Manila Standard - 2018 June 26 - Tuesday

VOL. XXXII • NO. 131 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net

Palace balks at drug tests on school kids

By Vito Barcelo

MALACAÑANG said Monday it opposes the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency proposal to conduct random drug testing on elementary pupils, which would violate the children’s rights.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the Palace supports the Department of Education in opposing drug testing in primary schools.

In a press briefing, Roque said the country’s dangerous drugs law only authorizes random drug testing for secondary and college students.

“The Palace will defer to the position of the DepEd. Education Secretary Leonor Briones has already stated that drug testing to elementary school children is not allowed under the Dangerous Drugs Act,” Roque said.

The DepEd official said subjecting such young pupils to drug testing may not only be detrimental to them psychologically, but could also violate their rights.

The Palace spokesman said that the campaign against drugs is among the priorities of President Rodrigo Duterte but the new proposal is not agreeable.

Earlier, PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino proposed mandatory drug testing among teachers and students in Grade 4 and up because the agency had Next page

Former Transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya

P4-b MRT mess leads to graft raps vs Abaya

Drug kill rate highest in MM—study

House, Senate demand probe of loitering drive

By Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

THE leftist Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives on Monday sought a congressional inquiry into the alleged illegal arrest of more than 7,000 people in a campaign against loiterers.

Party-list Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro of ACT Teachers, Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna, Ariel Casilao of Anakpawis and Sarah Elago of Kabataan said the government’s “anti-tambay” campaign was illegal, anti-poor and violated human rights.

The Philippine National Police has so far arrested 7,291 people under its campaign.

“President Rodrigo Duterte’s verbal order to arrest vagrants, ‘tambays’ or idle individuals opens floodgate of abuses especially in the midst of unresolved cases of police brutality and extrajudicial killings in poor communities,” the group said in the resolution.

“It provides PNP a wide latitude in carrying out illegal arrests, illegal search and seizures and in violating people’s rights to mobility,” it added.

The group said that while Republic Act No. 10158 that was passed in 2012 has already decriminalized acts of vagrancy, “police forces continue to conduct mass arrests.” Next page

METRO Manila has recorded the highest number of drug-related deaths following the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs in 2016, according to data from a research done by three universities.

Out of 5,021 recorded drug-related killings, 40 percent or 2,000 were in the National Capital Region, with Manila, Quezon City, and Caloocan topping the list.

Bulacan has registered the highest kill rate among all provinces with 644 deaths, according to the study presented at the Catholic Ateneo de Manila University on Monday.

According to the research, around 15.7 percent of the victims had jobs indicated but it showed that most of them were poor.

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By Rio N. Araja

T

HE Office of the Ombudsman has indicted former Transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya for graft over the anomalous P4.2billion maintenance contract of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3.

Included in the charges were former undersecretaries Edwin Lopez; Rene Limcaoco, head of the negotiating team; Catherine Jennifer Francis Gonzales, vice head of the negotiating team; former MRT3 general manager Roman Buenafe; Camille Alcaraz, assistant secretary for procurement; Ofelia Astrera, vice chairperson of the MRT 3 bids and awards committee; Charissa Eloisa Julia Opulencia, attorney 5; Oscar Bongon, chief of the engineering division, and Jose Rodante Sabayle, engineer 3.

Private respondents Eldonn Ferdinand Uy of Edison Development and Construction, Elizabeth Velasco of Tramat Mercantile Inc., Belinda Tan of TMI Corp. Inc., Brian Velasco of Castan Corp., and Antonio Borromeo, Jun Ho Hwang and Elpidio Uy from Busan Universal Rail Inc. were also included in the indictment.

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5 justices gain instant nomination for CJ

By Rey E. Requejo AS THE Judicial and Bar Council on Monday formally opened the nomination for the position vacated by ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, five senior magistrates, including Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, were automatically nominated to the top judicial post.

The JBC, concurrently led by Carpio, announced the opening of the nomination and application process for the most coveted post in the judiciary.

English Bulldog bags ‘ugliest’ tag PETALUMA, United States—With a lolling tongue and a propensity to drool, English Bulldog Zsa Zsa won best in show at World’s Ugliest Dog competition in Petaluma, California.

Zsa Zsa, sporting a hot pink collar and matching nails for her moment in the spotlight, came out on top of a tough field of 14.

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Ant-Man sequel rakes it in

Besides Carpio, also nominated were Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin.

The JBC said the nomination of the five senior justices was automatic as provided under the rules.

“The five most senior associate justices of the Supreme Court are automatically nominated, subject to the submission of a written acceptance of nomination,” the JBC said in a statement issued through the high court’s public information office. Next page

PASADENA, United States—They made history and $1 billion with the first titular superhero of color in “Black Panther”—now Marvel’s creatives and stars are repeating the trick for gender equality.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the sequel to 2015’s “Ant-Man,” is the 20th release in a decade from the Marvel Cinematic Universe series of comic book movies, and the first to feature a woman in the title.

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The aftermath of the alleged ‘misencounter’ between army troopers and police officers in Sta. Rita, Samar on Monday, June 25, 2018. At least six policemen, all Police Officer 1, were killed and nine others were wounded during the ‘ambush’. Photo courtesy of Cosette Vallejera

Antonio Carpio

Presbitero Velasco

Diosdado Peralta

Lucas Bersamin

Teresita de Castro

Army men kill 6 cops in ‘misencounter’

By Ronald O. Reyes AT LEAST six young police officers were killed and nine others injured in what security sources initially described was an “ambush incident” by army troops on Monday in the backwoods of Sta. Rita in Samar.

Reports said the incident happened mid morning between members of the Philippine National Police 805th Mobile Company, Regional Mobile Force Battalion and the 87th Infantry Batallion, Philippine Army based in Calbiga, Samar.

There was no immediate reaction from either the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police nor the Army in Metro Manila.

A media source, who refused to be identified as he was not in an official position to divulge the information, said the “ambush incident” of PNP personnel was “perpetrated” by the soldiers when the police were “conducting minor combat operation” in the area.

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News

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Bishops scoff at gun-toting men of cloth THE Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Monday reiterated its stand against allowing priests to carry firearms, saying it is not appropriate for those who are considered “configured to Christ.”

“A priest is a person who is configured to Christ. In the teachings of the Church, a priest acts in the person of Christ,” CBCP president Archbishop Romulo Valles said in a statement.

“In the midst of the Church, in the midst of society, because of the grace of priestly ordination, we are supposed to see and feel in his presence the person of Christ.

And, therefore, with this configuration of a priest to Christ, it is simply not appropriate, to say the least, for a priest to carry firearms to protect himself.”

Valles said although he is aware of the dangers to the everyday lives of the clergy, including the recent killings of priests, such unfortunate incidents do not justify the move to arm them.

He also expressed sadness at the deaths of three priests in recent months.

“I am very much aware of the day-today dangers to our life these days, especially with the killing of three priests in recent months,” Valles said.

“Together with other reported killings, we are most disturbed and deeply saddened by the death of these priests. We have strongly condemned these killings.

“But still, to me, it does not warrant at all that priests carry firearms. That is why, we give our trust and confidence to our Philippine National Police and other related peace-and- order personnel in the government.” PNA

Pump prices cheaper by P1.15

By Alena Mae S. Flores OIL companies rolled back pump prices Tuesday, cutting the cost of gasoline by P1.15, diesel by 90 centavos and kerosene by 85 centavos per liter.

Seaoil, which announced the price cuts effective 12:01 am June 26, said the move reflects movements of petroleum products in the international market.

Aside from Seaoil, Phoenix Philippines, PTT Philippines, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Total Philippines, Unioil Philippines and Eastern Petroleum also issued advisories about the rollback.

Petro Gazz (formerly Flying V), which announced a rollback of P1 per liter for gasoline and P0.80 per liter for diesel effective 6 am Sunday was compelled to implement an additional rollback of 15 centavos per liter for gasoline and 10 centavos per liter for diesel.

The Energy department attributed the rollback to the increased market activity in China, Thailand and India and ample supply due to maximum refinery output.

It said oil prices also dropped after Iran signaled it might agree to the Saudi-Russian plans for small increases to production of members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The Opec agreed to a modest increase in oil production aimed to avoid a supply glut.

Drug...

From A1

Some 223 of the victims—whose jobs were identified in the study—were either tricycle, pedicab, or jeepney drivers, barkers, construction workers, vendors, farmers, or garbage collectors.

There were also 38 victims who were reported as unemployed.

The research also showed 130 local government officials—mostly from the barangay level—and 127 uniformed personnel killed in the drug war.

“Based on their place of residence or their occupation, it is clear that most of the victims were poor,” the research noted.

In the Senate, meanwhile, opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros urged President Rodrigo Duterte to heed the call of the 38 countries under the United Nations Human Rights Council to end the killings in its war on illegal drugs and to cooperate with international bodies in investigating rights abuses.

Instead of dismissing the countries’ call, she said that like a responsible member of the international community, the Duterte government should heed it.

“It is not enough to say that the government is already making its own assessment of the country’s human rights situation,” said Hontiveros, who expressed her happiness that “more and more countries are adding their voice in the fight to end the climate of killings and impunity in our country.”

She said these countries were compelled to speak in one voice against the abuses in the Philippines was testament that the government was not doing enough. With MJ Blancaflor

‘Priest‘s abuse sparked Du30's remark’ P

By Vito Barcelo

RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s “stupid god” remarks has sparked controversy among Filipino Catholics and the leaders of the Catholic Church, but Malacañang defended him on Monday and said he was only citing his personal belief.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that, like every Filipino citizen, Duterte was entitled to his own religious belief as he was merely expressing his disgust over his bad experience with a priest during his childhood.

“I think the President’s declaration is coming from the bad experience he went through when he was young, wherein he was allegedly abused by a priest,” Roque said.

In other developments: • Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Monday called President Duterte “one evil man” and announced he was joining the Filipino nation in expressing outrage against his verbal attack against Christianity and God. “It should be clear now to everyone that Duterte is one evil man,” Trillanes said.

“It is the height of arrogance of power not

only to disrespect and spit on an individual’s faith but also to act as though he is a god.”

• Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros described as “completely unproductive and unnecessary” Duterte’s remarks.

• “May my God forgive him and and make him atone for all his sins,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said.

• “Blasphemy!” Senator Ralph Recto said.

• Rep. Rodolfo Albano said Duterte made his comment out of frustration.

• Duterte’s remarks dismayed Rep. Lito Atienza.

• Rep. Tom Villarin said Duterte’s remarks could lead to his alienating the Christian majority.

On Friday, Duterte questioned God’s logic in the Holy Bible for His perfect crea-

Aquino blamed for China militarization in SCS MALACAÑANG on Monday continued to blame the “militarization” of the South China Sea on former President Benigno Aquino III as it defended President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to be friendly with China to resolve the dispute over the area.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the situation in the West Philippine Sea or South China Sea would not have worsened had Aquino not sent the Philippine Navy’s biggest warship to ward off Chinese poachers in Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal in 2012.

President Rodrigo Duterte has been criticized for his friendliness to China despite the latter’s aggressive moves in the West Philippine Sea. He has said antagonizing China over the dispute will bring the Philippines no good as

it cannot counter Beijing’s military might.

He can declare war on China but the Filipino soldiers will only be massacred by the well-equipped Chinese soldiers.

“Why will I go to war for a battle that I cannot win?” Duterte has repeatedly said in his speeches.

Roque said sending a Philippine Navy ship to Panatag shoal would only antagonize the Chinese and would only lead to another argument.

“Let’s not forget that it was President Aquino who first militarized the area by sending the Navy, that’s why the Chinese won’t leave the place now,” Roque said.

Panatag Shoal or Scarborough shoal was the site of a 2012 standoff between the Philippines and China. The standoff erupted when Manila sent its biggest warship to chase off Chinese poachers.

China gained effective control of the shoal after Manila withdrew its vessel. It then started blocking Filipino fishermen from the shoal.

Malacañang has assured the Filipinos that Duterte will raise the country’s legal victory in the international tribunal court against China at the proper time.

Duterte said he made the correct step in the sea dispute with China that allowed Filipino fishermen to fish in the disputed region.

Meanwhile, Roque said the Palace allowed a Chinese aircraft to land in Davao to refuel.

“All aircraft, provided they ask for a permit, are required to refuel. There is no law that prohibits a Chinese plane from using airports if they are allowed by any country,” Roque said. Vito Barcelo

P4-b...

After failed biddings for the MRT 3 maintenance service contract in October 2014 and January 2015, Abaya issued a special order creating the MRT 3 bids and awards committee, which later recommended a negotiated procurement allowed by law in emergencies.

In October, three joint ventures—including Busan Joint Venture—submitted their proposals, but all were found to be deficient and given the opportunity to correct their defects.

On Oct. 23, 2015, the negotiating team declared Busan as the sole entity that passed the eligibility on technical and financial documents, and recommended the BAC award the contract to the joint venture.

The BAC did so on Dec. 21, 2015, and the Transportation Department, MRT 3 and Busan entered into a contract for the long-term maintenance contract.

But the Commission on Audit found in its 2016 annual report that the Transportation Department “failed to provide the riding public with a safe and comfortable transport system even with the procurement and delivery from August 2015 to January 2017 of 48 new LRVs (light rail vehicles) with a total cost of PHP3,759,382,400.”

A special panel of probers found that the respondents extended unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference to the contractor when it awarded the project to Busan JV, an ineligible and unqualified entity.

In its 88-page consolidated resolution, the Ombudsman said “as the Busan JV’s offer was still considered as successful, the potential JV partners must enter into a Joint Venture Agreement in accordance with its rules. But they did not. Still, the Busan JV was awarded the contract—yet another violation of the rules under R.A. No. 9184.”

Procurement documents showed that it was only Eldonn Uy of Edison Development and Construction that executed a “Statement to Enter Into a Joint Venture”

purportedly as the authorized representative of all the members of the Busan JV. “Since only one potential partner of the Busan JV submitted the required statement, it should have been disqualified from participating further in the negotiated procurement since it lacked an eligibility requirement,” the Ombudsman added.

The special panel also found irregularity in the award when Busan JV was allowed to simply submit a Certificate of Registration of BURI as a Special Purpose Co. instead of a valid JVA. The action becomes even more suspect as it was Alcaraz who wrote the Securities and Exchange Commission to facilitate the registration of Busan JV as an SPC. “This office notes that [Alcaraz] was the DOTr assistant secretary for procurement and the chairperson of the MRT 3 BAC. Her action thus reeks of impropriety as it gives the impression that she was acting in favor of the Busan JV,” the Ombudsman said.

The special panel also cited irregularities in the amendment of the original net worth requirement and absence of Bill of Quantities, which favored Busan JV. Based on their 2014 audited financial statements of members of the Busan JV, the net worth of Tramat in 2014 was only P1.9 million while Edison’s was P383.5 million only, both below the P1 billion required.

In its financial offer, Busan JV failed to include its BOQ as required.

“There are no existing BOQs for the overhauling of the 43 LRVs and the total replacement signaling system components of the MRT 3 long-term maintenance contract. Having failed to submit the required BOQ, the Busan JV should have been disqualified outright from the procurement process,” the Ombudsman said.

The Ombudsman said Busan JV was not technically, legally and financially capable to undertake the MRT 3 long-term maintenance contract.

Despite its being unqualified, Busan JV was still awarded the contract, in violation of Section 53 of the RIRR of R.A. No. 9184, which requires that in negoti-

ated procurement, the procuring entity should negotiate with a technically, legally and financially capable supplier, contractor or consultant.

The Ombudsman added that as Transportation secretary, Abaya had supervision and control over the officials under him and was immediately and primarily responsible for all government funds and property pertaining to his agency at the time of the questioned transaction.

“By allowing the award of the contract to the Busan JV despite the attendant glaring irregularities, Abaya deliberately ignored applicable laws, rules and regulations, and standard operating procedures, falling short of or disregarding the required competence expected of him in the performance of his official functions,” it added.

Senator Grace Poe, chairman of the Senate committee on public services that investigated the MRT3 mess, welcomed the filing of charges.

“This announcement is consistent with the conclusion of the committee report submitted by the subcommittee on public services, which observed the badges of negligence and inactions of the DOTR officials led by Abaya indicating insensitivity, callous indifference, and acts disadvantageous to the commuters, to the Filipino public and to the government with regard to the malfunction problem of the MRT,” Poe said in a statement.

“These cases are a reminder to everyone that graft is a serious offense. While we lament that the same is bailable, let this be a lesson to everyone in government that public officers are accountable for each and every contract that they enter into on behalf of the Filipino people,” she added.

In the House, Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles said the Ombudsman was correct in its decision to indict the people behind the anomalous contract, but may have underappreciated the gravity of the crime when it filed graft and corruption charges against them instead of plunder, for which there is no bail.

With Maricel V. Cruz and PNA

Palace...

House,...

meanwhile, said that instead of focusing on loitering, the PNP should help local governments enforce their ordinances penalizing drinking in public, occupying the sidewalks meant for pedestrians, walking shirtless in public and violating curfew (for minors).

He added that loitering was difficult to define, and that anti-loitering ordinances should be reviewed.

Unlike loitering, he said, it is easy to know if someone is drinking or walking shirtless in public.

Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, on the other hand, filed a resolution seeking a probe of the government’s policy against loitering and the death of Argoncillo, who died in the custody of the Quezon City Police District four days after he was arrested for “alarm and scandal.”

In his resolution, Aquino called the campaign against loitering untenable, discriminatory and anti-poor as he urged the committee on public order and dangerous drugs, headed by Senator Panfilo Lacson, to investigate the matter to protect ordinary Filipinos from unjust, discriminatory and abusive policies and practices.

From A1

From A1

arrested three teachers who were peddling illegal drugs, and some children, the youngest of which was 10 years old.

Duterte’s spokesman also cited the United States has also struck down drug testing on school children as unconstitutional.

Opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan, Liberal Party president, said a law would need to be passed to impose mandatory drug testing for children as young as 10 years old.

“We propose that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency shelve this slapdash and panicky plan trained on little children, and instead go after the big drug lords to stop the flow of illegal drugs,” Pangilinan said in a statement.

“We join the critics of the idea, led by the Department of Education, because such a move is illegal, a waste of money and resources, and has a prejudiced approach to the problem of illegal drugs in the country.”

The DepEd has estimated that conducting drug tests on 14 million students from Grade 4 to Grade 12 alone would cost at least P2.8 billion.

From A1

“Reports from the ground also point to violations on the right to remain silent, right to counsel and the right against the incommunicado during these arrests,” the group said.

The group also sought a congressional probe into the death of Genesis Argoncillo, a resident of Novaliches, Quezon City, who was arrested last June 15 by QCPD operatives on charges of alarm and scandal following the loitering ban.

“After four days of detention, Argoncillo’s death certificate reflects that the cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma to his neck, head, chest and upper extremities,” the Makabayan bloc said in the resolution.

PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said he was open to criticism of the campaign but would not suspend it.

The Commission on Human Rights had called on the PNP to suspend its drive against loiterers.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III,

tion but sowed seeds of temptation to destruct his own creation.

But Roque said Duterte’s statement was an outburst because he became a victim of abuse from a priest in the past, saying that event should be taken seriously by the Catholic Church.

“I think the President has his own personal spiritual beliefs, but it is his own belief and should not be given any interpretation,” Roque said.

He urged the public to accept that Duterte tended to use strong language when expressing his beliefs.

“We are free to believe in religion and we are also free not to believe in religion,” Roque said. With Evalea Casaljay, Macon Ramos-Araneta and Maricel V. Cruz

English...

From A1

The nine-year-old Zsa Zsa came from a hardscrabble background, spending five years in a puppy mill in the US state of Missouri and being sold at auction before she attained ugliest dog immortality.

Other competitors included Rascal Deux, a Chinese Crested who wore sunglasses and a leopard print coat to cover hairless skin, and Wild Thang, a Pekingese all but hidden by a mass of fluffy hair.

Martha, the jowly Neapolitan Mastiff who took first place in the competition the previous year, was on hand to pass the baton to Zsa Zsa, whose winnings include a trophy, $1,500 and an appearance on NBC’s Today Show in New York. AFP

Ant-Man...

From A1 “We always knew that the next one was going to be ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp,’” Kevin Feige, the president of Disneyowned Marvel Studios, told AFP at a global press day for the movie in Pasadena, southern California on Sunday.

“It’s finally time to see her suit up and be the hero that she said earlier she wanted to be.”

The 2015 movie featured Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne as a wannabe superhero and she returns here leaner, meaner and ready to step up on an equal footing with Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man. Lilly told AFP the plan was to introduce the Wasp’s origin story in Marvel’s 2016 release “Captain America: Civil War” along with Ant-Man and the other Avengers.

“I got a call saying, ‘We’ve decided not to put you in Civil War’ and there was this moment, I could tell, where the feeling in the room was like, ‘I’m sorry—don’t be offended,’” she said. AFP

Army...

From A1

Killed in action were PO1 Phil J Rey Mendigo, PO1 Edwin P. Ebrado, PO1 Wyndell S. Noromor, PO1 Rowel Reyes, PO1 Julie Y. Escalo, and PO1 Julius R. Suarez.

Wounded in action on the PNP side were PO1 Romulo Cordero, PO1 Elmer F. Pan, PO1 Chris Angelo A. Pialago, PO1 Jaime G. Galoy, PO1 Rey C. Barbosa, PO1 Jonel C. Gonzaga, PO1 Rommel Bagunas, PO1 Janmark K. Adones, and PO1 Roden T. Goden.

