ZX10RR, and the Z125 inspired by the Z brand’s naked styling. Both bikes have

tubular trellis type frames using the same stress technology previously seen in Kawasaki’s supercharged Ninja H2. The Ninja 125 and Z125 also share a singlecylinder, water-cooled engine rated at 11kW, or 15HP. The Kawasaki Ninja 125 and Z125 will premiere at the Intermot motorcycle fair before going on sale in 2019.

With its new 125cc models, Kawasaki is reaching out to younger riders with an entry point to the brand’s range, before they move on to more powerful models with higher capacities. The brand’s strategy echoes the approach taken at Honda, which added 125cc models to its range of CB roadsters, such as the recent CB125R Neo Sports Café. AFP

The Hino groundbreaking ceremony was attended by (from left) Kajima Corp. EVP Hiroshi Ishikawa; HMP President Hiroshi Aoki; HML President & CEO, Yoshio Shimo; HMP Chairman Vicente Mills, Jr., Marubeni Corp. COO Atsushi Suzuki; Laguna Provl.

Engineer Philip Bautista; Laguna Community Affairs Officer Engr. Pablo del Mundo and Canlubang Councilor Dexter Bathan.

YOKOHAMA—Nissan has strengthened its partnership with e.dams by purchasing a stake in the championship-winning racing organization, ahead of Nissan’s debut in the ABB FIA Formula E electric streetracing championship.

Nissan is joining Formula E as the first Japanese carmaker to participate in the innovative series and as the global leader in electric cars, with more than 350,000 Nissan LEAF vehicles sold. Nissan’s Formula E program will show a new “performance side” of Nissan Intelligent Mobility – the company’s vision for changing how cars are powered, driven and integrated into society.

Based in Le Mans, France, and cofounded by team principal Jean-Paul Driot, the e.dams organization emerged from DAMS, a leading contender in European open-wheel and sports car competition for more than 30 years. In its previous partnership with Nissan’s alliance partner Renault, e.dams won the Team Championship in the first three seasons of Formula E. It also holds records for most wins and pole positions.

“For Nissan’s first Formula E experience, it makes sense to partner with e.dams and be able to draw on the organization’s experience of winning races and champi-

Hino Motors breaks ground

onships,” said Roel de Vries, Nissan corporate vice president and global head of marketing and brand strategy.

“The level of competition in Formula E will get even more intense for season five, with a series- mandated all-new car and powertrain. As part of our commitment to our partnership, Nissan has now purchased an ownership stake in the organization, and we’re excited to work with Jean-Paul and his team.”

Said Driot: “With our new partner Nis-

san, we’re eagerly awaiting the new challenges ahead. We’re very proud of our history in Formula E, and we’re looking forward to adding new pages to the series’ history books with our new partner and the new car.”

Nissan and e.dams have begun testing the all-new “Gen2” Formula E car, which provides more power and range and eliminates the need for the midrace car swap that was a feature of Formula E during the first four seasons. Motoring@MS

The 2018 Nissan Leaf

THE exclusive distributor of Hino trucks and buses in the Philippines, Hino Motors Philippines,ha broken ground for its new office building and technical training service center in Hino Plant, Canlubang, Laguna.

Besides expanding business operations, Hino’s new facility will be used to strengthen the skill set of the company’s manpower through the technical training service center. Rooted in its commitment to providing Total Support, Hino hopes to provide the best kind of training and preparation for its staff and dealers to enable to handle different situations as truck service providers.

“Hino is always looking for opportunities to improve the quality of products and services that we offer.

From launching Euro 4 vehicles and the new truck line to opening new dealerships and continually improving our aftersales program, Hino ensures that we always offer something new and of high value to our customers,” said HMP President Hiroshi Aoki.

Hino Motors, Ltd. President and CEO Yoshio Shimo also graced the groundbreaking ceremony and shared a few words in light of the event with emphasis on communicating Hino as the “trucks and buses that do more”.

As the only one-stop shop in the Philippines for trucks and buses, Hino upholds its vision of creating a more connected community where goods and people reach their destination in the most efficient manner possible.

“All our actions derive from our commitment to provide Total Support to all our partners. By being passionate to serve the Filipino people, we uphold the premium standard Hino is known for globally and across the country,” HMP Chairman Vicente T. Mills, Jr. shared.

The 17,990-square-meter facility is expected to be completed by July 2019.

Motoring

RAMON L. TOMELDAN Editor

C4 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

F1 RACING RIVALS. Sebastian Vettel (left) trails Lewis Hamilton by 30 points in the standings.

Vettel takes aim

at Hamilton with Singapore sling

S

EBASTIAN Vettel is under growing pressure to slash Lewis Hamilton’s championship lead at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix—and erase Ferrari’s painful memories from last year in the process.

Mercedes normally struggle at the steamy Marina Bay Circuit, but in 2017 Hamilton won from fifth on a rain-soaked grid after a first-lap shunt scuppered both Ferraris and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

Ferrari and Vettel are still smarting after Hamilton won at Italy’s Monza 10 days ago, despite the Marinello team locking out the front row at their home grand prix.

Vettel’s first-lap spin after contact with Hamilton enabled the Englishman to extend his lead in the drivers’ standings to 30 points and the German vowed to bounce straight back in Singapore, where he has won a record four times.

“For sure it’s a disappointment right now,” Vettel said after the race. “But I am turning the page and focusing on Singapore—I like the place and I am happy to go there.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff warned this week that Ferrari and Red Bull would have the edge on Mercedes on the tight, twisting street circuit. But with rain forecast again this week, anything could happen.

“Singapore has features that we’ve struggled with in the past,” said Wolff.

“The short straights, the slow, tight corners and the bumpy surface all make the Marina Bay Street Circuit one of the trickiest for us.

“On paper, the track should favour the Ferraris, but the championship fight is so close that predictions are almost meaningless.”

‘Win the damn thing’ Vettel said he was not worried about the gap to Hamilton growing to 30 points with seven races remaining, and is relishing the chance to pounce on one of his favourite tracks.

“I think we have the pace,” the four-time world champion said. “The points sound a lot, but actually it doesn’t take a long time to get them down.”

Red Bull have suffered a lean season but will fancy their chances of picking up a second 2018 win to follow Daniel Ricciardo’s triumph at Monaco’s similarly twisty street circuit.

The Austrian team have not won in hot, humid Singapore since 2013, when Vettel was behind the wheel, but Ricciardo has remarkably finished second in each of the past three years.

“It’s a place where I have good races and finish pretty strong,” said Ricciardo. “I’ve had four podiums and three second places in a row there, so it’s about time I win the damn thing.”

Verstappen echoed his team-mate’s optimism. “I think the whole team is looking forward to Singapore because we know we

have a real chance to have a good result there,” said the Dutchman, who turns 21 at the end of the month.

“The race has been a strong one for us in the past and I think we should be able to challenge for a podium.”

Off the track, much attention will focus on Kimi Raikkonen after Ferrari announced that the former world champion would be replaced by Monaco’s Charles Leclerc, 20, next year.

More than 20,000 fans had signed an online petition urging Ferrari to stick with the veteran Finn, who will now join Sauber, for one more season at least.

Drivers’ and constructors’ standings ahead of this week’s Singapore Grand Prix, the 15th of 21 races of the season: Drivers 1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 256 pts, 2.

Sebastian Vettel (GER) 226, 3. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 164, 4. Valtteri Bottas (FIN) 159, 5. Max Verstappen (NED) 130, 6.

Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) 118, 7. Nico Hulkenberg (GER) 52, 8. Kevin Magnussen (DEN) 49, 9. Sergio Perez (MEX) 46, 10. Esteban Ocon (FRA) 45, 11. Fernando Alonso (ESP) 44, 12. Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP) 34, 13. Pierre Gasly (FRA) 28, 14.

Romain Grosjean (FRA) 27, 15. Charles Leclerc (MON) 13, 16. Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL) 8, 17. Lance Stroll (CAN) 6, 18.

Marcus Ericsson (SWE) 6, 19. Brendon Hartley (NZL) 2, 20. Sergey Sirotkin (RUS) 1 Constructors 1. Mercedes-AMG 415 points 2. Ferrari 390, 3. Red Bull 248, 4. Renault 86, 5.

Haas 76, 6. McLaren-Renault 52, 7. Force India 32, 8. Toro Rosso-Honda 30, 9. Sauber 19, 10. Williams 7. AFP

Jenson Button’s McLaren P1 for sale EVEN if you have the appropriate amount of funds available to you, it’s not everyday you can just go out and buy a McLaren P1. It’s even less common to be able to buy one previously owned by a former Formula One driver, but at the moment you can. And that’s because Jenson Button, the winner of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, has now put his on the market for sale.