However, a separate report received from the Sta. Rita Municipal Police Station said police conducting “patrol heading towards Sitio Canunay, Brgy.

Rosal of said municipality, same was waylaid with volume of fire by an undetermined number of unidentified armed men which prompted the former to return fire to defend themselves.”

“Initial investigation conducted disclosed that the opposite side who initiated the firefight were elements of one section of Charlie Company, 87th IB, PA, 8ID led by 1st Lt. Orlando M. Casipit Jr. composed of 16 enlisted personnel,” the report added.

In the meantime, the officers in the regional police headquarters in Camp Ruperto Kangleon in Palo, Leyte are in a closed-door conference.

With Francisco Tuyay

5 justices...

From A1

Carpio has already said he will decline all nomination for the top post.

He said he did not want to benefit from Sereno’s ouster, which he opposed by dissenting from the majority ruling.

Observers in the judiciary said Velasco and De Castro were also expected to decline the nomination on the ground they were retiring in August and October this year, respectively.

Peralta still has four years before retirement.

The JBC started the search for Sereno’s replacement after the high court made final its decision ousting her from her post last week.

The 1987 Constitution requires that the position of chief justice be filled within 90 days from vacancy or from the finality of the high court ruling on June 19.

News BoC agents foil smuggling of illegal drugs at Naia AIRPORT authorities foiled attempts to smuggle P133 million worth of prohibited drugs through mail parcels, including those involving methamphetamine hydrochloride hidden in DVD players, cereals and house furnitures.

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña Jr. said his men from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport seized 17.96 kilograms of shabu and 1.03 kilograms of marijuana leaves intercepted at the Federal Express Warehouse near the airport terminal.

The Customs personnel discovered the drugs concealed in five parcels, four of which came from the United States while one is an outbound shipment to New Zealand.

The authorities tried using the controlled delivery scheme to arrest the recipients of the shipments but failed since the names and addresses of the consignees were found to be fictitious.

Based on documents, the senders of the shipments were identified as Taylor Dizon, Eagler Po Box Rental, Gina Gamboa, Raven Mesina, Donna Mendoza and consigned to Christina Dizon, Alvin Santiago, Sergio Gamboa Natividad, Gracen Washington and Ricardo Mendoza.

“There are some circumstances when the package cannot be delivered to the consignee especially when the addresses are fictitious,” said Lapeña.

In Pampanga, about two kilograms of shabu worth P13.6 million, which also originated from the United States, were intercepted at the Clark International Airport. This case was found to be using the same modus operandi of sending drugs hidden in parcels through courier service. Joel E. Zurbano

Esperon, Cayetano meet top US official

By Francisco Tuyay

A TOP security adviser of President Rodrigo Duterte reaffirmed the importance of the security alliance between the Philippines and the United States.

In a meeting at Washington, D.C. last Thursday, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon met for the first time with his counterpart John Bolton to ensure the Philippine government’s commitment to maintain a strong security relations with the global power United States.

Esperon, together with Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, met with Ambassador Bolton at the White House for a meeting relating to PH-US security.

“Our meeting with Ambassador Bolton provided us with an opportunity to discuss how we could work together to further strengthen our security alliance,” Esperon said.

Bolton once served as US permanent representative to the United Nations before his appointment as National Security Adviser by President Trump in April.

During the meeting, Esperon discussed with Bolton issues relating to terrorism and other regional security concerns, including the South China Sea issue and the positive outlook in the Korean Peninsula.

Esperon’s meeting with Bolton came barely bared their depressing plight at the hands of Chinese Philippine Coast Guard in the West Philippine Sea, particularly off the Scarborough Shoal.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

DRAMATIZATION. Students from different schools dramatize different scenarios of harassment against women at Plaza Salamaca in Manila to address street harassment problems worldwide and to inform that sexual violence and harassment against women happens in public places.

Norman Cruz

Gov’t aims to night-rate 42 more airports—MIAA T

By Joel E. Zurbano

HE government is pushing to have all 42 airports in the country night-rated before President Rodrigo Duterte ends his term.

Equipping airports with night-rating capabilities will allow the facilities to accommodate flights even after sunset, which will help provide air travelers with flight options.

Apart from maximizing airport operations, upgrading airport facilities shall likewise help decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

To date, 21 airports have already been night-rated, compared to only 15 in mid2016. Four additional airports are to be night-rated this year.

“When we came in, we only have 15 night-rated airports. Now, we have 21.

Why are we doing this? Because we want our passengers to have an option to travel either in the morning or at night. This will also help us decrease airport congestion in Metro Manila, “ said Manuel Antonio Tamayo, Transportation undersecretary for aviation and airports.

“Secretary [Arthur] Tugade directed us to night-rate all 42 airports before the end of PRRD’s term. We will do that,” he added.

In October last year, Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. said the government was in the process of rehabilitating and expanding eight provincial airports— Naga, Tuguegarao, Cauayan, Dumaguete, Dipolog, Cotabato, Pagadian and Ozamiz —to enable them to operate for nighttime commercial flights.

Campos said the expansion works consist mostly of widening of runway for night landing capabilities and terminal improvement.

“This will improve air travel and help decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport,” he said.

Campos said several domestic flights departing Manila are being crammed during the daytime because of the inability of many provincial airports to receive flights at night.

“This has somewhat contributed to the jamming of the Naia, which has only two runways handling both international and domestic flights,” Campos said.

The lawmaker said provincial airports unable to operate at night also have to

send out all their Manila-bound flights during the day.

Campos also bared that government has set aside total of P10.1 billion in fresh funding to modernize the infrastructures of 40 airports this year, with Clark International Airport getting the biggest slice of P2.74 billion.

Aside from Clark, the other airports with additional infrastructure development funds in the 2018 national budget are: Kalibo Airport (P920 million), Bicol International Airport (P899.6 million), Tacloban Airport (P716.1 million), Bukidnon Airport (P425 million), Bohol (Panglao) International Airport, (P386.00 million), Laoag International Airport, (P368.5 million), Cauayan Airport (P306.4 million), Dumaguete Airport (P300 million), Calbayog Airport (P245 million), Zamboanga Airport (P221 million), San Jose Airport, Camarines Sur (P200 million), Surigao Airport (P200 million).

Ozamiz Airport (P192.2 million), Butuan Airport (P184.00 million), (Dipolog Airport (P182 million), Roxas Airport (P169 million), Cotabato Airport, (P161 million), Basco Airport (P145 million), Ormoc Airport (P128 million), Maasin Airport (P122 million), Antique Airport (P110 million), Sanga-Sanga Airport (P100 million), Pagadian Airport (P84.2 million), Tuguegarao Airport (P61.8 million), San Vicente Airport (P50 million) and Virac Airport (P50 million).

Settle overdue loans by Sept. 30, GSIS urges members STATE pension fund Government Service Insurance System is urging its members to settle their past due loan accounts until Sept. 30 this year to avoid further penalty charges.

“One way to settle your loan account is by availing of the Enhanced Consoloan Plus program which waives all penalties and surcharges on your existing salary loan accounts including additional interests. Paying off your loan will also enable you to avail of other GSIS benefits which you could not otherwise enjoy if you have defaulted on your loans,” GSIS president and general manager Jesus Clint Aranas advises the members of the pension fund.

“If you will restructure your salary loan accounts through the Enhanced

Conso-Loan Plus, you will avoid the unfailing predicament of having your retirement pay eaten up by your loan balance in due course,” Aranas continues.

He explained that when GSIS members fail to pay their amortization for more than six months, their loan accounts will become in default. Starting Oct. 1, this will automatically set off the computation of pro-rated surcharges and penalties.

These charges, which are originally intended to discourage borrowers from defaulting on their loans, will add up to their bill which may further swell if not abated early enough.

“We are extending the restructuring scheme under the Enhanced Consoloan Plus because we want you, our members,

to ease your financial burdens and help you enjoy your full benefits when you retire. But we need to impose a deadline because, in the final analysis, you have to keep your correct monthly amortization and pay off your loans on time,” Aranas said.

At present, GSIS is not collecting penalties and surcharges on past due loan accounts if the member is in active service.

In the long term, according to Aranas, this ‘automatic waiver’ for penalties and surcharges will compound the forgone interest income from the pension fund’s loan investments which will eventually be disadvantageous to the social insurance fund. Thus, GSIS will discontinue this waiver of penalties and surcharges starting Oct. 1 this year.

Pro-marijuana solons told to migrate

ABOUT OFWs. (From left) Ivy Miravalles, officer in charge, Migrant Intergration

and Education Division, DoJ Assistant Secretary Juvy Ramirez Manwong, and lawyer Marlon Valderama, vice, chairman, AKO OFW Inc., were guests during the Samahang Plaridel Kapihan sa Manila Media Forum where they discussed topics about overseas Filipino workers and other related issues. Lino Santos

PRO-MARIJUANA Filipino lawmakers should just migrate to Canada, instead of pushing for the backdoor legalization of the highly addictive drug in the Philippines, Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said on Monday.

“They are free to smoke as much poison as they want in Canada,” Atienza, the senior deputy minority leader, said.

“There’s nothing we can do if other countries want to destroy themselves and turn their citizens into zombie-like creatures,” Atienza said.

“But here, we will fight tooth and nail any and all initiatives to decriminalize marijuana, whether for supposed medical or recreational purposes,” Atienza, a former three-term mayor of Manila, said.

Canada is set to create a legal market for marijuana after lawmakers there passed a bill allowing the recreational use of the drug known to contain brain-altering chemicals that change perception, mood, consciousness, cognition and behavior.

The World Health Organization

considers marijuana a toxic and harmful substance that produces a dangerous dependency in users.

Atienza has been fighting to suppress the passage of House Bill 6517, or the proposed Act Providing Filipinos Right of Access to Medical Marijuana or Cannabis.

The bill is now subject to floor debate after it was endorsed by the House committee on health for plenary approval.

“There’s no point in legalizing medical marijuana because the Dangerous Drugs Board already allows specially licensed Filipino physicians to prescribe, when needed, highly potent pain killers such as morphine and Fentanyl,” Atienza said.

At present, marijuana is classified as a prohibited substance, just like shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride, cocaine and heroin, under the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Under the law, mere possession of at least 500 grams of marijuana, or at least 10 grams of marijuana resin or resin oil, is punishable by life in prison plus a fine of up to P10 million.

BI intercepts 15 minors at Naia THE Bureau of Immigration intercepted 15 young women who were believed to be victims of a human trafficking syndicate when they passed themselves as adults to leave the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for the Middle East countries.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said that the teenagers were intercepted on three separate occasions

by BI personnel at the Naia 1 and 2 terminals as they were about to board their flights to the Middle East.

Because of the failed human smuggling try, Morente warned the public of a modus operandi of human traffickers sending young women to work abroad.

According to Deputy Commissioner Marc Red Mariñas, three minors were stopped at the Naia 3 who tried to board their flight to Jeddah to work as household service workers.

He said another 10 young women were intercepted at Naia 2 as they attempted to leave via three separate flights for Saudi Arabia.

Two more passengers were stopped at the Naia 3 before they could board their flight to Dubai. Their identities are withheld following current antitrafficking laws. Vito Barcelo

JBC shortlists eight for next vacancy at SC THE Judicial and Bar Council has shortlisted eight aspirants for the upcoming vacancy in the Supreme Court when Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. reaches his mandatory retirement this coming August.

During its session on Monday, the seven-member council concurrently chaired by Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio voted the eight from an initial list of 12 applicants.

Three nominees led the JBC shortlist after garnering seven votes from all members of the council, namely: Court of Appeals Associate Justices Jose Reyes Jr., Amy Lazaro-Javier and Ramon Garcia.

Also made it to the shortlist after getting six votes each were Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez and CA Associate Justices Apolinario Bruselas, Rosmari Carandang and Ramon Hernando.

Former Ateneo law school dean Cesar Villanueva, who got five votes, completed the shortlist of 8 nominees for the SC justice post. Rey E. Requejo

FFW to help gov’t stop child labor A LABOR group leader on Monday expressed willingness to join the government’s drive to reduce child workers in the country by as much as 630,000 by 2022, and volunteered to help monitor cases of child labor.

“We have never wanted children to work too soon. Workers give it all and work hard everyday so as to provide for the needs of their family, their children,” said Julius Cainglet, vice president of the Federation of Free Workers.

The FFW made the move following Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglungsod’s statement that the government has committed to remove 630,000 children from child labor by 2022.

“Eliminating child labor, especially its worst forms, is fundamental. It’s a core international labor standard. Once a child is abused and exploited at work, it will lessen his or her chances at landing a decent job when she or he reaches legal working age,” Cainglet said. Vito Barcelo

A4

Opinion

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Cowed into silence

Adelle Chua, Editor

EDITORIAL

*** I join the many critics of the President’s war against loiterers— “tambays” in the vernacular.

For one thing, there is no law against loitering. In fact, vagrancy I AM a Catholic and a Christian. In has been decriminalized. If there are the wake of President Rodrigo Du- ordinances against going around the terte’s blasphemous tirades against streets half-naked or disturbing the the Catholic Church and God, I peace (like people getting drunk on choose not to argue about the concept the streets or minors loitering in the of creation and original sin because I event of a curfew) then that is another am not a theologian. matter altogether.

What saddens me, however, is the I agree with many that this directive reaction of the Catholic Bishops’ Con- is against the poor. They usually live in ference of the Philippines. It has been small spaces which are their living room cowed into silence along with other re- and bedroom and kitchen all in one. They ligious groups. feel the need to get out of this just to get My gulay, if the God of the Muslims some fresh air, mingle with buddies, eat gets insulted, the Muslim world would or drink something in a dimly-lit carinprotest. Unfortunately, here where Ro- deria. This is luxury for the poor‚—why man Catholics represent more than should they be penalized for this?

80 percent of the population, only the Congress should investigate this isusual critics of the President and one sue in aid of legislation. The campaign Catholic bishop have protested Mr. against loitering is too confusing to Duterte’s rants against God and the leave to the police.

Church.

I saw on the TV the story of a boy The President, Santa Banana, would who just went of the house to breathe even like Cathoin some fresh air. lics to discard He was shirtless. crucifixes when When a cop saw it reminds us of him, he was taken This is a tragedy for Christ’s sacrifice to the precinct. to redeem man- our nation, 80 percent Did he violate any kind. laws? of which is supposedly I am reminded My gulay, we of the words of Catholic. are not yet under Elie Wiesel, a martial law. Or Roma n ia n-bor n are we? writer, professor, political activist, *** Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor When I read the decision of Ombudswho said: “Always take sides. Neutral- man Conchita Carpio Morales indictity helps the oppressor, never the vic- ing former President Benigno Aquino tims. Silence encourages the tormentor, III for alleged usurpation of legislative never the tormented.” authority in connection with the DisThe silence of the Catholic Church bursement Acceleration Program, I fell and the Catholics in this country re- off my seat laughing. minds me of the second commandAquino and his Budget Secretary ment: “Thou shall not take the name Florencio Abad concocted the DAP so of the Lord the God in vain.” This is they could do whatever they pleased precisely what Mr. Duterte did when he with the money. called God stupid.

Santa Banana, after four years, AquiIt’s a national tragedy—this silence no and Abad could only be charged amid the President’s rants. Worse, peo- with usurpation of legislative authority, ple cheer and applaud when the Presi- which carries the penalty of six months dent does this. Have we sunk that low? in prison, which can even be suspended I also blame the priests and the bish- penalty under the law. ops for their failure to evangelize FiliThis is the biggest proof that the Ompinos well enough to know their reli- budsman is really out to let Aquino off with gion in the wake of attacks. just a slap on the wrist.

Turn to A5

TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO

Not a fan

T

HAT President Duterte is not a fan of organized religion is nothing new.

He has waged a campaign against the Catholic Church, attacking what he says is the hypocritical lifestyle of its leaders. In speaking engagements he distributes copies of a book that details the misconduct of priests and bishops in matters both personal and monetary.

Over the weekend, however, the President seems to have taken his hatred of the Church to new heights, questioning God’s logic in sowing temptation to destroy a supposedly perfect world he himself created.

“Who is this stupid God?” he asked, during a summit on Information and Communication Technology held in his

home city of Davao.

The statement expectedly caught fire immediately, and Mr. Duterte was pilloried for his irreverence for the God of more than 80 percent of Filipinos.

Unfortunately, Palace officials’ efforts to defend the President only made matters worse.

For example, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the President was expressing his disgust at the abuse he suffered in the hands of a Catholic priest.

“We cannot fault the President if he has no sense of hypocrisy,” he said.

Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo’s attempts were even more outrageous.

“I don’t think he called God stupid. He merely asked who is this stupid god being referred by the writer of the Bi-

ble,” he said.

Panelo characterized the President’s words as “meaningful introspection” and a “search for truth,” adding that “the cornerstone of humanity is the possession of a critical mind.”

Nobody is denying that many Church leaders have been living contrary to their teachings, and that serious reform has to take place in the hierarchy.

Nobody is begrudging the President his right to question established faiths, either.

But no leader of any country should display contempt of faith—any faith—without regard for the sensitivities of the people who elected him. Especially if it is simply to emphasize how much of a maverick he is, and how little he cares about the consequences of his words.

‘Tambay’ and a distorted parens patriae Second, the President’s order offers too wide a latitude for arbitrary determination as to who should be arrested and who should not. Loitering and idling in alleyways and street corners criminalize acts which by normal standards are innocent IN RESPONSE to President Duterte’s acts. It gives the police an all-inclusive order to intensify campaign against loi- and generalized authority to arrest even terers or tambays, the police launched a innocent bystanders, a power that is so crackdown on street idlers arresting or susceptible to abuse. In this environment, accosting thousands to date. Because a person who appears to be doing nothof the public uproar, President Duterte ing, his only offense being idleness, can came out with a statement to deny that be accosted and arbitrarily apprehended he ordered the arrests of these loiterers. by the authorities. It poses a chilling efHe also said that his orders are consistent fect on all citizens. This is reminiscent of with his role as parens patriae, as father the Marcos dictatorship.

Third, assuming the arrestee is violatof the nation. But something is seriously wrong in the President’s understanding ing a city ordinance as claimed by the of the parens patriae concept. The legal PNP chief, he is entitled to his constitudoctrine is not at all about the President tional rights which the police must reor anyone being the father or parent of spect, foremost of which is his right to be assisted by a lawits citizens. It is the yer of his choice. It state in its entirety is thus incumbent that has this role. upon the subject Philippine Nato know his rights.

That they are tional Police Chief He must remain Oscar Albayalde eyesores and pose a vigilant and make also does not comsure that there are fort us when he menace to society is witnesses to his explains that they not a valid justification arrest. This is to are not arresting to arrest them. prevent the plantbut only accosting ing of evidence and loiterers, and that other abuses which those who have is so persistently been arrested are being attributed to arresting officers. violators of city ordinances.

First, loitering is not a crime. That they That scores of countries are unanimously pose a menace to society is not an excuse clamoring for a halt on the bloody war on for their indiscriminate arrest. Unless drugs is clear indication that rights are and until these tambays commit an overt being wantonly and flagrantly violated. act that constitute a crime, they cannot be Early on, critics of this policy by the govapprehended much less jailed by the po- ernment scored the familiar pattern in the lice. Vagrancy has long been erased from arrest and killing of victims of the war on our statute books and should not be res- drugs. It is staple for the police to “disurrected whimsically by the police and cover” a few ounces of shabu and a rusty even by President Duterte without legal low-caliber pistol, supplemented by a rebasis unless a law is passed penalizing it port by the police that the hapless victim Turn to A5 as a criminal act.

Bodybuilding: The pursuit of beauty in war-torn Kabul

By Mushtaq Mojaddidi HINDI music pumps from the speakers as dozens of Afghan men grunt and sweat their way through a workout beneath the watchful eye of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose musclebound image hangs from the wall.

The scene inside this Kabul gym is repeated at venues all round the capital, where bodybuilding has become ubiquitous since the fall of the Taliban regime.

The sport has a long tradition in Afghanistan, and was even tolerated by the Taliban when they ruled the country from 1996-2001—so long as the men wore long trousers as they lifted.

But as security deteriorated and the initial euphoria after the US invasion dissipated into stress, trauma and loss, more and more young men took to the gym.

“Everyone, everywhere in Afghanistan, wants to have a beautiful body shape, and this sport is a favorite sport for every young man,” says Hares Mohammadi, a law and political science student turned champion bodybuilder who is also a trainer at one gym in Kabul.

The 25-year-old, dressed in grey, strikes different poses showing off his carefully honed muscles, and warms up his chest and shoulders ahead of a regional bodybuilding competition.

Despite a surge in bombings and suicide attacks, life goes on, he says, and young Afghans want to “make their mark.” One way is through sporting success.

So, along with Schwarzenegger, other stars from Hollywood and Bollywood such as Sylvester Stallone and Salman Khan are held up as heroes, and the gyms stay busy for hours, filled with music and camaraderie as men tone their bodies to perfection.

The old days It was not always so.

Afghan bodybuilding legend Aziz Arezo reminisces about his time as a Turn to A5

Rolando G. Estabillo Publisher ManilaStandard

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

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Chairman Emeritus, Editorial Board

Opinion

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018

The God thing FORMATION GARY OLIVAR

SPEAKING at the first National ICT Summit in Davao City the other day, the President stirred up another hornet’s nest by referring to God as “stupid.”

This handed fresh ammo to Duterte’s usual critics, in the wake of the stillunsolved killings of three priests (although one suspect has already been arrested in the killing of Nueva Ecija’s Fr. Nilo) and on the eve of the CBCP’s annual plenary next month.

Even ardent Duterte supporters who value their religion have been airing on social media their distress over his latest unfiltered remarks. This is a segment of his base that the President ought to protect, if only because they help to restrain the institutional Church from giving way to its more politically outspoken bishops and clergy.

In order to assuage those supporters, it may help for starters to remember that the head of state of a nominally secular country like ours is not required to be a believer. There is no religious test for public office, let alone the highest one.

Having said that, though, it is not unreasonable for Filipinos to expect their president to reflect the religious views of the majority among them. This used to mean being Catholic, but after the election of Protestant stalwart President Ramos, the expectation broadened to include all Christians.

Could a Muslim become president someday? Legally speaking, yes, though the odds of majoritarian voting would work against him. What about an avowed atheist? Again yes, but I wouldn’t bet any money at all on that.

What then are we entitled to hold a president legally accountable for? In this matter, only that he protect freedom of religious belief, which includes separating Church from State to ensure that the biggest denomination can’t force its beliefs upon the others, and to

protect all denominations from being oppressed by the state.

The Catholic Church, as the biggest kid on the block, has no reason to feel threatened by the President’s frank agnosticism, let alone by the crude language with which he expresses himself, on other issues and not just this one, which seems to be the price we’ll have to pay for his being straightforward and independent-minded.

The Church, though perfectly ordained, on this earth can only be made up of imperfect beings, up to and including popes who’ve committed some pretty grave sins. If Duterte or anybody else rudely calls out those imperfections, that’s got to be a lot less important than clergy and laity having to work hard enough at saving souls before those imperfections catch up with us.

There is no religious test for public office, let alone the highest one.

outcries to themselves, on pain of causing scandal by diminishing the faith of others who might hear.

“Creation story”—This is religious allegory from a Church that already accepts (Divinely-inspired) evolution. But Duterte was right to ask God, “You created something perfect, why would you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work?” And he partly answered himself when he later opined that God created because He was lonely—the perfect embodiment of love requiring an imperfect object of His affection.

“Original sin”—Not only Duterte, but every other non-Catholic Christian, would object to this doctrine. A more ecumenical restatement might simply say that original sin means man’s being separated from God, given our innate disposition to commit sins. It’s something we’re all born with, and the opportunity to reconcile ourselves with God despite our concupiscence is what the Church believes makes baptism sacramental (grace-giving).

“Jesus on a crucifix”—Duterte wondered why we have to memorialize “such a sad thing about the killing of our God.” This is a question also shared by nonCatholic Christians, whose ornamental crosses are plain because they believe the central event in the salvation story is Christ’s resurrection, not His crucifixion.

But our plain-spoken agnostic in the Palace may have some surprises for us.

As he was quoted in the GMA News story: “Ako, I believe there is a universal mind. But, you know, I cannot picture Him as a human being in the image of God… But I really believe there’s a… I have this faith and abiding thing about....Pero ‘yang relihiyon? Sus maniwala kayo diyan.”

Even at 71, the President, no less than the rest of us, is still not done with his spiritual journey. To paraphrase an unlikely source, Senator Ping Lacson, we ought to be praying for him on his journey, no less than for our own selves.

Duterte prides himself on being from the streets and speaking its language.

It’s a source of charm and strength for him, but also the cause of wounds to his office that are sometimes self-inflicted and avoidable.

What he’s now saying about God and the Church is worth looking at more closely, because it may reflect undercurrents of mass sentiment that our reticent people may not be confiding to their priests, and which it may be profitable to know more about.

“Stupid God”—Inexcusable, certainly, but not at all confined to Duterte. Who among us has not used even stronger language against Him at times when we’ve been grievously harmed by circumstances? God hears, God can forgive. Nonetheless, observant Chris- Readers can write me at tians know to keep these occasional gbolivar1952@yahoo.com.

Cowed...

From A4

If Morales is true to herself, BS Aquino and his cohorts must be found guilty of multiple homicide in connection with the massacre of 44 members of the Special Action Force in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. Aquino was truly responsible and accountable for the deaths of those men because it was he who implemented Oplan Exodus together with then-suspended PNP Chief Alan Purisima. Aquino knew what was happening and yet did not order the military to come to the men’s aid because that would endanger the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

My gulay, he could even be indicted for treason for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The question: Is Morales even going in that direction? The answer: No way!

And then came the P3.5-billion Dengvaxia controversy. Aquino put at risk more than 800,000 public school children with a vaccine not yet certified as safe by the World Health Organization.

What do you think the Ombudsman is doing with revelations that BS Aquino and his Health secretary, Janette Garin, and even Abad were responsible for making the children guinea pigs for Dengvaxia? You guessed it—nothing.

What a relief Morales will soon retire. She won’t be missed.

weeding out corruption in government, it should dig deeper into what is called excessive allowances by the Commission on Audit. These allowances were supposedly received by lawyers in the Office of the Solicitor General and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel.

The CoA came out with findings that lawyers in these offices are getting allowances that are more than half their yearly salaries. The list includes former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay and now SolGen Jose Calida.

Can we believe the President’s sincerity in his campaign against corruption? This is a president who just recycles erring officials whom he sup*** posedly sacked. The Senate should do If the Senate is true to itself in its job.

Bodybuilding...

From A4

teenage lifter, when there were “very, very few people” in the capital who knew anything about the sport.

He himself was only inspired to take it up after seeing movies and posters featuring foreigners such as Schwarzenegger.

“Arnold was my... role model,” he says, smiling as he remembers how expensive postcards featuring the star were.

Speaking to AFP between lifting weights at his small gym in Kabul, Arezo—his physique not quite what it was in his glorious bodybuilding past—reels off his long list of accolades, including being named Afghanistan’s first master sport bodybuilder by the country’s Olympic Committee in the 1970s.

It is a long career, and at times a lonely one.

Though now a trainer himself, guiding hundreds of Afghan youths through lifts and crunches, he never had the guidance of one.

Years ago he made the equipment and dumbbells in his gym from spare car parts as there was no place to buy them.

“I have been a teacher of myself,” he says, adding that his dumbbells are “more efficient than foreign dumbbells.”

Under Taliban rule, he worked for

four months in Kabul before eventually fleeing again, fearing their restrictions despite their views on bodybuilding.

“Nowadays, bodybuilding clubs are everywhere in the city, and everyone has made a gym of his own,” he says.

He has trained hundreds of bodybuilders in his career, but is suspicious of new methods employed by many young Afghans, including taking protein supplements to boost their abilities.

“I believe if you do sport or exercise naturally, it is better than protein,” he says, warning of detrimental side effects.

“Before my workout... I was drinking carrot and banana juice, and post-training, I was taking two eggs, three glasses of milk, one bowl of beans and lentils, and it was everyday food for me,” he says.

“Today’s bodybuilding is not natural.”

Stress and frustration Regardless of the method, sport can help ease the psychological trauma of nearly four decades of war, says Ali Fitrat, a psychology professor at Kabul University.

Afghans are stressed socially, culturally, financially and politically, he said, citing fighting, insecurity and

poor economic conditions as some of the most devastating factors.

In such a conservative, gendersegregated society, sexual frustration is another stress factor.

“People do not have access to sex, and men and women are segregated in all parts of their lives,” Fitrat told AFP. “[But] sex is also a need, and [the lack of it] is one of the reasons for stress in our society.”

As such, he says sports such as bodybuilding can play a “vital role” in helping to release stress and tension.

But, like Mohammadi, he also suggests that young men in particular have a strong desire to make their mark.

“They want to show their bodies, they want to attract the attention of the people, and they want to have different looks and to look different than the others,” he said.

However, security continues to deteriorate in Kabul, where both the Taliban and the Islamic State group have stepped up their attacks.

Many fearful residents now limit their movements. Arezo says his gym’s membership has shrunk.

“Nowadays people are concerned about fleeing the country rather than taking up sport,” he says. AFP

A5

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

There will be more large trade deficits In similar fashion, DTI appears to be more preoccupied with the ‘Industry’ in its name than with the ‘Trade.”

Lest I be misinterpreted, I hasten to RUDY pay tribute to the enormous contribuROMERO tions made to this country by our bagong bayani (the Overseas Filipino Workers) THE most recent news from the and the mas bagong bayani (call center Philippine Statistics Authority agents), who together have infused so about this country’s merchandise much foreign exchange and purchasing trade balance was very discourag- power into the Philippine economy. That ing. PSA reported that Philippine intention is farthest from my mind. What merchandise trade incurred a defi- I do want to do is ask why it has been cit of $3.62 billion as a result of that Philippine merchandise export trade imports’ totaling $8.73 billion and has not moved forward as strongly and exports’ totaling $5.11 billion. as consistently as this country’s admitEven more discouraging were the reac- tedly highly successful trade in services. tions of the nation’s economic managers. Why couldn’t the two export trades have Typical of the reactions was that of the moved forward in tandem? director-general of Neda (National EcoA large part of the answer to this quesnomic and Development Authority) and tion is the waning that has taken place the governor of the BSP (Bangko Sentral in government direction and support for ng Pilipinas). Dr. Ernesto Pernia, who Philippine merchandise export trade. is concurrently the secretary of Socio- The job cannot be done without strong Economic Planning said, “Much has to government leadership; the private secbe done to create an environment that tor needs to be encouraged, assisted and is necessary for exporters to thrive. The pushed. Japan’s postwar export miracle signing into law of has been attributed, the Ease of Doing and rightly, to MITI Business Act of (the Ministry of In2018 is a step in the ternational Trade right direction.” and Industry), and What is happening is The governor of Taiwan’s and Hong the BSP author- a bad-news-and-worseKong’s own trade ized the issuance news situation. miracles were efof a statement sayfectively led by ing, in part, that their MITI-type in“the widening stitutions. merchandise trade deficit (based on PhilThe Board of Investments that was ippine Statistics was brought about by the established under the Investment Incensustained rise in imports to support do- tives Act of 1967 was envisioned by the mestic economic expansion.” government to be this country’s counIt should be noted that the director- terpart of MITI, identifying industries general and the governor dwell on the of high importance for the economy and upsurge of imports in the merchandise encouraging businessmen to put up those trade debacle and offer no explanation with credit, data and government assisas to (1) why this country’s merchandise tance. In 1968 BoI released its first IPP trade failed so miserably in 2018’s first (Investment Priorities Plan), which was a four months, (2) what the prospects are list of high-priority industries that were for a turnaround in the near term and essentially oriented toward the domestic (3) what needs to be done by the gov- market. Two years later, in an act that ernment and the export community in abundantly showed its concern for the order that the turnaround will happen. Philippines’ external economic stability, They are virtually saying that the four- BoI released its first EPP (Export Priorimonth trade balance—the $3.62 billion ties Plan), which, as its name suggested, deficit compares with the $1.5 billion was intended to provide encouragement of the same 2017 period—is principally for investment in productive activities attributable to the Duterte administra- geared toward foreign markets. Because tion’s “Build, Build, Build” program they embodied government leadership and that the country’s performance of and preparedness to help, the annual apthis country’s exporters during the Jan- pearances of the IPP and EPP were eauary-April 2018 had little to do with it. gerly awaited by the domestic and foreign This, of course, is not the case. business communities.

What is happening is a bad-news-andHow different the situation is today. worse-news situation. The bad news is Where the Export Department was once the very bad outcome of the first four a powerful part of the BoI structure, tomonths of this year; the worse news day one hardly hears the phrases ‘export is that the trade deficits of increasing promotion’ and ‘export drive.’ The BoI magnitude have become a part of this has ceased to be export-oriented and country’s economic way of life and will there no longer is an eagerly-awaited EPP. so remain until the government—espeTo the greatest extent possible a councially DTI (the Department of Trade try’s imports should be paid for by its and Industry)—comes to grips with exports. For the ‘Build, Build, Build’ the reality that Filipinos are no longer program this clearly is not going to be the as brawn and brain as they once were. case. The shortfalls will necessarily have Exports of brawn and brain have taken to be financed by additions to this counthe place of merchandise exports in the try’s hitherto-manageable external debt. government’s economic-priorities list.

Which explains why I say that the PhilAccordingly, more stories appear in the ippines likely will have a succession of media about DoLE (Department of La- large merchandise trade deficits for years bor and Employment) than about DTI. to come.

BUSINESS CLASS

‘Tambay’...

From A4

shot it out with the enforcers forcing the latter to retaliate. Invariably, the police come out in the “shootout” unscathed and always manage to kill the victims who are so inept in the use of firearm even when they had the advantage to shoot first. This narrative is now a nauseating refrain even as witnesses continue to dispute the police version dished out in public. It is laughable that the narrative by the police is so consistent. They dare not deviate from the familiar script.

The arrest of tambays can follow a similar pattern as the war on drugs with rights being abused left and right. This is not to condone criminality. Violators of the law must be arrested and charged.

But it must be done the proper and legal way and not through strong-arm tactics employed only by mob bosses and criminal syndicates. The PNP is a professional organization. It exists only for the protection of the citizenry against criminality.

If it uses tactics much like its adversaries’, the purpose of its very existence is defeated.

Fourth, the crackdown is anti-poor much like the anti-drug war campaign.

Who will be most prone to arrest in this crackdown but the poor, especially those living in depressed areas? They live in crammed makeshift houses built from odds and ends. These houses are so small; their inhabitants swelter from heat. Most of the time they are left with no choice but to stay out of their houses for some fresh air. That they are eyesores and pose a menace to society is not a valid justification to arrest them.

This is not what our criminal statutes prescribe. By all indications, this antitambay campaign gravely transgresses the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution.

Historically, as the legal historian Robert Kidder has pointed out in “The

Origins of Law: Conflict, the Critical Perspective” (Chapter 5 in his book Connecting Law and Society), anti-loitering or anti-vagrancy laws have been used by the elite to further marginalize the poor.

As I teach in my Legal History and Legal Philosophy classes. these laws were used by feudal lords and later the early capitalists to force peasants and workers to agree to unjust terms of work. Calling these laws “outdated” and “anti-poor,” former Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada led the effort to decriminalize vagrancy in 2012 through Republic Act 10158.

Although the law was criticized for being anti-women in that it continued to criminalize prostitution, Congress did recognize that the vagrancy law has been exploited by authorities to oppress the poor and the homeless. In the explanatory note to the original Senate proposal, it was pointed out: “There are numerous reports of arbitrary arrests by the police because of the wide discretion afforded to law enforcement by the vagrancy law.

Police have rounded up the poor, accusing them of vagrancy and holding them in prison cells. Numerous cases of street children arbitrarily arrested by the police have likewise been documented.” The note also recognized the history behind vagrancy laws—supposedly to discourage the idleness of the population but becoming an instrument of oppression.

The resurrection in these times of this outdated thinking must be fought and resisted. President Ramon Magsaysay once said: those who have less in life should have more in law. The state serves and protects the people especially the less fortunate, and not the other way around.

This is the essence of parens patriae which is a bedrock principle of a democratic and civilized society.

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News

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018 A6 Standard Manila

TODAY mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Garin, 39 want DoJ to dismisss charges

SEIZED CONTRABAND.

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña and District Collector Carmelita Talusan present to the media P133.6 million worth of shabu and marijuana recently seized at the Port of Clark and Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The illegal drugs were later turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Monday.

Norman Cruz

By Rey Requejo FORMER Health secretary Janette Garin and several others on Monday asked the Department of Justice to dismiss the criminal charges filed against them by the parents and relatives of several children who were believed to have died of complication after being inoculated with the anti-dengue Dengvaxia vaccine.

Garin, along with former health secretary Francisco Duque III and 38 others are facing complaint for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code; torture resulting in the death of a person and the torture of a child under Republic Act No. 9745, aalso known as the Act Penalizing Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment; obstruction of justice under Section 1(b) of Presidential Decree No. 1829; and violation of Section 3 of RA 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. During the continuation of the preliminary investigation, Garin filed her counter-affidavit seeking the dismissal of the complaint for lack of probable cause and for insufficiency of evidence.

“Contrary to the malicious, twisted and baseless accusations of the complainants and the corresponding report and recommendation memorandum [Public Attorney’s Office Report and Memorandum], the Dengue Immunization Program was implemented after a thorough evaluation process as to its necessity and urgency, as well as the readiness of the government to undertake the same,” Garin stressed.

“The decision was backed up with studies that date back to several years, conducted by private and public institutions, both locally and internationally,” she said.

Garin also denied that the program was implemented with undue haste since it was implemented in April 2016, just a month before the May presidential elections.

Sailors to send home $6b this year T

By Maricel V. Cruz

HE cash sent home by overseas Filipino sailors through banks is projected to top the $6-billion mark this year amid mounting deployment, a party-list lawmaker said on Monday.

“The number of Philippine-educated sailors and other staff deployed on foreign ocean-going vessels, including those on cruise ships and floating casinos, is likely to surpass the 500,000-mark for the first time this year,” ACTS-OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III said on International Day of the Seafarer.

“We expect the enlistment of Filipino sailors to increase along with international ship traffic, as the global economy continues to expand,” Bertiz said.

Out of every $100 in personal cash remittance that the Philippines receives from Filipinos abroad, $20 comes from a sailor sending money to his family here, Bertiz said.

Citing figures from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Bertiz said Filipino sailors sent home via banks a total of $1.934 billion from January to April this year.

But he warned of a “potential downside” due to the review being conducted by the European Maritime Safety Agency

on the Philippines’ compliance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.

Failure to pass the Emsa review may adversely affect the deployment of some 80,000 Filipino sailors on European merchant ships, the Integrated Seafarers of the Philippines said.

The Emsa has been questioning the capability of the Philippines’ Maritime Industry Authority to ensure enforcement of the STCW, which sets minimum qualification standards for ship masters, officers and watch personnel.

“We are counting on Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero to manage the risks associated with Emsa’s audit and to build up compliance,” Bertiz said.

Guerrero recently retired as Armed

Forces Chief of Staff and assumed his new post as Marina administrator only on April 30.

The biggest employers of Filipino sailors are international shipping operators based in the United States, Germany, Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Norway, Cyprus, Switzerland, South Korea and Liberia.

Filipino sailors serve on bulk carriers, container ships, oil, gas, chemical and other product tankers, general cargo ships, pure car carriers and tugboats around the world.

A growing number of Filipinos also provide housekeeping, guest relations, culinary, front office and other maintenance services on cruise ships and floating casinos.

Aquino to DU30: Listen to people GSIS, PhilPost

By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Paolo Benigno Aquino on Monday called on President Rodrigo Duterte to also listen to the cry of the people, especially the poor, on the high prices of goods and services caused by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law. Aquino was referring to Duterte’s pronouncement that the rising prices of goods could prolong the economic stagnation in the provinces.

“One of the factors that would keep the economy in the provinces and the countryside alive is the low prices of goods,” added Aquino, one of four senators who voted against the ratification of the TRAIN Law. Aquino said Duterte must listen to the people, who were pleading for respite from the burden of high prices of

REFUGEES’ HUG. Sri Lankan refugee Nadeeka Nonis’ daughter Sethumdi (center left) embraces Filipino refugee Vanessa Rodel’s daughter Keana (center right) outside the Torture Claims Appeal Board office in Hong Kong on Monday, before an appeal hearing for former Sri Lankan soldier and refugee Ajith Pushpakumara who, along with Nonis and Rodel, is associated with sheltering fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong in 2013. AFP

goods and services.

“Let us listen to the sentiments and call of our countrymen. Filipins are already suffering due to high prices.

Let us roll back the excise tax on petroleum due to the TRAIN law,” said Aquino.

He renewed his call for the immediate suspension of the excise tax on petroleum products under the TRAIN Law to ease the public’s burden.

The senator has filed a measure seeking to roll back TRAIN’s excise tax on fuel when average inflation rate surpasses the annual inflation target over a three-month period.

He is also pushing for the full implementation of mitigating measures under the TRAIN Law, such as the unconditional cash transfer program for poor families and the Pantawid Pasada for jeepney operators and drivers.

3 Filipino children bag medals in math Olympiad in Greece THREE Filipino students won medals at an international math Olympiad held in Greece.

According to the Mathematics Trainers Guild-Philippines, Daryll Carlsten Ko of St. Stephen’s High School and Sean Eugene Chua of Xavier School bagged silver medals while Deanne Gabrielle Algenio of Makati Science High School grabbed a bronze medal at the 22nd Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad held from June 19 to 24 in Rhodes, Greece.

The three, accompanied by team leader Kerish Villegas, represented the country in the contest, which drew participants from Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Republic of Moldova, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Philippines, Romania, Serbia,Turkey and Turkmenistan.

“We congratulate our three contestants for winning medals in the math competition. This is another honor for our

country,” said Dr. Isidro Aguilar, MTG president.

The MTG is an organization of math experts which trains Filipino students for international math competitions.

According to the three contestants, questions in this year’s contest were challenging.

“This year’s JBMO was a mixture of handleable and challenging problems.

Some of them only required a direct flow of logic while the others needed very spe-

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cific observations in order to advance in the problem,” said Ko. “It was not easy to think of ideas that could help us make progress in solving each problem.”

Chua commented that “although the problems seemed straightforward, they were designed in such a way that we were challenged to really think out of the box while being pushed to the limit.”