Button put his P1 up for sale on Monday and used Instagram to make the announcement. His post reads: “McLaren P1 up for sale so that someone else can enjoy her. It’s a tough decision but living in America I don’t really get the chance to drive this beauty, I did give her a final blast up to Silverstone for WEC last month though!”

Speaking to the UK’s Autocar publication earlier this year, Button said he loved the

P1 because of its “its slightly snarly on-the-limit behaviour.” Even though just 375 examples of the P1 were built by McLaren between October 2013 and December 2015, this one is even more unique and is described by the selling dealer as a unique ‘1 of 1 example,’ due to its ‘Grauschwartz Grey’ paint, interior color combination and road legal ‘Track Mode 2’ options.

The P1 made its global debut at the Paris Motor Show in 2012, and after going on sale in the UK in October of 2013, all 375 build slots were spoken for by November. The car was considered the successor to the revolutionary F1 due to its use of hybrid power and technology derived straight from Formula One. And like the F1, the P1 is a midengine, rear wheel drive design that used a carbon fiber monocoque and roof structure safety cage concept called MonoCage, and accommodates up to three people with the driver in a central position.

Of course, the question everyone will want to know is how much it will cost to take the P1 off Jenson’s hands. Although this is very much a case of if you have to ask the price you probably can’t afford it, a 2015 P1 sold in the United States earlier this year for $1.7 million. If that hasn’t put you off and you’re probably happy to pay a little more than that for an example with this car’s provenance. The car is being sold by Steve Hurn Cars, who are based in Suffolk in the UK. AFP

Raikkonen leaves Ferrari, returns to Sauber FORMER world champion Kimi Raikkonen will leave Ferrari at the end of 2018, the Italian Formula 1 team announced on Tuesday.

“Scuderia Ferrari said that, at the end of the 2018 season, Kimi Raikkonen will step down from his current role,” the team said in a statement.

“During these years, Kimi’s contribution to the team, both as a driver and on account of his human qualities, has been fundamental. He played a decisive role in the team’s growth and was, at the same time, always a great team player.”

The 38-year-old Raikkonen has started 287 grands prix, winning 20 since his debut in 2001 with Sauber, the team he will race for again in 2019.

“The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team is delighted to announce that Kimi Räikkönen will join the team from 2019. The 2007 Formula One World Champion has signed for the next two seasons,” Sauber confirmed.

Raikkonen left Formula One

two years after winning the world title with Ferrari and spent two years competing in the World Rally Championship, before returning to F1 with Lotus in 2012.

Raikkonen moved back to Ferrari in 2014.

“As a World Champion for Scuderia Ferrari, he will always be part of the Team’s history and family. We thank Kimi for all of this and wish him and his family a prosperous future,” the team added.

Chevrolet launches new app EVERY week seems to bring another smartphone app being launched by a major vehicle manufacturer, and this time it’s the turn of Chevrolet. But instead of this being something to help you order a pizza before you arrive home, to locate a parking space before you get to work or to pay a toll without stopping your journey, Chevy’s Call Me Out app could actually save your life.

In some countries it’s increasingly difficult to imagine it being legal and acceptable to use a handheld mobile phone while driving as the practice has already been outlawed and the penalties for being caught doing so are becoming increasingly severe.

But there are plenty of places where there’s no official sanction against using a phone at the wheel yet, although there can be fines for a more broadbased offense of distracted driving if you are involved in an accident. The Call Me Out app is therefore designed to encourage drivers to leave their phone alone while they’re in control of a vehicle, which could be a lifesaver on American roads and highways.

Rather than being something that positively blocks use of the phone while you’re driving, Call Me Out leverages the influences of your friends and family to keep you focused on the road. The app was developed during a hackathon with college students, and the way it works is to encourage users to leave their devices alone and keep their hands on the wheel along with recorded messages from family and friends and the graphic of a wagging finger.

The clever part is the app uses the phone’s accelerometer and GPS to de-

tect when it’s being physically picked up as speeds go above 5 miles per hour. The app also includes a scoreboard and rankings that improve the less you handle your phone while driving.

In 2016, some 3,450 lives were lost in the US according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), although there’s no data to prove how many of those cases involved the use of cellphones by drivers. The NHTSA currently estimates somewhere in the region of 481,000 drivers are using their phones while driving during daylight hours, so there’s a serious need for something to help combat the problem.

There’s nothing new about distracted driving apps, but existing ones such as LifeSaver are more basic systems that block the phone from being used while you’re driving. Chevy will be hoping this different, gentler approach to the problem might be more successful, and it’s available to download for free now from the Google Play Store for Android users. AFP