“Challenging, brain provoking, mind boggling problems but nothing we Pinoy mathletes cannot hurdle,” said Algenio.

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(MS-JUNE 26, 2018)

Born: January 10. 1929 Died: June 7, 2018

Former journalist of Inquirer, The Manila Times, Chronicle, The Manila Bulletin. Sports Editor of the Varsitarian: Kingsville Royale Antipolo Sitio Chairman.

Active Catholic Accolyte and community leader.

With heartfelt gratitude to all those who in one way or another expressed their condolences during the family bereavement.

From: Wife Vilma, children - Gloria; Nick Jr.; Vilni; Viador; Nanette; Sherel, Marican, Vinesa, Children in-law, grandchildren, brother Mauricio, sisters Alejandra and Estrella.

team up anew STATE pension fund Government Service Insurance System and the Philippine Postal Corp. have partnered once again in conducting home visits to validate the status of all GSIS old-age and survivorship pensioners who are 80 years old and above.

“We are reminding our pensioners who are at least 80 years old that they are exempt from the personal-appearance requirement that GSIS currently implements. Since they cannot go to GSIS to activate their status, we are bringing our services to them through the representatives of PhilPost, our partner-agency,” GSIS PGM Jesus Clint O. Aranas said in a press statement.

Under the GSIS-PhilPost memorandum of agreement, PhilPost couriers bearing the letter of introduction from GSIS will deliver to pensioners GSIS status verification forms on their registered addresses; confirm the pensioner’s identity through personal information questions; cross-check the information on their eCard, UMID card, or other valid IDs with those in their GSVFs; and take photos of them.

“We trust that our pensioners will continue to extend courtesy and support to PhilPost in this joint undertaking. Through the concerted efforts of the two institutions, pensioners are assured of an easy and more convenient information revalidation process,” PGM Aranas added.

The GSIS chief also said that he is encouraging pensioners to request the PhilPost courier to present his ID to ensure that they will not fall prey to unscrupulous individuals or scammers who take advantage of vulnerable pensioners or their relatives.

PARTIAL PARTITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ESTATE Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late BENJAMIN TRINIDAD ROMUALDEZ, has been partially partitioned and distributed, particularly a Manila Polo Club Propriety Share with Propriety Membership Certificate No. 2396 (the “MPC Share”), by adjudicating and transferring said MPC Share in favor of FERDINAND MARTIN G. ROMUALDEZ, as per Doc. No. 170; Page No. 35; Book No. I, Series of 2017; before Atty. LINA G. FERNANDEZ, Notary Public, Mandaluyong City, Philippines; and as per Doc. No. 14744; Service No. 032-037; Series of 2017; before KERWIN ORVILLE C. TATE, Consul of the Republic of the Philippines, Consular District of New York; and ANDREW CASINO, Notary Public, State of New York, County of Queens, United States of America MS-JUNE 26, JULY 3 & 10, 2018)

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Sports

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018

A7

sports_mstandard@yahoo.com

Mondilla seeks to end slide at home in ICTSI golf meet CLYDE Mondilla hopes to snap a string of poor finishes halfway through the season right at home as he rejoins the stellar field in the ICTSI Del Monte Championship unfolding tomorrow, Wednesday, June 27 at the Del Monte Golf Club in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon.

After a four-title romp last year that netted him the Order of Merit plum, Mondilla struggled with poor form this year.

He tied for 24th in The Country Club Invitational, placed 56th in the Solaire Philippine Open and missed the cut in the Philippine Golf Tour’s Eagle Ridge Challenge, the Delimondo National Pro-am and the PGT Asia legs at Riviera and Manila Southwoods and limped to 41st place in the Philippine Masters he won last year.

He blamed his bad back for the dip in form and even skipped last week’s Apo Invitational to prepare for this week’s battle where he hopes to herald his comeback with a strong finish or a victory on a course he calls home.

Joining him in the title chase in the P3 million event put up by ICTSI and organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. is fellow Del Monte son Frankie Miñoza, the runaway winner when the tournament held its last stop here in 2013.

But Asia’s former No. 1 has slowed down

the last few years and coupled with the surge of a slew of young players, he has been content in lending his name in each PGT tournament and providing inspiration to the future stars of the sport.

Meanwhile, Apo Invitational winner Jobim Carlos heads the elite cast vying in today’s (Tuesday) pro-am tournament where they will be paired with the amateur guests and officials of the event’s chief backers, including ICTSI, BDO, KZG, Custom Clubmakers, Meralco, Sharp, Champion, Summit Mineral Water and PLDT. They include Elmer Salvador and Albin Engino, who tied for second at Apo, Philippine Masters champion Jerson Balasabas, PGTA Southwoods winner Jay Bayron, Mars Pucay, two-time PGTA winner Jhonnel Ababa, Mhark Fernando and multi-titled Tony Lascuña.

Meanwhile, others gearing up for tomorrow’s start of the Del Monte leg offering a top purse of P550,000 are Johvanie Abaño, Ira Alido, Tonton Asistio, Ferdie Aunzo, Rufino Bayron, Jun Bernis, Michael Bibat, Ramil Bisera, Marvin Dumandan, Anthony Fernando, Zanieboy Gialon, James Ryan Lam, Rene Menor, Robert Pactolerin, Justin Quiban, Nilo Salahog, Orlan Sumcad and Arnold Villacencio.

Clyde Mondilla displays excellent form as he blasts out of the fairway.

Guido Van der Valk, on the other hand, leads the foreign challenge with the Manila-based Dutchman, who won the PGT Eagle Ridge last March,

raring to make up for his missed cut stint at Apo. Others tipped to contend are Americans Lexus Keoninh and Nicolas Paez, Koreans Park Jun Sung,

Kim Joo Hyung and Kim Sung Wook, Japanese Issei Mori, Taisei Mochita and Keisuke Takahashi and Salvador Paya Vila of Spain.

Racasa crowned U-12 champion A

NTONELLA Berthe Racasa downed countrywoman Roilanne Marie Alonzo and then watched her four erstwhile co-leaders either draw or lose their respective matches to clinch the standard girls’ Under-12 title in the ASEAN+ Age Group Chess Championships at the Royal Mandaya Hotel Sunday night.

Hamilton reclaims F1 lead LE CASTELLET, France—-A masterful Lewis Hamilton powered back to the top of the world championship Sunday when he roared to a polished lights-to-flag win for Mercedes at the French Grand Prix.

The four-time world champion, making the most of his upgraded Mercedes engine, led from start to finish, bar one lap following a pit stop, as he claimed his first win in France, his third this year and the 65th of his career.

“This is a great day,” said reigning champion Hamilton. “I enjoyed the race, for me the best French Grand Prix I have ever had. The weather was great, too, and the fans were really enthusiastic.

“I am so grateful to my guys for a solid weekend. My guys continuously push the boundaries and they never give up.”

Hamilton came home seven seconds clear of Max Verstappen with Kimi Raikkonen taking third for Ferrari after passing his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo with five laps remaining.

Hamilton’s consummate performance came after fellow four-time champion and pre-race leader Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari crashed into his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas on the opening lap.

Both suffered damage and, under an early Safety Car, limped to the pits for repairs.

They rejoined from the back of the field to finish fifth and seventh respectively, either side of Kevin Magnussen of Haas, who was sixth.

Vettel had to serve a five seconds penalty, which he took at his second pit stop.

“It was my mistake,” conceded Vettel.

“My start was too good and I ended up with nowhere to go. I tried to brake early and had no room.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: “It was a misjudgement from Sebastian because it ruined his race as well. The floor of Valtteri’s car was destroyed.”

Hamilton now leads Vettel, who had a wayward race, by 14 points in the championship after the first French event for a decade and the first at Le Castellet since 1990.

“I hadn’t thought about that, but that is where I want to be,” he said afterwards, when he was later critical of Vettel for his crash with Bottas.

On seeing a video recording of the incident, he said: “He took him right out —ah, man, that’s crazy.”

He added that a five seconds penalty was too lenient, an opinion shared by many including Mercedes non-executive director Niki Lauda. AFP

Racasa, a native of San Roque, Marikina who turned 11 on June 12, finished with the best score of 6.5 points, half a point ahead of Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Thai Ngoc, Nguyen Thi Mai Lan and Nguyen Phuc Yen Nhi with six points apiece to also clinch the Woman FIDE Master title.

Tied with Alonzo, Vietnamese Bui Ngoc Phuong Nghi, Nguyen Hoang Tha Ngoc and Nguyen Phuc Yen Nhi with 5.5

points entering the ninth and final round, Racasa emerged the lone player victorious among the lot to claim the crown.

Bui lost to Nguyen Thi Mai Lan, Nguyen halved the point with the Philippines’ Kimberly Colaste and Nguyen split the point with the PH’s Francgsca Lagro in this event organized by Chess Events International, sanctioned by the NCFP under Butch Pichay, bankrolled by the Philippine Sports Commission and backed by

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

It was a come-from-behind win by Racasa, as she bucked losses in the first and fourth rounds by scoring 3.5 points in the last four rounds, including a shock victory over top seed Bui in the eighth and penultimate round.

“My father taught me to always never give up and always stand up when I fall,” said Racasa in Filipino referring to Robert, the country’s father of memory sports.

Also pulling off victories were International Master Paulo Bersamina and WFM Shania Mendoza in the premier U20 section, Dale Bernardo in the U18, Ronald Canino in the Open U16 and Kaye Lalaine Regidor in the girls’ U10.

Bersamina, a two-time Olympiad veteran, drew with IM John Marvin Miciano to cap his triumph with 7.5

points, while the Batumi World Chess Olympiad-bound Mendoza bested Laila Camel Nadera to likewise finish with 7.5 points and end up with a WIM title and a WGM norm.

Bernardo, who halved the point with Aeron Keife Charles Sinining actually ended up tied on top with Far Eastern University standout John Merill Jacutina, who turned back Le Nguyen Khoi Nguyen, with seven points each but the former won via win-over-the-other-rule after beating the latter in the second round.

Canino, for his part, also wound up tied for first with Vetnam’s FM Pham Phu Vinh and Bui Duc Huy, but won the crown and the FM title after tiebreaks.

Regidor took the gold by beating Mecel Angela Gadut in the last round to finish with seven points.

Go explodes for 47, carries Malacañang past AFP five

Pampanga Judge Wendell Ramitere starred for Judiciary’s win after posting 30 points and five rebounds in their 108-50 drubbing of the GSIS Furies.

SPECIAL Assistant to the President Sec. Bong Go put on another superb marksmanship, exploding for 47 points as Malacañang-Philippine Sports Commission drubbed also-ran Armed Forces of the Philippines, 8769, and kept its playoff bid for the last semis berth in the 2nd UNTV Cup Executive Face-Off on Sunday at the Pasig City Sports Center.

Go’s 47-point output shattered the league’s best of 44 points which the Davao executive himself registered in the team’s 105-79 romp over the GSIS Furies just a week ago.

More than the individual honor he achieved, Go was happy that the Kamao are still in contention for the last semis berth as they improved to 2-3.

AFP’s defeat was its fifth straight in the annual event presented by UNTV through its president and CEO Daniel Razon. It offers P1 million to the chosen charity of the

Games Sunday (Pasig City Sports Center) 2 p.m. – GSIS vs AFP 3:30 p.m. – Ombudsman vs Judiciary 5 p.m. – DOJ vs Malacañang-PSC

champion team.

Meantime, Judiciary and Senate boosted their own semis bids after posting contrasting wins in the event exclusive for public servants.

Pampanga MTC Judge Wendell Ramitere erupted for 30 points as the Judiciary Magis clobbered the GSIS Furies, 108-50, for their fourth win in five starts.

Also improving to a 4-1 card are the Senate Sentinels, who downed the DOJ Boosters, 76-72.

In his finest game so far, Sen. Sonny Angara led the Sentinels with 22 points, while Sen. Joel Villanueva and Warren Tan combined for 22 points as they helped eliminate the Boosters.

Del Rosario finishes at joint 8th in Thailand Championship golf PAULINE del Rosario stumbled with late bogeys and fell short of her final round rally, finishing with a 71 and ending up joint eighth in the Ladies European Tour’s Thailand Championship won by Thai Kanyalak Preedasuttijit at the Phoenix Golf and Country Club’s Mountain Ocean course in Pattaya late Sunday.

Del Rosario, who grabbed a share of the second round lead with a 67 but fell off the leaderboard with a 74 Friday, tried to charge

back from seven down with three birdies after 12 holes. But the reigning Ladies Philippine Golf Tour Order of Merit champion bogeyed the next two and settled for pars to close out with a 34-37.

Her six-under 282 total was nine shots behind Preedasuttijit, who shot a 69 and held off a rallying Korean amateur Selin Hyun and won by one on a 273 total.

Hyun fired a bogey-free 65 but ran out of holes to force a playoff. She fin-

ished second at 274 while another Thai, Chonlada Chayanun wound up third at 278 after a 69.

Over in Symetra Tour, Dottie Ardina shot a two-under 70 but could only move to joint 21st in the second round of the Island Resort Championship paced by Taiwanese Ssu-Chia Cheng in Michigan Saturday.

Ardina, who had two runner-up finishes in recent weeks, gunned down five

GOLF CLASSIC.

Representatives of the joint Ateneo and La Salle golf committee pose after the contract signing for the 35th Ateneo-La Salle Golf Classic slated July 16 at the Orchard Golf and Country Club in Dasmariñas, Cavite. They are (seated, from left) Ray Panlilio, Lito Tanjuatco, Bro. Bernie Oca and Eric Tensuan., (standing, from left) are Cathy Yuson, Lovell Gopez, Raymond Bunquin, Jay Gervasio, Jing Paraiso, Freddie Mendoza, Jeric Hechanova, Sarge Gonzaga, Jaymee Alona and Mary Ann Suetos.

birdies but fumbled with three bogeys, settling for a 37-33 card for a 141, six shots behind Cheng, who carded a 66 for a 135 and a one-stroke lead over American Esther Lee, who made a 71.

Mia Piccio, who turned in an impressive 69 in the first round, hit five birdies but made four bogeys and a double bogey for a 73. She dropped to joint 36th at 142 with compatriot Clariss Guce, who rallied with a 68.

LOTTO RESULTS

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

A8

Sports

TUESDAY, JUNE 26. 2018

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

Volcanoes rally past Singapore Robert Luceno Fogerty clinches a crucial try for the PH Volcanoes in front of a vocal home crowd in the test match against Singapore.

Phoenix honors young achievers THE first Phoenix Siklab Youth Sports awards will honor 50 sports achievers in a simple rites at 5 p.m. on June 27 at the Century Park Hotel in Manila.

Leading the awardees are 24 youth athletes, aged 17 years old and below, who made waves in local and international tournaments.

They will be conferred the POC Young Heroes Awards trophies.

Heading the list are Kim Remolino for triathlon, Rex Luis Krog (cycling), Chezka Centeno (billiards), Samantha Kyle Catantan (fencing), Nicole Tagle (archery), Maria Takahashi (judo), Alex Eala (tennis), Veruel Verdadero (athletics) and boxers Chriztian Pitt Laurente, Kenneth Dela Pena and John Vincent Pangga.

Also included in the premier honor roll are Mary Angeline Alcantara (taekwondo), Rafael Barreto (swimming), Angelo Kenzo Umali (bowling), Caloy Yulo (gymnastics), Kaitlin De Guzman (gymnastics), Bea Hernandez (bowling), Sarah Barredo (badminton), Allaney Jia Doroy (chess), Ghen-Yan Cruz (muay), Johnzenth Gajo (wushu), AJ Lim (tennis), John Paolo Rivero (weightlifting) and Bhay Newberry (swimming).

Outstanding athletes who have shone in major school leagues and championships in their respective sport, as well as the Philippine National Games, will be bestowed the POC Super Kids trophies during the historic affair supported by Standard Insurance, Philta, Vernica, Philippine Bowling Federation, Veloci, Omila Sports Academy, Cignal and Digital Out of Home (DOOH).

The POC Super Kids awardees are Kai Sotto (basketball), Tara Borlain (athletics), Marco Umgeher (alpine skiing), Dexy Manalo (canoe-kayak), Morris Marlos (sailing), Rizumu Ono (table tennis), Rosegie Ramos (weightlifting), Daniel Quizon (chess), Jane Linette Hipolito (weightlifting),Kieth Absalon (football),Justin Ceriola (jiu-jitsu), Trojan Dangadang (canoe-kayak), Christine Talledo (dragonboat) at si Eya Laure (volleyball).

Those who excelled in national multi-events like Batang Pinoy and Palaro Pambansa belong to the PSC Children’s Games for Peace awardees.

England dares dream of World Cup glory R

EPINO, Russia—Qualification for the last 16 secured with a game to spare, Harry Kane leading the race for the Golden Boot and a record World Cup win after thrashing Panama 6-1—England could not have wished for a better start in Russia.

Even accounting for soft opposition in the World Cup debutants and Tunisia before that, England’s record so far contrasts starkly with four years ago when they were already eliminated after just two games in Brazil.

Manager Gareth Southgate’s decision to bring the third-youngest squad on show in Russia is paying off so far as the Three Lions look full of energy and lacking in the fear of failure that has blighted so many campaigns in a 52-year wait to win a major tournament.

Most importantly of all, in Kane they have a striker the whole world will now fear.

In just two World Cup appearances, the Tottenham striker now has as many World Cup goals as Lionel Messi after backing up his double to beat Tunisia with the first World Cup hat-trick from an Englishman since Gary Lineker in 1986.

A winner of 57 England caps as a player,

Southgate has earned rave reviews for creating a more relaxed and open environment between players, press and fans.

He even managed to douse the flames of the first media storm of England’s World Cup on the eve of the Panama match—over whether journalists should reveal his team selections by recognizing the press should not be cheerleaders.

Southgate and his backroom staff also deserve credit for a series of innovative set-piece routines that have already reaped four goals.

Kane has demonstrated that this England side has at least one reliable penalty taker should they be forced into a shootout in the weeks to come by smashing two immaculate spot-kicks into the top corner.

“We are just enjoying it,” said Kane.

“We have been working on set pieces and working on the way we play and it is all

Baby Falcons snare crown

By Peter Atencio

England’s Harry Kane acknowledges the cheers of fans after leading his team to a 6-1 thrashing of Panama at the World Cup in Russia. AFP

Winds blow Filipina off podium finish HAMPERED by gusty winds, Amaya Paz-Cojuangco landed in fourth place after she lost to Sophie Dodemont of France, 125-133, in the women’s compound bronze medal match at the Hyundai Archery World Cup – Stage 3 in Salt Lake City, USA. The wind was strong when Cojuangco released her first three arrows, according to online reports, and because of this, she had scores of 7, 9 and 8 for 24 point tally, while Dodemont made 28.

The world no. 43 Cojuangco tried her luck on her next two arrows and had no luck with lower scores.

On the other hand, Dodemont, was steady on her shots and the 2008 Olympic medalist in recover, was eight shots ahead when she took the bronze.

coming together.

“Fantastic to be through and to do it this way is brilliant.”

Much tougher tests await, beginning with Belgium—who have also hit a total of eight goals past Panama and Tunisia— on Thursday.

Southgate even claimed he “didn’t particularly like the performance” due to a sloppy start and conceding a late goal that leaves England level on goal difference with the Red Devils at the top of Group G. A draw in Kaliningrad would mean the group winners would be decided on disciplinary records, with Belgium’s three yellow cards to England’s two so far meaning they sit in second place.

Both sides may not even want to finish first, with the group winners potentially set for a much tougher half of the draw that might also contain Brazil, Germany and France.

For now, though, after so many tournament disappointments in recent years, England are happy to have the luxury of weighing up who they would rather face in the knockout rounds, and fortune on their side. AFP

Dodemont’s triumph over Cojuangco came after she teamed up with Sebastien Peineau in winning the gold at the compound–mixed team over Russia, 153-149.

Despite her loss, Cojuangco’s feat in Salt Lake City is considered as the highest individual accomplishment by a Filipino archer in the women’s division at world level.

Ranked 28th in the qualification stages, Cojuangco scored a total of 632 after 60 arrows.

In reaching the medal round, Cojuangco breezed past Laura Longo of Italy, 145-140 in the first round.

She then pulled off a 141-140 upset over world no. 44 Natalya Adveeda of Russia in the second round.

Cojuangco and France’s Sandra

Herve went on a shoot-off after both scored 137, with the Filipina firing a 10 on her final shot.

In the round-of-eight, Cojuangco upset world no. 9 Toja Ellison of Serbia, 142-140.

She then lost to eventual gold medalist and world no. 2 Sara Lopez of Colombia, 138-147 in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Dodemont settled for the bronze when she lost to eventual silver medalist and world no. 8 Linda OchoaAnderson of Mexico, 144-145 in the other semifinal clash.

In the same tournament last year, Cojuangco was eased out of the medal round

by Lin Ming-Ching of Chinese-Taipei, 132-140, in the first round.

Back then Cojuangco also placed 28th in the qualification round. Peter Atencio

THE Adamson Baby Falcons tried again after a two-year wait, and this time, they snared the junior division crown of the 24th Fr. Martin Cup summer tournament last Saturday at the St. Placid gymnasium of the San Beda UniversityManila campus in Mendiola.

They relied on the heroics of late substitute Jake Engbino to pull off a 78-76 win over the San Beda University-Taytay Red Cubs to capture the high school honors in this cagefest which is supported by Cocolife.

Joem Sabandal showed the way for the Baby Falcons, who finally who won the title after losing it to the Nazareth School-National University Bullpups in 2016.

Their pressure defense worked wonders in the final 10 minutes when the Baby Falcons finally switched game plans. They rallied from eight points down at the start of the period.

“Masarap ang feeling (on the title win). At least nakaisa kami on a major tournament na pre-season. Mabu-boost ang morale ng mga bata going into the UAAP season. Sana madala namin hanggang duon,” said Baby Falcons Mike Fermin.

Adamson Baby Falcon Russell Dominguez tries to score against the San Beda Red Cubs.

THE Philippine Volcanoes, backed by headline sponsors SEAPAC Philippines (SPI) and First Pacific, rallied in the second half to secure the first match in the Division 1 Asia Rugby Championships with a 32 to 24 victory over Singapore.

In unexpected dry conditions at Southern Plains Sports Field, a strong home crowd inspired the Volcanoes, stringing together a winning performance.

It was Singapore who drew first blood, after an intelligent drop goal four minutes into the match from Fullback Jonathan Barber took the visitors to a three point head start. It wasn’t long until the Volcanoes returned fire after a slick play saw debutant Sean Celada Lynch cross over for the first points for the Volcanoes in the sixth minute to take the lead 5 points to 3.

The Volcanoes continued to attack deep within their own territory, however, it was Team Singapore who capitalized on an early mistake forcing a turnover. Jonathan Barber, in the right place at the right time, jumped on the opportunity to score his team’s first try off a support play, taking the lead 8 to 5.

Back-to-back ill discipline cost the Volcanoes a further 6 points taking the Singaporeans to a 14 to 5 lead after 23 minutes.

Volcanoes halfback Joe Palabay Dawson swiped through the blindside off a scrum into an open field play to secure crucial points for the Philippines. With a successful conversion from Vice Captain Danny Bembo Matthews, the half time break saw Singapore 14 to 12 ahead.

It wasn’t long until the home team grabbed back the lead. Another penalty conversion from Matthews gave the home side the edge 15 to 14. The Volcanoes continued to apply pressure off open field phase play which put Dawson in for his second try to take the Volcanoes to a 20 to 14 lead. Singapore kept their attack with a breakaway try to winger Xavier Ducournean. Another successful conversion from Barber put Singapore out to a 21 to 20 lead with twenty minutes to play.

A set of fresh legs and a strong impact off the substitution bench kept the Volcanoes alive. Robert Luceno Fogerty, the youngest member of the Volcanoes and the fourth debutant in the match sparked an attack from the home team.

Tigers target share of lead THE Davao Occidental Tigers will try to live up to pre-tournament hype when they tackle the Quezon City Capitals at 7 p.m. today in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Datu Cup at the Pasig Sports Center.

The Tigers topped the MPBL preseason tournament and are regarded as the strongest among the four teams from Mindanao competing in the regional league.

Powered by five former pros, the Tigers downed Imus Bandera, 75-71, on June 14 and will share the lead with the idle Muntinlupa Cagers (2-0) with another victory over the Banderas.

Billy Robles, Leo Najorda, Mark Yee and Bogs Raymundo are again expected to carry the scoring load for the Tigers of Coach Don Dulay.

The Pasig Pirates and the Laguna Krah Heroes collide in the second game at 9 p.m.

Both Pasig and Laguna are coming off losses, with the Pirates yielding to the Caloocan Supremos, 81-91, and the Heroes bowing to the Zamboanga Valientes, 80-86.

Former pro Denok Miranda will banner Laguna while former Letran Knights Boyet Bautista, Ronjay Enrile and Jonathan Aldave will anchor Pasig’s bid to break into the win column.

IN BRIEF

Taiwan eyes extension of visa-free privilege TAIWAN is considering to extend further the visa-free courtesy given to the Philippines to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two trading partners.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines said the measure opened new opportunities for both partners, increasing visitors arrivals from the Philippines and exposing Filipinos to the culture and heritage of Taiwan.

“This measure had a definite positive impact to both countries. We are now negotiating with MECO (Manila Economic and Cultural Office) to help us make this reciprocal, but nevertheless, Taiwan is seriously considering the extend the courtesy,” said TECO economic division director Alfred Wang.

He added the Taiwanese government was deliberating on the length of extension before the expiry of the arrangement next month.

The visa-free courtesy was introduced as an experimental diplomatic courtesy to Filipino travelers on November 1, 2017.

Othel V. Campos

Business

SBS acquires 2 prime areas in Quezon City CHEMICAL trader and distributor SBS Philippines Corp. said two associate companies recently acquired prime real estate assets in Quezon City as part of the group’s diversification strategy.

SBS said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Smyte Philippines Holdings Corp. recently signed a deed of absolute sale to acquire a two-hectare property in Balintawak, Quezon City.

The newly-acquired property is adjacent to a three-hectare property already owned by another associate company of SBS Holdings.

“The Group considers such acquisition in prime landholdings for a potential joint development of the combined 5-hectare property in Balintawak area which offers strong value and a good potential to deliver an attractive total return due to its attractive size and location,” SBS said.

Unit Namia Holdings Corp. also acquired a 3,000-square-meter property in Green Meadows, Quezon City.

The acquisition could be a potential joint mixed-use development or sale in order to capitalize in the growing marketability of the area. Jenniffer B. Austria

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018

B1

By Julito G. Rada

REPUBLIC CEMENT TAPS ABOITIZ. Aboitiz Construction Inc., the privately-held construction arm of the Aboitiz Group, will lend its capability and expertise to affiliate Republic Cement and Building Materials Inc., specifically for the latter’s two high-value projects in Bulacan and Cebu. The contracts call for structural and mechanical works to be completed by ACI in Republic Cement’s Bulacan and Cebu sites in 11 months. Shown during the signing of the agreement are (seated from left) RCBM project director Ferdinando Milesi, RCBM president Renato Sunico, ACI president and chief operating officer Alberto Ignacio Jr. and ACI first vice president Felma Yap.

IFC issues $90m worth of Mabuhay green bonds I

By Alena Mae S. Flores

NTERNATIONAL Finance Corp., a member of the World Bank Group, on Monday issued the first internationally rated triple-A peso-denominated green bonds to support the projects of Energy Development Corp.

IFC said the bonds, equivalent to $90 million with a 15-year maturity, would support the local capital market and renewable energy.

The bonds, called the Mabuhay Bond, set a precedent as the first green bond denominated in pesos and issued by a multilateral development institution.

“Addressing climate change is a priority for IFC. IFC’s Mabuhay bond showcases the powerful role that capital markets could play in mobilizing savings for climate finance,” IFC vice pres-

Globe taps blockchain for remittance service GLOBE Fintech Innovations Inc. said it teamed up with AlipayHK to provide a cross-border remittance service between the Philippines and Hong Kong through e-wallet platforms powered by the blockchain technology.

Standard Chartered will provide the underlying banking infrastructure for the blockchain-based cross-border digital wallet remittance service.

Globe Fintech or Mynt, the operator of virtual wallet known as GCash, said this was the first of its kind globally, offering a fast, secure, convenient, transparent and low-cost way to transfer money directly between individuals in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

Alipay, the online payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, applied blockchain technology to streamline the remittance process, radically improving the speed of delivery, enhancing transparency of the process and drastically reducing costs

business@manilastandard.net extrastory2000@gmail.com

Govt incurred P32.9-b budget deficit in May

Ceza upbeat on fintech investments worth P1.3b THE Cagayan Economic Zone Authority expects to close P1.3 billion worth of investments from 25 financial technology companies that will the so-called “The New Venture in the Valley,” the country’s first financial technology and virtual currency hub to rise within the free port Ceza administrator and chief executive officer Raul Lambino said companies were bullish on the fintech hub after the free port received proposals from over 70 fintech firms from the US, Southeast Asia and other Asian countries.

“Still have to see the integrity and character of these companies. It may take two years to develop the hub. They are required to commit to at least $1 million per company to show their sincerity to do business from the Philippines on tp of other capital expenditures,” Lambino said Sunday during the Global Blockchain Summit in Manila.

Three of the 25 companies that were singled out to fill the registry had submitted the requirements for registration, while the rest have taken initial steps or halfway in completing the documentary requirement.

Othel V. Campos

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

while ensuring better security measures when sending money across borders.

Ant Financial Group, owned by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, is a major third-party payment service provider in 70 markets. Ant Financial owns 45 percent in Mynt, while Globe Capital Venture Holdings Inc. holds 45 percent. AC Ventures Holding Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ayala, has 10 percent.

The service between GCash and AlipayHK will provide round-the-clock, real-time money transfer between Hong Kong and the Philippines at a competitive exchange rate with much lower transaction fees, which will be further waived during an initial three-month trial period.

More than 180,000 Filipinos are working in Hong Kong. With a few taps through AlipayHK’s mobile phone application, money will be transferred within seconds to a GCash user.

Darwin G. Amojelar

ident and treasurer Jingdong Hua said in a statement.

“Adding pesos as a new green bond currency supports our goal to strengthen this important asset class,” Hua said.

IFC said it would use the proceeds of the bond to finance EDC’s capital expenditure program, which is focused on optimizing the generation output of its geothermal power plants and improving resiliency to climate impacts.

EDC is the country’s largest producer of geothermal energy and one of the world’s largest integrated geothermal energy producers.

EDC’s power generation in 2016 represented 9 percent percent of the Philippines’ total power generation capacity which also included wind and solar power projects.

IFC, a triple-A rated issuer, has issued local currency bonds in over 30 countries to help build capital markets by attracting investors who want to put their money in low-risk investments.

F OREIGN E XCHANGE R ATE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monday, June 25, 2018

Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

53.3490

Japan

Yen

0.009102

0.4856

UK

Pound

1.325900

70.7354

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.127465

6.8001

Switzerland

Franc

1.012248

54.0024

Canada

Dollar

0.753693

40.2088

Singapore

Dollar

0.736377

39.2850

Australia

Dollar

0.743700

39.6757

Bahrain

Dinar

2.652872

141.5281

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266645

14.2252

Brunei

Dollar

0.733676

39.1409

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000071

0.0038

Thailand

Baht

0.030404

1.6220

UAE

Dirham

0.272287

14.5262 62.2423

Euro

Euro

1.166700

Korea

Won

0.000901

0.0481

China

Yuan

0.153965

8.2139

India

Rupee

0.014736

0.7862

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.249938

13.3339

New Zealand

Dollar

0.691000

36.8642

Taiwan

Dollar

0.033007

1.7609

TELEPERFORMANCE-LAZADA AGREEMENT. Teleperformance Philippines signs a memorandum of agreement with online shopping platform Lazada to implement a rewards program wherein successful applicants get exclusive Lazada shopping vouchers they can use for their personal purchases. Shown during the signing of the agreement are (from left) Teleperformance Philippines vice president for recruitment George Dy, managing director Travis Coates, Lazada E-Services Philippines chief marketing officer Tristan de Belloy and vice president for offline m marketing Mila Jimenez.

“For the Philippines, the deepening of domestic capital market is critical for the long-term sustainability of the economy,” said IFC country manager for the Philippines Yuan Xu. “The issuance of the Mabuhay bond evidences IFC’s commitment to support the country’s efforts to address climate change,” he said.

IFC is one of the world’s largest financiers of climate-smart projects for developing countries.

IFC’s green bonds support investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, green buildings and other areas that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

IFC has invested $18.3 billion in long-term financing from its own account and mobilized another $11 billion through partnerships with investors for climate-related projects since 2005.

IFC has issued 109 green bonds amounting to $7.5 billion in 12 currencies. These issuances are part of a global strategy to develop the green bond asset class in emerging markets.

Uy eyes placing 2 casinos under listed PH Resorts

By Jenniffer B. Austria

BUSINESSMAN Dennis Uy plans to put his two casino ventures under newly-acquired and listed firm PH Resorts Group Holdings Inc., formerly Philippine H20 Ventures Inc. Uy said in an interview following the stockholders’ meeting of Philippine H2O the casino projects in Clark and Cebu and two other tourism-related projects in Bohol and Davao would be placed under PH Resorts.

Shareholders of Philippine H20 approved a change in the company’s corporate name to PH Resorts Group Holding Inc. and an increase in the authorized capital stock to P8 billion from P500 million.

Udenna Group, the holding company of Uy, earlier acquired 62 percent of the issued and outstanding capital stock of H2O Ventures under a share purchase agreement with Jolliville Holdings Corp. of businessman Jolly Ting.

“PH Resorts will allow the Udenna Group to take advantage of the many opportunities in the tourism sector; create stronger synergies among our existing businesses, and make more meaningful contributions to the Philippine economy,” Uy said.

“As we foray deeper into the tourism sector, we hope to usher in a new era of growth for our shareholders,” he said.

Uy is building a $300-million casino project in a 12-hectare lot in Cebu called Lapu-Lapu Leisure Mactan.

He is also finalizing plans for a second casino within the 177-hectare Clark Global City in Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga. The project is slated for completion by 2022.

THE government incurred a budget deficit of P32.9 billion in May, a reversal of the P46.3-billion surplus in April, as spending rose 12 percent and revenue collections climbed 13 percent from a year ago, the Treasury said Monday.

Data from the agency showed the budget deficit in May was lower by 2 percent than the P33.4-billion shortfall registered in the same month last year.

“The deficit is slightly lower than last year’s level by 2 percent, as revenue growth narrowly exceeded the acceleration in government spending,” the Treasury said in a statement.

“Compared to program, year-to-date deficit was 32 percent or P66.3 billion lower than programmed on account of higher revenue collections which exceeded the program by P81.5 billion or 7 percent, outpacing the 1 percent or P15.2 billion increase in spending,” it said.

Fiscal deficit in the first five months climbed 118 percent to P138.7 billion from P63.6 billion a year ago.

Revenue collections (net of tax refund) increased 13 percent in May to P259 billion from P228.3 billion a year earlier. This brought the five-month tally to P1.186 trillion, up 19 percent over similar collections last year.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue raised P174.7 billion in May for a yearon-year growth of 10 percent. The BIR was able to sustain the double-digit growth in the first five months, leading to a 15-percent increase in January to May collections to P830.5 billion.

Deducting tax refunds resulted in a net collection of P172 billion for May, with year-on-year growth of 8 percent, bringing year- to-date collections and growth to P827.7 billion and 15 percent, respectively.

Customs collections went up 35 percent year-on-year for a total of P53.6 billion for the month. Five-month customs collections grew 31 percent to P230.7 billion from a year ago.

PAL to stop Jeddah flights in September

By Darwin G. Amojelar PHILIPPINE Airlines said it temporarily suspended flights to and from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia beginning Sept. 19 this year on commercial reasons.

“All routes are subjected to performance reviews and viability. It is deemed necessary to suspend said route in view of the assessment made. This is let me emphasize an interim situation,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said.

Villaluna said the airline was seeking the understanding of passengers affected by the suspension of the Manila-Jeddah route.

The airline stopped flying Manila to Kuwait on May 16 because of weak demand and stiff competition.

PAL, however, assured it would maintain its presence in other parts of the Middle East via daily flights to Riyadh and Dubai, four times weekly flights to Doha, thrice weekly service to Abu Dhabi and five times weekly service to Dammam.

PAL, whose profit was dragged down by high fuel prices last year, earlier said it was considering to stop some unprofitable routes to mitigate the impact of rising jet fuel prices.

PAL’s fuel expense rose by $200 million to $749 million last year from $549 million in 2016.

PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista earlier said the airline was expected to consume 11 million barrels of jet fuel this year, resulting in a $143-million additional costs to the country’s flag carrier.

Data from the International Air Transportation Association showed that jet fuel prices averaged $91.4 a barrel as of May 25, up by 41.7 percent from a year ago.

PAL Holdings Inc., the parent firm of PAL, reported a total net loss of P904.7 million in the first quarter, a significant downturn from the P2.71billion income a year ago.

B2

Business

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018 extrastory2000@gmail.com

Market declines below 7,000 points

T

HE stock market slumped for the eight straight session with the benchmark market index dropping below 7,000 points for the first time since January 3, 2017 when it closed at 6,861.31.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 76.32 points, or 1.1 percent, to a new 17-month low of 6,986.88 on a value turnover of P6.1 billion. Losers beat gainers, 101 to 80, with 59 issues unchanged.

JG Summit Holdings Inc. of industrialist John Gokongwei tumbled 5.5 percent to P46.90, while major property developer Ayala Land Inc. lost 3.3 percent to P36.30.

SM Investments Corp. of retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr. fell 2.6 percent to P845, while Security Bank Corp., the sixthlargest lender in terms of assets, slipped

1.5 percent to P195.

The rest of Asian markets fell Monday as fears of a global trade war continue to dog investors, with Donald Trump threatening fresh tariffs on European cars and reports he is considering curbs on Chinese investment in the US. There was little sign of relief after equities suffered a pummeling last week in response to tit-for-tat warnings

by Beijing and Washington, which has fueled concerns about the potential damage to the world economy.

The uncertainty overshadowed a modest increase in oil output agreed by Opec and Russia and Chinese easing measures.

Tokyo ended 0.8 percent lower, while Hong Kong and Shanghai were both off more than one percent.

Sydney lost 0.2 percent and Singapore shed 0.8 percent.

Taipei was one percent lower, while Seoul and Wellington barely moved.

Concerns the tariff spat could turn into a full-blown trade war were stoked Monday following reports that the Treasury Department is looking at an emergency law beefing up scrutiny of investment by Chinese firms in sensitive US industries.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to push the plan this week, Bloomberg News reported.

“This one could well result in an escalating trade war,” Lee Ferridge, a macro strategist at State Street Corp., told Bloomberg TV. “Volatility is going to continue to rise from here.”

While some observers are saying Trump’s moves are part of a negotiating tactic, he has shown no sign of backing down and on Friday threatened to impose a 20-percent tariff on cars imported from the European Union. That came just after the bloc imposed levies on US products, including bourbon, jeans and motorcycles.

Still, late Sunday he tweeted: “The United States is insisting that all countries that have placed artificial Trade Barriers and Tariffs on goods going into their country, remove those Barriers & Tariffs or be met with more than Reciprocity by the U.S.A. Trade must be fair and no longer a one way street!”

The People’s Bank of China on Sunday said it would lower the amount of cash lenders must keep in reserve as it looks to soothe investors worried about a trade conflagration.

The cut—which will free up more than $100 billion for banks—is set to come into effect on July 5, the day before new US tariffs are due to be imposed on Chinese imports worth $34 billion.

While broad markets are taking another hit, energy firms in Asia were mostly up after Opec agreed to increase oil production by around a million barrels a day from July. With AFP

MANILA STANDARD BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2018

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

FINANCIALS 59.15 3,500 87.8 1,679,620 2.91 1,000 125 3,078,960 1.52 30,000 33.4 65,700 16.6 900 14.64 1,370,700 3.55 72,000 8.65 800 845 70 0.53 172,000 73.5 3,217,600 1.06 711,000 12 45,700 20.8 1,000 48.25 13,600 200 1,070 106 80 28.5 87,000 195 579,050 88.5 17,740 1.18 6,000

207,025 148,145,102 2,910 385,215,700 45,300 2,210,525 14,880 19,999,102 250,800 6,920 59,150 91,190 238,329,905 746,370 548,400 20,800 658,520 213,150 8,480 2,484,220 113,750,185 1,573,677 7,080

177,450 -75,542,247.50 -26,610,670 388,175.00 3,755,676 11,892,510 -537,275 -1,800,680 23,710,767 560,901 -

35 14.76 0.58 1.17 23 0.228 100 2.95 16.02 48.9 22.7 60 58.05 1.86 8 9.95 15.62 10.7 7.17 5.18 1.62 14.14 61.55 20.5 7.45 15.2 2.22 267 5.03 3.2 27 11.3 20.35 336.6 0.178 7.05 2.18 8.7 6.08 7.79 1.22 11.8 50.85 5.95 4.55 2.46 1.82 12.14 59.05 4.8 0.129 0.9 117 2.72 2.45 20 1.23

INDUSTRIAL 35 1,296,900 15 602,000 0.59 1,145,000 1.19 150,000 23.35 96,000 0.228 2,240,000 100 90 3.01 3,242,000 16.4 88,600 49 510,400 22.7 15,700 60 50 58.5 2,200 1.86 187,000 8.43 12,400 10 2,176,500 15.82 1,005,500 10.9 26,700 7.2 282,500 5.25 4,548,300 1.62 2,000 14.38 136,900 62 33,520 21.5 112,400 7.45 42,900 15.4 775,600 2.22 1,761,000 268.4 757,810 5.24 60,700 3.3 4,000 27.1 3,447,100 11.32 74,200 20.5 2,279,800 336.6 370,360 0.178 30,000 7.05 45,500 2.25 177,000 8.75 673,700 7.05 6,789,200 7.79 700 1.24 308,000 12.3 60,000 51 3,118,610 6 17,700 4.56 10,000 2.65 443,000 1.91 27,000 12.2 599,100 60.95 192,370 4.81 218,000 0.129 180,000 0.9 11,000 117.5 1,098,320 2.72 2,000 2.51 4,772,000 20 300 1.49 33,219,000

46,338,545 8,983,734 673,370 180,060 2,260,785 513,210 9,000 9,747,380 1,450,558 25,222,095 358,245 3,060 128,866 352,650 102,640 21,923,393 15,898,852 291,180 2,034,681 23,626,085 3,240 1,955,594 2,071,055 2,322,575 321,863 11,903,970 3,956,070 205,205,728 316,911 12,900 93,378,105 840,318 47,507,155 126,263,834 5,340 331,358 398,350 5,881,792 45,177,720 5,453 378,450 728,084 159,276,082.50 105,489 45,530 1,155,690 51,390 7,309,496 11,621,403 1,066,792 23,220 10,160 129,641,819 5,440 12,192,550 6,000 45,947,820

-18,544,045 788,296 140,100 9,000 3,558,130 1,045,994.00 -5,336,210 -615 9,450 447,855 -11,613,000 -21,800 -824,627 11,890,197 -221,516 1,575,403.50 6,974,544 -132,420 -5,992,642 -12,900 19,778,330 565,918 -21,308,150 58,820,906 33,500 -3,407,481 677,991 7,294,364.50 79,240 13,680 -17,010 882,794 -2,930,782 990 59,910,848 458,660 -39,340

0.242 52.65 11.82 0.9 6 0.61 0.64 876 1,401 5.97 9.87 7.3 869.5 6.05 46.9 5.4 0.54 3.56 18.12 0.57 4.52 0.037 1.17 2.66 135 845 0.78 1.62 515 254 0.219 0.204

HOLDING FIRMS 0.244 2,760,000 53.95 1,278,260 11.94 12,011,600 0.9 62,000 6 92,800 0.62 2,494,000 0.64 277,000 876 208,970 1,401 5 6.2 1,019,200 9.87 4,429,200 7.4 11,100 869.5 94,390 6.1 15,300 46.9 1,856,500 5.4 8,000 0.58 103,000 3.59 11,795,000 18.2 1,759,900 0.57 1,731,000 4.56 34,091,000 0.038 9,900,000 1.21 189,000 2.66 181,000 136.5 398,470 845 396,160 0.78 2,000 1.62 23,000 517 440 255 1,460 0.221 540,000 0.217 840,000

679,070 69,534,867 142,982,282 55,800 556,800 1,546,220 179,710 185,013,110 7,005 6,164,563 44,244,789 81,090 85,020,940 93,125 89,800,370 43,740 58,700 42,499,160 32,149,218 994,580 156,798,550 370,700 225,220 484,050 54,350,657 340,332,190 1,560 37,510 226,980 371,270 119,920 178,440

-41,030,230 -89,882,770 -41,330,435 -988,316 -14,805,279 -19,359,690 61,000 -14,784,415 540 8,806,780 -12,664,776 1,060,010 5,380 -16,324,513 -50,775,715 -

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

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

59.15 90.6 2.91 129 1.5 33.8 16.5 14.68 3.49 8.65 845 0.55 74.95 1.11 12 20.8 48.5 200 106 29 198 88.7 1.18

59.15 90.65 2.91 129 1.52 33.85 16.6 14.78 3.55 8.65 845 0.55 74.95 1.11 12 20.8 48.5 204 106 29 199 88.85 1.18

59.15 87.5 2.91 124.2 1.5 33.4 16.5 14.46 3.47 8.65 845 0.53 73.2 1.04 12 20.8 48.15 191 106 28.45 195 87 1.18

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

36.75 14.98 0.6 1.21 24.95 0.228 100 3.04 16.02 49 22.7 61.5 59.05 1.88 8.09 10.18 16 10.9 7.17 5.2 1.62 14.2 61.7 21.9 7.6 15.34 2.3 275 5.25 3.2 27.25 11.5 21 344.8 0.178 7.3 2.18 8.86 6.2 7.79 1.23 11.8 52 5.97 4.55 2.63 1.91 12.2 60.5 5 0.129 0.92 118.4 2.72 2.59 20 1.3

36.8 15 0.6 1.22 24.95 0.231 100 3.05 16.5 49.85 23.05 61.5 59.05 1.9 8.43 10.2 16 11 7.25 5.29 1.62 14.38 62 21.9 7.65 15.4 2.32 277 5.3 3.3 27.25 11.5 21 344.8 0.178 7.5 2.27 8.86 7.05 7.79 1.24 12.3 52.05 6 4.56 2.7 1.91 12.3 63 5 0.129 0.94 119 2.72 2.64 20 1.52

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

0.255 57 12.2 0.9 6 0.61 0.64 903 1,401 5.97 10.2 7.3 939 6.08 50.8 5.48 0.57 3.56 18.64 0.57 4.72 0.039 1.17 2.75 135 894 0.78 1.63 515 254.4 0.22 0.224

0.26 57.35 12.2 0.9 6 0.63 0.66 913 1,401 6.3 10.28 7.4 939 6.1 51 5.5 0.58 3.63 18.64 0.59 4.72 0.039 1.22 2.75 137.8 894 0.78 1.64 517 255 0.231 0.225

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

7.38 1.01 13.44 1.97 0.77 38 3.21 4.56 5.6 0.44 1.01 0.94 0.203 0.41 24.5 0.61 0.124 1.57 1.18 1.33 4.45

7.38 1.02 14.42 2.01 0.78 38 3.21 4.71 5.84 0.44 1.01 0.94 0.21 0.41 25.3 0.62 0.13 1.57 1.23 1.36 4.5

7.16 1 13.44 1.97 0.76 36.3 3.11 4.56 5.6 0.425 0.99 0.94 0.202 0.405 23.5 0.61 0.116 1.47 1.18 1.25 4.35

VOLUME

NAME

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

VOLUME

VALUE

NET FOREIGN BUYING/(SELLING), PHP

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

0.57 0.435 0.475 3 19.16 2.05 3.17 34.2 1.08 7.83 0.78 6.49

0.6 0.44 0.48 3.01 19.22 2.05 3.25 34.2 1.09 8.1 0.78 6.51

0.56 0.43 0.475 2.83 18.18 2.01 3.17 33.25 1.08 7.02 0.77 6.38

0.56 0.43 0.48 2.9 18.18 2.01 3.25 33.25 1.09 7.24 0.77 6.42

61,465,000 1,160,000 380,000 2,670,000 1,397,400 613,000 64,000 10,822,800 500,000 1,910,400 149,000 1,352,400

35,266,390 503,800 181,950 7,776,140 26,097,304 1,242,740 204,070 365,545,265 540,940 14,183,245 114,740 8,690,685

298,820.00 -2,321,636 24,360.00 102,344,500 -49,050 785 73,150 -3,834,903

2GO GROUP ABS CBN ACESITE HOTEL APC GROUP APOLLO GLOBAL ASIAN TERMINALS BLOOMBERRY BOULEVARD HLDG CEBU AIR CHELSEA DFNN INC DISCOVERY WORLD EASYCALL FAR EASTERN U GLOBE TELECOM GMA NETWORK GOLDEN BRIA HARBOR STAR IMPERIAL INTL CONTAINER IPEOPLE IPM HLDG ISLAND INFO ISM COMM JACKSTONES LEISURE AND RES LORENZO SHIPPNG MACROASIA MANILA BULLETIN 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

15.1 25.6 1.31 0.46 0.043 12.8 10.1 0.055 79.15 7.24 6.9 2.15 18.8 900 1,600 5.4 301 3.27 2.25 82 13.16 8.2 0.142 2.55 4.77 4 1.05 24.2 0.43 4.15 5.63 2.65 3.04 2.98 8.4 11.68 8.82 3.4 115.5 5.17 1,189 0.89 0.34 48 83.3 8.5 1.95 1.13 0.405 4.97 0.78 11.6

15.2 25.6 1.38 0.465 0.043 12.8 10.18 0.056 79.2 7.34 7.29 2.29 20.5 900 1,600 5.45 308 3.37 2.25 82.75 13.16 8.2 0.142 3.45 5.08 4.04 1.05 24.7 0.45 4.15 5.63 2.73 3.13 3.01 9.25 11.68 8.82 3.48 120 5.32 1,198 0.91 0.36 48 83.35 8.5 1.96 1.15 0.43 4.97 0.78 11.76

14.8 25.15 1.3 0.445 0.043 12.8 9.7 0.055 76.5 7.05 6.9 2.15 18.8 900 1,528 5.36 300 3.22 2.22 79.9 13 8.2 0.13 2.26 4.57 4 1.02 24.05 0.43 3.85 5.21 2.64 2.58 2.8 8.25 11.1 8.6 3.25 115.5 5.11 1,151 0.87 0.34 47 77.2 8.18 1.88 1.12 0.4 4.86 0.75 11.48

SERVICES 15 25.15 1.38 0.445 0.043 12.8 9.81 0.055 76.5 7.2 7.1 2.24 19.1 900 1,530 5.39 300 3.27 2.22 80 13 8.2 0.133 2.62 5 4.01 1.02 24.3 0.44 4.1 5.28 2.67 2.66 2.81 8.93 11.1 8.6 3.46 120 5.28 1,175 0.88 0.35 47.2 79 8.45 1.88 1.14 0.42 4.86 0.77 11.74

22,100 76,300 56,000 860,000 11,100,000 1,800 4,707,400 3,920,000 575,720 1,735,500 14,600 10,000 206,000 3,000 55,385 105,800 3,940 671,000 10,000 860,280 20,100 5,000 59,390,000 104,498,000 965,000 266,000 585,000 1,110,900 70,000 40,000 4,897,600 327,000 2,946,000 30,000 8,542,200 103,800 4,900 1,038,000 900 804,400 116,810 2,335,000 570,000 441,600 511,660 139,900 5,409,000 1,924,000 9,960,000 1,863,000 1,602,000 8,106,600

331,178 1,921,610 73,410 388,700 477,300 23,040 46,670,835 216,030 44,265,289.50 12,597,654 103,019 21,780 4,009,434 2,700,000 85,692,845 572,180 1,187,440 2,224,170 22,430 69,235,331.50 261,316 41,000 8,083,540 299,139,000 4,741,040 1,067,770 597,000 27,010,270 30,500 162,230 26,760,986 874,000 8,241,350 88,550 76,900,734 1,154,918 42,512 3,572,150 107,955 4,216,459 137,879,475 2,062,550 200,500 20,980,930 41,238,795.50 1,167,973 10,500,880 2,183,500 4,114,250 9,187,960 1,222,950 94,880,770

23,040 -10,881,293 -9,604,035 -28,759,660 6,640 2,149,339.50 73,570 -673,870 15,960 24,026,265 15,079,232 -15,980 -15,050 -1,292,843 863 -526,010 62,355 46,573 31,054,225 -204,400 -6,003,765 1,068,787.50 84,348 4,625,600 -568,640.00 50 6,292,840 -60,000 -61,536,550

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

0.0026 1.49 4.13 23.65 1.68 0.295 7.6 2.26 0.192 0.133 0.0083 1.5 4.6 1.11 0.93 0.011 0.012 0.012 2.07 4.9 10.64 30 0.0061

0.0027 1.5 4.24 23.65 1.69 0.3 7.6 2.28 0.192 0.133 0.0083 1.57 4.82 1.11 0.96 0.012 0.012 0.012 2.08 4.9 11.5 30.05 0.0061

0.0026 1.45 4.13 20.8 1.66 0.295 7.1 2.18 0.187 0.132 0.0083 1.5 4.57 1.09 0.92 0.011 0.012 0.011 2.01 4.7 10.64 29.1 0.0061

MINING & OIL 0.0026 17,000,000 1.48 420,000 4.24 38,000 21.5 32,800 1.69 715,000 0.3 250,000 7.47 1,600 2.24 13,218,000 0.187 30,000 0.132 1,310,000 0.0083 1,000,000 1.56 378,000 4.68 3,493,000 1.09 2,000 0.95 1,636,000 0.012 23,900,000 0.012 1,400,000 0.011 39,800,000 2.08 200,000 4.7 508,000 11.1 1,846,000 30 1,403,900 0.0061 1,000,000

44,600 624,060 158,370 709,560 1,196,320 74,400 11,539 29,472,910 5,680 173,330 8,300 581,040 16,263,180 2,200 1,543,100 286,200 16,800 452,400 413,020 2,414,340 20,605,052 41,884,585 6,100

79,900 803,250 10,000,650.00 23,700 328,044 837,700 -

ABS HLDG PDR DD PREF FGEN PREF F GLO PREF P GMA HLDG PDR GTCAP PREF B HOUSE PREF A LR PREF SMC FB PREF 2 SMC PREF 2B SMC PREF 2C SMC PREF 2D SMC PREF 2F SMC PREF 2G SMC PREF 2H SMC PREF 2I

25 101.2 104.8 502 5.25 980 99.5 1.03 990 76 77 75.3 76.2 76.5 76 75.3

25 101.2 104.8 502 5.25 990 99.5 1.03 995 76 77 75.4 76.2 76.5 76.35 75.3

24.25 101 104.7 500 5.14 980 98.6 1.03 990 76 77 75.3 76 76 75 75.3

PREFERRED 24.25 95,400 101.2 8,580 104.8 130 500 18,330 5.25 1,200 990 27,050 99 14,100 1.03 100,000 995 1,000 76 50 77 11,220 75.4 6,900 76 25,300 76 420 75 84,170 75.3 6,700

2,350,200 866,828 13,621 9,169,260 6,284 26,514,500 1,394,354 103,000 992,530 3,800 863,940 519,830 1,924,846 31,930 6,322,265 504,510

-109,125 50,000 -1,559 -

LR WARRANT

2.29

2.29

2.22

WARRANTS 2.23 162,000

363,670

-

ITALPINAS XURPAS

5.05 3.2

5.2 3.26

5 3.12

5.03 3.15

2,152,617 3,617,210

-11,288 -

FIRST METRO ETF

107

108.2

105.1

7,149,155

157,335

MS

PROPERTY 7.29 1.01 14.42 2.01 0.78 36.3 3.11 4.7 5.84 0.425 0.99 0.94 0.209 0.405 24.6 0.61 0.122 1.47 1.2 1.25 4.41

198,100 3,169,000 1,600 86,000 773,000 19,976,400 1,661,000 615,000 8,600 7,480,000 10,000 22,000 2,300,000 470,000 1,351,700 285,000 2,540,000 18,341,000 319,000 14,846,000 16,757,000

1,436,872 3,180,440 21,602 169,460 594,230 741,679,680 5,291,430 2,872,620 48,184 3,187,850 9,920 20,680 474,270 192,150 33,188,320 173,860 317,780 27,609,820 379,560 19,269,100 74,098,790

612,686 -128,050 -190,635,240 -724,360 -2,240 8,700 -6,260,620 -20,049,700 -8,260 125,900 -6,142,990

TRADING SUMMARY

SHARES

FINANCIAL

11,155,699

INDUSTRIAL

79,484,861

HOLDING FIRMS

88,738,955

PROPERTY

180,630,519

SERVICES

244,053,664

MINING & OIL

109,876,769

GRAND TOTAL

715,573,497

SME

422,600 1,143,000

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 105.1 66,790

VALUE 1,769.56 (down) 5.93 914,606,419.15 FINANCIAL INDUSTRIAL 10,316.93 (up) 74.31 1,078,560,782.23 HOLDING FIRMS 6,821.70 (down) 166.68 1,292,033,446.68 PROPERTY 3,389.74 (down) 54.44 1,377.28 (up) 6.50 1,627,090,999.13 SERVICES MINING & OIL 9,747.40 (up) 97.85 1,073,512,510.445 PSEI 6,986.88 (down) 76.32 116,973,417.351 All Shares Index 4,311.41 (down) 35.65 6,115,698,558.39 Gainers: 80; Losers: 101 Unchanged: 59; Total: 240

BPI obtains investment grade rating from Moody’s

By Julito G. Rada GLOBAL debt watcher Moody’s Investors Service has assigned an investment grade of “Baa2” long-term foreign currency senior unsecured rating to the Bank of the Philippine Islands’ $2-billion medium term note program.

Moody’s said in a statement Monday the rating was in line with the bank’s “Baa2” foreign currency deposit rating.

Moody’s said the notes issued under the program constituted the issuer’s direct, unconditional, unsubordinated and unsecured obligations, and would rank pari-passu with the bank’s other senior unsecured obligations.

“The rating is underpinned by BPI’s baa2 baseline credit assessment and Moody’s expectation of a very high probability of support for the bank from the government of the Philippines (Baa2 stable) in times of need. The rating does not receive an uplift because the bank’s baa2 BCA is already at the same level as the sovereign rating,” it said.

Moody’s said the ratings did not apply to any individual notes issued under the program. Ratings on individual notes issued under the program will be subject to Moody’s satisfactory review of the terms and conditions set forth in the final base and supplementary offering circular, and the pricing supplements of the notes to be issued.

“BPI’s baa2 BCA takes into account the bank’s consistently robust capital and liquidity profiles, which reflect disciplined and prudent business growth,” Moody’said.

It said BPI’s MTN program rating of (P) Baa2 was at the same level as the sovereign rating of the Philippines. “It is unlikely for BPI to be rated above the sovereign, as we view the correlation of risk between the bank and the sovereign to be high.”

Moody’s said if the sovereign was upgraded, it cited some factors that could result in an upward revision of the bank’s BCA and ratings.

Oriental board OKs investment in energy firm

By Alena Mae S. Flores THE board of Oriental Peninsula Resources Group Inc. has approved a subscription to P300 million worth of common shares in Oriental Energy & Power Generation Corp.

Oriental Peninsula said in a disclosure the shares, to be taken from Oriental Energy’s increase in authorized capital stock, were valued at P100 apiece, “The subscription will result to a 30-percent ownership in Oriental Energy,” it said.

Oriental Energy is a renewable energy company majority-owned by Citimax Group Inc., an affiliate of Oriental Peninsula.

Citimax Group is majority-owned by businesswoman Caroline Tanchay, the corporation’s chairman and president and chief executive officer.

Oriental Energy willbown, operate and maintain an 18-megawatt hydropower plant in Timbaban, Madalag, Aklan, Philippines. It also has hydro power projects in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon and Odiongan, Romblon.

The board of Oriental Peninsula also approved a guaranty agreement for Oriental Energy’s loan from the Development Bank amounting to P2 billion to partly finance the hydro project.

Oriental Peninsula’s loan carries a fixed interest rate of 6.75 percent a year, or the applicable repriced interest rate over a period of 12 years.

“The borrower shall utilize the amount to partially finance the project cost and related expenses pertaining to the construction of its 18-megawatt hydropower plant in Timbaban, Madalag, Aklan,” Oriental Peninsula said.

Oriental Energy’s guaranty will stop upon delivery by the borrower proof of project takeover and a Department of Energy-certified copy of the certificate of endorsement of feed-in tariff eligibility. The Timbaban hydropower plant is scheduled to start operations before the feed-in-tariff expires at the end of 2019.

World

B3

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018 CESAR BARRIOQUINTO, Editor mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Australian feral cats kill a million reptiles a day

FOUR-DAY VISIT. France’s Prime Minister Edouard Philippe reviews a military honor guard with China’s Premier Li Keqiang during a welcoming ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 25, 2018. The French prime minister is on a four-day visit to China. AFP

SYDNEY―Feral cats kill more than one million reptiles every day in Australia, a new study showed Monday, with the staggering slaughter threatening many species.

Cats have wiped out entire populations of some animals in Australia since being introduced by Europeans settlers two centuries ago, with the efforts to cull or sterilize them so far failing to slow their march.

The new findings are based on more than 10,000 cat dietary samples contributed by environmental scientists across the country.

In total, around 650 million lizards and snakes fall victim to feral and pet cats annually, they found.

“On average each feral cat kills 225 reptiles per year,” said lead researcher John Woinarski, from Charles Darwin University, adding that feral cats consume more reptiles in Australia than in the United States or Europe.

“Some cats eat staggering numbers of reptiles. We found many examples of single cats bingeing on lizards, with a record of 40 individual lizards in a single cat stomach.”

The study, published in the journal Wildlife Research, showed cats were killing 250 different types of reptile―including great desert skinks, bearded dragons and geckos. Of these, 11 are threatened species.

Feral cats in Australia number in the millions, and are also considered the main culprit behind the country’s high rate of mammal extinction.

Research by the same team last year showed cats were killing more than one million birds in Australia each day, including threatened species like the spotted quail thrush, the squatter pigeon, and the night parrot. AFP

Erdogan celebrates election victory

I

STANBUL―President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday celebrated winning five more years in office with sweeping new powers after a decisive election victory, as Turkey’s opposition raised bitter questions over the conduct of the polls.

A night of triumph for Erdogan saw the man who has dominated Turkey for the last one-and-a-half-decades declared winner of Sunday’s presidential polls without needing a second round and lead his ruling party-led alliance to an overall majority in

parliament.

Erdogan, whose victory was wider than predicted by many analysts, immediately vowed to “rapidly” implement the new presidential system agreed in an April 2017 referendum that opponents fear will give him autocratic powers.

The president, 64, declared victory in Istanbul before returning to Ankara to deliver a triumphant speech at 3:00 am to tens of thousands of supporters from the balcony of the headquarters of his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“Turkey has given a lesson in democracy to the entire world,” he added, pointing to a turnout of 88 percent.

His main rival Muharrem Ince of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), who had challenged Erdogan with an energetic campaign and earlier accused the authori-

ties of “manipulation”, maintained an unusual silence after the results were announced but was due to make a statement later Monday.

His party bitterly complained over the publication of the election results, accusing the state-run news agency Anadolu of publishing results favorable to Erdogan early on to give the impression of an easy victory.

“Victory in the first round,” trumpeted the headline in the Hurriyet daily. But the pro-opposition BirGun took a different line: “An unfair election,” it said, adding that the way results had been delivered had given rise to “doubts”.

According to Anadolu’s results, Erdogan won 52.5 percent of the vote in the presidential polls, with Ince trailing on 30.7. Final results are due to be published

South Sudan foes in new peace talks KHARTOUM―South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and arch-foe Riek Machar were set to hold a new round of peace talks Monday after a first meeting last week faltered.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is hosting in Khartoum the second round of talks between the two bitter rivals, aimed at ending South Sudan’s four-and-a-half year brutal civil war.

A first round brokered by Ethiopian premier Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa on Thursday failed to achieve any breakthrough.

Regional East African leaders have launched new efforts to secure peace in South Sudan where warring factions face a looming deadline to avert UN sanctions.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and driven about four million others from their homes.

It erupted after Kiir fell out with his then deputy Machar in December 2013, dashing the optimism that accompanied independence of South Sudan just two years earlier from Sudan.

“In this round of talks we are looking for a breakthrough to this thorny issue,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dierdiry Ahmed told reporters on Sunday.

Kiir and Machar’s meeting in Addis Ababa was their first face-to-face encounter in nearly two years.

Their meeting in Khartoum will be the first since fighting erupted in South Sudan.

It comes after South Sudan’s government declared that it “had enough” of Machar, dashing hopes of any breakthrough at the Addis Ababa talks.

“As the people of South Sudan, not the president alone, but as the people of South Sudan, we are saying enough is enough,” South Sudanese government spokesman Michael Makuei said Friday.

Makuei rejected Machar’s presence in any transitional government but did not rule out the involvement of other rebel figures.

His remarks show the personal enmity between Kiir and Machar, that lies at the heart of the conflict, is as strong as ever.

Before the start of talks in Ethiopia, Machar’s SPLM-IO rebel group had also dismissed the latest peace efforts as “unrealistic”. AFP

by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) later this week but its chairman Sadi Guven declared Erdogan the winner.

If confirmed, the results will mean Erdogan, who still enjoys sky-high support in parts of the Anatolian heart of the country, even improved on his score from 2014 presidential elections of 51.8 percent.

The candidate of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtas came third on 8.4 percent, a position all the more remarkable given he has been jailed on charges of links to Kurdish militants since November 2016.

Nationalist politician Meral Aksener, tipped for a breakthrough after founding her new Iyi (Good) Party, suffered a disappointing night coming fourth on 7.3 percent. AFP

MUSIC FESTIVAL.

Imperatrice band’s singer Flore Benguigui performs during a concert at the Solidays music festival on June 24, 2018 at the hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris.

AFP

IN BRIEF Indian prodigy a chess champion at 12 NEW DELHI―A 12-year-old Indian boy described as “unstoppable” by his proud father has become the world’s second youngest chess grandmaster ever.

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the son of a bank employee from the southern city of Chennai, achieved the feat with some aggressive play at an event in northern Italy that ended Sunday.

Praggnanandhaa―whose 17-year-old big sister Vaishali Rameshbabu is also no slouch at the game, being a two-time youth chess champion―was aged 12 years, 10 months and 13 days when he won the title.

But this was too old to beat the current record-holder, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, who was 12 years and exactly seven months when he made the grade in 2002.

Praggnanandhaa’s father said that his son, who practises six hours a day and watches past matches online, was not even four when he first started taking an interest in chess.

However he said that the family could not afford to pay for extra travel and training for both the boy and his sister.

“But the passion in him to play chess was unstoppable, I had to give in and put him in coaching classes. And he has been unstoppable since,” the 53-year-old, who has the same name as his son, told Indian media.

“He was just six years old when he came second in the under-eight national championship. That is when I knew that I can’t hold him back because of our financial situation,” he told online paper The News Minute.AFP

Nearly 1,000 migrants rescued off Libya

N. Korea marks war anniversary without anti-US tirades SEOUL―Pyongyang marked the anniversary of the start of the Korean War Monday but its habitual denunciations of the US were conspicuously absent from state media in the wake of the Singapore summit.

The conflict began on June 25, 1950, when the North launched a massed invasion of the South, capturing Seoul three days later.

But Pyongyang has long accused the US of provoking the Korean War as part of a plan for global domination and blames it for the division of the peninsula, agreed between Moscow and Washington in the closing days of the Second World

War. The North’s tightly controlled official media are normally packed with antiAmerican invective on June 25, but 2018 proved to be a marked exception.

“Every year on this day, our army and people row the boat of memories, full of creed and determination to defend the nation,” a report carried by the state-run Rodong Sinmun read.

“What surprised the world even more was... our people’s solidarity to annihilate the enemy,” it added―without identifying the enemy by name in any of its coverage.

In stark contrast, all six pages of the newspaper last year were filled with col-

orful criticisms of the “US imperialists”, blaming Americans for “a holocaust in which they massacred countless Koreans in the most brutal and barbarous way”.

This year’s anniversary comes less than two weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump shook hands at a historic and unprecedented summit in Singapore.

More virulent forms of anti-US propaganda have been disappearing from the streets of Pyongyang, while images of missile launches and military formations on a prominent site outside the city train station have been replaced with visuals of industry and agriculture. AFP

TRIPOLI―Libya’s coastguard has rescued nearly 1,000 migrants who were on boats in distress in the Mediterranean on their way to Europe, the navy said on Monday.

Three separate operations took place on Sunday with the coastguard bringing ashore in Libya a total of 948 migrants, navy spokesman Ayoub Kacem said.

The migrants were on inflatable dinghies which were facing difficulties in the Mediterranean off the coast of Garabulli east of the capital Tripoli, navy officer Rami Ghommeidh said.

A first group of 97 migrants were rescued, while a second operation brought 361 migrants―including 88 women and 44 children-ashore and late in the evening a final group of 490 migrants were rescued, said Kacem.

In all, a total of 2,000 migrants trying to make the perilous journey to Europe, often on unseaworthy boats, were either intercepted or assisted by the Libyan navy since Wednesday.

Monday’s announcement by the navy came as Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was en route to Libya for talks on the migrant crisis.

Salvini, who has vowed a hard-line stance on migrants, posted a selfie on Twitter showing him on board a military plane heading for Libya and wrote: “Mission Libya, we’ve left!”. AFP

Australia failing to protect Great Barrier Reef, say activists SYDNEY―Australia is breaching commitments to protect the embattled Great Barrier Reef from the effects of land clearing, environmental groups claimed Monday and called on the UN to probe the alleged failures.

Canberra has pledged to step up efforts to protect the reef as it reels from mass coral bleaching and coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, which have proliferated due to pollution and agricultural runoff.

But the groups said the federal gov-

ernment had failed to stop a key threat to the World Heritage-list area―the impending bulldozing of large swathes of land in reef catchments.

Experts have warned that deforestation increases runoff into the reef, reducing water quality and the light needed for coral growth, while fueling outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish.

In a letter to the United Nations, the Wilderness Society, WWF-Australia, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Marine Conservation So-

ciety called for an urgent investigation as the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s annual meeting starts in Bahrain.

“Allowing this clearing to go ahead is not consistent with the promises the Australian government has made to the international community to protect and restore the Great Barrier Reef,” Australian Conservation Foundation chief Kelly O’Shanassy said in a statement.

The conservationists said some 36,600 hectares of old-growth forest―about half the size of Bahrain―

was earmarked to be cut down in reef catchments under permits issued by the former Queensland state government, but that Canberra had the power to stop them from going ahead.

Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg refuted the allegations and said the responsibility for planning and approval of land clearing lay with states.

He added that Canberra had won “significant praise” from the UN for a Aus$2.0 billion (US$1.5 billion) “Reef 2050” plan to protect the reef. AFP

SIDES OF DRUG WAR.

Senate President Tito Sotto III and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Aaron N. Aquino escort policemen carrying a wreath to pay tribute to the agency’s fallen personnel on PDEA’s 16th anniversary rites Thursday in Quezon City.

Meanwhile, police bring in Jolan Hicana Sanchez (inset, in yellow jersey), a top 10 illegal drugs suspect in Biñan, Laguna, to their station on Monday, following his arrest in a buy-bust operation supervised by city Chief of Police Supt. Reynaldo Maclang (standing, left).

Manny Palmero and Roy Tomandao

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

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Aguilar cites Las Piñas City manpower and training center MAyoR Imelda Aguilar on Monday said the Las Piñas City Manpower and Training Center continues to offer free short courses to out of school youth and unemployed adults to provide city residents better job opportunities.

For the second quarter this year, some 482 city residents will graduate from various vocational and technical courses from the Center.

Aguilar said the free training on various courses from April to June is aimed at helping city residents find gainful employment or start their own home-based or backyard business to augment their family’s meager income.

The Manpower Training Center offers english proficiency, automotive servicing, commercial cooking, consumer electronics, food and beverages services, hairdressing, massage therapy, personal computer operations, refrigeration and aircon servicing, shielded metal arc welding, industrial electricity, cellphone repair, housekeeping, travel services and motorcycle/small engine servicing. every year, around 5,000 out-ofschool youths and unemployed adults benefit from the free training. The training center is also awarded by the Technical education and Skills Development Authority or TeSDA as one of the Most outstanding Skills Training Centers in the country.

Aguilar said graduates in the center could apply for work abroad citing bigger demand for skilled workers in other countries.

Isabela fishing town celebrates ‘Ikan’ Festival

By Abe Almirol DIVILACAN, Isabela—This promising town with pristine white beaches fronting Luzon’s Pacific coast celebrated its 49th founding anniversary on Wednesday, and the 2018 “Ikan” Festival on Thursday.

“Ikan” is the Ilocano word for fish, and the festival celebrates the town’s abundant and diverse fish catch.

Divilacan became a municipality by virtue of Republic Act 5776, which ceded the northeastern coastline from the mother town of Tumauini, Isabela.

“A decade ago, fish catch was very much abundant. Now that modern fishing techniques using trawlers and aggregate ‘payaw’ fish shelters, foreign fishermen could catch as much as 4 to 5 tons per harvest, but it has resulted in the decline of catch for fishermen using traditional methods,” explained Divilacan Mayor Venturito C. Bulan.

By creating artificial shelters suspended underwater using a line connected to a floating buoy and at least three sinkers, smaller fish species that gather around the shelter will lure bigger fish to come near. During harvest, a large net would then encircle the ‘payaw’, catching everything around the shelter.

A ‘payaw’ would cost around P70,000 to install. Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources officials have started training locals to use this catching technology.

NAVOTAS PHOTO TILT.

Navotas City Mayor John Rey Tiangco is flanked by winners of the first Navoteño Photo Competition and Exhibition themed “#NavoTaAsNooBabae: Karapatan ng mga Kababaihan, Ipaglaban.” Among the winners are Rasalhaque V. Caseñas, for his entry, “Hangganan”; Philip Arriega for “Galing ng Babaeng Navoteño”; and Erika Faminial for “Bakal-Bote”. They received P10,000, P7,000 and P5,000 in cash prizes, respectively. Online winner Lucy dela Cruz won People’s Choice Award through online voting and received P5,000 cash prize. The city also gave P2,000 consolation prizes to 13 finalists and plaques of participation to all winners. Tiangco said the competition forms part of their 11th cityhood anniversary and to promote the protection of their rights and welfare.

Jun David

LGUs LocaL government units

QC lists food allowed in or near city schools

By Rio N. Araja

T

he Quezon City government on Monday released a list of allowed and prohibited food to be sold in public and private schools in accordance with City ordinance 2579 of 2017, or the Quezon City Anti-Junk Food and Sugary Drinks ordinance.

Dr. Verdades Linga, city health officer, said studies showed junk food and sugary drinks cause non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension.

“The number of those with diabetes and hypertension is increasing at a very young age,” she said.

The ordinance states that canteens in public and private elementary and high schools, preparatory schools, and stores within 100 meters from school premises should only sell nutritious food that are included in the list.

Processed foods, such as hotdog and meat loaf, are not allowed to be used as ingredients in student meals. Condiments such as soy sauce and fish sauce should not be made available on dining tables.

Food with too much oil is also prohibited, Linga said.

The compliance of school canteens shall be monitored daily by a focal person appointed by the school principal.

The daily menu should always be posted in front of the canteen.

“We cannot sell sugary drinks and

junk food to those in uniform or not in uniform,” Linga said.

Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte on Monday lauded President Rodrigo Duterte for signing the Philippine Mental health Law aimed at improving the government mental healthcare system.

The approval of Republic Act 11036 authored by Senator Risa hontiveros would address the needs of the growing number of Filipinos suffering from various types of mental sickness, especially depression, she said.

“Just last week, I wrote about the need for us to address the growing issue of depression and suicide after the self-inflicted deaths of some celebrities, and just this week, someone closer to home. Then comes this. Thank you so much to our senators and our President,” Belmonte said.

This installation art for the Ikan Festival celebrates Divilacan’s abundant fish catch as the town celebrated its 49th founding anniversary.

Abe Almirol

Volunteer spirit high among SM Group workers The volunteerism spirit is very high among the diversified SM Group of Companies be it for church-based activities, Brigada eskwela for school repairs, disaster relief and response and livelihood programs.

The volunteers do not use up company time and must do their volunteer work against their official leaves so as not to disrupt operations of their respective offices. Some, if not all, donate their own resources during visits to the poor and sick, the elderly, the orphans, cancer-stricken children and other worthy causes.

Vital to the volunteer program are the human resource officials and religious heads groups (for the religious activities) who trickle down the scheduled operation or activity to the personnel who would like to volunteer their time and resources to such a planned activity.

During volunteer work, everyone—the lowliest employee to the top manager (of up to the vice president level) is made to wear the same T-shirt or uniform and share the same packed meals (snacks, lunch and breakfast).

The natural result of such togetherness during a volunteer work is that the lowliest employee, who usually does not get a chance to talk to the “big bosses,” establishes a rapport with their peer group or manager.

This rapport is carried on even in the offices long after the activity is over, said Juris Umali, in charge of SM Foundation Inc. school building and repairs program and is on top of the collaboration of SM Group’s involvement in the annual Brigada eskwela program of the Department of education.

Research on butterflies in Manila gardens a bellwether of city’s future

By Evalea Casaljay “A BUTTeRFLy flaps its wings in the Amazon, and subsequently a storm ravages half of europe,” is the best way to explain the “butterfly effect”—that small actions could lead to a big impact in the future.

Local butterflies can have the same effect even in the middle of Manila,

which remains one of the most polluted cities in the world, ranking 13th in the recent Numbeo pollution index rating.

The city-run Universidad de Manila and the Commission on higher education are out to prove that thesis with the winged wonders fluttering about the green spaces of the nation’s capital.

“Manila is not the dirtiest,” said Dr. Alma Nacua, a butterfly expert and pro-

ject leader on Manila City Butterfly Diversity and Urban ecosystem Conservation, in a press briefing on Saturday.

Nacua’s research team, with CheD’s help, has been studying butterfly diversity in Manila and how these insects affect the urban setting, a first of its research genre.

“Who knew creatures as small as the butterfly can greatly affect our environ-

ment, and possibly solve environmental issues?” she said.

According to the yearlong data they gathered, Nacua’s team says butterflies are “good indicator of environmental changes.” If butterflies continue to thrive in a place, it means it is still healthy, and their ongoing research can pave the way for how Manila could solve its polluted air.

NV Masons give gifts to 160 kids

By Ben Moses Ebreo BAyoMBoNG, Nueva Vizcaya— Members of the Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines-Magat Lodge and order of the Amaranth-Sierra Madre Court No. 43 on Friday gave free school supplies to at least 160 schoolers in Barangay Masoc this town.

Giovanie Magat, worshipful master of Magat Lodge No. 68 said the activity is part of their yearly outreach program for the Dr. Candido Rosario elementary School which was adopted by the fraternal organization a few years back.

“We are continuously giving the school their needs in terms of facilities,

learning materials and others to help the schoolers and teachers in attaining quality ducation,” he said.

Magat said a feeding program was also conducted to raise the nutritional status of the schoolchildren.

The order of the Amaranth Sierra Madre Court also spearheaded a blood sugar, blood pressure check-up along with the distribution of free eyeglasses to the parents of the schoolers.

A LeD Monitor was also given to the school to improve the learning and teaching environment among classes.

Magat said they will also construct a catwalk within the school compound for the benefit of the schoolers and teachers.

‘‘

Life

“Mental illness does not discriminate; it is complicated and difficult to diagnose, and can often be lifethreatening.”

@manilastandardlife

health and environment

@MstandardLIFe tuesday, june 26, 2018

C1

Kate Spade New York extends support to suicide prevention

—anna Bakst, Kate spade new York brand president and chief executive

Suicide due to mental health happens in all parts of the globe. In 2012 in the Philippines, for instance, 2,558 cases of suicide were due to mental health, according to a 2014 report of the World Health Organization.

a

MerIcan designer brand Kate spade new York has recently announced its plan to donate us$1 million in support of suicide prevention and mental health awareness, in tribute to the brand’s founder and namesake, Kate spade.

spade, the fashion designer who created the iconic handbags brand, died in an apparent suicide on June 5. she he had reportedly been suffering from depres-sion and anxiety for years.

“Kate spade pade was a true fashion icon who brought joy to the lives of women around the world, and inspired women to live life to the fullest. We are dedicated to carrying on her legacy,” said anna Bakst, brand president and chief executive of Kate spade new York.

Kate spade new York Foundation is donating us$1 million to suicide pre-

Bernadette Lunas, Issue Editor manilastandardlife@gmail.com

5 myths about insurance Insurance can be a confusing or intimidating subject because of the technical terms and many misconcep misconceptions about it. aXa Philippines, one of the country’s leading insurance provid providers, dispels some of the popular myths about insurance by giving basic facts to help everyone make an informed de decision.

Myth No. 1: Insurance is expensive.

The Philippine Mental Health Law (RA 11036) aims to provide better access to mental health services.

vention and mental health awareness causes, starting with us$250,000 to the crisis Text Line. In addition, the brand will match public donations made to the

Kate Spade New York will donate US$1 million to suicide prevention and mental health awareness causes, in tribute to the brand’s founder and namesake, Kate Spade.

crisis Text Line starting on June 20 to 29, up to the amount of us$100,000. Donations can be made through crisistextline.org/katespadeny.

Turn to C2

Fact: Insurance products are designed for different needs and therethere fore vary in costs depending on the coverage. using online calculators and speaking with a financial advisor can help you figure out the right plan for your needs and budget.

Myth No. 2: Young people do not need insurance.

Fact: Getting insurance while you are young is ideal since premiums will be much cheaper. You are also usually Getting insurance while you’re still young is less prone to develop medical condi- ideal since premiums will be much cheaper. tions that can drive up premiums. Policies will be more expensive the older Your employer might get you a life insurance equal to one to two times of you get and the longer you wait. your annual salary, but you could lose it if you leave your job. Having your Myth No. 3: Poor health own personal insurance policy can help makes you unqualified for ensure that you and your family will be coverage.

Fact: some insurance companies sufficiently provided for financially. like aXa can cover a range of health conditions that may be excluded in oth- Myth No. 5: It’s better to save my money in the bank than er health plans. Its health coverage can to buy an insurance policy. include minor illnesses as well as critiFact: You can always do both. With cal conditions like heart attack, stroke, insurance products, you can ensure and cancer. that your loved ones will be protected in case something happens to you.

Myth No. 4: The group life insurance or HMO coverage some life insurance products, like provided by your employer is aXa’s Myambition, even allow you to enough. invest your one-time payment so your Fact: While company insurance can money can grow. Best of all, it’s availbe a great help, it might not be enough able online. Go to www.axa.com.ph for to cover your family in the long run. more information.

‘Dead Whale’ art installation wins in Cannes Lions 2018 THe huge dead whale art installation unveiled last year on the beach of naic, cavite bagged two top awards in the 2018 cannes Lions International Festival of creativity in France.

Presented by Greenpeace Philippines and its creative partner Dentsu Jayme syfu, the 73 feet by 10 feet dead whale captured global attention within hours of its launch. The dead whale’s entire body was made of used plastic wastes. The slimy innards sprawling out of its underbelly was a mix of plastic bags, remains of plastic containers, sachets, bottles, and more.

“The plastic pollution issue has gotten out of hand, and the dead whale clearly illustrated the crisis we have put our planet and our people in,” said Vince cinches, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace Philippines.

Biboy royong, Dentsu Jayme syfu creative director and the creator of the dead whale, said the recent recognition helps spread the message to more people.

“Plastic pollution is one of the most obvious problems that we see but most of us don’t even bother to do something about it. I can say that this time, using art to send a real statement really worked,” said royong.

The cannes Lions International Festival of creativity is considered as the largest gathering of professionals from the advertising and creative communications industry.

Greenpeace Philippines and Dentsu Jayme Syfu’s dead whale art installation, made of used plastic wastes, displayed on a beach in Cavite bagged two top awards in the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Life

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How to prevent

high blood pressure H

Adhering to environment protection advocacy

iGH blood pressure or hypertension is referred to as “silent killer,” and for a reason. it often has no symptom but poses a great risk of developing serious health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease.

While you can’t have a perfect control over whether you get high blood pressure or not, following a healthy lifestyle habit plays an important role in preventing and reducing its risks to oneself.

Santé international, a global player in the manufacturing and distribution of premier organic health and wellness products and services, listed five ways that you can do to prevent high blood pressure.

Over 100 volunteers collected and properly disposed of over 300 kilograms of trash from a beach in Iloilo.

Pioneer Adhesives Foundation, inc. recently conducted a beach cleanup activity at Villa Beach in Arevalo, iloilo City in fulfillment of its advocacy of education, disaster relief, and environmental protection. over 100 volunteers participated in the event which collected and properly disposed of over 300 kilograms of trash from the beach.

“The Philippines is home to the most abundant and diverse marine ecosystems on the planet and it is terribly under threat due to several factors, one of which being that we are the third largest contributor of ocean

Reduce sodium intake

Cutting down on sodium can help lower your blood pressure in weeks. in fact, reducing your sodium intake to as little as 6g per day can improve your heart health and reduce the risk of high blood pressure.

To reduce sodium in your diet, make it a habit to read food labels and avoid eating processed foods. instead, opt for lowsodium alternatives of the foods and beverages you usually buy. if you ever find yourself having a hard time drastically reducing salt from your diet, try doing it gradually—this will allow your palate to adjust over time.

trash in the world,” lamented Pioneer Adhesives Foundation executive director Martina Spakowski.

She continued, “This threat can be eliminated and we believe that by involving individuals in activities like this they will begin to realize the environmental impacts of our daily habits and this hopefully leads to smarter purchase decisions to reduce our trash output.”

The beach cleanup, with a theme “Beat Plastic Pollution,” represented both a drive for awareness and a concrete action to help protect our environment.

Exercise regularly

regular physical activity is an excellent way to deal with high blood pressure. it makes your heart stronger. A strong heart can pump more blood with less effort, decreasing the force exerted by the arteries. This can result in a lower blood pressure. regular exercise also helps you maintain a healthy weight—another important way to control blood pressure.

Consider doing a physical activity such as swimming, running, biking, or even walking, and see your efforts pay off in no time.

Follow the DASH diet

The “Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension” or better known as DASH, is a diet specifically designed to lower blood pressure. This diet encourages you to reduce sodium in your diet and eat a variety of foods such as fruits and vegetables, nuts, low-fat and non-fat dairy, lean meats, fish, and poultry, whole grains, and heart-healthy fats.

DASH, when accompanied by exercise, may also help with weight loss, lower cholesterol, and manage or prevent diabetes. Similarly, people with cholesterol problem can benefit from this diet.

Pioneer Adhesives Foundation enlists the support of volunteers in its beach cleanup activity.

HMO firm opens new in-patient facility Eat superfoods

Limit alcohol consumption

A study conducted by Dr. Michael roerecke Ph.D., et. al, found that reducing alcohol intake lowers blood pressure in a dose-dependent manner. it also suggests that effective alcohol interventions in people who consume more than two drinks per day would reduce the disease burden from both alcohol consumption and hypertension.

Drinking more than the moderate amount of alcohol can result in a rise in blood pressure and reduce the effectiveness of blood pressure medications. Consider lowering the alcohol consumption to two glasses per day for men and one glass per day for women.

Kate Spade...

From C1

in addition, Kate Spade new York will host a Global Mental Health Awareness Day for its employees in corporate and regional offices, as the first installment of a Wellness Program that the company is rolling out in the coming months. The brand’s objective is to generate greater awareness of mental health, call attention to common risks and warning signs, and encourage effective interventions and treatments for those in need.

one of the most important elements to lower your blood pressure is to eat superfoods that are known to have a positive impact on health.

Considered to have the most balanced nutrient profile of all the green plants, barley grass is a “superfood” that contains vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, which help boost the immune system and improve cardiovascular health.

Fortunately, one can get all of its benefits by drinking Santé Barley, a pure organic young barley grass powdered drink. it is rich in chlorophyll, a green pigment found in plants that absorbs energy from light through photosynthesis. it helps eliminate excess cholesterol, triglycerides, and other lipids (fats) in your body.

Santé Barley also contains arginine, which makes the blood vein more elastic. This component helps clean the plaques or fats in blood vessels. Thus, blood circulation becomes better and will result in normalized blood pressure.

HeAlTH maintenance organization Maxicare opens its newest in-patient facility on the 8th floor of ManilaMed in Manila.

The new Maxicare Wing has a total of 20 spacious rooms and has a dedicated Maxicare liaison officer assigned to assist an admitted member for any concerns or queries during the course of their confinement. All rooms are equipped with Wi-Fi connection and access to netflix.

With the Maxicare Wing, a member who is bound for an elective in-patient care is assured of fast and seamless admission and discharge process, a comfortable room, and easy access to ManilaMed’s medical experts and facilities.

other Maxicare Wings are located on the 8th Floor Tower 1 of Makati Medical Center in Makati City, 12 th Floor Medical Arts Tower of The Medical City in ortigas, 8th Floor of Victor r. Potenciano Medical Center in Mandaluyong City, and 7th Floor of Metro Davao Medical & research Center.

With convenience as one of its major thrust, Maxicare continuously exerts efforts and expands horizons to provide its members more efficient and seamless way to access their benefits.

The new Maxicare Wing is on the 8th Floor of ManilaMed, 850 UN Avenue, Ermita, City of Manila.

in trying to prevent hypertension, it always pays to take a look at your lifestyle then make the necessary changes if needed. Conquer small goals by practicing good habits until they naturally become a part of your daily routine.

“Mental illness does not discriminate; it is complicated and difficult to diagnose, and can often be life-threatening.

We hope that our support will shed even more light on the disease and encourage those who suffer from mental health issues to seek help. Collectively, we must all do more,” said Bakst.

According to the national Alliance on Mental Health, in the United States, one in five adults experiences a mental illness, and suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the country. in addition, nearly 60 percent of adults with a mental health illness did not receive mental health services in the previous year.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, there was an approximate 2,558 cases of suicide due to mental health recorded in 2012, according to a 2014 report of the World Health organization. on June 21, the country took a huge step in providing mental health care as President rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippine Mental Health law (rA 11036), which aims to provide better access to mental health services, integrate mental health programs in hospitals, improve mental health facilities, and promote mental health education in schools and workplaces.

The Maxicare Wing at ManilaMed has 20 spacious rooms.

Entertainment

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018

C3

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Two kings team up in MMFF entry COCO Martin couldn’t hide his excitement with his upcoming project with Vic Sotto, which is intended for this year’s edition of the Metro Manila Film Festival.

According to the Ang Probinsyano star, they have already talked about the teamup and it went fine.

“I’m very vocal in saying that doing a movie opposite Bossing is part of my bucket list. Now, it’s a dream-come-true

other.”

There are those who question his choice for said recognition.

“It’s their opinion but for me, Vice is truly deserving of such accolade. It’s a fitting reward for all the exemplary efforts he exerted to get to where he is now. As I’ve said, I’m happy for him now that many appreciate his contribution to the field,” ends Coco. *** Dingdong Dantes is so elated with the box-office triumph of his latest movie opposite Anne Curtis titled Sid and Aya, which has reportedly reached the P160 million mark as of now.

“I’m thankful to the public for patronizing the movie,” he states. “It’s just overwhelming! Looking back, we had apprehensions in doing it. For one, it wasn’t the usual formula. The storytelling is different.

“Evidently, the risk was there. The good thing is it paid off. It’s like you gambled on something and you

'Best Begins Now' event host Sam YG with panelists Pia Wurtzbach, Michelle Gumabao, Francis Libiran and Jonas Gaffud.

‘BEST BEGINS NOW’ campaign launched

By Michie Galanida

“E

and I’m very happy,” says Coco.

The award-winning actor admits to being a fan of the senior comedian ever since.

“Oh yes! Even in my younger days, I’ve been watching his films along with Sen. Tito Sotto and Joey de Leon. TVJ are my idols. They’re tops when it comes to comedy. So it’s a huge honor and privilege to work with Bossing in a silver screen project. I’m really excited,” the actor shares his excitement.

With this development, it’s inevitable that he and close friend Vice Ganda will be in a collision course once again at the 2018 MMFF box-office just like what happened last year when his entry Ang Panday was pitted against Vice’s Gandarrapido:The Revenger Squad.

“To be honest, it’s no issue for me and Vice. We share the same viewpoint: it’s just work. We’re here to entertain our supporters. Actually, all entries in the annual film festival should not fight but help one another instead. For one, it’s good for the industry especially at Christmas time.”

Speaking of Vice, Coco extends his warm congratulations to his friend for bagging the Dolphy Comedy King award in the recent FAMAS rites.

“I’m happy for him. He really worked hard to get to his present stature. I witnessed all his hard work and dedication to his craft. Even during those times when we weren’t in showbiz yet, we already knew each

Dingdong Dantes glad that his movie 'Sid & Aya' did well and that he's back on TV with a docu called 'Amazing Earth.'

hit the jackpot. It wasn’t easy to offer it to the movie-going public who are used to formula films. We’re simply thankful that they still liked our offering’s newness in concept.”

Talks are rife that Star Cinema is cooking up a project he and Vice Ganda will star in, probably a potential entry to the 2018 Metro Manila Film Festival.

“Is that so? I don’t have any idea about it. I wasn’t told yet. But it will be very interesting if ever.”

Meanwhile, he has a new show over at mother network GMA titled Amazing Earth.

“It’s an informative show actually. I’m deeply honored that the management gave it to me because it’s about the beauty of our environment. But apart from this, I will have a new soap opera by August but its details I can’t divulge now,” says Dong.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Tuesday, June 26, 2018

ACROSS 1 Like some candy 5 Mutt 10 Applaud 14 Fat cat’s victim 15 Galahad’s weapon 16 Toe-stubber’s cry 17 Polite bark 18 Moved to and fro 20 Kashmir cash 22 Coercion 23 Trophy winners 25 Airport dangers 26 Theatrical group 27 — Claire, Wisconsin 28 Vivacity 32 Cards held 33 Boat crane 35 Defense gp.

36 Paris season 37 “The,” to Wolfgang 38 Antenna type 39 Teacher’s challenge 41 Less common 43 Caller’s code 44 Contrived 45 Fitting 46 Imperative 48 Gasp 50 Traffic tie-ups

51 Cellar access 54 Ballroom number 55 Cooked with tomatoes and mushrooms 57 Cato’s bear 61 Gluck of opera 62 Kitchen tool 63 Roulette color 64 Movie spool 65 Dingbats 66 Data storage device DOWN 1 “And —!”

2 Uproar 3 Guanabara Bay port 4 Swindle 5 Fell softly 6 Rest spots 7 Single time 8 201, to Ovid 9 Wouldn’t sign (2 wds.)

10 Make rough 11 Troubadour prop 12 Crack pilots 13 Most profs 19 Wheel nut 21 Strike caller 23 Volcano’s mouth 24 Straightforward

25 Laissez- — 26 Frat letter 27 Turn inside out 29 Tree with shiny leaves 30 Parthenon site 31 Very lean (2 wds.)

34 Get accustomed 40 Ordinary 41 Rifle through 42 Sled pieces 43 Stuck on a sandbar 47 Dust cloth

49 Magnate — Onassis 50 Mr. Spock’s father 51 Al Capone feature 52 Yarn 53 Summit 54 Bullring bull 56 In addition 58 Pierre’s monarch 59 Family mem.

60 Hot Springs st.

VERYONE has their own best versions of themselves, and it all starts with a best beginning, which is best when it begins now.”

This was the dominant mantra at the Glorietta Activity Center on Friday when #BestBeginsNow, a campaign that inspires people to start living the best version of themselves, was launched.

“Becoming your best starts with small steps. We understand it takes hard work and commitment to get there so we want to help inspire people,” said Aquafina Brand Manager Melai Lazaro-Javier.

Aquafina’s Philippine ambassadors teamed up to inspire to start everyone’s best beginnings in the maze-like structure activity area divided into three sections: Beauty, Content Creation, and Hosting.

Beauty Like a Queen section was led by Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach and Miss Globe-Philippines 2018 Michelle Gumabao who talked about the beauty of transitions and being stubborn with your dreams.

“There were moments you even think, am I doing the right thing? Is this for me, why do am I keep getting rejected? Why do I keep losing, why do I keep going through these struggles? It will all pay up in the end. I was really sure what I wanted to do, I was really sure that I wanted to be Miss Universe, I was really firm about it. I’m just glad that I did not give up on that dream. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here right now,” Wurtzbach shared.

Celebrity designer Francis Libiran together with Jonas Gaffud and Albert Kurniawan encouraged everyone to feel more confident and proud in one’s skin, and to be able to choose your own aesthetics that fits you best.

“Try to focus on your own aesthetics, which is very important. You need to know yourself and ask who you are as a designer. And it is making that decision, to be the best in your own field, it starts from there. Know your own aesthetics because you don’t want to be labeled, by copying. There is a fulfillment with your own aesthetics as a designer because you’ll stick with it,” advised by Libiran to upcoming designers and for those who are struggling in the field.

Make it a Trend section focused on content creation which social media maven award-winning entrepreneur Martine Cajucom pledged to motivate everyone to “create content online that is relevant and authentic to one self,” and spoke about personal branding and how one could use it to their own benefit.

Moreover, people liked to post food online and that’s what Hey Handsome chef Nicco Santos and food stylist Chichi Tullao taught how to make the simplest dishes picturesque with proper props and food styling for it tells one’s story.

Lastly, Magic 89.9 hosts Sam YG and Suzy Gamboa owned the stage in the Host Like a Pro section as they both brought up tips in being a radio DJ or hosts such as how to maintain composure during live shows and keeping the conversation fluid to avoid dead air.

Furthermore, the Magic 89.9 Junior Jocks headed their audition booth for five lucky aspiring radio DJs and hosts for a fun experience and mentorship on how to be a DJ for a day.

Japanese manga on morning TV

A scene from the live action drama, ‘Moribito Final.’

ON ITS third chapter, Moribito Final follows the adventures of spear-wielder Balsa and Prince of Yogo Chagum, who plan to defeat the tyrant Prince of Talsh, Rawul. Together, they embark on a mission to protect their country, and put a stop to the war that Rawul started.

With the four kingdoms Yogo, Balsa, Rota and Talsh in an impending war, Balsa must find the key to successfully help Prince Chagum succeed in his mission.

Meanwhile, Balsa discovers a secret conspiracy in her hometown, Kanbal. She faces the power-hungry King Rogsam and her spearwielding skills are put to a test. Prince Chagum, on the other hand, finds allies in Kanbal, as well as in Rota and with their help, the Yogo prince might just be powerful enough to defeat their enemies.

Will Balsa be successful in helping Prince Chagum defeat the Talsh Empire? Follow their adventures at 8:50 a.m. on GMA-7.

Entertainment

Nickie Wang, Issue Editor nickie.standard@gmail.com

C4

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018

By Dence Benedito

W

ITH a common advocacy aimed at inspiring students to finish school, actress and cosplayer Myrtle Sarrosa is grateful to have her contract renewed by Megasoft Hygienic Products, Inc.

Megasoft, the mother company of Sisters Sanitary Napkins and Pantyliners, launched a campaign in 2016 called “School is Cool,” which has given recognition to outstanding teachers of more than 50 high schools nationwide, and will be having another tour this year that will now include state universities and colleges.

Aileen Choi-Go, Megasoft Vice President for sales and marketing, couldn’t be any happier with this development.

“This is a new one for us. We are glad that schools and colleges recognize our efforts,” says Choi-Go. They have been also receiving invitations from state universities and colleges to experience their fun-filled educational event.

“So, this year, we will not only be entertaining high schoolers but also the college students,” she adds.

Myrtle, on her three consecutive years of representing the brand, she has already visited 30 high schools in total and is eager to continue sharing the vision and passion for education because she knows how difficult but exciting [it] is for a student to transition from high school to college.

Myrtle also shares the fact that there will be new changes being away from high school.

“New environment, new experiences, new adjustments. Being away from high school friends, but finding new college barkadas, new sisters,” she said, to which Choi-Go agreed to.

Myrtle headlined the 2018 Megasoft “School is Cool” tour in Quezon on June 13 at the Atimonan National Comprehensive High School and Gumaca National High School.

According to the two, the tour has made Choi-Go and the celebrity ambassador become closer through the years, much like sisters.

“Big sis is a great influence in my life,” Myrtle reveals referring to the relationship she has forged with the Megasoft executive.

“She has given me advice from the must watch online series to travel tips and business ventures. She even let me join her business conferences,” says Myrtle.

According to Choi-Go, she has been supporting Myrtle when she was still studying while balancing showbiz.

From graduating in college to landing different endorsements and other achievements, and now has expressed interest in business, ChoiGo said she had seen the hard work of Myrtle and she is happy it is paying off.

Meanwhile, Myrtle will soon be seen as a superhero in the upcoming fantasy comedy film entitled, Wander Bra under Blue Rock Productions with Zeus Collins and Cacai Bautista. She is also set to sign a movie contract with Regal Films.

Additionally, she will be starring in

MYRTLE SARROSA pursues her advocacy

A must-see channel for pre-schoolers PARENTS will be delighted to know that Nick Jr. on SKYdirect features an array of fun and learning shows perfect for their little pre-schoolers via SKYdirect Select at P50/month. SKYdirect prepaid and postpaid subscribers nationwide can now choose individual channels to add to their basic plan using SKYdirect Select.

Here’s a rundown of shows where the little tots can pick up a skill or two.

Rusty Rivets This program teaches kids to be independent with the use of their imagination and resourcefulness.

It features Rusty and best friend Ruby finding ways to make spare parts of different objects lying around to be useful. Catch Rusty Rivets on weekdays at 11:00 a.m..

ROLE MODEL. A photo of Myrtle when she graduated cum laude last year. She

received her bachelor's degree in broadcast communications from the University of the Philippines Diliman after nine years of shifting courses and juggling her time between school and work.

the series, Bachelorette on Cignal TV with Edgar Allan Guzman and will be seen reporting sports highlights in first five for TFC’s sports and action.

Scheduled various TV-guestings of Myrtle are also set via Kapamilya

Network.

Lastly, she will also be in Sto. Tomas, La Union for the 2nd Sanglad Festival on July 19 and Waltermart Tarlac on July 21 to headline “School is Cool” tour.

‘3 Stars, 1 Heart’ concert series concludes in Dubai KAPUSO abroad from all over the Middle East flocked to the Dubai World Trade Center on June 16 to witness the powerful trio of balladeer Christian Bautista, pop sweetheart Julie Anne San Jose, and Asia’s Songbird Regine Velasquez-Alcasid in a spectacular and jam-packed show made possible by OSN and GMA Pinoy TV. One of the highlights of the night

Myrtle Sarrosa continues her advocacy that inspires young women to finish their education.

was the “Regine by Request” segment where 10 lucky fans and OSN subscribers were treated to an on-stage and up close serenade from the Songbird herself, as well as Christian and Julie Anne. Not only were their song requests granted, they also received VIP tickets to the concert, all-expense paid hotel accommodations, and round trip tickets.

Christian Bautista sings to the Kapuso abroad as Julie Anne San Jose plays the guitar.

Regine Velasquez-Alcasid showing her singing prowess in all glory for the Kapuso abroad.

Some members of the audience took to social media to express their gratitude for bringing home closer to them.

Pinoy pride stood out not only from the world-class performances of the trio, but also from the stunning gowns and suits provided by renowned Filipino designers Ezra Santos of EZRA Couture, Ryan Pacioles of Atelier Zuhra, and Furne One of Amato Couture.

Apart from the concert itself, the Kapuso stars also had the chance to perform inspiring song numbers and deliver heartfelt messages to comfort OFWs in the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). They also paid a courtesy visit to Philippine Consulate General to Dubai and Northern Emirates Paul Cortes.

3 Stars, 1 Heart was made possible

by GMA’s flagship international channel GMA Pinoy TV together with partner carrier OSN and Fastpace.

For more updates on Kapuso events abroad, follow GMA Pinoy TV on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (@gmapinoytv), and visit the GMA Pinoy TV official website at www.gmapinoytv.com.

Bubble Guppies Or a “school of fish” are fish-tailed pre-schoolers that attend a school in an underwater classroom. Together, they learn about science, math, and even music appreciation. Kids will surely love characters such as the turbocharged Gil, the school’s leader Molly, and the drama queen that is Deema.

Join the Bubble Guppies in their adventure on weekdays at 3:30 p.m..

Team Umizoomi Six-year-old Milli, her eight-year-old brother Geo, and their friendly robot Bot are Team Umizoomi. They are mighty math superheroes who teach kiddie viewers counting, measurement, shapes, and patterns. Milli and Geo solve problems in Umi City brought to them by the Umi Alarm. Join Team Umizoomi every Sunday at 7:10 a.m, 6:50 p.m. and 7:10 p.m. .

Wallykazam Wally Trollman is a six-year-old with the power to create objects that start with the same letter of the word he chooses to animate. So if he animates the letter “c,” he will also create a castle and a catapult. Aside from this, he uses his magic to solve problems, help friends, and defeat a troublemaker named Bobgoblin. Check out Wallykazam daily at 3:00 p.m..

Sunny Day Sunny is a hairstylist in the seaside town of Friendly Falls. Kids learn along with Sunny to overcome obstacles using determination and creativity. Let your kids join Sunny, his friends Blair and Rox, plus their pet puppy Doodle as they learn the value of self-confidence on weekdays at 8:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m..

For your kids to enjoy these shows simply text SELECT (space) NICKJR (space) (BOX ID), to 23667.

Visit mysky.com.ph/skydirectselect for more details.

Families have more reason to bond at home with SKYdirect, the directto-home (DTH) TV service of SKY which gives families nationwide access to more channels.